Mini Munchie: The Coffee Bun, Lonsdale Quay (North Van)

Restaurant: The Coffee Bun
Location: 147 Chadwick Court, North Vancouver
Cuisine: Snack (Korean?)
Price range: $3-8 per bun
Date of visit: August 19, 2012


Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 2.5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

Went on a hike at Lynn Canyon today, and was already eyeing this place when I first walked by it. It's actually located near Lonsdale Quay, right by the SeaBus! I was so excited about seeing that they had something called an ice cream bun, and wanted to try it. I finally succumbed to it after the hike, and I was glad I did!

The Korean lady (owner?) was really friendly there! The shop is a cute little shop, and smelled SOOOO delicious, I just couldn't walk out empty-handed! I ordered the Ice Cream Coffee Bun ($3.50), and when I got it, I was so excited to try. The bun was crispy on the sides, and they used vanilla ice cream for the filling. I was surprised it worked out together so well! Chewy bun, soft vanilla ice cream-- I was in heaven! (Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, since I was really tired and hungry after the hike, but it WAS seriously good, maybe a little on the sweet side)

I told my brother afterwards, and I was informed that there was another one at Henderson mall, guess I'll give that one a try some time too! :D

Munchie Adventure: Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, Kelowna

Kelowna trip!! Before we headed back to Vancouver, we dropped by for a nice breakfast, suggestion made by my dad. When we got inside, we were greeted with a warm smile and a homey old-fashioned restaurant that made me feel good about it already. There were many choices for breakfast, which made the decision hard, plus the fact that it  was pretty early in the morning, and a restless night =P

Restaurant: Perkins Restaurant and Bakery (visit their site here)
Location: 2170 Harvey Avenue, Kelowna
Cuisine: Canadian, Western
Price range: $10-15

Date of visit: August 16, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

We had a lot of time to decide, but I think most of the things we ordered were from a special menu, since I can't seem to find them on the website menu =( But anyways, here's the Omelette Denver ($8.79). I liked the cubed potatoes, they were crispy on the outside and so fluffy soft on the inside. SO GOOD. The omelette wasn't anything special.

It also came with pancakes which came with a ball of butter x.x I scraped it off quickly, and decided it was for the better. They were fluffy and good!

Now this, I really can't find on the menu anymore. It's a special, they only serve it in limited quantities! The Brioche toast with Strawberry Jam ($9.99), it was special toast, and was pretty sweet. The texture of the bread was more chewy than normal toast. The presentation itself made it worth the extra money =) Hash browns were shredded, not as good as the cubed version.

We also ordered a French Toast Combo ($5.99), and it was pretty good. I liked the eggs, they were scrambled well =) Sausage links were a bit oily, but I guess that's just normal. They had marmalade, blueberry jam, and syrup for us in little jars, which was adorable and a great idea, since we could choose what to put on!

I think coffee is complimentary, but we ordered hot water-- which tasted a bit like coffee =( I like this place, but for the price, I'm not sure if I'll do it again. I mean, quality is there, and service is great too, but I know of better deals =P

Munchie Adventure: Dragon King 金源酒家, Kelowna

Trip to Kelowna!! My mom wanted to give this place a try, said we hadn't had Chinese food for our trip yet (we've been having McDonalds haha), so we ended up here! We walked in to a rather empty restaurant, which made us worried. We sat down anyway, and shortly after, tour groups started arriving! We got worried our food would never come if they ordered first, so we quickly tried to flag a waiter down, but wasn't very successful. Finally "two-face" lady (she seriously was two-faced, smiling and all nice to the tour guides, then grump angry face at us and the table beside us, who also wanted to order), took our order and we started our wait... I went to the washroom to wash my hands again, and saw that the tour group tables that arrived after we ordered, were almost done their meal already-- and we still hadn't even gotten one of our dishes D: It took a good 27 minutes for our first dish to arrive, then another 15 for the second... *sigh*

Restaurant: Dragon King 金源酒家 (visit their website here)
Location: 430 Harvey Ave, Kelowna
Cuisine: Chinese
Price range: $10-20 for dinner
Date of visit: August 15, 2012



Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 2.75/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 2.5/5
Buck worthy? 2.5/5

I thought they might've premade some of the food, like the soup we ordered, but guess not? At least it's fresh? Haha! First to finally arrive at our table was the Wor Wonton Soup ($13), it had a bunch of veggies in it and a lot of pork wontons. I think 14-16? So not too bad. Besides the veggies, there was BBQ pork, shrimp, scallop, squid, and chicken in the soup.

Then we got the Shanghai Thick Noodles ($11), which was the best dish out of the bunch. They used authentic thick noodles (not udon, like some restaurants like to cheap out on), which is surprising for a Chinese restaurant in Kelowna (since it's quite traditional). A tad salty, but anyone else would've thought it was great! I'm just a wee tad picky :P

The Honey Garlic Pork ($11) was a disappointment, it was flavored well, and the pork wasn't badly fried, but the meat inside was not juicy at all! Almost like candied meat... didn't like it ><"

I don't know which I disliked more, the pork or this Steamed Seafood with Egg White Tofu ($13). There was so much sauce in it, that it wasn't normal. It was half sauce and half tofu... OUT OF PROPORTION!!! *freaks out* we ended up with a lot of way-too-thick-sauce, no tofu, but bits of seafood to pick out of the sauce cuz we don't waste any food (unless it's turned bad of course)...

