Captain's Boil: Pricey but fresh!

A new Captain's Boil in Coquitlam! Much excite =D Since we got a coupon in the mail for a free pound of shrimp/mussels/clams, I've been itching to come!







Restaurant: The Captain's Boil (visit their website here)

Location: 1111 Ponderosa Street, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Seafood, Cajun/Creole, Asian Fusion
Price range: $20+/person




Date of visit: December 15, 2017
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 1.5/5
Food variety: 2/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

Found some time to bring my parents to try, we waited about 15 minutes for seats. They cover their table with a paper sheet and have plastic bibs and gloves placed on the table.

They have a simple menu with seafood, flavor, and heat.

Look at the cute sailor bibs!

Anyhow, I wanted to try the clams, but they had just run out *cries* so we ended up with two items with the same flavor. First to arrive was our Mussels in a bag ($13/lb) in mild garlic sauce. I found it quite spicy already, loved the strong garlic though. If only it weren't so salty! Mussels were fresh and felt like more than one pound. There were 16 nicely sized mussels in the bag.

The downer of the meal was the Fish Dinner ($10.95), otherwise known as Teriyaki Fish on their menu. It comes on a sizzling plate with white rice and deep fried fish. The fish was salty and dry inside a thick layer of batter which was made even drier by the hot plate. It came with soy sauce for the rice. Not a big portion of rice. But to be fair, they're not known for their sizzling plates.

And then finally we ordered the King Crab (seasonal price, tonight it was $44.95/lb). I was impressed with the one leg that came in a bag, the garlic sauce didn't quite touch the leg but that's ok, we just opened it to dip. I expected a frozen leg but this was fresh and the meat was nice and flush to the shell. A giant leg, succulent flesh, it was moist and meaty.

Look at the size of it in my hand (it's de-shelled!)

And this was the damage, they claim to use biodegradable bags, so kudos to them! I really don't hope to see all this waste end up polluting the oceans =(

Alas, it was a pricey meal but satisfying. Service is a bit slow, but the servers were friendly. I know people are complaining about the paper/plastic cups and lack of true utensils, but perhaps they're forgetting the fun of eating with our hands-- which I feel is the reason why I'm paying so much money to eat at The Captain's Boil in the first place!

Jimoco: Unfresh seafood, delicious pasta, small portions

I remember coming here many years ago and the would be hour long lineups, but the place was near empty for Sunday lunch time. Odd. Maybe it's because it wasn't lunch time yet? (We were there at 12:30pm) anyways, no one greeted us at the front, and finally someone noticed as we walked in halfway to the counter and told us we'd be seated in a couple minutes.

Restaurant: Jimoco Café & Pasta (visit their website here)

Location: 1046 Austin Avenue, Suite A, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Italian, pasta, seafood
Price range: $20/person

Date of visit: December 10, 2017
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 1.5/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

Looking at the menu, prices have gone up by about $3-5 per dish, such was expected due to inflation and whatnot over the years. From the 2 for 1 menu we ordered 4 dishes for 5 people. First to arrive was the Risotto Al Frutti Di Mar ($21.95) with rose sauce (you can choose from tomato, rose, cream, wine, or curry). It was a pretty small portion if it weren't 2 for 1. The risotto was about 0.5 inches deep and although it tasted great, it definitely needed more cream to the rose. Tasted like plain tomato sauce. The mussels were hit or miss on freshness, some of them have definitely gone bad.

Next was the Linguine Al Frutti Di Mar ($20.95) in white wine sauce. Portions got smaller for this one, definitely not like the pictures on the menu. The was about a cups' worth of pasta on the plate. There were scallops, mussels, clams, and shrimp in this dish. The flavors were great and noodles cooked al dente. Again, the shellfish was not fresh, tasted fishy and smelled pungent.

Then the Fusilli Alla Lucana ($22.95) arrived a little on the burnt side. Interesting presentation since it's covered with pizza dough on top, which helped keep the dish warm while we finished the others first. At this point I didn't understand why they used such large plates if they were only going to fill them 1/3 or halfway because it just looks bad. Anyways, only dish that wasn't seafood, the sausage and pasta was decent. Pizza dough was very dense and although interesting in design, felt disconnected to the whole dish.

Last was the Linguine Soul Bianco ($21.95). Last time I came here I got the Linguine Soul which is the spicy tomato base, but I wanted to try something new, the Bianco is a white seafood sauce base. This was very delicious with fragrant herbs and succulent seafood sauce infused in the pasta as it bubbled in front of us. Unfortunately the mussels and clams weren't all fresh, more than half were inedible.

It's sad to see such a great restaurant come to this. The flavors and execution were amazing, but subpar staff, ingredients weren't fresh, and portions were tiny. I was disappointed and unsatisfied with my revisit. I guess good things don't last forever :(
 

Yoon's Kitchen: New Korean Fusion in the neighborhood!

