Urban Burger

I had a great burger today at Urban Burger. They happened to have a $5.99 + tax combo, which came with fries, a 16 oz fountain drink, and a basic burger with tomatoes, lettuce and red onion. The place was empty and I hadn't heard about this place before, so I wasn't sure what I was going to get. I did notice that the dining area and kitchen were very clean and organized, which is much appreciated.

Urban Burger
1067 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 1M5
(604) 568-3133

Their menu is very small to say the least. Customers have the option of the $5.99 combo, a chicken burger or combo and a veggie burger or combo. Add ons (cheddar, mushrooms, bacon, etc) were $1.00 + tax each. Their milkshake seemed reasonably priced.

The burger bun was excellent, lightly toasted on the outside soft on the inside. The patty was on the thinner side of the spectrum, but at $5.99 + tax for a combo, this should be expected. The patty was beautifully browned without being too greasy or dry.



I'm not sure what the sauce was (some fancy mayo), but it was tasty. The lettuce, tomatoes and red onions were noticeably fresh. I added bacon which turned out great, not too crispy and not too soft. Best of all, the burger didn't fall apart on me, which seems like a rarity these days.



The fries are fresh cut, which definitely came through in the flavour and texture. The downside to this is that some pieces end up being pretty small. My fries were very lightly salted, which I personally don't mind. It's easy enough to add or ask for more salt if you want it.



Overall, I found this to be a fantastic deal for the quality of the food. I'm not sure if the burger combo deal is temporary or permanent, but if it's permanent, I'd definitely come here over Vera's.

Bo Laksa King

I felt hungry the other day and noticing that Bo Laksa King had their new website up, I thought it'd be a good idea to finally try them out. A word of note: their website lists that as of May 15th, their prices will no longer include tax, so there's going to be a bit of a price increase.

Bo Laksa King (inside Joyce-Way Food Market)
4910 Joyce St
Vancouver, BC V5R 4G6
(604) 339-0038

The roti canai ($5.99 for a large) is quite oily, including the curry chicken dip. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just different from what you would get at Banana Leaf. Bo's version is much chewier and therefore, quite different texturally. I also noticed that the flavour ends on a bit of a sweet note. Though the amount of oil makes it difficult to eat a lot of it, I do like the version here and would buy it again. My preference is for the dipping sauce to be less oily though.



I had the laksa with yellow noodle ($7.50), which was great. The flavour profile of the curry was complex, yet each spice could be distinguished. Overall, it was fragrant, tasty, and the noodles were well cooked. You can see from the picture that it's quite heavy on the coconut milk. In some ways, the coconut milk does mask some of the elegance of the curry sauce, but depending on if they add the coconut milk after, it's easy enough to request less or more of it.



I wasn't expecting much of the wraps ($4.50 each regular price) because they looked rather typical so I tossed them in the fridge after my meal. When I got back to it, only the curry chicken one was left. It was surprisingly good. The flavours worked well together and the ingredients felt balanced, not even the potatoes felt excessive. This is in contrast to a lot of the wraps available in Vancouver.



Great food, maybe a little overhyped. This place is close to my house, so I would happily go back. The quality in the cooking does show. I also noticed that they'll be having two new items on their menu, Faluda and a pickled mango salad from Myanmar. Descriptions from their website are listed below for reference.

Faluda - A great summer dessert, which is a popular beverage in South Asia made with rose water, tropical fruits, beans, ice cream and basil seeds along with condensed milk.

Pickle Mango Salad - Pickled green mango with red onion, crushed peanuts, dry shrimp, fired onions, sesame seeds, garlic chip and chick pea powder.

Banana Leaf on Broadway

Banana Leaf's a place everybody's been to. It's accessible, reliable, and most people like it. I've never been since I'm not usually a fan of this type of food (at least in a restaurant setting). I got to go recently for a friend's birthday.

Banana Leaf on Broadway
820 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1J8
(604) 731-6333

I ordered the Appetizer Sampler for two, which worked out to be $8/each. Below is some sort of salad with papaya, pineapple, etc. It was okay, but personally not for me. The vinaigrette was pretty strong. FYI: you get two plates of the salad with the sampler, but only one plate of the other stuff.



The chicken satay was well done. The meat was tender and juicy. Seemed better than the one at Tropika, but that was too long ago to make a fair comparison.

