Hapa Izakaya

Hapa Izakaya
1479 Robson St, Vancouver

New izakaya places are springing up all over this city and most are just a dime a dozen. But when you mention Hapa Izakaya, there is a certain air of reverence that comes along. This is probably one of the best reviewed izakaya places out there and their popularity has led to an new room opening in Kitsilano. Well with such a great reputation, you know that i'd be hitting this place up sooner or later and so with a fellow foodie, we went to check this place out!

There is a back story to my actually going here tho. I had arranged to go with my friend Alan on a Friday night but given that there seems to always be a line up, we decided to go earlier and make a reservation at 6pm (apparently, you can't make resos anytime after that). Well that night, I was running a bit late and I had called Alan to tell him so. He says okay and hangs up but 2 minutes later, he calls back and says that he's actually still at home and fell asleep! He informs me that he had already called the restaurant and made an excuse to say why he was going to be late...HE HHAD GOTTEN INTO A CAR CRASH! Well i guess you either go big or go home! Well it worked cuz when i got to the restaurant, the host said that Alan is the most considerate person ever, calling a restaurant about a reservation after a car accident. I could only smile and nod. Well I was sitting there on my own for a bit and I ended up ordering some food while waiting....

So the food. Well the menu looked typical of a izakaya restaurant. They had the ebi mayo, beef tataki...etc. Maybe it's my dislike for jap food in general but to me, it's all pretty much the same. I mean the food here was decent but I wasn't blown away by it. The one thing that I thought was good was their korean rice dish. Now I don't usually eat rice but this was pretty interesting. It's presented in a stone bowl and they have to mix it before you can eat it. The mixing definatly adds a dimension of interaction to the meal and it was quite tasty. Alan ordered this seafood salad thing at the end and I have to admit it did not agree with me. I'm sure the problem was that I didn't know what was in it and when I took a bit, I must have gotten a piece of raw fish or something cuz I felt like puking rite then and there. I tried to be discreet about it but I had to find some rice and tea stat! That was not a good feeling....

I think the main appeal of Hapa is the room and their servers. The space is very minimlaist with a black on grey palate. They cooks don't really scream random jap words out and even if they did, it wouldn't have the same effect since the room is quite big. Apparently they have an upstairs too where I guess you can have a private party or a more intimate setting. The servers are all girls with long hair and nice bodies. Not your typical Japanese girls but hey wut do I know?

In all, I would say Hapa was good but again, not outstanding. I would come back again but I don't know if it's a "Barbara Recommended" place....i'll get back to you all after round 2.

Nu

Nu

1661 Granville Street

Vancouver, BC

Brunch is probably my favourite meal of the day. Well I guess it's not technically a meal but a blend of the best from both breakfast and lunch. Take the menu of breakfast, add some sassiness to it and serve it until the afternoon...good food without having to wake up super early! How great is that?

I love breakfast food...omlettes, sausages, GRANOLA!!! And there are plenty of places in Vancouver that serves up a pretty wicked brunch. But if you want a fantastic brunch, in a funky room with a SPECTACULAR VIEW to boot, you can't beat Nu Restaurant. Situated on False Creek right across from Granville Island, this place is a sensory overload for ALL your senses!

I went this past Sunday for brunch (I don't usually get to eat brunch on Sundays cuz i'm usually playing badminton) with Richard. I've been here before and was blown away by the food and the view so since it was such a beautiful day (hurray for sun in February!), we wanted to take full advantage of it.

You'd think that a place like this would charge a ridiculous amount for their food but surprisingly, Nu is a pretty good value. This place has won tons of awards, ranging from Best New Restaurant, Best Lounge..among others, so it can charge high. But they have great price points (their dine out menu was only $25!) but don't skimp on quality.

Lets start off with the room. This place is designed to feel like an alcove right on False Creek. With the floor to ceiling windows all around, you get an amazing view from the Burrard Street Bridge to Granville Island and Science World. It has such an amazing vibe to it and if you go on a beautiful day, you get the sunlight shining in while you enjoy your food! How fantastic is that? To make it even better, they feature a jazz singer for Sunday brunch. Jazz and brunch...such a wonderful combination! It really adds to the ambience of the whole experience. The decor of the room is definalty leaning towards the funky/art deco vibe and it works! They have these really cool swingy/bucket chairs with brass plated custom made tables makes you feel like you're in 70's room minus the tackiness. Everything about the decor has been well thought out and it really shows. Their use of the colour aqua also really gives the restaurant a laid back and relaxed vibe.

One of the things I love about Nu for brunch is that they give you an amuse bushe before you start your meal. Free food...gotta love it! They start you off with a tiny glass of "sipping chocolate" and a mini croissant that is as buttery as can be! It's sooooo decadent but it's so good! It really gets you in the "brunch" mood. For our brunch, Richard ordered the eggs benedict (his favourite) and I had the spinich and mushroom omlette (one of my favourites!). I think Richard really enjoyed his eggs benny and my omlette was cooked to perfection! No browning on the surface of the egg. Now that takes skill (and a really good frying pan). We had also ordered a side of pomme frittes but apparently, our meals were served with friens anyways so our waiter gave us an extra side of fries for free! Their fries were home cut but were of the skinny variety and it was YUMM-O! I had to push my plate away to stop eating them!

