Every Day Is a Food Day

My 3rd year of school is officially done! For now at least… until summer school begins again. This called for a celebration dinner! Since N and I finished our exams at the same time, we decided to meet up for dinner and J joined along. We went to Burgoo on West 4th since I’ve been craving some comfort food and have been seeing too many of their delicious pictures on Instagram these days.

We got there at around 6:30 pm on a Monday night and the place was quite empty, but it slowly filled up later in the night. Not too busy as I thought, since I’ve heard the place has lineups on busy days. Guess we were lucky!

The decor gives you a very homey atmosphere and definitely works with their comfort food menu. Wood is basically used for all their furniture. The food is classic comfort food but at a slightly higher price, but it’s okay to treat yourself once in a while with good quality comfort food!

Butter Chicken - a savoury spiced tomato cream curry with potato and spinach, finished with cilantro

J got the Butter Chicken, which I was also eyeing on the menu for a while. It was a generous portion filled with tons of chicken and came with a side of choice of rice or naan bread. J got the naan bread and I took a piece to dip in the sauce. Very flavourful and the curry was creamy and filled with spices.

Soup & Sandwich

Crab Bisque - smooth crab and red pepper cream bisque scented with tarragon, finished with chopped parsley

Dos Diablos - two grilled angle cut filone sandwiches with melted spicy white Cheddar, chunks of Chorizo sausage and roasted red pepper

N and I both got the Soup & Sandwich combo. We both got the Crab Bisque for our soup, which I found was a little thicker in consistency than I had imagined for a bisque. The soup was also filled with crab meat in every spoon. Extremely flavourful with the red pepper and almost reminded me of a tomato base soup.

As for our sandwich, we chose different ones, but they ended up looking quite the same. Across from mine, N got the Gooey Cheese Grillers, which were filled with Mozzarella, Gruyere, Emmenthal and White Cheddar. N said it was quite good.

For myself, I got the Dos Diablos. The bread was toasted so it was crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. So good! But I felt like it was also a little oily. Inside my sandwich were White Cheddar, Chorizo sausage and roasted red pepper. I thought it would be a bit spicy, but it actually wasn’t! The cheese was melted so nicely that that you got the stringy effect! That’s a must for a good melted cheese sandwich! Portions were also quite large for the combo and filled me up completely.

At the end, they give you your bill in a dim sum box! How cute. It also came with some candies. Was not expecting Asian cooking-ware at Burgoo!

Overall, I was quite pleased and satisfied with Burgoo. If you’re looking for some comfort and a nice place to hang out, then Burgoo is the place. The prices may be slightly higher for something like comfort food, but the portions are generous. Service was also great as our waitress continued to check up on us and we were able to chat for around 3 hours since it wasn’t busy that night.

Book Kyung Ban Jeom is located on Robson St. where the rest of the Korean restaurants are located. It seems that there is this one little strip that is just filled with Koreans!

 The restaurant is filled with mostly Korean families and young diners. The promotions on the wall are also all in Korean, so you basically don’t know what they are unless you’re Korean. The menu, however, has both English and Korean.

Side Dishes

The side dishes aren’t exactly the ones I prefer. They included yellow daikon and radish in a kimchi-like sauce.

Tang Suyuk

We ordered the Tang Suyuk, which reminded me of the Chinese sweet and sour prok. I believe this actually beef though. The outer layer is thin and crispy and not too greasy. It’s quite a large dish, so great to share. The sauce is thick and gooey, but not more on the sweet side than sour.

Ja Jang Myeon

We each got a Ja Jang Myeon, which is essentially the Ja Jiang Mian that Chinese people eat. However, the sauce and fillings are completely different! It’s a very gooey sauce and filled with lots of onions. I’m not a big fan of onions, so I actually prefer the Chinese style much more. The sauce is also much more focused on the sweet side, rather than the spicy side. An interesting variation!

For our school club’s team dinner, I chose to have it at Suika. It’s located conveniently on Broadway and offers a selection of Japanese tapas, similar to the ones you can find at Guu.

We ordered a bunch of dishes to share, but it was difficult to share with such a large group. I suggest going here with smaller groups since each dish cannot be shared with probably not more than 4 people. Above was something similar to a tartar I’m guessing? I don’t really know since I didn’t order or try it.

Plum Wine

We all got some plum wine and this was sweet and easy to drink. It was really good served over ice.

Deluxe Suika Box - nine kinds of appetizers

I chose to order the Deluxe Suika Box, but unfortantely it is extremely difficult to share. H and I ended up being the only ones who devoured it… It was an assortment of 9 appetizers and was presently really nicely in a box. Some items were marinated lotus root, eggplant, spicy tofu, a few types of fish, something that tasted similar to beef tongue, and also something similar to a cracker with something like cream cheese. I’m not exactly sure what each dish was, but it was exciting to try a bit of everything!

Kakuni Bibimbap - stewed pork belly, sweet dried shrimp & scallions on rice served in a hot stone bowl

We also got the Kakuni Bibimbap, which was full of flavour. The pork belly was an interesting choice for a bibimbap.

Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio - thinly sliced sockeye salmon with sesame soy dressing, yuzu zest, garlic chips & wasabi mayo

I’ve heard great things about the Sockeye Salmon Carpaccio, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. This was really good! The dressing complemented the salmon really well and I would definitely order this again next time.

Chinese Poutine - french fries topped with spicy ground pork sauce, mozzarella, chili oil, sansho and minced cilantro

The name Chinese Poutine really got us curious about what it was and so we ordered it. I don’t really know why it’s called Chinese poutine, but I guess they used some Asian ingredients in it. I’m a fan of poutine, so this was definitely something I enjoyed. It’s got more of a sauce than say the typical cheese curds though. They basically melted mozzarella on the ground pork sauce, but it was very flavourful, and had a hint of spice.

