Crème de la Crumb
466 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC
Whenever there are high notes and/or excitement when a new place opens, I approach it with certain skepticism. More often than not, it is hype; others, the “free” food factor. However, as I mentioned in my Bella Gelateria post, there are people I trust, like Mijune and Sherman. When Mijune wrote about Crème de la Crumb in her Granville Foodie Tour post, I knew I had to visit it, despite sweets are not my first option and a lot of what is sold here are pastries…
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Downtown,
Pastry,
Sandwich,
Vancouver
A couple of weeks ago, I had a really great week because… Well, a lot of things happened, all of them in a good way. Needless to say, me and my camera = some pictures!
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Sandwich,
Vancouver
Al Basha
3143 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC
My dislike for Richmond is quite well know. Crazy drivers, small parking spaces, badly design parking locations, the list goes on and on. However, that isn’t the only part of Metro Vancouver I do not frequent. Vancouver West Side is another of such areas in town, despite there is no particular reason. Probably because of those houses I don’t think I will never have enough moola to purchase? Or, perhaps because there is that sense of “falsehood”. Probably because most of the restaurants are the type where there is more hype to be seen rather than what it is served on the plate? Or because, well, I have had a bad track there? Regardless of the reason, after my visit to the area on Greek Day, I found out there were actually small interesting shops. One of them happened to be Al Basha and I made a mental note to return “soon” and that is what I did…
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Chicken,
Middle Eastern,
Vancouver,
West Side
Euro Deli & Market
3665 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC
I apologize if I offend anybody for using this word: Nazi. Unfortunately, that term has taking its own twist and turns, specially with a certain episode of Seinfeld which immortalized the phrase “Soup Nazi”, in reference to . (The funny thing is that, while I have watch snipplets of it, I haven’t watched the full episode! Yeah, shame on me…). So what does “Soup Nazi” has to do with Vancouver? Well, let me remind everybody of Salam of Le Charcuterie, the self proclaimed “Sandwich Nazi”. Jokes aside, when I went there last summer (wow, it sounds like it was a LONG time ago!), he mentioned he used to own a second location that he eventually sold. That location became Euro Deli & Market.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Sandwich,
Vancouver
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!
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Eggs,
Hotel,
Italian,
Sandwich,
Soup,
Vancouver
Bella Gelateria
1001 W Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC
It is said that Vancouver is a “foodie” (and, darn I HATE that word) city. However, from what I have seen, to a lot of people, that “foodie” mentality is not related to that spirit of adventure on finding and trying new food/dishes but to go to places to been seen and/or follow a hype. So, whenever there is a lot of hype about a restaurant, for the most part, I am dubious about how good the food is – it does not necessarily help when they focus on how “nice” a bathroom is. In the grand scheme of things, chances are, if “a lot of people” like it and I sense some hype, chances are I don’t necessarily like it. Take, for example, Coast (my post here), which has been lauded by a lot but, to me, it is nothing but overrated. And, except for a couple of bloggers whom I have serious doubts about their opinions, I will have to say that, when Vancouver food bloggers say it is good, I have to check by myself. I certainly “help” when those bloggers are Mijune, whom I call the Queen of Desserts, and Sherman, whom we agree one time too many, say that Bella Gelateria is really good…
(On that note, Mijune’s post is here and Sherman’s post is here)
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Dessert,
Downtown,
Gelato,
Ice Cream,
Vancouver
Donair Dude
1172 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC
Last week, I wrote this tweet:
Just noticed/realized something: There are a lot of shawarma shops open/opening soon in the West End! Boom of Middle Eastern food?
Years ago, when I was living in the West End, I remember only a handful of such Middle Eastern eateries. There was Falafel King (with a second location in Davie) and Mediterranean Grill. Now, there are a couple of Babylon Cafe locations, Donair King, Sammy’s Hot Wing (which, could fall into the category of being there a long time as well), etc. etc. So, when FOODgrl wrote about yet-another such shops – Donair Dude – I was wondering… Was there anything that would make them stand out from the rest? Yes there was…
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Lunch,
Middle Eastern,
Vancouver,
West End