The service that day was a bit slow and it wasn't even like they were really busy. They had a large party there for brunch but the tables were not all full. I didn't remember the service being that slow last time but if you're not starving and you want to find a place to just sit and relax this is the place to go. Now that I've been here for brunch twice, I think it's about time I came back for dinner....anyone want to join me?

Eggs Benedict at Nu

Spinach and Mushroom Omlette

Enjoying the glorious sunshine!

Where I want to fill my tummy

Well I always carry this list with me just in case someone decides to surprise me and take me out to dinner *hint hint nudge nudge* but below are the restaurants that I've been wanting to try out (or in some cases) go to again. It's not all fancy schmancy food so if anyone is interesting in trying some places out, let me know!

East is East
Vij's
Rangoli
Cobre
Trafalgers
Carmichael's (at the airport Hilton)
Cru
The William Tell
Tapastree
Bacchus
Habit
Hapa Izakaya
Henry's Kitchen
Connor Butler
Figmint
Le Crocodile
Nu
Stonegrille
Le Marrakech
La Buca
Bishop's
Pied-a-Terre
C Restaurant
Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts
Globe at YVR

Gastropod - DOV

Gastropod – DOV
1938 W. 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC

Well if you’ve been keeping up, you know that I did not have a great experience at Gastropod the last time I went. Yes I know this place won tons of awards; yes I know Angus Ang is like the second coming of Rob Feenie; and yes I know Chef Ang and the entire team at Gastropod has been invited to cook at the James Beard House in Manhattan (http://urbandiner.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/from-the-dept-of-press-releases-4/#more-2067), but I just did not like my food last time!

So this time around, I was determined to make the right choices and see if all the talk is just fluff or if something is seriously wrong with my pallet! I went with Richard and another couple on the last night of dine out and was hoping for some great things. As usual, I was pouring over the menu to see what I was going to order. When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised to see that on top of the menu online, they had some additions available (for some extra $$ of course). I stuck to what I had chosen and went with the Gastropod grilled salad, the sous vide/braised pork, and the ice milks. Richard chose to have one of the additions as a starter, scallops with pancetta, the pork and the chocolate sabayon.

Well the food came and this time, I was defiantly eating with a critical eye, no mouth. And I was pleasantly surprised. The salad was just delicious. I love eggplant and they had grilled eggplant with the salad which just made the dish for me. The dressing was very flavorful but not too heavy and oily. So a good start!

The main course was a pork done sous vide style. Well online it said it was a 36 hour pork shoulder sous vide but on the actual menu, it was just a piece of braised pork. Regardless, it’s almost the same cooking method. The dish looked great and I was excited about this but when I cut into the pork, I knew right away that this was not braised or sous vide. They defiantly pan fried or roasted the meat before platting. Braising is suppose to make the meat very tender but this meat was not. It was still good but it was a bit dry and a bit tough. Richard couldn’t even finish his piece but I finished mine alright. The thing is, if it’s not going to be braised, then don’t advertise it as such. Okay maybe they did braise it first and then roasted it but say so! Plus why would you do that anyways? It just completely takes away from the braising process. Regardless, I though the pork was pretty good. The flavours were all there and I could tell it was a good piece of meat. Maybe someone just forgot it in the oven and left it there for too long…

For dessert, I had the ice milks and it was very refreshing. I would normally order something heavier but after eating out 4 nights in the past week, I thought I should be good. The ice milks came in a trio, with pineapple, grape and banana flavour. My favourite was defiantly the banana but they were all good. Basically it was just sorbet but maybe they did add a touch of milk to it. The chocolate sabayon was pretty good too as was the cheesecake (as I was told). But the portions were pretty small :P

In all, it was a pretty good meal. We had a bottle of Joie reisling and that went with the meal perfectly! Was it the best dine out menu? No…that distinction defiantly goes to Lumiere but it wasn’t the worse (that goes to Aurora). It still wasn’t at the level I expected Gastropod to be but I guess at least it’s getting better. I’ll come back again and hopefully by then I will get blown away. You know…maybe it’s all a build up to the ultimate experience. Well I can’t wait until I get to that!

Aurora Bistro - DOV

Aurora Bistro – DOV
2420 Main Street
Vancouver, BC V5T 3E2

The Main has certainly seen a lot of life pump back into it the past few years. With trendy boutiques and cafes popping up from Broadway all the way up to King Edward, people are realizing that this is the place to be. There are a lot of restaurants too and you can defiantly find some great gems hidden beside some dilapidated looking buildings.

Aurora Bistro has been a Main Street mainstay for a few years now and it’s been getting a lot of notice. Named “Best Regional Restaurant” by Vancouver Magazine last year, Aurora prides itself on using local sources for their foods and being as organic as possible. Owner/Chef Jeff Van Geest has also gotten his fair share of accolades and having gone to VCC and working in the kitchen of Bishop’s, this guy is a Vancouverite through and through.

I’ve been to Aurora a few years ago, probably when it first opened, after a foodie friend of mine made the suggestion. I remembered the small but funky room and the great food I had there. So when I headed there this time around, I was expecting nothing less. Well the room is still small and funky but the food was DEFINATLY not there.

