Legendary Noodle @ Denman

Once again, pictureless post (you can Google images if you really want them)...this was an impromptu dinner date with friends, and we were running late so of course the camera was not a priority.  We got to Legendary Noodle first, and punctually, and were seated at an old-style Chinese booth (meaning hard solid wood benches with little silk cushions - cute).

When our friends arrived, we ordered the house tea on their recommendation.  It's a hot tea with dried fruits (including the gojiberry) and chrysanthemum.  While the rest of the table enjoyed their tea, I found it meh.  It was only partly sweetened, but I found the chrysanthemum taste and the weird herbal flavourings of the tea to be kind of icky.

We ordered green onion pancakes, the garlic-fried pea shoots, and steamed pork and chive dumplings as appies.  Of course, our appies and mains came out at the same time so really there ws no differentiation of the courses.  The pea shoots were fresh and tasty, and I thought the dumplings were okay; they had a bit of soup inside (sort of like xiao long bao but in dumpling form rather than round).  The green onion cakes were pretty good, and they weren't greasy nor too oniony.  

Our shared noodle courses included the following: a beef broth thick noodle soup with beef, a pan-fried flat noodle with beef brisket, and a saucy peanut-sauce broad noodle with prawns.  I liked all of the noodles, but since this was my first handmade noodle experience in Van, I can't really compare its noodles with that of other handmade noodle shops.  The noodles were crispy and not too doughy, but the noodle soup noodles were so long and of course uncut that it made sharing a bit of a challenge.  I found the beef broth delicate and salted properly, though I wasn't a big fan of the cilantro flavours.  The peanut sauce was yummy and the bits of peanut gave the dish some good texture.  I also enjoyed the stir-friend dish, and their beef brisket was not too fatty (though I had hoped to see more meat than we actually got).  

Prices were unbeatably good though; in all, tax-in, our total was around $56 (not including gratuity).  For four people, you can't beat that.  We were all satisfied and there was even a bit of noodle left over.

The service was quick and efficient, and not rude (as some reviewers had observed).  We enjoyed the place and will probably be back.  If you decide to go, do try to go at an "off" hour since their seating is limited.  If you can, also try to get a view of the noodle man making the noodles.  It's fun to watch!

Service: 3 out of 5

Food: 4 out of 5

True Confections

Being part-pig, we couldn't end our night with just fish.  We needed dessert.  This is why Hubbs and I headed out to True Confections on West Broadway for some later-evening treats.  We liked the look and vibe of this place from the moment we arrived.  The ribbons and paper hearts adoring the windows and the funky circle-patterned wallpaper were some of the interesting touches that gave the place its own unique feel.  

We were initially overwhelmed by their vast collection of sweet treats.  Should we have cake or pie? Cheesecake or a special dessert? Tea or coffee?  It was a stressful decision.  In the end I chose a slice of classic chocolate cake while Hubbs had the hazelnut chocolate cake.  He also ordered a shaken berry ice tea while I had an herbal fruity tea.  Our drinks arrived first; my tea was a Mighty Leaf tea and it was very delicate and fruity.  Hubbs fell in love with his ice tea and started planning his next trip to True Confections for the sole purpose of having more berry ice tea ;)  

When our cake slices came, at first I wasn't sure if I should be scared or amazed.  The slice wasn't too thick but holy cow, was it ever tall!  Four layers of cake topped with 4 layers of icing; it seemed like a daunting task to try to eat it all.  My cake was moist and sweet and yummy, but I found my icing a bit too heavy and sweet.  Hubbs' icing was a little lighter for some reason, so it was preferable to mine (plus the hazelnut flavour wasn't as commanding as I thought it would be).  The desserts were pretty impressive, though, and by the time we had had our fill, we had sworn that we will be done with cake for a good long while.  

Service was prompt and polite, and the prices weren't too horrible.  Expect to pay about $10/slice of cake, and a few bucks for drinks.  True Confections is a good place to hang out (some were even playing board games there) and its late operational hours make it a convenient place to get a sugar fix after a long night of drinking or to get caught up on gossip with some close friends.  The desserts are sizeable though, so either don't eat too much beforehand, or else be expected to share with others to prevent waste! :)

Service: 3.5 out of 5

Food: 4 out 5

Ajisai Sushi

Another pictureless post; I should really remember to bring my camera!  Hubbs and I tried Ajisai Sushi in Kerrisdale tonight, after reading a lot of favourable reviews for the place.  I'd read that they don't do a lot of cooked goods but their sushi is fresh, and some of their more special cuts of fish are flown in from the motherland.  That got me curious.

