Meet Fresh–Downtown Vancouver

Meet Fresh serves Chinese style hot and cold desserts.  They opened up on Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver.

It was rather busy. It was a small so not much seating was available.  This is the type of dessert you can order:

They had about 3 people preparing the food at the counter.

Here is their menu with pictures of the dessert:

We ordered the red bean taro ball dessert with fresh taro, red beans and pearls.

This one is the the same except it has sweet potato, barley and pearls as options.  The black balls are the pearls, and they are sort of like tapioca you can find in bubble tea.

Both were served luke warm which was terribly disappointed.  Furthermore, there were hardly any red bean paste at all.  Apparently they scooped up our orders from the bottom of the barrel.  The desserts ordered by people after us received a steaming hot dessert, with the bowl full of toppings compared to ours.

We were very disappointed at the quality of these $10 desserts served to us in particular because it was obvious to us that we were treated differently.  We would not have minded to wait for a fresh pot of dessert, but why give us the bottom of the barrel crap?

We do not recommend and will not be coming back.

SFDD gives 1 out of 5 Delights.

Delicious Pho–Downtown Vancouver

We walked by Delicious Pho several times in the past and finally had a chance to try it out during Canada Day.  They are located on the east side of Robson street a couple of blocks away from the library.

The restaurant is rather spacious and clean.  We got there for a late lunch during Canada day so there was plenty of seating.

We started with a grilled chicken roll. 

It had large pieces of chicken inside with lettuce and vermicelli for filling.  It also came with a big serving of dipping sauce.  This was under the specialty roll section where you can choose the meat (chicken, pork, pork patty, beef).

We ordered soup-less vermicelli bowl with prawn and grilled pork.

It was a large serving.  You get three pieces of prawn and a bunch of pork.  The pork was cooked well and not burned.  Prawns were a bit bland though but that was an easy fix with the included fish sauce dip.

Next we ordered a small bowl of pho with sliced steak.

The soup was superb rich with flavour compared to a few other places we’ve been to recently.  The beef also came rare like it should, so that it can slowly cook itself in the hot soup.

Despite being downtown, the prices here are very reasonable.  The service was fast and straight forward.  Delicious Pho will certainly be our go to place when craving for Vietnamese cuisine downtown.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Ramen Danbo - Robson St

While taking a stroll down Robson St, we got a little hungry and noticed a line up of people outside a rather new ramen shop.  We decided to give it a try since the line up was not too long.

Danbo’s menu:

If you are ordering ramen, you have many options to choose from compared to other ramen shops.  Here, you must choose the denseness of noodles, the thickness of soup and noodles, even the fattiness of the pork and soup, and finally the spiciness.

We started off with gyoza:

The gyoza was pan fried to a light crisp.  It has pork filling and was done quite well.

This is the classic ramen:

For the options, we chose normal for everything.  The soup was very good and not overly salty.  The noodle texture was perfect while the pork was very tender.  If you are craving for more, you can request more noodles for a small charge:

We enjoyed our visit to Danbo because the food was great and also the seating arrangement was very comfortable.  The restaurant did not feel overly crowded nor was it stuffy even though it was a full house.  The servers were all Japanese and they were very friendly.

We definitely recommend you try it out if you were craving for Ramen after doing your downtown shopping.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Caffe Artigiano - Downtown Vancouver

There are a few different locations of Caffe Artigiano downtown.  We visited the one across from the Vancouver Art Gallery.  We picked up some macaroons next door at Faubourg before ordering drinks here at Artigiano.

We sat in the patio which extends across between the 2 shops.  The patio is rather spacious and it was a nice day so it was preferred than indoors at Artigiano.  The coffee shop was rather dark and stuffy so it was not comfortable to be sitting inside.  It was not as comfortable as the Main street location.

We ordered a latte:

It was done with style with the usual nice latte art floating on top.  It has a strong bold flavour that was not overtaken by the steamed milk.

We also ordered an ice mocha:

It had deep chocolate flavour without being too sweet so it had a good balance.  Most importantly, unlike Starbucks, they don’t fill the cup with 3/4 ice.

The drinks were good but if not for the patio, we would probably not visit this location if we had to sit indoors in the stuffy dark shop.

SFDD Gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights

 

Aladdin Cafe - Downtown Vancouver

Aladdin is a Shawerma wrap shop located on the quieter part of Robson Street.  It is about a block east of Pacific Centre Mall on the North side of Robson.  We passed by this shop many times before and finally had the courage to give it a try.  In the past, we would frequent Babylon on Robson, but that place has disappeared years ago.

Their prices were rather reasonable.  They were slightly cheaper than the food truck parked outside the art gallery that had a similar menu.  Given the choice, we’d rather come to Aladdin since comfortable seating is available.

We ordered the chicken with all the trimmings

You can’t see it in the above pic, but they were rather generous with the chicken when loading up the pita pocket.  It also had the usual lettuce, tomato, onions and hummus.

Here is how it kind of looks a quarter way into the wrap:

What we would have preferred is that the chicken was sliced off fresh off the oven.  For our orders, we saw that the chicken was already precut into a big bowl.  It would have been better if the chicken could be more hot.

