Michi Waffle & Expresso Bar
1319 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
To quote Sherman, “you got lots of good eats here!”. Now, he wasn’t referring to Surrey or Delta; he was referring to the West End, where Mijune, Sherman and I was after the event in Prestons, which we left early. Normally, after such event, it would have been everybody going home or some other activity. But, in this case, it wasn’t that hard to “convince” them to try a semi-new waffle/coffee bar in Robson Street, near Hon’s. Hey, we are all for some good time and, well, food! (Not to mention, we had the subject-matter expert in hand for this!). That place was Michi Waffles & Expresso Bar.
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Tagged as:
Coffee,
Dessert,
Downtown,
Vancouver,
West End
Prestons
1177 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC
Here is something I usually don’t like to mention because I do not believe is an issue: I get a lot of invites to events. The reason it is a non-issue is that I seldom, if ever, I go to one. I will admit I have been to them when it is a fellow blogger who ask me to go along or it is not necessarily a restaurant event. Furthermore, I make no promise I will blog about it. For example, just prior to the Olympics, I attended an event organized by Tourism Vancouver Island, which was blogged by fellow bloggers – I was only there to take pictures.
So, it was quite interesting that I received an invite from Kate of Urbanspoon for an opening, rather than the restaurant itself. This is because I am a (somewhat?) active member of Urbanspoon and, well, I thought there is a reason why I was sent that invite. I was borderline choosing not to but I sense a level of obligation to do so, that is, the “why me” factor. Furthermore, when I asked if Sherman or Mijune if they were going, there was a flip-flop going on and, in the end, my decision was sealed when I said “if one of you are going”. So, which restaurant is this opening for? Preston’s.
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Downtown,
Seafood,
Vancouver
Pomegranate Lounge
836 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
6+ years ago, when I moved to Vancouver’s West End, I used to walk around the area a lot. Back then, I didn’t pay too much attention to nearby restaurants, as I was more interested in… Well, just walking around! However, I had to eat and didn’t care where. Hell, I am not ashamed to say that the people in Subway knew me enough to almost starting to call me by name! But, once in a while, I chose to go to actual sit down restaurants and one that caught my attention in those days was Rooster’s Quarters. Why the particular interest? While there weren’t that many izakaya places yet (while there was Guu and Gyoza King, there was no Hapa or Kingyo), it was one of the few non Asian restaurants. Somehow, it seems it was only a matter of time… And, indeed, it closed last year. I was wondering what would replace it and, given all ethnic options, I was quite surprised when Pomegranate opened. It was a tapas-type place but it didn’t have decor or ambiance as the other nearby tapas-like place, including izakaya. So, what then? With that in mind, I went there with PO.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Sandwich,
Tapas,
Vancouver,
West End
ChongQing on Robson
1260 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Here is a random, obvious note: My user name, KimHo, is a shortened version of my full name, with “Kim” being my “generation” name. If you are not familiar with traditional Chinese names, that means that any siblings I have would also be called Kim (and, yes, my sister can also call herself “Kim Ho”; however, she never uses it so they are no arguments about it, not to mention, me being the eldest, I have first picks!). The actual given name part is the part I have “dropped” from my user name for the sake of most people: For most Western languages, the transcription of my Cantonese name is constructed in a weird grammatical way which results in > 90% not being able pronounce it correctly, to the point that most attempts to say it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard… (Sorry, English does not sound as sexy as Romance languages, though German at times sounds even worst than English!)
So, what that has to do with this post? Well, a lot of restaurants seem to have a really fancy/strange name in (a) attempt to promote its ethnic identity, which at times can backfire as it seem to distance the rest of the population (at times, that seems to happen to me with Korean restaurants), or (b) try to be too cute which can also backfire in odd ways (like some Pho places…). I mean, there is nothing wrong with odd names but please be mindful of the general market. And that brings the name of today’s restaurant, which, for a long time, I swore it was spelled Chongoing until I looked really closely and then realized it ChongQing. (You have to look really close to notice there is a red stroke on the letter that seems to be the O; the fact that trailing stroke is red on a dark background doesn’t really help).
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Tagged as:
Chinese,
Downtown,
Lunch,
Vancouver
Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe
850 Thurlow Street
Vancouver, BC
In the last couple of weeks, it seems I have been forcing myself into restaurants that have had an “opening soon” sign hanging outside. OK, I am exaggerating. In one of the failed attempts to go to Gyuu Don Ya, I mentioned to PO there was another nearby restaurant I wanted to visit; however, it had also a serie of issues before opening. That restaurant is today’s post Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Lunch,
Seafood,
Vancouver,
West End
Gyuu Don Ya
500 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
There has been times when I think we food bloggers are a dedicated group – a bit too dedicated at times. Like driving to +50 Km just for pizza or doing some cross border bakery delivery. Of course, these are long trips and, to prevent unnecessary frustrations, you would usually check if they are open and when they are open. But, how about a restaurant that was still under construction before the biggest party in Vancouver in recent history? I mean, given all the business opportunities during this time, would you try to make sure you would be open on time? In an odd way, that seemed to be the case with Gyuu Don Ya, the newest Japanese restaurant in the 500 block of Robson, which, culinary-wise ,one of the most interesting blocks in Downtown Vancouver, as it includes Falafel Maison, Viet Sub, Matoi Sushi, H-Mart, Beard’s Papa and so on.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Rice,
Vancouver
A Cafe
1234 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned about my epic fail on trying to go to Gyuu Don Ya. Guess what, it wasn’t one single instance of fail… In one (of several) other instances, I went there just to find out they were *still* wasn’t open (though, oddly, they had a note saying apologizing for not opening that day and should be open “tomorrow”). Oddly, their official opening day is today… That is despite I was there last week. Yes, feel to call it wacky…
Anyway, in that one instance, I had an accomplice: PO, whom have tagged along in several lunches. Since we had to go back to the office, we stopped by one place where PO has dropped by to get takeout. He mentioned it was quite decent so that was good enough reason!
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Tagged as:
Chinese,
Downtown,
Lunch,
Vancouver,
West End