Again, I went for dine out and had been studying the menu posted online religiously. I had already known what I was going to order before I even got there! But when I was presented with the menu, I was surprised to see that a few items had changed. “Well things happened” I thought to myself. So I decided to have the butternut squash soup with pumpkin seeds, the cod with puy lentils and the panna cotta. I heard squash soup has been overdone this dine out season but this was my first time having it and it was defiantly not the type of butternut squash soup I was use to. It lacked flavour and I DID NOT like the pumpkin seeds in the soup. . I kept chewing of them, now knowing if I should spit them out or swallow them whole! The presentation was also very lacking with only the pumpkin seeds strewn on top as garnish. It was very disappointing because butternut squash soup is one of my favourite soups ever.

The second course of the cod with lentils did fair much better. While it wasn’t horrible to say the least, again the flavour was just lacking. It tasted like it could use a dash more salt and herbs on it. The lentils were okay but a bit boring when paired with the cod. I liked how the texture of the cod worked with the texture of the lentils but it was just a bit boring because there was no flavour to either of them.

Finally, it was the panna cotta. I just had panna cotta the night before at Parkside and this panna cotta defiantly did not match up to it. While it was good, the texture was much heavier and you can feel the oil from the dairy in your mouth afterwards.

You can tell it has not been an impressive meal when your dinner companion or you choose NOT to talk about the food at all throughout the entire dinner. Yes, this dinner was suppose to be an opportunity to catch up on each other’s lives outside of the restaurant but the food is suppose to add to the already existing conversation, not make it so that you feel like you should talk about everything else except for the food! I was truly disappointed with this dining experience. Maybe it was because it was a dine out menu. But that doesn’t give the chefs a “get out free card” to cook shitty. Regardless of the occasion or price of food, the product the chefs put out should always be made to the highest quality. It will probably be another few years before I return to Aurora.

The Irish Heather

The Irish Heather
217 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 2J2

We went here a few weeks ago and I can't believe that I forgot to write about this place! The Heather (as it's affectionately know) has been awhile for quite some time now. The sister restaurant to Salt and The Shebeen, the heather is known for their tradiational irish fair. The Heather is more known as a gastropub and just a pub since they do pride itself on their good grub. The menu offers traditional items such as Beef stew (made with Guinness no less!), bangers and mash, and fish and chips. All the food is actually really really good and I can at least vouch for a few items here. Everytime I come here, the food doesn't disappoint. I've had the fish and chips and the batter on that thing is just great! But the best stuff is obviously the more artery clogging choices-meat loaf and beef stew! I mean you just can't go wrong with either of them. Both are hearty meals that will really satisfy!

But the coolest thing about The Heather is the room itself. It's located on Carrall Stree in Gastown and it looks like a dumpy place in need of furnishing. And indeed it will be getting a facelift with March. With the current building in line for seismic upgrades, Sean Heather (the proprietor) has arranged to moved just a few buildings over and will be completely redoing the room to bring it into the 21st century. The best part is that I don't think The Heather will actually be closed during the move. They are working on the new place now so one day the old Heather will be closed and right away, the next day the new one will open! Talk about efficiency! But it's a shame really cuz the old room has alot of character. Yes the walls are drabby and the wood is scratched but that's wut makes it so unique. There are pictures of famous Irish men lining the wall (no Colin Farrell does not count) and other irish memoribilia on display. The best part of the Heather is the solarium out back. While the seats are super uncomfortable, you are sitting in a glass house enjoying your food and drink. Now how nice is that. Definatly do try to get out to this place before they move. But regardless of it being the new room or the old room, the Heather is definatly the place to go to if you want a hearty meal! Sloncia!!! (that's gaelic for cheers! see? i do have some irish in me!)

hm....meatloaf.....

can't wait to dig into the beef stew!

we left happy! :D

Parkside Restaurant - DOV

Parkside
1906 Haro StreetVancouver, BC

Parkside is apparently one of those restaurant that you just have to try in Vancouver. It’s not as flashy and well known as the Lumiere’s or the Le Crocodile’s but everyone just raves about it. It’s always ranked as one of the top restaurants in Vancouver and given Andrey Durbach’s reputation and track record (he also opened Pied-a- Terre and La Buca), I just had to try this place out.

Parkside is tucked away beneath the Buchan Hotel on Haro Street, just off Denman and, trust me, if you weren’t looking for it, you’d miss it. It’s a tiny little restaurant with a very intimate feel and cozy setting. But while the room is small, the food packs a big punch! I decided to go there for my birthday on Tuesday with Richard…but it was not without some thought. I had originally wanted to go here but then was teetering between Parkside and Trafalgars. I read the menu to Richard and he thought the menu at Trafalgars sounded more interesting. So we changed the reservation and was on our way. But as the day drew near, I began hearing how fantastic Parkside and now I was in full regret mode. But since I gave up the reso, I couldn’t get back in! AHHHHH!!!! Well luckily, on the actually day of my birthday, I finally found an opening at Parkside and I immediately jumped on it! (I guess that miserable snow day was good for something!) Thank goodness cuz going to Parkside was defiantly the right way to go!