If two-faced lady weren't so two faced, I'd rate better for the staff service, since there were friendly staff, who were helpful. Guess she favors tours over our little bill =.=; Which is unfair, many restaurants treat all customers equally, regardless of how much their bills are!! Maybe cuz both us and the table beside us are Chinese and she's racist against her own race, cuz she seemed nice to the other people there too... I don't remember ever pissing her off so >.> The dishes were decently sized though, so it kind of "equalized" the long wait and quality? (Although quality isn't something I really wanna give up for quantity haha) But next time is time to try some place else!

Munchie Adventure: Cattle Cafe 牛仔餐廳 (Metrotown Location), Burnaby

Had to bring in the car for an oil change, so we decided to try this place, since I've been wanting to try it for so long! We were worried once we walked in, since there were so many people waiting already!! We wrote down our name, and hoped for the best. The wait actually wasn't that long.

Restaurant: Cattle Cafe 牛仔餐廳 (visit their website here)
Location: 4885 Kingsway, Burnaby
Cuisine: Chinese cafe
Price range: <$10-$15 for lunch
Date of visit: August 10, 2012



Atmosphere: 3.5/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3.75/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

First off, my lunch! I got the fish noodles ($6.95), which I've been wanting to try to such a long time!! And they weren't disappointing at all!

Very chewy, and flavored well, I just thought they were a bit thick. I was full after like 3 noodles, and there were about 8-10 in my bowl (it seems like very little, but they're really filling and they were really long!) The soup was a bit spicy for me, but for those who like things a little spicy, it's great!

My brother got the Laksa ($7.95), which you can actually choose your own ingredients, but he just picked the one shown on the picture (which was two extra ingredients, each for $1 extra, so his ended up as $9.95). It was spicy, and the fish puffs weren't very good, but soup base was delicious and the noodles went well with the soup.

My mom got the "DIY" noodles ($7.95), which is the same as my brother's but she chose different soup base and ingredients. She got the fish soup, fried fish cake and fish tofu (very fishy, yes :P). IT was a bit bland, and usually I never say something is not salty enough, but this was. We mixed some of my brother's soup into it, and totally changed it for the better haha.

Now, the drinks. I got the lemon Ribena ($2.75), cuz it looked cool, and it was pretty cool when it came!! Not disappointed, but since our food didn't come with free drinks, not sure if I wanna pay money for my drink every time xD They do have meals, I just really wanted those fish noodles, so I didn't get the meal xD (meals are around $9.75 anyways)

Overall, will go back and try more stuff!! Only downsides are the lack of space (it's a small restaurant) and the "Cash only" rule. Otherwise, very good, I loved the food I got, so I felt the wait for it was worth it! Really wanna try their hot pot, but it's only offered at night, so maybe I'll go one day for dinner! *excited little girl* hehehe

Munchie Adventure: Top Shanghai Cuisine 上海一只鼎, Richmond

Went go-karting for the first time in my life with SW and JC!! It was pretty fun, but next time, I'll see if I can gather enough friends to rent out the race instead of having aggressive strangers hit me haha After that we decided to go to a Shanghai restaurant nearby, since I went there with family a few times before and it was good. However... things didn't turn out as pretty this time around, I'm actually quite disappointed in them :(

Restaurant: Top Shanghai Cuisine 上海一只鼎 (view their menu here)
Location: 5880 No. 3 Road, Richmond
Cuisine: Shanghai
Price range: $15-25 per person for dinner
Date of visit: August 8, 2012



Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 1/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

To be fair, there was one, ONE nice lady working there. So the story goes like this: I made reservations earlier for 8pm, so when we got there, she gave me the table that just emptied. Quick service, like it. Then we think of things to order, and try to flag someone down to take our order (first lady disappeared somewhere)-- we were totally IGNORED! It took like 15 minutes at least to finally get someone to take our order, so it was already around 8:30pm... We chat for a while, the nice lady shows up to clean the table beside us, and is surprised to see we still weren't eating! She asked if we ordered yet, and if anything was wrong, but we just put in our order, so we told her we were fine. Tick Tock Tick Tock... OH! It's 9pm now! And NONE of our food has arrived =.= So we try to flag someone down, which took a lot of effort... and another 10 minutes. The waiter goes in and comes back telling us we never ordered anything. WHAT???? I wanted to leave then. But we re-ordered everything since he said it would be a rushed order and placed first. We finally got the food... and well... guess when dessert showed up.. >.>

Here's the food though (most of them were too oily for my liking, but the taste was really good)

The first to arrive was the appetizer, which consisted of crushed tofu and veggies. It was a cold dish, and very good! A bit salty though.

When you're at a Shanghai restaurant, you have to get steamed Shanghai dumplings. It's almost a must. (for me anyways) And this place makes some very good steamed dumplings, they came very fresh and so JUICY!! Not a bad price either ($4.95 for 6)

Ah... guess what shows up next at our table? (I thought they'd be sensible enough to not do this) Our dessert showed up. And it wasn't that good anyways... so not worth $9.95 for 6 >.> Better at other places haha!

Next came a fish dish (haha it rhymes!), it wasn't bad, my friend really liked it. I thought it was a bit saucy, but flavored well. Would've been really good with rice!

Pan fried pork buns, kinda looked squished, but it was juicy, the buns were kinda soggy from the juices, so it's getting a "meh" xD

Last dish! My favs at Shanghai places, stir fried egg whites with seafood (I don't think this one had seafood in it)-- It's supposed to taste like crab, but the eggs were overcooked, so not as good as I liked them. :(

I still remember that luke-warm tap water they gave us, whatever that waiter was thinking, I don't think I'll ever understand.

Overall, this wasn't worth the $22 I had to pay, we didn't tip either, since the service was so bad...and not all the food was spectacular. Despite them having a great selection of food (over 300 items), maybe they should concentrate on customer service and less dishes instead.