Dim Sum @ Golden Phoenix

*Restaurant is now closed*

The Golden Phoenix - now that's a name from my childhood. When I used to live in the area, we used to go to Golden Phoenix for dinner all the time. It was good, inexpensive and we didn't even have to drive. The original owners sold the restaurant 20+ years ago and reopened as Golden Swan on Victoria. Located between Trocadero and Bon's off Broadway, Golden Phoenix has gone through several name changes and owners (it was East Ocean for awhile). Finally, it's back to the original English name; but it's not the same in Chinese. From the outside, the restaurant looks a bit dumpy, with it's yellow signage and graffiti right on the awning itself. However, the inside has been completely renovated a la Sea Harbour. Yes, it looks very similar to the renovated interior of Sea Harbour Restaurant. In fact, they share the same unappealing exterior; but surprisingly inviting interior.

The whole family made it out for Dim Sum today, so it was a real gong show since I had to take pictures, eat, take notes and deal with the kids all at the same time. Like Windows Vista, I felt like on the verge of crashing or BSODing (blue screen of death). At first, I was told not to take pictures of the food. However, I whipped out my Moo card and everything was under control. Those Moo cards have come in handy since it's a bit difficult to explain what a food blog is in Chinese.

One thing that struck me about the Dim Sum here is it is very large and full of shrimp. We started with the spring rolls and they were stuffed full of large shrimp. They were presented quite impressively similar to Bing Sheng. The Shrimp Dumpling (Haw Gow) were really large and also full of shrimp. They were steamed perfectly and each bite was cold-water crunchy. Guess what? The Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll was full of? Shrimp? NO! Rather, it was full of prawns (or mutant shrimp). It's rare to see rice noodle rolls so full of shrimp or prawns. There was actually more filling than noodle, which by the way, was soft and fluffy.

Continuing on our shrimp adventure, we had the Scallop and Shrimp Dumplings. Yes, again they were full of shrimp with scallop and fish roe on top. Suffice to say, the shrimp again was excellent. Okay, guess what was in the next dish? Yes, it was the Shrimp & Pea Shoot Dumpling with Dried Scallop. At the very least, I think it makes the Dim Sum chef's life easier if s/he is merely reusing the same shrimp mix for everything. Again, the dumpling was good with a good mix of shrimp and pea shoot. The dried scallop gave the entire dumpling a really aromatic flavour. Had enough shrimp yet? I think my friend Donna Chang would've been in the hospital by now because she's allergic to shrimp. The last dish with shrimp in it was the Stuffed Eggplant with Black Bean Sauce. These were fried up quite nicely, being tender; yet not falling apart.

One of the more visually appealing dishes we had was the Steamed Rice Flour Balls. These were stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as dried shrimp (I lied about no more shrimp), pickled veggies, green onion, shitake mushrooms and peanuts. These little pockets of goodness were delicately soft and were packed with a diverse amount of flavours (salty and sweet). Other non-shrimp intensive dishes we ordered were the Black Bean Spareribs, Bible Tripe, Beef Rice Noodle Roll, Fried Taro Dumplings, Mexican BBQ Pork Buns, Egg Tarts and Yeung Chow Fried Rice. The spareribs were very meaty and unlike some other places, it was not filled with useless fatty or cartilage pieces. The tripe was alright; but a bit over steamed or overcooked. They were quite soft and devoid of texture. The taro dumplings were awesome, being full of pork filling and fried perfectly. They were not oily and there was a good contrast between the crunchy coating and the soft fluffy taro. The Mexican BBQ pork buns are not really a Spanish dish, despite the name. I'm still not sure where the Mexican part of it comes from; however, it's essentially a baked BBQ pork bun with a crunchy sweet topping (similar to a pineapple bun). This was pretty good for a Dim Sum bun, it was full of BBQ pork and the topping was nice and crispy. Egg tarts tasted as good as they looked. The crust was flaky and the centre was soft, semi-sweet egg goodness.

I left the discussion of the Yeung Chow Fried Rice to the end for a reason. We specifically ordered it without green onions. And it arrived with not only green onions, but plenty of it! The waitress who brought it to our table stammered, "I didn't take the order!" Uh, so what do you want us to do about it? Should we go into the kitchen and tell the chef ourselves? Does it matter that you didn't take our order??? So if I go buy a car and it's defective, should the service guy tell me to take a hike because I didn't buy it from him/her??? It just didn't make sense. Anyways, despite the green onions, the fried rice was excellent. It was full of ingredients (including shrimp) and the rice was perfectly al dente.

Despite the green onion incident and the fact our server was a bit clueless as to what was in her job description, we truly enjoyed the food at Golden Phoenix. It was fresh, great tasting, large, well-priced and served in a nice renovated dining space. Service was acceptable except for the green onion incident. I will give Golden Phoenix a mulligan on that, we'll see the next time if they mess it up again. With all the shrimp we ate today for Dim Sum, they should really rename the place The Golden Shrimp.