While the menu doesn’t sound like much on paper, when you get your first taste of the food, you immediately understand why people rave about this restaurant. The flavours of all the dishes were wonderful! Richard started with the zuppa di pesce, which is basically a bouillabaisse while I had the Onion and cheddar pie with apple purée, York ham and watercress salad. OMG…both were so tasty and perfect! The soup had so much seafood and the chef was really able to pull out all the flavors from the seafood into the broth. The onion and cheddar pie was the best dish of the night! It was full of onions and the pie crust was baked to perfection! For our mains, I went with the filet of cod and Richard and the Duck pot-au-feu. The portions were very ample and my cod was so tasty! The duck was really good too and it was cool how they prepared the duck in several ways, allowing you to get different sensations from the same protein. For dessert, we had the blood orange panna cotta and the chocolate trio. The panna cotta was such a great pallet cleanser and was so smooth in texture. Is it just me or is blood orange becoming a really popular fruit to work with? The chocolate trio was basically a trio of white, milk and dark chocolate ice cream served with a shortbread sandwich with a hazelnut centre! So rich and delicious!

We topped off our dinner with a cocktail and it was just a perfect dinner. And trust me…I needed a good dinner to make up for the shitty, snowing birthday that I had (car stuck on the side of the road…but I digress…)

So glad I was able to end up at this place and I really hope to come back again, and to try Chef Durbach’s other restaurants! Isn’t this what dine out is all about? Find new gems in the cut throat Vancouver restaurant scene? Hm…..good times!

Edit: Here are some pics!

Lumiere - DOV

Lumiere
2551 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6K 2E9

Ah…this is what you’ve all been waiting for…the crème de la crème of Dine Out Vancouver…LUMIERE! Hahhaha! Well maybe not all of you were as excited about this as I was but let me tell you, I was counting down the days until I was going to critique Dale Mackay’s handiwork and judge for myself if all the crap he’s been getting is unfair or well deserved.

I went to Lumiere on Sunday night with my mommy as a celebratory dinner for my birthday (quarter century…sigh…but lets not dwell on that :P). We got there a bit early and while it was easy enough to find parking on Broadway, they actually have complimentary valet parking now! Hurray for free stuff! The hostess was extremely pleasant and we were seated right away. Now keep in mind that this is the tasting bar, not the main room of Lumiere, since only the tasting bar was providing the Dine Out menu. I’ve never been to the tasting bar and was surprised by how small it actually is. It’s literally a bar on one side and tables lining the wall on the other. It does get pretty cramped in there but if you’re sitting down at your table, you don’t really seem to notice. The room itself only sits about 20 people or so but it’s very comfortable and intimate.

So we got seated at the table right by the door, which really worried me since I get cold really easily but surprisingly, the way the tables and dividers were positioned, I was pretty comfortable. Our server, Amy, was really great. My cup of hot water was never empty throughout the entire dinner and the entire team was very attentive to our needs.

For dinner, my mom ordered the fois gras parfait to start while I had the onion mushroom veloute. The fois gras parfait was AMAZING! Super smooth and just a great silky texture with no hard aftertaste. It’s pretty mild for people who are not familiar with the dish and honestly, I think I prefer this to an actual piece of fois gras. I’ve had fois gras before at Lumiere (back in RF days) and it was horrible! So defiantly one point for Mackay. My veloute was also very delicious and had ample amounts of mushrooms.

Moving on to the main, my mom had the artic char and I went with the pork belly. Again, just superb! The pork belly is (obviously) very fatty and a bit too much for me, but the flavours were all there and just blended perfectly! My mom said it’s like Chinese “siu yok” and it was…but classier! The char was delicious too and given that my mom doesn’t actually eat red meat fish and she still enjoyed it, I think it’s a good sign.

For dessert, we both went with the apple millefeuille and wow! This is probably the best dessert I’ve had so far. The pastry wasn’t as light as a typical millefeuille but it really worked (and plus I like more buttery pastries) and hazelnut crème in the centre was sooo good!

The only grip I had about Lumiere is that the point of Dine Out Vancouver is to showcase VQA wines but Lumiere didn’t do that. They didn’t have any wine parings and their wine list featured mainly non-BC wines. Both my mom and I ended up ordering German wines with our meals (which, according to their sommelier, was the perfect wine to pair with our dishes-especially mine!). It didn’t really matter to us about the BC wines but it was just something I noticed.

In all, Lumiere was a great success! The food was delicious, the service was attentive and the presentation of everything was just beautiful. Their dine out has actually been extended to February 13th so if you can get in, I highly recommend it. I really think Dale Mackay will come into his own in this kitchen and garner the recognition he deserves. I mean he worked his way up in Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen from dishwasher to sous chef! The guy just got a bad rep from the whole Feenie fiasco…poor guy. But it’s not about the drama or the temper tantrums. Ultimately, it’s about the food and Lumiere’s menu defiantly sings its praises! Hallelujah!

Funny Random Stuff

I found this on UrbanDiner.ca and it just made me laugh and laugh and laugh! OMG...ppl are sometimes just so ridiculous!

