Crepe Delicious– Oakridge

We were doing some shopping at Oakridge Mall and got attracted to the smell of crepes at the food court.

Aside from crepes, they also have a selection of sorbet and gelatos on display.

We decided to go with a simple strawberry with icing sugar crepe.  It took about 5 minutes for them to prepare it.  They asked if we wanted it to-go, or for here, in which case they would have served it on a paper plate.  We opted for to-go so it was wrapped for us.

At the beginning, things looked good. The crepe was wrapped comfortably and it smelled nice.  Things changed as soon as we took a few bites of our crepe.

The crepe was way too sticky, like it was too moist.  It was too chewy, almost rubberlike because you have to really pull on it when taking each bite.  As we got into the crepe, that checkered paper you see in the pic stuck onto the crepe like crazy glue! 

It was so awkward to eat it.  Furthermore, they did not use fresh strawberries.  It was like a cooked strawberry jam sauce.

Perhaps the crepe was undercooked causing it to stick and be so hard to chew on.  This was not a very pleasant crepe experience.  Hopefully, this was just a one time mishap but certainly we won’t be coming back until improvements are made soon.

SFDD  gives 2 out of 5 Delights.

Yama Cafe – East Vancouver

Yama Cafe is located on Hastings near Victoria Drive.  We were here last year when it was called “Basho”.  It seems to look exactly the same, also run by Japanese staff. Other food blogs have indicated that there was a change in ownership.

Yama is a small cozy coffee shop with tables, a counter by the window and also a small sofa on one corner.   They have their menu on a chalkboard up on the wall:

Yama also has daily specials written on separate boards behind the counter.  They also have a variety of Japanese inspired bakeries up on the counter.  Most appear to be small bite sized cookies.

I was alone and ordered the matcha latte.  You can have it sweetened or unsweetened.  I went for half sweet to be safe.

I was quite surprised by the large size of the latte.  It only comes in one size and is served in a very nice Japanese tea cup which actually looks more like a bowl since it was quite wide.  The staff took their time to make it look really pretty with the latte art.

At first I thought it was just the top layer that was dark green with matcha powder.  However as I sipped through it,  I realized the dark green was consistent throughout.   This is truly a matcha latte as it was deep with green tea flavour throughout.

It was not too busy when I arrived late Friday afternoon and I was in no hurry.  It did take a while for the drink to be prepared but it was worth waiting for.  It got a little bit busier later on and I noticed people had to wait longer for their hand crafted drinks.

The service was good and the drink was superb.  We will try their baked goods next time.  Be forewarned that if you drop in while busy, be prepared to wait as they will take time to make the drinks, but know it will be worth waiting for.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights. 

Fish Counter–Vancouver

My friend brought me over to try out Fish Counter on Main street in East Van over the weekend. I’ve passed by this place myself a few times while driving and always noticed it was busy with people filling up the  shop.

Upon entering, I was quite surprised that this was not a full service restaurant.  On one side of the shop is like a general store with a small fridge and shelf selling different products. You can kind of peek through the picture above to see what I mean.  Further in, there is also had a big seafood fridge where you can buy sustainable seafood, “Ocean Wise”. 

The other side of the shop was where you can order hot food to eat.  However, there are no tables. There are some seats along the window and also a small standing area with a counter for eating.

They’ve got a simple no no nonsense menu on the wall:

I ordered one piece cod with fries:

The cod was huge!  It was lightly battered and was well balanced so there were no parts that were more crispy than others. The cod inside was still very juicy cooked to perfection.  The fries appear to be home made as I saw freshly cut fries in a bucket behind the counter.  The fries were very fresh and fried with a light crisp.  Underneath was a big delicious pile of coleslaw that had a nice vinaigrette dressing which helped to balance out the fried goodies.

My friend ordered the Arctic Char which apparently is not always available so it was recommended by staff to try it out.

Similar to the cod, it was 3 very large pieces cooked with the same consistency and served with a large batch of fries and coleslaw.

We also shared some crispy oysters.

