Every Day Is a Food Day

The Boathouse in Port Moody is in an isolated area right by the water. It’s got a really nice view and is much nicer and larger than the one in Richmond.

Thai Crab Cakes - lemon aioli & mango salsa

The crab cakes were crunchy on the outside and moist in the inside. The mango salsa gave it a little zest and along with the lemon aioli, they made a great appetizer.

The lobster came with a lemon hot drawn butter, but I found that the butter kept condensing really quickly. It became too thick and wasn’t that great for dipping.

1.5 lb. Live Atlantic Lobster Dinner - simply steamed, served with lemon hot drawn butter

The lobster was steamed and came with some veggies and potatoes. It was extremely difficult to eat though, because they literally just steamed the whole lobster and served it to us without cutting it apart. We had so much trouble eating it that we had to get our server to take it back to the chef to cut it open.

Mocha Ice Cream Pie - chocolate ganache & maple almonds

Lastly for dessert, we got the mocha ice cream pie, which reminded me of a fancier dairy queen ice cream cake. The top was ice cream, and the bottom was a cookie crust that was similar to oreos. It was then topped with whipping cream and maple almonds with a chocolate and raspberry sauce at the bottom. I enjoyed the ice cream a lot, but I wasn’t a big fan of the cookie crust since I found it too sweet.

Overall, the restaurant and service is great at the Port Moody location. However, I didn’t think that the food was anything spectacular. It is a great place to have a nice, relaxing dinner though.

Located in central Richmond, HML Seafood Restaurant has been here for quite some time now. I’m pretty sure I’ve ate here before in the past too, but my memory of dim sum restaurants are always faint since I’m not a big fan of it. We usually make turkey every year for Thanksgiving, but we were really lazy this year. I mean, it’s literally a whole day in the kitchen preparing for that big day. So lazy of us…but we decided to go out to eat instead. And since my mother is obsessed with Chinese food, of course she chose a Chinese restaurant.

My parents had recently gone to HML Seafood Restaurant with their friends for dinner. My mother told me that their dim sum is definitely no good, and they had only tried their dinner menu for the first time last time. She was surprised that it was actually pretty good, especially at the amazing value and price. They have a few promotions, and when they ate out last time, they had the lobster meal, which included 6lbs of lobster along with 3 dishes for only $98! What a deal! They said that the portions were large and the dishes weren’t too bad, so off we went.

The restaurant was pretty packed, and literally every table had lobster. I’m guessing everyone was taking advantage of this lobster promotion since it’s probably only available for a limited time. This deal is perfect for 4 if you want to be extremely full, or for 5, which is what we did, and we were still pretty full!

Specialty Chicken (half)

We started off with our first dish of Specialty Chicken. I have to say that the dishes seemed to be a little smaller than at other restaurants, but for this deal, it’s still a pretty good value. These dishes are normally $9.99 if you get them separately which is also a promotion they are having. The chicken wasn’t too tough and it was flavourful. Not bad.

Deep Fried Squab

And then we had Deep Fried Squab. This came in 4 pieces, basically the whole squab. It was hot and the skin was fried to perfection. It was crispy and the meat was flavourful.

6lbs of Lobster!

And of course our main dish - the lobster! You can choose to add noodles underneath for an additional price, but we chose not to. It was presented nicely, and each piece was filled with meat. The sauce was also flavourful, but not too strong. I thought it was just right. There’s actually so much lobster that you get pretty filled up. And the service was actually pretty good. They changed my plate at least 3 times, as opposed to some restaurants that only do it once, so I was pretty impressed.

Deep Fried Egg Tofu Topped with 3 Kinds of Mushroom

Last but not least, we had the Deep Fried Egg Tofu Topped with 3 Kinds of Mushroom. This was one of my favourite dishes. I loved the egg tofu, since it’s extra smooth compared to normal tofu. My mom also said that it’s a difficult dish to make at home because of the amount of oil you need to deep fry these tofu. So delicious though and it was great to have some vegetables after all that lobster meat. It was perfect to pair with a bowl of white rice. Yum!

Overall, HML is not bad for dinner. I read many reviews saying that it’s not that great, and I’m pretty sure dim sum isn’t great here, since my mother repeatedly told me that. But if you catch their promotions for the lobster, I think it’s worth it to give it a try. You can’t expect to have anything magnificent here, but you definitely get what you paid for!

