Denny’s – Richmond

We were planning to to to IHOP for breakfast along the St Edwards Drive neighborhood where Accent Inn hotel is located but to our surprise, it was closed.  Thus, we trekked next door to Denny’s for the first time to try since there was not a lot of other breakfast restaurants available in the area.

It was not very busy at all for a Friday mid morning.  We were quite surprised to see that this Denny’s location was rather modern looking.  It is also very large too. You won’t notice it if you are seated on the right side of the restaurant.  You’ll see it has a huge section in the back if you walked to the washrooms.  Sorry we had no pics of inside the restaurant.  But here is the food we ordered.

This is a clubhouse on multi grain bread, ordered from the senior’s special menu:

The sandwich was cut very awkwardly if you noticed the shape.  It can’t be that hard to cut 2 triangle shapes is it? Also you’ll notice an out of place piece of turkey on top of one of the breads.  Taste wise, the sandwich was fair as the ingredients inside such as lettuce and tomato were fresh.  The fries were also done perfectly as it was fluffy on the inside and not overly fried on the outside.  It’s the thick cut type of fries too and was a very generous serving.

Next is the Denny’s American Slam breakfast plate which has just about all that you can ask for in a breakfast.

This comes with 3 eggs scrambled with melted cheddar cheese on top.  Furthermore, it also has 4 pieces of toast, 2  sausages, 2 bacon and a big serving of hash browns.  This was a great deal for all the food that you get. Eggs were cooked well and the hash browns were golden brown on the outside.

Lastly, we had the build your own breakfast where you can choose 4 items from an extensive list for around $12.

 

We chose turkey bacon, hash browns, 2 eggs (scrambled) and pancakes.

The build your own breakfast had a few disappointing features.  Firstly, you’ll noticed the scrambled eggs are overcooked from the burned brown colour on top of the eggs.  I was going to let it go but after the first bite, the scrambled eggs were way too dry and burned.  Furthermore, the hash browns on this order are slightly undercooked as you can see there is hardly any golden brown crisp on the top layer of hash browns.

How can they screw up the scrambled eggs and hash browns on this order while making presentable scrambled eggs and hash browns on the American Grand Slam that we ordered at the same time?

Oh well, it took a good 10 minutes before our server came by to ask how we were doing.  At this time I addressed the problem with the eggs.  I let the hash browns go since it was still edible, just not crispy.  The server immediately offered to remake the eggs:

The new scrambled eggs were better.  It was too bad we could not eat it at the same time as the rest of our breakfast as we were already finished.

The pancakes and the turkey bacon were prepared quite well though.

After getting our bill we were hoping our server would bring us the machine to use our credit card but she pointed us to pay at the front counter.  It was rather inconvenient because we had to line up to pay with other customers who were waiting in the same line to be brought to their table.  This setup was rather inefficient.  When the hostess saw we were there to pay, she walked back to where we come from, to our server’s station just to grab the card machine for us to pay… sigh…

The service here was mediocre and the food as we described was inconsistent.  It’s too bad IHOP closed next door, otherwise we wouldn’t have had to come to Denny’s for this subpar experience.

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

Storm Crow Alehouse

We found Storm Crow from a couple of Summer Groupon offerings for this pub along West Broadway located just west of Granville street.  This pub boasts to be a nerd friendly pub.  Throughout the pub you can see a sci-fi comic book type of theme from their decorations, posters and collectibles.  At the back of the restaurant there is a giant shelf filled with all the board and card games you can imagine.

They allow patrons to take the games at the table while eating.  This seems like an innovative idea at first since it deviates from the traditional local pub.

We actually went on 2 different occasions, but we’ll blog both visits here at the same time as this place is definitely not worth having separate blog posts.

Our first visit was for a late lunch. It was not too busy and we were seated right away. I would say it’s more of a pub than a restaurant.  There aren’t many tables for eating.  Most of the area was occupied with the the taller bar type tables where you’d have to sit on a stool.

Our first item was the fish and chips. 

The batter looked kind of dark so we are thinking maybe it’s beer batter doing this.  It also had some peppery spices within the batter which you can kind of see in the pic.  It came with a generous serving of tartar sauce.

What turned us off immediately was that the batter was soggy.  No crunch to it at all.  We lifted the fish off the plate and saw it was drowning in a pool of oil. This would happen if the oil is not hot enough when being fried.  We tried to finish it without the batter.  The fries were too dry.

