Ba Le Vietnamese Subs

This... to me is an institution in Vancouver. Sure, there are a lot of Vietnamese sandwich shops around, but I believe that Ba Le is the best (well, not anymore, I like Kim Chau more). They have 2 locations in Vancouver, one in Chinatown on Main Street and one on Kingsway at Fraser. Today I visited the Kingsway location after helping Costanza take things to the city dump. After that tasteful experience, I needed something yummy to get the taste of crap out of my mouth. Luckily for me, the truck rental place is a block away from Ba Le, so off we went. Costanza was gracious enough to pay for my sandwiches after the city dump experience.

So, what is a Vietnamese sub anyways? Well, thanks to the former French occupation of Vietnam, we have a fusion of French and Vietnamese foods. The sub itself is a french baguette with pork pate, Vietnamese ham, headcheese, pickled carrots, daikon, cucumber, hot peppers, cilantro, butter-mayo and fish sauce. This may sound like an extremely weird combination of ingredients, but trust me, it works. If you are adventurous, skip Subway and Quizno's and try a Vietnamese sub!

Also, they are dirt cheap, one deluxe sub will only set you back $3.25. There are other varieties such as grilled pork, grilled beef, chicken and Vietnamese ham. In addition to the subs, there are other Vietnamese specialties as well. There is Bahn Cuon (rice noodle with pork and wood ear mushrooms) accompanied with a vinegar/fish sauce dressing and sticky-rice with sausage (don't know the proper name for it).

The service is efficient, they try to get the sandwiches made quickly and send you on your merry way. However, be warned that sometimes they are preoccupied with really large orders and you might have to wait awhile. In terms of eating at Ba Le, I don't recommend that, just take it home or eat it at a park. The dining area and counter have recently been renovated, so it's nice and clean. If you have never tried a Vietnamese sub before, do yourself a favour and try it. I'm sure that you'll be surprised how good it is. Moreover, get it from Ba Le, my favourite Vietnamese sub joint.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Sub is very yummy
- Ingredients are fresh

The Bad:
- Not open late (since that would be the best time to eat one!)
- Seems to be always busy, lineups are long

Ba Le Sandwich Shop
#21 - 701 Kingsway
Vancouver, B.C.
V5T 3K6
(604) 875-6322

Business Hours
9:00am - 6:00pm (Mon - Fri)
8:00am - 6:00pm (Sat & Sun)

Dinner @ Victoria Seafood Restaurant

Generally, a city's Downtown core is home to some of the best dining in the area. That is a given since many people associate good food with the city centre. Furthermore, these "exclusive" restaurants depend on tourists. Thus, many become destination restaurants where not only the locals dine. For a city that is predominantly Asian, there is a surprising lack of good Chinese restaurants in Downtown Vancouver. Quite possibly, the nature of the cuisine doesn't usually exude elegance. After all, you can quite possibly get the best Chinese meal of your life at the local dive. Honestly, some of the best Chinese food can be found at mom 'n pop operations in East Vancouver and Richmond. But back to the tourist thing. If you are not local, it is quite difficult to know of these hidden gems. Of course, you can just read any Vancouver food blog, including this one, and find those out-of-the-way beauties. But if you must eat Chinese food in Downtown, there are really only a few choices, especially if you want a "nice" place. There's Kirin, Imperial , Victoria and to stretch the location into Chinatown, Floata. But honestly, stay away from Floata, it is both underwhelming in terms of food and service. In terms of dinner, Kirin and Imperial would edge out Victoria. However, Victoria gets the nod for Dim Sum by virtue of being better than Kirin and at the same time, less expensive than Imperial. By no means is it the best in town, there is better in Richmond. I am exclusively talking about Downtown only. Tonight, it was another random dinner at Victoria. You see, my parents love the place. It is not really because it is the best. It is because they feel comfortable here and I guess it is habit as well.