Dine Out Vancouver quote of the day in the forum:

“Hi, I’d like to cancel my reservation for tonight”
“Ok, what time is it for?”
“7:00″
“But it’s 7:35.”
“I know. We were running late.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve canceled the reservation already.”
“I know, I just got a no-show email from Open Table.”
“Oh. We mark the reservation as a no-show after 30 minutes.”
“But I’m calling you now to cancel the reservation.”
“Now?”
“Yes now. Why did you no-show me?”
“Because you didn’t show up for your reservation and didn’t call to let us know you’d be canceling.”
“But I am calling you to cancel the reservation.”
“Now?”
“Yes Now.”
“After you got the no-show email from Open Table?”
“Yes! It really effects my status if it says I don’t show up for a reservation.”
“But you didn’t show up for your reservation.”
“But I’m calling you to cancel my reservation!”
“Now?”
“Yes Now?”
“After you got the no-show email from OpenTable?”
“Yes I’m canceling.”

Absolutely brilliant!

La Vallee

La Vallee
1379 Howe Street
2nd Floor Executive Hotel
Vancouver, BC V6Z 2R5
(604) 696-6980

Yes…this place has seriously turned into my second kitchen. And I SWEAR it’s not only the fact that my bf works there and one of my best friends in the server! Okay maybe a bit…but La Vallee is really a wonderful restaurant. I mean if it wasn’t, would I have taken my ENTIRE family there for dinner the other night????

Well I do eat here a lot so I can really say I know what their food quality is like. Usually, I like to eat off the menu (basically getting Richard to grill me some vegetables) but once in a while, especially during dine out, I get to eat their main courses and the food at this place is just as good as any other place in Vancouver! My favourite/staple item is defiantly their lentil soup. It’s hearty, yummy and DELICIOUS! They add a bit of bacon into the mix and it really adds some great flavour to it.

Okay so many of you maybe wondering about their dine out menu. Well I can safely say that every item on it is great! How do I know? Well I took my entire family there on the first day of dine out…all 8 of us. And we had a sampling of everything they offered and the consensus was that everything tasted great! The appies included a crab bisque and a mushroom ravioli. I had the bisque and it was sensational. I tad on the salty side but no one else had that complaint so maybe it’s just me. The people who had the ravioli really liked it too so the appies are a hit!

Their signature dish is their braised short ribs, courtesy of Greg Short, a celebrity chef from the Masa Grill in San Francisco. This is one of the items on their dineout menu and it is defiantly not to be missed. The meat basically falls off the bone and the sauce is just divine! It’s served with a mashed potato, which I think has some sort of secret ingredient to it cuz my aunt just LOVED it! The game hen was also very very delicious. The meat was tender and the honey balsamic sauce that comes with it is just to die for! The coolest thing was that there was a piece of bak choy served as part of their vegetable medley! Hahhaha! Gotta love the bak choy! I never had the salmon but my step dad had it and he the taste was great. He even liked it more than the salmon he had at Seasons in the Park the day before!

As for dessert, there was a choice between poach pear and the cheese plate. The pear was delicious and a great way to end the meal. But since my whole family came and it was my cousin and my mom’s birthday, they gave us one of their molton chocolate cakes too! A few of use had the wine parings for each course and I had the dessert wine paring and that was just the yummiest wine ever!

For $25, this is a steal! Not only are you getting a great dinner but the restaurant itself is just comfy and beautiful and just makes you want to linger over a glass of wine. The feel of the restaurant is suppose to reflect Napa Valley and I think they really did a good job of it. The servers are all pretty new so sometimes, they may miss a step or two but what they lack in experience, they more than make up for it in personality and attitude. Okay so I know you all may think I’m just being biased to this place and maybe I am. But I know good food and this place does serve great food! Go check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Oh and to make it even more enticing, they provide free valet parking for restaurant guests! Free parking in downtown! It’s totally worth giving it a shot!

Kingyo Izakaya

Kingyo Izakaya
871 Denman St.,West End
604-608-1677

There seriously are more izakaya restaurants in Vancouver than what we know to do with them. Most of the dishes are pretty standard and similar and rarely do you find a place that makes an impression. They all have their ebi mayo and smoked cod so does it really matter which one you walk into for dinner?

Well Kingyo was supposed to be different. Rated the best casual Japanese restaurant in Vancouver by Vancouver Magazine last year, this relative newcomer to the scene was hailed for its focus and finesse. There defiantly has been a lot of buzz about the place and so I finally went and tried it for myself.

I was told that I should go early to make sure I don’t have to wait that long. Luckily, my date and I got there at about 6:30 on a Saturday night and was seated within 5 minutes at their large common table in the middle of the restaurant. Asian countries tend to have large tables where strangers just have to share, get along and eat. It’s a great idea and I think it’s part of the appeal, especially at a restaurant like Kingyo. The décor is really spectacular…well okay that’s probably the wrong word…more like Zen-inspired for sure. But there is a wonderful Japanese, tranquil quality to the space. From the slate coloured floors, to the traditional tiled roof on the sushi bard and the real bamboos in the centre of the common table, the place just makes you want to chill out and have some sake.

