Marcello

Having an early hockey game has it advantages. However, the main advantage in my opinion is that there are more restaurants open when we finish our game. So, taking full advantage of this, I suggest to my teammates that we should go to Marcello. Everyone seemed quite pleased at this choice since it was a break from our usual Asian late night fare. Marcello is located on Commercial Drive or "The Drive" as it's known locally. I've been to Marcello before; but it has definitely been awhile. So after our game, we went to meet up at Marcello. It took all of us at least 15 minutes to find a #)$*#)# parking spot. Finally, after endless circling, I found one right next to Marcello. I
guess patience and blind determination paid off.

We spent quite a bit of time looking over the menu trying to decide what to eat, there are so many delicious options. Finally, Emilicious suggested we share everything, like a true Italian meal. That was music to my ears, I could try everything! I have more to blog about! So we ordered 2 pizzas, the Carpicciosa and the Prosciutto e Funghi. In addition, we had 2 pastas, Chef Tagliatelle and Spaghetti Alla Vongole, and Frittura Di Calamari. It took a long time for someone to come take our order, it was probably 15 minutes. Then it took another 15 minutes for our drink orders to arrive (they were only beers and pop). THEN, it took another 40 minutes to get our food! No kidding! When the food arrived, the pastas were between cold and lukewarm. That was too bad, because the pastas were quite good.

The Chef Tagliatelle (mushrooms, black olives and capers in a creamy tomato sauce), was excellent. The home-made egg pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce was a perfect balance of creamy and tomato. I could have eaten a pound of this easily, it was that good. However, the portion size for the pastas at Marcello are quite small. It is definitely quality over quantity. This may not be an issue with some people since a large quantity of mediocre pasta is not necessarily appetizing (see Anton's). The Spaghetti Alla Vongole (clams in a white wine sauce w/tomato) was also very good, the spaghetti was also al dente and there were fresh in-the-shell clams as garnish. The flavours of this pasta was very delicate and there was just enough sauce to coat the spaghetti. The calamari was executed very well. The squid was not tough; yet it was not mushy either, just the perfect texture. It was not oily and the pieces were the right size, not being too small (would become too crispy) or too big (won't fry easily becoming mushy).

The pizzas were also very good, the thin crust was crispy and light. There was a perfect amount of toppings, cheese and sauce to give the pizzas a good flavour without making the crust soggy or making the pizza itself salty. I especially liked the Carpicciosa, there was a good combination of ham/salami (salty), artichokes/olives (tart) and mushrooms (earthy). The Prosciutto and Funghi was very similar, minus the artichokes and olives. I like the food at Marcello, the flavours are right and the atmosphere is inviting; however, the service is slooooow and the portions are a bit small. I know you are not paying for quantity here; but for me there are plenty of other places you can spend $18 for spaghetti and clams.






The Good:
- Flavours are good
- Great atmosphere
- Pasta has good consistency and is cooked correctly

The Bad:
- Pricey for what you get
- Slow service
- Hard to find parking

Marcello
1404 Commerical Drive
Vancouver, B.C.
604-215-7760

Toko

When we used to live in Yaletown, there were so many places to eat. You could either walk out into downtown or a short drive would yield a plethora of restaurants. One place we frequented nearby was Toko. It is definitely off the beaten path, right amongst warehouses, collision repair shops and offices. In fact, Toko itself is mainly a noodle manufacturing plant. They use the narrow storefront as the dining room for the restaurant. It is hard to categorize Toko because you can't really say it's Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malay or Thai. Rather, it's a combination of all of them (then it could be an Asian restaurant I suppose). It's really strange that we went there so often before since in retrospect, it wasn't authentic in any of the aforementioned cuisines. The problem with having a menu that is so diverse is that nothing will be spot on. Instead, you'll have versions of ethnic dishes that are close, but somehow are either missing something or may not taste like it should. Now, this may not be necessarily a negative since variations of traditional dishes can be good.

