I don’t often do “revisit” posts unless something goes REALLY haywire with a place. Day-to-day stuff I post on Instagram and the bigger, more important, or newsworthy stuff I post here. My second visit to Sen Pad Thai resulted in more thoughts about this place — too much to cram into an Instagram post — so I put it up here. Enjoy.
Continue reading Second Look: Sen Pad Thai at Granville Island
I wasn’t gonna do a blog post about Parallel 49 Brewing Company‘s new Street Kitchen, but another website posted their article on it today (the one with the effusive hyperbole), so hey, fair game, right?
Long story short: ambitious menu, perhaps a bit too complicated for the crowd, great service, servings too small, prices too high.
Continue reading Lunch Quickie: Parallel 49 Brewing Company’s Street Kitchen
Basically ignore every post or review of Joe Pizza you’ve read before late February, cuz after their initial soft-opening phase using Annabelle Choi’s sourdough, they’ve completely reworked their dough recipe on their own, now use commercial yeast, and have lowered prices to the $5-6 range instead of original ~$8; so it’s pretty much a new place as of late February. I went on a Thursday night and while I like it and admire it for what it is, I don’t love it.
For the next while, I will endeavour to eat all the cuisines whose race/culture that the Orange One has insulted or referenced over the past year:
I had some Southern fried chicken at Big Al’s pop-up at The Lion’s Den Cafe recently, so that takes care of African-American for now. I think if I eat at Efendi Uyghur on Kingsway (Globe & Mail review here), that’ll take care of both Muslim and Chinese 😀
For today, I re-visited Molli Cafe to try out their tortas. I tried their tacos before (pretty good) but my torta itch was only lightly scratched with the tortas from TK Sub Cafe so I was hoping Molli Cafe would do a better, more satisfying job.
In short: my stomach was VERY satisfied but the itch for tortas still remains.
We met up with a small group of foodies for dim sum at Chef Tony in Richmond. In attendance was Calgary blogger/Instagrammer Miss Foodie (who helped me out a lot last time I was in Calgary) who was in town for the past week or so, positively eating up a storm. It was mine and Wicca’s first time at the award-winning Chef Tony. This is higher-end dim sum, which puts it in the same bracket as Kirin, Grand Dynasty, etc. But with almost 200 items on the menu, our visit showed that it’s hard to get everything consistently good, not even factoring in individual tastes. Same as with my review of Double Double (which is located in the same plaza, Empire Centre), restaurants usually aren’t entirely good or entirely bad. It’s a bit of a quest to find the right dishes for you, accolades or awards be damned. 😉
The Blind Sparrow on Denman (across the street from Kintaro Ramen) calls themselves “Vancouver’s first gastrotavern”. I fail to see the difference between “gastrotavern” and the more popular term “gastropub”. Let’s see if my visit during their happy hour cuts through the bs and answers the question, “Is this place good enough to return to?”
Continue reading Happy Hour Quickie: Craft Beer & Nibbles at The Blind Sparrow
Price isn’t usually that much of an issue for me unless something jumps out — and jump out it did when I took my family to the new Anh + Chi in the old Pho Hoang space on Main & 18th. I don’t mind paying more for a commensurate increase in quality, technique, freshness, and service…but I’m not sure that what I ate justified the increase in price.
TLDR: Average food with hints of greatness for a premium price.
Continue reading Hip New Vietnamese with a Price Tag to Match at Anh + Chi
Duffin’s Donuts has been a divey institution for ages. In the 90s, they used to be located on Main and 33rd where they did the same combination of donuts and Mexican torta sandwiches. A failed attempt at trying the newish TK Sub Cafe (which apparently was opened up by an ex-employee of Duffin’s) resulted in a trip down to the truck-stop vibe of Duffin’s Donuts at Knight and 41st to try the original taste of Vancouver tortas.
Well-trained but restrained… maybe too restrained.
The first time I went to Farmer’s Apprentice was more than a year ago when I went for brunch. I remember being stimulated more intellectually than gastronomically. Since then, this restaurant has won a few awards and is generally regarded as one of the best restaurants Vancouver has to offer — especially when out-of-towners ask where to eat on Chowhound. Speaking of Chowhound, check out this little discussion of Chef David Gunawan’s new downtown venture with Donnelly Group (!).
Continue reading Well-Trained but Restrained: Farmer’s Apprentice
You know I go on and on and on and on and on about how good Longtail Kitchen in New West is. They just won a VanMag silver award for Best Thai! Anyways, they’re going to be featured on the Food Network Canada show “You Gotta Eat Here!” (Season 4 Episode 15 — airs May 8) and we were invited to the taping last November.
When I wasn’t being all nervous with sweaty pits, I snuck a few pics…
Disclaimer: We were invited to this taping as longtime (heh) customers of Longtail. We didn’t have to pay for any of our food, but then we didn’t get to choose what food we got. And I didn’t get to drink any beer cuz the kegerator wasn’t operating that day 🙁 We have no connection to Longtail other than being regulars and on friendly terms with the chef and staff. We were not paid for participating nor were we coached or told what to say. If this is the extent of me “selling out” as a food blogger, I’m happy with it.