The oyster had a thicker batter but inside was a extra large oyster. It was very fresh, I can tell from the flavour it was almost like it came right out of the ocean.

The staff here are very friendly and laid back.  They are also quite passionate about the food that they sell as they are very happy to chat with you if you got questions.  The food was superb.  The only downside is that there aren’t any tables so be prepared to stand while enjoying the food.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.

Chatime–East Hastings

Chatime is a chain of bubble tea beverage shops that recently started popping up around the lower mainland.  They opened up a shop on East Hastings near Renfrew.  This is at the old Radio Shack location, if you’ve been in Vancouver long enough, then you’d know what we mean.

They have quite a bit of seating inside. It was not too busy Friday afternoon when we arrived and there was no line up so we took our time browsing the menu.

We ordered a mango smoothie with pearls. This is a large.

The pearls were chewy with slight sweetness to it.  We were not able to see if they actually put in fresh mangoes into the smoothie or if it was a pre mixed powder.  Maybe Chatime can clarify if they read this.

This one is a mango slush:

It’s like a Slurpee with pearls.  They didn’t get it right the first time since they forgot to put in pearls.  When we addressed it, they simply opened up the cup and poured it into another cup with pearls. 

It didn’t look very pleasant the way they corrected this since the girl just popped the top open with a fork, and pealed away the plastic with her bare hands to pour into another cup.  The store was not even busy and the cup clearly shows “+pearls”, so staff must have been dozing when they prepared our drinks.

There is a tiny parking lot at this location but it’s shared with other tenants of this small strip mall.  Better to park on the street if you want to try this location.

The drinks took a long time to be ready and they got one of the drinks wrong even with hardly any customers waiting.  I can’t imagine how they can handle a long line up.  Perhaps they need more staffing or training to get things right and operating smoothly.  We hope to see improvements next time we visit.

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

Anh and Chi–Vancouver

We visited Anh and Chi on a Friday night for dinner.  Ahn and Chi serves upscale looking Vietnamese inspired cuisines.  It’s located on Main Street in East Van.

We got there just before 6PM and saw the restaurant was already full with a handful of people waiting for tables outside.  We put our name down and waited patiently outside.  Luckily it was a nice evening with no rain.  They have heaters in the waiting area outside to keep you warm.

After about 30 minutes, we got a text saying our table is almost ready.  We proceeded to go inside the restaurant to wait and saw it was bustling with people enjoying their food.

Pics of the inside:

Bar area:

Partially exposed kitchen:

We got our table and our server promptly brought us water.  It was the first time we found a slice of cucumber in our water.  It made the water look nice but the cucumber taste was a bit unusual.

We ordered a few appetizers to start.  This is the Bánh Tráng Trộn Rice Paper Snack
It has rice paper at the bottom and topped with fresh mango, beef jerky, roasted peanuts, dried shrimp, quail eggs, fried shallots and some spices.

This was really tasty.  It had a nice kick and tang to it from the different spices combined.  However, we recommend you eat this right away and not let it sit too long otherwise the slices of rice paper will stick together like glue.  We learned it the hard way.

This is the fried chicken wings appetizer.  You get to choose 2 different sauces so we went with the butter garlic sauce.

It includes 10 pieces. The wings did not feel fried since it was rather tender with a light crisp skin.  It tasted more like broiled.  The wing sizes were fair for appetizer standards.

Next is the crispy spring rolls.

It came with 3 spring rolls cut in half.  The spring rolls were a bit skinny though.  It includes lettuce and some lemon grass which the server recommended we use to wrap the spring roll.

There were 3 of us tonight and we all ordered the beef pho. 

This serving size here is a lot bigger than the standard large size you get at other pho restaurants  Furthermore, there was so much beef!  It had maybe twice the serving of beef compared to other places.  The pho soup was also very rich and flavorful.

They use this fancy jacket for delivering you the bill.

Ahn And Chi is a different kind of Vietnamese restaurant with a more modern vibe to it. It is unlike the hole in the wall mom and pop pho shops, so come prepared to try something different.  The menu items are very unique, modern and specialized.

