White Spot
Several locations in Canada
1616 West Georgia Street (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC
A quick reminder of my background: I wasn’t raised in Canada and, as a result, there are a lot of things “Canadian” I didn’t grow up with. One of those things was White Spot’s Pirate Pack (and come to think about it, I didn’t even grow up having Happy Meals). So, when White Spot sent an email (*) to some of us food bloggers about this event, I was enthusiastic. Hey, why not! (After all, it is for a good cause!). So, on that day, I decided to drop by to “experience” it.
(*) As a personal decision, I do not participate in such promotions or events. If I choose to go to a restaurant, it will be on my own.
Now, this post is a bit different compared to the other post – it is more of a photo essay. How come? Because, well, I have been to White Spot previously and, in this case, things weren’t that different. After all, it is a chain!
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Chain Restaurant,
Vancouver
Kimura Sushi & Japanese Cuisine
3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC
Some time ago, when I went to Chong Lee’s Market (in 22nd Avenue) for some banh mi, I noticed Kimura, a Japanese restaurant “to be open soon”. Of course, having such a restaurant almost in the middle of nowhere would catch some attention. To quote my post on Chong Lee’s:
- Open a restaurant in a weird location/setting.
- Make it ethnic (bonus if Japanese).
- ???
- Profit!
(This of course was inspired by an episode of South Park called Gnomes)
I mentioned this to Sherman and, as usual, our grand plans to get some others to tag along and go on one day never materialized. Until, that is, Sherman drops me a note saying Vandelay and family, as well as Sherman, Viv and family will be going one night and checked if I wanted to tag along. Well, I might be the odd one out on this one (not the first instance either!) but that has never stopped me, specially not for food!
As for the restaurant itself, there is some sort of aura behind it: The restaurant chef happens to be Japanese and spent quite some time in different countries. However, story goes, he decided to settle down in one location and, rather, opening a big restaurant, he chose a small one. One other feature seems to be his love for jazz because that is what was playing the whole time during dinner! (I don’t mind jazz but can anybody imagine reggae?).
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Sushi,
Vancouver
Mui Ngo Gai
2408 Nanaimo Street
Vancouver, BC
For quite some time already, I have wondered about dishes representatives of a culture. This is somewhat “important” because, when we go to an ethnic restaurant, we want to go there to have a taste of that culture. So, not sure how or why, in the case of Japanese, it ends up being sushi, though there is a showing of izakaya places lately. In the case of Greek, it shouts lamb. But similar to NY style pizza, chicago deep dish pizza (which, technically is a casserole), St Louis style or California style, each region has its unique version. So in a chain of emails with a reader who prefers not to comment, she made a note that “whenever you (as in food bloggers in general) go to a Vietnamese restaurant, you always end up ordering pho or bánh mì and, in-lieu, we should give bún bò hue a try instead. While I have unknowingly tried it once in Pho Maxima, when I went to Mui Ngo Gai, I consciously decided to give this dish a try instead. So, would it change my thoughts of pho and start ordering this other dish instead (if available)?
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Tagged as:
Pho,
Soup,
Vietnamese
Minoas Greek Taverna
3823 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
I interrupt my Tacoma post for Minoas Taverna! 
For the most part, most food blogger gatherings have been done by Sherman and myself, though, for the last one, it was Jenny who organized it. Out of the blue, Elaine drops some of us an email for an impromptu mini-gathering of sorts. The place? Minoas Greek Taverna, a restaurant in Kingsway where I have seen countless amount of times (mainly because I take Skytrain) which has made me wonder for the longest: how the restaurant manage to survive in such odd location? Is it because they serve something good? One way to find out! In this round, it was Chris and Elaine, Sherman, Jessica and M, and me. Others were also invited but due to external circumstances, they couldn’t make it. Oh, well, I guess it should be still enough people to sample several dishes, hehehehe.
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Greek,
Lamb
Chicken Party
205 – 3355 North Road
Burnaby, BC
OK, let me reassure you that, despite the name of this post, it is a PG post. Yes, there is a double entendre with the title of this post which is also the name of this restaurant. If you don’t know about that possible other meaning… Well, I won’t explain it (feel free to Google it). So, the question is… Why I was in a restaurant with such a strange, almost risque name? In that case, I will finger point shokutsu of Foodosophy who wrote about this place a couple of weeks ago. And what shokutsu end up getting? Based on that post, I will assume fried chicken!
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Chicken,
Coquitlam,
Korean
Acme Cafe
51 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Depending on who might be reading this, it is possible I might be overstating the obvious but I will play safe. To those who haven’t visited Vancouver Downtown, it can easily be separated into West End, Yaletown, Gastown, Downtown Eastside, Granville, Coal Harbour and so on. For the most part, if you are savvy enough of the transit system, you can pretty much get from point A to point B in Downtown in less than 15 minutes. Driving? Well, let’s just say driving in Downtown Vancouver at lunch time might not be the best of ideas. As a result, my visit to restaurants in Downtown Vancouver are mostly restricted to West End (where I work) and Coal Harbour (with some odd ones in Granville). For the rest, I tend to go on weekends.
With that said, there are times I might be somewhat narrow minded. If there is a restaurant I certainly want to visit, I don’t even bother to make plan B. However, that’s was more I less I had to resort to when I tried to go to the Greedy Pig on a Saturday at around noon sharp just to find out that they didn’t open that day until 2:00 p.m. (despite their web site says they open at 11:30 a.m.). WTF?! While Bambo Cafe while just next to it, I wanted something… Different. Whipping out my iPhone and checking Urbanspoon app, I then went to Frannie’s Gourmet Deli just to find out they do not open on weekends and holidays. At that point, I was starting to think there was some sort of conspiracy against me. Now, there were a lot of places I could stop and get lunch; however, it just that I wasn’t really in the mood for burgers or similar fare (this is because I was driving the following day to Tacoma… Yes, posts for next week will be from Tacoma!). Tired, hungry and thirsty, I recalled Acme Cafe which Sherman blogged earlier that week. And, while I commented I wasn’t in a hurry, hunger prevailed and to Acme Cafe I went.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Vancouver
Great Wall Mongolian BBQ
717 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
I have bashed at times the all-you-can-eat concept a little bit too much at times. You have to admit it: How much “quality” you can provide when you charge a fix price and there is almost no limit as to how much a diner can eat? OK, sure, hotel buffets charge an arm and a leg and the food can be quite good. But, then, they have mastered it to a certain extent. For the rest, it is a matter of balance things out: calculate based on the average case scenario (though leaning towards the worst case scenario) and hoping most of the customers won’t consume as much.
With that in mind, PO and I went one day to Great Wall Mongolian BBQ (name of the restaurant) for Mongolian BBQ (type of cuisine). The twist in this case is that you fill up a bowl with different meats, vegetables and noodles. Add some sauce and it is then cooked for you on a large griddle. What’s so funny about this? Because Mongolian BBQ (the cuisine), despite the pamphlet they provide explaining their cuisine, is neither Mongolian nor it is “BBQ”! Anyway, we were up for it…
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Tagged as:
BBQ,
Lunch,
Taiwanese,
Vancouver,
West End
