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La Brasserie Street @ Street Food City

January 30, 2012 by Joyce

As part of the Dine Out Vancouver festivities, a new component called “Street Food City” was introduced this year. It’s a gathering of a number of food carts in Vancouver at the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza for just three days during the DOV period. Thankful to have a boss who enjoys food as much as I do, we made a trip down to Street Food City as part of our team building exercise.

After checking out all the food carts, we have decided to try La Brasserie Street. My boss actually has tried it before, but he did recommend this cart and said he would have it again. For me, sadly I haven’t done my part in visiting all the food carts in town, even though my office is close to many of them, so I was happy to give this a try.

La Brasserie Street

La Brasserie Street

La Brasserie Street is a food cart that belongs to La Brasserie on Davie. Its menu is simple. One sandwich, the Brass Chicken Sandwich, and one dessert, its “World’s Best” Butter Tart. Someone may think that the offering is limited and it’s boring. In my opinion, if you want to be successful, all you need is one item on your menu, and this, is exactly that.

Chef taking orders

Chef taking orders

Food

We each ordered the sandwich combo (sandwich + drink) and a butter tart. Three items come to $10 including tax. Genius! Easy way to manage transactions and an easy up-sell for those who pay with a $10 bill (imagine “would you like to add the ‘World’s Best’ Butter Tart to your meal? Everything will come to a total of $10) – OK maybe that’s not their intent so I’ll take off my marketing hat now.

Brass Chicken Sandwich

Brass Chicken Sandwich

The Brass Chicken Sandwich was very good. It has pieces of meat from their famous rotisserie chicken, along with gravy and crispy onion strings. The chicken was a mix of chicken breast and thighs, and some of my chicken came with skin. Continue Reading »

Posted in Casual, Dessert, Dine Out Vancouver, Food Carts, Joyce, Lunch, Quick Service, Vancouver, West Coast | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

C Restaurant – Dine Out 2012

January 27, 2012 by Joyce

I received an invitation to a sit-down media dinner at C Restaurant, to sample its Dine Out menu. I said yes without a blink. C Restaurant and I go way back. In fact, it all started with a DOV dinner back in 2004, when the menu was – hold your breath – only $25. That was before my photo-taking/food-blogging time, but I remember it was a very enjoyable dinner, especially for the value of it. Then, I went back for another DOV dinner in 2008, and the price already went up to $35, nonetheless a wonderful meal. In 2011, I visited C again for one of its tasting menus, courtesy of deal coupon discounts; it was a different experience because the dishes were smaller in portion and I could tell that the culinary direction had changed since my 2008 visit (sorry, was in hiatus mode so there wasn’t a post on this). This media invite has piqued my interest in trying the now more upscale C Restaurant, at an affordable $38 DOV price.

C Restaurant by False Creek

C Restaurant by False Creek

Food

Keep in mind that this is a media event so it may not necessarily reflect the true quality of food, but this should serve as a good indication of what you should expect from this restaurant. And I won’t be commenting on its service quality because it’s hard for me to judge when we were considered the “VIPs”.

I must start by saying that C’s DOV 2012 menu includes four courses. Actually, it’s amuse bouche + 4 courses, so by the sound of it, it’s already a better deal than other $38 restaurants. The only down side is that there’s no option for each course. Well, there is, but at extra cost. On the positive side, the menu is more focused since chefs and cooks are making same dishes, so they should have better control on quality assurance and consistency.

Shall we begin? The Amuse Bouche were presented beautifully on skewers. On the menu it lists smoked cannelloni as the only item, but I was watching other diners and they seemed to have received a variety of skewers like we did. It probably depends on the number of people at each table.

Amuse Bouche

Amuse Bouche

Here is the list of items we got:

  • Organic Ocean Spot Prawn
  • Golden Beet & cheese
  • Quail Egg
  • Wild Pacific Smoked Salmon
  • Albacore Tuna Tataki

Because there was not enough for everyone to try everything, I only tried three of the five items. They were simple, one-bite skewers that whet your appetite for the meal ahead.

The first course is Pickled Beet Panzanella Salad. Panzanella is a dressed salad of greens and stale bread. It’s basic, but in this case the beets and harissa dressing brought a lot of flavour to the dish. Beets were sweet, and a bit sour from the pickling, and the harissa dressing added a tiny kick and was probably the highlight of this dish for me.

Pickled Beet Panzanella Salad

Pickled Beet Panzanella Salad

Throughout the dinner we received bonus dishes, so we could have a better understanding of what the entire menu has to offer. At extra cost, $9 to be exact, you could substitute your salad with Sauteed Spot Prawns. Continue Reading »

Posted in By Invitations, Dessert, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Great Views, Joyce, Seafood, Vancouver, West Coast, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Cocoa Goodness at Bella Gelateria

January 25, 2012 by Lisa

As Joyce has mentioned on our Facebook page, Hot Chocolate Festival is going on from now until February 14. My first stop (maybe my only one) was at Bella Gelateria in the downtown area by Burrard Station.

