Michi Waffle & Expresso Bar
1319 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
To quote Sherman, “you got lots of good eats here!”. Now, he wasn’t referring to Surrey or Delta; he was referring to the West End, where Mijune, Sherman and I was after the event in Prestons, which we left early. Normally, after such event, it would have been everybody going home or some other activity. But, in this case, it wasn’t that hard to “convince” them to try a semi-new waffle/coffee bar in Robson Street, near Hon’s. Hey, we are all for some good time and, well, food! (Not to mention, we had the subject-matter expert in hand for this!). That place was Michi Waffles & Expresso Bar.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Coffee,
Dessert,
Downtown,
Vancouver,
West End
The Crime Lab Restaurant
550 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
Today’s post, I will have to admit it is quite interesting in its own ways. Why? Well, first of all, Happy Birthday to JF (despite my use of initials, she knows who she is! ^_^;;;). While she does not live anywhere Downtown Vancouver, once in a while she pops by around. Given it was close to her birthday, I asked if she would be up for dinner. And, yup, she was up for it! Now, here comes the biggest of the dilemmas… When you are a food blogger, everybody expects you to know the “good” restaurants. Truth is I know restaurants *I* like and I know my palette will not suit a lot of people. As a result, I usually leave the decision taking process to the other parties, specially considering I eat almost anything. But, in a way, I ended up being a bit selfish myself and suggested a restaurant near my workplace and, fortunately, close to where JF was by that time of the day. That restaurant ended up being The Crime Lab.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Seafood,
Vancouver,
West End
Pomegranate Lounge
836 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
6+ years ago, when I moved to Vancouver’s West End, I used to walk around the area a lot. Back then, I didn’t pay too much attention to nearby restaurants, as I was more interested in… Well, just walking around! However, I had to eat and didn’t care where. Hell, I am not ashamed to say that the people in Subway knew me enough to almost starting to call me by name! But, once in a while, I chose to go to actual sit down restaurants and one that caught my attention in those days was Rooster’s Quarters. Why the particular interest? While there weren’t that many izakaya places yet (while there was Guu and Gyoza King, there was no Hapa or Kingyo), it was one of the few non Asian restaurants. Somehow, it seems it was only a matter of time… And, indeed, it closed last year. I was wondering what would replace it and, given all ethnic options, I was quite surprised when Pomegranate opened. It was a tapas-type place but it didn’t have decor or ambiance as the other nearby tapas-like place, including izakaya. So, what then? With that in mind, I went there with PO.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Downtown,
Sandwich,
Tapas,
Vancouver,
West End
Akira Sushi
1069 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
We have had this eternal debate of whether authenticity matters. In my case, I have started to move to the camp of “as long as it follows the principle of the cuisine and, most importantly, tastes good”. While I try to keep that in mind, there are times where old habits die hard. That’s part of the reason I have walked by hundreds of times by two sushi restaurants in Denman Street which are almost facing each other but haven’t gone back – because I knew they weren’t Japanese operated. However, after reading an article by Mia Stainsby, who writes the Word of Mouth for the Vancouver Sun, about one of these two restaurants serving “black sushi”, I thought, hey, why not! So, for lunch one day, I went to Akira Sushi.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Japanese,
Lunch,
Sushi,
Vancouver,
West End
Le Bistro de Paris
751 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC
There are times that restaurants are known for good things and bad things. It does not matter how (good or bad) the food is; that “something” else can override it. For good or for bad, in my case, I only care for what ends up on the plate… In the case of Le Bistro de Paris, it has a semi-dubious claim to fame. It used to be called Café de Paris and owned by a local chef. Nothing odd about that, except he disappeared in November 2009 (more details here). But that was then and Le Bistro de Paris is under new management so I should look at it for what it is now.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
French,
Lunch,
West End
Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe
850 Thurlow Street
Vancouver, BC
In the last couple of weeks, it seems I have been forcing myself into restaurants that have had an “opening soon” sign hanging outside. OK, I am exaggerating. In one of the failed attempts to go to Gyuu Don Ya, I mentioned to PO there was another nearby restaurant I wanted to visit; however, it had also a serie of issues before opening. That restaurant is today’s post Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Downtown,
Lunch,
Seafood,
Vancouver,
West End
A Cafe
1234 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned about my epic fail on trying to go to Gyuu Don Ya. Guess what, it wasn’t one single instance of fail… In one (of several) other instances, I went there just to find out they were *still* wasn’t open (though, oddly, they had a note saying apologizing for not opening that day and should be open “tomorrow”). Oddly, their official opening day is today… That is despite I was there last week. Yes, feel to call it wacky…
Anyway, in that one instance, I had an accomplice: PO, whom have tagged along in several lunches. Since we had to go back to the office, we stopped by one place where PO has dropped by to get takeout. He mentioned it was quite decent so that was good enough reason!
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Chinese,
Downtown,
Lunch,
Vancouver,
West End