So we paid Toko a visit today on our way back from Science World. It has been awhile and we noticed that the menu had changed. One of our favourite dishes, the Moo Shu Chicken Wrap had disappeared. It is now replaced by a similar dish that is a lettuce wrap instead of using steamed flour wraps. If they still made it like they did before, this dish was pretty good. Today, we ordered the Tan Tan (Dan Dan) Noodles, Beef Udon and Chicken Green Curry. The Tan Tan noodles came swimming in peanut sauce with a chili oil slick on top. Either I am used to the traditional version or the version at Toko was terrible. The traditional version does not actually have peanut sauce, the one at Toko was mainly peanut sauce with a bit of pork and lots of chili oil. That wasn't the only problem, the noodles were very mushy and glutinous. I really didn't like this version of Tan Tan noodles. The udon was a bit strange too. The soup base was nothing like the mild Japanese version (dashi, soy and mirin); rather, it was very robust and flavourful. Actually, I didn't mind this, it tasted quite good. In addition, the beef was very tender and flavourful as well. Not being authentic didn't hurt this dish. The same cannot be said about the green curry. Although the chicken and various veggies were cooked perfectly, the eggplant was a horror show. A quick way to cook eggplant in stirfries, hot pots and curries is to deep fry it first. That's not a problem because many restaurants use this with a lot of different vegetables. However, the eggplant in this case was heavily battered in something that resembled tempura. Imagine this fried eggplant soaked in a curry. Yes, the batter became gummy, not the best texture if you are eating curry. The curry itself was quite mild and creamy due to the coconut milk. It was pleasant to eat, but the eggplant destroyed it.

So, was my meal at Toko not good? Well, based on my previous visits, I don't think I've ever had a "terrible" meal here; but in hindsight, the food is not very authentic. However, I don't think Toko makes excuses for not being authentic. They seem to do their take on many different ethnic dishes with varying degrees of success. The service and ambiance is pretty good, so that probably put me in a good mood already before I actually ate the food. With that being said, the food isn't cheap here, so I guess if you're looking for authentic, this would not be your choice.

The Good:
- Fresh noodles, they make em in the back
- Extensive menu
- Service is good

The Bad:
- Nothing seems to be authentic here
- Dining room is a bit tight
- Prices are a bit high for this type of food

Toko
223 West 7th Avenue
Vancouver B.C.
604-879-0701
www.tokofoods.com

Business Hours:
11:00am - 6:00pm (Mon - Wed)
11:00am - 9:30pm (Thu & Fri)
5:00pm - 9:30pm (Sat)

Costco

Costco??? I know what you are thinking... Sherman has really lost it this time, why in the world is he talking about Costco? No, I'm not talking about their frozen food (some are tasty though); rather, I'm talking about their fast food stand. Before anyone makes a quick judgment about the food, please hear me out. First of all, please do not expect gourmet food here, after all it's a cafeteria-style joint. But there are some decent eats here.

First of all, the Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich is pretty good for $5. It will never be confused with a real deli sandwich from NYC, and I have eaten real deli sandwiches in NYC. I can honestly say, that this is not bad for the money. The meat is melt-in-your mouth goodness with lots of flavour (you can see there are a lot of peppercorns and mustard seeds). However, the bun (not sure why they use a bun) is a bit too chewy and big for my taste, but hey it's $5. The Ribs and Fries is a very good deal at $8. You get a large half rack of side ribs and crispy fries for that price. Again, you won't confuse these ribs for real Southern BBQ. In fact, the ribs are the boiled variety and the sauce is a bit generic. However, for $8, you get a very meaty half rack of ribs that are really not all-that-bad if you consider where you got it from. The fries are quite good too, if you like fries that are starch-covered. They are very crispy. The pizza is alright, it's pretty much generic slice pizza which is a bit oily. That goes the same for the hot dogs, they are large, but... they're hot dogs. The only time I would rave about a hot dog is Japadog. So what I'm saying here is, the next time you are in Costco, do not be afraid to try the selections at the food stand. They're not bad and it's a good value.


