Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

After 25 years, the Afro-Canadian Restaurant will close its doors. The friendly and down-to-earth owner/chef is headed back to Ethiopia. I was there a couple of years ago  and it still had the same cheap decent eats value, though tonight's food looked more fusion than strictly Ethiopian. Three large platters and some dessert worked out to $12.53 per person (including tax, but before tip). Plus we had three take out boxes worth of food -- that's like three leftover meals. The beef was tasty and tender and that was probably the stand-out of the mixed meat-and-veggie platter. Not the tastiest fare, but decent and very cheap eats. But tonight is their last night, we were told. As of tomorrow it's gone.

The Mexican is a small diner that closes at an unfathomably early time of 10:30 PM considering it is in the Granville club zone, unless you're going on Friday or Saturday. Barrigón - Grilled Pork, Beef and Chorizo, with melted cheese and a secret salsa verde Very nicely grilled meats with tasty burn marks. Quantity might be somewhat deceiving, however, as there's a rather big amount of diced onion as well. Diced for your convenience. Interesting sweet sauce! Definitely use some of this (but don't drown the meat, eh)? Huarache de Carne Asada ($14.50) Homemade corn tortilla in a bed of refried beans, grilled top sirloin steak, onions, serrano chiles , your choice of rice or cactus leaf, topped with sour cream and feta cheese I was curious about cactus leaves and hoping for Nopales Asados (grilled cactus leaves) but having walked in at just 15 minutes to closing, it was not available. Instead, the waitress suggested Huarache de Carne Asada with cactus leaf inste...

Nice clean hospital-white space with additional bar and communal seating upstairs. The space that is Soft Peaks Ice Cream in Gastown is functional and refreshingly simple. For over $5 you get a Starbucks "tall" sized cup of soft ice cream with stuff in it. It's woven into your cup with the toppings, so theoretically every spoonful has some topping. It's hard not to like soft serve ice cream + toppings, but whether you like Soft Peaks or not will depend on how much you value the toppings (and the "invisible" organic-Kosher-everything). So if you are mentally comparing it to a McDonalds McFlurry  or a Dairy Queen Blizzard , you are in trouble already. Whether you go willingly or not, do not just get an "Original Peak" (no toppings) or "Mudslide" ( Tim Tam flakes and chocolate syrup) since you might as well go to the "golden arches" for that and probably get more pounds for your pennies. What McD's and DQ does NOT h...

Bao Down is a small little place that has seating upstairs (and no table service -- so don't just go upstairs and wait forever for some to come up and take your order). If it's your first time, definitely have a peek upstairs at the wall art of ninja pigs. Yeah: Ninja. Pigs. The concept of Bao Down  is easier to explain with pictures. If you've seen that type of bun before, you'll know it immediately. If not, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. Price is... pricey if you look at the steamed bao individually. Your experience will be better if you commit to a meal. Huh? Okay, let me explain. With each steamed bao you are getting basically half the amount of bread and a third the amount of filling of a burger, at about half the price of a gourmet burger. You could also compare it to tacos, in which case one of these bao is priced at about two to three times the price of a soft-shelled taco, with the same amount of filling but more carbs (bread / bun). Ei...

It's been over a year since I first tried KiBo Restaurant and Lounge . This time I went during a weekday happy hour when all the nearby Yaletown restaurants were basically dead -- which means you can expect dedicated service instead of harried servers rushing around a busy restaurants. So, service at KiBo was ace -- even though we were also using a Groupon. Beautiful day out, not too hot, so we sat on the patio instead of the lounge-like interior which hadn't been dimmed and lit for after-sundown service since it was still broad daylight out. Chicken Karaage ($7) Deep fried chicken wings Ten wings for $4 during happy hour. Reasonably sized wings (not the super-small ones you sometimes get at wing places). Moderately thick and fun-crispy batter on the wings, but not really tasty on their own. If they were seasoned, it didn't stand out particularly. We were offered hot sauce for the wings but declined. I think the wings needed something, though. Came piping hot b...

