Elephant & Castle
Chain restaurant, several locations
385 Burrard Street (location visited)
Vancouver, BC
A small reminder from 11 months ago: During the Winter Olympic Games, due to what was perceived as “difference in culture”, some restaurants imposed a mandatory gratuities to the final bill. As a result of that, I banned myself from some restaurants. Whether I will continue not supporting them, well, that might be up in the air; however, for this post, I ended up with PO in Elephant & Castle, one of those restaurants in that said list, for convenience purposes out of all things. Damn me…
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Lunch,
pub,
Vancouver
Aladdin’s Cafe
720 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
I have mentioned in the past that Middle Eastern restaurants have been creeping around Downtown Vancouver. While not as “noticeable” as, say, Starbucks, you could easily find one every couple of blocks. And what is not to like? Meat spinning in a spit, carved when order (OK, not always) or falafel, which are then dressed with tahini and hot sauce. Well, aside the fact that a lot of these places are small and tend to be packed. On a day for lunch, I was just walking around and ended up near Robson and Granville. And looking for a place for a quick lunch, I eyed Aladdin’s Cafe, which happens to be right next to a Babylon Cafe
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Lunch,
Middle Eastern,
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
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
Robson Mongolian BBQ
1234 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Restaurant business is, in a way, survival of the fittest… Wait, that is not necessarily true. At times, it does not matter if the food is good or has good value; for the majority of the population, that plays a secondary role. In the case of an area like Robsonstrasse, it is what the public demands and not necessarily good food. A Cafe, a small HK-style cafe was a bit of an odd ball in the area, surrounded by restaurants that in a way are popular (sushi, tacos, Japanese store), cheap (donair/shawarma) or simply places to be seen (one too many to be listed). In fact, PO and I had a bet last time we went as to when (not why) they would fold and, despite we didn’t want that to happen, it closed in late summer. So, given the prime space, it was a matter of what would replace it. That “what” ended up being Robson Mongolian BBQ…
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Tagged as:
BBQ,
Downtown,
Lunch,
Vancouver
