Octopus’ Garden
1995 Cornwall Ave
Vancouver, BC
Confession time: This post wasn’t supposed to happen. In fact, due to timing, my last post was supposed to be that of the Vancouver’s 1st Foodie Festival and then hang my camera and keyboard. However, in some sort of unfinished business type feeling, I knew I had to visit some places – one of them was Octopus’ Garden which is the topic of this post. Under normal conditions, I might have gone regardless but chosen not to blog. However, I was with good company and, despite knowing my intentions of stop blogging, gave me one final push and suggested I should blog it. So, as one of my last post, I might as well go out with a bang!
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Kitsilano,
Sushi,
Vancouver
Kimura
3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC
If I were to visit a restaurant, how often should I do a re-post? Once, twice, thrice? More often than not, unless there is something catastrophic or the experience between the first visit and the second visit is extremely different, I don’t believe there is such need, specially if the time gap between these are extremely short. After all, your experience have documented and capture that essence, is there really a need to do so? After visiting Kimura with Sherman in summer 2010 (wow, we did tackle a lot of these hidden places early!), I was hoping to return for their omakase – or leave it to the chef, which can be considered a tasting menu of sorts. So, in what seemed to have a been a lot of coincidences, when Chris (Eating is the Hard Part) was arranging with me restaurants to consider for his visit, gastronomydomine of the Foodosophy team wrote a post about omakase at Kimura. Result? A flurry of text messages started between Chris and myself. Omakase at Kimura it was…
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Vancouver
Q Go Ramen
1443 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC
Reflecting on my last ramen post, i.e., Motomachi Shokudo, I have to admit that, despite new ramen shops have appeared, one thing is also good: Opinions have been divisive as to which ones are “good” and which ones are “bad”. In fact, some people believe Kintaro is still king of the hill, while Santouka is overrated, the lower profiled Benkei hits the spot and Sanpachi seems to be middle of the road. Unless you are the one who says “everything is good” (specially if you didn’t have to pay for it), these opinions are good because it allows so room for discussion. So, just to throw yet-another-ramen-shop, I went to Q Go Ramen….
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Pork,
Ramen,
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
Kadoya
1063 Davie Street
202 – 1184 Denman Street (location visited)
Vancouver, BC
Sherman: “U working today?”
Me: “Yes, working today. Wait, do you know what that is??? 
”
Sherman: “LOL, Rich Guy and I are going for lunch in Downtown, if u want to join us”
Me: “Where?”
Sherman: “Not sure, was gonna go to Toyama… Do you want to join us? I can pick u up to give u more time”
Me: “What time are you guys planning to go? PO might join us; however, he has a call until noon”
(Couple of minutes later)
Me: “How about Kadoya if not all-you-can-eat? English Bay”
Sherman: “Have u been there?”
Me: “No”
Sherman: “The one in Denman right?”
Me: “They opened a second location in English Bay, across Raincity Grill”
Sherman: “Rich guy says he can make it around 12:30 p.m. Is that too late? Do we need a reservation?”
Me: “12:30 p.m. is fine. So Tomoya or Kadoya? Given the party size and despite I don’t like it, Tomoya might be a better option”
Sherman: “No, Kadoya is fine. I’ll make a reservation for 5?”
Me: “Sure, English Bay location, right?”
Sherman: “Yah”
Once again, if you wonder how some of us food bloggers get together for a meal, more or less this is how it works. One day, Sherman, dropped me that text message and that’s what ended up in Kadoya’s location in English Bay. Next question? 
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Lunch,
Seafood,
Sushi,
Vancouver,
West End
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
