Munchie Adventure: Pho 99 Vietnamese Noodle House, Coquitlam

After many days of fear of tainted beef, my brother finally convinced my parents to eat beef again =P I'm still alive! So I think it's ok ^^ Or I was lucky . . . >.>

Restaurant: Pho 99 Vietnamese Noodle House (visit their website here)
Location: #62- 2991 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam (Beside Chapters)
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Noodles
Price range: <$10 per bowl




Date of visit: November 19, 2012
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4.5/5

The store was pretty empty when we went in, but eventually it filled up a bit more. The waitress was very attentive and friendly =) As per usual, I ordered their large #8 ($7.90) which contains eye round steak, well-done flank, soft tendon, and beef tripe. Maybe I haven't had pho in too long, but the bowl looked extra big, and so much meat! =O Not that I'm gonna complain =P It was very hot and delicious. Used to only get one piece of tendon, but this time, there were 3 slices! =D

Brother ordered #13 large ($7.90) containing eye round steak, fatty brisket, soft tendon, and beef tripe. One can clearly see the fatty brisket, there was a 1 cm layer of fat on the piece of beef (that my brother quickly tried to hide haha)

Finally we ordered #77 ($8.50) which was a vermicelli bowl with veggies and three fried rolls. I love their rolls, so crispy and yummy! =D We always order this because my dad is deathly afraid of burnt stuff (carcinogens =O), so we don't order the meat, cuz there's usually some burnt bits and just makes a mess.





I thought this was a good meal, as long as you're not afraid of the whole tainted beef thing =) don't worry too much in life I guess? That's what our healthcare is there for ^^

Munchie Adventure: Flying Beaver Bar & Grill, Richmond

As JC and I made our way towards this place, we started getting worried we were going the wrong way, since it looked like nothing would be over here =O But we eventually found it (after some detours) =D Yay!!

Restaurant: Flying Beaver Bar and Grill (visit their website here)
Location: 4760 Inglis Drive, Richmond
Cuisine: Pub food, pizza, burgers
Price range: $10-20




Date of visit: November 19, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

Not wanting to sit at the high table or bar, we waited for a table to be ready. It took about 15 minutes of waiting I think? We were seated and greeted by a friendly waitress who started us with some drinks. JC and JY got coffee, and I got some odd hot water (it was kinda foamy x.x but I survived). Last minute change of mind for ordering items, but I don't regret it =) The food took quite a while to arrive though (probably because they waited for everything to be ready before they brought us the food)

JC likes fried chicken, so a Chicken Fingers ($11.50) was ordered. I thought it was too dry, didn't like it. Sauce made it a  bit better, but really, M&M meats has better chicken strips than them.

I ordered their Blackstone Benny ($9.95), which was a last-minute change =P I saw the description had BACON, and JY recommended their bennies, so I was sold. Eggs were very nicely done, but hashbrowns were too hard and salty, and filoncini bread was too soggy =( Probably because of the tomato sitting on it.

Look at this beautiful creation! =)

JC ordered their Traditional Benny ($9.50), which also had a variation of bacon, looked very similar to mines =O The Canadian back bacon looked good! But good ol' crispy bacon is my fav still =P

Annnnd JY suddenly felt extra hungry when she sat down, and ordered a Pulled Pork Sandwich ($11.50). She also changed the fries to yam fries, which I found were quite tasty. Better than the hash browns. The sandwich itself was lacking though . . . the BBQ sauce was too strong and overwhelmed everything. Coleslaw didn't help much-- it did make it less salty, but not that big of a difference.

