a bite of brownie

Back when I used to work at Boundary and Kingsway, we used to just cross the street from the office and head over to this sushi place for a quick lunch. It was our comfort sushi, with fast service and ok food.

My usual order is the salmon sushi, salmon head shioyaki, kimchi, beef teriyaki and chicken teriyaki. My workmates are a big fan of their mango pudding, one of them can even finish five plates of that stuff. As for me, I don't really like mango, I guess I literally got fed up with it coz I grew up in a place surrounded by mango trees.

Today my friend was craving for deep fried stuff to drown her sorrows in oil and cholesterol, and since this place also serves karaage and all those fried goodies, she invited me to join her here.

The place was packed as usual, and the food was still the same, it's not bad, and not exemplary either. Just enough to get you to your next meal. For a little over 10 bucks, this is a convenient ayce sushi restaurant in the area. Three years ago, we used to walk 15 blocks to go to Fish On Rice near Metrotown just to have ayce sushi, now Japanese food is just 15 steps away.

Verdict
N: 3.0/5.0 [-2 because the guy who takes orders isn't attentive enough]


Kingsway Sushi
110-3665 KingswayVancouver, BC

If you are ever up for a large plate of pasta and around an hour lineup, the you ought to visit this place. Anton's Pasta Bar is famous for the queues that form on its doorsteps starting 7pm. The only other place I tried here in Vancouver that has this long wait time is Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna at Davie.

The great thing about this place is their big servings, I think they even hand out a prize for people who actually finish a whole plate by themselves. Seriously, the food is massive, it could feed 3 people.

On my first visit, I think I tried an oil based pasta sauce, and on the second visit I ordered the seafood risotto. This time I tried one of their specialty dishes, the Fusilli New Orleans, which was not as spicy as the pasta I cook, but it was ok, I finished maybe 1/5 of the plate. I also tried a bite of lasagna, and that was way better, I'm gonna order that next time. It just takes 30 minutes to prepare.

Our orders:

Meat Lasagna

Fusilli New Orleans: scallops, sausages, prawns, chicken, red & green peppers in a spicy Cajun sauce

Herb Penne Genovese: sun dried tomatoes & mushrooms in a tomato pesto sauce

Verdict:
N: 4.0/5.0 [-1 because of the lineup]

Anton's Pasta Bar
4260 Hastings Street Burnaby, BC

I never really knew why it was called triple o's until a friend explained the history behind the name. This White Sport burger joint reminds me of California's In and Out. Well, what can I say, a burger is a burger is a burger, not a very big fan.

We ordered the burger meal that comes with fries and drinks. I learned a new drink mix: rootbeer and orange crush, yep it's really good! The fries on this restaurant leaves a lot to be desired, they were steak cut but the quality is that bad that even if you dunk it in vinegar or whatever condiment, it still tasted like blech. Made me miss fries and hot fudge at McDonalds or the great steak cut fries of Red Robin. Probably the only redeeming thing about our order was the burger, which was really huge, I managed to finish three bites before I gave up.

White Spot Triple O's is an ok choice for people who wants to grab meals on the go, but then if it were me, I probably would have gone to Wendy's and bought a big classic.

Verdict:
N: 1.0/5.0 [-4 because I've had way better burgers elsewhere]

White Spot Triple O's
3505 Grandview Hwy Vancouver, BC

Still not done with my fill of Korean food, so I visited this quaint little place just across NCIX, right after I checked out the D10. I remember eating here once with a friend and I ordered the same dish I ordered before. What else would I want from a Korean restaurant? Galbi of course.

The neat thing about this restaurant, or probably it's a standard in any Korean food place, are the side dishes. I got five - soup, kimchi, bean sprouts, broccoli and sweet potato. While I did like all of them, I would have traded the bean sprouts and sweet potato for radish kimchi or other vegetable side dish.

I would definitely come back to this place and try something else from their menu, everything looks good!

Verdict
N: 4.0/5.0 [-1 because I think the Cho Sun sweet potato is better than this version]

Happy Day Metro House
5021 Kingsway in Burnaby, BC

I've been complaining for a while about the lack of authentic sushi places here in Vancouver, but I finally found one that is owned and operated by Nihon-jins. Tokachi is the name of the place and it's in faraway Surrey.

