C-Lovers (Pine Tree)
Several locations
108-2991 Lougheed Highway (location visited)

It is funny that, while this region is collectively called Metro Vancouver, everything is focused in Vancouver itself, specially the areas I call the “well known” ones, i.e., Downtown, Gastown, Yaletown, Kitsilano and so on. However, we know there are things around if you know where to look. Such was the case some days before the holidays when I was looking for a new camera bag (the old one was pretty beat up) and a local shop had a suitable one. But it wasn’t available in their Vancouver location. Looking at their other ones, I found out their Richmond location had it… But in a really odd colour: green. Nothing wrong with green but too… Flashy? However, I found out their Coquitlam location had it so a drive to Coquitlam was! Of course, it was way after work which meant early night and also meant… Food!!! The interesting thing is that there were several places I wanted to go but could only go to one. There was Matoi Sushi (not sure if related to the Matoi Sushi in Downtown Vancouver), Chada Thai (which is supposed to be a good Thai places, though not certain it would have been a good idea to go by myself) and some Vietnamese restaurants like Pho Huy and Pho 99. However, I wanted something “different” and that ended up being, out of all things, fish and chips in the form of C-Lovers (and that is despite it is a chain with several locations!).

Given it was so closed to the holidays, I wasn’t surprised it wasn’t packed fulled (but, then again, it was getting late as well). And, in an odd way, I have to let this one out: Finally, a restaurant where half of the staff and/or customers is NOT Asian! I know this is a strange statement but, let’s face it, in Vancouver, the Asian population is so large and, as a result, restaurateurs and restaurants cater to it. But, despite I am Asian myself, you NEED a break from it. Visiting C-Lovers provided that break! But, back to the restaurant…

I started off with their seafood chowder (or “C-Food” chowder, as they call it). OK, this is not a clam chowder so there is no point on drawing comparison to, say, a creamy New England clam chowder or a tomato-ey Manhattan clam chowder. But, as a seafood soup, this was quite good, though, there was one detail I wish it had: more other form of seafood aside from the fish. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this and could have had a couple of bowls of this.

Of course, going to a fish and chips shop also means I should have some fish and chips! In this case, I went for their fish platter which has 3 prawns, 2 oysters, 1 piece of fish (in this case, cod), fries (ok, ok, chips!) and coleslaw. While I have a preference for vinegar-y coleslaw, this one was creamy but it worked fine. The fries could have been seasoned a bit better but, then again, that’s why you have salt and pepper on the side. On, on that note, notice the picture does not contain tartar sauce. That’s because, similar to Cockney King’s, it is in a squeezable bottle. On that note, unlike Cockney King’s, the one here was stored in the fridge and brought at the table upon request.

As for the shrimp, it was what you would expect from fried shrimp, though I wish it had a bit more “snap”. As for the oyster, some would say they prefer raw; however, I doubt this is a place where this would be served so fried it was. As for the final product, well, I won’t complain, it is what it is, though, again, won’t complain if I were to eat it this way. Finally, the cod… OK, one thing that had me confused at first was the size. Specifically, rather than a filet, it was a long piece. I wonder how that happened… Also, I am sure you would have noticed by now: the batter seems to be quite “yellow”. I wonder if they used some turmeric in the mix. Regardless, the piece itself… Well, it has the same “complain” I have with most fish and chips places: the fish is too lightly seasoned for my liking hence it desperately needed help from the tartar sauce. Regardless, one thing I will have to give them credit: The batter wasn’t as thick as some other places I have been to, so, kudos for that.

In the end, I thought it ended up being a good alternative for me. However, the major problem will be its location (or other locations). Given it is not necessarily near, in the meantime, if I want fish and chips, I will have to look for alternatives but, if that’s what I want and I am in the area, that will work for me. Oh, on that note, if you *really* want fish and chips, they have all-you-can-eat on some days/times of the day…

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?

Kadoya has been a well know place of sorts to “sushi” aficionados. However, I personally haven’t been there for one reason – the same reason why I have it in quotes: their specialties are the rolls, aka, maki sushi, not that much nigiri sushi. I have mentioned in the past that rolls is something almost anybody can make and it is a matter of tossing things together hoping it works. If the fish is not cut properly or it is somewhat fishy (no pun intended), it is covered somehow and most people won’t notice. But, the fact they have opened a second location would indicate people have been going there and, as a result, the restaurant felt a need to expand to accommodate the additional customers. So, it ends up being “majority rules”. So, despite my hesitation, of course, we had to give it a try so this could have been that opportunity.

If people look at the address, this place used to be occupied by Sakari Sushi. The fact they are no longer there means something. Anyway, went I arrived, I noticed they did make some minor arrangement in the layout so, if you have been in that restaurant, your ambiance experience might be different. Given I was first, I tried my best to do what Sherman would have done: take the best spot with natural light. Alas, that table was already occupied so I had to settle with the next best thing which was the table beside it. Hey, at least I didn’t take one of the booths (which was the table they were originally planning to give us!).

Now, to the food!

They have daily specials and, on the day we went, this was it: Spicy chopped salmon. Part of the interest on ordering this was related to the fact we wanted something non-roll and this fit the bill quite well. Having said that, this was actually quite good. Temperature was fine (i.e., no frozen texture), good texture, good sauce, which did not overpower the salmon. No complains at all and the fact it was $9 was icing.

Once again, another non-sushi dish: yakisoba, in this case, we chose beef as the meat. For what it is supposed to be a sushi restaurant, I will give them some credit as it was decent. Not necessarily the best but the fact that it didn’t suck. My only criticism was that it had a bit too much sauce, something that the noodles itself sucked by the end of the meal. Not my first option in the end but workable at least.