This was quite a unique experience, many thanks to JY for bringing us here and treating us ^^ So nice of herrrrr <3 Loved the view, and with the awesome weather-- it was quite memorable =) Maybe this really improved the experience because of the weather hehe SUNSHINEEEE <3

Munchie Adventure: Bay Sushi Cafe, Downtown Vancouver

Horse-drawn carriage rides!!! =D

After a pretty fun afternoon in Yaletown for the Candytown event, the group migrated to another part of downtown to shop at Dollarama =P We noticed this sushi place as we walked by, and everyone is a bit tight on cash, so this looked good for our wallets and bellies =)














Restaurant: Bay Sushi Cafe (visit their website here)
Location: 678 Seymour Street, Vancouver
Cuisine: Japanese, Korean, Sushi
Price range: $10-15




Date of visit: November 24, 2012
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 3/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 2/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

I didn't realize it was a food-court style place, we had to buy from the front and then bring the food to table ourselves xD Quite a new thing for me, jokes. There were a lot of pictures on the wall, which helped me and made it hard for me as well ^^" There were no tables for 6 either ==; we had to make our own. *sigh* Then it turns out JJ doesn't like sushi. Oops. Luckily there was Korean food too xD

I ordered the Special Combo ($7.50), which included one California Roll and two each of tuna and salmon sushi. It didn't take too long for the food to be ready, which is good. I liked the California roll, it was quite fresh and the rice was well-done. Tuna wasn't too good, kinda mushy =( Salmon seemed fresh, sizes were good. I was really stuffed after this, so it did it's purpose =P

KW ordered a lot of stuff xD And shared the tempura (thank you ^^), so I tried a shrimp. The sauce was in this dinky cup though... hard to dip! Shrimp tempura was fairly good! Shrimp was fresh and batter wasn't too overwhelmingly oily. Ramen looked soggy though, perhaps not as good. He also had a BC Roll, which was made with salmon and not the typical salmon skin. He was disappointed and didn't like it very much. SW liked it though because she doesn't like skin =P

Annnd for JJ, he decided on the Bulgogi Bowl. There was a nice surprise egg on it! =) He seemed to enjoy it, not so much the miso soup though xD It was prettty big! I forgot how much it cost though, probably on the website =P

--Then I got distracted by my food and didn't snap pics of what everyone else got, it all looked decent, and they seemed to enjoy it, SW wanted more after her combo though =P

Prices were decent for a place near downtown, so I won't complain about that. Quality isn't that great, but not terrible either. I might be back. I actually got quite packed after a while, guess it was dinner time? =P

Munchie Adventure: T.E.O Sushi, Port Coquitlam

The loudly blaring TV that distracted my whole meal xD

My family used to come here often, but haven't been here in a while! So we decided to come by, since they started a new breakfast menu. We came for lunch though, but the breakfast menu looks appealing =) Everything seems like a good deal for breakfast =P Too bad we came for lunch haha







Restaurant: T.E.O Sushi
Location: A- 2579 Lougheed Highway, Port Coquitlam
Cuisine: Korean, Sushi
Price range: $5-15




Date of visit: November 24, 2012
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 3/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3.5/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

There was one lady working, but she seated us pretty quickly. I noticed some flies flying around near the door though. . . >.> Oh well, we were there already anyways. It was pretty empty for a Saturday though =( It used to be so full! After a while of staring at the breakfast deals and realizing we couldn't get it, we ordered other things instead. First to arrive were the side dishes, I thought they were a bit on the salty side for plain consumption >< The beancurd was yummy, I really liked that. And the potatoes were nice and chewy, which I enjoyed (would've enjoyed more if it wasn't so salty).

We ordered the small Modum Soondae ($9.95). It consisted of blood sausage, pork stomach, and pork liver. The blood sausage was really good, I liked the texture of it, the blood wasn't overpowering and the skin wasn't too tough =) Pork stomach was nothing special, I thought the texture was good. Liver was bad though, it was too dry =( I ate it with the yummy beancurd and it was so much better haha =P

