Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Back to Amay's House after a very long time ( 2015! ) and good to see this little place is still around and offering good value even with the expected price increases over time. Roti Prata ($3) one piece side order Crispy on the outside, very moist and tender on the inside, and oily to achieve this result but that's expected. Overall texture and taste is good, dough is pretty thin, and easy to hand-tear. This came flat from the pan and not hand-crushed into a tender mass, which is an alternate way it is served. As a side order it does NOT come with anything for dipping. Prata Served with Curry Chicken ($5.50 for 1 piece, $8.50 for 2 pieces) Prata on the side. I had this to go and they crushed the prata, possibly to prevent the crust from cooling and hardening into a chewy slab. This way it was still fairly easy to hand-tear for dipping into the curry. It's chicken curry, not curried chicken pieces. So you do get chunks of chicken meat as well as some c...

I was really excited to learn that Gee! Tastes Good had otak-otak and kue lapis (layer egg cake) so I resolved to go. Before going I tried to pre-order the kue lapis but was told the person who normally made it wasn't making it at the moment. I tried to ask when it might be available but the person on the phone wouldn't let me have a word in edgewise and just kept repeating that it wasn't available. Huh. Once I got there I noticed they also had roti canai, and being a sucker for rotis I just had to try it. So I ordered one otak-otak and one roti canai. Roti canai ($2.75) Flaky on the inside and not bad, but not fluffy. Curry weak and not very flavourful. Best part of this is that it's cheap at $2.75. Otak-Otak ($3) Pretty large portion for $3. Taste was OK. What was personally disappointing was that I had hoped for the grilled Singaporean style and hadn't expected it to be the steamed style of otak-otak , and this probably biased my enjoyment of it....

Been a long time since I had a Chewy at Chewy Junior . Because of their hours, I normally wouldn't have gone, except I had two offers to redeem: A free coffee and chewy, courtesy of a Zomato promotion. (Yup, I got it for free when it would otherwise have been $5.00 - $5.50). An offer of 12 free chewys from Chewy Junior via Yelp -- the business responded to the inconvenience to me during my most recent visit . A rare occurrence nowadays, to be honest, that businesses take customer complaints seriously. The lone person manning the store with less than one hour to close wasn't sure about the legitimacy of the Yelp offer as he didn't seem to recognize the Yelp handle as being official, so no big deal, I bought my Yelper friends a chewy each to try.  In April last year, price was $3.00 - $3.50 based on filling . Now it's $3.15 - $3.85 based on topping. Overall my feeling about the price for what you get hasn't really changed. You have to really like this pro...

After my last experience at Banana Leaf (on Broadway)  I was pretty sure I didn't want to go back to any Banana Leaf. But it was my friend's birthday and her pick, so... back to Banana Leaf. This time on Robson. TIP: DO NOT BRING CAKE. Not only is Banana Leaf unable to help your birthday celebration with anything birthday-like, but you will be charged a "cakeage" fee ($5 per person??) if you bring and serve cake. Large restaurant with an upstairs for larger groups and ground floor outdoors eating. If yours is the only party left upstairs AND you have already paid, expect it to be abandoned while they focus on their walk-ins downstairs. Even if you haven't or aren't the only party there, bussing was also only OK. Empty dishes removed but maybe just one refill of water. Unless you have an extremely sensitive palate, ignore the chilli symbol next to the menu items. It is nonsense. Even the Rendang Beef Curry wasn't spicy-hot. Prices are pretty hi...

5:30PM on a Saturday night and the place was already about half full and with reservations on the way. I was solo, but they had some two-seat arrangements so I got a seat right away. It can look really busy and full from the outside probably because they seat people closer to the windows first, but it is a pretty big and deep restaurant, so take a chance and walk in if you don't have reservations. Roti Canai ($7 for "2 pieces") Flaky layered bread served with coconut curry sauce. Came piping hot, so probably freshly prepared. Pre-chopped up, so it's a bit odd to see it listed on my bill as "2 pcs". But there is a decent amount of it on your plate at least. Unless you go really easy on the curry, you will probably not have enough for all your roti. Since both are sweet, you can get away with using a token amount of curry with each dip. If you are also ordering a curry, you can instead save some of the roti to go with your separate curry order. The ...

Spoon Kitchen is on a traffic-busy section of West 4th street-parking-hell. Small 50-seater restaurant with fairly good table spacing. Chairs = revenue in restaurants (and airline) but they aren't putting you in an Economy Section squeeze. Place looked tidy and clean. I was too busy with my dining partner to really have a good look at the decor. I went with a $35 Groupon Nine-Course Thai and Malaysian Tasting Menu , and although you will read my mixed review of the menu items, overall it is a good deal. At $35 for two persons, you will leave full but not stuffed. You will also probably feel you got a very good deal for sampling so many items: After tax and tip you'll come out close to having spent $24 for a two person dinner (assuming a 15% tip on a $70 value dinner). Nowadays, especially in a neighborhood like West 4th, a $24 dinner for two is a better deal than you'll get during Dine Out Vancouver or Taste of Yaletown, where the prices have been inching up year af...