Having forsaken the sake and going straight for the tea menu, we quickly looked over what Kingyo has to offer in terms of sustenance. And quite honestly, nothing REALLY stood out. There were the staples of cod, ebi may, beef tataki and such. Maybe we just were adventurous enough that night. I saw the people beside me enjoying some sort of hot pot concoction, which looked interesting, but our palettes said to stay within the norm. So we ordered the smoked cod, beef tataki, ebi mayo, chicken karage and a few other items (can’t remember so must not have been too memorable). The food tasted good but nothing spectacular. They do put their own little twist on things tho. For example, the chicken karage was served with 3 different kinds of salt that you can dip you chicken in. But I kinda judge izakaya places by their ebi mayo and I’ve had better (Shiru-Bay is still the best by far!). The service was just really really good tho! Our waiter was really attentive and always just a glance away. Water was always in our cups and like any Japanese restaurant, the staff was screaming at anyone who walked in or out of the restaurant.

The cool thing at Kingyo was that when you paid, they have you a few skewers of frozen grapes! Very refreshing and very yummy. Defiantly a nice palate cleanser at the end of the meal. All in all, a great place for you to feel like you are in the Japanese country side. But if I’m not willing to travel to the actual countryside for the food, dunno if I’m willing to trek down to Denman for Kingyo.

smoked cod...my fav at any izakaya!

The bamboo really gives the room a nice feel

Boneta

Boneta
1 Cordova Street West

The tagline here is “Boneta Loves You. Xoxoxo” Well I certainly felt the love when I went there this past Friday with one of my girlfriends. This place is really just a gem in the Vancouver restaurant scene! With some much heart and soul that went into opening this place up, it’s hard not to love everything about Boneta.

If you don’t already know the back story, Boneta was opened by Mark Brand (former Vancouver Magazine’s Bartender of the Year, ex. Chambar), Andre McGillivray (ex. Chambar, Lumiere, Le Crocodille, Chill Winston) and Neil Ingram (ex. Lumiere, La Buca). Named after Mark Brand’s mother, Boneta was opened with a budget of $89,000, which in the restaurant industry, is peanuts…or less than peanuts – won’t even get you the pack of nuts on an airplane. But with a lot of help from friend in and out of the industry, and plenty of love, heart and soul, this amazing room opened and it’s been non-stop ever since.

The room itself is really nice. After stripping away all the old crap, the guys uncovered some great hardwood flooring and gorgeous brick walls. Add to that a large array or mirrors from the ceiling, some contemporary art pieces and a menu that is directly projected onto the wall above the kitchen, Boneta is defiantly a funky place that makes you just want to sit and stare for awhile.

The menu at Beneta is constantly changing. They often tweak their food during the week and a new menu is brought out every week to keep things fresh and as far from boring as possible. Here’s the good news of the night-the flavours were awesome! Everything just came together perfectly and presentation was great. The bad news of the night-I had ordered duck breast and apparently, they like to cook their duck to medium rare. Now I don’t know about you but when it comes to birds, I liked mine cooked…well. I guess duck is much safer than chicken but still. I just couldn’t finish the center part of the meat. I mean everything else was great and I polished off my plate but the duck was too rare for me. As for my dinner companion who had ordered fish, her fish was a bit overcooked while the bed of beans it was resting on was undercooked. Again, the flavours were great but the temperatures of both our proteins were just not to our liking.

We both really did enjoy our meal and didn’t want to cause trouble but when Mark came to clear our dishes, we both shyly mentioned the problem. Now here is what makes Boneta so great. Mark was super accommodating and asked if we wanted the kitchen to cook us something else. Seeing that we both had nearly finished our plates, we were not looking for a free ride here and so we declined. We felt bad enough telling him but we figured a new restaurant would welcome that kinda input, you know, to learn from it. We told him how much we enjoyed the meal regardless of the misgivings and we just wanted to let the kitchen know. Afterwards, our waitress came up and told us Mark insisted on giving us free dessert. We didn’t even want dessert and was actually going to Salt for some after dinner drinks. However, we stayed for dessert and in the end, ordered one of Mark’s awesome cocktails. Now this is the guy who won the Bartender of the Year award and it certainly showed in his creations. Both our cocktails were just sensational and really original (well at least in my opinion.) So even tho we had some trouble with our food, we ended up staying and spent more than what we were planning on spending.

Boneta is a really great place and I totally plan on coming back. The people are really what makes this place special and I hope they do spectacularly and that they get to open up a few more joints like this! Like they say: Boneta Loves You…xoxoxo

ps. check out this video of a profile on the guys and the restaurant...seriously funny! How can you not love these guys after this???

http://www.cbc.ca/livingvancouver/?page=segment&sid=5913

Dine-out Alert! extended dates!

Dine out ALERT!

C, Raincity and Nu are extending their dine-out dates from Jan11 - Feb12!!!!!!!!!! Yay! more time to eat! Plus they're offering a 100 mile menu! So now you can get full and feel good about it! Read more below.


