Rogue Kitchen + Wetbar (Broadway) - What a Disappointment...

I've heard great things about the Rogue Kitchen + Wetbar located in Waterfront station so when Tsa suggested the Broadway location for dinner, I was quite excited.

I came with a large group of 9 during prime dinner time but we noticed that half the restaurant was empty.

Their Signature Cilantro Caesar ($7.49) was a big hit at our table. It comes with an olive, celery, and a pepperoni stick.

Vicks was not a big fan of the Chicken & Chorizo Capellini ($16.99). She said it tasted really bland and underwhelming even though the description of it (wild mushrooms, pesto, arugula, fresh grated Parmesan) sounded fantastic.

I went for the Coconut Poached Chicken Salad ($15.49) and although it had an array of beautiful colours, the flavours failed the shine through. The chicken had no coconut taste and was oddly dry for having been poached in coconut milk. The snap peas, yellow and red peppers, and mixed greens were all so-so but tasted out of sync with each other and had no binding flavours.

The only entree that actually wowed us was the Pulled Pork Sandwich ($14.49). Meta Knight ordered it and could not stop eating it. The braised pork shoulder was melt in your mouth and the housemade bourbon stout bbq sauce was amazing.

I was lucky enough to get a taste (I had to pry this off Meta Knight, no joke) and boy was it delicious. If I ever go to Rogue again, this will probably be the only item I'll order.

The Bang Bang Chicken ($16.99) consisted of yellow coconut curry, mixed vegetables, fresh pineapple, sticky rise, shaved coconut, and coconut chicken. While it looked good, the person eating it regretted his decision in choosing Asian food at Rogue.

Tsa enjoyed the Turkey Sandwich, Tom Kah Soup & Salad Combo ($12.99). This seems like a good combo to get for lunch.

Okay, now about the service. One thing I found strange was that none of the servers were wearing uniforms so it was really hard to see who worked there. As well, our waitress gave us one of the worst service I've had in a while. She had a very nonchalant attitude while talking to us, didn't check up on us at all during our meal, walked away from us when we were trying to wave her down for more water or because something was wrong with our order, and also overcharged us in the end. None of us are very picky with service (comon'... we get much worse in Asian restaurants), but all of us left the restaurant disappointed and shaking our heads. I felt frustrated having to pay the 18% service charge for that type of service.

Service Rating: 1/5
Food Rating: 2.5/5
Price: $$-$$$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!


courtesy of http://daily-meme.tumblr.com/post/37743442364/bad-customer-service-http-daily-meme-tumblr-com

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[Guest Post] Addis Ababa - Ethiopian Dining in Amsterdam

Hi everyone, this is Peter again! After reading Fon's awesome guest post, I got inspired to write a new post of one of the restaurants I visited recently in Amsterdam. 

This time I went with a few friends to an Ethiopian restaurant in Amsterdam. None of us had ever tried Ethiopian food before, so everyone was excited. 

The name of the restaurant is  called "Addis Ababa", which is named after the capital of Ethiopia. My knowledge of this country is very limited, so I was eager to learn something more about the food culture. 

 (Source: Google Street View)

The restaurant is quite small and doesn't look very appealing from the outside.  It is located outside of the tourist area, so most of its visitors were local people from Amsterdam. The staff came from Africa, and they didn't speak Dutch very well.

We ordered a 'Addis Ababa Speciaal (ምርጥ)', which is a gigantic fluffy pancake, with  beef, lamb, chicken egg, vegetables, lentils, spicy pea flour sauce, spinach with cottage cheese and salad on top of it. The dish was so huge, that it barely fitted on our table. All ingredients looked very colorful and exotic and it was more than enough for four persons.

The big pancake was served with a basket of separate pancakes. The idea is to tear a piece of the individual pancake and then to scoop some of the sauce and meat on the pancake. I bet that Ethiopian people are really handy in doing this but we sucked at it, so we ordered plates and cutlery.

The funny thing about eating Ethiopian food is to observe how everyone is digging through the pancake. You can exactly tell who eats quickly and who eats slowly. It is really about social dining, which makes it much more fun compared to standard Western dining. It reminded me a bit of the dinners I had in Asia (and in Vancouver :p), where most of the meals are shared too.

However, one of the downsides was that the food became quite cold soon, probably because we were sitting outside. Also, the flavor of the pancakes was a bit plain in my opinion. All in all, it was a interesting dining experience and it was really cheap! (20 Euros per person ($27 CAD), including drinks).

Based on these reasons:

• Unique and exotic Ethiopian dining experience in Amsterdam.
• Social dining is fun.
• Service was okay, but it could have been better.

Service rating: 3/5

Food rating: 3.5/5

Price: $$

Overall: 3.5/5.0

Happy Adventurous Eating! Eet smakelijk!

Peter

courtesy of http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3161581/Ethiopian+food

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Yen Izakaya - Could Their Fried Chicken Get Any Juicier?!

There is a new Izakaya in town! Yen Izakaya just opened a month or so ago and they focus on Korean and Japanese fusion tapas.

It's located on Alexandra Road in Richmond, beside Cattle Cafe.

I've walked by a few times and it always looks really quiet so I assume not many people know about their grand opening.

Their Special Menu consists of mainly Japanese izakaya items like Chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), Toro Sashimi, Ebi Fry (deep fried shrimp).

