Global Gala: Confusion, food, and great fun!

Super excited to be invited to this event through being a food blogger! (such a noob, I was super s) Global Gala was a dinner with six competing restaurants for the title of "Best Asian Food in Vancouver", as voted by guests. Greeted at the door by models in various traditional wear.

Brought along my parents for this exciting event! It was held at The Portside Pub in Gastown. We were there early and had to wait in the car for them to be ready before entering. Anyhow, it was a nice place with two levels, they had separated seating (not many seats btw) downstairs with food and stage upstairs.

Although the ticket told us it would start at 7pm, it didn't mention when we'd be eating, so we sat around until after 8 before someone ventured upstairs to find out people were already eating and it was self-serve. Or so we thought. Turns out it wasn't really ready but everyone rushed up there for food anyways. Either way, confusion ensued, food was obtained. First we tried Sala Thai (Thai). Look at their pretty carving!

They offered Sala Thai Fried Rice, Green Curry, and Pad Thai. I quite liked their curry, it was fragrant, milky, and loaded with ingredients. The pad thai was a bit off though, I think they used a lot of ketchup and made it too sweet. Texture was good. Fried rice went well with the curry.

Then I tried Hand-Shredded Chicken with Cucumbers and Spicy Peanut Sauce from The Original Chongqing Bistro Bar & Grill at Tinseltown (Chinese). The chicken was average, the sauce was super spicy x.x At least they plated it nicely for everyone.

Then was from Siddhartha's Indian Kitchen (Indian) with Butter Chicken, Rice, Naan Bread, and Sweet Lassi. They were very impressive with the setup and super friendly service. I must say, the naan bread was the highlight for me, it was chewy and soft. AMAZING. Butter chicken was too sweet for my liking, lassi confused me, and rice was...rice.

There were Spring Rolls and Vermicelli with curry dip from Pho Tan Vietnamese Restaurant (Vietnamese). The spring rolls tasted great, but the wrapping was way too hard, might've been good when it was fresh =( The curry dip was super spicy but the vermicelli was nicely cooked. Too bad.

Either way, Umeda Japanese Cuisine (Japanese) brought in a lot of sushi which was gone quickly. I wanted to try one of each roll and ended up with a whole plate full of food! Looked like such a glutton x.x The rice was seasoned well, chewy and delicious. Most of the rolls were up to par except the odd tofu roll. It was tasteless and.... unique.

I didn't even know what it was, but it was the least popular dish of the night and I felt it was utterly underwhelming and not representative of true Korean cuisine. From Chamnamoo Korean Restaurant, there was Kimchi Fried Rice. Loads and loads of undercooked fried rice. The rice was hard in the middle and soggy on the outside. Taste was just salt and not memorable. To add salt to the injury, they didn't even label it and took most of us a long time to figure out who this dish belonged to =/

After the food, the evening ended with the raffle draw for a plane ticket and announcement of the winning restaurants, presented by none other than the special guest Miss. Canada, Cäsar Jacobson.

In third place was... The Original Chongqing Bistro Bar & Grill at Tinseltown! Coming in second (my fav of the night) was... Sala Thai! And *drumroll* first place went to Siddhartha's Indian Kitchen. Congrats!

Fun evening, quite the experience! Super thankful for the free tickets and the surprise mention during introductions, just totally made my day.

Salt Tasting Room: Getting classy and cheesy!

To celebrate EM and DC's joint birthday party, we arrived at a classy hipster joint in scary scary Blood Alley.

Restaurant: Salt Tasting Room (visit their website here)

Location: 45 Blood Alley, Vancouver
Cuisine: Wine bar, tapas, dessert
Price range: $20+ per person





Date of visit: November 28, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 2/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

Indecisive on what to order, Adorables and I shared their Three Course Menu ($29 per set) which included salad, meat/cheese/BC plate, and dessert. We ordered the Seasonal salad which was spinach with goat cheese and nuts. It was fresh-- basically spinach in a dish topped with goat cheese.