The Good:
- It's cheap
- Food is actually not bad
- Good portions

The Bad:
- It ain't authentic (for that price, what do you expect?)
- Ambiance, uh... it's Costco

Costco (Various Locations)
3550 Brighton Avenue
Burnaby, B.C.
604-444-9600

Business Hours:
11:00am - 8:30pm (Mon - Fri)
9:30am - 6:00pm (Sat)
10:00am - 5:00pm (Sun)

Qoola Yogurt + Fruit

Well, after a very filling meal at Gyoza King, I needed something refreshing and light. Nearby was a place I've been meaning to try out. Located at the old Cupcakes storefront is Qoola Yogurt + Fruit, which serves up fresh, all natural frozen yogurt. In addition, there is a wide selection of toppings such as fresh fruit, various nuts, cereal and even mochi. Looking around the store, I noticed it was very clean and the decor was pleasing to the senses. I think the operators of Qoola really capture the spirit of freshness and "green-ness" as their motto suggests. The staff at the front counter were very pleasant and took time to explain the product and the available toppings. I was impressed at the attitude of the staff because there are far too many establishments that exhibit an indifference towards their customers.

At this point, even if the yogurt was not good, I would have still been a happy customer. However, the yogurt was very good and that made the experience complete. Now you might be asking, "It's frozen yogurt, how excited can one be with that?" Well, I mean it didn't blow me away; but it was definitely pleasing to eat. I had the chocolate frozen yogurt with pistachios and fresh strawberries. The yogurt itself was not icy; rather it was quite smooth. I didn't find it too sweet either, which is good since the toppings can be sweet as well. The pistachios were crunchy and not stale. The strawberries were very fresh and of good quality. Vandelay had the green tea yogurt with mango. I was quite impressed with the mango pieces, they were very fresh and sweet. The yogurt itself was also very light, and there was just enough green tea flavour.

Other than the frozen yogurt, there are many other interesting items at Qoola. There are waffles, crepes, smoothies, Qrush (slush mixed with frozen yogurt) and Quoi - açaí, which is a dietary supplement (marketers claim to have a multitude of health benefits). I really enjoyed my frozen yogurt at Qoola and I'm definitely going to return to try some of the other items. However, I want to temper that enthusiasm since anything that is over-hyped will only lead to unrealistic expectations from others.

The Good:
- Everything is fresh
- Friendly staff
- Yogurt tastes good

The Bad:
- If you add a lot of toppings, it can get up there in price

Qoola Yogurt + Fruit
1116 Denman Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-801-6338
www.qoola.com

Business Hours:
1:00pm - 10:30pm (Mon - Thu)
1:00pm - 12:00am (Fri)
11:00am - 12:00am (Sat)
11:00am - 10:30pm (Sun)

Gyoza King

I was lucky enough to score 3 car show tickets yesterday from my uncle. DT and Vandelay claimed the other 2 tickets. DT was going to the Canucks game, so it was perfect for him to attend the car show prior to the game. Moreover, it turned out that Vandelay would already be in downtown at the same time we wanted to go. Perfect! I was also lucky enough to snag free parking along Pacific Boulevard (this was significant because there was a Canucks game too at the same time).

Walking along on Pacific in Yaletown brought back so many good memories, I used to live in Yaletown until 2005. It was so much easier to go out and eat back then, go out the front door and there were so many choices of restaurants. Now living in the burbs, it's a bit of a commute. Anyways, we make it into BC Place and looked at some of this year's offerings. Vandelay was looking at compact SUVs and we really liked the Mercedes GLK, it's definitely distinct looking and was reasonably priced. The Audi Q5 was also quite nice, but it seemed overpriced. I really liked the the Lancer Ralliart, it was a more tame version of the Evo, and cheaper.

After walking around, I naturally got hungry. Of course I did... DT went to his hockey game (we lost 6-5 in a shootout). Vandelay and I decided to go to Gyoza King for some Izakaya. Normally, Gyoza King is very busy and since it's quite a small restaurant, long waits outside are common. Luckily for us, we only waited for 5 minutes. I suffer from the condition known as "my eyes are bigger than my stomach". Therefore, I think we ordered too much.

