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Posts Tagged ‘VANEATS.ca’

#TurnOnTheRajio with Rajio Japanese Public House

Posted in Dinner, Food Bloggers, Japanese, Noodles, Restaurants, Salad, Seafood, Tapas, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Partnering once again with the team at VANEATS, we were invited to sample the #TurnOnTheRajio package. If you remember, last time we checked out Rajio we quite enjoyed it, so I was happy to plan a return visit and I invited LW to join me.

#TurnOnTheRajio by VANEATS.ca

Food

Before we began eating, we ordered a Smashing Hit Punch. At first it looked a bit steep at $12, but it was more than a drink. First, it’s served in this cute watermelon cup. In addition to the cocktail, they also cut the watermelon in cubes and placed them in the cup. Did you know that watermelon works like sponges? The fruit pieces just soaked up all the alcohol so when you eat them they’re extra delicious! It’s like a spiked fruit salad!

Smashing Hit Punch

Now, onto the food. The VANEATS package includes 4 items:

The Kushikatsu is the house specialty. For this package you will be given 4 deep-fried, panko-breaded skewers at random, upon chef’s recommendation. I have looked at other bloggers’ photos and we all seemed to get different things. I got to try 1) Camerbet cheese, 2) Takoyaki, 3) Beef, and 4) Asparagus. All these skewers come with the house dipping sauce. The skewers themselves do not have a lot of seasoning, but the sauce adds some sweet and savouriness to them, accentuating the flavours. Now remember, only one dunk per skewer. Why? It was recommended by the restaurant; I suspect it has to do with softening the breading and affecting the crispy exterior.

Kushikatsu

The Bagna Cauda is your Japanese twist of veggie and dip. (more…)

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Rajio Japanese Public House – #rockinrajio

Posted in Dinner, Food Bloggers, Japanese, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Tapas, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2013| 1 Comment »

Rajio is a sister restaurant of Kingyo and Suika Snackbar, located in Kitsilano near West 10th and Alma. With an invitation from the team at VANEATS, we checked out their latest Rockin’ RAJIO package.

Rajio Japanese Public House

Rajio Japanese Public House

Food

As soon as we were seated, we were given a bowl of Cabbage Salad to start. It’s given to each table for free at the start of the meal. It came with a simple soy-based dressing. I ordered myself a Honey Pom-Pom Mojito while Mr. grabbed a Sapporo. The Honey Pom-Pom Mojito was refreshing, sweet with tartness from the pomegranate juice and prominent minty flavour.

Cabbage Salad
Honey Pom-Pom Mojito – Honey and Pomegranate Mojito

The 4-item menu started with our choice of Cold Tapas. With an exception of two items, you can basically choose from either the list on the regular menu, or from the fresh sheet. We went for the Seafood Marinated Mekabu Cold Tofu on the fresh sheet. The kelp marinate gave the scallop and topshell bits a savoury taste, which made the otherwise “blank canvas” tofu quite flavourful. The ikura (salmon roes) added extra saltiness to the dish, as well as a bit of a crunch. For some reason it reminds me of Chawanmushi, except this is in a cold form, and it’s tofu instead of steamed egg custard.

Seafood Marinated Mekabu Cold Tofu

Seafood Marinated Mekabu Cold Tofu – Seaweed kelp “Mekabu” with scallop, ikura and topshell on cold tofu

Continuing with another cold dish we had the Mini Carpaccio of Salmon, Tuna and Hamachi. (more…)

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Suika Snackbar – #SupaSUIKA and More

Posted in Casual, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Group Dinner, Japanese, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Tapas, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2013| 1 Comment »

Once again, we received an invite from the VANEATS team to check out its latest dining package, SupaSUIKA by Suika Snackbar. Because I have a visitor in town, and I remember how much I enjoyed the food at Suika, I decided to take him there for some izakaya experience.

Food

The SupaSUIKA package includes 4 items. First of all, a pitcher of their refreshing mojito, which comes in three interesting flavours: watermelon, pomegranate and aloe vera. We chose the Watermelon Mojito Pitcher because well, it’s pink 🙂

Watermelon Mojito Pitcher
Watermelon Mojito

The watermelon flavour was quite subtle, but I could taste all other mojito components: rum, mint and lime. The pitcher pours roughly 6 little glasses, which I thought was a decent amount. Next, the Steak Salad. The beef steak cubes were cooked to about medium so it’s still pink inside, but they were sooo tender and marinated well! (more…)

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Mosaic Bar & Grille – An Amazing Experience

Posted in Chocolate, Dessert, Dinner, Fine dining, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Special Occasion, Vancouver, West Coast, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2013| 4 Comments »

This is definitely not our first time visiting Mosaic Bar & Grille. I was there for Dine Out, for business lunches and for Christmas Day buffet brunches, and of all my visits quality had been great. Therefore, I was pretty excited when the VANEATS folks invited us to sample their latest offering, Art of Taste at Mosaic.

Mosaic Bar & Grille

Mosaic Bar & Grille

Before I even go into any details, let me just put it out there. We were blown away. The hospitality of staff and the quality of food were just top notch. Now, of course, you may say we got special treatment because we are bloggers. Possibly. So keep that in mind as you read on, but hopefully you’ll be convinced otherwise.

Food

First of all, let me walk you through the Art of Taste menu. It’s a 3-item dining pass that gives you an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. You have two options for each course, and luckily, we’ve tried them all.

Appetizer #1 is the Local Spring Salad, which features the freshest seasonal vegetables that are currently available in the market. And they did taste very fresh – the cooking wasn’t anything fancy, but that’s how you bring out the best of the fresh ingredients. The citrus dressing was refreshing and not over-powering, and it was just the right amount of dressing. Sheep milk ricotta was rich and creamy, with a little hint of gaminess, but it was a welcomed substitute to the rather commonly seen goat cheese.

Local Spring Salad

Local Spring Salad – Fava Beans, House-made Sheep Milk Ricotta, Citrus Mustard Dressing

Appetizer #2 is A La Minute Smoked Salmon. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It was the same smoked salmon that I had at the Healthy Chef Competition. That being said, this is the perfected version of the smoked salmon. When it first arrived at our table, it’s sitting in a cloud of smoke, inside a dome.

Salmon in a Smoky Dome

Salmon in a Smoky Dome

And wow, this was sooo much better than the other one. (more…)

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eight 1/2 Restaurant Lounge

Posted in Beer, By Invitations, Cheese, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Joyce, Lounge, Neighbourhood Gem, Pizza, Restaurants, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , on February 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Thanks to the team at VANEATS, we were onto another food adventure. This time a 3-item salivEight dining pass at eight 1/2 Restaurant Lounge.

VANEATS package at eight 1/2 Restaurant & Lounge

VANEATS package at eight 1/2 Restaurant & Lounge

Food

Now, keep in mind that our dining pass was complimentary, courtesy of VANEATS. You will receive the same three items for $15.

To start, we had a Flight of Beer. Originally we were supposed to get two each of two types of Stanley Park Brewery beers, but they sold out one of them, so instead, we got R&B Brewing’s East Side Bitter and Stanley Park’s Winter Ale (Brun). I usually prefer lighter beer, and the East Side Bitter has a nice citrusy note, but in this case I actually liked the Stanley Park Brun more. It has just the right amount of hoppy taste in it.

Flight of Beer

Flight of Beer – 2x R&B Brewing’s East Side Bitter (left) and 2x Stanley Park Brewery Winter Ale

You have a choice of three starters, and we chose the Baked Brie. I love brie; like it cold when eating with some crackers and genoa salami, and love it warm when the gooey cheese oozes out of the rind. (more…)

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