Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

If you've read my various reviews you'll know I'm foremost a food reviewer. And Personas is basically a sports bar. So many caveats with this one I really thought of just passing on reviewing, but at the same time I also felt a caution about the food would be useful for anyone walking in. So... on to the disclaimers! This was part of a Yelp Elite event . Nothing lavish, but nonetheless we did get basically free food and free stuff. You can see what we got in the pictures. Foodwise we got plates for each table of 4-6 persons to share. It's basically a sports bar. I don't watch sports and a bar doesn't make me want to watch sports either. There's a bar. We even got free wine and a fancy to-share drink as part of the event. But I don't drink. So this is me trying to first review the place for what I feel it primarily is: A sports bar. As a sports bar, if I had to be dragged to one, this would be the type I'd like to go to. It doesn't have...

My friend was all excited by the under-$10 weekend brunch and dragged me here. She was immediately disappointed by the rather small menu, but did manage to find something that she ended up liking (Avocado Benny). I, however, apparently picked the one thing you shouldn't get here. Fried Egg Sandwich ($13.75, or $9.75 during weekend brunch if you order before Noon; cheddar cheese costs extra) smoked bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, mayo, red relish, brioche bun, smashed potatoes Looks like a pretty tall burger till you look inside and realize it's fluffed up by lettuce. Worse, the mass of lettuce and other slippery ingredients can make this a mess to eat, squishing out juices everywhere. I recommend you try to flatten down the lettuce by flattening down the sandwich. Basically a rip off even at $9.75 for what you actually get. Think about it: An egg is something you add to a burger for +$1, at Red Robin for example. Order something else. Fever Tree Ginger Beer ($4) ...

Casual walk-in to Chancho Tortilleria tonight to catch up with a friend. If it looks like it's got a line-up, don't be daunted -- go in and see if there's actually a wait for seating or if it's just the lineup to place your order at the counter. This is diner-style: Place your order, find a table. There are napkins at the table but if you're sharing with friends you probably want to look for a plate and fork as well. Guacamole ($9) Appys are always more expensive than mains, so you can't expect that much for price for portion. This was okay-tasting. At $9 I'd pass if I went again. Vegetarian Tortillas ($18 for half pound) - Mixed Potatoes and Vegetables. All orders include condiments: Pickled red cabbage, whole pinto beans, salsas, freshly made Chancho tortillas, and limes. The best part here is price for portion, especially if you are in a group of 3-4 people and order one pound. 1/4 pound is recommended as being enough for one person. We go...

Yelp's making me work really hard this month, with yet another Yelp Elite Event . This time at ATLAS Steak + Fish at the Grand Villa Casino for a weekday lunch. Atlas is open for lunch now and they're introducing it to us obviously to get the word out. Restaurants in hotels often have a rough go and you see renos and a new name in the same spot every few years. However Atlas has apparently already made a name for themselves, and some of our members attested to having had excellent company functions and catered events through them. DISCLAIMER: We got free stuff. Not just a sample of their lunch but a gift pack of two steak knives and a 30%-off-lunch coupon. That said, if we come back to use the coupon (maximum party size of six) I'm sure they'll have made back their investment easily. And the steak knives look like the same ones diners use, so they are probably replacement stock they have on hand anyway. Décor is not super-wow but for lunch it was bright, airy...

Squeezed into this tiny space for a get-together with friends. They did accept a reservation, but get really anxious if your party does arrive on time and they clearly have people waiting to dine-in. It's a really small space so every customer is precious. TIP: Don't be late! And expect to be asked if it'll be okay if they take away seats if not enough of your party shows up on time. Rather interesting that they've dropped baby corn as an ingredient. Roti with curry sauces ($4.99) It's a Thai restaurant offering a Malaysian/Singaporean staple. That's ominous to begin with but I'm a sucker for roti so of course I had to order it. The roti looks like it got fried into a crunchy crisp here and cut too large (plus it's now too stiff) to properly fit into the little cup of coconut flavoured curry. You're ordering roti in a Thai restaurant, so be prepared for something different. If you need your roti to be close to the Malaysian or Singapor...