For our meats and cheeses we got Bresaola with Cipollini Onions, Salchichon Iberico with Mostarda, and Ossau-Iraty with Fig & Nut Bread. The Ossau-Iraty was a medium cheese which was creamy and I quite liked the texture and aroma. Went well with the fig and nut bread which was a bit more dry, sweet, and some grit. Salchichon Iberico was a little fatty, but balanced out with the mostarda (sweet, honey-like) nicely. Finally, the Bresaola was chewy and meaty. I didn't like the cipollini onions much because they tasted like plastic to me.

Finally, dessert was a Hazelnut Mousse. It was airy, rich, and smooth. Simple but delicious.

I don't know how I got full on this, but I did. Maybe it was the bread they gave us to go with our meats and cheese? Who knows =P Either way, this isn't quite my fancy since I'm not a wine drinker, others got wine flights to pair with their dishes, which seemed more interesting!

Queens Cross Pub: No one was cross after this meal!

Last day of clinical of the year! To celebrate both our clinical groups gathered at a nearby pub for some grub, good times, and bittersweet farewells. Everyone want a few drinks to celebrate the end of the term, and they offered a good selection of alcoholic drinks =)











Restaurant: Queens Cross Pub (visit their website here)

Location: 2899 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver
Cuisine: Pub food, American
Price range: $15-$ 20 for food, drinks not included




Date of visit: November 28, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

I must say, their menu was not the most extensive, but their drinks menu WAS. Everyone got a good few drinks in as I scarfed down food instead =D We were seated upstairs and it was a cute place-- very British and old, homey feeling. Besides the sun reflecting into our eyes and blinding us, it was spacious and comfortable for a group like ours. Sun Bean ordered their Queens Deluxe Beef Burger ($16.00) and look at the size of that monster! I believe she said it was quite tasty. The fries had everyone mesmerized though, because they had a bit of batter on them which made them extra crispy?

I ordered a Seafood Linguine ($16.00) which came with garlic bread. It was delicious, crispy, moist, chewy garlic bread. Or I was really hungry. Either way, the highlight was the pasta. It was a bit on the oily side, but pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce stuck to the pasta perfectly. Seasoned well, I found the flavors complimented each other well with the sunflower seed pesto and sundried tomatoes. It contained cod, salmon, mussels, and prawns. The cod was probably frozen for too long, it was quite tough. Salmon was scattered here and there. Two mussels and two prawns. The prawns were the best =) Crunchy and fresh. Mussels were fresh too, however, one was undercooked =(

They also have a special, if you check in on Yelp, you get a free dessert! I took advantage of this opportunity of course, being the glutton I am xD Sadly, they didn't have the Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake ($7.00) because the cheesecake was apparently too frozen. It sounded succulent. I settled for their Ice Cream Sandwich ($6.00) instead. This was vanilla ice cream nestled between two freshly baked cookies, topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Sun Bean had 1/6 of it and thought it was way too sweet and rich. I finished the rest, all the while wishing there was more ice cream between the cookies. The cookies were soft and moist, a bit messy with the chocolate sauce. I felt the chocolate chips were a nuisance though because they were so hard.

Overall I enjoyed my visit here, the food prices are reasonable for the quantity and quality you get. The waitress was also very helpful and friendly. Spacious but homey feeling-- they even had an old video game machine =D JW had their Yorkshire pudding, it was gigantic and looked delicious! Might try it if I'm in the area again!

Pho Sen: Sen-sational!

Freezing cold Remembrance day... lest we forget the brave souls who sacrificed their existence in this world so we could have peace existing in it.

