All Entries in the "Buffets" Category
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
E-Bei Japanese Restaurant at Granville and 41st, Vancouver
Each time we go for AYCE (all-you-can-eat) we end up regretting over eating. However, this time we cannot say no because the birthday boy (Arkensen) gets the choice. Nanzaro was, without doubt, very happy with the choice.
We decided to go to E-Bei for the AYCE. We had heard of some bad reviews of E-Bei on many sites before but decided to go nevertheless. It is because I know our boys are not food snobs and will definitely enjoy E-Bei — and they did.
E-Bei is located at the intersection of 41st and Granville in Vancouver. One thing we did not like about dining here is that we had to pay for parking … $4 for two hours.
E-Bei is not very big as far as AYCE Sushi places are concern. I am comparing the size of this place with places we had been to before like Fish On Rice and Kingsway Sushi. E-Bei was packed when we were there and there was quite a bit of a wait line too.
So, there you go … sometimes one cannot just rely solely on anonymous reviews. People does obviously enjoy E-Bei and find this place of good value here. However, seating is tight … so tight that we could see and smell the food of our neighbor.
To us, this place is more Chinese than Japanese. From the looks of the customers and workers, I can see Chinese faces. Can you tell facial features of Chinese from Japanese? I can … I think.
Orders are placed with the chit they provide. I like that they always have a fresh one for us the moment they take away our order — no delaying tactics like some places who has every trick in the book to make you wait. The food came very fast and quite accurately too. We find that they have more choices as compared to our recent visit to Kingsway Sushi.
The AYCE costs $11 ($9 for children). On weekends and holidays, they charge $1 extra. However, they stipulated a time limit of 1.5 hours but I don’t see any signs of this being enforced. I think it’s just a provision for people who eat excessively.
The Nigiri’s are pretty good. I think this is the favourite of E-Bei’s customer. This is because the menu states that they will charge 50 cents for each unconsumed rice of any Nigiri Sushi. I guess some people ordered tons of this, removed the rice and had the fish as sashimi. LOL!
Their Nigiri is respectable in that they did not load up the Nigiri with lots of rice … it was much more raw fish than rice.
The cones (roe, spicy tuna and spicy salmon) were quite good … except that the rice was like Chinese steamed rice. Alright it might be a no-no to some people but it is more than edible. Like I said, it was quite good … for us.
The rolls were some of the ugliest and malformed rolls we had ever seen. It does not look pretty but it was OK. The bad thing here is with the color green in almost all of it. You see, our boys will refuse to touch it if it has any green color stuff (avacado or cucumber). Suanne and I ended up eating all of these.
Suanne likes the Salmon Head a lot. She is so adept in picking off the flesh. I find that their Salmon Head looks the best among all AYCE’s — big chunky pieces and fleshy.
Look at the above … that’s the remnants on Suanne’s plate. She ate everything edible … except for the …
… eyeballs! I know some people likes it.
The smelt was not that good. They use very whitish batter for this. The reason why I put this picture here was because Suanne and I have a question …
We like smelt with roes in it. We guess it is very cheap because we find these in many eating places. For some reason, we had never come across smelts with roe fresh from the supermarkets. We can’t find it in Asian markets or even at places in T&T. Do you know where we could get some?
The Octopus was served with garlic butter sauce, or so says the menu. It looked good but was somewhat too salty for our liking although we like the slight spiciness in it.
I don’t know what the above fish is called but it was quite good. We like fried fish. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Kingsway Sushi on Kingsway and Boundary
Ever since Whitney and Ken moved out from Richmond, we had not been able to meet up as much as we did. A couple of weeks ago they called saying that they would be in town and are looking for the best All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) sushi. We interpret BEST as in good, cheap and has sashimi. Our favourite remains with Ninkazu in Richmond but since we had blogged about that place before we suggest the one place high on our list of To-Try … Kingsway Sushi.
Kingsway Sushi is easy to find. It is located at the junction of Kingsway and Boundary, just across the street from the unmistakable shoe-shaped building of Telus. Pay parking is available at the basement parking of the building where Kingsway Sushi is located.