We started with an Appetizer Platter consisting of fried chicken knees (yes, that is right), smoked black cod and soy chicken. The knees were meaty and crunchy while the black cod was melt-in-your mouth good. The soy chicken well, was soy chicken, albeit cooked perfectly. Let me get this out of the way first, squab is a young pigeon, where the meat is very similar to duck. Generally, most people would tell you that Sun Sui Wah has the best Squab in town. However, for all the times I've had it here, I think it is equally good where it is moist and tender with perfectly fried skin. My mom loves Lobster in Cream Sauce and despite the lack of diners, we ordered a whole one to ourselves. The trick here is to fry the lobster meat until it is cooked while still retaining moisture and a slight chewiness. Then it is wok-tossed in a cream sauce consisting of butter, cream and broth. This version was pretty good. Maybe the sauce could've been a bit more aggressively seasoned though.

Another classic dish in a Chinese meal is Steamed Rock Cod. This is actually quite difficult to order these days since rock cod have been over-fished. This particular fish was steamed correctly where the flesh is cooked separating from the bone easily. Still moist and slightly chewy, it is dressed with sweet soya sauce and hot oil. So far the meal has been good, you might think why I rate it behind Imperial and Kirin? Well, the next dish, Sea Cucumber and Duck Webs with Pea Shoots, will shed some light. Nothing wrong with the perfectly cooked sea cucumber (soft while retaining its shape). But the veggies here are often water-logged. I'm not sure if it is because they lack a hot wok or whether they water-blanch their vegetables before stir-frying. The bottom-line is that their veggies are sub-par.

When it comes to dessert, I think that Victoria has probably one of the best selections for a Chinese restaurant. In addition to their daily dessert (which is usually a dessert soup), all of their Dim Sum dessert offerings are available. We got a Sweetened Soup with Water Chestnuts and Tapioca tonight. We also added a Coconut Pudding too. Typically, we get really good service here since my parents are regulars. However, I have both heard and witnessed less than stellar service as well. So it can be a bit of hit and miss (generally on the hit side more than miss). Again, the Dim Sum is a good bet for those wanting to eat in Downtown, with Dinner being decent.

The Good:
- Dinner is decent
- Comfortable dining space
- Prices are actually okay considering the location

The Bad:
- The vegetable dishes are watery
- Service can be hit and miss

Victoria Chinese Restaurant

1055 W. Georgia

Vancouver, BC

V6E 3B2

(604) 669-8383

Stepho`s Greek Taverna

We had an educational conference at the Wall Centre today and since we were in the Davie Street area, there were many restaurants to choose for lunch. In reality, there was only one restaurant on our radar from the beginning - Stepho's. When I used to live in downtown, I would frequent Stepho's every now and then. I would brave either the heat or cold and line up for an hour to eat there. Now you ask why on earth would I do that? Simple, Stepho's offers decent food at a great price and humongous portions. I cannot understand why other restaurants do not use this formula for success more often. Some restaurants are so cheap, you'd think they ran out of food when they present you with a dish where you can see more of the dish than the food. You won't have that problem at Stepho's. From the pictures, you can see that the dish is completely filled. Now portion size is not important if the food ain't good. Of course there are better Greek restaurants to be found in the GVRD; but the food here at Stepho's is more than acceptable for the price. After all, we always have to go into a meal with reasonable expectations that coincide with how much we are paying.

My esteemed colleague and I shared the calamari as an appetizer. Not sure what possessed us to do that, since we knew our entrees were going to be large. Anyways, the calamari was tender and fried perfectly, being light and crispy; yet not oily. However, the batter was a bit too salty and even dipping in the tzatziki didn't help. For my entree, I choose the roast lamb, which was excellent. The lamb was tender and moist with plenty of garlic flavour. The vegetable briami and rice were pretty standard, nothing much to say about them. However, the potato was a bit hard and lacked lemon flavour. I substituted my Greek salad for a Caesar salad and it was pretty good since the romaine was still crunchy and it was not slathered in too much dressing.

Another person at the table had Spanakopita for her appetizer and it was the size of an entree. It was very good being flaky and filled with plenty of spinach and cheese. For her entree, she had the Mousaka and it was the largest portion of Mousaka we've ever seen, it was packed with meat, zucchini, eggplant, potatoes and a hefty layer of Bechamel on top. The service at Stepho's is average, you can get lucky and it's pretty good, or otherwise it's a bit indifferent. It's not excellent service, but it's not as bad as some other people have remarked. On past visits, we have never been disappointed with the food or service. It may not be the best Greek food in town, but it's definitely the best combination of taste, portion size, and price. The only downside to Stepho's would be the lineups and lack of parking. You can avoid the lineups if you show up for lunch right when it opens at 11:30 and arrive for dinner before 5pm.

The Good:
- Food is good for the price, since some items are definitely average
- Portions are large
- Prices are reasonable

The Bad:
- Huge lineups
- Hard to find parking on Davie Street
- The dining room is cramped

Stepho's
1124 Davie Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-683-2555

Greek Village

A favourite restaurant of mine is Greek Village in North Delta. Honestly, I don't have a lot of favourites out here, other than Taste of Singapore. I suggested it to Pomegranate and he loves Greek food, so it was all good. However food with lots of garlic would probably not be the ideal meal before a meeting. I'm not sure if I subconsciously did that as a prank or not...

Greek Village is right on Scott Road near 80th and it a neighbourhood favourite. In fact, one of my friends (who is Greek), raves about the place. I don't know about you, but I generally would trust the opinion of someone who is of that ethnicity in regards to any food. Mind you, it can also be argued that any one person can just have bad taste as well, regardless of ethnicity! The decor of Greek Village is similar to a lot of other Greek restaurants, lots of blue and white, columns and plenty of greenery. It's a comfortable dining room, spacious and you do seem to have some privacy. Service is friendly in a family-run sort of way - unpretentious and attentive. We were originally led to probably the darkest spot of the restaurant; but as usual, I requested to be moved to somewhere with light.

Looking at the lunch menu (I've only been here for dinners in the past), I realize that there was no roast lamb. I decided to go for another favourite of mine, the Moussaka. Before that, Pomegranate and I shared a Calamari. Crispy, lightly seasoned and easy to eat, the calamari was a great start to our meal. I loved the Tzatziki, it was thick, smooth and garlicky. The moussaka was plain excellent. A perfect amount of rich bechemal sauce covered tender pieces of eggplant and flavourful meat. It was the perfect consistency, being moist while maintaining it's shape and not being watery. The lemon potato was fork tender while still being firm. It tasted really good with lots of lemon flavour. The Caesar salad was fresh and not overdreshed. However, the rice was a bit on the softer side. It was not mushy; but just not as firm as I would've liked it. Pomegranate had the Beef Gyro and it looked quite good with plenty of meat and fillings nestled in a soft pita. The Greek salad looked really fresh and colourful.

The portions were adequate, but not as large as some other places. This is true for dinner as well, I think the portion is good, but doesn't compare to other places like Stepho's (but I guess Stepho's is an anomaly). Prices at Greek Village are reasonable for the portion size. However, the quality is quite a bit better than most other Greek restauarants. Food is fresh, perfectly seasoned and prepared. One strange thing is that they do have adequate parking spaces, but the spaces get filled up real fast, despite the restaurant not being full. I wonder people visiting other businesses in the complex are using their parking.

The Good:
- Food is fresh and prepared properly
- Service is friendly
- Comfortable dining space

The Bad:
- Despite other reviews, I find the portions not huge, just average
- Surprisingly, their parking lot fills up fast even though it is not small

Greek Village
7953 120th Street
Delta, B.C.
604-597-1515

Curry King

*This is an updated post on the original as of 10/20/09* On my way home today, I dropped by our local IGA and picked up some items intending to cook dinner. However, as the clock ticked down to 6:00pm with Viv nowhere in sight, I knew that it would be dinner impossible. When she finally called at 6:15pm, I made it clear I wasn't going to start cooking since our usual dinner time is at 6:00pm. Therefore, I got the kids ready and bundled everyone into the car. With the kids, generally going to anything exotic is a bad idea since they probably won't eat it. Let me rephrase that, my son won't eat it. Therefore, Greek, Indian and anything Latin was out of the question. We needed to go to something safe... such as a HK-Style Cafe! Ah yes, where you can get Western food that looks and tastes nothing like it's supposed to!

