Author Archive for Ben

Go Fish at False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf Near Granville Island, Vancouver

The best fish and chips in Vancouver is not a a place where you would stumble upon despite its close proximity to the one of top tourist destination in Vancouver, Granville Island.

Even if you so happen to stumble upon it, you would probably not give this shack a second glance if not for the hordes of customers.

But believe it or not, this humble looking fish shack is started by no other than the same chef behind the Bin 941 Tapas Parlour. That alone explains pretty much the popularity of the food.

Besides the food, it also had a million dollar view of the False Creek. This is certainly a gem of a place.

It is the type of place where you would recommend to tourists and you can be quite sure that they will be impressed with it. Go Fish is so Vancouver — beautiful view and good fish.

Their prices are not too expensive considering that they include GST. Click on the image of the menu above to get a clearer view.

Their specials are shown on the chalkboard. We wanted to just order the Scallop Sandwich but they were JUST sold out.

You place your order at the side of the shack. There was not a line at all when we were there. We had expected a long line as that day was beautiful with the sun out. I guess it was because it was cold and windy that afternoon.

Even that, we were told that it will be 10 minutes for our order. One can just imagine how long the wait is on a busy day. They make the food only when you order it, even the fries, so that you get absolutely the best.

For fish and chips, they had cod, salmon or halibut. Too bad they don’t have a combo of all three. They only have it either-or.

We thought we try the more expensive halibut. It is $10 for a piece of the fish and fries. Interestingly, it is served in a Dim Sum bamboo basket. It is so practical.

The fish looked and smell great. It was piping hot too having just been taken out from the fryer. The menu mentioned that the batter is made with … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Japadog in Downtown Vancouver

Street food is the pits in Vancouver.

As far as I know there are nothing but hot dogs that are allowed on the streets. It is kind of sad right? With such a cosmopolitan population, there are so much potential to make Vancouver the mecca of street food. Already we are probably one of the best in terms on ethnic cuisine in North America but for street food, it is the pits … with one exception.

Despite this limitation imposed on street food vendors by the city health authorities, we do have something that we could be proud of.

When Anthony Bourdain came to Vancouver, the one thing he chose to feature was Japadog (wind to the 7th minute of the youtube above). I might be wrong but I think Japadog is uniquely Vancouver.

Japadog started off with a storm at the corner of Burrard and Smithe in downtown Vancouver. Back then, the long queues were a spectacle. There were people who would stand in line for 30 minutes just for a hotdog.

When I was there recently, there was no queue. Maybe it was because they were forced to move across the street due to ongoing road construction at their usual spot and not many of their regular customers were aware if it.

Besides Bourdain, there are quite a number of famous people who had tried Japadog. They proudly display their famous fans’ pictures on their cart and what they ate.

Some of them are more famous than others. Click on the picture above if you can’t read properly who they are. ;-)

Bewildered by the many combinations, I decided that that I won’t go wrong with their most expensive item on their menu — the Kurobuta Terimayo.

Kurobuta is described as the “Kobe Beef” of pork. According to Wikipedia, Kurobuta is listed as vulnerable because their are only 300 breeding females. Hmmm … I learn new things everyday.

I am not a hotdog person but I like Japadog. It is unlike any hotdog I had ever tried. What makes Japadog a difference is the … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Bin 941 Tapas Parlour on Davie and Burrard, Vancouver

“Oh My God!”

That is how we would describe this Friday dinner we had recently.

We had heard so much about the Bin 941 Tapas Parlour … read a number of reviews about them. We never thought it would be our kind of place. Reviews after reviews pointed out their loud music … and that it is dark … and that it is dingy.

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Looking at Bin 941 from Davie just off Burrard, you will probably give this place a miss. With rusted looking frontage and just next to a pawn shop, what would you expect? We walked passed by Bin 941 many times. We did not think much of them.

It is cramped. And really small. If you had not known better, you would probably call this a hole in the wall.

There are only tables lining one side of the restaurant … really small tables. Put on a couple of plates and drinks, there is hardly any room left for anything else. The rest of the seats are at the bar.

Regardless, people tell me that the food is great. So I called ahead in the afternoon trying to make a reservation for a table for two. Well, they said that they DON’T take reservation. They told me that if I wanted to be sure of a table, we got to be there early. They open at 5PM for dinner.  Only dinner, no lunch. They close late too. Real late … like 2AM.

So we went early. Too early as a matter of fact. It was 15 minutes before opening time. We just walked in because it was cold and windy at that time. Guess what … they shoo’ed us out! Where is the compassion?!? It was frigid cold out there. So we waited outside. It was awkward to say the least. At this point, we thought this whole place is a bad idea.