Next is the Crow Burger.  It’s a chicken burger with lettuce, tomato, onions and a pickle.

The chicken breast was way overcooked and was burned as you can see from the black char.  It was not that great.  Fries were kind of dry too.  The bun was a bit hard.  The best part of the burger was the lettuce, tomato and onion which were fresh.

This was not a great lunch, but we had a Groupon so that mitigated our disappointment a bit. 

We went back a couple of weeks later to try their brunch.  It was a Sunday early afternoon and was not busy at all. Only a couple of tables occupied the restaurant.

The first breakfast we ordered was the Crow Classic breakfast.  We chose Chorizo sausage for the meat, and scrambled eggs.

It came with home fries, a side of fruit and some toast.  The sausage was horrible.  It was sliced in half and pan fried till it was dry like cardboard.  The home fries were not that great either.  They were fried like there was no tomorrow.  What’s up with this place overcooking the food?  Scrambled eggs way overcooked.  The best part of this breakfast was the fruit. 

Next we tried the Hillbilly chicken and waffles.

The waffles were cut into finger sized pieces and had a big serving of chicken breasts fingers seasoned Cajun style with some honey mustard for the chicken and some sort of sweet creamy dip for the waffles.  Everything about this was wrong.  The chicken was super dry, again over fried crazily.  The waffles were totally bland. The serving was large, but was difficult to swallow both literally and figuratively.  We won’t say more about this disaster.

Next we ordered the Huevos Rancheros.

It comes with two poached eggs on an English muffin.  It has chili, guacamole, salsa and sour cream served with home fries and fruit salad.  The eggs were both cold.  Not just the yolk, but the egg white was cold too.  We wonder how long the eggs were sitting around.  The home fries were also dry like the above breakfast as they were probably made at the same time.

Storm Crow has a unique setting targeting a unique crowd.  They have a wide selection of beers on tap with daily beer special too.  The servers seemed friendly and attentive at both visits. However, as you can see, the food is far from being up to par.  Everything we had in both of our visits was overcooked or over fried.  Improvements need to be made in the kitchen. 

It’s probably OK to visit here just for a beer and to play board games.

We won’t be returning here in the short run with or without Groupon.

SFDD gives 1.5 out of 5 Delights.

Joe’s Grill - Vancouver Main Street

We are still a bit behind with our blog updates over the last few months.  Hope we can catch up before the year ends.

Joe’s Grill has a few locations in Vancouver.  This one is conveniently located along Main Street and 14th Ave.  Joe’s Grill is a casual diner type of restaurant that is cozy with friendly service serving the typical greasy spoon breakfast and lunch type foods.

We got there late Saturday morning for breakfast and saw a small line up out the door.  Luckily the turnover was quick and we ended up only having to wait 10 minutes.  Inside was not too fancy, but a very casual atmosphere.

One thing we noticed was that the prices were quite reasonable.  For under $10 you can get a full sized meat and egg breakfast if that is what you were going for.

This is what we mean.  For $8, you can order the Basic with sausage, 2 eggs, hash browns and toast.

The sausages were very juicy and tasty.  We were surprised to see  4 links.  Seems like other places only serve 2 or maybe 3 links so this felt like a bonus.  The pan fried potatoes were done just right and not overly crisp.  Scrambled eggs were just slightly overcooked but no big deal, it was not too dry at all.

This one is the Joe’s Special Omelette. It’s a veggie omelette with tomato, onion, mushrooms and according to the menu, lots of cheese.

It did not disappoint as there was certainly a big load of cheese in there stringing out from each bite, kind of like eating a pizza.  It also came with pan fried potatoes.

We would have preferred shredded hash browns if given a choice, but having pan fried is a nice change to try.

The food came out quickly.  The servers were very friendly and cheery as well.  Parking in the neighborhood is not that great since this part of the street is mostly paid street parking along Main street.  You might have to venture deeper into the side streets to find free parking along the residential areas if you don’t mind the walk.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Locus Restaurant & Lounge–Main Street

We met up with some old friends at Locus located on Main and King Edward.  It’s right next to Hawker’s Delight.  We made reservations ahead of time for the Sunday breakfast and it was already busy when we arrived at about 11:00am.  They use the Yelp system for booking tables which is convenient as they send you a text and email confirmation.