Yet another non-sushi dsh: chicken teriyaki – which arrived to the table sizzling. Similar to the yakisoba, I will have to give them some credit, plus the fact the chicken wasn’t fried and the sauce not extremely sweet as done in some places. Otherwise, there wasn’t anything extremely outstanding. Serviceable but that’s about it.

One interesting note about Kadoya is that they have a lunch and late night special. For $10, we had options for some appetizers (your usual suspects, including goma-ae, edamame, seaweed/wakame, etc.), nigiri sushi (3 pieces), rolls, sashimi and, more importantly, their specialty rolls (4 pieces) and, out of these options, we choose three. While we could have gone for sushi, the fact we were a party of 4 (PO couldn’t make it in the end) and I am sure people would give us hell for not trying their maki/rolls, meant we should give these specialty rolls a try. In the end, we made two order of these specials and they ended up being: Dragon, Kadoya, Volcano, Paradise, Canuck and King. Here is one problem: Tell all came at the same time and no description was given as to which one is which!

With all these specialty rolls, for kicks, we ordered a regular roll with a twist: their California Tempura roll, which is, basically, a deep fried California roll, with the drizzled sauce somewhat similar to catsup. Oddly, it wasn’t that bad but not something I would order again, as there wasn’t anything exciting about it.

Overall, some of my initial conceptions didn’t change: if their specialty are rolls, it didn’t necessarily wowed me. The cooked items were workable so I will leave that as neutral. The one that actually caught me off guard was spicy chopped salmon, which was indeed quite good. But, is that enough to make me come back? Well, given it is a dailiy special and not available on a daily basis, it is somewhat of mixed feelings. So, in the end, I will have to say it is not necessarily for me but might not necessarily be against to coming back – provided I have the option of ordering non-roll dishses.

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…

Why so much push for Katana-Ya? I thought it would be a good comparison point for two things: (a) Despite it wasn’t the “best” ramen place in San Francisco (as was told to us during the Incanto dinner), at least it was “good enough” according to Yelp, and (b) more importantly… How it is compared to Vancouver offerings considering all the options around (Santouka, Kintaro, Motomachi Shokudo, Benkei, Menya, the recently opened Sanpachi, among others)? Anyway, back to this adventure, Sherman arrived before me and, thanks to really good timing, he was able to secure the only table with access to natural light. Thanks a lot for this, man!

Given it was only two of us (Sherman, I and what army???), we had to be careful as for what dishes to choose. After all, we might not be coming back for a full year (that is assuming we would)! So, to plan things “safe”, we went overboard and order probably a couple too many dishes! Said that, we start off with…

WTF?! Salad? With Sashimi? Well, I might have given a red herring here. If you look closely at the sign at the entrance, it says “sushi”. So, Katana-Ya is not necessarily a ramen specific place so we thought we might try dishes like this. Having said that, it was, the dish was good and bad: some of the pieces were quite decent (hamachi, et al), some were as expected (shrimp, given it was cooked) but, oddly, the one that failed in an epic way was the salmon which didn’t have a “fresh” feeling. The dressing for the salad actually worked quite well as it gave some saltiness, acidity and sweetness at the same time. This would certainly a salad I would order again; however, not for myself, instead, to share.

OK, given that push for ramen, we had to end up ordering one, right? So, given we would only order one, to play it “safe”, we ordered their name sake bowl of noodles called Katanaya Ramen, which at $13, includes “corn, fried chicken, fried potsticker, seaweed, scallion, BBQ pork & boiled egg“. They might have as well called it everything but the kitchen sink!

There were a couple of things that we observed right away and thought failed miserably: fried, crispy items in broth is a no-no. So, in this case, we rushed to take out the pieces of chicken and pot stickers as, otherwise, it would have ended up soggy. And actually that was a good idea, as by themselves, the chicken was good enough; the pot stickers, while nice and resembling the Korean fried mandu, was slightly chewy. The rest of the components (pork included) made it comparable to several of the noodle shops found here so not complains, though I am sure some will “complain” the egg is hard boiled rather than soft centre. As for the broth (here, shio)… Well, I will have to say it was good but Santouka it wasn’t. So, from a ramen-ya perspective, it is a good option but one has to wonder about the price. At $13 (<– US Dollars here!), in Vancouver, of course, the direct comparison would be, again, Santouka’s pork jowl and, Katana-Ya would be considered below par. Of course, I am in an oranges/apple comparison so, from that perspective, I will leave it at that.

What?! Curry as well? Well, before anybody starts jumping into conclusions, Benkei has been offering curries as well and the recently opened Sanpachi has donburi in their menu (though currently “coming soon”). What does that mean? Well, just because it says sushi outside (which technically Katana-Ya does not list itself as), it does not mean they can’t offer other dishes, provided they can execute it well.

And, as for this one, in a typical American way, the katsu curry bowl was large. Extremely large. So large that even the two of us didn’t manage to finish the salad, bowl of ramen and this rice bowl. Then again, size isn’t everything but taste. As for this one, I appreciate the fact they didn’t pour the curry sauce on top of the cutlet but put it on the size. This is because we found out it was nicely friend and, in fact, still slightly juicy. The curry sauce was the typical Japanese style curry, though it didn’t have that Glico feel to it plus it had a light nice spicy kick. As for the rice, fortunately, it was your typical Japanese style.

Yup, having sushi outside meant we had order one, this time in the form of a roll, the Hawaiian roll: Spicy salmon, tuna, butter fish & BBQ eel. At $13.50, it might be borderline on the expensive side compared to some offering/places in Vancouver. But, again, this ain’t Vancouver… One thing that should be noted about this offering is that this is a “spicy” roll and that’s what the creamy sauce on the side is: It game some hot kick to it.