Restaurant: Pho Sen (visit their website here)

Location: 112-3030 Lincoln Avenue, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Noodle Shop
Price range: <$10 per person





Date of visit: November 11, 2014
Atmosphere: 4.5/5
Staff/service: 3.5/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

Been here when they first opened, but decided to revisit it with family. Since most prices have become inflated, their prices didn't seem so bad anymore (they stayed the same). First off, you enter feeling that this place was very clean. Unlike most chain pho places, it was clean air and open interior. First to arrive was our Salad Roll ($2.90). These were gigantic! Also fresh and inside vermicelli done perfectly chewy. Sauce was a bit too doughy for my liking (I prefer more creamy peanut).

Next, Elephant got their Large #41 Pho ($8.95).  This one has rare, flank, fatty flank, tendon, and tripe beef. It was equally large and came in a ceramic bowl (bonus points). Piping hot and aesthetically appealing, Elephant enjoyed it a lot.

OldBean can't eat beef, so we got him Grilled Chicken Vermicelli ($9.50) and Pork Spring Roll Vermicelli ($9.50) to share with everyone else.

These were basically the same base of chewy vermicelli topped with either chicken or pork and spring rolls. Chicken was too dry, as was the pork, but the spring rolls were comfortable bite-sized, crunchy, and fresh.

Also to share, we got a Large #43 Pho ($8.95), the House Special Pho. Basically it contained everything (rare, flank, fatty flank, tendon, tripe, balls, abrisket). The portion was truly large, we split it into smaller bowls (the kind you get at Chinese restaurants) and had plentiful pho for five people. Noodles were chewy, beef was typical, soup was delicious and hot. Scrumptious!!
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Finally, to be fancy, we got their Crispy Duck ($14.95). I had this the first time I visited and it was too pricey ($20 I think), but with this new price adjustment, the duck is justified. Crispy fluffy skin, this duck was pretty good! Meat itself was a bit dried and overcooked though. Portion was generous and full of meat! Sauce (Sweet-Sour) was mediocre, but you get to choose from 5 different sauces, will try another one next time! :) [oh it also came with rice and a salad, both of which I did not get a chance to try because I was too full]

Overall we enjoyed our visit. We all were stuffed and happy. I'm excited to see establishments prioritize sanitation because it seems many restaurants get old and dirty whereas Pho Sen has done a great job of keeping it squeaky clean. On a side note, be careful when you go, they have very slippery tiles =/

Milestones @ High Street: High level of disappointment

All the way in Abbotsford for ChelleShocks' birthday festivities! After some fun times at Castle Fun Park, we arrived at this relatively new Milestones location for dinner! Seemed to bode well considering we couldn't get a booking until 7:30pm!

Restaurant: Milestones Grill and Bar (visit their website here)

Location: 3122 Mount Lehman Road, Abbotsford
Cuisine: American, Western
Price range: $20-50 per person





Date of visit: November 8, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

We were seated cozily (and by that I mean quite squished) into a 7-person booth. There were 9 of us. At least we didn't have to wait in line for a table! Sadly, it seems they don't honor reservations at all. Shame. Anyways, the layout is beautiful here and the atmosphere is quite nice. For my appetizer (I had a coupon), I ordered their Sicilian Mussels ($14.00). I shared this with ChelleShocks and there were quite a lot on the plate. The sauce was delicious and the mussels were very fresh. However, many of them were undercooked and not edible (I ate a super undercooked one but survived, hence why I concluded they were very fresh haha). It was a wine cream sauce and I could taste a hint of the wine, which enhanced the mussel flavors.

For my entree, I ordered their Cajun Seafood Fettuccine ($19.00). It sounded delicious with prawns, mussels, salmon, and calamari in a Cajun cream sauce. Irony is when it arrived differently than advertised. It had no prawns and the pasta was dry and salty. Super strong Cajun flavor and no cream whatsoever. Pasta was al dente and the only thing right about this dish. I couldn't eat more than 1/3 of it because it was so salty and strong. Considered returning it, but considering the slow service and my irrational fear of them adding "extras" to my dish, I just packed it home. Sad I never got to see those prawns. I think this is the first Milestones that I've had this dish with missing ingredients and overseasoned. Utterly disappointed. Did I mention the calamari felt like fishcake and tasted more like octopus? It was like eating softened rubber. I imagined calamari to be rings... =/

Lastly, after asking to split a birthday dessert between three people's bills and having much confusion around that, our waitress got the idea and ended up making it on the house for ChelleShocks' birthday. Many thanks to her, but the confusion was quite... unnecessary. Either way, we ordered her The Cookie ($7.99) and she quite enjoyed it. The warm soft double chocolate cookie with vanilla gelato to cool it off was a beautiful combination.