Dropped in after a post-dinner walk from Unchai to have a snack and dessert. We whiled away a half hour savouring a dessert before trying the calamari at the Happy Hour price. As usual the server wasn't exactly thrilled especially as we didn't order any alcohol (none of us being drinkers). But the place wasn't exactly packed either. Calamari ($14 or $10 during Happy Hour) We were informed the $10 happy hour portion is the same as the $14 regular menu portion. Not recommended even at $10. Seemed flat somehow. Lacked seasoning? And price for portion at $10. If you do get it, try to pair each piece with the fried jalapeño slices to get some bite to each bite. Billy Miner Pie ($7) mocha ice cream on a chocolate crust with hot fudge, caramel, and almonds Simple idea that's tasty. Ice cream is soft and easy to spoon through but doesn't start melting into a puddle right away. Still, if you're going to try more than one dessert I wouldn't ask for th...

Riz Sushi hosted a Yelp Elite event and I was lucky to be selected -- it's a small space and not a lot of room to jam a lot of people in. So obviously I should start with a disclaimer: We got free stuff. A wide sampling of their current menu, as well as their crunchy fried chicken breast burger which should launch very soon. If you've been to the place years past and hated it, Riz Sushi is definitely worth another visit. They've been under new management for the last three years or so. It wasn't an immediate turnaround with this new management, either. They quickly decided to focus on catering and chopped down their restaurant menu to Poke bowls. But now they have a strong menu and are basically re-launching their restaurant -- and fighting an uphill battle against the baggage of low reviews that the restaurant is carrying from its earlier days. Our food samples did NOT have a single sushi roll in sight! If you're looking for a sushi-ingredient-themed re...

It's been long enough since we last tried Cobblestone Farms that my mom completely forgot we tried it before and bought a box of  Fully Cooked Pork Back Ribs in Honey & Garlic Barbecue Sauce on sale. This time I decided to be more careful about documenting everything. First off, if you compare the front and the back, you'll see that the six minute time is only if you microwave and that's after 15 to 20 minutes of defrosting, minimum. I'm not sure I'd recommend re-heating this cooked product in the microwave though. In any case, read the instructions and set aside extra time. Packaging says 680 grams but you of course don't get exactly 680 grams of meat and bones. Our package came in overweight while frozen at around 800 grams but there was around 2/3 cups of barbecue sauce weighing 250 grams, so it was 550 grams. That's not bad, and definitely an excess of sauce for whatever cooking style you are using and your personal preference in how much ...

CASH ONLY. CASH ONLY. Pretty mediocre food, but it's not bad per se. Comes out hot. Value sort of debatable but portions are good -- you'll walk out full even if most of it was noodle. Value is a lot better if you are not dining solo. If you are, I recommend a larger sharing order for take-out and just portion it into two or three meals at home. Shrimp and BBQ Pork Fried Rice Noodle with Curry Sauce ($13.95, comes with a hot drink) Not really spicy at all. Separately offered hot sauce is not recommended as it's a different type of spicy heat from the curry. Overall nothing wrong here. This is a largish portion for one person, so if you are two persons you're better off ordering a single larger portion to share from the regular noodle menu. The closest is probably V4 under Fried Vermicelli. The Boss Signature Fried Noodle ($17.75) Mix of veggies, ham, shrimp, chicken, mushroom. Kind of an elusive amount of each. No doubt about it this is a pretty ma...

Named after the initials of their two sons born around the time the restaurant opened, GM restaurant is a rather busy Indian restaurant with friendly staff. Sharing-for-two-persons portions give this place rather good value. Taste isn't magically "wow" but it's good, comes out fresh and hot and in reasonable time despite the busy dinner hour. Curry orders do NOT automatically come with rice or naan! They do slip in a warning about the size of your order if they suspect you're close to over-ordering for your party size, and I thought that was nice. Nothing heavy handed, just an assurance of the portion size being more than enough. Paneer Pakoras ($11) a unique cheese coated with Indian spices, then fried and served with tamarind sauce as well as raita Classed as an appetizer but it could easily be a light to medium meal on its own because of the solid chunks of cheese. Rather bland taste, but you would expect that if you already know about paneer. ...

