Little Nest

Got a message from my good friend Vandelay wondering if I wanted to have lunch at Salade de Fruits today. Well, I really wanted to go there; but, I wasn't sure if it would be a good experience if I brought both kiddies. That's when Vandelay suggested that we try Little Nest. Unlike Viv, I had no idea what Little Nest was about. Well, Little Nest is a cafe just off The Drive (Commerical Drive) on Charles. It serves up organic food in a casual setting where there is a play area just for the kiddies. A kid friendly cafe? I was skeptical. How good can this place be if it caters to parents with kids? Viv convinced me to give it a try even though it wasn't the "sexiest" place to eat.

So we get the family ready for a "family edition" of my food adventures. We arrive down on The Drive and we do what we always do down there - drive around looking for a parking spot. This is a frustrating exercise, especially when the restaurant of choice is not near Il Mercato. You see, you can park free at Il Mercato for the first hour (shhhhhh, it's a secret). Anyways, after endless circling, I had to do a "pull the car into a lane and reverse maneuver" to get my parking spot. Luckily for us, Vandelay and his wife Donna Chang (not her real name) had already scored a choice table right beside the children's play area. The play area consists of various toys and a kitchen play set on foam mats.

Looking over the menu on the wall, I decided to go for the Prosciutto Baguette which consisted of prosciutto, fig jam and Cambozola (combination of French cream cheese and Italian Gorgonzola). The saltiness of the prosciutto was perfectly offset by the sweetness of the fig jam and the smoothness of the Cambozola. However, the multigrain baguette was way too hard and it hurt my mouth when I bit into it. I also ordered the Confit Albacore Tuna Salad which consisted of Tuna on a bed of romaine, avocado, cilantro and pickled daikon/carrot. There was some chili-mayo on the plate for the tuna as well. I thought the Tuna was excellent, being just slightly cooked. The pickled daikon and carrots gave the salad a nice zing and the avocado contributed a level of smoothness to the dish. Viv had the Slow-Roasted Organic Chicken Baguette which consisted of free-range chicken, toasted almonds, arugula, pickled red onions and harissa-spiced mayo. It was also good, but again, the baguette was too crunchy and it was difficult to eat.

Vandelay had the Brioche French Toast with Organic Bananas, which was topped with cinnamon-whipped cream and toasted pistachios with a marsala-spiked butterscotch caramel syrup. I tried this and it was good. The French toast was soft and the syrup was flavourful without being too sweet. Donna Chang had the Middle Eastern Spiced Squash Puree Soup, which was topped with cilantro oil and toasted pistachios. She also had the Organic Chicken Baguette as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get a comment from her about the soup, but it appears that the regular baguette is less hard to eat than the multi-grain baguette.

Naturally, there are also items on the menu for the kiddies and we choose cheese sandwich; no word from the kiddies whether it was good or not. They just wanted to finish and start playing. So what's the verdict from this place that I was skeptical to visit? I must admit it is a pretty neat place, reminds me of some restaurants I've visited in Portland. It's pretty cool you can bring your kids in and the place is already setup for families. The food in general is pretty good, being organic is a plus. However, the food isn't cheap in relation to what type of restaurant this is. Although the service is friendly, it is a bit slow, due to the place being quite busy. But it states on the menu that "good food takes time".

The Good:
- Great for families
- Food is organic
- Creative menu items

The Bad:
- Food comes out a bit slow
- If you hate kids, don't come here

Little Nest Cafe
1716 Charles Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-251-9994
www.littlenest.ca

Business Hours:
9:00am - 4:00pm (Tue - Sun)

Alleluia Cafe

Having already played a full session of floor hockey, eating Japanese food and having some Marble Slab; I was ready for some ice hockey. Hey, I need to work off all this eating somehow! But then again, playing late night hockey means late night eating afterwards! I used to play with this group every Saturday night in Richmond; however, with my league games I haven't been playing with them for awhile. We used to go Alleluia Cafe after hockey since it's open until 2:00. I guess I was looking forward to the late night eats since I didn't play very well at all! When food is on my mind, it's similar to the Arby's commericals, I forget about the task at hand.

