Wanoma Izakaya

It's a sunny yet chilly Sunday evening and Wanoma Izakaya is still pretty empty at 6:30. Maybe it's because Wanoma Izakaya is yet to be discovered. Wanoma Izakaya is a new addition among the top izakayas in downtown Vancouver. It's been opened for about a month. Wanoma izakaya is located right beside, some say, the best Izakaya in town, Kingyo Izakaya. As a big fan of izakayas, my friend and I decided to try this new izakaya for dinner.

There was a big table of around 8 people dining inside, and another table with a guy who just finished his dinner and about to leave the restaurant. We were quickly seated by the server as soon as she noticed us coming in. To my surprise, all the employees in Wanoma are all women, including the chefs! It was pretty unusual to see female chefs in izakayas.

The gobo chips was presented beautifully and looked very appetizing. Wanoma's version of gobo chips consisted of fried burdock root and sugar toasted dried anchovies. You can taste sweetness and salt in this dish and they did not overwhelm on each other in term of seasoning which was really good. I really love how they fried the burdock roots into curly shaped chips.

Next dish was the minchidoria. Presentation-wise it looked like a lasagna. Minchidoria was a baked-beef of demi-glas sauce on spinach with rice of cream sauce. Big shock, it was very tasty. The cheese melted in our mouth, the beef was cooked perfectly, and the rice on the bottom was surprisingly moist. We both agreed that this dish was very flavorful !

The kushi-age came shortly after the minchidoria. It was our first time trying kushi-age. Kushi-age is a Japanese-style deep fried kabob. We ordered a pork and zucchini kushi-age. They came with two different sauces. One is a tonkatsu sauce and the other one was japanese mustard. Instead of using tempura batter, the kushi-age was deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs. We enjoyed this down-to-earth japanese snack. It would pair well with a beer. Too bad that Wanoma Izakaya has yet to obtain their liquor license.

The tebasaki ( chicken wings sprinkled with sea salt and lemon ) came in skewer form. The chicken wings were very tiny. The waitress told me that it usually came in three and since the chicken wings were so small, they gave me four. In my opinion, it's still small in size. Out of curiosity, I tried it right away as it was still hot and fresh from the kitchen. The chicken wings were astonishingly good! It was perfectly seasoned and the meat was very juicy. This is a really good example of when not to judge a book by its cover!

Last but not least was the Wanoma Pizza. The portion was pretty generous and the presentation was once again very appealing. The pizza was baked in mozzarella cheese sprinkled with toasted capers and it was served with a homemade salsa. A little warning: the salsa sauce was pretty spicy. We finished the pizza within minutes of it being served. It was really good, and the hot salsa was a great addition to the dishes overall flavour.

Overall this was a really enjoyable and satisfying dining experience. I highly recommended this new izakaya and I hope Vancouver fooddies will soon discover this little gem.

Italian Kitchen

Have been wanting to try Italian Kitchen for a while and I finally found dining companions to go with. It was kind of a last minute decision to dine here and we were really lucky to get a table at the patio on a Saturday evening without making any reservation.



We started our dinner with the crispy fried calamari with tomato bordetto. The calamari was not as crispy as described on the menu. The tomato bordetto really complimented the calamari which made this dish a good starter dish for our dinner.


I ordered the Dungeness Crab Ravioli with mascarpone, lemon and pesto cream. The portion of the dungeness crab was very generous. It was my first time having ravioli and this dish did not disappoint me. I really enjoyed it till the end.


My friend ordered the chicken saltimboca ( with prosciutto, ricotta and panzanella salad ) and spicy kobe beef meatballs pasta ( with truffle cream sauce, tomato garlic confit, herb ricotta ).
The chicken was well seasoned and the panzanella salad did give a nice touch to the dish. The spicy kobe beef meatballs on the other hand was really good too. The meatballs were tender and moist, very flavorful.




Overall this was a really pleasant dinner experience. I will definitely come back to try some of their other dishes.