In general, the roll falls in the category of “OK”: the rice could have been “better” as in having more vinegar and cooked differently (in some instances, had a slight “bite”). Now, that does not necessarily means it is below par: some of the mass produced “sushi” places in Vancouver would have offered such type of rice. As for the fish used, for the most part, it still had a bit of hit/miss mentioned above regarding their salad. So, it wasn’t bad but, given what I am used here in Vancouver, it might be borderline average to good.

After we finish the meal, we could barely move from our table. We thought we won’t be served that much food but, then again, I should have known considering this located in the US. As for the food served, I will have to say that it was better than what we though. While some parts of certain dishes went sideways, what I won’t deny is that it didn’t necessarily fail. In fact, everything served was at least par with similar specialist shops in Vancouver. So, from that perspective, I will have to tip my hat. Would I come back? Certainly I would, with the caveat there are still other places I still have to visit first.

Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA

So, now into the final stretch of the trip! (Well, sort of!). So, after our Vancouver food blogger dinner at Incanto with TS/JS, Mijune and Sherman, we were making some final plans in San Francisco. However, despite they were good sports in some things I wanted to do, on this last half day before our flight back to Vancouver, I was a bit selfish and went to do some things by myself, agreeing on meeting before our flight. But, in the usual family Chinese way, “breakfast first”!

Actually, we didn’t have a real breakfast plan considering Sherman and I already had dim sum in Dol Ho (and our initial plan was Yank Sing). So, instead, we agreed to meet and go from there. At first, we wanted to give Dottie’s another chance (the original attempt failed and we ended up going to Taylor Street Coffee Shop) and when we arrived, another 1 hour queue. Seriously??? ARGH!!! So, we started wandering around, going back and forth, including some places closer to Union Square. However, all of those had extremely safe breakfast menu (read: omelette, pancake, hash, sausage, bacon, etc.; basically the same stuff you would be able to get at Denny’s). Then we went to the opposite way and ran into more interesting options, including pho for breakfast (interestingly, with a help wanted sign… In Spanish?!). When we were walking near Polk Street, Sherman’s previous experience in San Fran kicked in: Brenda’s French Soul Food which he had visited previously but was still good for a revisit. Considering this wasn’t the “usual suspect” dishes, I was more than eager to give it a try!

Upon arriving, we were lucky we were able to get a table relatively close to the windows. See, part of the reason Sherman wanted a revisit was because he thought his previous visit pictures weren’t good (he was seated in a somewhat dark place last time) so having some natural light was a bonus. Once seated, the usual question kicked in… What to order? Well, there were some usual suspect as usual as well but, at the same time, there were some interesting options, starting off with…

Beignet, that French fried dough (or, can we say… Doughnut???), which, in the US, is associated with New Orleans. Here, we decided to order their Beignet Flight to share, i.e., one of each, starting with the savoury one in the form of…

Crawfish – Spiced with cayenne, scallions and cheddar. I will have to admit this one caught me a bit off guard. I was expecting something seafood-y but, instead, I got this kick from the cayenne (But in a good way). Then, I was tasting the savoury taste of the crawfish. Cheese? Scallions? Didn’t care, it was the balance of heat, savoury and sweet (slightly from the dough) that made it. Absolutely no complains here.

The second one was the chocolate – Filled with molten Ghirardelli chocolate – which I hope would have served to transition from savoury to sweet (by being something “bitter”). Alas, that felt short: Instead of something bitter, it was borderline a bit too sweet. Milk chocolate? This would have worked well for dessert; didn’t work for me as a (breakfast?!) appetizer.

Grannysmith apple – Oozing with cinnamon honey butter. Didn’t care much for the honey butter (don’t think I tasted it), as the acidity of the apples, again, contrasted with the fried dough. I would have preferred it as a “dessert” but, still, as a breakfast (?) appetizer, it wasn’t offensive as the chocolate one.

The odd ball was the “plain” beignet: By the time we got it, it just felt as a plain piece of fried dough lacking the qualities of the other beignets. I guess we should have started from that one to have a baseline rather than the other way around…. :S

Sherman’s dish, grits and shrimp. I really appreciate Sherman ordered this as this is that quintessential Southern breakfast dish. The fact it was served with shrimp made it even better. And for breakfast??? Yoohooo!!! The grits had a consistency somewhat similar to that of a smooth congee (thought a bit heavier compared to the rice in the congee). But, unlike congee, it was savoury (OK, savour-ier) thanks to the cheese added to it. But, wait… That shrimp/tomato sauce! Yes, that added another level of savouriness to it. The shrimp? Again, that was the topping. The fault of this dish? Too heavy… (Belch!).

As for myself, I had the crawfish and andouille pot pie. You know what? When I ordered this, one thing came to my head: Am I ordering breakfast, brunch or an actual lunch??? I mean, pot pie for breakfast??? Anyway… The pastry on the top was both soft, fluffy and crusty at the same time. I was able to separate a part leaving a more crumbly part at the bottom. That lower half served to soak some of the sauce/gravy form the crawfish and andouille. But wait, when they said crawfish and andoille, they meant it. It wasn’t just two or three pieces of it and then filled with starch (i.e. potatoes) and vegetables. Sure, there was some but it wasn’t predominant by any means. The one thing I only wished was that the andouille was spicier but, otherwise, yes, it indeed made it for me.

