Thursday, June 21, 2012

Urban Thai Bistro

An online deal for this place came up one night, the deal was for buy one get one free entree, I thought why not try it. Called up my Pad Thai-addict friend and on we went. The restaurant is quite nicely decorated and comfortable. It was a weekday night to pretty quiet.

Both of us got the Pad Thai and also some Thai Curry skewers to share. The waitress was friendly, however, she seemed impatient when taking the orders...
It was beef, lamb, chicken, pork. These skewers were fail... They were probably the worst skewers I've had in this type of cuisine. It was very dry and hard, and it was like that for all the meats... Bad choice.
It's a good thing they redeemed themselves with the Pad Thai, I thought it was above average, I really liked the way they prepared the taste. It had a little ketchupy taste but not too much. The noodles also didn't stick together in one big chunk. The various ingredients provide a nice texture when eating.

Urban Thai Bistro on Urbanspoon

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Guu Original

This was my first time visiting Guu Original! Having been disappointed by the Guu in Denman recently, while having good experiences at Guu Gastown and Guu with Garlic, I was interested to see what Guu ORIGINAL had to offer :).

Even though it was a weekday night, it was still extremely busy at the restaurant, thankfully we made a reservation!

We got Last Samurai (tan-taka-tan (Japanese shiso herb vodka), sour plum, shiso), Snow White (soho, calpico, lemon), Aloha Mojito (sake, aloe vera, lime, mint).
The first item Grilled Chicken Wings was very disappointing! These were probably the worst chicken wings I've ever had! They were wayyyyyyyy tooooooo salty and I hate that bloody taste when it's not cooked enough.
Next item we got was the Tuna Tataki. It wasn't as good as the one I had at Hapa Umi ;), but it was till quite decent, I like it when more of the edge is cooked, rather than just the rim, but the tuna tasted fresh to me.
Next item we actually saw the table beside us get it, and we were interested! Sashimi Salad (assorted daily fresh sashimi on bed of green plum dressing and wasabi mayo) I had a few pieces of the different sashimi, and they were all pretty decent and fresh, I really wanted to try the prawn sashimi and sucking the head... but I let my friends have them haha
The next one was my favourite in the whole meal. Grilled Black Cod, I loved this one because the fish was so smooth! It literally dissolves in your mouth, and the taste was perfect, not too salty but still had a good taste to it. My friend complained about too much mayo though.
The BBQ Eel Rice Gratin, this one was cool because I love rice covered with cheese! and I love eel :) The eel itself was delicious and I loved the combination of the different materials. I liked all the stuff (seaweed, squid strips?) you see on top of dish as well
Chazuke is a simple Japanese dish made by pouring green tea, dashi, or hot water over cooked rice roughly in the same proportion as milk over cereal, usually with savoury toppings. This specific one was topped with Salmon. This was definitely something new for me and it was sorta like eating congee but not really lol. I don't know, it's sorta like soup, interesting.
All in all, a LOUD place with lots of SCREAMING staff haha, not good for having a conversation with friends (especially new ones!!) because you always have to yell! I still prefer the Guu Gastown before it's better to chat with friends there and I prefer the bigger dishes there :D !

But I still had a great time.
Guu Original on Urbanspoon

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant

WOW! My first time trying Pho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho)! I thought for the longest time it was pronounced "fo" until my friend told me it was "feh"...

Never got around to trying it but today was a special day, I don't know why, but when my friend suggested Pho, I eagerly said yes because I've been itching to try it forever!

Since we were in Downtown, we decided to try Joyeaux. Their menu offers a vast variety of items, from breakfast stuff like eggs, all the way to fried rice! (I thought it was interesting how they just called their fried rice "Fried Rice"). My friend suggested the Beef and Beef Ball Noodle Soup (#2 on their menu), I gladly went along :), I love beef. After ordering from the counter, the food was delivered to our table in less than 10 minutes, great for a quick lunch!
Well, here it is, my first time trying Pho! My favourite parts of the item were the beef balls and the soup. Next time I might just get the one with only Beef Balls! The other beef stuff, some were good, some I didn't like the texture because it was a little too tough for me. I found that the beef had a nice beef taste still and was not overrun by the soup. The noodles had a good texture and weren't too soft or hard. I loved drinking the soup with the spoon because it was so good lol, tasted like MSG soup, yummy :)

Opened my eyes to the world of Pho, I liked this place because it seemed cleaner than other Pho restaurants, will definitely try Pho again in the future!

Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Phnom Penh

Finally got a chance to try this #1 ranked restaurant on Urbanspoon Vancouver! I have heard a lot about their famous deep-fried chicken wings. Went with a group of people from work and they were big eaters as well (perfect!). We decided to share the Deep Fried Chicken Wings.
I definitely had high expectations because of all the positive reviews. I was not disappointed :). Deep fried perfectly. Dish came out of kitchen right when it was finished because it was still very hot. Very very crispy! Salty, carries a little sweet taste which was interesting and addicting... Only thing is, wish that they used wings for all the pieces because I always prefer wings :D

Next, we also got our own thing to eat ourselves. I decided to play it safe and go for the BBQ Lemongrass Pork Chop on Rice.
Complimentary Soup with the Rice

The pork chops were tasty, really love that BBQ taste, but it was a little too overburnt for me. Not very healthy. I also would have liked if the pork chop themselves were a little softer. But I easily finished the whole plate so the taste was good. The soup was interesting because there was a pork bone inside. The soup tasted generic, I scraped off the little meat on the pork bone and did not really like it because I would have preferred tougher meat.

Will definitely return with people who like chicken wings. Very busy restaurant, go early!

Phnom Penh ้‡‘้‚Šๅฐ้คจ on Urbanspoon