I was very excited by the Korean aspect of the menu because I saw they had Topokki/Dukkboki, Japchae, and other items I absolutely love. The prices are also extremely affordable as well. Compared to Haroo on the second floor in the same complex, this seems to be a cheaper alternative for Korean eats.

Their interior is pretty comfortable and stylish. They also have tons of photos on their wall if you enjoy visual menus more (I definitely do!).

Kirbro got the Lunch Karubi Combo ($11.95) consisting of Miso Soup, Salad, Deep Fried Soy Chicken, and Grilled BBQ Short Ribs w/ Rice. Their miso soup tasted surprisingly better than a lot of other miso soups I've had in Japanese restaurants. I can't put my finger on what specifically but my whole family agreed as well.

Before I came, Kirbro told me they had incredibly good fried chicken. I didn't really think much of it but when I gave his deep fried soy chicken a try (can you believe it comes with his combo as a 'side'?!), I was blown away. The title of my post is the exact thought that came to my mind when I bit into it. Could this chicken GET any juicier? So flavourful, so delicious. Just try it for yourself.

These soy chicken nuggets are boneless and I assume they marinate it for at least overnight because the flavour completely pentrated through and distributed evenly throughout the meat. This photo doesn't even really do the chicken justice because it was a lot juicier than it looks right now.

Simple green salad with Japanese dressing.

The BBQ short ribs came in 5-6 pieces which fell a little short of filling Kirbro up.

Kirma chose the super cheap Bulgogi Don ($6.50) which is a simple Korean style beef stir fry with rice. She enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty good deal for less than seven bucks.

Having had Tteok Manduguk ($7.50) before at Potter's Garden, I purposely gave this version a try to compare which one is better. These dumplings (mandu) were even more authentic than the ones at Potter's Garden but the broth failed to compare. I would still probably choose Potter's Garden's Tteok Manduguk over this but this is definitely not a bad second choice if I don't feel like driving all the way to Burnaby.

Kirpa chose the Tonkatsu Lunch Combo ($9.95) and it came with salad, a side of fried soy chicken, and miso soup as well. His fried pork cutlet was delicious but we found it odd that they didn't cut it up into strips for us. We had to purposely ask for a knife to cut it ourselves.

Based on these reasons:

• you absolutely must try their deep fried soy chicken! I bet it goes great with beer :)
• affordable prices
• great hangout spot for a light meal and cheap drinks

Service Rating: 2.5/5

Food Rating: 3.5/5

Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!

<-- the one I had at Potter's Garden

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Super Buffet (Bellingham) - Not Bad For A Cheap Buffet.

For all Vancouverites who venture to Bellingham for either groceries, gas, or cheap shopping, I have a cheap buffet recommendation for you. It's called Super Buffet and my cousin actually recommended this place to me.

I use to go to another buffet around the Walmart area called Wonderful Buffet (how creative right?) and it satisfied my buffet cravings pretty well. Both of these buffets are Chinese owned so there are a lot of Asian inspired dishes like sushi, dim sum, and stir fry.

This buffet is literally within blocks of Walmart, Bellis Fair Mall, and Wonderful Buffet. Super convenient location.

Their lunches are $8.99 and I believe their dinners are around $13.99. For their dinner options, I heard they serve sashimi, raw oysters, and robata (grilled meat). I would come back just to eat unlimited raw oysters.

Their nigiris are very small and pretty much bite size but I don't necessarily think its a bad thing. You get to try a lot of different varieties without having to overstuff yourself with rice. Also, if it tastes bad, theres less of it to eat.

Some unexciting sushi rolls.

I thought this was pretty cool. Cold mini octopuses. I thought it tasted pretty awesome but don't trust me on it because I also like eating octopuses fried, steamed, boiled, raw, and live (post here).

Crawfish!! And Kimchi?! 

Cold Seafood Salad and a Cucumber Tomato Salad.

The Asian section consisted of potstickers, skewers, spring rolls, buns, etc.

The fried noodles that you see here were surprisingly delicious. They used fresh noodles so the chewy texture was definitely there. It was also nicely seasoned it without overusing soy sauce.

None of their desserts appealed to me so I pretty much skipped the entire section. My family had it though and thought they were passable. 

The thing that caught me off guard were these FROG LEGS!! I had no idea they would serve frog legs here at a buffet but alas, they were here! 

I would say without a doubt that I am a fairly adventurous eater when it comes to weird foods. However, frog legs always gets me.... squeamish.

For the sake of me always wanting to try things at least once (when it comes to food anyways), I took the plunge and went for it. The frog legs surprisingly tasted like....chicken! The meat was a bit tougher than chicken though because they have a lot more muscle. 

Deep fried sushi anyone?

Clockwise starting from my egg drop dumpling fish ball soup (that I created myself by mixing) is cheese stuffed mushroom, mussel, deep fried chicken wing, gyoza, masago nigiri, and salmon nigiri.

I really love and appreciate the fact that they have Black Bean Stir Fried Clams. 

Say Hello to the little octopus! Yum!

If I were to choose between Old Country Buffet and Super Buffet, I'd definitely go for this. It is more affordable, the variety is way larger, the quality is about the same, and they serve a lot of seafood which is rare to see at cheap buffets.

Based on these reasons:

• right next to Bellis Fair Mall!
• go at night for raw oysters and sashimi 
• items are refilled pretty quickly 

Service Rating: N/A

Food Rating: 2.5/5

Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

Happy Eating!

courtesy of http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=137588133&page=1

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