Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

True Confections is a tightly packed space that is apparently wildly popular at night. Alcoholic drinks are pretty cheap here, around $5. $2.95 gets you a small pot of hot water (about 4-5 cups?), a tea bag, but no sign of a hot water refill. I asked for Tart Blood Orange and I got organic two leaves and a bud Paisley Label Tea . Even Starbucks will at least open your tea bag for you, and a grande tea there will cost you a bit less. The cakes we tried (Diplomat, Devil's Food ) were startlingly tall for ~$8.75... BUT skinny. So... if you double the height but half the width... how much more cake than normal do you get for a price that weighs in at probably $2 more than par. As for the cakes... my feeling is that they are mediocre. You can probably do just as well at home with cake mix. Maybe try their banana cream pie instead. A more complicated and tastier slice at $4.25 from Breka will probably be much more satisfying and I recommend you go there instead. Plus, they...

Kingyo means goldfish, and the little restaurant that feels like an old tavern in a period kung fu movie is heavily branded with goldfish images. Definitely worth checking out for the decor. Keep your eye open for the free mouthwash, toothpicks, cotton swabs, and air freshener in the bathrooms (in this respect similar to their sister restaurant, Suika ). It's a busy place even on a Sunday night, but turnaround can be quite fast, and after 8pm or so you can probably expect to walk in and get a table for a small group. Or, even easier -- reservations are allowed. It's an izakaya, so I recommend against tunnel-vision and looking for the sushi. In fact, the one sushi we had was intensely boring. Luckily we had two Japanese girls at our table who helped with the ordering and we got lots of tasty stuff (and some duds, sadly). Deep Fried Fresh Corn ($5.80) - deep fried fresh corn with soy butter Whole corn cut into quarters lengthwise, so you get some of the inedible cob...

So apparently there's no good Chinese food in Paris and 4 siu mai will set you back 12 Euros when it's only about $3 here. Or so says my friend who's back in town after about six months there. Naturally, she wanted to eat good Chinese food before going home and tonight we landed at Yue Delicacy -- the " Best Chinese Upscale winners of Vancouver Magazine's 26th Annual Restaurant Awards ". Right off the bat, they scored bonus points over most Chinese restaurants for the following: Host at the front door. Who speaks English. None of that waiting-around-till-someone-acknowledges-you-so-you-can-ask-about-a-reservation and watching-people-coming-in-after-you-get-served-while-you-are-still-ignored that can happen at other places. Clean washrooms. That look like hotel washrooms. Slight loss of points for the menus which have English translations, but not quite enough. When the price reads "$40 / unintelligible Chinese characters", as a diner you re...

After a disappointing dinner at Tableau , we drifted over to the Fairmont Vancouver for dessert, hoping to introduce our dining buddies to the interesting Grand Marnier Souffle we had had at Notch8 . Alas, the dessert menu (at the bottom of the bar-lounge menu ) had long since changed to a basically $10 everything list. We were seated at a different location in the surprisingly expansive restaurant, and got to see a little bit more of the interior. Each turn of a corner takes you into a different ambiance, making Notch8 a surprisingly versatile dining location. Lemon Curd Tart ($10) candied peel, vanilla crémeux Average sized lemon tart. Barely any sharp tartness, which may be disappointing to some. Bitter peels and vanilla cream were totally worthless as a result, and I really didn't need to pay for them, did I? Nowhere close to the excellent tart at Tartine so I'm gonna have to rate this one at no more than $6. But you're at the Fairmont, so I suppose a coupl...

Smallish room, dimly lit, overall nice ambiance dominated by a lovely bar. Points for that. Our table got to try a lot of things. I personally got two of the features of the day, so you will likely not experience them yourself, BUT there are lessons there that you should take note for your own visit to Tableau. Free bread and butter after you have ordered. Not many restaurants do that anymore (Pictures by a fellow diner at our table.) Baked Cheese & Pasta Casserole ($22) blue cheese, gruyère & parmesan cheese Yup, it's basically mac 'n cheese. Strong but thankfully not overpowering blue cheese aroma. For the price, go for something more interesting. If you're vegetarian then beggars can't be choosers, I guess. Maybe try going on $18 Meatless Monday instead. Portion looked like 2 cups, possibly 3 cups max. Feature flatbread ($12) Today it was something about a roux base, ratatouille , and small cubes of chicken. Where's my ratatouille? S...

