Zabu Chicken
1635 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
I might be overstating the obvious here: Restaurant business is a cuthroat business. Even more so in Vancouver where restaurants seems to come and go. Restaurateurs blame the economy, HST, drinking laws, etc. However, what they forget is that eating out is not a necessity; is a luxury. If you can’t make people come to your restaurant and generate revenue and income, probably you are doing something wrong. While I do miss some restaurants that are long gone, those empty spots are usually filled up by something else down the road. Or, in some cases, just close for a week and reinvent themselves. Fuel, in Kitsilano, for example, turned into Refuel. Am I digressing here? Maybe; however, thoughts like these came to my mind when I saw Zabu Chicken…
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Downtown,
Korean,
Lunch,
Vancouver
The Beaver & Mullet Canadian Bistro
1184 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Cupcakes
1168 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
I have started to wonder… Have I blogged literally all the restaurants in Denman Street? Nah, wishful thinking! A lot of times restaurants come and go and we always play a catch up game. Of course, there are also restaurants that I haven’t visited for other reasons. For example, in that area, I haven’t been yet to Westender Korean Cafe, Vina Vietnamese, Central Bistro & Lounge, et al. Why? In some cases, because the restaurant does not entice me; in other cases, the food type does not entice me. Of course, I might be overlooking something and, if so, I will always appreciate if readers point those places out! But back to this post. On a Friday, PO and I were looking for a good eats place in Denman and we walked all the way from Robson towards English Bay and then we remembered The Beaver and Mullet Canadian Bistro (Beaver and Mullet).
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Tagged as:
Canadian,
Downtown,
Pasta,
Pastry,
Vancouver
Motomachi Shokudo
740 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Here we go again… A two months ago, I did a revisit to Kintaro (original post here). When I first visited it two years ago, it was regarded as the best in town. But, looking back, there wasn’t much to compare against. After an onslaught of ramen shop after ramen shop, with Benkei, Santouka and Sanpachi, among others, it was a question of whether it could hold itself up. Alas, it didn’t. The question is now if Motomachi Shokudo, a sister restaurant to Kintaro, in a similar way, would hold itself up or not. As usual, there is only one way to find out… A revisit!
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Ramen,
Vancouver
Hida Takayama Ramen
203 – 1610 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Wow… How long it has been? Almost a month already since my last post of Vancouver! Anyway, after I came back, it was time to check with people from right here and food that makes Vancouver sort of well know. One of those is Japanese and, among the different options, is ramen. Given I work near Robson and Denman, I have easy access to the popular ones: From Santouka to Benkei to Sanpachi. And then there are Kintaro and Motomachi Shokudo. However, in a case of “me, too!”, some smaller places have opened and today’s post is one of them: Hida Takayama Ramen, located in, out of all strange places, in the food court at Robson Market.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Noodles,
Vancouver
Kintaro Ramen
788 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
To those who haven’t been reading this blog for long, back in October, I celebrated this blog’s second anniversary. Looking back, I have seldom posted about restaurant revisits for other reasons. What I have implied for the longest is that, what I wrote was valid at that point in time but, as time goes, things might have changed. The restaurants have changed, my likes have changed, time has changed. Or, as an acquaintance yoga practitioner would tell me: “your body is different every day”.
For the longest, every time there has been a new ramen shop in town, something that has partially exploded in the last 24 or so months (Sanpachi, Santouka or Benkei, just to name a few), I have always used Kintaro as a reference (my original blog post, back over 2 years ago here). So, that begs the question: should a revisit be worth it? Have Kintaro kept up with times? Or is it still surfing over that initial popularity from eons ago? So, with high expectations, around lunch time at work, I decided to take that (short) walk to see how and if things have changed…
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Ramen,
Vancouver
Gyu Japanese Teppanyaki Restaurant
219 – 755 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC
Let me start by saying that this might be one of the most image intensive restaurant post I have written in a long while. Why? Well, it is because of the nature of this beast. In this case, Gyu Japanese Teppanyaki Restaurant, which I visited with some work colleagues for lunch. As the name suggests, this is a teppanyaki restaurant, which translates into a restaurant where you would sit around an flat iron plate/griddle and the chef/cook will cook your meal in front of you. As a “bonus” of this type of restaurant, there will be some show of sorts. Now, given it was lunchtime, such show wasn’t displayed but, still, there was a lot going on, hence all the additional pictures. As usual, I am not as interested in the show as the food itself but, as usual, that’s me! 
Since this is in the main entrance, you might not see this but rather the sandwich board at street level...
As in *this* sandwich board.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Vancouver
Sanpachi
770 Bute Street
Vancouver, BC
Originally, I had two more additional San Francisco posts; however, when people asks your feedback about certain restaurants, at times, you can’t avoid try to switch the post dates and have it as soon as possible. Such is the case of Sanpachi, the newest ramen shop on the block. Of course, if you look closely, shokutsu of Foodosophy, had already written about it but, hey, the more opinions the better, right?
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Lunch,
Ramen,
Vancouver