We started with the Green Salad with "Secret" recipe dressing. The vegetables were fresh and crisp. The dressing was indeed very good, we could pick out carrot, ginger and miso. We weren't sure where the sweetness came from. Next up was the Chikuwa Cheese, which are fish tubes (the same ones found in Chinese hot pot), filled with cheese, battered and deep-fried. This was very good, with the crispiness of the batter, the chewiness of the fish tubes and the smoothness of the melted cheese. We also got the GFC or Goyokin Fried Chicken Wings. These were cooked perfectly, with a crisp exterior and a juicy interior. It was slightly spicy. We were still eating our finger-linking wings when the Ebi Mayo arrived. From just looking at it, I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it. It was slathered in a lot of mayo! I took one of the of the tiger prawns and bit into it, it was gummy. The batter either was not fried long enough, or the mayo made it wet. Not only was there too much mayo, the mayo itself tasted more like Thousand Islands dressing. I much prefer the Ebi Mayo at Hapa Izakaya. Next was my favourite dish of the nite, the Spicy Beef Yukke. It is comprised of raw beef, raw quail's egg, cucumber, scallions and spicy yukke sauce. Mixed together, it was spicy; yet smooth (due to the egg). It's like eating raw sukiyaki, except spicy. Well, since I was at Gyoza King, I decided to try out their Ganso or pork and vegetable gyozas. I mean, gyozas are gyozas; but the ones we had were fluffy, cooked perfectly (crispy bottom on the bottom) and not overstuffed with filling. If you know me, I really like tongue (not that kind of tongue! get your mind out of the gutter!). We ordered the Gyu Tan or beef tongue. Although it looked and tasted really good, due to the nice caramalization, it was a bit tough to chew. My second favourite dish of the night were the Deep Fried Octopus Balls with Bonito Flakes (no, it's not that kind of ball!). These were fabulous, crunchy on the outside, but fluffy soft on the inside. The octopus was not overcooked; thus being tender and not chewy, like it usually is. Lastly, we had the Maguro Tataki with Ponzu. The large slices of tuna were seared evenly on all sides and it tasted sweet. It would've tasted good even without any sauce.

I thought overall, the food at Gyoza King was better than Hapa Izakaya. I'm not saying that Hapa Izakaya is not a good place for Japanese tapas, but Gyoza King is just better. Too bad the place is so small, it's tight and the lineup can be quite onerous. Despite it being a madhouse inside, the service is quite efficient and friendly. On a side note, please forgive me for the pictures, I'm still trying to figure out the depth of field, I'll get it right eventually!

The Good:
- Food was consistently good, not too many misses
- Gyozas were good (it is Gyoza King afterall)
- Service was friendly

The Bad:
- Cramped inside
- Long waits

Gyoza King
1508 Robson Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-669-8278

Top Gun Hot Pot

Can you believe it? Snow in April! Talk about April Fool's. I'm not sure what was worse, the snow or the Pavel Bure joke on the Team 1040. Anyways, cold weather always accompanies snow and today was no exception. My friend DT was back in town and we decided to meet up for dinner tonight. We briefly considered Sui Sha Ya and quickly thought otherwise. What were we thinking??? Sui Sha Ya... Bleck! So we thought about where we were going to eat and we settled on Top Gun Hot Pot. That's something good to eat when the weather is cold! I have been to Top Gun for Dim Sum before; but never for hot pot.

There has been a polarization of reviews on the net regarding Top Gun. Some people really like it and some really do not. There have been a lot of reviews complaining about their service or lack of. Well, we go there tonight with an empty stomach (didn't have much for lunch, someone threw out my lunch!) and an open mind. Incidentally, I picked up my Canon SLR today and wanted to try it out too. However, I have never owned an SLR before and if you look at my pictures, they're not really all that good. I need lessons (I think I didn't set the depth of field right).

So we arrive at Crystal Mall (yes, the place with the crazy parking lot) and upon entering the underground parking, we find a space immediately. I think I'll only come here on weekday nights from now on... We were greeted by a friendly hostess in the front who brought us to our table. There are 2 types of AYCE (all-you-can-eat) dinners available. The first one is $19.95 and the deluxe is $26.95. I personally do not think that the deluxe is worth it, unless you really want an even bigger selection of food than the standard menu. It's much like that at the other Top Gun Group restaurants: Richmond Sushi, Top Gun Sushi, Kingsway Sushi and Garden City Hot Pot. One important note - the soup base is an extra $7.50 - $8.50.