We arrived at about 6:55 on a Saturday evening and the place was packed.  We were put on a waiting list for the next available seat, and were told we'd be waiting for more than 30 minutes.  Luckily, a lot of their patrons on the waiting list were picky about sitting at a real table (versus on stools at a side table or at the sushi bar), so we were seated in about 15 minutes at the side table.

Keep in mind that Ajisai is tiny, and at best can seat about 30 people.  Given there were 10 ahead of us in line, the wait wasn't bad and as beggars we weren't going to be choosers table wise.  When we got to our seats we immediately ordered some green tea and began making a list of all of the things we wanted (we were starved).  We ended up ordering the Special Unagi Roll, 2 pieces each of their special nigiri sushi, some gunyan sushi, a plate of toro sashimi, a crispy hot tuna roll, a pressed anago roll, and a negitoro roll.  We weren't thrilled with the pressed roll (too much rice, and not enough fish) but the rest of the food was remarkably fresh and very enjoyable.  In fact, it was good enough to tie with our favourite all-time sushi restaurant, Wasabi Sushi in E-town.  We especially liked their specialty fish (young yellowtail, Japanese mackerel, Spanish mackerel) and their special unagi roll (which contained asparagus, avocado, scallop and unagi).  Hubbs really enjoyed the negitoro, but he's biased towards it anyway.  The toro sashimi was tender and nearly melted in our mouths; I think that was my favourite of the night. 

The service was also quite quick (though not super-friendly) considering how busy the place was.  We inhaled our food and from arrival to departure, our eating adventure only took about an hour.  Impressive, or perhaps just incredibly gluttonous - I'm not sure which one just yet.  Anyway, our bill was steeper than I had expected (each piece of nigiri cost about $3.00 and we blew $12 on that pressed fish thing) but the quality of the food nearly justified the higher-than-normal costs.  

Will we be back? Yes, but probably for the sushi and not for that pressed stuff.  We're always on the hunt for the freshest and tastiest raw fish in the city, so if you think there's a better alternative than Ajisai, speak up!  Otherwise, this is our new favourite non-izakaya, non-AYCE sushi joint in Van.

Service: 3.5 out of 5

Food: 5 out of 5

El Taco

Excusing the cheesy name, El Taco is probably our second favourite burrito place (after Mucho Burrito in E-town).  Hubbs and I stopped in to grab burritos to go today, after we had gone on a long walk (my DPA-daily physical activity) ;)

Hubbs ordered a seafood burrito while I had the beef one.  The lady behind the counter was very friendly, and informed us that we'd be waiting 5-10 minutes for our food to be made.  Next thing I know, I see said lady having a very animated discussion with the cook lady in the kitchen.  My concern was that our food would take forever.  It didn't but it did definitely take the full 10 minutes.

We enjoyed our giant, one-pound-plus burritos when we got home.  Mine was leaking a bit (owing to a poor wrap job and the fact that this thing was monstrous in size), but it was sure tasty!  I didn't finish my entire burrito, but I did try to eat most of the filling and leave the white flour tortilla.  Hubbs really liked his burrito, which held together far better than mine did.  

At the end of our meal, we came to the conclusion that we liked El Taco much more than most of the other taco places we've tried, but not quite as much as we like Mucho Burrito.  El Taco did beat out Taco del Mar and that U.S. chain, Chipotle, though!  And the cost wasn't bad - we paid about $8 per burrito.

Service: 4 / 5

Food: 4 / 5

Hon's Wun-Tun House

Sorry, no pictures from our meal.  Hubbs and I live close to a Hon's location, and decided one night a few months ago that we needed (well, *I* needed) to have some Chinese food.  We figured that even without a reservation, an informal quick-eats sort of place like Hon's would have room for us.  I was right.

We were seated almost immediately, at a table that was uncomfortably close to another group of diners.  The good part about this was that I was able to check out their food as it was being served.  Maybe my tastes are too picky from my many favourable dining experiences in authentic Chinese hole-in-the-walls in Hong Kong, or maybe I'm just spoiled because my dad is a Chinese chef with mad culinary skillz, but I wasn't impressed with what we got.

Hubbs and I ordered some potstickers, a "medley of seafood" in a potato bird's nest, and curried beef brisket with rice.  The curried beef brisket was okay but I didn't think the meat was tender enough, and I would've tried it without the curry had Hubbs been agreeable to that.  The seafood "medley" was generic and not very seafood-laden, but the folks there gave us an abundance of broccoli lining the bottom of the nest.  There was no way that the two of us could have consumed that much broccoli even if we were starving! Honestly, it was a total waste of veggies.  The potstickers were okay, but a bit flat in shape; I was expecting nice thick 3-D pan-fried dumplings but these were sort of flat and not super meaty.  Overall, the presentation of the food sucked.  

