Joe Fortes: Dine Out Vancouver #2

So for round 2, we ended up at Joe Fortes downtown. This place feels very welcoming and their style is old French which T and I both like. We made reservations only 30 mins prior to arrival but they still gave us a really nice booth in the corner away from all the crazyness. The restaurant was still crazy busy at 10:00.

 Jumbo Prawn Cocktail. SO GOOD. I want more.

 Caesar Salad. I really liked their dressing. It was really garlic-ey but the lemon soothed it down and made a delicious dressing! Yay!

 Scallop and Prawn Pasta. No complaints. Im a little on the fence about whether I like it or not. As much as I loved those little peas, I don't think they went well with this dish. Feels like something I could've made at home. Not that it was bad though, cause I gobbled this thing up in minutes!

 New York Steak. This sauce was AH-mazing! So were the mashed potatoes. I would've preferred a tenderloin but this was still awesome and well made.

 Don't you love the plating of this? Other than the fact that it looked nice, it was equally yummy! I would order this again, with extra ice cream.

This is almost as comparable to the Tiramisu at the Sicillian in Emonton. Not AS good, but still awesome. I also gobbled this thing up.

Both 3 course dinners were $38. I think it was an okay deal. Obviously $28 would be better but what can you really say. I would come here again for their regular menu. Overall a great dinner.

Pita Pit Salad!

So good (for a fast food place) that I had to post. yummmmm. I love salads.

White Spot

Usually we would only come here for breakfast for their Eggs Benedict. Mostly cause they serve it all day and we are late risers. This time, their new comfort food menu caught my eye. And when I have no idea what to choose on the menu, I go for spaghetti.. Cause how can you mess that up right? WELL apparently you can..

Spaghetti and Meatballs - $12.99. It DID NOT look like what it did in the picture. The sauce tasted like salsa.. literally, I was eating spaghetti noodles with salsa! And yes I mean the one you use to dip your tortilla chips in. It was bad. Ill give it to them for the meatballs though. I could never make them like that.

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture. The Smokey BBQ Burger was deeeeeelish. We subbed the fries with sweet potato fries - $2. Those things are addicting.

The Boathouse: Dine Out Vancouver #1

Spent our first Dine Out at the Boathouse in New Westminster. They've got a choice of 2 menus, $28 and $38. I had the $38 and T had the $28.

Lobster Bisque. I didn't really like it but I'm sure its just me. The lobster part was good though hehe.. duh

 Caesar Salad. The dressing was spicy so .. meh. It was a pretty huge salad though!

 This was awesome. I ordered a Firegrilled Tenderloin Filet and Prawns, medium rare. And it came out exactly medium rare, exactly what was in the description and no surprises. Plus, it was the perfect amount for my belly to leave room for dessert. 10/10.

Oven Roasted Chicken. Not much to say about this one. It wasn't bad or amazing.. it was just a chicken, roasted in the oven. I should say though, that the portion was bigger than I was expecting. 

As the boring people we are, we got the same dessert. It was GOOOOOD.

We saved $12 a person which is a great deal! Can't wait to try more Dine Out reastaurants! 

Thierry Patisserie : Im In LOVE

 Too bad I came in at 9pm. This was all they had left! Chocolate-hazelnut and plain chocolate. Loved them both. I like how these are much more chewy than Thomas Haas macarons. There is a BIG difference in between the 2, if you were curious.

Price: $26 for 14 macarons incl taxes.

Hoi An Cafe

I had posted about this place, how it was good and that it was my favorite viet place to eat at but never really got into detail. It has become a new tradition that we come here every weekend for Banh Beo. I cannot go without this stuff any longer than 2 weeks. So, within the last 3 weekends, I have a whole collection of photos..

Their famous Banh Beo - $6.50 for an order of 5. I obviously have nothing bad to say... 

Tom Chien - $5.50. Pork, shrimp, sweet chilli sauce. What more can you ask for? The shrimp is actually the length of the roll.

Mi Quang - $7.75. Number one on the menu which usually means its the house special. And special it is! This lightly flavored dry noodle is addictive.. which is the reason I come here every weekend.