The latest sample sent to me by SocialNature is 6 Mountains Pu Erh Tea . The name 6 Mountains Tea probably comes from the reputed " Six Great Tea Mountains ". The two pictures below show how the Earl Gray tablet turned out after the first steeping of 3 minutes. Mine did not smell fishy , which suggests a slip-up during production. Not sure what the return policy is in such a case, but such accidents are not exclusive to any brand. I made a second mug shortly after and in seconds the tea bag delivered a deep, rich colour (see below). After taking the following photo, I took out the bag to preserve it for future steeping and I recommend you do so as soon as you get the desired strength/colour from steeping. 6 Mountains Pu Erh tea tablets are sold in 12-packs for $39, plus $10 flat rate shipping, plus $0.50 GST on shipping. At $39 per 12, it works out to $3.25 per tablet. If you assume that you can steep it 4 times, it is roughly 80 cents per mug...

Just got this Boston Pizza Free Kids Meal offer in my e-mail today. Looks like a good deal, but READ THE FINE PRINT before making a final decision. The highlights are Costs you $5 up front. That $5 will be donated to Boston Pizza Foundation Future Prospects .  Fine print: Receive one (1) FREE Kids Meal per visit with the minimum purchase of $16. Card may be used on purchase date. Card not valid with any other coupon or promotional offer. Valid for dine-in only. One FREE Kids Meal per child per $16 purchase . Please present card before ordering. No cash value. Price includes all applicable taxes. OFFER EXPIRES JUNE 30, 2016. Still want it? Buy before October-11 . Do it through MyBP for an extra free kids meal.

Suika has a tight space that looks perpetually busy. Dark interior with dark furniture. Fantastic sake-bottle chandelier. Bathrooms are black-walled so for goodness sakes do not turn off the light or the next person will have a helluva time looking for the switch. Like a real Japanese establishment, they have mouthwash and toothpicks. (Nope, not ultra-classy enough to give you disposable toothbrushes.) They are too busy to give you the most prompt service and bussing and water, but the apparently all-Japanese staff are friendly and polite. Plus, the kitchen is quite fast, all things considered. And they do make sure someone sees you all the way to the door and wishes you a safe journey home. It's an izakaya, which is sort of meant to be drink-alcohol-eat-snacks. Therefore portions are going to be small for your money, and you hope it will be tasty. TIP: If you are hoping to put together a filling dinner at a decent price, remember to order carbs. Like noodles or rice....

Umi Sushi Express is "famous" for their end-of-the-day $2 sushi box deals, but my friend insists they are best for their cheap bento boxes. Around $7.49 will get you a beef or beef short rib bento box that includes: A few slices of sweet potato tempura One long prawn tempura Four pieces of sushi with what looks like avocado and imitation crab meat Token salad of shredded lettuce tossed in maybe soy sauce About 1 bowl of rice A variable amount of meat $9.99 for the teriyaki Unagi bento box (freshwater eel). It does NOT look like the picture. Picture shows a lot more meat than you are likely to get, and apparently this can vary highly from day to day. Today, my friend's beef bento box had more mushrooms and onions than pale shreds of beef. My unami was thinly sliced and pasted over the copious amount of rice. Lots of sauce helped me to eat the excess rice. Strangely, the prawn in the prawn tempura was tasteless. I carefully isolated the prawn from the...

From September-8 to October-11, between 3pm and 6pm every day, Salt Tasting Room  will offer free tapas to customers enjoying wines, sherries, and beer. Read about this "San Sebastián Experiment" at Vancouver Magazine .

Dropped in to Anatolia's Gate late in the evening, about an hour before closing. If it's a really quiet night, they may start closing up everything even while diners are still in the restaurant. Baklava ($5.95) sweet Turkish pastry made of thin dough sheets and walnuts; four for $5.95 or 2 for $2.95 A full order is four. Each is about a cubic inch. Thoroughly soaked in syrup which thankfully did not include much, or any, rose water; and which was strangely not too sweet. At almost $1.50 per piece, this was not really worth it as it wasn't that tasty. Kunefa  ($8.50) sweet Turkish pastry made of shredded dough and our homemade cheese Price for portion is OK. Definitely a sharing at the size of approximately five packs of cigarettes. Tastiness is also OK. Not too sweet despite being soaked in syrup. Fun to eat because of the cheese that stays stringy even when the item has cooled to room temperature. TIP: Instead of trying to tear chunks or wrap it around yo...

