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.