When we first saw the place from the outside, we hesitated on going in because it looked like the place was deserted. It turned out that people were in separate dining rooms. The lady who served us was very attentive and generous with the tea. I also liked the wasabi, which was really strong.

Our dinner meal was composed of agedashi tofu, veggie tempura and avocado roll, ikura (salmon roe), kaki (oyster) and toro (tuna belly) sushi. Too bad uni (sea urchin) sushi wasn't available, I've been wanting to try that for the past five years. I've only tried it once at Rai Rai Ken in Cebu. I would come back here if uni is available but it's too far from civilization.

Verdict:
N: 4.0/5.0 [-1 because there was no uni]

Tokachi
10767 King George HWY, Surrey, BC

Part of the going away is attending the going away lunches and dinners, so the past few days have been filled with dining out. Le Crocodile was my first choice when my friend and I were deciding for a good dinner place before watching "A Wonderful Life". But since this place wasn't open at that time, we promised to visit it some other day before I go.

The place is really classy and I felt underdressed wearing my hoodie and capris but then again, it's winter so I am underdressed any other way. The lady who served us was like the female counterpart of that guy at Joe Fortes, very gracious, attentive and accommodating. These people really elevated the name hospitality.

The appie sampler was great, it was some sort of baked pastry that I forgot the name of. For appetizers, I got the Dungeness Crab Cake, something I've been craving for way back. I really liked the presentation of this dish, the basil sauce looked so nice that I thought it was plate decoration =). For entree I picked the rack of lamb, which was part of the daily specials. I skipped dessert this time, only because I've already gained five pounds in five days. Now how am I gonna fit on my swimsuit?

Verdict:
N: 4.5/5.0 [-.5 because the crab cake was a bit salty]

Le Crocodile
909 Burrard Street Vancouver, BC

Tummy was growling, probably used to eating too much food, so we headed out to have late lunch at one of the Filipino food stores along Joyce. Goto King is supposed to be famous for its congee but we didn't really feel like eating that so we ordered sizzling squid and spring rolls.

The squid was a little too salty for my taste and well spring rolls were spring rolls, you can never get them wrong unless you wrap air in a pinch of meat. The food was ok, the service was fast the lady behind the counter was very accomodating.

Food and eating has always been a social event for me, something I don't do on my own. I'm  beginning to think that the only reason why I go to Filipino places is not really because I crave the food but more because I just want to be surrounded by people who speak a familiar language.

Verdict
N: 3.0/5.0 [-2 because squid was too salty]

Goto King
5183 Joyce Street, Vancouver

After carrying my stuff and moving them to storage, we decided to grab some snacks to replenish the *lost* energy. It was a toss between cinnabon and bubble tea, the latter emerged victorious.

The new bubble tea place along Kingsway was seated right on a major intersection so it was hard to miss. It was cold and windy but I got the lychee slush with coconut jelly and we also tried the taro pancake.

The slush gave me brain freeze but it was so good. The taro pancake also turned out great. It was basically taro wrapped in batter and deep fried, so it's crunchy on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside. Reminded me of deep fried Mars bars (deep fried what? that's another story =)).

Verdict:
N: 3.0/5.0

Tea Time Bubble Tea
Kingsway, Burnaby BC

is my all time favorite food, it's in my top three with sushi and Spanish cuisine. What I love about Korean restaurants are the small side dishes, and kimchi of course, well I can eat kimchi for breakfast, lunch and dinner =)

So for two days in a row I dined at Cho Sun with two different sets of friends. It never gets old. One friend even asked if we were on death row, what would we order for our last meal, and I said galbi!! =)

On Friday lunch, we ordered beef ribs and chicken BBQ, jap chae, deep fried chicken with veggie and dumplings (I should research the Korean names). Everything was good except the beef was too tough, old cow.

On Saturday dinner, we ordered beef ribs, pork and chicken BBQ, deep fried beef with sweet and sour sauce and mixed veggies. The beef ribs BBQ was better this time. We had a blast and consumed four sets of BBQ plates. Wow and I finished maybe 3 bowls of kimchi. I smelled like smoked meat when we came out.


Verdict:
N: 4.0/5.0 [-1 because the beef ribs was not that fresh on Friday lunch time]

Cho Sun
3486 Kingsway Vancouver, BC