It was quite expensive if you ask me. Pay parking is about $2 per hour but Kingsway will reimburse the parking for the 1st hour only. I paid for $4 for two hours and then I realized it was written quite boldly that weekend parking is free. I would not have mind as much until this middle age lady said in such loud voice to her husband that “Parking is free” … THREE times. Her thunderous voice echoed throughout the basement parking area. [Oooi ... honey, you don't have to be so smug and you are embarrassing me in public!!]
We had never been to Kingsway Sushi before.
We were quite surprised how large this place is and how bright it is here. Actually we were expecting this place to be packed on a Saturday afternoon but they did not fill the place. We were wondering if people are beginning to eat out less because of all the economic gloom from the news these days.
Whitney called saying that they were going to be a bit late … “a bit” as in 30 minutes. I was initially kind of worried that we will get harassed because we did not have the entire party there before we got seated. I often hear that these places make money from turning the tables fast and they show their annoyance when we hog a table and start later than normal.
No, they were quite pleasant about it (at that time) when we told them the entire party is going to be late. I think it was because it was still early and they had just started business. They even suggested that we get some little appetizers as starters while waiting. We like that.
Miso soup is like a must as a starter in AYCE Sushi. Tell me now … they serve Miso Soup in a bowl and without a soup spoon. I need someone who is familiar help confirm this. The Japanese drinks Miso Soup direct from the bowl and they are supposed to slurp it down as loudly as possible … is that right?
To the Chinese drinking soup direct from the bowl (not using the soup spoon) is uncouth. Well, at least that was what my mum warned me not to do when I was young.
For the starters, we also had Edamame. It is like young soybean.
I had never quite like beans in general but found that I ate most of it from the leftover pods I had on my plate.
I think the above is called Ebi Sunomono (shrimp salad?). A little sourish and vinegarish with cold noodles in it.
They have two menus available for lunch. One menu was with Sushi ($11.95) and the other one without sushi is $9.95. We went ahead to get the one with Sushi because after all that’s what the kids were looking for.
Before we placed our order, we decided on a strategy to maximize on the meal. So the game plan is simple, there will be a four phase plan of attack:
- Phase 1 (Appetizer): Start with the stuff on the appetizer section (which we just had)
- Phase 2 (Try Everything Once): Get ONE of every item enough for everyone (trick is not to get too greedy on any one item) and note down what everyone like more of. It is handy getting one of their paper takeout menu to mark down what each liked.
- Phase 3 (Gorge on “Likes”): Place order after order of what we like until we are almost full. It is important to stress on the word “almost full” because you want to leave room for Phase 4. 95% full is a good yardstick. This is the phase you begin to sit back and loosen your belt. This is also the phase where the waiters will start getting annoyed with you and do everything they can to make you leave — just ignore them.
- Phase 4 (Finale): This is the phase you will feel really sick and swear that you will never ever do AYCE again. But as a true foodie, you must soldier on to defend the honor of the spirit of AYCE. This is where you make one last attempt to stuff yourself sick … at least with the desserts.
Sashimi was extra but at least they have it.
Start of Phase 2 (Try Everything Once). We got two orders of Sashimi’s. It was just OK. It was not large slices but at least it is not paper thin if you know what I mean. These all went in no time.
The Sushis was the most second most important items on our Phase 2 game plan. The Sushi were respectable. Respectable in that they have nice big slices of fish. So what did we have?
- Kani Sushi (Imitation Crab)
- Saba Sushi (Mackerel)
- Tuna Sushi
- Salmon Sushi
- Tai Sushi (don’t know which is which)
- Inari Sushi (also don’t know which is which)
Their Deep Fried Scallop is pretty good. We ended up ordering a lot of these.
Suanne digs the Salmon Head. I think they call this the BBQ Salmon Head Shioyaki. She’s good at picking up the morsels of flesh from this. I like it too but it’s too much work.
The Chicken Karaage was awesome. Ken remarked why is it that he can never make it like this at home. Indeed … why? I posed that same question to Suanne (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
Ken loves this too … it is called Deep Fried Shrimp Ball. Everyone likes it but not as much as Ken. This is because I noticed he keeps on ordering plates after plates of this.
