White Tower
1359 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
If you are looking for Greek food in Vancouver, you can pretty much go anywhere. Probably you might have favourites but, if you go around town, there will be one every dozen or so blocks. In the case of Downtown Vancouver, for most people, there is even a “default”: Stepho’s, a restaurant that, in a way, has mastered the art of generating enough volume of customers to make it possible for them to lower there prices to an almost ridiculous level – to an extent that people are willing to queue up just for a plate of Greek food. But, then again, there is Takis Taverna a couple of doors from Stepho’s. If you move to Denman, there is Olympia Pizza and Pasta and Maria’s Taverna. After walking so many times in Robson, I thought there might not be any… That was until a day, PO and I were looking for something quick in the area and we ended up going to a place I believe has been there forever: White Tower.
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Downtown,
Greek,
Italian,
Lunch,
Pasta,
Vancouver,
West End
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!
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Tagged as:
Eggs,
Hotel,
Italian,
Sandwich,
Soup,
Vancouver
Ciao Bella Italian Restaurant
703 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Alas, good things always seems to come to an end. After my trip to Panama, everything started to settle back to its usual routine, including lunch at work. In the past, PO has been my *cough*victim*cough*, I mean, partner in crime. However, for this lunch, I was able to gather another “recruit” – CN. With this “hobby” of visiting restaurants, there is always that element of expectation but also that element of discovery. So, with that in mind, we were settled for lunch. Then the usual question… Where? A couple of weeks prior, PO and I went to Le Bistro de Paris and mentioned the relationship with Ciao Bella Restaurant. So, we though “why not?”. And to Ciao Bella we went…
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Tagged as:
Fish,
Italian,
Vancouver
Calabria Bakery
5036 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC
This is a case of me blaming somebody else for a post. In this case, I am blaming Jessica! Long time ago, she had a quest for the ultimate cannoli which, in a way, I took over but also dropped since I don’t have desserts that often. But, looking across the street of Lam Hoa Quan, there was Calabria Bakery…
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Tagged as:
Bakery,
Dessert,
Italian,
Vancouver
Sciué
800 W Pender Street (Location visited)
126 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC
Once again, it was during those hectic Winter Olympic days… Actually, they weren’t THAT bad because, thanks to arrangements from my workplace, I was able to finish work earlier which let me wander around the different houses and pavilions (and I blogged about them here). That arrangement also allowed me to go to Downtown core itself for lunch and, for today’s post, one of those places that seems to be close yet a bit too far: Sciué
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Italian,
Lunch,
Pastry,
Pizza,
Vancouver
Luca’s Ristorante
1 Walter East Foran Boulevard
2019 State Route 27 (Location visited)
Somerset, NJ
Back in my old days of computer gaming (early 1990s), there was a magazine called Computer Gaming World (CGW). Gaming in the old days… 256 colours in 640 x 480. I am digressing here… So, what that (now defunct) magazine has to do with food? It just happens that until the later days of the magazine, it never gave a rating. It gave the games highs, lows and a general thought of the game and the writers opinion, leaving up to the reader to then decide whether he/she should get the game or not. You can say that my writing style is heavily influenced by this magazine. OK, what that has to do with food, some of you might still ask. Again, one thing I tried to do on this trip was to try different cuisines. Short of East Asian (other than Ichi Umi) and African, I have bounced back and forth. Today, it is about Luca’s Ristorante. The reason I came here? Because of all the high marks given by people, which led up to it being the number 2 restaurant in New Jersey, according to Urbanspoon…
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Tagged as:
Italian,
New Jersey,
Pasta
The Wine Bar
Calle Eusebio A. Morales, El Cangrejo
Panama City, Panama
In life, there are friends and there are FRIENDS. When I moved to Canada, I did not tell to almost any of my friends. Before anybody jumps into any conclusion, you must understand that moving into a new country on your own is not necessarily easy and emotional attachments to your previous country might detract you from your new home. However, even then, there were FRIENDS who, despite I severed almost all contact, had faith in me (how they found out, I don’t know). One of these FRIENDS is GN, whom I met way back from high school. So, when went to Panama a couple of weeks ago, I knew I had to treat GN for lunch/dinner. Of course, it would be GN’s choice. And the place we ended up was The Wine Bar.
Sure, there were tables outside but, down there, being so hot, almost nobody uses them!
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Tagged as:
Italian,
Panama City,
Pasta,
Seafood