Charm Modern Thai

It was my friend birthday and he was craving for Thai food hence I picked Charm Modern Thai for this special occasion.



Aside from a regular menu, they also served group menus.
We chose the function Menu C for four of us which consisted of :
1. Tod Mun Gai ( Chicken Patty )
2. BBQ Beef Short Ribs
3. Thai Spring Rolls
4. Thai Tempura Vegetables
5. Tom Yum Chicken
6. Tom Kar Chicken
7. Thai style 3 flavored fish
8. Pad Thai Chicken
9. Panang Beef
10. Pineapple Braised Short Ribs
11. Thai Tea Ice Cream
12. Vanilla Bean Tapioca

Items 1-4 came in one big platter served as appetizer.

(Clockwise from top right : Tod Mun Gai ( Chicken Patty ), Thai Vegetable Tempura, Thai Spring Rolls, BBQ Beef Short Ribs.

The chicken patty was excellent! It tasted so exotic. The shredded lime leaves inside the chicken patty gave a strong flavor to this dish. The dipping sauce which consisted of red onion and cucumber chutney was a perfect dipping sauce to compliment the chicken.

The vegetable tempura was kind of a Japanese fusion in my opinion, especially they served the regular Japanese tempura dipping sauce. The Thai spring rolls were not the best that I have ever had. Last but not least, the short ribs were nicely cooked.

Next we had the Tom Yum Chicken and Tom Kar Chicken. The main different between these two was the broth. The tom yum chicken was cooked in clear broth while the tom kar chicken was simmered with coconut milk. Both soups were mind blowing! I haven't had such an authentic tasting Thai hot and sour soup for a while.





We had the three flavored fish shortly after the soups. They also served us some Jasmine rice to go with the next few dishes.
The 3 flavored fish ( spicy, sweet and sour ) was nicely cooked, we really enjoyed it.


The pineapple braised short ribs was our favorite of the night. The ribs were cooked to perfection. It was succulent and well seasoned.


The pad thai chicken came in a nice presentation. However, the taste was just alright, not too memorable.


The Panang beef was the last entree of the night. The beef was nicely cooked -very tender. However, it was just a little salty for us.


The portion of the entrees were very generous. We actually had to wrap some of them home as we needed to save some space for the desserts.

The Thai tea ice cream was my favorite from the two. If you are a fan of Thai iced tea, you will definitely love this dessert.


The vanilla bean tapioca was very nice too. The use of vanilla bean was very smart in my opinion.

Aki Japanese Restaurant

My friend introduced me to Aki Japanese restaurant for dinner tonight. This restaurant had been in business for a long time ( since 1963 ). I was surprised for not knowing such authentic Japanese restaurant exists in downtown. The restaurant was a real hidden gem as it was located at basement level.



Once we got in, I could immediately feel a Japanese home style type of restaurant - very cozy.
It was pretty packed during the dinner time, most of the diners were Japanese. We were quickly and warmly greeted by the server. This restaurant has two open bars : sushi bar and robata bar. We ended up sitting at the robata bar as we found it very unique. The menu selection was mostly dominated by sushi/sashimi and robata. They also have quite a big selections of appetizers. Although the food that they offer are the typical food that you can find in a regular sushi restaurant, the quality and execution are different as this restaurant is run by Japanese.





Our first dish was the gomae. This spinach appy was really refreshing. The amount of the peanut sauce was just perfect.


The deluxe assorted sushi came soon after we finished half of the gomae.
I was really satisfied on the assorted sushi as they were all very fresh !
FYI, they grilled the unagi at the robata bar before using it to make sushi.


For sashimi, we had one of the daily specials : toro ( fatty tuna ).
The toro was cut to perfection, and it was really fresh and succulent!


Dinner was not complete without ordering something from the robata bar.
So we ordered a grilled black cod. It took a while for the robata chef to prepare this dish.
However, the long wait did not turn into a disappointment. The grilled black cod was well cooked. We both enjoyed it a lot. Although it was not as tender as the one I had at Toshi, this was still a very good grilled black cod - above average I should say.