Next, we had the Chicken Teriyaki Bento ($9.95), and there was quite a bit of chicken. Not enough rice though. The California roll had a weird color for the imitation crab, but it tasted normal, so I guess it's just a different kind of meat they used? She forgot our tempura sauce =( So I had to ask for it, but she promptly brought it for us, so all good. The shrimp tempura on the other hand, weren't so good. They were pretty dense and hard. The broccoli wasn't good either, I really dislike broccoli tempura because it soaks in so much oil and ends up with under-cooked batter, ICK. Salad was too saucy as well =( Corn was just-- corn, nothing but corn xD

Onto the L.A Grill box ($10.95) =D The ribs were so good! And a good portion size too. We were deciding for a while whether to order the lunch special or the normal (which was a whole plate of LA Rib, $12.95) Lunch special wasn't bad, but this is where I noticed the bad rice. It was overcooked =( And same tempura, roll, and salad problem. Main dish = good. Should've just ordered the big plate of meat =P

These came with miso soups too ^^

Either we don't eat a lot or they had good portion sizes, but that was all we ordered for four people and we were pretty stuffed =) I'm not sure I wanna come back again though =( Maybe I'll come to try their breakfast menu, it looks good. It took a long time for her to get us the bill because she was so busy cleaning up, and only because she was the only person working there. Don't get me wrong, she was very nice, but just wasn't attentive enough.

Munchie Adventure: Shaolin Noodle House 少林麵莊, Vancouver

Grad photos with a few friends today, so decided to finally try this place as it was along the way to UBC =) Honestly, the name drew me in xD I parked in the back, where there's free parking, so we entered through the back door (which looked sketchy as hell btw) So I'll admit, we got there a bit early, but I still don't think the waitress should just ignore us =/ We just stood there like idiots until 11am SHARP ><











Restaurant: Shaolin Noodle House 少林麵莊 (visit their website here)
Location: 656 West Broadway, Vancouver
Cuisine: Chinese, Noodles
Price range: under $10 per entree

Date of visit: November 23, 2012
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3.5/5

Finally seated, I stared at the menu for so long because the first page was SO CONFUSING. So I skipped onto the next xD Found the noodles in soup I wanted, and ordered the Dragging Noodles with Lamb and Vegetables in Soup ($7.95). When it first arrived, I was a bit worried that they had messed up my order because I saw clear noodles on top! =O Dug around and found my noodles afterwards =P Soup was very rich and the lamb was tender. I liked it. Veggies matched well with the soup and taste, the noodles are a bit thin-- by the time I got to them they were a bit soggy and not as chewy as I hoped they would be. Pretty big portion, I was so stuffed after finishing half xD

MW ordered their Dragging Noodles with Tripe and Beef Tendons in Soup ($8.95). It was a different soup base than mines, like a braised kind of soup I think =) Looked pretty good, she didn't complain about it =P So I'd say it was acceptable!

Just because we didn't wanna pay cash (min. $20 order for credit card), we also ordered the Fried Green Onion Pancakes ($3.50). This was literally fried, but it was so good! I really loved the chewy yet flakey-ness of it =) Too bad I was too stuffed to have more =(

Besides being ignored, I find this place pretty good. There's some parking at the back, and the place looked reasonable clean. Might be back, but there's so many other places to try along Broadway, I might go to those first =P

Munchie Adventure: Gyu-Kaku Japanese Restaurant, Vancouver

After a looong day of volunteering, CL came and found me for some yummy food! I have no sense of direction in downtown, glad he's here to bring me to food! =D Always full of surprises, we ended up at Gyu-kaku, a place I've been wanting to try =D Yay!! Monday is Happy Hour ALL DAY =)

Restaurant: Gyu-kaku Japanese BBQ (visit their website here)
Location: 888 Nelson Street, Vancouver
Cuisine: Japanese, BBQ
Price range: $20+ per person (Happy Hour)




Date of visit: November 19, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3.5/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

We were greeted by a friendly hostess who led us to the table, but boy was it warm inside! After walking in the cold, it was a BIG difference in temperature. Anyhow, a waitress came and introduced herself, very bubbly and easy-going, and she explained everything to us, since it was our first time here. Gave us a few recommendations and some time to decide what to order.