After 5 minutes, they came out and beckoned us in. “Sorry” they said. They added that it will be a few more minutes before they can tend to us. Fine by us. We were not in a hurry.

Got a drink. Beer on tap for me — $5. Suanne’s is just water — no charge. The drinks menu is just dominated by wine and beer. Certainly no bubble tea here for Suanne.

This place wasn’t that bad. The music was not loud. Certainly not discotheque loud as a reviewer claimed. The place kind of grew on us. Being the first customer that night, we snagged that great little table by the window. It was cramped with hardly any legroom to move.

But it was a fantastic window seat to enjoy the food … a cosy private little corner of our own … and watching the world go by.

It is people watching at its best.

Their menu is just a 1-pager. Very simple. Every single item looked great.

The menu said “Serious About Food” … “Serious About Fun”. They are right … Suanne and I had great food and we had fun too. You will see.

The waitress asked if we were here before. “Nope” we replied. She wanted us to know that they serve the meal one dish at a time. The concept is sharing. We like that. Anyway, between Suanne and I, we had ALWAYS shared our food.

Then the fun began.

We ordered their Pomme Frites. It was only $6. I had never had a taller pile of fries in my life. It was at least 6 inches tall, maybe 7. We have no idea how they managed to pile it so high.

No ketchup necessary. It was drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar. The shoestringy fries very crisp. It was great. Simply some of the best we ever had.

Suanne tugged on one piece and the whole structure … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Shabusen Yakiniku House on Granville and West 14th, Vancouver

The last time we had Japanese AYCE (all-you-can-eat) was 7 months ago. That was when we went to E-Bei.

As much as Nanzaro and Arkensen love Japanese sushi, the reason why we had not gone to one more often is because Suanne just doesn’t like raw fish, period.

But Shabusen Yakiniku House is different. It is both a Japanese AYCE and a Korean BBQ AYCE.

There are two Shabusens in Vancouver. There is one in downtown Vancouver. We went to the other one on Granville.

In case you don’t know, the word Yakiniku means grilled meat in Japanese.

For an AYCE, Shabusen looks a lot posh and better than all the other AYCEs we had been to. The whole place is bright with lots of ceiling high windows and skylights. It was actually a beautiful day eating here despite the it being rainy the whole morning. The Fall colors looked so good at this time of the year.

Every table had a gas grill in the center. That is for the Korean BBQ. See the bottle above? That is the BBQ sauce but really, we hardly need to use that because the meat were already very well marinated.

Service was kind of slow here. The waiters and waitresses seems to walk around with their eyes peeled to the ground all the time. It is as if they are afraid that if they get eye contact with the customer, they will have to do more work or something. It was so hard to get their attention when we wanted something from them.

The AYCE is $13 for weekdays and $13.50 for weekends. Dinner is is $22.

The selection at a glance looks a lot smaller than places like Kingsway Sushi and E-Bei. The above was our first round order where we max out our order of Sashimis.

We left these 32 pieces to the boys. These alone kept them very happy.

For Suanne and I, we were quite contended with the Korean BBQ. There are three choices … chicken, beef and pork.

In our greed, we ordered a total of EIGHT plates of BBQ meat. That was way too much and we had a difficult time finishing all of them. We did not feel good about wasting food.

For once, I was the one who did all the cooking. Oh yeah, believe it or not [giving myself a pat on the back].

BBQ is a guy thing for some reason. Suanne was happy to let me do all the work while she enjoys my cooking.

Well, I must say that I did quite well. The meat was super … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Sunway Restaurant on No 3 Road, Richmond

No sooner had I lamented that Richmond does not have a worthy Taiwanese Beef Noodle restaurant, we found one right at the Empire Square. Winnie was the one who alerted us to the place. [Thanks Winnie!]

Just take a look at the above. In my usual style of getting overly excited over new discoveries, I am going to cut to the chase and say this — this is one Taiwanese restaurant that cannot be ignored. If you like Taiwanese food, you should check it out for yourself. We like it and we were impressed.

The Sunway restaurant is located at the Empire Square. This is the same strip mall where Hon’s and Shiang Garden is on No 3 Road.

They are situated at the same place where Richmond’s Legendary Noodles used to be. I personally felt this particular location is bad because it is on a blind spot to most people driving around this mall.

The Sunway restaurant is small but bright. The waitress was friendly and cheerful. She does look a lot like Bjork, no kidding except that she speaks Mandarin.