Lightly Smoked Tuna Tataki - with home made chili oil on a bed of sliced onion topped with scallions

I ordered the Lightly Smoked Tuna Tataki and enjoyed this quite a lot. It was lightly seared on the sides and the sauce was different from other restaurants I have tried. It worked well with the fish!

Beef Filet Fried Rice - cured beef & garlic fried rice

The Beef Filet Fried Rice didn’t look like anything special, but it was surprisingly really good. The beef filet was extremely tender and the garlic in the fried rice definitely gave the dish some flavour. Great variation to the typical Chinese fried rice.

Grilled Duck - grilled duck breast with tomato, granny smith apple slices and special sauce (balsamic, soy, butter & Japanese pepper)

I didn’t try the Grilled Duck, but it looked quite delicious. I found that the accompaniments on the side were also quite interesting. Granny smith apples and tomatoes along with duck? I’m actually quite curious now to know what it tasted like.

Asari Yaki Udon - pan fried thick noodles with manila clams & citron pepper

I love a good dish of yaki udon, so I ordered the Asari Yaki Udon. It wasn’t a large portion, but there were a decent amount of manila clams for the portion of noodles we were given. It was extremely flavourful, and the udon were covered evenly with a bit of sauce.

Chicken Kara-age - famous Japanese “o-sho” style deep fried chicken served with sansho jio (Japanese salt & pepper)

I also ordered the Chicken Kara-age, and they were such large pieces of chicken! I would’ve preferred them to be cut into smaller portions so more of us could try it. It also came with a salt and pepper for dipping instead of the typical mayo.I felt like the chicken was covered with more batter than it needed, so it felt like you were eating batter instead of chicken for the most part.

I’m not sure what this was called, but it looks like a Japanese pizza. I never tried it either, so I’m not sure what ingredients are in it.

Someone at the table also ordered some sashimi, which I believe both are some sort of tuna. I tried the one on the right, and it was extremely fresh. I loved how it was topped with some tobiko too.

Tokyo Oxtail Ramen - slowly braised oxtail & noodles in soy broth topped with dried fish powder & scallions

Someone also ordered the Tokyo Oxtail Ramen, which actually looks really delicious! I didn’t try it though, but it looks like it would be full of flavour.

Yukimi Daifuku - green tea & red bean gelato wrapped in sticky rice cake

And onto the desserts! We ordered pretty much every dessert on their menu and decided to share them all. First up was the Yukimi Daifuku. I actually really wanted to try this, but it was extremely difficult to share. It’s like the perfect combination of my two favourites: gelato and sticky rice cake, better known as mochi! I am definitely going to come back here for this.

Almond Tofu - served with blueberry sauce

The Almond Tofu was extremely smooth and delicious. It was like having tofu dessert but with almond flavour! It was also served with a blueberry sauce, but none of us ended up using it since the dessert was already great on its own.

Earl Grey Tea-Creme Brulee

The Earl Grey Tea-Creme Brulee was so delicious! It was basically a creme brulee but infused with earl grey flavour in it. I love variations of typical creme brulees and this one definitely worked!

Japanese Legendary Matcha Tiramisu

The Japanese Legendary Matcha Tiramisu was also delicious. The cake was so fluffy and light, and the matcha was strong in flavour so I loved it. Along with the whipping cream, it was just perfect! I love the Japanese twist they add to these French desserts!

Matcha Brulee - frozen matcha creme brulee with fresh whipped cream & red bean sauce

And then we also got the Matcha Brulee. Okay, so we had an earl grey creme brulee and now a matcha one? Nope! This was a frozen creme brulee! It felt like I was eating matcha ice cream or something! So smooth but icy at the same time. The top was lightly caramelized just as a creme brulee would be. Such an interesting but delicious dessert!

Souffle Cheese Cake - fluffily baked cheese cake w/ brown sugar sauce

Lastly, we had the Souffle Cheese Cake. This was extremely fluffy and light. It reminded me of Japanese cheesecakes as opposed to the typical cheesecakes because of how light it was.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with the food at Suika. They have a normal menu that they have every night, but they also have a menu where they change it up every night. Definitely a great place to share some plates with friends, but probably not in too large of a group. I’m definitely coming back again, whether it be just for the food, or the desserts…Definitely for the desserts though!

Friday night, I went to Ebisu on Robson St. to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The Robson store is not that much different from the one in Richmond, although they seem to have a larger menu as well as drinks.

Chopped Scallop Roll

I got the Chopped Scallop Roll because I pretty much get it at every Japanese restaurant. It was average and nothing too special.

Chicken Karaage - deep fried boneless chicken served with sweet honey-mustard and Cajun mayonnaise

I also got the Chicken Karaage which was a huge portion. They actually have a one person size too, but we got the larger one. The pieces of chicken were much larger than I had expected, but since it was boneless, all was good. The batter was decent, although quite oily. I enjoyed the honey-mustard which tasted a little like plum sauce, and the Cajun mayonnaise was a little spicy.

Hamachi Inferno - yellowtail box pressed in shiso, burdock, shiitake, sesame and sushi rice seared!

Ebisu is famous for their inferno sushi, so I finally decided to try it. They have 3 fishes to choose from: saba, hamachi or toro. I chose the Hamachi Inferno, and it was presented to us raw.

Then the waitress brought over a lighter, and seared the sushi in front of us.  Pretty cool to watch the colour turn.

And here’s the final product! The fish was soft and definitely a different texture from raw hamachi. I found that the sushi rice was a little harder than usual though, but it was definitely something different to eat.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the food and service at the Robson Ebisu. They offer a variety of interesting rolls as well, so their menu is quite extensive.