Seeing Sushi & Roll close down was disheartening to me, since I did enjoy their food, but seeing a new Korean restaurant in this area was equally exciting (I think it just opened this month, not even Yelp/Zomato official yet!). There aren't many Korean joints around this location, so it's a wonderful addition (I hope they can continue and stay!).



Restaurant:  Yoon's Kitchen

Location: 3017 St. John's Street
Cuisine: Korean, Japanese, Asian fusion
Price range: $20+ per person




Date of visit: November 29, 2017
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

The place was pretty empty when we got there around 6pm, 3 tables of people. We were greeted warmly and seated promptly. The place looked clean and neat. I guess the fusion part is that they still offer some Japanese sushi.

First to arrive was the Bossam ($18.99) which is a boiled pork belly dish with sauce and wrapped in greens. The pork was nicely marbled and seasoned well. The napa cabbage it came with was crisp and contrasted well with the soft, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly. I'm not sure what the spicy dish was but it tasted like radish, and added crunch and flavor to the bite. Side dishes weren't remarkable, there was kimchi, bean sprouts, zucchini slices, and a ball of sweet mashed potato.

I couldn't resist getting a sushi roll and I love scallops so I got Under the Sea ($6.95). This is a torched spicy chopped scallop roll with surprise cream cheese. I say surprise because it wasn't a listed item on the menu. Overall the taste was average, fresh scallops were overwhelmed by the cream cheese and sauce. I wish they had went easy on the spicy sauce, otherwise a well made roll.

Can't forget the Korean style rolls so we settled on the original Gyori Kimbab ($5.25) with fried egg, spinach, crabmeat, fishcake, pickled radish, burdock, and carrot. This was the only dish that was good bang for its buck. The roll was quite large in comparison the the previous and although simple, the flavors went well together and in good proportion. I enjoyed this quite a bit!

Onto hot foods! We got their Soon Dubu Jjigae ($11.99)--otherwise known as soft tofu stew. We chose the mix, which included seafood and beef. Considering how much I'm paying for it, I was disappointed with the quality of this. It wasn't as rich as I'd had at other places and a little on the salty side. No egg went with it either.

The rice that accompanied the dish was really well made though, and they pour cold water (which the waitress leaked all over my jacket and didn't notice, but we'll let that slide) over the hot stone bowl with the remaining rice to make a soft rice stew thing. The pot was so hot it boiled out of the pot!

Silly us, we got another rice dish, the Hot Stone Bibimbab ($12.99) had mixed veggies, beef, and an egg atop rice. Bowl was big but the ingredients only filled half the bowl, which kinda makes it look bad. It tasted good though! The hot stone kept the rice warm for the duration of our meal and we got crispy rice at the end, one of my dad's favorite parts of the meal!

Before we got our bill, the waitress brought us a sweet rice drink (on the house). I hear that rice water brightens and whitens the skin, so maybe this is the secret to how Koreans maintain their beautiful complexions! Anyways, it was a light sweet drink and quite nice to end the meal. My mom thought it was a little too sweet for her liking.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal. The food was above average and flavors were great. Service was friendly and almost the right amount (sometimes it was hard to find anyone since there's only two people running the front). Not that great quantity-to-price-wise because this isn't Vancouver, people will expect more food for the same price since there's a lot of competition around with equal quality and price but more quantity-- people want good food for a good price. Alas, they're still pretty new, I don't even know when they officially opened (or maybe they're not), a good location for them though and I see a lot of potential!

Pokéworks: Fresh Poke-- works for me :D

We were touring some relatives from out of town downtown and I've had a couple friends talk about another new poke place in Vancouver, so we headed over to Pokéworks so they could try poke! Conveniently located within walking distance of the convention center (it's basically beside Chewies, entrance faces Cordova), it was a prime location that wasn't too crowded.

Restaurant: Pokéworks (visit their website here)

Location: 150-1021 West Hastings Street
Cuisine: Poke, Hawaiian
Price range: ~$15-20 (Depends on how many add-ons and size)

Date of visit: October 16, 2017
Atmosphere: 5/5
Staff/service: 5/5
Food variety: 4.5/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

It wasn't a busy time when we visited (around 4pm on a Monday), and greeted promptly by staff. They had the typical poke setup, with proteins first, then veggies and other toppings after. I ordered two large bowls ($13.50) from their signature works menu. There is an option to create your own bowl too.

I got the Hawaiian Classic and chose extra kale, diced mango, edamame, cucumber, sweet onion, crab salad, masago, seaweed salad, seasame seeds, and onion crisps, garlic crisps, and shredded nori from their crunch items (all included in price). The ahi tuna was fresh, didn't taste fishy, and went well with their classic sauce. Maybe I was greedy and got too many toppings but I felt there wasn't enough rice to compliment the ingredients.