We needed to go to Metrotown, so we went for something nearby - Curry King. With a name like Curry King, you'd think it exclusively served Curry. Wrong. It's a Hong Kong-style restaurant that does serve curry, but also Chinese rice and noodle dishes. In addition, it the aforementioned "Western" food. We were lucky to get parking right in front since there are usually a lack of parking spaces in the area. We were greeted to an extremely colourful dining room, complete with non-trendy colours. On past visits, it has been late night and their mini-meals are around $8 and are a bit smaller than the full size versions. Included with the mini-meals is a choice of drink and soup of the day. Tonight, it was the regular dinner menu.

I've had the curry brisket in the past and it is indeed very good. With a name like Curry King, it'd better be! Although, I much prefer the curry at Mui Garden and Cafe Glouchester. The curry is smooth and only had hints of heat, this is typical of Chinese versions of yellow curry. The brisket is fairly tender, and has an acceptable amount of fat. Tonight, there was no curry; rather, Viv had the 2-item Set Meal dinner which includes a soup, rice or spaghetti, choice of sauce and hot drink. She picked the Rib Eye Steak and Chicken Steak as her 2 meat options. We were not surprised to see the steak overcooked when it arrived since HK-Style cafes rarely get steak right. They either cook it wrong or *gasp* marinated it until it's too salty. The meat was also not really all that tender as well. However, the chicken steak (really a deboned leg and thigh) was juicy and tender. Not much to say about the frozen fries and veggies underneath. only table left. For once, the side spaghetti was not a mush and mixed with the garlic sauce, it was pretty good.

I chose the Salted Fish & Chicken Fried Rice, which is one of my favourites. The rice was pretty firm and there was a good amount of tender chunks of chicken. Despite the salted fish, the rice could've used a bit more seasoning. For the kiddies, we got an Unagi Udon. Okay, don't ask me how this made it onto the Curry King menu; but it was surprisingly good. The udon was still a bit chewy and the soup was quite flavourful, if not a bit peppery. A large piece of tasty unagi rested on top of the noodles. A pretty decent meal at Curry King. Nothing outstanding; yet nothing was horrible - a predictable meal. Service was decent except there was like only one server for the whole place and it got kinda slow when more people came in. Only in a Chinese restaurant you'll find one server covering an entire restaurant!

The Good:
- Good portions
- Food is generally decent
- Reasonable prices

The Bad:
- Parking is hard to find
- Hong Kong style of Western food isn't for everyone
- Service was friendly; but there was only one server???

Curry King
#5 - 4250 Kingsway
Burnaby, B.C.
Tel: 604-437-3638

Kingsway Sushi

It was the last hockey game before the Christmas break and we decided to meet up for some eats afterwards. What is the difference from any other Friday you might ask? Well, this time, the entire team joins the usual suspects. So our dilemma was to find a place that is open past 10:30pm, can accommodate 14 people, reasonably priced and central in location. With such specific criteria, the choices were not many. We finally settled on the late night AYCE at Kingsway Sushi. I know, I know, this would not be the first or even second choice for Japanese food. However, we were more interested in each other's company than the food itself. Besides, the alternative was Kawawa Japanese and I'd rather eat a cup of goat nads than eat there again. Viv and I have been to Kingsway Sushi a few times and it's alright, assuming you accept that it's "Chinese" Japanese food. Kingsway Sushi belongs to the Top Gun Group which includes Top Gun Sushi, Richmond Sushi and Top Gun Hot Pot.

Polka King and I left pretty quickly from the rink after our game to make the reservation. The real reason was that I wanted to get the best seat for pictures! When we got there, Gordo was already waiting. Apparently, they didn't seat him since he was the only one there. Fair enough. However, to our surprise, we were seated shortly after and there were only 3 us. Boss Woman and Milhouse were the next to arrive and we decided to order first. I got stuck with the ordering for everyone and practically chose everything off the menu. Everyone was doing their best "ooohhs and aaahhs" as it appeared there was going to be too much food. I assured them we had 13 people, someone is going to eat it. Well, it turned out to be not even close to being enough, I don't think I even got to eat much since I was too busy taking pictures. The sacrifices I make!

