Munchie Adventure: Matoi Sushi, Coquitlam

Actually have been wanting to try this place for a while, since it's so close to where I live, but I end up passing by and never trying it out. I remember it was another Japanese restaurant before, never noticed when it changed :P Anyways, it's a nice small corner shop, friendly servers and one sushi chef :)

Restaurant: Matoi Sushi
Location: #490-3025 Lougheed Hwy, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Japanese
Price range: $5-15 per lunch entree
Date of visit: April 27, 2012




Atmosphere: 3.5/5
Staff/service: 3.75/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3.75/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

I ordered the Bento Box B, which was $9.50, so not too bad. I was a bit disappointed at the daily special though, it was something like a salmon cake with what I believe to be okonomiyaki sauce (which was a bit tangy for my taste). The salmon cake itself had a good texture, and little bits of salmon, but rather salty. The tempura was pretty good, I didn't like the yam though, although it was specially cut into thin strips instead of one huge piece, it wasn't good yam. Don't like crunchy yam besides the tempura part xD I really liked the tuna there though (usually I avoid tuna, cuz I don't like the sour taste it leaves in my mouth), very fresh. They had tamago sushi instead of the normal ebi, which I enjoyed. It was nicely seasoned and not the generic bright yellow kind. Rice wasn't as well cooked as I would've liked. Teriyaki chicken wasn't anything special either. It also came with miso soup (as you can barely see on the top).

Overall, had a good experience, was rather (delightfully!) surprised that they offer Pocky instead of mints after the meal :) Will revisit to try other menu items for sure! Lots of "cooked foods" (compared to raw) on their menu, dad will probably like :)

Munchie Adventure: Happy Mom's Kitchen, New Westminister

Just joined Groupon! So I wanted to spend the $10 credit they gave me as a welcoming gift before it expired, and decided to get the one for Happy Mom's Kitchen (apparently also called Happy Valley Chinese Kitchen which was in Burnaby). The deal I got was $10 for $20 of food (so pretty much free for me :D) We ordered about $35 of food... (which in my opinion, is rather pricey for lunch for 3 people)

Restaurant: Happy Mom's Kitchen (visit their menu here)
Location: #821 12th St., New Westminster
Cuisine: Canadian Chinese, Taiwanese
Price range: $7.50-15
Date of visit: April 19, 2012

Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 3.75/5
Food variety: 2.75/5
Food quality: 2/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

The owner was very friendly, didn't expect a Caucasian (not to be racist or anything) to know much mandarin, but he was trying so hard, it was really cute. And he was very respectful, and kept asking us if everything was ok, and how everything was.

Their bubble tea was cheap, and I should've expected something wrong with that, but ordered it anyways. It was... bad. REALLY. I got a melon milk slush bubble tea ($3.50), and they made it from powder, and the ice was chunky. You can feel the powder still there in the drink ><"

They had a bunch of stuff on their menu, including All-Day-Breakfast, but we decided on the lunch menu instead. There are a bunch of combo dishes you can get, and I got the almond chicken + fried rice + sweet and sour pork ($8.25). The pork was really good, and the chicken wasn't bad (a bit mushy) but the rice-- IT WAS SO SALTY x.x I almost died. I hope they improve it eventually...

We also ordered Chef's Special Chow Mein-soft ($8.75), which was also on the very salty side, and VERY OILY. After a bit, we had to drain the oil from the plate first before we could down the noodles. Uhhh on the bright side, they're not cheaping out on oil? xD This is a very Canadian-Chinese dish, the noodles were definitely not the normal Chinese kind!

To try more variety, we also got the Taiwanese beef noodle soup ($7.75). It was seasoned well, very rich beef broth, but again, too salty. The noodles were cooked just right, and the beef was tender. This was probably the best thing we ordered, but compared to other places... there's still a lot of room for improvement. This was also a bit spicy, which didn't help much with the saltiness.



Don't think I'll revisit, never have been a fan of Canadian-Chinese food, and it's pretty far from where I live, if I had to drive 40 mins for food, I'd definitely go somewhere more worthwhile (not trying to be mean).

