DOV 2018: YEW, fantastic fish dishes!

Restaurant: YEW (visit their website here)

Location: 791 West Georgia Street, Vancouver
Cuisine: Seafood, Canadian
Dineout Price: $40

Date of visit: January 22, 2018
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 5/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

For date night, we decided to revisit YEW since their Dine Out was so enjoyable last year. Sadly, we weren't able to try all three options available, though I saw other people order the scallop, beef, and cookies n' cream dessert-- all looked equally delicious.




We were started with some bread and a lobster spread (didn't get the name, only heard lobster and olive oil). It was delicious! Reminded me of a tuna paste but with some lobster and in the form of a mousse-like concoction.

Couldn't resist also ordering some oysters ($3.75 each), they had Paradise Cove rotating through this evening. These were medium sized, plump, and fresh. Briny and creamy with a sweet finish. Yum! It came with fresh horseradish, a red wine vinaigrette, and hot sauce.

Appetizers

Tiger Prawn Ceviche
peppers, red onions, lemon, coriander
The funny thing about this was that I actually got the vegan version first! I dug around trying to find my beautiful prawns...to no avail. Our server promptly brought me the right dish after this was flagged.

I enjoyed this bright dish, it was light and tangy with fresh veggies and large prawns. Some of the butter lettuce pieces were larger than bite-sized, but easily folded to fit a mouthful.

Salmon Gravlax
cucumber, avocado, toasted sesame, tamarind sauce
Adorables started on this dish first and he was quite impressed. The salmon was smoked and the flavors of the tamarind sauce enhanced the creamy avocado. Just the right amount to start our meal.

Entrees

Steelhead Salmon
brussels sprouts, pickled daikon, bonito consommé
This dish won my heart. The salmon was so perfectly cooked it melted in my mouth. Upon first entry, it has a crispy exterior and buttery salmon inside. Brussels sprouts and consomme felt a little detached to the dish, as if it could've been there or not. Tasty nonetheless.

Ling Cod
parsnip chiboust, winter vegetables, Jerusalem artichokes
Every year we seem to order both fish options for our mains, so here's the other. Still beautifully cooked, this ling cod was full of rich fish flavor of its own. It was falling apart a bit though. Exterior was golden and crispy.

Desserts

Pistachio Cherry Tart
brandy soaked cherries, crème Anglaise, sweet butter crust
As I've noticed, pistachio seems to be a common choice of ingredient this year for dineout. The plating of this dish was so elegant and beautiful. Aside from the brandy soaked cherries, which I don't like to begin with, this was a delicious dessert. Not too sweet, the pistachio concoction atop the sweet butter crust created a wonderful combination of textures and flavors.

Earl Grey Chocolate Mousse
38% milk chocolate, orange gelée
The star of the show goes to this dish. I mean, look at the sparkles on it! Although a small piece it was rich, creamy, and just the right amount. The earl grey was prominent in the mousse and not overpowered by chocolate. The base itself was dense but also had crispy bits in it! A wonderful surprise in textures. We both felt it was amazing because it wasn't overly sweet and strong in tea flavor.

And thus concludes another memorable Dine Out experience at YEW for us. They ended our meal with some complimentary financiers-- chewy on the outside and fluffy moist cake on the inside. I loved them, and even ate Adorables' share (only half,  I let him have a bite). 

Aside from the food, service is always attentive and friendly. A solid choice every year!

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)

Neptune Chinese Kitchen: Great disappointment to the chain

We heard there was a new restaurant from the Neptune group near our turf, so I brought my parents out to try it! It's located off United Boulevard at the Hard Rock Casino. Lots of free parking near the outside entrance of the restaurant.

Restaurant: Neptune Chinese Kitchen (visit their website here)

Location: 2080 United Boulevard, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Chinese, Seafood, Dim Sum
Price range: $15+/person



Date of visit: April 26, 2017
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

Looking at the menu, they're on the expensive side for a Chinese dim sum/ cafe style restaurant. They offer lots of menu options, such as dim sum and set menus for 4 to 10 people. Interior is brightly lit and looked clean, with some tint to the windows so that the sun doesn't blind us from outside. Rather quiet when we were there, only about 2-3 other tables around lunch time.

We couldn't find some items on the menu we wanted in mind, but the waitress was wonderfully friendly, explained where items were, and it felt homey because of her. We got their Two Kinds of BBQ Meat ($19.95) and chose BBQ Duck and Honey BBQ Pork. This is typically one of their signature items. I'm surprised they could serve us this dish for that price. The duck was lukewarm and barely any good pieces. Otherwise the seasoning and meat met average standards. Super fatty and only a quarter duck. The BBQ Pork-- I don't even know if it was meat. It was so over-tenderized and seasoned that the texture was no longer meat. It was super salty, dry, and hard.

Another staple is congee, so we ordered an Assorted Meat Congee ($8.95) which had pork stomach, liver, kidney, and meatball. It was not very salty, which is good for our health, but nothing was marinated either. Liver, kidney, and stomach should have been marinated lightly for the congee but they were bland. The meatball didn't have any bounce to it either, so soft and mushy. The congee base was disappointing too, perhaps Hon's does a better job than them.

Our final dish was the Pork Hock with Tossed Noodle ($10.95). This was a generous portion of noodles and it comes with a side soup to go with the noodles. There's some lettuce on the side and a good couple pieces of pork hock. Pork hock was done well, flavors soaked into the pieces of soft, tender hock. Noodles were too sticky and didn't have the proper bite to them. Soup was intensely salty, which if mixed with the noodles (traditionally meant to be drank while having these noodles, not mixed), was decent and helped cut the sticky feel to the noodles.

This totally killed our mood for the day, but the sunshine and beautiful cherry blossoms helped lift it back up! For the price we paid, we could've fed six people at dim sum. Service was good, but food missed the mark. By a lot. I hope they fix themselves as the restaurant continues into full swing, since it IS pretty new (a month old now?)