Before I talk about what I had at Kokomo , I should make it clear that although it's basically a vegan place, I am NOT vegan. Not even really vegetarian. I do lean toward that when I make my restaurant selections, but I feel there's a completely different approach when it comes to talking about food when you have a wider choice. For vegans, there can be a beggars-can't-be-choosers bias. It's a smallish place with a curvy communal table. Overall ambiance strives to be bright and spacious despite the floor space being actually rather small. Like a diner your order at the counter. They are also available for delivery via DoorDash. All-Day Breaky Macro ($13) tofu scramble, roasted squash, spicy tempeh crumble, corn, watermelon radish, greens, brown rice, cilantro crema, hemp hearts, sesame seeds, cilantro, green onion. Basically it's a big salad on rice with "fake egg" made up of tofu. Remember there's rice! It's hidden on the bottom and ...

It's been a long time since I went to Tenen  and surprisingly the pricing hasn't changed much. They have shown up frequently on Groupon , however, and with their clever pricing, the $20-towards-lunch adds up to either a cheap yet huge-portioned lunch for one person, or approximately a half-priced lunch for two persons. They do have nearly-$20 main dishes so going solo with the groupon is fine (and it's one groupon per table) but most items are $16.95. Overall the food is comfort homestyle food. Actually on the mediocre side except the portion per plate is probably good enough for up to two persons depending on what you get and your appetite. Tenen does feed you well and isn't skimpy on portions. Even though they have the usual fillers of bread and potatoes, they aren't stingy with the meat. Gourmet Burger ($16.95) 10 oz. patty with bacon and cheese mixed in Looks like the bread used is a pita sliced in half and pan fried in drippings from the burger. ...

Caught up with a friend on Sunday and we snooped around the Crystal Mall food court for some cheap eats. Always in search of strange foods, I ended up trying "Chili Oil Rice Noodle" from Chef Rong Noodle House. And it's basically what's written -- rice noodles swimming in chili oil. It's rated three-chili spicy-hot on the menu board, but it really didn't have good heat or buzz. Also could really have used a spoon for the peanuts. Overall, it was somewhat boring but for just $6, you got a big, filling, bowl of soup and that's cheaper than a lot of other offerings at the food court. They also have those pancake burgers filled with crunch, similar to what you can get overpriced at Me Crepe but simpler. I didn't spot that on the menu but might try it next time just to compare.

I was initially going for a Dine Out Vancouver 2019 brunch on Sunday, but my friend and I instead detoured to Breakfast Table. A smallish but apparently popular place, it still had a line-up at almost 2 PM, but it was quite short and the wait time was maybe around 15 minutes. You can leave your name and number with them and get notified by a text message when your table is ready -- Handy! Apple Cinnamon Roti - $6 feature of the day Roti wrapping cinnamon-dusted apples. While the roti is nicely done as roti go, it is not special or flavoured so this is actually a very boring dish and not especially tasty. What you see is what you get and adding maple syrup still won't elevate it into anything special. Nothing really wrong or bad here except that there are more interesting things to order at the Breakfast Table. Recommend you pass. NEXT JEN gluten free vanilla bean waffle - $9.75; organic ground millet, brown rice, coconut milk, house made coconut yogurt whip, mapl...

I got lucky and scored an invitation to try Blaze Pizza at their downtown Granville street location at a Yelp Elite Event . It was a warm no-pressure invitation to try their pizza and process and have a good look around. Blaze Pizza operates sort of like a Subway sandwich shop: You tell them what you want and you follow them down the counter as they assemble it. They pop it into the open and a few minutes later it's ready for an optional finishing touch (like a drizzle of balsamic glaze) and you pick up your order. In between there's a lot of customization available, like more or less or extra toppings and slight touches like a sprinkle of sea salt before it goes into the oven. They try to make it easy with fixed pricing, and it's all the no-cost little extras like the finishing touches that gives the pizza a touch of class and personalization. Whether that's worth money to you depends on how you see pizza. If you think of it as super-cheap stuff-your-face ...