West Restaurant + Bar (Dine Out Vancouver 2010)

I was very excited to try West. I had to reschedule this multiple times and was worried from hearing about how everybody was disappointed with their meals at West during Dine Out Vancouver 2010. Oh, parking was pretty expensive. $2/hour at the meters.

West Restaurant + Bar
2881 Granville St. (Around 13th Avenue)
Vancouver, BC V6H 3J4
604-738-8938

Bread didn't seem that fresh though the server emphasized it was baked fresh in house. Having both butter and olive oil was a nice touch.



Queen Charlotte salmon tempura with smoked creme fraiche, cracked wheat and citrus. Very good, well fried and good flavour.

Food scraps and yard trimmings

Since Earth Day of this year, the city of Vancouver has allowed food scraps to be picked up with yard trimmings. According to their website, this first phase will only allow certain items to be placed into the yard trimmings. Cooked food and anything with oil is not allowed yet to keep odours down and deter pests (since yard trimming pick up is only on a bi-weekly basis).

I have also been critical of how archaic our municipal waste and garbage collection is, but I think this is a step in the right direction, especially for those that don't have room for a backyard composter.

In 2011, they expect that all food scraps (fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, bread, cereal products and food-soiled paper) will be allowed. This will involve a transition to weekly yard trimming pick up. However, it does note that garbage pickup will be bi-weekly. So it's best to get into the habit of separating the food scraps now.

Below is some info I found on the Residential Food Scraps Collection website.

Here are some of the items that are currently allowed:

Uncooked fruits and vegetables

Eggshells

Coffee grounds and along with coffee filters

Teabags

Newspaper or brown paper that's used as a bin liner

Here are some tips to minimize odours, insects and pests when collecting collectable scraps:

Sprinkle with baking soda

Line or wrap food scraps with newspaper or a paper bag (these can be put into the yard trimmings too!)

Empty it out and wash it regularly

Keep a lid on when not in use

They have an online survey and an open dialogue in blog form.

hidden (Dine Out Vancouver 2010)

Number 3, $18 price tier. This was a late dinner, so it was pretty dark and my hands aren't the steadiest. They had a paper fortune teller at each table that turned out to be pretty lame. It wanted to tell me what to get.

hidden (@ the Weston Grand, near the main library)
433 Robson St.
Vancouver, BC V6B 6L9
(604) 647-2521



Pacific poutine with halibut cheeks, qualicum cheese curds, crispy Yukon golds and lemon hollandaise. Halibuts were a bit salty, but great dish overall. We had a side order of fries that happened to be rather soggy, but the fries in the poutine were fine.

The Observatory (Dine Out Vancouver 2010)

Numéro deux, this one's at the $38 option.

The Observatory
6400 Nancy Greene Way
North Vancouver District, BC V7R 4K9
(604) 980-9311

To take full advantage of the beautiful weather since this year's Dine Out got pushed back, I planned dinner reservations according to weather predictions from two sources as well as sunset times. I was determined to have a nice view. I seem to be cursed. The weather today was dreadful. It was overcast and snowing on the mountain, it was exactly like looking through a thick fog.



In addition to my weather woes, traffic was stalled all over Vancouver due to multiple accidents. A 15 minute car drive turned into an hour, and as a result, we had to skip the Theatre in the Sky. I will digress a bit, dinner reservations at the Observatory has a few complimentary perks. In addition to the Theatre in the Sky show, the skyride up and down the mountain is also free. In the winter, there is even a sleigh ride and free skating on the pond, weather permitting.

To make matters worse, we found out that the car was leaking engine coolant (wish I remembered to take a picture of the green fluid). On the way back, we had to resort to using water on a pinch. Wait that's not all, when I got home and started editing the photos, I realized that I forgot to turn off the High ISO settings. Hence, the pictures for the night are ridiculously grainy, so much so that I couldn't really adjust any of them without the grain becoming even more apparent. So I apologize for the poor pictures.

On with the food...

Monk McQueens (Dine Out Vancouver 2010)

This is my first dine out of the year and it's one of the $28 options. I did not initially want to come here since I noticed that they do have a 2 for -1 entree entertainment book coupon. However, a friend wanted to come here and the menu looked decent enough. Street parking was difficult to find in the area, but there is pay parking somewhere along Moberly Road ($1/hour).