We met up at Alleluia after hockey. I almost drove right by it since it's not right on Westminster Highway. I think it's one of the cleanest and nicest Hong Kong-style cafes in the GVRD. Compared to places like Honolulu Cafe and Golden Award, you'd think that Alleluia is a different class of restaurant. However, the prices at Alleluia are in line with other Hong Kong-style cafes; in fact, I think it's a bit cheaper. Their 3-item meal is only $9.25, and it includes your choice of 3 meats, spaghetti or rice, vegetables, your choice of sauce, soup and a choice of drink with free refill. This meal (add garlic bread and dessert) at Angel Cafe is an additional $5.75. Moreover, their late night mini-set meals, which consist of a choice of dish (usually it's a fried rice or noodle) and a drink with free refill, costs roughly $6.

As you can see in the pictures, the portions are far from being "mini". Not only are the portions generous, the food actually tastes pretty good. It's not gourmet, but for the price, it's good. I went ahead and ordered the 3-item meal and chose Duck Leg, Ox Tongue and Rib-eye Steak. I went with the spaghetti as my side and Russian Borscht (Hong Kong-style) as my soup. The duck leg was not as tender as I would've hoped. By no means was it tough, it was just difficult to eat (since it wasn't falling off the bone). The ox tongue was tender and it was conservatively seasoned. The steak, as expected, was marinated. This changes the texture and taste of the steak. It's a very Chinese thing to marinate steak and I personally don't like it too much. The steak was tender due to the marination process; but then it lost the natural beefiness you'd expect in the steak. There was plenty of black pepper sauce on the side and I essentially used it on my spaghetti.

Other dishes we had were the Rice with Tofu and Fish, Fried Rice Noodles with Beef and Fried Rice with BBQ Pork and Shrimp. The verdict on all of the dishes were positive and they looked good too. Although, everyone was raving about the tofu and fish rice. I guess I need to try that next time! However, I still laugh at the sandwiches at Hong Kong-style cafes, they are essentially white bread without the crust with a fried scrambled egg and a slice of ham. It is so simple that you can make it at home, but it's so good at these places. The same could be said about a lot of the food. Gernerally, the service is not all that personal, but it is efficient. However, the main attraction here is good cheap eats, late into the night (or morning).

The Good:
- Good value
- Clean and modern, you really don't have to put up with filth
- Open late

The Bad:
- It's a bit hidden, if you don't know where it is, you'd miss it

Alleluia Cafe
8131 Westminster Highway
Richmond, B.C.
604-271-8266

Business Hours:
9:00am - 2:00am (7 days a week)

Marble Slab Creamery

After some Japanese food (again, I seem to eat a lot of that), I wondered if anyone wanted dessert. I was considering going down to Save On or Safeway to pick up some pie. But Nikita (that's what I'll call her from now on) suggested I go to Marble Slab which was nearby. Ah yes, I've been to Coquitlam Marble Slab since it's the closest location to my house. There are quite a few people who will argue that the copycat (I've learned recently), Coldstone Creamery, is better. Well, even if it is, we don't have Coldstone up here in Canada.

You may ask what exactly is Marble Slab. Well, it is essentially an ice cream parlour with freezing cold slabs of marble where they mix in goodies with your ice cream. Think of it as a Blizzard or McFlurry, but Marble Slab uses hard ice cream instead of soft serve. Moreover, you have a choice of several flavours of ice cream other than plain vanilla. The cold slabs of marble ensure that your ice cream doesn't melt into a gooey mess while the mixing takes place. To my surprise, the staff at this location of Marble Slab were not only inviting me to take pictures, they knew exactly what a blog was and asked about it! These employees are in the know!