Munchie Adventure: Osaka Sushi, Vancouver (UBC)

Short one, cuz its not an eat in place, but a food court-style place :) This was a little treat for myself after my first final hehe... kinda ordered too much to finish but oh wells :D

Restaurant: Osaka Sushi
Location: 5728 University Boulevard (underground Village food court place)
Cuisine: Japanese
Price range: $10-20
Date of visit: April 11, 2012

Atmosphere: n/a (its a "communal" seating area...which I would probably rate low cuz it's old and ugly >.>)
Staff/service: 3.5/5

Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3.75/5
Buck worthy? 3.75/5

One of the more decent sushi places around UBC, because the others ones are overrated and not actually that good. Their staff are funny though, they don't think students understand mandarin or something, and the things they say, oh they make me laugh :) They messed up the order of orders though, so mines took a bit longer than usual, so they got a bad ranking for service this time =P

Combo D

This was actually a pretty good size for its price for UBC standards, since I probably would've been stuffed with just this :) So this means Combo D was $10.95 + tax = two meals, not bad ;) I like their rice. It was cooked really well, chewy and not too thick (no offense to Honor Roll in the SUB, they have globs of rice and no flavor to it at all -.-). The salmon was really fresh too, and I've never liked tuna, but it's average.. nothing special to it, mushy as usual :) Avocados in the California roll was awesome though, nice and ripe, and delish! I noticed their wasabi changed though, or I've been to Honor Roll too much to remember how good wasabi looks and tastes like =P It wasn't hard and dry, it was pretty moist and looked fresh and was pretty "spicy" (since wasabi isn't the same kind of spicy you get from hot peppers and such).

Udon from Combo D

 The other part of the combo included udon and Chicken teriyaki on rice (there is a cheaper combo with the same things minus the three pieces of sushi which is $7.99, which I noticed after I ordered xD). Udon was good, it's probably frozen udon and there were three pieces of the fishcake in mine (its usually 2 I think)!! Totally made my day =D (no I'm not a kid for liking that... I just easily get happy)

Chicken teriyaki was nothing special, but seasoned well and not over-fried or saucey, liked the bean sprouts underneath it (my veggies of the day haha..).

Then I ordered a sushi combo 1, which was $6.99+ tax. They had a bad picture of it, I thought the tuna maki was salmon (didn't read the words obviously) and was disappointed afterwards =( Anyways, there was yam tempura roll, California roll, and tuna maki. I was surprised with the yam tempura roll, it was pretty good (aside from the oily taste of fried batter), they used sweet potato I think (and not yam) or maybe it was the orange kind of yam, not those yellow ones, and it made such a big difference. The tuna maki wasn't as bad as I imagined, one of the better ones I've had of tuna actually, didn't have this sour taste to it and it tasted fresh :)

This combo came with the miso soup, which my friend had, and said was pretty good. I saw there was lots of kelp and tofu in it, which looked delish :)





Overall good impression of the food I ordered, it was a bit much for me, so depending on how much you eat, it's not a bad place :) They have lots of combos which are a good deal (for UBC food anyways..), haven't tried their rolls before, too expensive =P I mean, why get a roll when you can get three and miso soup? xD

Munchie Adventure: Kalvin's Szechuen Restaurant Ltd. 松林居, Vancouver

This is a what someone might call a "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant location, because it was pretty hard to spot and pretty easy to miss as we drive by it xD All worth the confusion though. So glad my mom made reservations because, this restaurant really only has like...10 tables (about 2x 10-person table, 2x 6/8-person table, 4x 4/6-person table, and 2x 2-person table) I was surprised though, this place seems to be pretty well-known, so I expected something a bit bigger :) There were a lot of people who came in and were told to try again another day =/

REMEMBER TO MAKE RESERVATIONS IF YOU DECIDE TO VISIT!! (just to be safe ;D) Amazing food, but the downside is it's CASH ONLY ><"

Restaurant:  Kalvin's Restaurant Ltd.
Location: 5225 Victoria Drive (at 36th Ave.), Vancouver
Cuisine: Szechuen, Taiwanese, Northern Chinese Delicacies
Price range: $10-30
Date of visit: April 5, 2012
**note that they're closed on Wednesdays :)**

Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4.25/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

First dish we ordered was the garlic fatty pork (appetizer). It was made differently from other places I've tried, since their sauce was rather thick. Taste was ok, a bit on the salty side, but the pork slices were definitely too thick.

Next was the Spicy Pork blood and intestines with leeks. You had a choice of spiciness level, and we got the least spicy, which turned out to be pretty darned spicy =P Well-balanced taste, really cool pot thing, with a piece of those fancy rocks which burn and keep the food hot for longer ^^

Deep fried pork chop with noodles, simple and good. The pork chop had a bit too much fat, but nonetheless delicious :) very crispy~~ The noodles were chewy and well cooked. Soup stock was meh, nothing special.

Deep fried bun, just a side for all the dishes with soup, good texture and nicely fried (aside from this one little kinda burnt part haha).

Next up: Wontons in soup!! These were amazing, chewy skin, and the pork inside had good texture. Overall liked this very much, so I bought some frozen ones to make at home (they didn't turn out as nice lol). Still not as amazing as the ones my mom had when she was a kid (or so she claims) hehe.