I will have to admit that I left the restaurant extremely full. As for the food itself, needless to say, it was heavy in terms of breakfast and would have easily be considered lunch! Was it good? Well, I am tempted to cook some of the dishes by myself one of these days, starting with the grits so that should tell something! Now, did I mention some of these dishes were even cheaper than the ones we had at Taylor Street Coffee Shop? Even if prices were at par, I liked what was served and, if you overlooked its location, the final product was well executed. Too bad we didn’t come here first…

Incanto
1550 Church Street
San Francisco, CA

Earlier this year, fellow blogger Chris of Eating is the Hard Part visited San Francisco and wrote of Incanto, the restaurant of celebrity chef Chris Cosentino. To those who do not know, Chris Cosentino’s, aside form rustic Italian cooking, has also participated in different TV shows, including his won Chef vs. City. However, what I care more is about *what* he cooks: in his menu, he includes offal dishes. Yes, cooking from head to tail and almost everything in between! So, when the FoodBuzz Food Festival was announced, restaurants plans were flying going back and forth. While JS/TS and Sherman had quite an extensive list, I had only two places in mind: Hamburgers (Sausalito) and, you guessed it, Incanto!

Update: Sherman’s post is here; Mijune’s post is here.

In addition to “the usual suspects”, aka, JS/TS, Sherman and Mijune, who came along with cousin MY, we had the pleasure of having along Naomi (aka “The Gastro Gnome“) and Chowhounder Grayelf (who came along with family). In total, we had 10 people seated in the table. Unfortunately, I was seated in the far end of the table so I didn’t have much interaction with Naomi, Grayelf and family who were seated at other far end. That also means I didn’t take pictures of what they ordered (except for a couple of instances).

Here is one thing about having a large dinner party with people you don’t necessarily know (in my case, I had TS on one side and MY on the other): We might be having a bit too much fun talking and ordering food… Well, for a while, that became secondary! However, we knew we had to order eventually so we started checking the menu. As for me, I was pretty much set from the very beginning. See, originally, when I found out the group was large enough for their prix fixe or their leg of the beast, I was pushing for it However, TS, who made the reservations, despite her heritage, didn’t want to know any of it. I guess it would have been a safe approach considering the composition of the party plus it would have given us more chances to try everything from their “regular” menu (which might partially be an oxymoron because their menu changes frequently). Anyway, by the time we got to make our order, some bread arrived:

There were three types of bread, the third one being a focaccia type bread. It was served with a tapenade which, for the most part, was fine. If I want to “complain” a bit about it would that I would have appreciated a bit more olive oil (given Chris Cosentino’s affinity for it) but, again, that’s nitpicking. As for the breads in general, there were OK, I wasn’t too picky about it.

TS/JS started with two appetizers. To show you how much attention I paid, I will have to “guess” what these were based on the receipt: “Rapini, Baccala (sic?) & Lemon” and “Local Sardines & Sunflower”. I didn’t try these so there isn’t much I can say… :/

On his side, Sherman ordered cod milt & duck egg. I won’t try to describe this dish because, truth is, I couldn’t get past this serie of tweet:

@Sherman38: @followmefoodie just had milt (spirit of cod) and she swallowed!
@followmefoodie: Just tried @Sherman38 ‘s milt (spirit cod)… I did swallow… BUT so did he
@Sherman38: And she got it all over her face too!
@Sherman38: She thought it was a bit salty…

And you guys thought the “rack” incident was enough?! O_o

While waiting for the second appetizer, Grayelf passed us their “main” appetizer which was the “Mystery Flight” for you. I think it was more on the lines of salumi platter… I didn’t try it so I won’t comment about it.

By then, our second appetizer started to arrive. Here, MY’s spaghetti with tuna heart. I will have to admit, this was a strange dish. You would think that the tuna heart will have a fishy taste, but, actually it wasn’t, instead, it was a bit earthy. It seems there was an egg yolk there (which I didn’t scoop a bit off when I tried it) and it added some creaminess to the dish. Can anybody say “Alfredo”?

Sweetbreads, potato and green walnuts salsa (?). In a testament of how English is a messed language, these aren’t sweet nor are breads (if you don’t know what it is, not sure if you want to know!). I had a piece of it and found these average? Now, it wasn’t bad by any stretch, just that the end result wasn’t necessarily exciting. The crispiness was appreciated and that would be something that would entice people coming back for this dish. I just wanted some additional layer of flavour.

Paccheri al nero, Mijune’s appetizer. Here, squid ink is used to prepare the pasta but, truth is, I can’t necessarily say I could have “tasted” it – this is a straight comparison to my dish (more of that in a moment). As for the seafood, it was cooked to a good consistency so, from that perspective I won’t complain. Having said that, the dish is good but not necessarily extraordinary.

As for me, I went for something that might gross a lot of people: (pig) blood pappardelle, served with raisins and sage. One thing not really noticeable is the consistency of the pasta – compared to the other dishes, specially Mijune’s, these felt undercooked. However, that might be because of the pig’s blood: had it been cooked slightly more, I would be willing to be the end result would have been similar to overcooked pork blood cubes, i.e., a somewhat metallic taste. So, as is, while you could tell it was based on it, it wasn’t overwhelming. And the butter and sage was actually a good combination (herby, buttery, what more do you want??? ) and the raisins gave it a sweet taste. In other words, a contrast of texture and taste!

Finally (?), the entrees. TS and JS ordered two versions of risotto: one with mushroom and one with “best part of the chicken”, which ended up being the skin, chicken oyster, thigh and I think I saw some gizzard and chicken heart. In both cases, the rice was cooked as it should and, out of the two, the chicken was “better”. In the case of the mushroom one (if memory serves me, it was mostly chanterelle but might be mistaken as I don’t recall tasting the mushroom), there wasn’t anything wrong just that it felt too… Average? As for the chicken, it did show up a bit more but, still in the end, well, the usage of those parts of the chicken didn’t necessarily blow me away (I had chicken thighs, I think). Good dish, still.

