Guu with Garlic

I can't believe I haven't done a review on this place yet, since I've been here so many times.  Guu with Garlic, is the second of a chain of successful izakaya opened by Guu, the first one being Guu on Thurlow and the very latest Guu Garden.  Of all the izakaya popping up in Vancouver, I still think Guu izakayas offer the best bang for your buck.

Takowasa - octopus in wasabi sauce.  This is a dish I discovered in Japan and I'm always happy to see it being offered on this side of the pacific.  For me, it's a taste of nostalgia.

Daikon Salad with hotate (scallops) and supposedly mentaiko.  You can taste the mentaiko if you're looking for it. but visually, it's nowhere to be seen.  This was on their daily special menu so it may not be offered all the time.  Tasted good though, nice and refreshing.

Ika Karaage - came with a cocktail sauce that went well with it, but personally, I prefer my ika grilled when I go to izakaya.

Amaebi - the sweet shrimp really was in a class of it's own.  It's not just any shrimp you buy off a boat in Steveston, nor is it the regular run-of-the-mill amaebi that comes from the same supplier that provides for most sushi restaurants around town.  The amaebi was smallish, but packed with flavour.  I'm always tempted to suck the miso from the ebi no atama as well (some of you may find this gross so I left the meaning in romaji) but I left the heads intact for deep-frying purposes later.  This dish I would go back for.

Beef Yakiudon -  Stir fried udon with beef and loads of negi.  I love negi (green onions), so this really worked for me.  This dish still comes in second to my favourite izakaya udon - mentaiko kimchi udon.

Kimchi Soup - This was absolutely perfect for a cold night.  Even though it was a spring evening in April, it felt like it was still the middle of winter.  The soup wasn't too spicy so you won't get ring of fire the next day and there was a nice mix of beef, tofu, and kimchi.

Saba - the perfect fish for grilling because of it's fatty nature, saba here is served on a hot plate with garlic chips, onions, bits of tomato....and you really want to eat the saba with all these little bits because it's a nice alterative to the standard rice, wasabi, and shoyu combo (nigiri sushi).

Deep-fried Ebi heads - remember I was saving the ebi heads?  Here they are.  Lightly coated and deep fried, you can eat these whole...they taste like really awesome shrimp chips and as my sensei always likes to mention, a good source of calcium!

Pumpkin Korroke - For me, this was sort of guu's signature dish.  Basically, it's a boiled tamago encrusted with crushed kabocha (butternut squash) and made into korroke.  It's dressed with a mayo sauce (probably mixed with a bit of ketchup) and sprinkled with kabocha chips.  They used to run out of this every night but it seems like they've got that issue sorted out.

Chicken karaage - the bread and butter of most izakaya and seemingly a favourite of most customers.  This was pretty much on everyone's table, we, along with the rest of the lemmings ordered this dish.  The chicken was nice and crispy, falvourful, but makes your head spin when you dip it in mayo.   You might want to order this one earlier on, or at least order a salad after to cleanse your palet...

The service here is pretty good, the prices are very good for izakaya, and the amtosphere is like most izakaya - loud and energetic.  It's not as dark as some izakaya, but lighting really isn't an issue when washing down gallons of beer and sake.  The food is tasty, and can get pricy if you go hungry.  It's a tapas bar, Japanese style, so the purpose of these places is to get you legless, not fill your stomach (haha, if anything, to empty your stomach!).  There's no question that I'd go back to Guu with Garlic.

Happy Date

Fast food Chinese style.  It's cheap, sorta run down, but that goes for just about any HK cafe that's been around since the beginning of time.  My parents have been going here for years, and they always tell me stories about how all of Richmond's driving school teachers would congregate here before work (probably to plot how to destroy Richmond's infrastructure and cause traffic jams all over the city).  I didn't really pay much attention to this place until the closure of Yung Kee (one of Richmond's oldest Chinese restaurants). 

I didn't go there much myself, but lately, I've found myself visiting there a bit more often, especially when I feel like I need an alternative to Alleluia.  The rating for Happy Date isn't too bad, although it's got some really crummy reviews.  It's almost the opposite of Angel Cake Cafe that's got lots of great reviews, but a less than stellar rating.

The ice lemon chock-full of lemons, but a bit heavy on the syrup.  If you like it really sweet, perfect.

I think the soup bowl is slightly bigger than Alleluia's.  They use a lot more cream in the soup than Alleluia's as well.  The soup tastes pretty rich, which works for me, but may not for others.

With some of the combos, you get a choice between a but or toast.  It was breakfast, so I got toast....I should have gone with the bun, because they smell and taste like magic. 

Baked Seafood on Rice.  Awesome.  Enough said.

I was there with my parents and my dad got breakfast.  Just like home!

My mom got congee and it's not bad here...dirty cheap.

We also got some rice noodles....tasted good, no complaints.

