Vancouver East

Vancouver East side

Hanoi Old Quarter Restaurant

This is a cold dish that is very refreshing to eat during Summer. The presentation is awesome. The use of straw plate and banana leaf transformed this dish to something more exotic. When the waitress brought this dish to us, I could still see the vermicelli bouncing left and right. The key to this dish is the freshness of its ingredients. Aside from the Grilled pork belly and the pork patties. All the herbs are very crispy. The different flavours of the herbs are very subtle. We have cucumber, mint, lettuce, celery, basil, and bean sprout on the side. Perhaps 1 to 2 more herbs I cannot name. They will come out and surprise you with their unique fragrance when you are not paying too much attention to them. The grilled pork belly and pork patties are soaked in fish sauce with fermented veggie. The soup is sweet and sour with a little kick of spicy. They taste really good. However, I find the thinly sliced bacon-style pork belly a little tough to the bite. Similarly to the pork patties a little tough on the outside. The pork pattie's interior is quite tender.

Dole Pineapple Pop, Healthy Popsicle

For $8 per 8 in one package, this is $1 a pop (definitely pun intended). 100% pineapple juice make this a healthy snack for all ages. Next time I find these, I'm definitely going to stock up. I assume a lot of people will have the same thinking as me.

Happy Tree House BBQ Skewers

It is quite ironic to name the restaurant "Happy Tree". I'd be pretty pissed if I were the trees. Happy Tree House BBQ make very good lamb skewers. Unfortunately, everything else is pure trash. The interior of the space is very noisy, you cannot hear what your friends are saying. The service is not very good, all the staff wants to do is get you to finish so they can serve the next round of customers. Even with these issues, I still see a lot of customers lining up. I cannot justify the $46 per person price point. Not recommended due to high price, bad food, bad atmosphere, and bad service.

Li’s China Grill, BBQ Skewers

Li's China Grill is not as good as before. The decrease in food quality is very apparent. The price is still pretty high though. Our bill comes to $30 per person and we did not order a lot of food. Taste-wise, this is still an okay BBQ skewer place. Having Happy Tree House BBQ and Kuan Zhai Road Restaurant in close proximity, Li's China Grill has an uphill battle ahead of them. Not recommended, there must be better BBQ skewers place somewhere else.

Ba Le Deli and Bakery, Bahn Mi

Ba Le's #5 special sandwich is my favorite sandwich. I guess the memory goes back to the first time I've had it. When it took me by surprise of what a sandwich can be. I'll tell you, "Subway" is nothing compared to this. #5 Special Sandwich is pretty much the same as the #3 Cold Cut Sandwich. Except #5 Special have a lot more meat. You can find Vietnamese sausage, Ham, Pate, Home made mayonnaise, Pickled daikon radish and carrots, Cilantro and Cucumber. The sandwich is cut in the middle for easier consumption. It is not completely cut. Which gave me a satisfying feeling when taking them apart. The exterior of the bread is hard, feels solid. I could hear the bread crumble when pulling on them.

Icy Bar, Razor Sharp Icy

There is a type of Cantonese restaurants where they serve all kinds of cuisine. First, you see congee, noodle, and BBQ duck meal, the typical Cantonese food, nothing out of the ordinary. Then you start to see the New Zealand rack of lamb and New York sirloin steak with lobster tail. Next page you see Japanese sushi, ramen and curry rice. If you got curious and ordered the sushi, you'll find out what Chinese infused sushi taste like. Or a bowl of Chiense noodle soup with miso added that is being called "ramen". Icy Bar dessert shop is like that kind of patchwork restaurants in the dessert world

The First Dessert, New Authentic Cantonese Dessert

When we ordered the cold "Green Bean Paste", the staff revealed to us they are unable to serve cold version. To give patrons the freshest dessert, they started cooking at 3pm. The simmering takes 2 hours to get it ready for 5pm opening. When we arrived, the cooking was just finished not long ago. The dessert hasn't been put into the fridge long enough to cool yet. The First Dessert also didn't want to put ice in there to dilute the taste or reduce the portion served.

Yi Fang Taiwanese Fruit Tea

Yi Fang's Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea use traditional slow cooking method to cook the brown sugar's sweetness into the pearls. The pearls are added to the cup before the milk to create interesting patterns inside the transparent cup. If you start drinking right when you get the drink, you'll find it too sweet. You will also find the pearls warmer, and very soft to chew on. It is highly recommended to shake well before...

Brown Sugar Milk Tea Boba Ice Cream Bar

The actual brown sugar boba ice cream bar cannot retain its own shape. It needs to be stored in a much colder temperature than consumer grade freezer. Most of the ice cream bars I open are too soft. The brown sugar on the outside increase friction to the packaging. Merely the force....