Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Slightly tricky hours: Closed between 3pm and 5pm. Minimal staff at lunch so table clearing might be a bit slow. Seating is generously spacious. CASH ONLY. Malaysian Roti ($3.50) with Satay Sauce or Curry Sauce Satay sauce is not very peanut-ty. Curry sauce is tasty! Slightly sweet and slightly spicy-hot at the same time. Also quite thick so easy to spoon onto your roti -- IF you had a spoon. TIP: Ask for a small spoon when you order. Strange: We had two orders of roti go in at the same time but one order came very late. Hmm... The roti portion is quite large for $3.50. Looked like two 5"x5" squares, which is slightly more than what you get at Tangent Cafe for $5. Roti was slightly inferior (less flaky) to Tangent Café  but taste was okay and the overall order was much cheaper for comparable portions. Hainanese Chicken From Hell ($8.95 for quarter chicken) With a name like that, obviously I had to order it. On the take-out menu this is "Super Spicy Bo...

Smallish place that gets really busy at night around 6pm till closing. But if you go too early (around Saturday at noon, for example) they may be out of various items (like their supposedly famous mango pancake) from being wiped out during the late night service the day before. Mixed Icy You get about 1 cup of each topping you ask for. For 50 cents, you can apparently double the portion of one topping. Your huge plate is basically a lot of ice, which is boring unless you squeeze a lot of condensed milk on it. You can have as much condensed milk as you can squeeze out of the squirt bottle (with three nozzles!). Price is not bad for the amount of non-ice you get. But as desserts go... it's cold jellies and fruit. Great for sharing. This is key. Potted Plant Layers of cream and whatever filling you asked or (e.g., durian). One smallish cup filled to the brim and topped with some brown dust (chocolate, I hope). Supposed to have a little mint plant on top (hence "pot...

The place was crazy busy this past Saturday evening when our little group went. Non-stop line-ups till probably 9pm or so and they were pretty full with reservations (which you can make online with OpenTable). When a place is that popular, it must surely be good, right? And a Filipino restaurant filled with Filipino patrons was another good sign.   Inside it looks sort of like a large McDonalds. Bright and spacious. Private rooms host larger groups and birthday parties. One of the plusses was that it looked clean and maintained. I also had a report that the handicap washroom was really ace, clean and even with music playing.   Our group was recommended the set menu options, and more or less at random we went with Option C plus a few extra dishes. A "Full Table" order of a set menu is 2 orders of each item listed and recommended for a party of 10. A "Half Table" is 1 order of each and recommended for a party of 5. We were seven persons so we went with...