The second bowl I got was the Shiso Salmon and again, I added most of the above ingredients on top. Personally not a fan of wild salmon, so I enjoyed the fresh farmed fatty salmon. I could feel it was fresh since it had nice bite to it, not mushy at all! Went great with the fresh ponzu sauce! Again, I felt more rice would've made for a more filling meal, but I want those greens to make myself feel healthier =D

Overall, the bowls were huge and full of good quality ingredients. I've been to a Seattle location and Pokéworks offers a good price for what you get, especially considering it's a prime downtown location. Staff were friendly and quick. I hope they can keep up the good work and continue improving! (Had a friend go and her order was completely wrong, staff working at that time had no clue what was going on)

Castle BBQ: Fresh, affordable Korean BBQ

Happy Canada Day, and surprise! We're in LA for Anime Expo =D (semi-sad we're missing out on our own 150th anniversary celebrations in the homeland) Had a long day of shoots, and finally finished around 9:30pm. Famished, we decided some AYCE KBbq was much needed to fill our empty tummies.

Restaurant: Castle B.B.Q.

Location: 473 North Western Avenue, Los Angeles
Cuisine: Korean, BBQ, AYCE
Price range: $15-30 per person (depending which tier you choose)

Date of visit: July 1, 2017
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 5/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

I don't know how Adorables found this gem of a place, but we got here and waited around 10 minutes to get a spot. We had a chance to look at their menu outside, they have three options for AYCE ($11.99, $14.99, and $18.99). We got AYCE B which was $14.99 with 21 items to choose from. AYCE A has 10 items, AYCE C has 25 items.

The waitress keyed in my items as I ordered, which was very efficient. It was unclear until we go the bill how many orders of everything I had gotten because we got quite a few pieces (which freaked me out as the meat started appearing in large sizes and portions). The table was already set up with a giant bowl of rice, salad, and six side dishes.

The food arrived super fast, we got all the meats within 5 minutes of ordering then the steamed egg and corn cheese took a little longer. First to arrive was the Rib Finger Meat which was placed on the grill upon arrival. The meat was fresh and tender, evenly marbled, and lightly marinated. Delicious with a bite of rice!

Next was the LA Rib (limited to 2 per person), this was a bit fatty and not great cuts. However, still tender and yummy marinated in traditional sweet soy sauce.

Then the Herb Pork Belly arrived and that's when I started panicking since the pork belly slices were HUGE! And there were 4 pieces too! Oh goodness. The meat itself was very fresh and beautifully marbled layers of fat and pork. This was not marinated, so it got a bit boring to chew on near the end.

Here's my reaction face:

One might ask what Prime Flower Steak is, but for me, I just order it to try because, why not? This was a lean cut of meat with no marinating. I quite liked it since it was tender even though it was so lean. Strong bold beef flavors could be tasted in this cut.

We saw Corn Cheese was a new menu item for an added $2.99 and thought, sure-- best was when we found out it was part of our menu (1 per 2 people) at no extra charge! This was literally cheese on top of corn. Very sweet corn, soft, and an adequate amount of cheese. Great for us especially since we're on vacation-- source of fibre xD

I had to try their Steamed egg as well, which was delicious! Basically steamed egg in a hotpot with some seasoning. The egg was fragrant, fluffy, and smooth. It got a bit filling after a few bites though.

Back to those side dishes that existed on the table before we were seated (freshly pre-placed at the table). Nothing special about them, there was bean sprouts, sliced cucumber, kimchi, macaroni salad, pickled raddish, and rice roll (for wrapping meats in).

The salad was tossed in a mild kimchi vinaigrette sauce, proving to be quite refreshing after many bites of pork belly.

Overall it was a great experience with friendly and quick service, fresh food, and a happy wallet. We paid around $38USD for two people including tax and tips.

Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot: Inaccurate orders and salty but fresh meats!

With so many new restaurants popping up around Coquitlam, it's hard to keep track of which one is opened yet! I drove by Henderson Place and saw a lineup and open sign on Little Sheep, so I excitedly made plans to visit! We came around 5pm, hoping to avoid the crowds, and luckily we did!

Restaurant: Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot (visit their website here)

Location: 1001-1163 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Hot Pot, Chinese
Price range: $21.98 per adult; $15.98 for 8-11 year old child; $10.98 for 4-7 year old child + $9.99 soup base


Date of visit: April 8, 2017
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

So for starters, we had two choices for soup bases ($9.99): House Special Original and House Special Spicy (or a half x half of the two), we opted for the original. It was a milky broth that comes with many herbs and loads of garlic.

Sadly they got in the way of food and never got a chance to be fully cooked to get their flavors into the soup =( The broth is kind of like the soul of hot pot to me, and it was intensely salty. I asked for water to dilute the broth after a little bit of boiling (and further condensing the salt).