Monk McQueens
601 Stamps Lndg
Vancouver, BC V5Z 3Z1
604-877-1351

The first thing I noticed was that the restaurant smelled a bit funky. If you get seated in the middle of the dining room, ask to be moved because you'll get a way better view by the windows. The second thing I noticed is that they added a third option to their Dine Out Menu, some of the options may have been vegetarian. We stuck with what was on the website, though.

The bread was good, but the butter was too hard and difficult to spread.



The Bloody Mary Spirited Mussels (Sky vodka, tomato broth,dill, garlic & shallots) looked great and tasted great. The broth was a tad salty though, perhaps from the mussels themselves, which impaired the other flavours from really acknowledging their presence.

The Pit Burger Bar (UBC)

Nothing on the menu is spectacular and their mozza sticks and popcorn shrimp were notably small and not worth it. However, I do enjoy the waffle fries, belgian fries, and the occasional faux poutine.

The Pit Burger Bar @ UBC
6138 Student Union Blvd (Student Union Building)
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

(604) 822-6511

Normally this wouldn't warrant a post, but... well see for yourself. Below is what my friend and I have dubbed, the Poutina (our friend Tina was with us when we got it).



Waffle Fries $2.75
Side Gravy $0.50
Xtra Cheese $0.60
---------------------------
$3.85 (GST included)

This combination was nothing short of heavenly in taste, but awful in smell. I likened it to the insides of a shoe or an unwashed sock.

It was a huge triumph in being able to order this as we have tried on several occasions without avail. Supposedly, the staff aren't allowed to make this at all and the cashier made a mistake for us. We've gone back (unsuccessfully) everyday for about two weeks trying to relive our success. Since they were willing to do waffle fries with gravy alone, I tried buying a cheese string from the Delly, which worked out to be cheaper than the Poutina but nowhere near as tasty.

Maybe with enough awareness, they'll put the Poutina on the menu someday. I am hopeful.

Ragazzi Pizza

I'm going to digress a bit and mention that while a lot of people are against cheap 2 for 1 Vancouver pizza, I rather like it for what it is. For me, it's pretentious to nitpick over the authenticity of every slice of pie. Instead, I adopt an attitude that appreciates the innumerable styles of pizza that exists. Not to mention, there is a wide range of personal tastes for such a varied dish, not only in flavour but for texture as well. With that aside, Ragazzi is not one of the cheap 2 for 1 pizza parlours. To change things up a bit, I wanted to try a pizza different than the style found in abundance around Vancouver.

Ragazzi Pizza
2996 E 22nd Ave
Vancouver, BC V5M 2Y3
(604) 433-2235

After lurking Chowhound, I settled Ragazzi. I don't have proper pictures, unfortunately, since I didn`t have my camera.

I think this was the 17 inch Quattro Stagioni (Ham, Salami, Ricotta, Mushrooms and Basil). The cost was $22 with GST included. It did take awhile for the pizza to come out, but we were happily watching the 2010 Paralympic Opening Ceremony on their big screen TV while we waited.



The toppings were noticeably good in quality. The crust was also good, but a little more toward the plainer and cracker-like end of the spectrum. There was still chew, but not enough for my personal tastes. I am biased towards thicker crusts though. The sauce had a nice flavour to it.



I found it pricey for what we got, especially since it wasn't a filling pizza. I would go back, but would probably order something more along the lines of a simple Margherita and do take out for sure.

Poutine at Brado Pizza

My friend and I have been on somewhat of a poutine binge. We started with Costco then expanded our horizons with Zako's Deli, A&W, and UBC Pit Burger Bar. Posted on the wall at Zako's was a list of top poutine places in Vancouver. Brado was on the list, so it was our next stop. The poutine turned out to be great so we decided to go back again with more company.

Brado Pizza
1399 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC V5L 3X5
(604) 251-7251



Above is a large regular poutine. The poutine at Brado is a lot different than at other places. For a lack of a better word, everything was "smooth", especially the gravy. The gravy was glossy and its consistency was very soft, kind of like a gel. Even the fries felt like they were polished smooth. The cheese curds were squeaky and not cold, which I enjoyed. Portion wise, it's a much better deal than at Zako's, but doesn't beat the Costco by Stadium Skytrain Station. I have to say that I am pretty sick of poutine at this point, but there's still lots of places to try.

