All Entries Tagged With: "Burger"

White Spot on No 3 Road, Richmond

Disclosure
This post is written using a $10 gift card given by White Spot.

Suanne has a big collection of coupons like you never believe. She clips coupons from the papers diligently and stashes it in her small drawer. So we get a lot of them. Some of them are sent directly from businesses to us with the hope that we will write about it.

Over the Christmas holidays, Suanne took out all her coupons and checked the expiry dates. She knows that a lot of them expires at year end.

She found two from White Spot. There is a coupon for a free Legendary Burger Platter which is worth about $9 which Nanzaro got for doing some community work. We also had another gift card (with $10 value) which White Spot gave chowtimes.com four months ago when they were promoting the Pirate Pack.

So we decided to go and use them before they expire.

It had been very long while since we had been to White Spot. It must have been at least 5 years already. Which is kind of strange I guess for a Vancouver food blogger not to have written about a very successful Vancouver based chain.

White Spot started in 1928 and that make it over 80 years old. Given that long history, White Spot claim themselves to be the “oldest successful chain in North America”.

We went to the White Spot in No 3 Road and Ackroyd. There is another White Spot in the Richmond Center but we decided to go to this one which is bigger. Our boys did not want to go out because they were “too busy” … with their new PS3 games and notebook they got over Christmas. Nanzaro had always wanted to use the coupon for himself but this time he just said “It’s OK, mum. You just go ahead with dad.” — without taking his eyes from the video game.

We were rather surprised how busy White Spot is. There is a wait for tables despite that this restaurant is quite big. We are thinking that it could have been the holidays where people tends to eat out than cooking at home.

White Spot has a weekly Bar Specials. We ordered one of their frozen cocktails called the Mango Madness which costs $4. It is a frosty blend of mango and rum.

It was good. It was more mango than it was rum actually. I can tell because my face did not turn red.

I got a question. How do you get to the sugar at the rim of the glass? I mean, they provided a drinking draw. If they did not have the straw, then drinking straight from the glass makes sense. Do you drink from the straw and then lick the rim? Is that how you do that?

Suanne was hysterical when I did that and the people at the neighboring table laughed too. *shrug*

We got their biggest burger platter. It is called the … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

New McDonalds Product – The Angus Third Pounders

Hi All:

Chowtimes were informed by McDonalds USA that they were launching a new burger nationwide yesterday. Please note that this is currently being launched in the US and not in Canada. Normally we would not be interested because it’s for the US but since they offered to provide us BOG (Be-Our-Guest) cards, we jumped on it and said yes.

The new products are called the Angus Third Pounders.  Obviously from the name itself it is large … a third larger than the quarter pounders.  As a matter of fact, this is the first new burger launch from McDonald’s since the Big N’ Tasty burger was added to the menu in 2001 … eight years ago.

The Angus Third Pounders are available in three offerings:  Deluxe, Bacon & Cheese and Mushroom & Swiss.  The big-big difference between this and the other McDonald’s burgers are the introduction of ingredients never seen before on a McDonald’s burger:

• Red onion rings
• Full slices of bacon
• Sauteed murshrooms
• Natural Swiss Cheese
• Bakery-Style sesame seed roll

It seems like McDonalds is upgrading their burgers to offer More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Burgers Etc on Hastings, Burnaby

At work, I report to someone whose base is in Atlanta. I don’t see my boss very often. Maybe once every quarter. Last month, he told me he’s coming over to Vancouver and did not state his agenda for the visit. Some of us were uneasy because I know the company had clamped down on traveling during these uncertain times. Who knows, right? For all we care, he could be here to serve Termination Notices! I mean serving of Termination Notices had to be done by the boss and in person too.

Nothing of that sort happened. LOL!

Do you guys ever get worried about losing your job?

I used to read a lot in the papers of some company laying off 10 people here, 1200 there, and 50 in another place. They were just numbers … and it did not hit home until I began to hear about substantial layoffs in Vancouver companies … EA, McKesson, Best Buy and others. All of the sudden, I began to know names of people who had been laid off … they are no longer numbers, they are real people … and people I know. *shudder*

Enough of these depressing thoughts … back to food.

So, the thing is I brought Frank (my boss) and Stevie who are both from Atlanta out for dinner. As much as I would love to bring them to the best that Vancouver could offer in terms of ethnic food, I know the Americans would not really enjoy it. I played safe and brought them to a burger place.

I brought them to Burgers Etc. I could have brought them to a pricier place but as you know, expenses are harder to claim these days and trying to pass a $50 per head dinner is not going to fly. But then Burgers Etc is not exactly really cheap.

Burgers Etc is well known as the “Best Burger in Metro Vancouver” by viewers of CTV News. Burgers Etc is not a big place with just about 10′ish tables or so. I guess this is a place where people come pick up a burger, eat and go. More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Splitz Grill on Main St in Vancouver

Nanzaro is like a pitbull. When they latch on to you they never let go. Nothing makes them let go of their deadly jaws.

For some unknown reason, he had been hankering Suanne and I for “gourmet” burgers … not just any burgers … but GOURMET burgers. McDonalds, Burger King and the likes will not do.

Nanzaro did some research over the net and narrowed his choices to either Splitz, Burger Etc or Moderne Burger. We settled for Splitz because the slogan on the http://splitzgrill.com website says “a true gourmet burger joint”.

It had been quite a while since Suanne and I last had burgers. Moreover, it is good to have non-Asian food for a change.

Splitz is located on Main St at 27th in Vancouver. This place is actually a spin off from the very popular burger joint in Whistler.

Ordering here requires you to go through the process of first placing your order at the front of the aisle. You then move on to the garnish station where you tell them the sauce and toppings you want. Most of the toppings are included in the price but some are extras, like sauteed mushrooms and bacon.

The dining area is spacious and clean. It was not really comfortable but I do think that this is really fast food where people pop in, grab a sandwich, eat and go.

Both Nanzaro and Arkensen ordered the Legendary Splitz Burger Combo. The combo costs $9.45 which included a small fries and small fountain drink. I am not sure why but Nanzaro ordered his pretty plain. He hates greens and so just opted for honey mustard despite me telling him he can have as many sauce or toppings he wants.

Despite the simple burger, it really looked very enticing — moist and juicy. This really shows how well they do burgers.

Arkensen had the same as Nanzaro’s but he had the basics … ketchup, honey mustard, tomato and lettuce.

Suanne and I shared a burger because we know it will be too much for if we ordered one for ourselves. We had the Grilled Lamb Burger (no combo) which costs $7.75. I asked for the Splitz Sauce and Medium Salsa for the sauce and everything but pickles (I don’t fancy pickles). More on following page. Click here to continue reading