Can't forget the Shanghai dumplings :) These were so juicy and full of goodness!! Must eat fresh, or you can buy their frozen ones to steam at home, they were pretty good. Although I'm pretty sure it's rather fattening hahaha Good food >>> fat :)

Last to arrive was the stir fried Shanghai rice cakes with preserved veggies and pork. Well made, since it was nice and chewy and not too salty. Might've been asking for too much if I wanted less oil in it xD

Anyhow, that sums up a rather enjoyable meal. Will revisit if I head all the way out to Vancouver again, but REMEMBER REMEMBER REMEMBER to reserve!! :)

Munchie Adventure: Landmark Hot Pot House 春秋火鍋, Vancouver

It's final exam time!! Study study study!! But still gotta eat :) Thanks to my family for bringing me out for some great food to keep me motivated to study^^ Love them to bits :D

Restaurant: Landmark Hot Pot House
Location: 4023 Cambie St, Vancouver
Cuisine: Chinese hotpot
Price range: $15-50+
Date of visit: April 7, 2012



Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 3.75/5
Food variety: 3.75/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 2.25/5

We've been wanting to try this place for...over 10 years already I think xD And since it's still around, it must be good, right? I've heard from friends that it's good, but overpriced... and she was right. This isn't an AYCE hot pot, but pay-per-plate.

Kinda wish we just went for AYCE since 4 people would probably be around $110 and be very stuffed. Our bill came to about $190 o__o Yup....

Anyways, onto the food! :D We didn't order the infamous satay soup base, since half of us didn't eat spicy :) So we got the preserved egg and parsley soup ($9.80), which wasn't bad, there was a lot of preserved egg and parsley. (There's also fish puffs in the picture)

First came the fatty beef ($14.80), which was really great, it was nicely marbled and tender. Totally worth the buck.

I was a bit disappointed with the four assorted meat balls ($14.50) (Left to right: squid, shrimp, dace fish, pork), they never told us what was what, but I guess it was fun trying to figure it out. I was pleasantly surprised that the unidentifiable grey one turned out to be a shrimp ball :) The squid ball was really springy, and dace fish and shrimp were a bit less springy but good nonetheless. The disappointment was the pork balls, they weren't anything special and kinda soft. They weren't really worth the same price as the fatty beef in my opinion...

The fresh tender clam ($18.50) was really good, it was very fresh and portion was ok (I would've liked more, but I do know this is expensive everywhere haha).

Can't forget to get my daddy fish, he loves fish. The Fresh rock Cod and Head ($15.80) was really fresh, but kinda small and waaay too bone-laced. I had once piece, and it took so long to get all the bones out xD

We ordered goose chiterling- aka intestines ($18.50), I wish they had smaller portions (and lower the price) because it was way too much to eat all at one sitting, even for four people. Very crunchy and clean though.

Lamb slices ($11.00) weren't very good, they ended up really tough after cooking, and definitely not very good quality. The slices just fell apart and we were fishing for lamb bits for the longest time >u<

The veggies were good though, but really unnecessary, since most of the plates had veggies under them, and was plenty for us. I must say though, the garland crysantheum ($7.75) had ends that looked old, should've been sliced off or something... The watercress ($7.75) was ok though.
The fish tofu puffs ($19.25) were another great disappointment. I've had way better and I feel like this was a scam. Nothing extraordinary and they weren't even fresh. It was better than what you get from T&T, but if its gonna cost me 4-5x the price, I'll go for the cheap stuff. (Still can't believe its $19.25....!!)

The best value thing was the pig kidney, only $7.00 and a large portion (almost too much for us to finish). It was cleaned nicely and the incisions made on it were very fine and pretty ;)

I feel like I was tricked by this, they clearly said "fresh fish skin dumpling" ($9.75) (no, my Chinese isn't so bad that I can't even read fresh). Clearly, the dumplings that came were frozen =.= How is frozen fresh...?? They were average, tastes like what you can get from T&T (yes, you'll notice I reference T&T a lot, don't get me wrong though, I like their food, but I expect something better from restaurants =P)

Sour plum drink that was complimentary, but came after all our food came and we were halfway done our stuff xD It was good, not dilute at all. I just couldn't explain why mines and my brother's was so foamy...

There is parking in the back with an actual person watching our cars, and too bad I didn't get a picture, but as we were leaving, 4 other cars jammed into the parking lot had to move so we could back out =P We felt so important hehe ^-^ And the person was really nice too. The only problem I had besides the price for this place was our first waiter. I like to have control over how I do hot pot... not get told how to put my stuff in or what I should do >< Kinda OCD that way, yeppers. He left after it got a bit busier, but he just kept telling us what to put in, told us our pot was boiling (yeah, I kinda can see that dude..), etc.