From UrbanDiner.ca

100 MILES WITHIN ONE MILE
Vancouver, BC… Vancouver eagerly awaits the start of Dine Out Vancouver, scheduled from January 19 – February 3, 2008. This year Harry Kambolis and his three restaurants, Raincity Grill, C Restaurant and NU Restaurant & Lounge are offering a very special Dine Out opportunity; 100 Mile Menus at all three venues. Based on the success of Vancouver’s original 100 Mile Menu at Raincity Grill, Kambolis and his team of chefs, led by Robert Clark, have teamed up to present Vancouver with the best of our backyard – Dine Out Vancouver style. Running this popular Vancouver dining event for extra days, Kambolis starts his Dine Out January 11th through until February 12th. And putting local dollars to work, a percentage of sales from C Restaurant will be donated to Growing Chefs! Chefs for Children’s Urban Agriculture, a non-profit organization founded by former C Restaurant pastry Chef Merri Schwartz in 2005, teaching children in grades 1 to 4 about the wonderful ways in which food gets from seed to soil to table.
The 100 Mile Menu began at Raincity Grill in January of 2006 and to mark that date Raincity will celebrate Two Years of 100 Miles this winter. Chef de Cuisine Peter Robertson creates a menu working with local products such as Pitt Meadows Lamb, Gulf Island Shellfish and Agassiz hazelnuts. Looking toward the spring Robertson is eagerly anticipating the arrival of Asparagus, local citrus fruit and even 100 Mile flour. Raincity Grill has dedicated its history to promoting Farm to Table fine dining.

Raincity is located at 1193 Denman Street, Vancouver, BC. For reservations please call 604-685-7337 or visit the website at www.raincitygrill.com.

C is located at 1600 Howe Street, one block south of Beach Avenue on False Creek. For reservations please call 604-681-1164 or visit www.crestaurant.com.

NU is located at 1661 Granville Street, under the Granville street Bridge at False Creek, NU opened for regular business September 2, 2005. Reservations can be made by calling 604-646-4668 or visit the website at www.whatisnu.com.

Media Contact:Alexander Ink Public RelationsT. 604-331-0907 / E. info@alexanderink.com

Dine-Out Vancouver

HERE IS IS!!! THE EVENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! Can you tell i'm excited? Dine out is finally here! running from January 16th to February 3rd, there are over 180 restaurants participating this year to satisfy your taste-buds.
For those of you who are unfamiliary, Dine out Vancouver offers diners prix fix menus at some of the most popular restaurants in the city. You can chose to have a 3 course menu at $15, $25 or $35 and it's a great excuse to get all your friends together to enjoy a good meal.
i'm sure alot of you already have your reservations taken care of...you know I sure have! On the day the menus were released, I was patiently waiting for the Tourism Vancouver website to get back online so I can scour the best possible menu. (Their website always crashes due to the volume of foodies out there wanting a glimps to see who has the best offerings.) And at the same time, I was on OpenTable.com making sure I get the resos I wanted. And my hard work paid off! I have reservations at La Vallee, Gastropod, Auroras, Elixir, Parkside and...the ultimate prize....LUMIERE'S!!! I heard Lumier's was booked all booked up on the first day of the menus being released! Well when it usually costs over $100 per person to eat there, everyone's gonna want in on a good deal. Plus i'm curious as to how Dale Mackay is holding up there. Rumour has it that both Feenie's and Lumier has been suffering from a lack on interest lately (read: empty as a can of beer at a frat house!) so hopefully, Dine out will boost them back up a bit. I'm sure you all know about Mr. Feenie's au revoir to his namesake so i won't dwell on it here....
Back to Dine out! I actually have a few other places that I'd love to check out but honestly, I don't think eating out every day for those 19 days will be good on my wallet or my waistline. But I do have a few extra reservations if anyone is interested. I have extras at Aurora's and Gastropod so if anyone wants to try them out, let me know!
Aside from the ones that i've already booked, I really also want to check out Nu and Trafalgers. There are only $25 menus so they are good eating at a great price!
Well boys and girls, I hope you have as good of a time during Dine out as I will be! I'll be sure to let you all know how mine goes but please leave some feedback on your Dine-out experiences! Just leave a note under this posting!
For those of you who want to look at the restaurant menus, here is the official Dine-Out Vancouver website:
http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/dining/dineout.php

HAPPY EATING!!!

New Years Resolution

Wow…this is seriously embarrassing. I have no excuse except that I am a lazy ass! I’ve been totally MIA for the past couple of weeks. Blame it on the holidays, the turkey and all the good food out there! I’m so sorry. I totally started out this project all gung-ho about it and wanting to keep it up. But my laziness got the best of me! But no more! I’m back! And I’ve been eating ;)

I don’t have the endurance to write a full-on review of all the restaurants that I’ve been to in the past while but I’ll just write a short blurb of the notables…cuz honestly, I don’t think I can remember all the places I’ve been lately! But as a new years resolution, I RESOLVE TO KEEP THIS BLOG UPDATED AS BEST I CAN!

Joe Fortes:
I think just about everyone knows about Joe Fortes in Vancouver. It’s been around for as long as I can remember. And there’s a reason that it’s been able to stay afloat in the cutthroat Vancouver scene-it’s really damn good! The selection of seafood is wide-ranging, wish a large selction of fresh fish on the menu. They also have a large oyster bar right in the center of the restaurant with a guy manning the station full time. For the blood-hungry carnivores out there, Joe’s also has some great cuts of meat on the menu. Surf and turf anyone?
The service here is also fantastic. The waiters are all very attentive and they just make you feel like a million bucks. No overly perky, in your face servers…just someone who knows to refill your drinks, put in a few nice words and makes sure you’re happy. And believe me…we were! Defiantly going back for more!