Cup of Granville Island White Clam Chowder

Salmon Burger - Pan-fried salmon with cajun spices & homemade tartar sauce

Tony’s Famous Fish & Chips (Cod)

We went boating this summer at Granville Island, which was so much fun! After that, we wanted to grab something to eat, and we ended up at Tony’s Fish & Oyster Cafe. It’s located right at the entrance to Granville Island, and it’s pretty packed. We had to wait a bit, and even then, we only got to sit by the bar, which was pretty cramped with the number of us. I wasn’t too hungry, so decided to get the Cup of Granville Island Clam Chowder. Funny thing was, I just had the clam chowder at Ceili’s Pub recently, and sadly, I thought the one at the pub was better… Not that this one wasn’t good, but it lacked ingredients and just wasn’t amazing or anything. I’ve had better, and the one at Ceili’s actually had tons of clams and vegetables. I found this one to be overpriced for the portion, and the lack of ingredients. This is definitely a tourist restaurant so it makes sense for their price.

My foodie friends, Steph, Mica and I :)

So many crabs in the tank!

Crab Poutine

Seafood Spring Rolls

Deep Fried Mussels with Crunchy Fries - paprika spice, lemon

After watching a video of the construction of Crab King, hearing all the good comments about it, and even walking by a few times and always telling my friends we would try it next time, I finally tried it on a nice sunny day! Crab King is located on the boardwalk of Steveston Village, and is apparently supposed to be floating, but it wasn’t exactly “floating” as I had imagined. Crab King is also sort of a self serve place. You place your order at the front, and then you take a numbered sign with you to the table of your choice. Then, they bring the food to you.

Steph, Mica and I wanted to try a bit of everything, so we decided to share three plates. First up, the Crab Poutine we had all been talking about! It was basically a plate of fries topped with crab pieces and layered with cheese and gravy. Interestingly, the cheese wasn’t like the cheese curd that we usually see in poutines at New York Fries and such, but it was much more stringy and I actually preferred this much more. The amount of crab was also not too shabby, so it was definitely a good dish. Next up, we got the Seafood Spring Rolls. I couldn’t exactly taste the seafood in it, but I thought they tasted better than some of the Vietnamese spring rolls I’ve had. Not bad! And lastly, I wanted to try the Deep Fried Mussels, which came with what they called “Crunchy Fries”. We asked the cashier why they were called crunchy fries since they also had something on the menu just called normal fries, but he just laughed and said “to make it sound more special” or something along those lines. Interesting… Anyways, the mussels were pretty interesting since they were “deep fried”. They tasted pretty much the same as normal mussels, but were a little more crispy on the edges. The paprika gave it a nice flavour, and along with the lemon, had some zesty flavour to it. As for the fries, definitely not anything different than those normal fries. Tasted just like any other fries.

Crab King is definitely a nice place to grab some boardwalk food if you’re in Steveston Village, and is a great option other than the typical Pajos Fish and Chips that we often get. It’s got an amazing view by the water and is breezy on a nice summer day!

Pan Fried Oysters - chili lime aïoli, tobiko

Island Club - shrimp & crab salad, bacon, guacamole

Blue Shell Mussels - steamed with coconut red curry sauce

It was finally a nice sunny day in Vancouver last Friday, and a day off for me, so of course I had to go out to enjoy the weather. I hadn’t gone to Granville Island in a very long time, so off I went to look for food. Granville Island’s market itself has tons of food stalls and fresh food, but we ended up at The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant. We chose to sit outside since it was such a nice day out (although it did get gloomy very fast), but they had a fireplace in the outdoor patio, which kept us very warm. They also have little blankets for you if it gets too cold. It was definitely a place with great service and of course, a great view.

We started off with the Pan Fried Oysters, which came with tobiko and an ailoi sauce. I thought it was just decent, and not anything amazing. I found it a little dry. I tried a bit of the Island Club too, which I thought was pretty good. I really liked the shrimp and crab filling and there were quite a lot of it too. And for myself, I had the Blue Shell Mussels. The mussels were tiny, but very fresh and sweet. It had a nice coconut red curry sauce that wasn’t too spicy, but strong in coconut flavour.

The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant definitely has got good food, especially if you’re looking for seafood. And of course a wonderful view and service! Highly recommend!