It was late in the afternoon, the rain was pouring down and you could feel the cold bite at the tip of your nose. Hot chocolate was the only solution to help cure my body after a tough week at school and help me finally unwind for the weekend, even if it was just for an evening with good company before having to immerse myself back into school work.

The outside of the gelateria is simple and elegant. The inside is a fairly small space, with a display window filled with desserts and wooden tables that were decorated with little vases and flowers and candles.

Sweet fix for the weekend.

There were about 5 types of hot chocolates to choose from, so we picked the Italian honey nougat with milk chocolate and the salty caramel with dark chocolate, both came with a slice of Erin Ireland‘s famous It’s To Die For Banana Bread.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Cafe, Casual, Chocolate, Dessert, Lisa, Lower Mainland, Vancouver | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Black + Blue – Dine Out 2012

January 23, 2012 by Joyce

Despite the expected, typical hits & misses during Dine Out, I tend to use this period to try out new restaurants and assess the potential return in the future. If a restaurant could impress me during this time, it would probably be even better when visiting post Dine-Out. This year I continue this tradition, and first up, Black + Blue, the latest addition to the Glowbal Restaurant Group empire.

Black + Blue Interior

Black + Blue Interior

Frankly I didn’t know what to expect from this restaurant because I’ve heard mixed reviews about it, in fact mostly negative both from regular diners online and my coworkers. Keeping an open mind, I gave it a try.

Food

We tried everything but one of the entrees. The two appetizers were pretty good. Bacon ‘n’ Eggs upgrades your everyday breakfast by using a super thick cut bacon and duck egg. The bacon was actually more like a piece of braised pork belly, super fatty, with perhaps only 20% meat (maybe not even that), rich and quite flavourful. I was expecting the egg to be a fried, sunny-side up or over-easy egg, but it was scrambled. It was cooked perfectly, creamy and all, but it could’ve been a chicken egg and it wouldn’t make a difference.

Bacon ‘n’ Eggs

Bacon ‘n’ Eggs

Tuna Carpaccio was a very delicate dish. The fish was thinly sliced, sprinkled with some sea salt and plated with pickled golden beets and truffle aioli. Not only did the sea salt brought out the flavour of the fish, it also added a crunch to the texture so it’s not all mushy. As soon as the dish was served I could smell the truffle in the aioli, but I personally found the truffle aioli a bit rich and over-powering.

Tuna Carpaccio

Tuna Carpaccio

For entree, given that Black + Blue is a steakhouse, I chose the Angus Tenderloin. The portion was relatively small, the steak was about 6oz with a few pieces of roasted root vegetables on the side. The snow crab béarnaise sauce was a bit too thick that you can’t really see the crab meat, and perhaps unnecessarily since it’s now hiding the natural flavour of the steak. The tenderloin itself was pretty well cooked; meat was juicy and tender. My dad and I both ordered the tenderloin, but one wanted medium and another medium rare. Black + Blue indicated the meat doneness by sticking a wooden stick into the meat. However, both of our steaks had a stick marked “Medium”. Continue Reading »

Posted in Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Joyce, Steak, Vancouver, West Coast | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Max’s Burgers – Sneak Preview (Opening Jan 23)

January 19, 2012 by Joyce

We were invited to the media event for Max’s Burgers, which is opening next Monday, January 23. The restaurant is at Cambie and 8th, the location that was formerly the Max’s Deli. Owners Bruce and David transformed it into this burger concept and invited Chef Connor Butler to come onboard.

At this event we were served several items from its regular menu, as well as beverages, only in smaller size (e.g. slider vs burger). Since the portion is smaller, this may not necessarily reflect the true quality of the food, but I think it serves as a good indication of what you could expect at Max’s.

Staff hard at work preparing food

Staff hard at work preparing food

Food

I admit that I’m not a burger person, especially when it comes to beef burgers (I know, I’m weird in many ways), but I know when food tastes good. Overall, I was very happy with the food. I’m a sucker for brioche, so the fact that the burgers are on house-baked brioche buns is already a +1 for me. Here are the 4 sliders I tried, in the order of my most favourite to my least favourite. Keep in mind, there were no bad burgers on that day, in my book anyway. I just preferred some over the others. I’ll explain it below.

Rooster on a Tailgate (Chicken)

I’m probably biased, because I think this burger is created for me, but this was by far my favourite burger of the evening. Why? It uses chicken thigh meat instead of chicken breast! I am not a white-meat person and I often find chicken (breast) burgers dry if not cooked properly. This one was more moist and fattier compared to chicken breast, more flavourful, and the crispy onion ring was a great addition. I enjoyed the sweetness from the red onion ring and the BBQ sauce, as well as the little kick from the chipotle mayo.

Rooster on a Tailgate Slider (Chicken)

Rooster on a Tailgate Slider (Chicken)

The British Columbia (Beef)

You’re probably surprised that the beef one would rank higher than the next one, but on that evening, I did like the beef one more. Continue Reading »

Posted in By Invitations, Casual, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Joyce, Lunch, Quick Service, Vancouver | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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