We ordered all the rolls they have on the menu … every single one of them. There are twelve types on the menu and they gave us only eight types. We said “all” rolls. I think they know that with all the food we ordered, we would not have noticed. But we’re professional foodies … we know such things. I let it slide and not make a fuss about it because we can hardly finish what we had ordered already.
Fish On Rice on Kingsway, Burnaby
We are beginning to run out of a place to eat in Richmond. Since the boys wanted AYCE (All-You-Can-Eat) Sushi, we took a long drive to Burnaby. There are lots of cheap and decent sushi places along Kingsway at around the Metrotown section. We decided to go to Fish on Rice.
There are actually two Fish On Rice with the other one along Broadway in Vancouver. The Fish On Rice on Kingsway is located on the second floor of 4381 Kingsway. When I suggested Fish On Rice, Nanzaro thought I was pulling his legs. He simply could not believe there’s a sushi place with that name. He expected more Japanese sounding names like Akasuka, Ningkasu, Yokohama, Toyota, Mitsubishi. LOL!
Frankly, I knew of the bad reviews of Fish On Rice particularly the fact that they have bad service. I sort of understand that because they have one of the cheapest AYCE Sushi around town.
The Lunch AYCE is $12 but is $1 extra for weekends. Between the four of us, it costs $60 including tips. We went at about 1PM and knew that there would be a crowd — we just did not know how big the crowd was.
We put in our name to the waiting list and was informed that the wait is 1.5 hours and that we were given at most only 1 hour to eat because they closes lunch at 3PM!! Take it or leave it, they said … no negotiation. I wanted to go for another place but the boys wanted this so much and did not mind waiting. It was easy for them to say — they have their iPods while Suanne and I only have each other to talk to.
We did not have to wait for 1.5 hours really. We got shown our tables only after 30 minutes. I guess a lot of people left their names and then left without waiting.
The interior look quite authentic but I do suspect this is not Japanese owned. Seating were cramped and tables were divided into booths of various size. We wanted so much to get seated by the windows with sunken floors but it was not possible because they are meant for bigger parties.
There are rules here … all AYCEs have rules. Here, you could have either AYCE or ala carte but not on the same table. There is also a 2 hour time limit.
Service was indeed bad. The waitresses walked around with their eyes looking at the floor all the time. They were so afraid of eye contact. We had to literally block their path to get their attention.
Mum, as usual being kiasu one, over ordered. Her reasoning that we only have 1 hour to eat but I know she wants maximum value for the money! For those who don’t know the meaning of the word kiasu, see here. I kid you not … kiasu is a word recognized by Oxford Dictionary.
We all regretted … BIG TIME! There were so much food all that we wanted to puke! I mean, why go through the agony of stuffing yourself silly just because it is AYCE right? Not to mention too … the guilt the next day when we step on the scales and found that we just gained 1 KG in 1 day. We never learn. LOL!
The food was not stellar but was quite OK. Some of them had lots of MSG. We, of course, maximized on our order of sashimi. We were not surprised that they are sliced so thin (they are supposed to be chunkier).
Salmon head and salmon cheek. Suanne digs this stuff. She enjoys picking up the flesh pieces. Too much work for me … too much work for the boys too.
I think the above is the Crispy Chicken Skin … it was some skin but not 101% sure if it was chicken. Nice … we like it. Not healthy, I know but they are absolutely delish.
Oyster Motoyaki is another of Suanne’s favourite. It has too much mayo and too rich for me. Suanne makes this at home and has the recipe here. It’s easy to make … check that out.
There are lots of other pictures we took … click on the link below to see more.
Kisha Poppo Japanese Restaurant in Richmond
The secondary school ended the school year in the middle of June except for those who need to sit for provincial exam. Instead of going out for cake meet with Polly, we brought along our eldest sons (Arkensen and Webbie) who are in their early secondary grades for an all you can eat sushi lunch at Kisha Poppo Japanese Restaurant. They cant get enough of sushi.
Kisha Poppo has two locations in the Lower Mainland, one in Vancouver and the other in Richmond. We went to the one in Ironwood Plaza, 1060-11660 Steveston Hwy, Richmond. Although I had checked out the reviews for this restaurant which turned out to be not very good, we just wanted to give it a try. Anyway, most of the all you can eat sushi place have bad reviews.