Their order sheet allows for two rounds, clearly laid out with categories for food. The meats are maximum 2 orders per round (not sure if it's per person) with each plate being 10pcs. Also, there is a section for extra add-on items, such as meat skewers, oysters, extra condiment items, and drinks/desserts. [Note the numbers I had on the order sheet because the items DO NOT come in the amount listed, it's quite sporadic]

There is a sauce station with: Satay (super watery and just oil), chili oil (not very spicy), peanut sauce, and soy sauce. To its left are the appetizer dishes you can find on the order menu but self-serve. Looked kinda sketchy, so we decided to skip those.

I've been to many hot pot AYCE establishments with a much larger selection of sauces and condiments which are included in the price at better quality-- even the Burnaby location of Little Sheep does a better job.

First to arrive was luncheon meat (2 pieces ordered) and garlic beef (5 slices ordered). Clearly there was far more than 2 pieces on the plate. They were average and salty. I couldn't eat more than two pieces so I left the rest on the plate. When they cleared the table I saw them bring that dish back to the kitchen while the rest of the other dishes were placed into a dirty dishes trolley... suspicious.

The garlic beef was fresh and tender, however there was a giant piece plus two small ones... almost as if they missed cutting it.

Veggies came next, we got watercress (1 order), enoki mushroom (1 order), and tong ho (1 order). These looked fresh and clean.

Then it was an assorted dish of items we ordered: crab meat stick (4 pieces ordered, 6 came), cuttlefish (4 pieces ordered, 8 came), fresh aorta (6 pieces ordered, 10+ arrived), beef tendon (4 ordered, 4 came), beef omasum (4 pieces ordered, a huge clump came), beef tripe (4 pieces ordered, frozen clump came), quail eggs (4 ordered, 4 came), cod fillet (4 pieces ordered, 7 came), dried pork rind (4 pieces ordered, 8 came), mutton dumpling (4 pieces ordered, 4 came). They ended up missing our order for mussels, but we were too full and didn't feel like asking for them. The mutton dumplings were highlights for sure, they were tasty and flavorful but very filling. Everything else was fresh. The cod fillets were super salty, and after cooking in the salty broth-- inedible, so we had to leave them.

Look at the beak still in my cuttlefish!

Another plate arrived with tofu puff (4 pieces ordered, 6 came), fresh bean curd stick (4 pieces ordered, 4 came), winter melon slices (2 pieces ordered, 4 came), fish tofu (2 pieces ordered, 2 came), kelp knot (1 order), gluten (4 pieces ordered, 6 came), potato slices (2 pieces ordered, 4 came), pork blood curd (4 pieces ordered, 5 came), and pork liver (4 pieces ordered, 6 came). I liked the tofu puffs and gluten, these could be cooked nice and soft with some bite to them, indicating good quality. HungryPanda was pretty choked about having to eat 4 instead of 2 potato slices at the end since she was so full already. Elephant had to take many for the team and was definitely overfilled. The pork liver was nice and fresh, marinated well and had good bite to them.

Oh did I mention we got our soup at this time after all that food had arrived to taunt us?

I didn't even realize the meatballs dish was inaccurate, but they're hand-made and decent. Good bite and flavors. We ordered 6 of each but only got 4 of each. There was cuttlefish ball, mutton ball, and beef ball.

Yay! Our first order of supposedly 30 pieces of lamb shoulder slices finally arrives! Their meats are super thinly sliced, about 1 mm thick. So they cook very quick and barely feel like eating anything almost! Not fatty and fresh, this was good quality meat.

Next were "5 slices" of loin of beef, clearly way more pieces-- like 20. They were fattier but melted in my mouth and so full of beef flavor. A nice shade of red too.

Then were our fatty beef slices (30 pieces ordered, 20 came), these were fresh and yummy too! No complaints here besides it disappearing too fast!

To be safe we only ordered 5 pieces of their kurobuta pork belly and... at least 30 slices arrived. These were nicely marbled and not too fatty. You could see the beautiful layers of meat and fat, super fresh and tasty!

Needless to say, the portion amounts were totally random and inaccurate, so it was very hard to gauge how much to order. I mean, if it's off by 1 or 2 it's within reason, but double or more of the order? That's a bit much.

On my second round I just wanted a little bit more lamb and beef, so I ordered 1 order of each (should be 10 pieces) but at least 30 slices of lamb and over 10 slices of the beef showed up.

Two orders of watercress looked exactly like the one order. I was pretty annoyed by this time and didn't want to waste time reasoning with them.

HungryPanda and Elephant both ordered plum juice ($2 with free refills) and they said it was good, not a diluted version.

Might give them another chance in six months when they've settled in more and get running more smoothly. The lineups because of the hype is definitely overrated and not worth the wait. Food was very fresh though!