I ordered a couple of items: a sundae, vanilla ice cream with apple pie pieces and a double dark chocolate ice cream with Skor Bar. The staff were very friendly and had my order completed before I even had a chance to finish taking all of my pictures. The staff made sure I had utensils for my order and lids as well. So how does it taste? Well, the ice cream at Marble Slab is pretty good, it's creamy and has plenty of flavour. However, if you start adding goodies to the ice cream, it can get rather sweet, but I guess you wouldn't be getting Marble Slab if you didn't want sweet anyways. One possible negative of Marble Slab is that it can get pricey. One order of ice cream with one mixin' (that's one item), is $4.95. You have a choice of it being served in a cup or a waffle cone. This is not incredibly expensive, but knowing that gourmet gelato at places like Vivo, Amato and La Casa cost less, it may not be worth it for ice cream "connoisseurs". However, I personally like it. It's a fun, tasty treat, as long as you don't do it too often.

The Good:
- It's fun
- It's sweet and sinful
- Your kids will love you for it

The Bad:
- A bit pricey
- It's sweet and sinful

Marble Slab Creamery
Various Locations
www.marbleslab.com

Simon Sushi

Nikita, who introduced me to Bombay Palki (now Sohi's) invited us over to her place in Langley for some sushi. There is this new Japanese restaurant that opened up next to their subdivision called Simon Sushi. My first thought was: Simon Sushi? Sounds like someone's name or "Simon Says". But I know that she and her hubby have good taste, so I trust their judgment. So, off we go to Langley! We head over to pickup our food at Simon Sushi and my first thoughts are: where are the other stores? Simon Sushi sits in a little mall all by itself with very few tenants around it. Upon entering the restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised by the modern decor and the cleanliness of the place.

It was a bit comical to me that all the staff wore "Simon Sushi" apparel in bright colours, particularly the lime green caps. The staff there seem very friendly, they didn't even stare at me when I began snapping pictures. I guess they figured I was a Japanese tourist? Anyways, we headed back home with our food which consisted of: Salmon Sashimi, Crunch Avocado Roll, Alaska Roll, Spicy Salmon Roll, and Dragon Roll.

The generous slices of Salmon Sashimi were very fresh. The same could be said about all the other rolls as well. The Crunch (have no idea why it's not called Crunchy) Avocado Roll was good, it had tempura bits rolled on the outside. This gave a nice contrast in texture to the soft avocado. The Alaska Roll was tasty; however it was very odd. First, the salmon was on the outside and then it was topped with something that resembled miso/ginger dressing, which is usually found on Japanese green salad.

The Spicy Salmon Roll was quite spicy, if you don't like heat, don't eat this one. Lastly, we had a specialty roll, the Dragon Roll. The roll was pretty good; however, much like the other rolls, it was smaller than expected. The Dragon Roll costs $9.95 and I didn't think it looked like a $9.95 roll. Although it was quite tasty, I think the same roll at Tomoya is 1/2 larger for the same price. One of the reasons the rolls seem smaller is that Simon Sushi, unlike Samurai Sushi House, does not use a lot of rice on the outside of the rolls. But, I do think they could use a bit more rice just to give the rolls a bit more substance. With that being said, I still think Simon Sushi is a solid choice for Japanese food out in Langley.

The Good:
- Food tastes good
- Friendly staff
- Inviting dining room

The Bad:
- Prices are a tad high
- The rolls are a bit small

Simon Sushi
#5 - 20178 96th Avenue
Langely, B.C.
604-888-5055

Business Hours:
11:30am - 3:00pm, 4:00pm - 8:30pm (Mon - Sat)

Jane`s

Okay, let's get this out of the way first. Jane's is a dive. Upon entering the place, we were greeted with wood paneling, red vinyl booths and an array of mismatched chairs with duct tape on them. Ah yes, my youth, circa 1970's - 1980's. However, don't let the retro decor scare you, there is something more to this. Jane's is a Chinese-Canadian food restaurant. That designation alone would send most people running for the hills, since this type of restaurant (especially in the GVRD) is slowly becoming extinct.

Well, I'm not here to talk about the quasi-Chinese food at Jane's. In fact, Viv and I were not impressed with the fried noodles that the next table ordered. We came to Jane's to have their $3.50 breakfast. Similar to other cheap breakfast places such as Bon's Off Broadway and Joe's Grill, the breakfast is cheap, but never to be confused with other places such as White Spot, IHOP and Denny's. However, some people might even argue that the breakfasts at the aforementioned places are not very good.

Anyways, what does $3.50 get you at Janes? Well, you get 2 eggs, a choice of 3 bacon strips, 3 sausages or a ham steak, with home fried potatoes and toast. Honestly, that's a lot of food for $3.50. For the kiddies, we ordered the 2 pancakes with scrambled eggs and a ham steak ($5.95). Of course for $3.50, there will be some trade offs. First, although the pancakes were extremely large, they were rubbery. Second, the scrambled eggs were not really scrambled, they were more like fried scrambled eggs (a la Hong Kong cafe-style). But really... for $3.50, I ain't gonna care! The service is quite friendly and efficient. Looks like a family-run operation. To sum it up, despite the 1970's retro decor (it's probably the same decor from then) and the issues with some food items, in the words of Snake, "When you can pay for a meal with loose change, that's a plus."

The Good:
- Cheap breakfast
- Ample portions
- Friendly staff

The Bad:
- It's a dive
- Not sure about the Chinese-Canadian food

Jane's
4217 Hastings Street
Burnaby, B.C.
604-293-1343

Business Hours:
9:00am - 9:30pm (7 days a week)

Anastasia

KDee had been bugging me for awhile to try out Anastasia Steak & Seafood out on 72nd near King George Hwy. One problem is that I live nowhere near there. However, I saw an opportunity tonight as I was going to attend my school's play in North Delta. So Viv and I trek out to Anastasia in Friday rush hour traffic. Upon entering Anastasia, we were greeted to a decor that was stuck in the 1980's, complete with big flower arrangements. By no means was it uninviting, we were just amused by it. Looking around the restaurant, we were surprised by the amount of seniors in the restaurant. I suddenly felt such much younger!

Since Anastasia is a steak and seafood restaurant, I choose to have Prime Rib and Viv chose the Chicken Souvlaki. First, we started off with the Calamari. It came hot, but curiously not crunchy. This could be attributed to the fact the rings of squid were quite large; thus making it harder to fry. Actually, I prefer larger rings of squid, so that didn't really bother me. My meal came with a choice of soup or salad, and I chose the clam chowder. It was cream-based and I liked it. However, it reminded me of the clam chowders I've had in Hong Kong-style cafes in the past. These type of clam chowders are exemplified by starchy milkiness rather than creaminess.

My prime rib was done perfectly (medium rare) and it came with the bone. This is one of the few times I have received the rib still attached to the meat. For me this was a bonus, since I really enjoy the meat around the rib itself. The baked potato that came with the prime rib was also done very well; however the vegetables were definitely a miss. They were spongy, a clear indication that they were frozen vegetables. For $21, I think one would expect fresh vegetables. Another miss was the garlic bread, it looked like a leftover pontoon from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It was totally soaked in butter.

Viv had issues with the Souvlaki. The chicken itself was tender (except for the end pieces), but it was quite salty. The bed of rice was a bit cold and hard. However, the most disappointing part of the dish was the Greek Salad. For reasons unknown, there was basalmic vinegar in it. There shouldn't be balasmic vinegar in Greek salad (although there are versions with it), it stains the vegetables and cheese. In addition it overpowers the flavours. The acid should be only lemon juice. Also, the feta cheese (if it was feta cheese) consisted of small shavings on top of the salad. The feta cheese should have been in cubes or crumbled on top of the salad. Now, I'm not even sure how they were able to shave the cheese. Then, on top of the whole mess was dried oregano. It was not mixed into the salad, it was just dumped on top. I could say that this was the worst and the least authentic Greek salad we've ever seen.