The manager was very welcoming and friendly.  He chatted with us while we waited at the bar for the rest of the party to arrive.  Locus has a healthy looking organic menu with various items to choose from that will fit both meat eaters and the vegetarian folks.

We were seated near an open window so it was not too stuffy and was bright.  If you want, you can choose to sit further inside the restaurant, but it was a bit too dark for us.

One of us ordered pineapple juice.  They claim that it is freshly squeezed.  Nevertheless it tasted fresh and sweet

They also provide table bread which uses a good premium quality bread.  This appeared to be raison and date bread, much like the ones you can get from Terra Breads.  It includes some whipped butter and the other one is a whipped chipotle style butter.

The bread is also refillable so that was a nice bonus.

This is the classic eggs breakfast with scrambled eggs.  The eggs are very dark yellow which means it is an organic omega 3 type free range egg.  We chose chicken sausage which was a nice fat link. 

It comes with a small dish of fruit.  The eggs were cooked to order, not too dry.  It also came with some pan fried potatoes.

We also ordered the egg white frittata. It was also made with free range eggs and came with some pan fried potatoes and a small dish of fruit.  The egg had spinach, ricotta and mushrooms cooked inside so it was quite savory.

Service was good and it was not too pricey for the type of food that you get.  Parking can be a pain along Main street as this is located in one of the most busiest sections.  However, if you don’t mind walking, plenty of parking can be found along the side streets.

We’d love to come back again to try their happy hour specials as this place seems to offer a laid back, unpretentious atmosphere for people to catch up with old friends and relax.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

McDonald's - Richmond Airport

It’s McDonald's coupon time again so we dropped into the airport location for breakfast Saturday morning. This is a uniquely renovated location that is a lot different than the average McD stores around the city because it actually has an airport theme to it. 

You can find it as you are coming off the the No2 road bridge northbound.

As you can see they have airplane themed artwork and seats.

This location also has a nice view as it faces west towards the YVR so there are no buildings obstructing your views.  It is also a nice location to watch planes and helicopters arriving.  It appears a lot of patrons are airline or airplane workers coming from nearby YVR.

Back to the food - We ordered the 2 can dine for $7.

The first meal is the egg Mcmuffin and the other is a bacon & egg McGriddle.  The food is made to order so there is no complaints as it was fresh.  The Mcgriddle bread is kind of like a mix between a hotcake and a English muffin. It is sweetened with syrup which you can see oozing out in some spots.  The sweetness of the syrup went very well together with the crispy bacon.

The hash browns are deep fried so we usually soak up the oil with a clean napkin.

We very much enjoy coming to this location because it is less hectic, has nice view and we had no issues with the service during the numerous times we visited.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Kongee Dinesty - Richmond

After hearing some good things about Kongee Dinesty (not a typo), we decided to try it out Sunday morning.  It is located at Garden City just across from the park and ride lot.  We got there at about 10:50 am and we kind of knew about a special set menu which we were hoping to order from.

There were plenty of free tables yet a few parties were waiting at the door when we got there.  We thought, OK maybe they don’t have enough servers to serve those tables so that is why they are making us wait, fine, no problem right?  See final thoughts at the bottom.

So the manager looks at his watch and then starts to seat the waiting parties, including us.  This was at about 10:59 am according to my Casio.

This is the menu we got, it looked pretty straight forward where you tick off what you want in your congee. Seems fine, it is $9 though.  So we are thinking, it must come with a side dish like rice rolls or mini fried noodles or doughnut right? Not. 

You choose between 3 flavours of congee, 2 toppings and a garnish + a soy drink.

You do get a choice of soy milk though.  You can choose hot/cold, unsweetened, sweetened, or black sesame.  We went with regular sweetened, hot.

The soy milk was alright as it was not overly sweet.  It does not taste home made though, they probably just buy the same jugs you can find at T&T.

We ordered 2 congees and shared one order of Chinese doughnut which is a must have if you are eating congee.  The doughnuts were really good though.  It has been a long time since we had doughnuts this good.  It was crispy on the outside and very very fluffy on the inside.  It was big enough for both of us to share.

The first congee was regular broth with minced beef, lettuce and peanuts.  The congee was boiling hot when it arrived and tasted fair and had an adequate amount of beef.

This one is preserved duck egg with salted pork and peanuts.  It was quite smooth and not too salty nor too much MSG.  I realized it had lots of salted pork at the end as they were all in the bottom of the bowl.