Extra random pictures~

My place setting :) Bowl was a bit small... I kept burning
myself ><

Notice the thing on the left hand side? Thats the clam thing...

My brother said it looks like a penis >.>

Fish puff and pig kidney (don't you love the pattern? :P)

Pig kidney again, the cuts are so cool....

Still eating goose intestines till the end of the meal xD

Back to studying now! Oh happy times~~ (sarcasm)

Munchie Adventure: Ruby Chinese Restaurant 紅寶石大酒家, Port Coquitlam

This visit wasn't particularly a special visit to try something new, since I've known this place ever since it opened, and the restaurant before it too. The owners are very friendly and the atmosphere is very homey. Don't be intimidated by her loud voice, she's actually very friendly but just... loud :) They're trying to improve the looks of the restaurant (and I've been helping a bit) and it's starting to look better. There have been reviews that make this place seem really negative, but really, they actually do a really good job of keeping their food clean and fresh. I've always had a problem with restaurants using old oil (oil that's been used to fry stuff for a very long time), but I know they change their oil very frequently, so their fried goods are... good :D

Restaurant: Ruby Chinese Restaurant
Location: 2228 McAllister Ave, Port Coquitlam
Cuisine: Chinese
Price range: $3-$12 (depending how much you eat/what time)
Date of visit: March 30, 2012

Atmosphere: 4.5/5
Staff/Service: 4/5
Food variety: 3.75/5
Food quality: 3.75/5
Buck worthy? 4.25/5

This particular visit was to help them decorate their place, so it wasn't during lunch. It seems like I was bribed to write good things about them, but I do try to be unbiased and truthful-- you can only lie to people once because they'll find out the truth for themselves after that one time. Dinner was on them, and the owner surprised us with the dishes. We had gone there for dinner before (about a year ago), and I'd have to say, it's undergone good changes.

There was still the buffet portion, which they always change and keep fresh, with over 20 items to select from, and the owners are very good at meeting the customer's needs-- if you want something that you know was on the buffet menu, you can ask them to make it (something that a lot of buffets don't do). The buffet is $10.99, and is only open Friday to Sunday. But watch out, they might decide to close it early if there aren't a lot of customers on a particular night (they closed it around 7:30pm when I was there decorating).

Ok, back to my meal :) I'm not sure of the pricing though, since I see the menu, but I remember from last time most of the dishes were around $15 (usually less).

This was the first dish that came, a sizzling plate, and it really was sizzling! I think it was the beef with veggies (there was beef, onions, and green peppers) in black bean sauce. I found it a bit salty for my taste, but the flavoring was well-balanced, and if you had rice with it (I wanted to save some stomach room for the rest of the food), I'm sure it would've been perfect.

 Then came the fried shrimp in spicy salt (also an item that can be found on the buffet menu). Very fresh, and the shrimp were a good size (so the ratio of shrimp peeling to eating shrimp was good)-- as I mentioned before, I love their fried foods ^^.

 Next came another sizzling thing-- a hot pot. This is probably the seafood with tofu hotpot, and had tofu, scallops, squid, fish, shrimps, green peppers, snow peas, celery, and onions. This was delish! A bit oily, but I like how the sauce wasn't too thick and the combination of items was good, since I like dishes that include a lot of variety in it :)

Then there was honey pork chops. As you can see, they were popular, I couldn't manage a picture before everyone grabbed a piece! I really liked this dish personally because it was freshly fried (so it was still crunchy) and there wasn't an overload of honey/malt soaking the pieces on the bottom of the plate. As well, it wasn't a fat cut of meat, everything was tender and lean. It was a large plate too, so we had to pack away some of the food at the end of the meal.

Here's one of the ribbons we put
on for decorating the drapes  :) 

I don't have any pictures of their lunch, but dim sum is $2.50 and there are lunch specials for $4.90 or lunch combos (which are very popular) for $4.95 (two items) to $7.95 (three items). Their dim sum isn't extraordinary, but you get the quality you expect for the price you paid. (unlike some restaurants where I paid like $6 for the same thing I get here, which I find is rather unreasonable and evil >=[)

As well, they are very flexible with menu items, you can feel free to ask them to change it up (like I always ask for pork with flat rice noodles, which isn't on the menu, but they'll still make it) for no extra charge. They don't charge for tea and there's also a special on wonton noodles in soup for $2.95, which we get every time because it's cheap :D Hopefully I'll remember to take some pics next time I go and put them here so there's a feel of how their dim sum is ^^