Christmas Dinner at Penang Bistro on Fraser St., Vancouver

My company had our Christmas dinner at Penang Bistro this year. We booked a table for 8 people more than a week prior to the event. It was a busy time of the year plus it was on a Friday evening. We only managed to get a small round table meant for 6 and seating was tight.

The bistro is decorated from wall to wall with paintings, old photos, food photos and batik.

Their cutlery has the retro cock painting which was very popular long time ago.

Prawn crackers is served as appetizer.

While waiting for our food to arrive, some of us has some white wine brought by our boss. I did not try but those who had it claimed it was a good white wine.

Here are the dishes that we had. The above is Sambal Clam as a starter.

Penang Shrimp Roll.

(more…)

Continue ReadingChristmas Dinner at Penang Bistro on Fraser St., Vancouver

Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Happy Canada Day to all chowtimes reader. Due to work, it’s getting harder for me to blog. Thank you for all your support all this long thirteen plus years. I will try my best to keep this blog afloat.

My boss bought me and my colleague dinner after work on a week day. Thank you, boss.

We had dinner at Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser St. It serve Filipino Chinese cuisine. The place was busy at dinner time. Reservation is advised.

We had the Bihon Pancit. My boss asked for less salt and less oil as she is very health conscious. Despite less oil and salt, it was still pretty good. (more…)

Continue ReadingPinpin Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Cafe Xu Hue on Kingsway, Vancouver

Ben picked me up from work on one of the Friday in March. He wanted to check out the new T&T on Kingsway.

So, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant, Cafe Xu Hue.

It was past 6:30pm and the place was quiet as it is close to their closing time.

Ben ordered their famous Bun Bo Hue Dac Biet whch is spicy Vietnamese Vermicelli with sliced pork and beef, pork congealed blood in soup. (more…)

Continue ReadingCafe Xu Hue on Kingsway, Vancouver

Angel Cake Cafe on Fraser Street, Vancouver

It’s the celebration of a colleague in the office. We initially wanted to order take out from Panos Greek Taverna but unfortunately, it was closed on Monday.

So, we had to go to plan B and went for Angel Cake Cafe. By the way, the birthday cake above was from Maxim’s Bakery on Fraser St. We always pre-order the cake for the 10% discount.

Here were what we ordered; Prawn and Chicken with Green Vegetable.

Honey Garlic Spareribs for the meat lover. (more…)

Continue ReadingAngel Cake Cafe on Fraser Street, Vancouver

Chongqing Restaurant on Commercial Drive, Vancouver

A few of the participants from the Experience Works program which I attended in early 2018 got together for lunch.

Eva suggested Chongqing Restaurant as she and her gardening group used to dine here. The restaurant was not very busy on the Saturday that we met here.

Elena and I arrived first. She ordered a pork dumpling from the dim sum section to start off as she was hungry. When the rest of the group arrived, she took charge of the rest of the ordering. We had fried rice with shrimp to go with other dishes.

Since Eva is a vegetarian, we ordered one of her favourite dish, Fried Green Bean Szechuan style. (more…)

Continue ReadingChongqing Restaurant on Commercial Drive, Vancouver

Dhaliwal Sweets & Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

My office celebrated a colleague’s birthday on Christmas eve. We ordered take out from Dhaliwal Sweets & Restaurant as the birthday girl is from Gujarat.

We had Fish Pakora as starter. The fish is marinated in yogurt, ginger, garlic

The Chicken Biryani was quite spicy.

The Prawn Goa Curry was creamy and mild, cooked with ginger, garlic, onion and coconut milk. The prawns were on the skimpy side.  (more…)

Continue ReadingDhaliwal Sweets & Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Good Choice Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

My company had the Christmas dinner at Good Choice Restaurant. It’s convenient for everyone due to it’s proximity to the workplace.

The restaurant was busy and it was full house after 7PM.

My boss brought a couple bottles of red wine. I’m not a wine drinker, so I just pass.

Snacks for us to munch while waiting for dishes. Fried peanuts and pickled daikon and carrots to vet our appetite. We love these so much that we asked for seconds.

XO sauce is served when the dishes is served.

We started with the daily soup which is pork bone soup with some kind of root vegetable. The root vegetable in Cantonese is called “fern got”. Anyone know the name in English?

We had Ling Cod prepared in two ways. The first is stir fry ling cod balls with mixed vegetables. This was pretty good. (more…)

Continue ReadingGood Choice Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Simple Bites on Fraser Street, Vancouver

We decided to have breakfast near my work place on a week day. We always walk past this restaurant which opens early for breakfast, 8:00AM to 8:00PM.

It’s a Japanese style restaurant with simple bites, hence it’s name.

The menu is simple and price is reasonable.

Customer orders and pays at the counter.

Food will be delivered to the customer. There is 2 small tables in front of the counter and a long bench seating facing the wall, so seating is limited.

Nanzaro ordered a Sausage and Scrambled Eggs Muffin for $2.50. The scrambled eggs were fluffy. (more…)

Continue ReadingSimple Bites on Fraser Street, Vancouver

Gia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Jo invited Ben and I for dinner on a weekday impromptu.

Jo ordered a couple of appetizers. The first one was the above BBQ squid. It was tender and it came with a dipping sauce.

Jo wanted the salad roll but ordered wrongly and got the spring roll instead. The spring roll was rather skinny. I prefer those wrap in rice paper.

Jo decided to order another salad roll which she originally intended. Salad roll is more healthy without the deep frying. This came with a peanut dipping sauce. (more…)

Continue ReadingGia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Gia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

TGIF! My family went out for dinner as the home cook is taking a break.

We went for Vietnamese cuisine as it’s been a while we had that. We went to Gia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St.

Gia Minh was not busy at about 6:30PM.

Although the restaurant was not busy, the service was a bit slow.

Ben and I shared a Gia Minh’s special combo, Combo A. We can have the option of rice or vermicelli and we picked vermicelli. It came with 2 brochettes and we had one pork and one chicken. (more…)

Continue ReadingGia Minh Vietnamese Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver