Sushi Mart

On first glance, my first reaction was "What the....." My friends told me that Sushi Mart was opened by the son of another restauranteur well-known in Vancouver for opening quality Japanese restaurants. The store front was about as as non-descript as a Family Mart in Japan, so at first, I was quite skeptical.
As you can tell from my friend Todd here, he's quite stoked about eating here. This is a guy who no more than just a few years ago, hated sushi. We've since converted him. Once inside, the interior design is clever, and probably inexpensive. The walls are lined with stained wooden shipping pallets. I've never seen this done before, but Sushi Mart managed to pull this off tastefully.

The behind-the-counter service is great, the staff is friendly, and when you sit down to have your meal, there was complimentary miso soup and tea. You just go up to the counter to order your food. Easy for take out, easy for dine-in.
Of course, I had to try the chirashi don. For $12.50, I found a really nice assortment of seafood. Aside from the standard issue ebi, tamago, tuna, and salmon, I got ika, ikura, and hamachi.

My friends ordered a Philidephia roll ($4.50), and a tuna roll ($1.95)

I tacked on an extra amaebi ($3.00) and uni (whatever market price was that day).

Like traditional sushi, a dab of wasabi is used between in the nigiri sushi. Not many places actually do this anymore and I can really appreciate the additional touches.


Sushi Mart is relatively new, and I really hope they can maintain the great quality and the reasonable prices. More locations would be nice, one in Richmond perhaps? But if I were ever downtown and craving sushi, I'd probably go to Sushi Mart.

Ho Yuen Kee

My friends took me to Ho Yuen Kee a few weeks ago only because Angel Cafe was closed. It's pretty much another run-of-the-mill Chinese seafood restaurant, but then again, there were only a few of us and we only ordered three dishes. We'll have to try it again sometime in a bigger group.

We ordered the house-special chow mein, which was good, but our next dish was a mistake on our part.....
......the assorted meats hot-pot, which is pretty much the exact same ingredients as the house-special chow mein except no chow mein and it's served in a hot pot. Again, this dish was really tasty, lots of ingredients, and good size portion.

The deep friend smelt was cooked with sliced garlic, there were loads, but wasn't quite salty enough for me. Spicy, but not quite salty enough. Nothing a bit of extra Chinese seasoning salt couldn't fix.

Like I said, the food was pretty good, but we didn't get a chance to sample many different dishes, so we'll defintely have to go back again. Several other tables had ordered crab, which may be this place's specialty....it looked really good.

The Longhorn Saloon

On the last few days of the season after the 2010 Olympics, I made a trip up to Whistler with a few buddies for some snowboarding and for lunch, we went to the Longhorn Saloon. Like any other restaurant in Whistler, the prices were inflated for what you get, and so were the portions. The place can get pretty crowded after the mountain closes, but luckily, we were hungry early and got there before the late-afternoon rush.



My friend ordered the mushroom burger, which came buried under a mountain of mushrooms, and some pretty huge fries.

I think mine was the longhorn burger....might have been the cajun burger. Anyway, it had jalepenos, and salsa....the burger was huge and really filling...then there was the fries. My burger could have fed two people.
The grilled chicken caesar salad with garlic toast and soup.

The Longhorn can get pretty noisy (we're talking nightclub-loud), but that's all part of the atmosphere. The food is pretty good and the restaurant is right there when you're coming off the mountain. I can't see why I wouldn't go there again. By the way, not pictured here is their nachos. I saw the table next to us order the nachos and the mountain of chips was as big as Whistler. Not kidding, I'll defintely order this next time!

Mui Garden

The best Chinese curry I have ever had, bar none. I've been eating at Mui Garden for over 10 years now, and I still haven't found a place that has better Chinese style curry. The first time visited Mui Garden's was in college when a friend of mine - Ada (forgot her last name) took me to the location on Main Street in Vancouver. The shop didn't look particularly interesting - kind of dark and boring in a cafe/diner style sort of way. I had Curry Beef Brisket on Rice and I've been hooked ever since.

I don't know about the other locations, but the one in Richmond often comps some sort of Chinese soup.
The steamed rice comes in two varieties, one plain, the other glorious. I forget what it's called in English, but just ask for it. It's cooked something magical, possibly garlic and chicken stock (from the Hainan chicken). Anyway, it's the perfect companion to......anything on the menu.
Spareribs & Walnut in Premium Sauce. I know, the name sounds kind of silly, but this dish is deliscious and it's kind of new to me.
I'm not even sure if it's sparerib to tell you the truth, it tastes like pork chop, deep friend, then drowned in this wicked sauce (might have mayonaise in it) and walnuts.
The curry beef brisket, and it should be on everyone's "things to eat before you die" list. It's so rich and creamy (probably due to loads of coconut cream/milk), the curry isn't overpowering, and the brisket dissolves in your mouth.

String beans stir-fried with ground pork.
Assorted hot-pot, usually tofu, shitake mushrooms, BBQ pork, and an assortment of seafood.

The usual condiments with Hainan chicken. The one on the upper left is great with just plain steamed rice (and the other type of rice I talked about earlier).
Hainan Chicken, not my favourite, but for those who like it, I'm told that Mui Garden has one of the best.
Sweet and Sour Pork, Mui's is served with lychee, something I don't think I've seen anywhere else.
The pork as a nice crispy coating underneath the sweet and sour ssauce, which means it's been deep fried to order. Some places will have a huge batch of the stuff sitting there and getting soggy, not Mui Garden. The pork isn't sitting in a pool of sauce either, just enough to coat the por and some vegetation. Order this, you won't be disappointed.
The Gailan is really good too, cooked perfectly.


Deep fried tofu with seasoning salt. This dish is huge and pretty filling. It could be a meal on it's own, but you'll probably be really thirsty after because of the seasoning.
Mui Garden in Richmond can be found on 5960 Minoru Boulevard just north of Westminster Hwy. (604)303-7977. Anyway, Mui Garden is definetly worth going. Order their signature dish - the Curry Beef Brisket.