I'm pretty sure we ordered too much, but it all looked really good! First to come was Takoyaki ($4.95) (yeah, of course I'd order it =P) It was very fresh, but oddly enough, didn't have bonito flakes, instead there were scallions on top. Taste was good, the batter was more flour than the normal with more veggies, but I liked the chewyness of it.

Then came the Gyu-Tan (ox tongue) ($5.95), and this was the first thing for us to grill! She oiled our grill for us, and taught us how to grill to perfection =) This was very good, I love the chewy springy-ness of ox tongue =D Our waitress also brought us extra lemons, which was awesome. Everything with lemon is extra-awesome. The ox tongue came lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.

Next were the Fried Cheese Wontons ($1.95), and at first, we thought they were craftily made with nothing inside (it was a hole!) with some cheese sauce for dipping on the side.

Discovered there was a thin layer of mozzarella cheese on the inside =O Surprise surprise! It's quite creative, and tasted good together, but they were only good when they were fresh =( Food started piling onto our table, so I only had one good one before they got cold.

Onto the Spicy Tuna Volcano ($4.95), and after CL confirmed that it wasn't too spicy, I ventured a try. It was quite something. Very special. Deep fried rice topped with chopped up tuna in a slightly spicy sauce, it was good! I really liked it, reminded me of the McDonald's rice burger (that they had in Asia for a while I think).

The inside was still rice, so only the outside was golden and crispy =D YUM!

I don't think we should've ordered this, because it filled me right up =P Our waitress helped us mix it up, but she let me snap a pic of this Sukiyaki Bibimbap ($5.95) before she mixed it =) How nice. She also told us to wait a bit if we wanted crispy rice. But we both didn't want crispy rice, so we spooned it into our bowls really quickly =P It seemed quite oily actually, but with those extra lemons she got us, I fixed it. Don't get me wrong though, nothing was wrong with the taste, I just didn't like the oily feel, and lemon helped.

Sadly, due to the poor lighting, none of my pics turned out that nice (ok, maybe they weren't that good to begin with, but this made it worse). So here's a blurry pic of the meats we ordered. From top to bottom there's Toro Beef ($3.95), Yakishabu ($2.95), and Bone-in Kalbi Ribs ($7.95). For this, we got to choose what sauce they would be marinated in, I really don't remember what we got, but we picked from the recommended list. I loved the toro beef, it was really good. The yakishabu was really salty, but I could taste the strong miso-- which overwhelmed the meat.

There were only four pices of the Kalbi ribs =( I wish there were more, cuz we listened to her about how long to cook it, and ended up with this ='(

CL took over after the first two failures (which were still very yummy btw, for one day I won't worry about carcinogens), and we got some good pieces =) I think they're a bit too sweet though, lemon time ;)

To end off our meal, CL insisted we get their Taiyaki ($4.50).

Which also came with ice cream, of which I chose lychee!! Because I normally never see that flavor =P

Annnnd guess what happens to our fish on the grill? Yep. Burned. Just like the picture ;D But we saved it, it wasn't badly burned, but the red bean wasn't hot yet and we had to take it off the grill in fear that it would become a charcoal fish.

CL ice-cream-sandwiched it, and it was ready! =D I found the red bean to be too. . .gooey and sticky. I can't really describe it, but it's just not very good. I could say it was slimy? That's just weird though. Ice cream was good though! Next time, some good Taiyaki fresh from a stall in Burnaby, next time ;)

Overall, this was a very memorable experience, besides burning a lot of stuff and the dark lighting (I really dislike dark restaurants, it's really personal though) Food was decent, not all of it was that good. I like the small portion sizes, and the prices-- were downtown prices. Not terrible, but not something I could afford every day. They were really good on changing the grill though, changed it 4 times for us over the course of the meal! Probably every time it was a bit charred or something was stuck, she would notice and change it for us =) Liked that.