Ok, food it was good but a little pricey though for $9, even if you are getting a soy milk.

We noticed the table next to us who were there way before us had a different menu.  It was a breakfast special menu which I recall seeing on Zomato.  According to the menu, the breakfast special was supposed to end at 11:30am so we wondered why we did not get that menu seeing that it was just a few minutes past 11am.  We asked the server and she said it ends at 11:00am.  OK so perhaps they have special rules for the weekend and holidays so I thought nothing of it.

But then I thought back to the beginning something clicked as to why we had to wait for a table despite so many empty tables.  The cheap manager did not want people ordering from the breakfast menu, so that is why we, along with other parties were made to wait until up to 10 minutes, until 11am!  Why else would he look at his watch before letting the hungry patrons be seated??  This is bad business practice which I am happy to share with you.

The restaurant is not very crammed and it is in a quieter part of Richmond without the traffic nightmares.  The lot is big but you can find free street parking as well.

Food is good but certainly overpriced for the non breakfast menu.  If we were to come back it will be for the breakfast special menu which looks to be better or at least, more fair value.  The manager’s timing of seating customers is unforgettable.

SFDD gives 2.5 out of 5 Delights.

White Spot - Oakridge

We met up with some friends in the Oakridge Mall White spot. This is a rather nice location as it feels very open and you can see outside the mall.  It’s located in the 41st Ave/ Cambie corner of the mall near the Canada Line entrance.

White Spot serves breakfast all day.  Since it was late in the morning, one of our friends wanted to try the eggs benedict breakfast.

It comes with smashed potatoes, 2 eggs with some shrimp over the hollandaise sauce.  The eggs seemed to look nice.  My friend didn’t eat too much of the smashed potatoes.  They look like it was deep fried so it was not very attractive.  If I was ordering this, I would probably ask for regular pan fried hash browns instead.

Our other friend ordered the special BC Blueberry Summer salad.  It includes a piece of lemon grilled chicken breast.  It was very big and the veggies were fresh and also had pita bread with it too.

This is the BC Chicken burger with fries.  It is well packed with cheese and bacon inside too.  As usual, it comes with the standard endless fries.  The bun was toasted hot and was soft on the inside.

Next is the Legendary burger with side salad.  I usually ask for lettuce, tomato and onions.  You don’t have to pay extra for these items. The beef was cooked just right.  I usually like the beef to be well done, but not burned.  You don’t get a choice for the salad dressing though.  White Spot has their own balsamic like vinaigrette, but not 100% sure if it is indeed balsamic.

Seeing that it was blueberry season, we also ordered a blueberry shake to share.  They were very generous with this.  because as you will see, they almost gave us a full cup inside the other stainless steel milkshake mug.

 

The shake was blue but the flavour was a bit artificial.  It was nice and thick though, meaning it had lots of ice cream.

Every year, White Spot will make the blueberry pie as their seasonal special around the June and July period.  The blueberries are mixed with a sugar glaze and then put into a pie crust.  It is not baked together.  The crust was not that great this time because it did not look like it was baked through yet.

Service was good at this location.  We didn’t have to wait long for the food and they didn’t mind splitting the bills for us.  The seasonal blueberry pie crust does need some improvement though.  Free parking is plenty since this location is inside the mall.

SFDD gives 3 out of 4 Delights.

Fraser Park - Burnaby

We headed out to the industrial neighbourhood of South Burnaby to try out Fraser Park after reading other bloggers talking about their famous German Breakfast.  It is located on the south side of Marine Way on Byrne Road  around the neighbourhood of the factories and auto mechanic’s garages.

We got there at about 11:30am on Saturday morning and the restaurant was packed.  It was our first time their so we just stood at the entrance waiting to be seated.  After a couple of minutes one of the servers told us it was self service.  It turns out that you order and pay at the counter first, then sit any where you wish.

You get a number to take back with you so the server knows where to bring the food when it is ready.

From seeing the pictures on the blogs, we knew the German breakfast was going to be a big serving.  So we shared one German breakfast and also ordered a regular meatless breakfast.

The German breakfast above comes with toast, watermelon, German style bacon, sausage, ham, pan fried potatoes, potato cake, and scrambled eggs.  It was huge!  The meats are very unique.  We never had it before but it was really good.  We would say the bacon looks like Canadian style bacon.  The scrambled eggs had cheese and some sweet yellow peppers inside.  The potato cake was also very good.  It was mashed together with some other veggie ingredients inside.  You’d have to have a big appetite to finish this yourself.