Overall, I was totally surprised yet delighted by this home style Japanese restaurant. I really did not expect to find this kind of restaurant in downtown as downtown vancouver is well dominated by izakaya type of restaurants.

Alpha Global Sushi & Bar

This izakaya restaurant was run by two former Guu's chefs. I passed by it several times but never went in until recently. The interior did not portray any Japanese design, it was more like a western style bar I should say. However, the owners put a little twist on the design and made it look modern and stylish.



Although we were seated quickly, the server did not hand us the menu right away.
After waiting for a while, I finally summoned the server for the menu.
The menu design was pretty unique. They were using old library books and stick the menu inside. At first, we were all surprised when we were handed a big textbook by the server.

Our first dish was the dill salmon carpaccio.
The salmon tasted bland if you just eat it like that. However, if you eat it with the salad, it actually tasted good.


Our next dish was the miso teriyaki beef.
The short ribs were really tender and juicy. The miso taste, however, was very subtle.


The ebi chili mayo came soon after.
The prawns were not cooked properly as the batter was a little soggy which my friend complained about during the dinner. I have tried many versions of ebi chili mayo, and although this was good, it was not my favorite.


The yaki-soba was the disappointment of the night.
It was a very typical yaki-soba that you can find in a food court. I was disappointed that they did not make a twist or improvement on this classic japanese dish.


The next two dishes were sushi rolls.
Below was the alpha rolls. It consisted of mango, avocado, crab meat, mayo, tobiko and cucumber wrapped in boiled prawn with original plum wine mustard mayo sauce.
I love this roll, they tasted really refreshing. The mango added a big punch of taste which was excellent.


The last dish was the mango vancouver roll.
It consisted of mango, avocado, and mayo crab meat wrapped in smoked wild salmon and tobiko with plum wine mustard mayo sauce. The smoked salmon was a killer. It made this roll stand out and speak for itself. I really enjoyed this roll a lot, simply great!


Overall I might not come back to this restaurant due to the lack of consistency if the food quality.
The food selection was pretty limited as well. However, if you happen to be in yaletown and craving for izakaya, you might want to give Alpha a try.

MARKET by Jean-Georges

I have been wanting to try this new fine dining restaurant for a while. As you might know it is not easy to find a dining partner especially when it is a high-end restaurant located inside the newly built Shangri-la Hotel.

So I finally found a dining partner who was willing to try Market's Taste of Summer lunch special : $28 for 2 plates + dessert. That is actually a pretty good deal as they offer a pretty big selection for the appetizer and entree.

The restaurant was located at 3rd floor. Once we got to the third floor we immediately saw a nicely decorated little patio outside the restaurant. The patio looked really warm and cozy. We were quickly greeted by the the waitress and she asked us if we wanted to dine outside on the patio or stay inside. As it was pretty windy that day, although they told us that the heater was on, and we opted to dine inside. I love the interior it was very modern yet classy and I also noticed some very nice chandeliers.

Not long after we were seated, a waitress quickly approached us and greeted us warmly.
After we finished ordering, a different waitress came and served us some bread.
As Kevin had mentioned in his blog, this bread was very hard. I almost made a big mess from trying to pry the bread apart. The butter on the other hand was pretty good.


While I was struggling with the bread, another different waiter came by with our appetizers. I could detect an appetizing and almost beautiful fragrance emanating from the crab cakes and seared scallops.
The seared scallops were complimented with caramelized cauliflower and Caper-Raisin Emulsion. The scallops dish was outstanding. It caused me to pause with pleasure. They scallops were perfectly cooked and the flavor of the caramelized cauliflower was strong which gave a big punch to the dish. And together with the caper-raisin emulsion this dish was very memorable.


My friend had the dungeness crab cake. This dish was prepared with ginger-lime jus(juice), marinated cucumber, and fresh mango slices. My friend said that the crab cake was the best she had ever had. It was fresh and the crab cake was succulent. She was very satisfied.