Overall, it wasn't a great experience, but the waitress was helpful when she was available. I guess there were some expectations around service at restaurants like these, but it was definitely lacking here. I felt she tried to be attentive but wasn't around most of the time when I wanted to ask her a question. Anyways, after everything was sorted out, she was lovely and we enjoyed our dinner. Probably won't ever be back until they improve... don't want to risk dying from undercooked food or incorrect orders. They sure have an abundant amount of room for improvement.

The Factory: Great quality for $4.95!

Planned to go somewhere for dinner before a movie, turned out they didn't have their specials anymore and The Factory was closer than The Famous Warehouse, so I walked in to grab seats!

Restaurant: The Factory

Location: 1017 Granville Street, Vancouver
Cuisine: Pub food, international, tapas
Price range: $10-15





Date of visit: October 28, 2014
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

Not very busy for 5pm on a Tuesday night but the staff were attentive and helpful. I remember they used to have all food items for $5.95, guess they changed it? It's now $4.95! I sat alone eating three dishes (thinking others would arrive earlier), looked like a girl who just got dumped and was binge eating haha =P Anyhow! I got their Pesto Linguine ($4.95) which was quite large. I enjoyed the creamy pesto they chose to use topped with some fresh tomatoes, bacon, and Parmesan cheese. It was nice and herby but didn't feel oily. Pasta was al dente too!

Next on my table was their Poutine ($4.95). Basically a lot of fries topped with gravy, cheese, and bacon (bacon makes everything better). The fries were crispy and hot, moist on the inside. Cheese was softer than I like (not the squeaky eraser cheese in traditional poutines) and the bacon was just there. However the gravy was nice and light, complimented the dish well.

Finally, as I continued to eat alone with my table of food, their Factory Burger ($4.95) arrived. Waiter was totally understanding and actually informed me I could get them to reheat the food when others arrived and didn't discriminate that loner girl in the corner was binging on three dishes. The burger patty was all beef, thickness of a quarter-pounder at McDonald's. Typical burger with lettuce, cheese, bun, and tomato (plus sauce), it was quite wholesome. Came with a side of fries.




Overall I enjoyed my visit, I feel the food is at par or even better than The Famous Warehouse down the street, more variety and yummier fries =P So if you're looking for cheap eats, this is a good option!

Crackle Crème: Smooth, very smooth.

After a light dinner, Adorables and I wandered over to dessert, which was just down the street. This was in the less-sketchy-more-hipster part of Chinatown (the outskirts).










Restaurant: Crackle Crème (visit their website here)

Location: 245 Union Street
Cuisine: Dessert, Coffee
Price range: $5-10





Date of visit: October 22, 2014
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 2/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

Super stoked to finally get to try this place!! I didn't know what to order and we wanted to hit up a few more places after this, so we decided on their trio "Flight" ($7.50)-- I actually forgot what fancy name they came up with xD Flavors can't be swapped out because they're in smaller containers. The flavors of the day were Vanilla, Salted Caramel, and Earl Grey.

They were from the fridge and torched in front of our eyes! Such professionalism =) Took this as a learning experience hehe

First to meet my wooden spork was the vanilla. Crispy sugar on top, great evenness to the thickness. Now the creme itself was delicious! Creamy and rich, they used real vanilla bean in making this (noted by the black specks near the bottom). Not too sweet either, yum!!