Aladdin also has a wide selection of canned and bottled sodas.  Some were imported which we’ve never seen before.  The Coke machine looked quite sleek with a low profile design.  We had to get a pic of it.

What we noticed is that this place is very very clean.  Throughout our visit, we saw one of the employees continuously wiping tables, floor and the glass.  The shop was quite shiny.  It’s good to see the owners taking extra effort to upkeep their shop.

Overall prices are reasonably good and the service is fast.  It would have been a better Shawerma if the meat was sliced at the time the order is placed.  This is a pleasant place to get a quick bite to eat while you take a break from shopping downtown.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Faubourg - Downtown Vancouver

A friend invited us for coffee here at Faubourg just across from the Vancouver Art Gallery.  It is a shop specializing in French pastries, desserts and breads.

The shop is quite large with plenty of seating inside.  It looked very clean and elegant  They also have a large patio outside too.  All their pastries are on display while you line up to order from the cashier.  All their pastries looked very fabulous and the prices were very reasonable too.

They have a nice selection of Macaroons on display right at the front as you enter the store:

We ordered a large latte:

And a Cappuccino:

The drinks were OK but not as good as Cafe Artegiano which is funny, because it has a location right next to Fauborg.

We also tried their pistachio croissant:

The croissant was superb. It has bits of pistachio on the top and as you bite  inside you will see a pistachio paste.  The croissant itself was very crispy on the outside like it should be.  It tasted very buttery too without being too overwhelming.

What’s strange is the shop’s arrangement because you  have to walk all the way inside the store to place your orders and pay. Then if you ordered a drink or macaroons like most people do, you would then need to make your way back out near the entrance to pick up your order.    This would get a bit awkward when you try to maneuver back out when  the store gets busy.

Overall the pastries are top notch while the drinks were just OK.  We’d definitely love to come back to try out their other  terrific looking French pastries.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.

Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna - Downtown Vancouver

Stepho’s has been around for a long time and they are known for serving inexpensive Greek food on Davie street.  They now have a 2nd location on Robson too.  This time we visited their Davie Street location during the BC day long weekend.

It was not too busy as we went after the lunch rush was over just after 2:30pm.  If you went in the evenings, don’t be surprised to see line ups.  Prices are good and you get a reasonably big portion.

Both of us ordered Chicken souvlaki.  For $9, no complaints there.  It even comes with a serving of pita bread which a lot of places seem to no longer include it with the price of the meal (i.e Mad Greek).

Pita was good, hot off the press nice and fluffy to the bite.

The souvlaki comes with the typical Greek salad, potatoes, rice, dip, a lemon wedge and one chicken skewer:

This is how it looks if you don’t like Feta:

Ok as mentioned, the prices are good and you can see it is a nice portion.  However, most of it was very very bland. The chicken was cooked well with some char marks but it was really in need of some seasoning.

The potato was soft and cooked through, and it looked yellow but it lacked the taste.  Usually, the potato had hints of lemon juice flavour.  Rice was OK but could have been more sour.  It also seemed to be lacking the flavour from lemon juice.

Perhaps we caught the cook on a bad day.  We aren’t really picky eaters either. We always enjoy a good value priced meal.    Our server was very pleasant and efficient.

Another thing to point out is when I went to the washroom to wash my hands, the men’s washroom toilet had overflowed and it was quite an unpleasant scene.  Wish they had put up an out of order sign to warn the patrons.

Hope the next time we come back, all will be better.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.

Ramen Jinya - Downtown Vancouver

Jinya is located on Robson street but on the east side just between the Vancouver library and BC Place.  We got here for an early dinner just before 5pm and the place was nearly empty.  It looks to be a usually busy place as they have the sign in sheet ready to go outside the entrance.

They’ve got counter seats as well as booths but it’s not very big so I can imagine it will fill up fast during the lunch or dinner peak time.

Their menu is a simple with where you can opt for a variety of combos with drink.

First combo is Tonkatsu Classic Ramen with a side order of Gyoza and ginger ale combo.

The soup was very rich so it tasted a bit salty.  It comes with 2 slices of pork.  The pork was extremely tender, it felt like it melts in your mouth.  The pork was very fatty though.  As for the ramen, it seemed to be thinner than other restaurants.  It had a good chewy, al Dante texture.

The side order of gyoza coms with 3 pieces with dipping sauce.  The gyozas were rather small but were pan fried nice and crispy on one side.  The meat inside was tasty.

The second combo was Jinya tonkatsu black ramen with a side order of takoyaki with hot green tea.  This one was a couple of dollars more and comes with a flavoured boiled egg some seaweed and garlic chips.  The egg was a big overcooked though. 

The combo Takoyaki comes with 4 pieces. These tasted quite fresh without too much of the batter overwhelming the pieces.

The green tea is just a simple matcha tea bag.

Service was friendly and quick.  Prices here seemed to be a couple of bucks higher than the ramen joints down on the west side of Robson towards Dunbar.  I was a bit annoyed that my ginger ale was not filled up to the top.  Only our waitress did this from our observation she did the same on drinks when serving other customers.  The other waitress filled the beverages to the top of the glass. Oh well.

We saw other customers ordering the iced green tea which you can order sweet or unsweetened.  I kind of regret not trying the iced tea but will be sure to try it next time we are there.

SFDD gives 3 out of 4 Delights.