A couple of weeks ago, I had a really great week because… Well, a lot of things happened, all of them in a good way. Needless to say, me and my camera = some pictures!
From the category archives:
British Columbia
Al Basha
3143 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC
My dislike for Richmond is quite well know. Crazy drivers, small parking spaces, badly design parking locations, the list goes on and on. However, that isn’t the only part of Metro Vancouver I do not frequent. Vancouver West Side is another of such areas in town, despite there is no particular reason. Probably because of those houses I don’t think I will never have enough moola to purchase? Or, perhaps because there is that sense of “falsehood”. Probably because most of the restaurants are the type where there is more hype to be seen rather than what it is served on the plate? Or because, well, I have had a bad track there? Regardless of the reason, after my visit to the area on Greek Day, I found out there were actually small interesting shops. One of them happened to be Al Basha and I made a mental note to return “soon” and that is what I did…
Euro Deli & Market
3665 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC
I apologize if I offend anybody for using this word: Nazi. Unfortunately, that term has taking its own twist and turns, specially with a certain episode of Seinfeld which immortalized the phrase “Soup Nazi”, in reference to . (The funny thing is that, while I have watch snipplets of it, I haven’t watched the full episode! Yeah, shame on me…). So what does “Soup Nazi” has to do with Vancouver? Well, let me remind everybody of Salam of Le Charcuterie, the self proclaimed “Sandwich Nazi”. Jokes aside, when I went there last summer (wow, it sounds like it was a LONG time ago!), he mentioned he used to own a second location that he eventually sold. That location became Euro Deli & Market.
Giovane
1038 Canada Place
Vancouver, BC
For some reason, embedded in my head is that concept that most hotel restaurants are… Well, disappointed. Of course, given that I travel on a budget, the hotels I end up staying aren’t necessarily a five star hotel; instead, they are usually your regular hotel chains, i.e., Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, et al. And, then again, even if they have fancy locations, I seldom end up staying in those. After all, why should I? If travelling on business, it is my customer’s money, not to mention I spend the whole day at the customer’s site; if it is leisure, chances are I am only there to sleep and some basic necessities.
But, even when I stay in the “fancier” locations of those hotel chains, more often than not, the food has been average at best. But, then again, Fairmont is a luxury hotel chain so comparing them to the other chains might be akin to comparing apples to oranges. With that in mind, I went to Giovane, the “cafeteria” located in the recently opened Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel and little sibling to Oru, the main restaurant in the hotel. Hey, I wasn’t in mood to fork big bucks to Oru, given the mixed feedback!
Checkers Bar & Grill
1755 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC
OK, OK, the World Cup is over but I still have posts in the queue from those days… Sorry? ^_^;;; So, similar to my posts to Fogg N’ Suds and Dover Arms Pub, PO and I chose to go to pubs to watch the games – except that day there was no game. Despite that, PO was fine to visit a pub just for kicks (or drinks). At first, we were planning to go to some pubs in English Bay but, guess what? When we arrived, despite it had a sandwich board outside and the doors weren’t locked, there was absolutely nobody there! We took a peek around and there was absolutely nobody. So, without further hesitation, we just turned around and look for the closest pub and, among the several ones, we ended up going to Checkers Bar & Grill.
Potter’s Garden
5599 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
The day following my visit to the Great Bear Pub, I was once again in the Kingsway area of Burnaby and, as usual (?), I was in the looks for good eats. I was originally thinking on getting something heavy with meat in it but changed my plans at the last moment because I had already something heavy with meat earlier that day, not to mention I was planning to go to the Greek Day the day afterwards. Hey, I am a heavy meat eater but at the same time I have my limits! Now, I wasn’t sure if vegetarian will cut it; besides I couldn’t think of such type of restaurants at that moment. So, I went to what seems to be next best thing: Korean! And, just by coincidence, I was driving close to Great Bear and right next to it, Potter’s Garden.
Great Bear Pub
175 – 5665 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
Almost a month ago, on my way back from Seattle/Tukwila, I was in delivery mode after crossing the border. I ended up delivering goodies to different people and, knowing that Sherman and his hockey team was playing that night, I decided to bring some stuff for them as well. That’s because, well, they were good to me as well since they let me join them for after game dinners (in this case, Pattaya Thai and Tenhachi). The place they were supposed to meet was Black Bear Neighbourhood Pub. Bear… Bear… For some reason, at first, I thought it was in Kingsway, as in THIS Great Bear Pub, instead, that place was in North Van. OK, it was a long drive but, hey, when you see people with happy faces, that’s what matters the most. But, that “bear” thing stuck in my head and one night, I decided to go to Great Bear Pub…