The food came out ridiculously fast though, owing to the fact that the restaurant has several food stations set up, and each station has their designated cooking tasks (eg. the potsticker station, the veggie station, etc.).  The food was also very very affordable.  The servers were efficient, bordering on rude, but not intentionally.  They were just your typical abrupt Chinese servers who didn't feel the need to assauge their patrons.

My conclusion: go to Hon's if you want semi-real (meaning non-Westernized) Chinese for cheaper prices and quick service.  I'll probably give them one more chance just because I have yet to taste their congee (rice soup), homemade noodles, and sweet & sour pork (my litmus of a truly "good" Chinese place).  If you want tasty authentic Chinese food with any semblence of presentation, you will need to look elsewhere.

Service: 3 / 5

Food: 2.5 / 5

Bee Kim Heng

(Image borrowed from mydinnertable.typepad.com - thank you!)

Thanks to my sister Vanilla Con (or Congee, as I fondly call her), we discovered the awesomeness that is Singapore pork and beef jerky.  The best in the city is found at Bee Kim Heng, a dirty, sketchy, cash-only place located in an equally sketchy neighbourhood on Fraser St.

The store is nothing to write home about, unless you write home about scary dirty things.  However, once you get over the setting and place your order (sold in half or full pound portions in either beef or pork, sweet or spicy), the nice lady behind the busted counter disappears into the back room (which I will never want to know about, since it might ruin my otherwise-healthy appetite for this jerky), and comes back with these vacuum-sealed, labelled packages of decadent smoked meat.

This is my addiction - jerky.  I swear, it's the greasiest stuff, even though the meat is dry.  For some reason, the moment I touch even the smallest piece of jerky, my hand will reek of grease for the next hour (even with lots of scrubbing with scented antibacterial soap).  Looking past the smelly greasy hands however, I find myself endlessly devouring this chewy, flavourful meat.  It's not like western jerky, which is stringy and dry.  This stuff comes in sheets, and it is quite moist despite being jerkified.  I can't figure it out.

It's good though.  I can eat about a pound of the sweet pork jerky in 2 days.  My jaw will ache afterwards for another day, and my gums will hurt from wherever bits of jerky have embedded themselves into my oral flesh.  Even so, I cannot stop eating this stuff.  It's delightful and delicious and worth the $19/lb.

Go, but don't blame me if you get addicted.

Service: 3 / 5

Food: 5 / 5

Hell's Kitchen - Dine Out Vancouver

Our final stop during 2009 DOV was tonight's visit to Hell's Kitchen (not the Ramsay-associated one, but a pizza joint on West 4th).  We were fairly excited to try the place out, and the visit

 proved pretty good overall.

The atmosphere of Hell's Kitchen was far better than Granville Room's.  The music was more relaxing and not blaring, so we could still carry a conversation without yelling.  The Superbowl game played in the background, keeping patrons entertained.  We ordered drinks right away, and I quite loved their mango mojito (enough to order a second one later on).  The attentive, friendly server also took our orders promptly.

Our first courses were of course appies: Hell's poutine and Hell's chowder.  The photos (taken with my phone) don't really do justice to the delicious chowder.  It looks way greasy in the pic but actually it was slightly sweet and very tasty.  The poutine fries were crispy and the gravy was yummy, but I would have wanted to see more cheese and taste more of their crispy capers.  The cheese was all located in one area on the top of the bowl but the fries at the bottom got no lovin'. :(

Next came our pizzas: the Aphrodite and the Soprano.  Hubbs really liked the Soprano because it wsa meaty and had a spicy sauce on it.  I preferred the Aphrodite; the pesto sauce did not overwhelm, the crust was thin and crispy, and adding slivered almonds to the pizza proved to give a different texture to it.  

Of course we didn't finish the pizzas, and moved on to dessert with leftovers to go.  Hubbs had the tiramisu and I had the creme brulee.  Hubbs' tiramisu was fluffy and light, and a bit more solid than I am used to for tiramisus.  I liked the more solid consistency and Hubbs ate the entire thing so I think he liked it too ;)  My creme brulee was tasty (sort of like soft serve vanilla ice cream in terms of flavour) but it didn't have enough time to set, because it was runny like a thick soup.  I still ate the whole thing but was disappointed that they didn't chill it more before serving.

In all, the ambience of the place made the dinner a far more enjoyable experience than it would have been had the place been noisier.  The server was friendly and the service, prompt; we were in and out in an hour.  The food was pretty good but not stellar or exceptional.  The DOV meals were cheap though: $18/person so I guess we really couldn't expect TOO much.  

I'd recommend Hell's Kitchen if you're into drinks and lounging.  It would even be a good place to grab a pizza to share, but as far as fine gourmet food is concerned, you might want to go elsewhere.

Service: 4.5 / 5

Food: 3.5 / 5