Since she was so helpful, we took the opportunity to ask her about the restaurant. She told us that they had been opened for over 3 months already. The chef was from Taiwan in a city outside of Taipei. She also told us that they take their cooking serious and uses the best of ingredients and that they do not use MSG, baking soda or tenderizer in their kitchen at all. We were quite impressed how excited she was with her sales pitch. Seriously, all this was said BEFORE we fished out our camera and notebook. So we know she did not put this up because we were going to write about them.

Our favourite is what they call Deep Fried Pop Chicken. This is like the good Salty Peppery Chicken that we tried just a few days before at Beefy Beef Noodles. The serving is larger than we expected because it was listed as $4.25. We thought it was just an appy size. When it was brought to our table, we could clearly smell the aroma. They don’t serve this with a dipping sauce.

From my memory, the Deep Fried Pop Chicken is crispier than … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

New Asia Deli on Cambie and Sexsmith in Richmond

I heard a lot about New Asia Deli but we had never eaten there before. Word has it that they used to operate a small but popular place near Richmond Center before moving to this new bigger location.

The New Asia Deli is located at the Continental Mall. This is the same mall where there are a number of our favourite restaurants such as G-Men Ramen, Pearl Castle, Taiwanese Cuisine, and Lam Chu Kee to name a few. They describe themselves as serving Vietnamese and Asia Pacific cuisine. Their claim to fame is their Banh Mi which some people swear are one of the best in Richmond.

New Asia Deli is a no frills restaurant with poorly coordinated decor and simple furnitures. For all intents and purposes, I would classify this as a hole in the wall.

Other than that, the service is friendly and warm. They speak fluent Cantonese which makes me think not only that they are not Vietnamese, they are actually one of the many ethnic restaurant operated by enterprising Chinese owners. Not that this matters much to us as long as the food is good.

Despite seeing that we each ordered our own dishes, our waitress even asked if we wanted bowls for sharing. That was thoughtful of our waitress to suggest it.

Suanne ordered their Special Baguette which is just $3.75. The baguette was what one would expect from a good Banh Mi with the necessary crunchiness. The fillings are ham with some fish cake like stuff. It also had cucumber, carrot and pickled daikon. While the baquette was good, we wished that they had more stuffings in this.

You know, I must say that for a person his age, Nanzaro is quite adept in picking his dishes. He is the one who really reads the menu from cover to cover and is always the one who takes his sweet time deciding what he wanted.

This time, his selection was called the Combination on Rice B which is $9. His choice turned out to be a really mouth watering dish.

It has lemon grass chicken, shredded pork skin, Vietnamese ham and a very nice piece of fried egg. The chicken was juicy, moist and has a pleasant … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

$2.95 Breakfast at Samosa Garden on Kingsway, Vancouver

We don’t normally eat out for breakfast. Breakfast at home is usually a simple affair of coffee and toast. Sometimes when Suanne feels like it, she will make a couple of sunny side up eggs. That’s all there is to our breakfasts.

However, earlier this month we went to Bon’s off Broadway for their $2.95 breakfast. At that time, we thought that they have the cheapest breakfast other than the IKEA $1 Breakfast. We were so wrong.

Since then we discovered that there are more places where they have $2.95 breakfasts. Tana of the Cheap Appetite blog reported that Yummy Sushi in Vancouver also have a $2.99 breakfast. That one looked very good.

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Last week, I also found another place which is serving $2.95 breakfasts. Samosa Garden, located on Kingsway just west of Boundary, is more known for their buffet lunches has recently started to offer breakfasts too.

They open for breakfast early at 7AM. I was the only customer the whole time I was there.

Samosa Garden used to be a very popular Indian buffet restaurant many years ago. In my previous company, we often chose to go to Samosa Garden when we have a team lunch or something like that. These days, I have not heard of anyone going there anymore. Instead, I know people are going to Saffron which is a couple of blocks away.

I remember that almost ten years ago Samosa Garden were so popular that the Malaysian Prime Minister actually ate here when he was in Vancouver.

The setting was good. It was dark, cold and raining outside the morning I was there. It sure felt like Fall these days.

With being the only customer, I felt unrushed. It is just the way I love to start the day — slow and unrushed.

By the way, the $1.69 coffee was just OK — not great but just OK.

Samosa Garden have a lot more breakfast options. Besides a few choices of omelettes, they even have traditional Indian breakfasts. I was there to check out their $2.95 breakfast … so yeah, I got that even though the traditional Indian breakfasts looked more interesting.

The breakfast consists of scrambled eggs, two sausages, hash browns, toasts and interestingly, sweet grapes too. The breakfast was quite good. The two sausages is small More on following page. Click here to continue reading