Mi Cao Lau - $7.95. This is a childhood favorite of mine. It has a little more flavor than Mi Quang and the seasoning on the meat is amazing. Love this one! If I were to come here on a weekday, I would most likely order this.

Side veggies for the noodle dishes.

 Banh Bot Loc - $6.50. This is dirt cheap for the amount of work they put into making this. If you've never had this, you are missing out.

Price: You can probably fill your stomach for $10 here. 

Overall Rating: 10/10. Service is great, quality is awesome and so is the location. Servers are cute too which is always a plus!

Thomas Haas : Fine Chocolates and Patisserie

After having a couple bites of Thierry's French macarons, I was craving for more. My boyfriend and I ventured our way all the way out to Kitsilano to Thomas Haas. This turned out to be a great disappointment and was NOT worth the drive.

Pistachio was my favorite but still not very good compared to Thierry. I wouln't recommend the cassis, it was horrible.

The passion fruit had a jam filling which was a nice surprise.

Price: $19 for 12 macarons.

Overall, I didn't like how dry these tasted. They weren't as chewy as I would've liked it to be and overall did not contain a satisfying flavor. Also, you can tell that they were not made that day and were not fresh. They were actually kept in the refrigerated section along with the chocolates and were not at room temperature. I didn't like how the almond flour was a little chunky and left little bits of almond in my mouth and between my teeth. Those are not fun to get out. I will not be coming back here. At least not for macarons.

Kawawa Metrotown

My stomach was calling while T and I were at Metrotown after a long day. Indecisive of what to eat, we went upstairs for a quick slice of pizza at fresh slice. However, the sushi place across the hall caught our attention. This place was rebuilt a couple years ago but I never really wanted to try it. All you can eat restaurants are a nono in my book. If you know me, you probably know I can eat sushi anytime of the day, and for all 3 meals if I could, but a ayce, never. We decided to give this place a try anyway and went for the regular menu. And we left very pleased with our decision.

Unagi cone - $5.95. Since I didn't order a roll containing unagi, I got the cone. I usually don't order this but I had to get my unagi fix or I would regret it later in the night. I usually do. Anyway, this came out to be very good. The unagi was very warm, the cucumber was cold and crunchy and they didn't overdo the rice or teriyaki sauce. 

I have really been getting into the whole mango and sushi trend. This is a Mango California roll - $10.95. I would have never guessed this was an all you can eat restaurant. This very much satisfied my taste buds! The sourness of the mango makes you want to eat more. I like how they aren't cheap on giving you a good amount of tobiko. 

Rainbow Roll $10.95.Again, SO much tobiko! My bf and I love this stuff. Their plating is pretty nice too, I love this place!

Ika - $8.95. Good, but I prefer mayo over teriyaki sauce.

Oyster Motoyaki - $5.95. The picture in the menu was of 2 real oyster shells and looked appetizing. This was NOT.  After eating Akasaka's oyster motoyaki, I'll admit I have set a very high expectation for other restaurants but this is truely disgusting. There were 1 and a half pieces of oyster in each cup, it was oily as hell and the sauce isn't even edible. They did not put ANY effort into making this.. like at least mix in some veggies or something geez......  Anyways, at this point, we were stuffed but we had one more dish coming.

Assorted Sashimi for the dude - $12.95. He was only able to eat ONE piece. 

Our total came to $63 which is a bit expensive but we could've had enough food for one or two more people. We were stuffed to the point that we had to share the last roll cause we didn't wanna waste food. Overall rating 7/10 for bad service and oyster motoyaki. I'd probably come here after shopping or something and maybe try out the all you can eat menu.. The reviews on the ayce menu are horrible so maybe not but who knows!

MMM.. HOTPOT!

This is the easiest thing to make and it only takes about an hour since everything is basically pre-made! Everything was purchased at T&T and only costed 100 for enough food for 7-8 people! They have the best hotpot stuff.

The Soup: Chicken broth, Tom Yum paste, Tamarind Soup base, salt and pepper. So easy!

Mr Crab was still very alive in our sink.

This plate alone costed us $40, and they were frozen! Nonetheless, so worth it.