We will look forward coming back again to try their other dishes.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.

Ogenki Sushi–Vancouver

Ogenki Sushi is a copycat version of a popular Sushi chain in Hong Kong called Genki sushi (without the O).  This is located along Main street in Vancouver.  We got there for a late lunch on a Friday and it was not very busy at all.

They had a lunch special combo where you can pick 2 items for $8, or 3 for $11.  They have a dinner version of a similar menu which we’d imagine will be a bigger serving size.

Miso soup is included in all the combos.  It was hot and was just the typical miso soup you get at low end Japanese places or all you can eat joints.

There were a few of us so we ordered different sides from the combo menu to share.  This is the assorted tempura that includes prawn and yam:

The tempura batter was a bit thick and over cooked.

This is the California roll: 

You get 8 small pieces.  Nothing special, just typical.

This is the dynamite roll.  You get 5 skinny pieces with a small prawn inside.  Also typical ad nothing special.

This is the gyoza.

For the mains from the combo, we ordered chicken teriyaki rice:

And beef teriyaki rice:

Sorry for the blurry pics.  The bowls of rice was a rather small serving, but I guess you get what you pay for.  It had too much sauce and little rice.  The beef was not tender enough though.

This would not be a restaurant we’d recommend you make a special trip to visit.  We actually just passed by, by accident, and wanted something quick.  It wasn’t superbad, but it wasn’t supergood either.

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

Pallet Coffee Roasters – E. Vancouver

We finally got around to visiting the 3rd location of Pallet near the East Hastings and Victoria neighborhood. We had great experiences not too long ago at the Broadway and Kingsway locations

This location is on a side street north of Hastings in a semi industrial/residential area. You won’t miss it as the Pallet building stands out quite obviously.

There is plenty of parking on Hastings. It may be a bit of a challenge finding in the side streets near Pallet just because there are so many other shops and factories nearby it seems.

This location is multi leveled.  There are extra seating on the 2nd floor, but not too much.  Then there is the basement where I think the washrooms are located.  Here is a view of the main coffee bar from the 2nd floor seating area.

You can also see the open kitchen behind big windows near he back of the shop.

Be forewarned that the 2nd floor is really really stuffy.  There was hardly any air circulation up there.

I ordered a regularly coffee and it was consistent with the other locations. There was nothing special looking on my brewed coffee so I skipped the picture.  However, this time I ordered a kid’s hot chocolate for my special guest. 

We were so happy that they put so much effort in making latte art on the kids drink.  I don’t think Starbucks bothers doing this at all.

The baristas here were very friendly.  This location feels a bit smaller than the other 2 since there was no long wooden communal table here.  Aside from the air circulation issues on the 2nd floor, the drinks seemed consistent with the other locations.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Pallet Coffee Roasters–Kitsilano Vancouver

We wandered into Pallet for a morning coffee break while in the neighborhood.  This is a very high end looking coffee shop with nicely decorated wooden tables. 

It was quite busy on this Friday morning but we managed to find some seats in the large natural wood table.  The shop is very bright with big windows letting in natural light.  It is also very spacious.  They’ve got an indoor living wall growing too.

 

The baristas here are pros when it comes down to latte art.  We ordered a mocha:

Very detailed oriented art with even a heart shape floating on the left side.  They roast their own beans and with this mocha, it had a great balance, not too bitter.

We also ordered a brewed coffee.

The brewed coffee had the perfect taste that I like. Strong, but not bitter and with just the right amount of acidity.

They only have one size for most of their drinks.  They are equivalent to a medium size if compared to other shops.

We also ordered a salted chocolate cookie. 

The cookie was still hot like it just came out of the oven.  It was superb, not overly sweet.  It was large enough for the two of us to share.

After our cookie we wanted to get some water at their really neat looking self serve water station:

Surfing their website we learned there are actually 2 other stores in Vancouver.  We were quite satisfied with our visit and look forward to returning to this location as well as visiting their other outlets in East Vancouver.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.