CLOSED - Lunch @ Shanghai Fusion Restaurant 滬之星

usually go to Shanghai River or Northern Delicacy for shanghai food but wanted to give this place a try

build your own lunch combo

seems more expensive and have to choose certain types food 

cold smoked fish

sauce too light

bran dough

too hard

deep-fried twisted dough stick, chinese doughnut

too oily and not soft, seems like it was re-deepfried

beef roll

parker place food court make it better and cheaper

steamed pork dumpling 

average taste, has soup locked in

sticks to the sheet

spicy wontons

tastes weird, not spicy enough, not like traditional

house sautéed noodles

Shanghai Fusion Restaurant 滬之星

128-4540 No. 3 Rd (Empire Centre)

Richmond BC V6X 4E4
(604) 284-5557

-prices are cheaper but what you pay is what you get, smaller portions
-tastes are too light, not like traditional

-think they're closed on tuesdays, it was close when i wanted to try the first time

-only a few tables full, only one server but enough as not busy

-gave us a 10% discount, may be because we were the only large table

-most likely won't visit again

Style: shanghai (上海菜)

Visited on: Feb 23, 2012

Note: simple translation

CLOSED - Lunch @ Rhino's Kitchen 新犀牛屋

place was packed when it first open so didn't have a chance to try until now but have also heard bad comments ever since. went to try for the very first time, apparently they have also changed their menu, prices are somewhat cheaper than before (and now comes with free drinks and soup?)

a few tvs around and lots of rhinos

if you have the top gun gold card, you can get 30% discount for the other half of the menu (with discount meals start from $10+), this side cannot be discounted

russian borscht and cream of mushroom soup

meals come with a soup

taste a bit better than the average free ones

baked beef tongue & cheese on spaghetti

looks small but has a lot of pieces inside

spaghetti not chewy enough

better if in tomato sauce

deep fried fish fillet and pork cutlet with dried scallop and egg white fried rice

deep frying work is good

Rhino's Kitchen 新犀牛屋

322-5300 No 3 Rd (Lansdowne Centre)  

Richmond BC V6X 2X9

604-273-0022

-food aren't bad except prices are much higher
-however drinks are bad, milk tea too light, only 2 slices of lemon for hot lemon tea
-the average hk style restaurant food aren't offered, fried rice and noodles
-changing to cold drink is expensive, additional $1.25
-service a bit better than average, one of the servers were handing out toothpicks to every table
-lots of staffs wandering around, probably too free as place was 65% full
-besides easy parking and the tv, probably won't visit until they change the menu and drinks, can get better food with same/cheaper price elsewhere

Style: hk style restaurant (茶餐廳)
Visited on: Feb 21, 2012

Honey Milk Pretz

Honey Milk Pretz

-can smell the honey rushing out once you open the bag

-thin cut makes it crunchier

-milk taste stronger than honey

i just love eating pretz and pocky so i try all the special ones i can find, especially limited edition

apple 

hong kong shark's fin pretz

kiwi pocky

went crazy when i saw all these in a supermarket in china

Lunch @ ABC Cafe 愛彼茜餐室

i consider this place a high end hk style restaurant (茶餐廳) as meals are $1-2 more than other places. i visit about 1-2 times a month as it's easy to get a table, except the crazy parking lot that's packed every single day

crispy pork cutlet with fried egg and rice 脆皮豬扒煎蛋飯

2nd time eating this, less rice than the one i ate in december

pork is really crispy and not oily

sauce a tiny bit sour coming from the tomatoes, could be sweeter

sauce different than oven-baked pork rice (焗豬扒飯)

minced meat and preserved olive leaves fried rice 欖菜肉碎炒飯

not at all salty and meat taste is strong

would prefer strong taste of preserved olive leaves (欖菜)

new menu, chiu chow style set 

for $158 serving 10 people, will everyone be full considering i ate $300+ at another chiu show style restaurant with 8 people with almost the same food

yet to try

fried sliced chicken with pepper served with rice in stone bowl 川椒雞石頭飯

tried this back in december

tastes somewhat like tradition

portion also was smaller when i tried again in january

sauce is somewhat salty, has herbs that causes numbness found in spicy food (麻辣)

last time i went i also tried other chiu chow style food:

Pan Fried Oyster Pancake 金牌煎蠔烙: like how it's not peppery and not too much flour

sugar-coated taro 椰香反沙芋: well-made, sugar coating sticks well to taro, not too much green onions used, taro all powdery

ABC Cafe 愛彼茜餐室

2792-4151 Hazelbridge Way (Aberdeen Centre)

Richmond, BC V6X 3R8

604 295 6777

-all meals come with free hot drink
-good quality and big portion though prices are higher than average
-like the new menu with all the different chiu chow style food
-lots of variety in menu
-average service as you find in all chinese restaurant

Style: hk style restaurant (茶餐廳), chiu chow (潮州菜)
Visited on: Feb 18, 2012

Note: translated the chinese myself as i forgot to take a picture of their menu

Sunset Organic Bistro @ Summerhill Pyramid Winery

most wineries in interior bc are closed in the winter as snowfall is heavy and makes it hard to visit. visited in the summer but never got a chance to write about it until now

outdoor patio

can see the wine shop from inside the restaurant, totally lured me in to have some wine tasting after lunch 

banquet hall in the end, bunch of tourists were eating inside 

bottle of wine ordered of course

pan seared ahi tuna

mussels

pulled pork burger

seafood linguini

Sunset Organic Bistro

4870 Chute Lake Rd

Kelowna BC V1W-4M3

(250) 764-8000 

-most were made from local organic food
-faces the okanagan lake

-great ambiance

-prices around the same as all other restaurants at the wineries
-was previously visited by queen elizabeth

Dine Out @ Diva at the Met

first time the bread came it was pretty much cold, the refills came warm

the butter was topped with salty bread crumbs, if i heard it correctly

beef tartare

veal tongue, pickled pin mushrooms, egg yolk

mushrooms+egg yolk were diced into very tiny pieces

the left, guessing its egg white but its salty

we asked the waitress how to eat it as we've never seen a dish like this

told us to mix everything in the bowl and scoop it with the "egg white"

pacific provider coho salmon

pine nut, chorizo, bell pepper, black olives, caper vinaigrette

the salmon was cooked medium rare, loved the sauce, not too strong so could taste the salmon

heritage pork loin

pork hock press, sauerkraut, bread pudding, mustard jam

tasted my friend's food, nothing special about it

chocolate souffle 

almond powder(?), pistachio ice cream

topped with a sheet of silver painted chocolate(?), melted by the time i took the picture

ice-cream didn't have a strong pistachio taste

very similar to chocolate lava cake

$38 for 3 course meal

Diva at the Met (Metropolitan Hotel)

645 Howe Street 

Vancouver BC V6C 2Y9

(604) 602-7788

was not packed for a weekday dinner dine out

The Good

-first time trying a restaraunt serving molecular gastronomy food, really interesting experience, but my friends did not enjoy it

-the atmosphere was great, we were put by the kitchen and saw the head chef yelling orders

-my water was always promptly refilled

The not so good

-4 of us ordered the same dessert but a wrong order came. so the waitress went to the pastry chef (we could oversee the kitchen so we know who she was talking to) to check the order and found that it was 3 souffle and 1 cheesecake. then an older waitress, probably head waitress, made her check her written order and then made her come over and ask if we ordered wrong. it was definitely the waitress who wrote the wrong order but instead the waitress was questioning if my friend changed her mind last minute so she didn't catch it right. in the end of course she had to ask the kitchen to prepare the right order. this was the first time that i ever experienced getting questioned by a wrong order in a formal restaurant, usually the waiter just apologizes and goes to ask for a new one. even if the food was cooked the wrong way, most restaurant just prepares another one without questioning. this was somewhat disappointing

Visited on: Jan 25, 2012

Hermes Mooncake

a blog is sort of like a diary, used to keep precious memories and the things i've seen
although mid-autumn's festival was way back in september, this mookcake was coolest one i've seen. didn't get a chance to try them as they belonged to my cousin who's a fashion editor. all i remember was that the flavours were unique and are not found in traditional ones

who would have ever guessed that there's mooncake inside a Hermes box

 

Chocolate Craze 2

Chocolate Arts - local Vancouver chocolate store

Dark Chocolate Hazelnuts Raisins Oats Bar

not too sweet and a lot of ingredients well mixed into the bar

Armani/Dolci 

chocolate bean

Lindt Lindor - some flavours are only available in assorted box

Limited Edition Godiva Bakery Dessert Truffles