Here is the meatless breakfast.  It has 2 eggs made to order (over hard), pan fried potatoes, potato cake, toast and a wedge of watermelon.  If you want meat, you just have to add a couple of bucks.  But this was a good enough size since we shared the meats from the German breakfast.

After the food came, one of the servers offered us home made hot sauce.  It was a nice addition for the potatoes.  It was not too spicy.  A bit on the sweet side too.  I would say it is very similar to the XO sauce you get at some Chinese restaurants.

Prices were very good.  The German Breakfast was less than $10 while the meatless of course was even less.  We also got bottomless coffee.  It is also self serve and they had 2 flavours to choose from.

Fraser Park isn’t a fancy place to hang out, it’s a straight forward greasy spoon for you to have a quick and cheap meal but made special with some German style ingredients.  It is a bit out of the way for us, but I think Fraser Park gets a lot of business from the local factories and garages in the neighbourhood.

Parking is plenty in the lot and also on the street.  The food was a bit slow though but it was busy so we didn’t mind the wait seeing that it was a weekend for us and we didn’t have to rush back to work anyway.

SFDD gives 3.75 out of 4 Delights.

A&W Richmond Centre Food Court

While running some errands at Richmond Centre mall with empty stomachs, we got hungry and needed to get a quick breakfast. 

We had one of those A&W weekly coupons, so we went up to the food court to grab a couple of breakfasts.  The coupon provided a free drink and hash brown so it was a couple of bucks saved.   The food court was relatively quiet as it was before 11am.

There was not a lot of people in line at A&W, but the clerks seemed quite overwhelmed and frazzled with the current orders and bumping into each other at the counter while grabbing orders and drinks.  We had to wait a few minutes before the clerks had time to take our orders.

We both got bacon and eggs classic breakfasts.  This one has over-hard eggs.  We got hot chocolate for the drink. 

The eggs and bacon were great.  A&W is still claiming to source from hormone free meats and eggs which is nice bonus.  The toast however was not toasted enough.  The hot chocolate was too watery so we exchanged it for a tea.  The staff did not give us any trouble when exchanging.

Our second breakfast had over easy eggs.  It was made to order.  The toast was a bit better, but could have used another 30 seconds in the toaster. 

Coffee was A&W’s Van Houtte Brew it was quite flavourful.  If comparing fast food coffee, I’d definitely prefer A&W’s coffee over TH or MacD’s coffee.  The hash brown was fresh and did not seem as oily as the ones you get at MacD’s or TH’s breakfasts.

In summary, most of the items in our order was fine.  Toast needs to be toasted longer for it to look like toast.  The staff can use some training to keep things calm and in order on their side of the counter.  I can imagine things may get messy during a lunch time rush. 

SFDD Gives 2.5 out of 4 Delights

A&W – Vancouver West Broadway

We were strolling along Broadway with our empty stomachs growling and decided it was time for  breakfast.  It was a late breakfast as it was approaching close to 11am.  Luckily we passed by A&W in the VGH neighbourhood.  A&W’s been serving up full sized breakfasts to compete with the other fast food joints.

A&W boasts the use of healthy ingredients such as hormone and steroid free beef in their burgers. Similarly, they proudly claim the use of healthy eggs coming from vegetarian hens that eat healthy!

For $5, you get a the Classic Breakfast that comes with 2 eggs, toast and bacon.  The eggs are made to order.  We asked for over-hard eggs on this one.  The bacons were well balanced with respect to it’s crispiness. The toast was freshly hot out of the toaster, we skipped the butter but got a choice of different jam flavours or peanut butter packaged on the side.

The second Classic breakfast came with scrambled eggs. The eggs were a bit dry to my liking, but it wasn’t bad at all as it was slightly seasoned.

The counter staff were very friendly and helpful.  They were helpful explaining the different breakfast options available even though it was close to 11am when it was almost time for them to switch to the lunch menu.  The restaurant seemed quite new and in a well maintained condition.

A&W is going to give the other fast food breakfast joints a run for the money as they have proven capable in preparing a good quality morning meal.  We’ll certainly be back (perhaps another location) to try the other breakfast options too.

SFDD gives 3 out of 4 Delights.