Guu on Thurlow

Guu on Thurlow
838 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC V6E 1W2
(604) 685-8817

The seared beef was tasty and nicely presented. I don't remember anything else about it.



For the tofu dish, again, I liked the presentation but I found the texture of the tofu too hard. It would have been nicer with a softer tofu. The high ratio of tofu to everything else made the dish seem rather bland. In other words, I don't think the tofu paired well with everything else. I'd like to point out that this wouldn't have been an issue if the sauce was good, instead of insanely salty. Then again, maybe the bland tofu was to provide relief from the sodium overload, which it did.



This was the seared pork belly. It was a bit salty, but acceptable. Would have been better if the meat was more tender and in bigger pieces.



The meal was okay and I enjoyed my glass of plum wine. However, I have to say that I was a little disappointed this time. Service was also very slow. I think I'll stick with their deep fried fare and udon. Regardless, I find that Guu never satisfies my satiety no matter how much I order. I usually end up going somewhere else afterwards.

Deutsches Haus at the Vancouver Alpen Club

This place is close to my house and has been open since 1935, so there's quite a bit of history. As a kid, I used to think it was a middle ages themed restaurant because of all the escutcheons (shield part of the coat of arms) on the outside of their wall. While German cuisine is not exactly what I envisioned (being a knight and eating giant turkey legs), I figure it's meaty enough to be an adequate substitute.

Vancouver Alpen Club
4875 Victoria Dr (33rd Avenue)
Vancouver,BC V5N 4P3
604-874-3811

We went when they recently painted on the mural, I think it looks great compared to how plain it was before. A thing to note is that the entrance to the restaurant is downstairs by the mural.



We came on a bad night as they had trouble finding a table for us. They felt bad for seating us alone in the less formal part of the room, so they asked if we were comfortable with eating at one of the reserved tables before the patrons showed up. In hindsight, it was a poor choice. Though we finished before the guests arrived, another patron (in the same predicament) was seated with us half way into our meal. It was a bit awkward.

My server recommended the kassler rippchen, I think it was $16. The fried onions were delicious, as were the mashed potatoes. I found out that I'm not a big fan of sauerkraut though. Notably, the server did mention that any of the sides could be substituted. Together, the gravy, mashed potatoes, and the pork loin tasted great. Alone, the pork was kind of odd to eat. It was similar to eating a giant piece of smoked ham, which I guess shouldn't be surprising given its description on the menu (smoked, cured pork loin).



My dining companion got the gefüllte hühnerbrust, which was a stuffed chicken breast.



Overall, I found the meals to be a bit pricey for what they are and while service was keen on being accommodating, the end result was unusual and uncomfortable. I am not against coming back just to try some of their other dishes. I just have to remember to reserve a table.

Bon Crepe

This little place is located inside Konbiniya, aka: the store on Robson with the giant Pocky box.

Bon Crepe
1238 Robson St.
Vancouver, BC V6E 1C1
604-682-3634



#26: Green Tea Ice Cream, Red Bean and Whip topping. Good texture to the thin style crepe, toppings were good but rather messy to eat, though I guess that's part of the enjoyment.

Lin's Chinese Cuisine and Tea House

Here goes, my first and hopefully not last post for this blog.

Lin's Chinese Cuisine and Tea House
1537 West Broadway (A little bit west of Granville and Broadway)
Vancouver, BC V6J 1W6

(604) 733-9696‎

I had been wanting to try some proper xiaolongbao for a while, so we took a rather long (and stuffy) bus ride to Lin's based on all the positive buzz surrounding the place. We were slow to be seated, but that was expected due our timing. The inside of restaurant is relatively roomy, with a rather odd not quite peach, not quite orange coat of paint over the walls. The word that comes to mind is "salmon".

One of the first things that we noticed was the funky tableware being used. I guess I'm not used to eating at places that stray from conventional white plates and teapots.



Food service was slow, but again, expected because we came during odd hours. First up were some potstickers. I didn't get to snap a picture before my dining companions dug in, but there were 6 in total. At $4.99, they definitely aren't the cheapest, but I was glad that they weren't the frozen generic variety that every place seems to carry. They were good, but nothing out of the ordinary.



My friend took advantage of their $2 bubbletea special and ordered mango. His verdict is that it's okay, but not great. No picture of that unfortunately. (Edit: Actually, a bit of it is visible in the first picture)