My expectations are generally tempered to the extreme when I go for AYCE. Apparently it wasn't tempered enough for Kawawa. I digress... The ordering process at Kingsway Sushi is easy and annoying at the same time. All the servers have PDAs who enter your order directly to the kitchen. Thus, the food arrives lightening quick. However, when you are trying to amalgamate 13 requests into one order, it gets a bit confusing for the person ordering and the server. In terms of flagging down a server to take your order, well... that's another issue altogether. We prefer the order sheets, especially for large groups.

The various appetizers such as the Ebi Sunomono, Agedeshi Tofu, Green Salad, Kimchi and Miso Soup are what you typically find at decent AYCEs. Nothing mind-blowing; yet not offensive at the same time. The bonus was that things that were supposed to be hot were hot and things meant to be cold were cold. Honestly, this is somewhat of an achievement for AYCE. The Salmon and Tuna Nigiri were pretty average. The slices of fish were modest in size; yet were not mushy. I thought the rice had a nice chewy texture; however, I didn't detect much vinegar taste. A bit disconcerting, the roll sushi arrived very quickly. I'm assuming they were pre-rolled. Despite this fact, they were rolled nicely and filled with plenty of ingredients and minimal amount of rice.

The "Scallops" were your standard fried pollack imitators. Bonus points on them being freshly fried and served piping hot. The same can be said for the "Lobster Balls". Although I really didn't like the overused sweet chili sauce underneath. There was too much and it is too sweet. Talking about sweet, the teriyaki sauce for the beef and chicken was just as sweet and there was quite a liberal amount on the chicken. However, I must admit that both the chicken and beef were once again decent. They were cooked right and served hot. The Kaki Motoyaki was also served piping hot and hidden underneath the mayo was a decent sized half oyster.

Once again, some more of the cooked items arrived and yes, they were hot. The Chicken Karaage were juicy and crispy. So juicy that Boss Woman accidentally "squirted" Silent Bob (that really doesn't sound right...). The Smelt were fried a bit too long; thus becoming fish crisps. The Short Ribs were surprisingly meaty (with little fat) and tasty. Naturally, I had to order the Beef Tongue and I asked for 30 slices. What I got was 10 slices. I was none too happy and ordered 30 more and I think we only got another 20. Well, at least we got 30 in total... In terms of taste and texture, they were tonguetastic! A bit chewy while still easy broken down, there was plenty of tongue flavour. The Veggie & Yam Tempura were crispy and hot. Too bad they never gave us the dipping sauce. The BBQ Corn was not very good. Terribly overcooked while barely ever touching the grill, they only served to get stuck in my teeth. The Stir-Fried Veggies looked and tasted pathetic; but I guess we should've expected that. Not something we'd normally order anyways.

The last hot dish was the Gyozas. Why last? Well, we ordered them 3 times and never got them. You'd think with a computerized system with PDAs, this wouldn't happen. Well, apparently it does. Well, it was worth the wait. They were crispy on the bottom with a thin dumpling wrapper. Too bad most people were too stuffed to eat them. Finally, we got our Mango pudding and once again, pretty decent. Honestly, for an AYCE, the food was decent and always served hot. Of course it's not authentic Japanese food, but if you take it for what it is, it won't make you gag like some other places (Kawawa, Sui Sha Ya, Kisha Poppo). Too bad their service is a bit disjointed, indifferent and error-prone.

The Good:
- Decent "Chinese" Japanese food
- Central location
- Food comes out quick and at the right temperature

The Bad:
- Very busy
- Service is so-so
- Regular AYCE lacks selection found at other restaurants

Kingsway Sushi
#110-3665 Kingsway
Vancouver, B.C.
(604)433-6388
www.topgungroup.com