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
Katana-Ya
430 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA
On our first night in San Francisco, after the FoodBuzz welcome reception street food fare, we were driven back to a hotel near Union Square. While everybody was walking back their to the hotel, I noticed a restaurant that I thought “just for kicks, this might be interesting for us to try!” The following night, while waiting for the gala dinner and seemingly seemed to be taking forever, I was telling the “gang” (as in TS/JS, Mijune and Sherman) that if dinner didn’t star by 8:00 p.m. (officially the invite was for 7:00 p.m.), I might as well go back to the hotel as I was tired already, a bit grumpy (OK, grumpier than usual). Wait! What about the food? Hey, food is always in the radar and Katana-Ya, that said restaurant, was on the way back to the hotel! Given I wrote about the dinner, that means we were let in before 8:00 p.m. which means we had to see if there was space/time to go there. And, actually we did! Since our flight back to Vancouver was in the late afternoon, I agreed with Sherman to meet way past the lunch rush crowd for a last lunch before taking the BART (hence, to the airport) and back to Vancouver…
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Ramen,
Rice,
San Francisco,
Seafood
Poke’m
790 Hornby Street
Vancouver, BC
Well, it seems this is a trend for me in the last couple of weeks: Working my way through the different food carts, with a post per week. Except for the lemonade stand in English Bay and still-haven’t-seen-it-yet-it-is-supposed-to-exist Licious Living cart (once, again, supposedly between in Granville between Dunsmiur and Georgia), I think I have pretty much visited all of the food carts in Downtown, which means I have to start tackling those outside of this area, namely Panda Bakery in Yaletown, Eli’s Serious Sausage in Cambie (near Broadway), the falafel shop near Main and Terminal (which, according to James of Vancouver Street Eats, opened and closed, destiny to be determined) and the mysterious noodle cart in 49th and Cambie. (There is also a mysterious one in Robson Square which hasn’t opened yet). So, for today’s post, one of the remaining carts: Poke’m.
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Food Cart,
Japanese,
Seafood,
Street Food,
Vancouver
Dajia
836 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Three weeks ago, I wrote about Taiko on Denman and made reference to the amount of sushi restaurants in the are, with an over-emphasis on the cheap/affordable side. While we can blame restaurant owners in this dog-eat-dog type situation, at the same time, that is driven by customer demand. One of such restaurants in the area is Momo Sushi where I mention I didn’t really like it; however, I know of co-workers who flock to this place for their large servings. Oh, well, if quantity serves as an incentive…
Also mentioned in my Taiko on Denman post, I made reference to the shifting look of Robson and Denman with shops coming and going. One of the places that “died” down was Denman Rooster’s, a place that I thought was a perennial fixture; however, it was replaced by Pomegranate Lounge which, I will have to admit, the food was quite decent. Alas, with the popularity of nearby izakaya, it didn’t last (for weeks, I noticed it was closed) and it has been replaced by, you can guess it, another Japanese restaurant. Don’t we have enough already in the area? Sure but, still, I need to give it a try before jumping into conclusions…
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Japanese,
Seafood,
Sushi,
Vancouver
Japas Bistro
552 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC
I have mentioned previously that a perk of food blogging is that you get to met new people. Whether he/she is a new blogger or somebody who has just started, or even readers – sometimes it is different from dining with people you have met previously. Of course, to get to have a good meeting, a small dinner is better than a larger one but I digress. Anyway, in this case, I got to meet Elaine (or, as I have been referring to as Elaine2 to avoid confusions with Elaine of Parker Pages), who writes O My Sweet Tooth!. And, given I am meeting another food blogger, that usual “discussion” is guaranteed to ensue: Where? When? Etc. etc. After some emails going back and forth, we decided to go to Japas Bistro.
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Tagged as:
Cambie,
Izakaya,
Japanese,
Vancouver
Kimono Koi Crepes
720 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
Well, another week, another food cart to check in Vancouver! So far, all the food carts I have visited can safely be considered “standard” fare, i.e., they serve dishes that pretty much everybody would eat. Granted, Chinese Skewer King can be called “ethnic” but, hey, pretty much every culture has their version of meat on a stick so that might not necessarily count. Anyway, for this post, I decided to go east of Burrard Street and ended up in Granville and Georgia, in a corner I consider to be *the* prime spot for food carts, given its proximity to the Skytrain station, plus major bus routes and Granville Entertainment District. And the lucky winner of this draw? Kimono Koi Crepes.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Food Cart,
French,
Japanese,
Vancouver
Taiko on Denman
689 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
All you can eat. That one option that it is difficult to judge because it goes quantity over quality. Yet, still, human nature goes for the former. I myself have avoided going to many of these places for that same reason and, if I do, at times, I end up ordering a la carte – as I did in Saffron Indian Cuisine. A couple of weeks ago, some colleagues suggested Taiko; however, I was a bit skeptical. Oh, well, I had to give it a try just because so it was a matter of when. Fortunately, I was able to “convince” PO (who shares my notion about AYCE places) and to Taiko we went.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Sushi,
Vancouver