After dinner at Deer Garden Signatures, we wandered over to Breka Bakery  for dessert. Cakes are generally $4.25 for a piece about 3"x3"x2", although you may find some things less than that, such as a Rum Ball for $2.75. Tastiness is generally good to very good. Savory sandwiches are rubbishly priced at $7.50 or so for sad looking sandwiches that doubtless look better after the toasty panini treatment on site. But "grilled cheese" -- which looked no more than slices of cheddar between white bread -- was $6.50. Really? At the same time, whole 6" tortes were only $8.50 and a massive poppyseed roll that's probably the size of your forearm was only $9.50. Prices at Breka defy understanding and may be related to how long they've sat in the displays. Rum Ball ($2.75) About tennis ball sized. Super-firm, almost like fudge. Where's my rum?

We had wanted to try Non Stop Pizza again but it turned out they were not just closed, but closed down on their Fraser Street location. The whole block (?) was scheduled for demolition and, probably, gentrification. So my second choice was Deer Garden Signatures , which I'd been curious about but wasn't about to run out to Richmond for. There was a line-up in the tight waiting area, but for our party of five, the wait time was estimated at 10 minutes, even with two parties ahead of us. And it was no lie! In about ten minutes we ended in a spacious booth near the back of the restaurant. Client demographic looked predominantly under-30's Chinese, but the fairly young wait-staff could speak English well and were more polite and patient than at most Chinese restaurants I've been to. Points here! Our orders didn't all come at the same time, BUT they all came very hot -- apparently it's served as it's made, no waiting around to serve an entire table at ...

Glowbal Group has got Telus Garden monopolized with not just the obvious Glowbal restaurant but the decidedly un-Glowbal-looking little Nosh cafe inside. Glowbal used to have a Glowbal Grill Steaks & Satay and Grill in Yaletown, which honestly didn't impress me with overpriced mediocre skewers. Then they opened various other restaurants including the black-and-gold themed Black+Blue  -- still with great ambiance and mediocre food. Now there's Glowbal. Huge "patio" if you can really even call it that. It's basically outdoor seating that will be really interesting to watch when the winter months hit. Funny birdcage booth seating available outdoors as well. Luxury-invoking black and gold theme inside. Tight-looking ground floor interior as a lot of space is given over to the kitchen. Upstairs seating. Thankfully spacious staircases leading to the washrooms downstairs. Still pricey in the Glowbal style. Robata Platter ($39) chef selection fr...

I've passed by this place so many times but never bothered to go in (because I get better Chinese food at home, that's why!) But tonight it was my friend's pick and also in part because we were curious about how just how many types of wontons there could be in a wonton house, we wandered in. Curious mix of both Chinese and non-Chinese persons. Hmm... At least for sure it would be easy for non-Chinese persons to order, which was great for the two of us. The older gentleman at the front desk was very friendly. The older female server too, but a bit rushed -- just dropped off the menus and whipped around to be on her way. Subsequent behavior, however, convinced me that she was just busy and not meaning to be rude. Combined with the friendly front desk who even send you off with a friendly goodbye when you are leaving, I'm leaning toward not taking points off. The many booth seats reminds me of Denny's or Red Robin, but they do have a section with round tables ...

Previously I'd been to Chewies during Happy Hour as well, way back when their fried chicken dinner was $3 dollars less at $18 instead of the $21 it is now). Happy Hour is pretty popular at Chewies starting around 5pm, so if you want a reasonably quiet room, get there around 4pm. Later the ambient conversation noise of a busy room, plus the loud music, will make hearing the person just a couple feet away pretty challenging. I'd opted for the full proper dinner of chicken last time, so this time I thought I'd try their strictly happy hour discounted appetizers ("First Bites"). The items on offer are listed on a separate happy hour menu. Boudin Balls (regular price $14) Creole style pork sausage meat and dirty rice stuffed sausage balls, chicken fried and served with sweet and smoky mustard. Mustard is still mustard, so if you use too much it'll flatten all the other flavours. Smells and tastes like liver. If you actually like liver or pate, this will...

I was at Tuc Craft Kitchen over a year ago , and the menu has changed a lot. Fortunately still on the menu are the Orange Glazed Lamb Ribs (was $9, now $11), which are still three ribs per order, and still very delicious by all accounts of people who had them. I passed this time and tried curious-sounding things instead. Crispy Bacon and Egg ($4) Pretty much exactly as it sounds: Hard boiled egg wrapped in lightly battered bacon fried to a crisp. This was on the menu way back when and probably kept because it's strangely good in its simple way. Parsnip Fries ($5) Long, noodle-like strings of parsnip, coated in batter and deep fried. The sauce that came with this is really tasty. The fries themselves weren't oily to the touch, but tasted like slightly oily batter. Waste of time and overpriced for the fluffy 2-cup portion you get. Farmer’s Summer ($16) tender squash, assorted beets, vine ripened tomatoes, ricotta cheese, sweet pea sugo Sounded like a salad b...