La Notte: Gelati is plural for Gelato?!

Finally have a chance to come here on another fine Tuesday for $8.99 pasta! =D Really close to UBC (aka far away for me) but cheap pasta, why not give it a try?

Restaurant: La Notte (visit their website here)

Location: 3307 Dunbar Street, Vancouver
Cuisine: Italian
Price range: $10-$20





Date of visit: November 5, 2013
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3.5/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

Started off with some focaccia bread, it was a bit cold by the time we got down to nom nom on it, since KW and LZ arrived earlier (I was a WEE late). Still quite good, a bit hard by the time I got to it =(

Moving on, KW ordered a Proscuitto E Melone ($9.00), which was interesting because I've usually had it paired with melon and not cantaloupe. The cantaloupe wasn't very fresh, had a wine-y taste to it but the proscuitto was decent. Together it wasn't a memorable dish. But YES. Those grape-looking things at the end were full olives! Very strong taste, but interesting.

The main attraction, pasta! Bonnishii and LZ both ordered Fettuccine Alla Veneziana ($8.99- Regularly $15.00). It was deliciously rich and creamy (I sneaked a bite), with a few decently sized prawns. Bonnishii said it was a bit much near the end because it was so rich, but otherwise delish!

KW wanted to try their basics and ordered a Spaghetti Bolognese ($8.99- Regular $14.00). Very tomatoey, and had nice chunks of ground beef. Pasta was al dente and overall I liked how the flavors worked out. But then again, it WAS just your typical spaghetti bolognese. They just didn't' mess it up xD

I've been on this clam-addiction lately, and just can't get enough! Ordered a Linguine Alle Vongole ($8.99- Regularly $15.00). There were indeed whole and baby clams, which weren't very flavorful at all. They were rather chewy and bland =/ Definitely a disappointment for me. Not much wine taste in the sauce either, although it was far less rich than Bonnishii and LZ's pasta. I managed to stuff it all in me, which says something about the portion size. Either way, pasta was great, clams not so much, and it wasn't overly oily (not too light either!).

To finish off the night, there's desserts of course! We were confused about the "Gelati" ($6.00 I believe... forgot the price), turns out it was PLURAL for Gelato!! (Learn something new every day!) Anyways, there were a few options, and we decided on the one with three flavors. Pistachio (tasted like medicine), Vanilla (Had dried fruits and nuts in it which diminished the experience), and Hazelnut (which was surprisingly not like Nutella, and was the best part of the Gelati). Oh! Our servers were very friendly and helpful, brownie points for them! ^-^

LZ went with tradition and ordered a piece of Tiramisu ($7.00). She felt the cake layer was overly soaked in coffee and negatively impacted her overall experience. Otherwise your typical Tiramisu.

Bonnishii's impression of me while I was nibbling on that focaccia bread xD

For this price I was ok with coming here, although for a bit more at La Trattoria, I feel I would pay the extra bit for better quality food. La Notte give a very homey feel and is more casual though. So depending on what environment you're looking for, its a decent pasta place. Me? I don't see myself returning. #notafoodsnob #Ijusthavehigherexpectations Toodles~ <3

Munchie Adventure: Sun Sushi, Vancouver

So SW and I were thinking of dinner, but since neither of us had cash on us, we needed to find somewhere that accepted credit. This was the result.

Restaurant: Sun Sushi (visit their website here)
Location: 4512 W. 10th Avenue, Vancouver
Cuisine: Japanese
Price range: <$10




Date of visit: May 27, 2013
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 1/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

Gotta say, the waitress didn't give very good service, I felt like I was unwanted there. Not good. Anyways.

Well known for their cheap sushi, I didn't set my hopes too high. SW ordered the Maki Special ($5.95)-- I forgot what it really is called, something along the lines of that xD It was a good deal, three giant rolls for that price. But here, quantity >>> quality. The yam tempura roll was hot. Although the yam was yummy. The overall roll was . . . lacking. 

Moooving on. I ordered a Nigiri Chicken Teriyaki Box ($8.95). Very disappointed. Sushi rice was warm, chicken teriyaki was too salty (not to mention the chicken was too thin and cooked so dryly-- like chicken jerky), and I don't like my California rolls made with a whole stick of imitation crab, just one of my pet peeves =/ Tempura was also super oily. Overall bad impression.

SW and I also shared a Spider Roll ($8.95) which was the best thing of the meal (not that it was amazing, but in comparison to the rest of the stuff). There was a lot of crab in it, but the warm rice just didn't work for me.

Nope. Not going back. Time to move on to better things xD

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