Once we decided on which AYCE we were going to have, a friendly server wheeled a cart full of condiments over to us. We got to customize our dipping sauces. Some of the items included cilantro, scallions, chilies, sweet soy, sa cha sauce, and sesame sauce. We were then provided with checklists for us to order our items. Although the menu is in both English and Chinese, the checklist is only in Chinese. Thank goodness Viv can read it (although one could technically just match up the items on the menu and the checklist). Don't be shy about ordering lots off the checklist, most of the items are per piece or per 2 pieces.

The beef slices were well-marble and cut thinly. We thought they were pretty good. I'm not so into pork for hot pot, but I gave the pork cheek slices a try and they were quite good. The shrimp, oysters and fish slices were all fresh. The fish slices were tender and did not fall apart while in the boiling broth. We really liked the sui gow, they were filled with shrimp. However, the wontons were completely filled with pork. Other items we ordered were the ox tongue, bible tripe, honeycomb tripe, pork's blood, tofu, fried tofu, intestine, winter melon, spinach and watercress. Only 2 items from that list were disappointing. The watercress was a bit old; thus is was quite chewy and stringy. The bible tripe was also very chewy, despite efforts in varying cooking times. Overall, we enjoyed our hot pot at Top Gun, the food came out quick and the service was good (despite what others have said). It may not be as good as Landmark Hot Pot (which is not AYCE), but for the price it is a good value.

The Good:
- Food is fresh
- Decent selection of items
- Restaurant was designed for hot pot with built-in burners and proper ventilation

The Bad:
- Extra cost for soup base
- It's in Crystal Mall, site of the worst designed parking lot on earth

Top Gun Hot Pot
#2228 - 4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, B.C.
604-419-0788
www.topgungroup.com

Business Hours:
9:00am - 3:00pm, 5:30pm - 10:00pm (7 days a week)

Wings Tap & Grill

So what do you think a restaurant named "Wings" specializes in? Uh... Chicken Yakitori? No. Believe it or not, it's famous for its wide variey of chicken wings. Yes, it's as simple as that. There are not many restaurants that have wings on the very first page of their menu. In fact, it's a whole page with 15 different flavours of wings. There are 4 locations in the GVRD: Abbotsford, White Rock, Surrey and Vancouver. I made it out to the Surrey location today since I was going to Costco, which is nearby.

I guess it's no surprise that I ordered 4 pounds of wings for my meal. Actually I shared 4 pounds of wings with Waffle Guy, I'm not capable of eating 4 pounds by myself anymore. That was possible 10 years ago! Actually, Vivian had 4 pounds by herself once and you gotta love a woman who can do that! Anyways, we decided to order 4 different flavours: Not-as-hot Buffalo, Jammin' Jamaican, Outback Cajun BBQ, and Hot n' Sour Shanghai. All the flavours were distinct and very yummy. The buffalo wings were mild, with just a hint of heat. The Jamaican ones were slightly spicy and a hint of sweet. The BBQ was pretty standard BBQ sauce, it was mostly sweet with some smokiness. The Shanghai sauce was tangy with a bit of spice. The wings themselves were cooked perfectly, they were large and very juicy. I guess if your restaurant is named Wings, they'd better be good. I can honestly say that these are some of the best wings in town; finer dining establishments withstanding.

We didn't have a chance to try the other food at Wings; but from what I've heard, we didn't miss much. One flavour of wings we did not try were the Wings of Fire, and for good reason. Apparently, everyone at the table must sign a waiver if you are going to order them. That's right, they are THAT hot. According to many online reviews, the service is supposed to be terrible at Wings. However, I would like to differ, it was attentive and friendly. We always had our drinks refilled without asking and extra napkins arrived as we needed them. I'm not sure if I'll ever have a chance to try the other food here since the wings are so good.

The Good:
- Big, juicy wings
- Good choice of flavours
- Attentive service (at least that's what I experienced)

The Bad:
- Heard that the other food is average (but I've yet to try it, so not sure if that's true)