They've got an afternoon tea menu that's got a lot of the same stuff as most other HK cafes, and to tell the truth, I think they're baked seafood on rice and baked pork chop on rice taste better than Alleluia.  Maybe it's because I got to Alleluia so much, that my taste has grown accustomed and almost a little bored.  Don't get me wrong, I still love going to Alleluia, but it's nice to mix it up once in a while.  Despite some less than stellar reviews, Happy Date's been around for ages, so they must be doing something right to stick around this long.  When I don't feel like risking a line up at Alleluia, I'll go to Happy Date....especially if I'm craving the Baked Seafood or Pork Chop on Rice.

Congee Noodle House

Parking is atrocious, and don't even get me started on the cleanliness of the washrooms, but the food here is good and cheap.  The service is debateable.  If you don't expect much, and you're not a complete jackass, the servers will give you a certain amount of respect.  Don't expect them to bend over backwards, but if you get the right one, they just might. 

Actually, our server was pretty awesome, and she did go out of her way to give us good service. I was pleasantly surprised.

Pork and Century egg Congee - standard issue food for the sick and dying, but actually quite edible for the healthy living as well.

Zhong (sticky rice in leaf).  It doesn't come in a bowl, it's just that I split one with a friend of mine and my share ended in this tiny rice bowl.

Chinese Donuts

Chinese donuts and Congee were made for each other. 

Century Egg (side order)

Sweet and Sour Pork on Rice - you can't go wrong with this one....well, sometimes you can, but this place managed to get it right.

Buddha's Feast - the for the vegetarians.  One of my heathen friends was with us and he hasn't touched meat in probably 30 years....poor guy.  My food eats his food.

Curry Beef Brisket...I dunno, it was probably good, but I'm so used to curry beef brisket from Mui Garden, I the bonus. 

The place is an absolute dive and the washrooms are minging, but the food is good, it's cheap and the place is open late.  Just don't go with any expectations, and you'll be fine, lol!  Anyway, I can't think of another Chinese restaurant in the immediate area that would be better.

Cafe De L'Orangie - revisited

I heard this horrible rumor that Yoshoku-ya is closed or has been sold to new owners....what a horrifying thought because I love that place.  It doesn't show closed on Urban Spoon so one of these days, I'll have to head downtown and check it out myself.  I just pray that the same thing does not happen to Cafe De L'Orangie.  If Cafe De L'Orangie closes, I will cry.

The decor is still pretty much the same quaint style as before, maybe just a little re-arranging of some of the tables and fireplace.

A nice house salad with fresh, crisp veggies to keep me from feeling guilty.

I got the hambagu steak this time around and it was so increbily tender and moist....it was flawless.  The veg were cooked better than some high-end places I've been to recently and the sauce is perfectly matched to the patty of meat.  I could have eaten two of these.

Like many yoshoku-style food, the rice comes on a plate.  I'm used to this now, but when I first encountered it, I thought it was weird to eat rice off a plate.

Although it's listed as a cafe, I don't drink much coffee and I like to go here for the food.  It's about as yoshoku-style as you can get and I thank my lucky stars that it's around.  The food is awesome, the prices are reasonable, and the service is incredibly friendly.  Staffed by maybe one server, one person in the kitchen and a  proprietor who clearly loves what he's doing, Cafe De L'Orangie is a place that I hope will be around forever.  What I fear most is a double-edged blade.  It's not well known so I never have to wait for a table (good for selfish me), but it will need to get it's name out there and draw more people to stay in business.  I only hope that the rent is low enough to keep the owner interested enough to stay in business.

Timothy's Espresso Bar

After stuffing ourselves at Kisamo's, a few of my colleagues and I decided to go for a healthy walk....to the ice cream shop, haha!  Steveston's chock-full of these little coffee/ice cream/gelato shops which are packed with people in the summer time.

There's a decent selection of gelato and more than enough to satisfy me on this cold night. 

Cheap and tasty, but not particularly memorable for anything in particular.  Timothy's was a nice little stop on the pier and it was opened after we finished dinner at Kisamo's so it was convenient. 

Kisamo's Revisited

Fried Cheese....was not on my last post when I went to Kisamo's.  o be honest, I think it's a bit overpriced, but damn, does it taste good.  I wouldn't normally order this because it's pricy for what you get, but once in a while, you go with someone who's never been there before and you want to introduce them to a dish that's just a bit over the top.  I was there with some colleagues from work and I had to let them try this.

We got the "greek caviar".  I said I was going to get the name of this, but alas, I've forgotten again.

Since nobody was going to order the Calmari dinner, we figured, we'd order it as an appie.

I know the moussaka is good, I've tried it before, but I never end up getting it because I'm greedy and I want more food on my plate.  One of these days though, I will order the moussaka.

I always order the mountain of lamb when I go to Kisamo's.  The Roast Lamb Dinner for $12.95 is always the best bang for your buck, and it usually leaves you feeling a bti uncomfortable if you manage to finish everything on your plate.....awesome. 

I couldn't stop taking pictures of this monster cut of lamb.  It's so huge, you could describe it as scenic.  Lambscapes, haha!  Your butter knife cuts through it as if it were butter, when you eat it, it melts in your mouth like butter.  I'm 99% sure that this is just a huge plate of butter that's shaped like roast lamb.  This friggin incredible dish is just about the best you can get for 12 bucks and it keeps me going back to Kisamo's again and again.