Mijune’s entree: California yellowtail. Sorry, didn’t write down the rest of the details of this dish. From the small piece I tried, I found it was… Meh? I didn’t find anything exciting and, except for a slight fishiness, it was mostly a blank palette. For a piece of fish, I thought it could be better or tried be more creative. Don’t recall trying the pumpkin so I will leave that to Mijune, given it was her dish…

Sherman’s dish, the porkbelly. Let’s face it, other than raw/undercooked pork belly, how you can go wrong with this? This piece of braised porkbelly was what it was supposed to be: A bit of crispiness which gave it some initial resistance to the fork but once you pass that initial token “resistance”, it was melt in your mouth almost. The interesting part is that the side of arugula provided some contrasting bitterness to the otherwise sweet taste of that piece of pork belly. Did somebody say balance? Yup, from that perspective, it was good…

MY’s dish: Pomegranate-glazed poussin, almost a Cornish hen type fowl. Believe it or not, this ended up being the best dish of the night (or, at least on my side of the table). Did somebody say simplest dish works better? In this case, the pomegranate provided some unique sweetness to the “chicken”, which, well, simply worked. Now, despite it looks “burned”, that’s not necessarily the case, it was just caramelizing. Mostly a blank palette that works.

Finally, my dish: offal bollito misto, mustard, salsa verde & horseradish (the sauces on a side, picture not taken). Despite my love for offal, this dish simply didn’t work for me. When it was served originally, the broth wasn’t there: it was poured at the table. I was a bit distracted when the components were described to me, what I do recall are the foei gras (?!) sausage (closest to the plate), some pork belly (to the bottom left), tongue (top left) and chicken thigh. For the most part, this dish failed for me. While I knew it would be a soup-y dish, the fact it was “assembled” at the table meant the individual components were cooked independently. In other words, they didn’t necessarily “mix” together from the very beginning but, rather, it seemed forced together. If they were to served with broth, I think it would have been better had sausage be served “bangers” style (as in bangers and mash, though unlikely as it was extremely soft due to the fat), the tongue be served Chinese style and then the broth be added by the diner rather than in the bowl itself.

In the end, the dinner was actually quite an experience of its own but, as usual, the dining companions helped. As for the food itself, while some of the “odd” dishes failed, the “normal” ones worked well. So, I do appreciate the fact the attempt to cook offal was made, still, in the end it felt slightly short (either that or, because I eat offal so often, it didn’t meet my expectations). Even then, I believe the restaurant overall did provide what it was supposed to and, from that perspective, that experience was worth it.

Oh, one more thing: I was really tired at that point and partially asleep. At that point, Mijune, Sherman and the rest of the gang ordered dessert:

As for these, I will leave Sherman and Mijune describe them! Once again, Sherman’s post is here; Mijune’s post is here.

(side note: Chris Cosentino wasn’t in the kitchen that night we were there)

Taylor Street Coffee Shop
375 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA

Ah, San Fran, San Fran… After FoodBuzz Street Food Fare Welcome Reception, Sherman, JS/TS and Mijune, each one of us called it a night. However, since we didn’t necessarily planned to attend all FoodBuzz events for the morning, we decided to tag along for some other activities. In my case, Sherman and I agreed to meet for breakfast and go from there, which included looking for some good eats outside of the San Francisco area. But, that is jumping ahead so, for this post, breakfast.

Here is a bit of a curve ball: while the hotel did offer continental breakfast, how exciting that would have been as blogging material? I guess not much. So, we decided to look for nearby options and option #1 had a somewhat ridiculous queue… At 8:00 a.m.! How bad it was? Imagine a breakfast version of Stepho’s… 1 hour queue? For breakfast??? While walking around, Sherman mentioned Taylor Street Coffee Shop (TSCS) as an option. Sure, why not!

Since the hotel was in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco but still really close to Union Square, one would think nearby restaurants would follow the “trendiness” of the shops near Union Square. Well, actually, a lot of them were; however, TSCS was anything but. If you see in the picture above, you could easily surmise this is a dive. And, when we walked in, those thoughts were partially confirmed. Nothing fancy and that would work fine for me!

After perusing the menu, we observed the “usual suspects”: eggs, ham/bacon/sausage, hash, pancakes/French toast, omelette and so on. And then there were lunch type items like sandwiches and burgers. Given the time of the time, we focused solely on breakfast dishes, which included:

Sherman ordered toast while I ordered sourdough. It was your usual slices of breads so, from that perspective, not much to comment about. Actually… Given this type of shop, I thought the toast was a bit past the burn point (or at least past certain point). As for the sourdough… No, sorry, it was barely any of that sourdough characteristic. In fact, it tasted borderline white sliced bread! >_< I mean, this is San Francisco, you would think their sourdough would be “better”! Anyway, these are just slices of bread so moving on…

Dish #1 was the Meat Lover’s Special which has a “Ham Steak, bacon (3), breakfast sausage (3), two eggs and toast”. For an additional $1.50, the breakfast sausages were switched for two links of chicken apple sausage. The eggs were ordered sunny side up and the only “flaw” would be the fact it was slightly overcooked, i.e., part of the egg yolk was “hard” already. The ham was a bit salty but I guess that’s expected. As for the sausage: Well, I thought it had a bit too much earthy taste. Again, depending on how you like yours… Finally, the one part that disappointed from that dish: the bacon. From the looks, you could say it was quite well cooked which, by itself, it is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem was that it was extremely salty! C’mon people, do you have to make it so salty?!