The appies really blew us away. Now it came to entrees.
My friend ordered the Pacific Halibut with sautéed spinach and sweet garlic lemon broth.
I had a bite of this and it tasted really good. The fish was just a little over-seasoned was it was a bit salty to me but the spinach and lemon broth really saved the day.


I had the soy glazed short ribs topped with green apple julienne and jalapeno puree with rosemary crumbs. The dish came in a square shaped white plate and it looked sumptuous. The short ribs smelled really good that I had to put down my camera and start eating. The short rib was really tender and well marinated. However, after eating it for a while I found out that it was a little too salty. The rosemary crumbs were lovely and the jalapeno puree gave the short ribs a little extra punch in flavor.


Little did we know the best is yet to come. After a strong start and a satisfying main dishes, we really looked forward to a sweet ending.
My friend had chocolate pudding topped with softly whipped cream and crystallized violets.
The presentation was lovely! It made this dessert everyone's instant favorite.
After her first bite, I noticed her expression quickly changed to cheerful with a hint of satisfaction.


I ordered butter cookies with coconut cream and raspberries. The presentation was lovely as well. This is by far the best coconut butter cookie that I've ever had. And together with the cream and raspberry, this small portion dessert really gave me a sweet ending!

Alvin Garden

After my late lunch at Choon Ha Choo Dong, I continued my foodie journey at Alvin Garden for a food bloggers' dinner gathering. First of all I would like to give big round of APPLAUSE for Sherman for organizing the dinner. It was really fun to meet the faces behind Vancouver food bloggers. I'm really looking forward to the next one.

I was still pretty full from my late lunch; hence, I only sampled each dishes once or twice. By saying that, I mean that I could not remember clearly the exact taste of each dish. I'll be trying my best to write as much as I can remember about each dish.

The first dish was the Hunan style red-braised pork. The pork was tender, and well cooked - a good starter dish for our dinner.



The second dish was duck braised with beer. It looked more like a curry duck to me.
This dish caused many confusion to most of us as we did not really know what it actually was. Taste wise it was a really decent dish.


The Dongting broiled fish in chili soup was pretty good and not spicy.
I, however, prefer S & W Pepper House's version of this dish.


This is my favorite dish of all. This dish looks really spicy with all the bright red chilis. But that only applies if you ate the chili like Kim, one of the food bloggers, did by eating 3 of those.
The diced chicken were deep fried and seasoned with salt which was pretty good.


I was glad the mabo tofu was not cooked in Szechuan style as I do not like the "numb" feeling caused by Szechuan spice.


The soup's container looked unique, it gave the soup a home-made feel. The soup lived up to my expectations and was delicious.


The pan fried green beans were good as expected. I could not stop eating this - it's hard to go wrong making this dish and it was done well.


The double cooked pork with garlic and chili was my other favorite.


Our dessert, the pumpkin cake only came in four. It looked good but unforunately I wasn't able to try it.



The first time I tasted their steamed egg with minced pork I felt it was bland and tasteless. However, later on when I tried it again the beauty of the dish stood out to me and I ended up really liking it.


The corn cakes were the biggest disappointment of the night. As Kim said it tasted like uncooked cake. I couldn't agree more.


In my opinion, the fish head dish was the spiciest dish among them all. I honestly did not know this dish was fish head until I saw the receipt. Now I know what that small black-ish ball Kim was questioning about during dinner =)

Choon Ha Choo Dong

This restaurant was recommended by my friend's coworker. So last Saturday my friends and I went to try it out. I was surprised that this restaurant was not even listed in Urbanspoon ( I have added it ). My curiosity grew stronger since.

Choon Ha Choo Dong is located at East Broadway on 2nd floor. The first floor was a Korean market which had already gone out of business.
We went there kind of late, around 2pm, so there was only 1 customer left when we arrived.
We were nicely greeted and then guided to a dining room.

This restaurant's specialty is Korean BBQ. However, we opt for regular menu instead of barbecue.

