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Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts

Friday, December 24, 2010

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka 山頭火

1690 Robson St
Vancouver, BC V6G 1C7
Map | Website

Service: Interior Atmosphere: Pricing:

After hearing all the good things about this new ramen restaurant, I finally gave it a try. As expected, the place was packed at around 8pm on a cold rainy weekend, I guess that's the perfect time to have noodle soup! Their soup bases feature tonkotsu (pork bone) so its creamy, light colored and nutritious. Overall, the ramen here is tasty (a bit too oily for me) but I wouldn't purposely come all the way out just to have this ramen though..


Miso Ramen ~ $8
The flavour of the miso ramen (compared to the shio ramen) is too salty. First spoon might be okay, but after eating the rest of the noodles it's way too salty – ironically 'shio' which means salt wasn't as salty by far. It's got a strong miso flavour so it differs from the miso ramen from Kintaro.


Shio Ramen & gyoza ~$9
I'd have to say this was a solid bowl of ramen, the pork (chasiu) was very tasty and had an appropriate amount of fat attached to it. The noodles are a bit stringy compared to what I'm used to. Unfortunately, the soup has a distinctive layer of oil on it which makes me not want to drink the soup.

Other Input:
Hokkaido Ramen Santouka on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Hakone Sushi

80 Keefer Place (by Stadium/Tinseltown)
Vancouver, BC V6B 0C9
Map

Service: Interior Atmosphere: Pricing:

Located just across the street from Tinseltown, this is the only sushi place near Chinatown. The restaurant is tiny and pretty busy during lunch time. I have to say the only things worth eating here are their california rolls and negitoro rolls. Their dynamite roll was appalling (sorry I don't have a photo of it right now) with soggy prawn tempura and mushy rice. I only came here to eat because there aren't any other sushi restaurants around that was walking distance from Chinatown. I probably won't come here unless I had a major craving for negitoro rolls...


Negitoro roll, salmon roll, miso soup ~ $8
The only thing I like from this place was the negitoro roll, its arranged in a flower shape! The salmon roll was expensive for what it was so I definitely won't order that again.

Other Input:
Hakone Sushi on Urbanspoon

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Donburiya

#5-1329 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

Service: Interior Atmosphere: Pricing:

This is a tiny take-out style restaurant situated where Ezogiku Noodle Cafe used to be. They serve a range of small- medium sized ramen bowls, rice bowls, and the usual sushi. I'm not sure exactly why people would come here since there are so many more proper, quality ramen restaurants in the area. I wasn't impressed by their offerings, but I was craving some takoyaki so that's what I ordered. I probably won't come here again unless I was desperate for food and all the other places are too crowded.

Donburiya
Takoyaki 10pcs ~$6
Your standard size/flavour of takoyaki. It didn't have the extra condiments such as seaweed flecks or bonito flakes.

Others' Input:
Donburiya on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Benkei Ramen Noodle Shop (弁慶 ラメン)

1741 Robson St
Vancouver, BC V6G1C9
Tel: (604) 688-6980
Fax: (604) 681-6633

Service: Interior Atmosphere: Pricing:

I tried this place one month after it opened in January 2008. They got our orders mixed up, the broth was SUPER OILY, and didn't have any taste besides being overly salty. The meats were super fatty and thinly sliced. Gyoza's were laughable. The only thing that was good was the barbeque pork onigiri flavoured with soy sauce. Ever since that experience, I've avoided coming back because it was so horrible .

So now, 2 years later, I've returned to see if its any good... I'll have to say its alright, but I probably won't go back again.. unless other people I'm with want to try it. I find their broth to be a bit on the overly-oily side.

Benkei Ramen Shio Tonkotsu
Shio Tonkotsu Ramen ~ $7
This is their more popular flavour, and it tastes quite smooth. On their menu, it says this flavour being good for women's skin because its got a lot of collagen (from the pork bone). The taste of this tonkotsu ramen comes second to the one from Kenzo Ramen.

Benkei Ramen Shoyu
Shoyu Ramen ~$7
The soup broth was slightly saltier than what I would like it would be. Their Chashu was good! Their bamboo shoot didn't taste as well with the noodles. The green onions tasted good in it.