Mauyra:
I’ve been to Mauyra a long time ago when they first open. They were featured on the food network on an episode of opening soon and when you see a restaurant on the food network, you wanna go! I remembered having a great experience there with the most attentive service ever and so I was ready to head back for more.
I love Indian food and Mauyra was good. I mean it’s not a spectacular culinary experience but it was good. It’s the typical Indian food-butter chicken, dahl…etc. But the setting is defiantly very nice. High ceilings and gold detailing defiantly makes you feel like you’re in someplace important. However, our server was defiantly not on her game that night. I mean the service was fine but it was just like any old service. And she even got one of our orders wrong too! She asked if we’d like rice or naan with our meals (which, by the way, you had to pay extra for) and we said sure…naan would be good. And she brings out rice instead! The communication was defiantly a bit messy. But other than that, Mauyra is a nice place. I think it’ll be better in the summer when they open the patio and more light gets into the room. If you’re looking for a run-of-the-mill Indian place, Mauyra will defiantly suffice.

Nan-Chu:
Japanese izakayas are all over the place in this city but Nan-Chu in Richmond had defiantly been getting a lot of good buzz. I’ve been there a few times now and I would have to say the buzz is a bit perplexing to me. I mean yeah the food is good but it’s not anything out of the ordinary. They do have quite a wide selection to choose from and the prices are hard to beat but when it comes to creativity and taste, I think they’re just average.

Provence Mediterranean Grill:
This is the older sister to Provence Marinaside down in Yaletown and they both just ooze that French bistro charm. I went the Provence for brunch with a friend of mine and was waiting to be blown away. Provence has, arguably, one of the best brunches in the city and their French toast is supposedly quite legendary. However, given my own desire to be more health conscious, I skipped on the French toast and went with the granola. I know…it’s hard to give a review on a restaurant based on granola and I don’t pretend to be able to. But the atmosphere of the place is defiantly worth going for. My friend had a veggie omelet and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. My oatmeal with quite yummy but at $9 a pop, I think I was kinda taken for a ride. Damn me and my stupid health conscious kick!!!

Glowbal Grill and Satay Bar:
This is probably the most recognized place in Yaletown. Smack dab in the center of it all, Glowbal is the place to see and be seen. You may think that a place like this will just try to squeeze every last penny out of you in quest to be “hip” and “cool” but au contrair! They have a very reasonably price brunch that will keep your stomach and your wallets full. The best part of the meal tho was defiantly the fresh banana bread they give you, along with 3 kinds of spead. So yummy! It’s almost as good as the banana bread I bake!

American Grill at the Marriott Airport Hotel:
This is a place that we sometimes go if we feel like a decent western meal in Richmond. Located at the Marriott hotel on Westminster and Minoru, this place probably gets passed by a lot. But it’s defiantly worth checking out. The dining room is spacious and comfortable and an open kitchen allows you to keep on eye on all the action. The dinner is very good and very reasonably priced while the lunch is also very satisfying. Too bad it’s in a city where people get blindsided by the Asian-ness of it all. But if you want to find a nice quiet retreat from all the chow mien and fried rice, this is defiantly worth checking out.

Mortons Steakhouse:
Mortons is legendary of their steaks. This pricey chain has restaurants all over the world and I’m sure steak lovers everywhere has been to Morton’s. But I never really understood why steakhouses can be so expensive! I mean $50 for a piece of meat????? It’s just meat! And at Morton’s they literally just give you the meat and nothing else. If you want sides, you gotta pay extra. But even if you just want sauce, you gotta pay extra for that too!!! But their service is impeccable. You don’t get a menu perse. The wait staff works as a team and the head waiter will come by your table with a cart of basically the entire menu on a cart. They carefully show you every cut of meat they have (think an entire cow on a table), show you all the other types of food (the salmon and tuna are huge!), explain all the appies and sides and list off everything they have available from memory!! Say that fast 3 times! But before you think you have to have a memory of an elephant to order, they hand you a hard copy of the menu for you to pour over.
Now on to the food. Fine, their steaks are good….really really good…I’m talking tender, succulent pieces of meat. But still. Richard ordered a piece of medium rare porter house (a small portion…at 16oz!) and it was a bit undercooked, while I ordered crab cakes as a main. The crab cakes were crazy! They were literally CRAB cakes! No fillers or anything, just honkin’ chunks of crab. It was pretty good….that is until you hit your 3rd piece and by then, the crab had just gotten to be too much for me. We both weren’t able to finish our dishes but in our defense, we had ordered 2 sides of veggies. But alas, a meal at Morton’s would not be complete without dessert…specifically, the legendary Mortons chocolate lava cake. OMG! This dessert almost made the entire meal worthwhile. It’s a chocolate cake made with Godiva chocolate and it’s crispy on the outside but completely runny and gooey on the inside! Just perfect!
Verdict: maybe skip the pricey cow and go for the dessert.