So it's really hard to say how the food is at Anastasia from only trying 2 dishes and an appetizer. We saw the table beside us have the Seafood Dinner for 2 and it looked fabulous, with a bounty of seafood on a big platter. I'm sure there are some good dishes mixed with some bad dishes as Anastasia. This is where I have a concern. The prices at Anastasia are a bit pricey. I have no problem with that; however, the food quality as a whole must reflect those prices. For the 3 items we ordered, the food quality as a whole did not justify the price. I am not saying the food was terrible. In fact, my prime rib was excellent, but, for the price I paid, I could've eaten at the Keg and would have gotten fresh vegetables. As for the service, I would say that was the highlight of the evening. It was efficient, friendly and professional. It's just too bad the food has too many issues.

The Good:
- Service was excellent
- Dining room was comfortable, despite being in a time warp
- Prime rib was excellent

The Bad:
- Food quality is not in line with the prices
- Worst Greek Salad we've ever had
- Frozen vegetables

Anastasia Steak & Seafood
13486 72nd Avenue
Surrey, B.C.
604-594-2322

Business Hours:
4:00pm - 10:00pm (Tue - Thu)
4:00pm - 11:00pm (Fri - Sat)
4:00pm - 9:30pm (Sun)

Vera`s Burger Shack

I was in the downtown Vancouver area today and decided to pay Vera's Burger Shack a visit. Although there are plenty of locations in the GVRD, there is not one near where I live. When I used to live in downtown, I would frequent the Kitsilano location on Cornwall. I guess my loyalty to this location has not subsided, since I subconsciously drove right to it. This particular location has doubled in size from the original one-unit restaurant. In my opinion, I think Vera's serves up some of the best burgers in town. However, it is not THE best burger, I would save that distinction for Moderne Burger (well, at least in my opinion).

Vera's burgers are good since they only use fresh ingredients. The patties are never frozen and are made fresh daily. Frozen patties are often dried out since the moisture in them have formed ice crystals. When they melt, all the juice is lost in defrosting and cooking. Unfortunately, a good burger comes at a cost. The basic Vera burger is $5.99, which is reasonable. However, the specialty burgers are all around $8 -$10, and that does not include fries. This brings up the debate whether a burger on its own is worth $10. I think this is solely based on personal preference. If you love burgers (which I do), then it is well worth it. If you are indifferent towards burgers, then you probably think it's crazy. Either way, Vera's continues to do well; therefore, they must be doing something right.

So, after looking over the menu several times (I have a habit of second-guessing myself), I choose the Pawer Burger, which comes with cheese, a fried egg and onions. I added roasted garlic for 69 cents. My burger was excellent, the beef was just cooked, so it was still moist and flavourful. Every bite was juicy; the melted cheddar cheese and runny egg yolk just oozed all over the patty. This is what a burger should be like! My friend (let's call him 007), went with the G-Money, which is a monster 2 - patty burger with double cheese, and double fried mushrooms. It was messy, with cheese and mushrooms oozing all over his hands. 007 proclaimed that the messiness helped enhance the burger experience. He seemed a bit distressed after finishing the burger since it was so big...

We also ordered a side of fries and they were fresh and crispy. They were what fries should be like; crispy on the outside, tender potato-ness on the inside. The total bill for our burgers, fries and drinks was not cheap, we could have eaten at Whitespot, Milestone's or Cactus Club for that price (assuming we ordered burgers there too). However, the burgers at the aforementioned restaurants are not as good (in my opinion), as Vera's. In conclusion, if you love burgers, Vera's is worth it, if you don't, then probably not.

The Good:
- Burgers are excellent
- Lots of options, in terms of toppings and menu items
- Many locations

The Bad:
- A bit pricey for this type of restaurant
- Parking is scarce (for this location at least)

Vera's Burger Shack
1935 Cornwall Ave
Vancouver, B.C.
604-228-8372
www.verasburgershack.com

Business Hours:
11:00am - 11:00pm (7 days a week)