For dish #2, we went to the other end of the spectrum: we ended up ordering a dish that, in a way, I thought didn’t necessarily fit the dive type description of the restaurant considering the ingredients included. Here, their Sailor’s Hash – “Seasoned hash browns topped with eggs scrambled in garlic butter, shrimp, Dungeness crab, jalapeño and bacon. Covered with cheese, scampi shrimp, smoked salmon“. Yup, you read it right: It has salmon, it has shrimp, it has Dungeness crab!

And, I will have to admit that dish was as promised: the flower salmon, the shrimp and some strands of crab. The hash was actually quite good and the egg/cheese combination provided a nice, hearty (not to mention artery clogging) breakfast. However, the part that would, in theory, make it sound out made me have mixed feelings: The salmon provided some contrast but the shrimp and, more importantly, the crab wasn’t really noticeable. In fact, if I were eating it blindfolded, I won’t have noticed it!

At this point, one would say TSCS delivers what it promises. And, I will have to admit that’s true. However, there is one major factor that would prevent me from consider it as an option next time I am in San Francisco: Price. See, for the location, I wasn’t expecting to be paying $10+ for these dishes! (Though willing to give them some allowances considering it is in the Tenderloin). OK, probably the Sailor’s Hash considering the ingredients used but, then again, this is a dive! OK, let’s assume I would be willing to fork the $$$. If that’s the case, I still won’t return. Why being so harsh? That’s because, on our last day in San Francisco, we went to a place that I thought was way superior to this and at the same/lower price… As a result, no coming back for me.

Update: And here is Sherman’s post of Taylor Street Coffee Shop!

O’Doul’s
1300 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Sometimes, there are restaurants that might be in front of us but, for some reason, we just choose to disregard and/or skip them for no good reason. That’s what has happened in a way to me with O’Doul’s. Not sure if it is the fact that can be considered “fancy” or some other similar reason but I have walked countless amount of times but have just kept on walking rather than stopping and give it a try. But, while check with PO about dining options in the area, I casually mentioned it (which was, interesting enough, another restaurant suggestion before we went to Town Hall) and we agreed in “sure, why not!”. So, to O’Doul’s it was!

This restaurant is known in its ways yet maintain a relatively low profile in others. For example, they participated in local cook offs yet, past that, and probably because in its Robson/West End location, it does not draw the same crowd as Gastown/Yaletown. With that in mind, when we walked in, I am not sure if I was surprised there was a professional feeling behind the wait staff, rather than a more hip or “young” that the areas mentioned above.

PO and I browsed the menu outside the restaurant before we went in and I already knew what to order almost at first sight. When we were given the menus, we both noticed that one of the dishes wasn’t really in the menu so we inquired. It just happened they were part of the dinner menu; however, they would be willing to make it for us. Now, that’s what I call classy. Having said that, these are the dishes we inquired:

The Land Trio and the Ocean Trio. At $13 each, I thought these were quite a good deal for restaurant of these type! For the Ocean Trio, it was composed of: Organic Ocean’s Cold-smoked Wild Salmon, frisee and peat shoot salad, Vancouver Island Mussels, Merridale cider, leek and tomato julienne, Dungeness Crab and Pacific Shrimp Cake, preserved lemon aioli

The salmon had a smokey, yet slight sweet taste to it, with a flaky texture and didn’t really need sides. By itself, it was good. The mussels were plump but didn’t taste much of the other components. No problem here as the star was the mussel. The crab/shrimp cake was a bit of an odd ball. I was expecting a bit more of shrimp (cheaper ingredient of the two) than crab. However, I ended up tasting a bit more of crab than shrimp. In fact, the shrimp snappy texture was MIA. It had a crispy exterior and the only thing I wished was it to be slightly warmer.

Poplar Grove Tiger Blue Cheese, stone fruit compote, Grilled AAA Beef Tenderloin, sauteed organic mushroom, Oyama Sausage Selection, grainy dijon

The blue cheese was a bit of an odd ball here but, considering there was meat and more meat, probably wasn’t that bad of an option. Despite the name, it was quite mild. Either that, or I am getting used to stronger cheeses… The tenderloin was the winner here, given specially the portion served. It wasn’t perfect, again, as I don’t recall the desired done-ness was asked or not and I am sure PO would have gone for a rarer doneness than the medium-rare, leaning towards medium. But, details, minor details… Finally, the sausage was interesting in its own ways as it was cured rather than just a sliced of cooked sausage. Depending on your likes/dislikes about this, it could go either way. In my case, I thought it was good.

Moving to entrees, PO ordered the house-smoked chicken and grilled vegetable flatbread – Okanagan goat cheese, Haida Gwaii chanterelle mushrooms, hazelnut pesto with choice of today’s soup, market salad or house-cut fries. For the side, he went for the soup, which, for that day, was a mystery ingredient (the waitress wasn’t sure and we didn’t dig in too deeply and we were guessing between cauliflower or pumpkin), carrot and ginger. Despite ginger can be quite strong if not added correctly, we were both surprised it was quite light in taste. In fact, the dominant flavour was the carrot.

As for the sandwich itself… Well… I am not sure. It was a good sandwich, I won’t argue with that; however, $15 is in a certain price bubble that I have mixed feelings about. But, then again, I didn’t order it… I think the best way to describe this would be a slice of chicken pesto pizza found in some places, where, instead of using a tomato sauce as base, you would be using pesto. As for the cheese or mushroom, they didn’t shine much – it was mostly pesto or chicken.