Finally got myself around to trying Beard Papa's (in Metrotown). I never really had a good look at the place and just thought a ping-pong ball sized cream puff shouldn't cost $2+. Well, it turns out that they are closer to tennis ball sized. Got there on a Sunday shortly after 11 AM so I was pretty sure the baked products were fresh. Contrary to the Beard Papa's franchise website , only four flavours were available. Not even all the products advertised at the store were available, although that might be due to it being still early on a Sunday. Cream Puffs The cream puffs held up nicely after the 10-minute commute home and they were still crisp. A very sharp  Cutco knife  sawed through it cleanly in half. Thin, crisp shell. Nothing chewy about this. Might be different if you go later in the day, though. You might have to watch for them to pull stuff out of the oven for the freshest, crispiest, puffs. Not fully filled, contrary to the in-store ad copy (sort of like...

Last time I was in Neverland it was November of 2013 . It didn't feel like much had changed in ambiance -- when it's busy, it's noisy and feels crowded. There's basically no chance for a "quiet" afternoon tea. You want to try elsewhere if that is important to you. Also, if you want to really take your time beyond the 1-1/2 hour seatings during their peak periods, go later. A 3 PM or later reservation should be fine and it's unlikely that there'll be anyone waiting for your table. Although our party mostly went with the High Tea (using 2-for-1 coupons in the Entertainment Book), I opted for the regular menu this time around, just to see what they had. Individual red wine braised onion tart ($13) Topped with chèvre, roasted mushrooms, and candied walnuts. Served hot with a side salad Pet peeve time: This was on the online menu, but not in the paper menu at the restaurant. Can they not update the online menus at the same time? This isn't a com...

I was last at the Revel Room just under a year ago , and I don't see what I had then on the menu anymore. Which is a good reminder to myself that reviews are really outdated after a year, and even sooner for newer restaurants. Went in Wednesday night at 5pm for an early dinner before a Yelp Event  involving boardgames in the upstairs dining area. Disclaimer: I couldn't go entirely incognito on this dinner. They asked if I were part of the 6pm Yelp event and I had to fess up (since they'd obviously spot me there later!), so from the get-go they knew I was at least a Yelper. Of course, nowadays, Yelpers are dime a dozen so I'm pretty sure they didn't treat me any differently. Probably. Kentucky Sweet Tea Fried Chicken ($23) butter mashed yukons, gravy, vegetables, cornbread hush puppy Not a huge plate, but definitely a filling one for your money without forcing you to leave behind leftovers on the plate. Single "hush puppy" that looked like it ...

The Charles Bar sits in the gentrified part of Gastown and offers an airy-spacious room with high ceilings and some interesting seating options, including larger tables with enough chairs for 10+ people. This makes The Charles Bar good for larger groups in a more interesting and less "long-table" way than most restaurants that just piece together group seating by joining square tables together. Tall windows further reduce the claustrophobic squeeze that other tight-seating-in-the-dark pubs can induce. Something interesting to spot are the makes-the-room-feel-even-bigger mirrors adjacent to the washrooms, mirrors that look like windows into another room until you realize that you are the "man in the mirror". I was there at an odd 4pm-6pm Monday happy hour and it was nice and calm and with few enough patrons that you can basically get your choice of window seating. Some music but not loudly enough that you always have to lean close to the person you're next ...

I confess I still don't understand why everyone pronounces "Rogue" as "rouge" in French  since the spelling is obviously different. Yeah, there's the red "G" in it, but the spelling is still wrong, people. Whatever you want to say about the Rogue brand, they have nice spaces. Their West Broadway location features generally bright spaces and a variety of seating styles and areas that look nicely maintained. On Friday night I attended a free  Italian Concert featuring Carlo Rotunno and Carmela D'Auria  presented by the Federazione Pugliese della BC followed by a mini food fair with free samples. Afterwards we asked for recommendations for Italian food and were directed to Marcello Pizzeria or Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria , both on Commercial Drive -- totally oblivious to the protest there that night. We escaped from the Commercial Drive sardine can and wandered up to West Broadway where we tried Banana Leaf as it had a sign that said ...