Next we tried the Salted Caramel (top), which was interesting, the caramel flavor was very strong and this was sweeter than the vanilla. Love/Hate for this one. Then was the Earl Grey (left), the flavors sank in after swirling it in my mouth and it was like BANG! EARLY GREY! Beautifully infused flavor, fragrant but light and delicious.

Not too sure if I'd pay $5 each, but it's a good experience, they have the best crème brûlée I've tried so far!

Guu Garden: Mayo everywhere!

First off, Happy Birthday to SexyNapkins! She decided upon Guu Garden for her dinner party, and besides this being hard to find, the atmosphere was great, like the other Guu locations. I hoped that inconvenience would be the only downside to this location, and right I was!

Restaurant: Guu Garden (visit their website here)

Location: M101-888, Nelson Street
Cuisine: Japanese, Izakaya, Tapas
Price range: $15-25 per person





Date of visit: October 10, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

Since there were so many of us, we ordered separately. Adorables and I shared the food and were quite satisfied. We shared our food with others too, goodness we ordered too much for the two of us to eat haha!

First we got the Tako Uni Wasabi ($4.80). I was disappointed by how little uni there was, and how watery the piece was (maybe it was intended to be like that though haha). The uni complimented the tako wasabi, I quite enjoyed it. The wasabi was far too strong for me though. Nothing better than starting your night with some slimey, gooey, nose-clearing appie! ;)

Nothing new, but we ordered a small Ebi Mayo ($9.00). I was surprised at the size. There was a half dozen shrimp lined up nicely on a THICK bed of spicy mayo topped with some garnish and shrimp chip. Happy with the amount because my previous experiences with Guu has been.... expensive, pretty, but not filling. The shrimp were fresh and crunchy, nice size too. Flavors were your normal ebi mayo, but man, they sure did have a LOT of mayo on that plate.

Then arrived a Unagi Nuku-Sushi ($7.80). I'm a sucker for cute setups, and this just got me. Loved it! On the side there was some pickled veggies, they were sweet and a little tart, quite nice to cut the fatty feeling of unagi!

There was nice big piece of unagi on a bed of rice in a traditional steamer topped with some seaweed and underlined with a bamboo leaf. It was a bit difficult getting all the rice from the steamer because it wasn't lined fully and stuck to the steamer, but delicious nonetheless. The rice was steamed al dente and perfectly mixed with the fatty unagi. Yum!

I forgot what this was called, but it was something like Fish and Veggie Chips ($~9) from their special menu. It arrived on a bed of home-made tartar sauce (more mayo!). Although it looked like a lot, it was probably one piece of fried fish cut up into 5 pieces. The fish fell apart from the fried batter and became a mess. However, it was very crispy and light. The veggies included potatoes and lotus root. Some of the veggie chips were over-fried and burnt though :( The bed of tartar sauce was delicious, there was some egg white in it! :3

Finally, we also ordered large Green Bean Fries ($9.00). These were crispy, battered green beans. Quite interesting, but some of them fell apart as the batter didn't stick well to the beans. More mayo with this dish haha! I dipped some of mine into the ebi mayo's spicy mayo and it brought out more flavors ^-^

On the side, we nibbled some of HK's Saba Shima-Sushi, the rice was an odd brown color but overall tasted good! I normally don't like saba, but this one wasn't crazy sour like the other places. Good! It was topped with wasabi and a shisho leaf (I think).

Someone ordered a dish with deep fried bread-crumb crusted zuchinni and it was awesomeee. I loved the soft juicy zuchinni and the zesty tomato sauce with Parmesan cheese made it taste a bit italian, but still be able to taste the zuchinni. Also saw others order the Chicken Kaarage ($12.00 for large), and it was paired with mayo and looked really juicy and delicious!

Overall, enjoyed my meal. The staff were friendly but service was a bit slow. I like how they put in the effort to plate nicely with their delicious food. Portions were reasonable at this location, so I may be back to try more (their menu isn't very extensive though, not much selection). Either way, it was a great party for our wonderful foodie friend!!