As for myself, I had mussel and fries. Some of you might that, didn’t I have mussels as well in the appetizer? Well, who said I couldn’t have it again??? Here is my first question: What is the deal nowadays with mussels and fries having the fries served on top of the mussels rather than on the side? This happened to me also not long ago in Twisted Fork! C’mon, people, if I eat mussels, eventually the fries will hit the broth which is a bad thing as it will make the fries soggy which, in turn, defeats the purpose of having fries! As for the mussels, as seen in the picture, were really plum so no complains. The broth were average, nothing outstanding at least it didn’t detract from the main star so it is fortunately not a con.

In the overall grand scheme of things, I feel that, while O’Doul’s is at a higher scale than a lot of restaurants a couple of blocks radius, their dishes are also considered to be “safe” in comparison, i.e., tried and true dishes first. And, truth said, there is nothing wrong with that, specially considering their customers I have seen in the restaurant while walking outside tends to be of an older age gap or you want something solid. Now, doing a direct comparison to, say, Joe Forte’s, I will have to say I prefer O’Doul’s over it and indeed I would be interested in coming back.

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.

Part of the reason it took me so long to visit Poke’m was because they closed down for a while to re-set their cart for the incoming fall weather. But, now that it is back! Now, notice something… Interesting in the picture above? Yes, the cook in the yellow suit. I am not sure if that was part of a Halloween motif but he was wearing something that would have resembled Pikachu of Pokemon fame (Poke’m -> Pokemon? And, balls -> Pokeballs?).

OK, I could have a field day making bad puns and jokes about this; instead… Nope. I will just leave it as is, OK? (Who knows, Sherman, might be doing so!)

So, how this cart works? Choose a meat type (chicken, beef, tofu, fish fritter, cuttlefish and fish) and choose a sauce (Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Caribbean and one called traditional curry fishball – the last one not sure if it would be a sauce or a straight dish per se; Indian wasn’t available at the time). That leaves us with 24 different combinations plus the traditional curry one. So, which one I chose from the possible combinations?

Order #1 was the cuttlefish in Japanese sauce. I don’t have the exact description of this but, if you have had Japadog‘s terimayo, you will have a really good idea: It had a sweet sauce on top, some savoury seaweed and, unlike the original terimayo, there was some wasabi hints. As for the cuttlefish meatball, once again, if you have had Asian style meatballs (specially those found in Asian supermarkets), you can have a good idea of what to expect: with a bare hint of meat but with an interesting bouncy texture. I think that, for this dish, the best way to think the cuttlefish is to think of it being a blank palette for the sauce.

Order #2 was chicken with the Caribbean sauce. Again, don’t have the exact description but, what end up served, was a spicy sauce of sorts plus caramelized onions. The sauce was actually spicy at first but not enough to start make me sweat. As for the chicken… Taste like chicken? OK, if you didn’t tell, I might have said it was some form of generic meat…

The orders actually took a bit of time to make, come to think about it, about the same time to prepare a wiener for hot dogs. I.e., after the order is made, they slice the appropriate meatballs and grill them. Then, smother the sauce before serving. So, from a timing perspective, they falls slightly short. And that brings the main question: is it worth it? From an eating perspective, they were good in their own ways, specially if you have had Asian style meatballs. From a value perspective, that’s when things might go sideways: as a snack, one order ($3.75) seems to be well priced; however, as meal (i.e., lunch), forget it. I can easily eat three of these orders and might still be hungry. As for me coming back, well, it is the question of whether I want a snack – if that’s the case, this seems to be a good option.

Town Hall
1032 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC

In a couple of previous posts, I have mentioned the company I work for, like to “celebrate” the end of a project. Recently, I finish such a long project and, after a couple of delays, we were finally scheduled (as in any typical company, even work lunches are scheduled…!) Of course, being located in the downtown area, the usual question pops: Where? Since this is a work lunch, there are some limits – budget aside, make sure we are back at the office. It is a lunch, not the rest of the afternoon off! Of course, there is the usual question of where while making the most out of the trip. After shuffling some options, we ended up going to Town Hall, which used to be Saltlik

In our party there were five; however, due to how we were seated, alas, I could only that take many pictures. Now, here is one “detail”: Unlike Sherman who has openly disclosed to his friends and work colleagues, that’s not my case (for the most part), as I separate work from private life. Anyway, in this visit, I just told them I wanted to take pictures of the food and they were OK with it. Now, whether they know I blog or not, nobody has asked. Until then… But, moving to the food.

Wok-fried calamari – charred serranos and poblanos w/ sea salt and pepper. Here is where the infamous F word (aka: “fusion”) kicks in: Does it have to be called “wok-fried”? What’s wrong with the regular fryer fried calamari? Regardless of the name, the pieces of calamari wasn’t of the thin cut variety; rather it was particularly thick cut. That’s not really a problem; the “problem” was the batter: it didn’t really stick to the mollusk and and some piece of batter were falling here and there. A somewhat nice touch was the “cooked” piece of lemon but it seemed a gimmick more than anything else. The stir-fried onion and peppers were, again, nice but, a better prepared calamari would have worked better for me…

SB ordered their house flatbread – mozzarella, provolone, balsamic roasted peppers, chiles, fancy prosciutto & baby arugula – as appetizer. It was borderline between doughy and crispy, leaning more towards the crispy side. If I were to compare it with the one from Sciué, these would fall a bit short; however, it still had some qualities of its own. For example, the roasted peppers used retained a lot of its sweetness, which I thought was good. However, the prosciutto didn’t really show up. So, in the end, it was a toss-up (no pun intended!).