We were there at 11:30 am where it just opened for lunch. The place actually fills up quite quickly as there were quite a lot of office workers who dine here, perhaps due to the proximity to their offices.
We opted for the All You Can Eat Lunch as the boys can eat a lot. The AYCE lunch is $10.95 for adult on weekday where the menu has 33 items to choose from.
We find that the service is very poor. First of all the service is slow. We have to wait for our food and there were times that our table is empty. We also dont like the way the order is taken. They did not supply an ordering sheet for us to write down our order. Instead, the waitress will take the order verbally and she rushed us through the order process and she seemed impatient when we stop to look at the menu. Overall the food is decent for an AYCE.
The only item the boys like is the salmon sushi. They had 23 pieces of salmon sushi all together.
Click on the link below for more photos of food.
Ninkazu Japanese Restaurant in Richmond
Last year’s spring break, Polly and I brought our kids to Tomokasu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver for birthday celebration of a few of them which fall in March. This year, we did it again, but we do not have to travel so far. A new Japanese Restaurant, Ninkazu has just opened in Richmond. It’s a sister company of Tomokasu.
Ninkazu Japanese Restaurant is located at #205-4231 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond. It is on the second floor of the small strip mall between Parker Place and Aberdeen Center.
This is the view from our table.
The interior deco is very similar to Tomokasu. We were there at 11:30 am when the restaurant just opened and we were one of the first customers there.
We had the all you can eat lunch which costs $9.95 for adults and $6.95 for children 4 to 9. Apparently, this restaurant also serves all you can eat hot pot in the evening. Check out their website for the details.
Here were some of the items we ordered:
For starters, we had the Miso Soup, Ebi Sunomono (Shrimp and Vermicelli in sourish soup) and Goma-Ae (Japanese Spinach Salad).
The star of this all you can eat is the Sashimi. We can only order limited serving of Salmon Sashimi and or Tuna Sashimi per person, so we ordered all that we can. The boys just love sashimi, Salmon only.
The Seafood Motoyaki is served in aluminium container instead of oyster shell.
We also ordered some rolls like California Roll, BC Roll, Alaska Roll, Dynamite Roll and Tomo Roll. Other than the California Roll, I have no idea which is which.
Chicken Karrage, deep fried chicken wing is Polly’s favourite.
Click on the link below for more photos.
Eagles Buffet in Tulalip Casino, WA
You know where are some of the best places to have buffets? It’s the casinos. In our vacations, we always seek out casinos if we wanted buffet. (Wanted to say that we do NOT gamble … we just like their cheap buffets).
There is a good one in Marysville/Tulalip area. It’s on the same stretch where the Walmart Supercenter and the Seattle Premium Outlet is. You might have guessed that the name Tulalip refers to the bands of native Americans (in Canada we call them First Nations).
The Eagles Buffet at the Tulalip Casino is the best buffet we had ever been to in the Washington state. It was busy the weekend we were there. There were a lot of British Columbians too … as a matter of fact, I meet two separate friends there.
The queue was quite long but takes only 10 minutes for us to get a table. Sunday Brunch prices were $15 per adult.
Arkensen and I went straight to the carving station. We asked for an extra thick cut of the prime roast. This brings us back to the memories of the TEN buffets that we had over on our summer vacation this year.
The fried chicken was crunchy but the piece is so big. They should make smaller pieces for buffets. This is so big that it’s like half a meal already.
We also like their Pot Roast which was tender.
The Pork Ribs was disappointingly tough. It does not even look good.
This is the sweet and sour pork and fried spring rolls that the boys like.
The prawns looked good but they are (1) small and (2) they are not fresh.
The Seafood Chowder had quite a bit of chunky seafood. Not bad.
Since this is a brunch, there are also stuff like french toast and waffle. The waffle was great with whipped butter.
Their ice cream was just OK … nothing special about them at all.
Some fruits …
Suanne had the Blackberry tart and Raspberry Chocolate Mousse in a cracker.
Our bill came up to $65 inclusive taxes and tips. It was a good meal. This cannot be compared with the gold standard of buffets in Las Vegas but is good value for money.