Others' Input:
Benkei Ramen Noodle Shop on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Italian Kitchen

1037 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 1A1
Tel: (604) 687-2858‎

Service: Interior Atmosphere: Pricing:

A bustling contemporary Italian restaurant located just a block from Burrard Station has excellent staff and atmosphere. Glasses were always filled, and the hostess offered our group some complimentary bruschetta while we were waiting for a table. This place is packed during dinner times and its highly recommended that you make reservations. The lighting inside was quite dim, so it wasn't easy to take photos of the food.

Italian Kitchen:

Italian Kitchen: Bruschetta Sampler
Bruschetta Sampler $12
chick pea, pesto burrata, tomato basil
This was interesting, to have so many different flavours on the same bread. Personally I liked the tomato basil flavour, but others liked the pesto burrata more. This was pretty yummy, and a very good appetizer to share with others .

Italian Kitchen: Crispy Fried Calamari
Crispy Fried Calamari $11
spicy sicilian tomato sauce
I was not impressed with this, the photo makes the bowl looks smaller than it actually is because the portion size was quite generous. The texture of the squid was quite soft and easy to chew, but the taste was very normal (peppered batter) resembling the deep-fried squid you can order at dimsum. In fact, they tasted so similar that I wouldn't have noticed if they replaced each other, but the price certainly is not the same. The sauce is the only thing that makes them different. (It even looks the same...)

Italian Kitchen: Kobe Meatballs
Kobe Meatballs $1 !
We had a coupon that entitled our table to these complimentary kobe meatballs. These were quite tasty, and spicy, but didn't really taste spectacular or anything. The tomato sauce gave it a kick but other than that I did not find these memorable except for their size since each of them were around 2" in diameter.

Italian Kitchen: Hand-Rolled Gnocchi
Hand-Rolled Gnocchi $16
roasted tomato, basil cream
The photo makes the bowl look small when in reality it was quite large. Overall good gnocchi.

Italian Kitchen: Pepperoni Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza $14
oven dried tomatoes, mozzarella, oregano
This hearty pizza packs a punch in taste. Crust was good and the yellow tomatoes were a nice touch.

Italian Kitchen: Quattro Formaggio "Bianco" Pizza
Quattro Formaggio "Bianco" Pizza $14
caciocavallo, fontina, asiago, buffalo mozzarella
Yummy yummy yummy! They did not skimp out on the four cheeses as you can see this pizza is loaded! It totally melts in your mouth at each bite and if you like cheese, especially mozzarella, then this pizza is for you! It's just delicious! You must try this!!

Italian Kitchen: Pappardelle Lamb Sausage
Papperdelle Lamb Sausage $16
cabbage, potatoes, peperoncino, olive oil
Pretty good pasta where the lamb doesn't taste too gamey. The potatoes were a surprise since they're not usually found in pasta like this.

Italian Kitchen: Caprese Salad
Caprese Salad $13
buffalo mozzarella, amorosa tomatoes, basil
I totally did not expect their caprese salad to look like this, with barely any basil. In Italy, all the caprese salads/panini have ample basil with the buffalo mozzarella (bocconcini) in thick circular slices. Here as you can see, the cheese is all mushy and there's barely any greens. With that said, this salad still tasted good but could have been perfect if it had more basil (at the very least have 3 or 4 leaves..) The red and yellow tomatoes were especially yummy, fresh and juicy. The olive oil they used was also exceptionally good too. Overall, I enjoyed eating this but the lack of basil really disappointed me. Otherwise I the taste was good enough to bring me back to my days eating in Italy.

Italian Kitchen: Vanilla Gelato
Vanilla Gelato $7
amarena cherries, chocolate biscotti
Doesn't it look pretty? Reasonable portions for delicious gelato! The biscotti was pretty good too.

Italian Kitchen: Tiramisu
Tiramisu $7
mascarpone mousse, espresso soaked lady fingers, mocha crème anglaise
Light, fluffy, and soft, this was probably the softest tiramisu I've ever had. The texture is in between that of whipped-cream and mousse. The taste was not too sweet or bitter, making this cake effortless to devour. Yummy yummy!! It's probably one of the best tiramisu I've had in Vancouver.


Others' Input:
Italian Kitchen on Urbanspoon