The last appetizer was oyster mushroom tempura – asian salt, green onion & basil mousseline (not shown in the picture). The basil mousseline was actually herb-y, in fact, I dipped the calamari in it! As for the mushroom itself… Well, it was a bit of a hit and miss. It had some meat-y characteristics but unlike button mushrooms when fried, the texture was too soft to the point it was almost gone. And, unlike the batter from the calamari, it was quite light and didn’t fall down… Not necessarily one that I would order; however, I can see some people who would.

Now, the total party was 5; however, once again, because of where I was seated, I could only take that many pictures, here, the smoked bacon, asparagus and sweet pea linguini with lemon cream sauce and parmesan. I didn’t ask but the owner of this dish didn’t complain or say much but looked OK with it. As a result, i won’t say much…

Next to me, SB ordered the oven roasted chicken breast supreme and pan jus with red, yellow and orange vine tomatoes, gremolata, marinated “fior di latte” mozzarella & baby arugula. No offence but, won’t have been it easier to have just said “chicken breast and tomato, mozzarella and arugula salad??? Oh sorry I took this picture while it was being eaten. Again, because we were talking about other things, I didn’t ask much about the dish but no major complains.

Finally, my dish – Pacific ling cod wrapped in prosciutto with slow roasted vine tomatoes, lemon aioli served with sweet vidalia onion rings & baby arugula. Again, too much description for what was served. Now, unlike the others, I did eat it so I think I can provide better notes! Now, the roasted vine tomatoes ended up being a thin slice tomato which ended up being both sweet and slightly acidic. The onion rings on top… Well, this was nicely fried and crispy, and I could easily a big pile of these, alas, there were only that much! As for the fish, unfortunately, it was the weakest link. How so? While it was flaky, it was slightly fishier than what I wanted it to be. The sauce managed to cover it a little bit but I wasn’t particularly impressed.

At first sight, when I walked in, I thought it would be similar to another Cactus Club and other similar type restaurants. And, for the most part it was but, and I am not sure if it was because of the composition of our party, the waitresses weren’t particularly, ahem, aggressive and things were done the way it should have been. That aside, the food was a bit of hit and miss, leaning a bit more towards the miss side. However, still, given I only tried that many dishes, for some odd reason, I am willing to give it a second try but, based on what I had, not necessarily in a hurry.

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…

For this visit, I “recruited” my friend RC, whom I went with to visit Tony’s Beef Noodle some time ago. In his case, there were two criteria: Make it cheap (which suddenly sounds similar to Momo Sushi’s crowd) and make it under an hour as he had an appointment later. OK, I will take my chances…

After we walked in, one thing was noticeable: the layout and/or didn’t change much . I mean, I mean was the last time you were served tea in a Japanese restaurant in a mug? Well, personally, I don’t care, as long as it serves its purpose! But, moving to the food side, we were having a bit of a debate. See, I found out one unique situation with RC: He does not like fish. Now, I have gone several times with him for lunch but it wasn’t until now that I realized that fact. Was I overlooking the obvious? If that’s the case, how he agreed to come to this place??? Well, let’s just say he knows his ways and order this:

Now, to entice the lunch crow, Dajia has a combo special: three rolls/cones special plus miso soup for $8. Basically, it is a pick and choose several items from the list and that’s what you get. RC was a bit curious whether he could order the same one roll/cone which partially perplexed the waitress. I mean, don’t you want variety? In the end, RC ordered two rolls of Dynamite Roll plus a scallop cone. Well, it seems he is fine with shellfish but not with fish. Oh, well, his loss, I say. But, my loss was that I didn’t get to try the scallop roll; I traded a piece of the Dynamite Roll for a component of my dish – more of that in a moment. But, at least, from a visual perspective, I will have to admit it doesn’t look bad!

Just for kicks, we also a dish for share and, take a twist for the odd, we ordered yakitori – here, two chicken skewers. These were decent; however, it lacked some charring and the sauce didn’t add that much. I guess this is a case of adding a dish because of public demand. I won’t necessarily order it again but I can foresee people liking it.

Moving to my order, I went to a lunch box #3 which includes a tuna roll, tempura, salad and unagi on rice. For just under $10, I thought this wasn’t that bad of a deal. Granted, no soup as other places but, still, this was a lot of food.

The salad was OK, not much to comment about, except probably the amount of dressing. At least it didn’t feel oily so I will give them a pass. The tempura was a bit… Strange. Specifically, that spring roll. WTF?! Anyway, I didn’t have the spring roll as that’s what I used to trade for a piece of the Dynamite Roll. When RC had it, he made mention that it was pork based rather than only vegetables. If that’s the case, well, it is quite good. As for the rest of the tempura, it was serviceable.

Given the simplicity of the tuna, I will admit it was better than what I thought, specifically they didn’t make it larger by stuffing it more with rice; instead, it was a decent piece of tuna for such roll. The rice could have been more seasoned but, otherwise, it was quite good.

Finally, the eel/unagi… This was a bit mixed, though leaning to the “good” side. First, it had a bit too much sauce but, fortunately, there was the bed of rice below to soak most of it. Furthermore, the sauce wasn’t extremely sweet but, still, somewhat… Oily? The mix part came from the eel itself: I felt it needed a bit more grilled (assuming it was grilled) because the flesh was still soft. However, if that was the intent, then I must say I liked it. If you are used to the sweeter version found in a lot of restaurants, then you will be disappointed; however, if you look at it as not overly grilled fish, it actually hit the spot.

All in all, I can’t help but admit it was better than what I thought and would certainly come back if I am not aiming for high-end sushi (or even higher grade found at izakaya). As a middle of the road, it certainly hits the spot. As for RC, he confessed ever since our initial visit, he has been there at least once a week. Well, he seemed to like it so I will leave it at that…