The Banchan ( Korean side dishes ) consisted of potatoes, seaweed, bean sprouts, fish cakes, and kimchi. The potatoes were a disappointment. They were kind of dry and the sauce were not properly cooked. The seaweed came with chili sauce which was pretty unique as it was my first time having it. The bean sprout was pretty good and the fish cakes were the one that stood out among the other side dishes. The kimchi was kind of sour, I did not really like it.




Our first dish was Korean deep fried dumplings.
The presentation was lovely and appealing. The dumplings were fried to perfection, not overly or under done. The ingredients inside the dumplings were very tasty. It contained mixed of vegetables and ground meat and they were well seasoned. The salad, on the other hand, were very refreshing. They put Korean chili sauce on top of it as the salad dressing. However, the spice level was minimum which complimented the dumplings very well.


Our second dish was kanpoongki. It was a spicy fried chicken. This dish reminded me a lot of yang nyum chicken. The main difference was that kanpoonki was marinated and cooked with hot sauce. The texture of Korean fried chicken were chewy in general. So, never expected them to be crispy. However, the kanpoongki were way too chewy which I did not really enjoy eating them. Although the chicken were a little too chewy, the hot sauce that come with it were well seasoned and cooked. The sauce just made this chicken dish stood up.


The third dish was seafood and tofu stew. This stew contained lots of seafood inside. Near the bottom of the soup was a big mussel. The soup was well seasoned and pretty tasty in my opinion.
I was glad that the tofu was pretty soft unlike some other Korean restaurants which used medium firm tofu.


Our last dish was grilled mackerel which came with soy bean tofu soup.
The fish were well cooked and seasoned. I, however, did not find this dish special.
If they have some sort of dipping sauce on it, I think the fish dish will stand out.
The soy bean soup that came with it was very tasty! It was actually tasted better than the seafood stew.




Overall, this Korean restaurant was just okay in my opinion. Although there were some hit and miss dishes, I can not really say it was not good because i haven't tried their specialty barbecue yet.

Service : 10/10
Food : 7. 5 / 10

Papaya Hut

I recommended this small restaurant to my co-worker the other day for his lunch. I myself haven't tried yet at the time I recommended him. He came back with a big smile of satisfaction. So today I decided to drop by for a quick lunch as it was very close to my work place.

They offered lunch specials for $6.50 ( tax included! ) . It was very cheap in my opinion especially in Broadway neighborhood. I ordered their green curry lunch set. It came with green curry, jasmine rice and spring roll. The rice smells really good, I was wondering if pandan leaves was being used. The curry consisted of chicken, green pepper, red pepper and eggplant. The green curry was indeed very good! well prepared! The portion was very generous I should say as there were lots of chicken in that small bowl.

The spring roll on the other hand was a disappointment. Although it was crispy, the fillings tasted bland. This small restaurant get packed pretty fast, and there a number of people doing take out as well - a pretty good business I should say.

FYI, this restaurant was not an authentic Thai restaurant as I heard mandarin was the main language for communication in the kitchen. Although it was not authentic, I will still come back and try their other lunch specials as the green curry I had today was pretty close to original, I was pretty satisfied =)

Bacon Wrapped Enoki

I had been making this dish for several times. It's a really simple dish and I would like to share the recipe here.

Ingredients :
Bacon
Enoki mushrooms
Radish Sprouts

Sauce :
(This measurement makes about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light soy sauce
2 tablespoon sake
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

Note : The sauce measurement depends on how many package of bacon and enoki mushroom being used. If you happen to have an excess sauce after making this dish, you can refrigerate it and reuse it as teriyaki sauce.

Procedure :
1. Cut one slice of bacon into three small slices. Put some enoki mushroom in each slice and wrap it.
2. Put all the bacon wrapped enoki into an oven tray
3. Preheat the oven for 300C
3. Put all the sauce ingredients into a pan and heat it until it boils.
4. Gently pour the sauce onto the bacon wrapped enoki.
5. Baked for about 15 minutes.
6. Garnish with radish sprouts