The Good:
- Large portions
- Inexpensive
- Quality ingredients

The Bad:
- A bit heavy on the msg/salt, I was quite thirsty afterwords
- Green onion incident with the waitress not wanting to handle it

Business Hours:
9:00am - 10:00pm (Sun - Thu)
9:00am - 1:00am (Fri & Sat)

Sammy J Peppers

*Restaurant is closed*

I sound like a broken record sometimes, at least that's what Viv tells me. But, there are not many more places that I can visit along the Scott Road corridor. It seems like I'm merely pecking away at the places I do not want to go. Today, my colleagues suggested we go to Sammy J Peppers and being the good person (hah!) that I am, I followed along. I haven't been back to Sammy J's for quite awhile. I'm not all that fond of their food, despite the nice "scenery". I really have no problem with chain restaurants in general. They serve a purpose and some are actually quite good. But when a chain restaurant serves up
mediocre food at fairly high prices, I believe that there are better places to eat at.

I know that Sammy J's is known for it's spicier food, such as their skillets and meat items. But I really didn't want to order any of that for lunch. Besides, I've had them before and they are nothing special. Today, I decided on a large bowl of Seafood Chowder and a Beef Club sandwich. Things didn't start off well, the chowder was luke warm. If this soup was kept in a warmer, and this was the prevailing temperature, I'm not sure how Food Safe this is. Moreover, the soup was quite bland. I had to add quite a bit of hot sauce to give it some flavour. The one good thing was that it was packed with seafood. The sandwich itself was a disappointment and I didn't even bother taking a picture of it. Well, not really, I actually forgot. Can you believe it? I was so busy taking pictures of everyone else's' food, I didn't remember to take a picture of my own! I was expecting real roast beef; but what I got was cold cut roast beef. If a restaurant is going to serve this as "roast beef", then I could go to Arby's or go to Superstore and grab a Club Pack. Not only was it cold cut roast beef, there was very little of it. Only good thing about the sandwich was the spicy aioli. Suffice to say, the Beef Dip was no better. Imagine dipping salty cold cut roast beef into salty powdered dip. Not good. The beef dip at one20 and E's Up were way better and cheaper too.

One dish that was pretty decent was the Monster Burger. It was pretty big and full of nicely sauteed mushrooms. The accompanying fries were very crispy, if you like the starch-covered type that is. The spinach salad was alright too, it was pretty fresh and full of toppings. The dressing was flavourful and had some zing. Despite these last 2 dishes being good; overall, I didn't like my meal and past visits to Sammy J's. It's not that the food is horrible; but it's just not great all around. In this competitive market of chain restaurants, the food has to be pretty decent on average. The food at Sammy J's is not as good as Milestone's, Earl's, Cactus Club or Joey's. If you look at the prices of some of their more expensive items such as their steaks, you really can eat anywhere for those prices. I'm in the school of thought that if you want a steak, go to a place that specializes in steak such as The Keg. I know there are better places to get a steak than The Keg, but I'm trying to compare within the same price range. With that being said, the restaurant itself is quite trendy and it's quite possible the food could be an afterthought. It's still a great place to meet up with friends, have a drink and shoot the breeze.

The Good:
- Comfortable, trendy dining space
- Service was quite good
- Large selection of food items

The Bad:
- Food is not only generic, it's not really all that good
- Pricey for what you get

Grub

*Restaurant is now closed*

We were playing at Lord Byng again for our Monday softball game and despite having rights to the field, there was a little league team practicing on the facing field. Since we had some real heavy hitters on both teams, it was a certainty the kids were in harm's way. So we politely asked the coach to remove the kids off the field for their safety. However, they didn't budge. Is it just me or some people are so stubborn that they do not see that their actions may lead to injuries? Anyways, we finally hit a ball smack dab into the middle of the kids and one the opposing outfielders had to bail to avoid the kids. Finally, we decided to TELL the coach to get off because the last thing we wanted were some severely injured little leaguers. Talking about injuries, I decided to run home on a very shallow sack fly by Miss Y. I ran full tilt and didn't slow down as I reached home plate, consequently smacking my face into the metal fencing. Yes, it left a mark...

Oh well, it didn't bother me because we get to eat as a team afterwords. I was remarking to Boss Woman, who runs the team, she had me at "eating after each game" when asking me to join the team. Today I got my wish and the whole team headed to try Grub on Main Street. Grub is a very small restaurant that serves up gourmet eats at reasonable prices. I actually called ahead to see if they could accommodate all 9 of us and they actually held a table for us. The menu at Grub is really quite simple. There are some antipastos, pizzas and salads. Their entrees are featured on the wall. The ambiance at Grub can be described as classy casual. The service was quite unpretentious, friendly and very attentive. For the 2nd time in 3 days, I ordered a Hoegaarden beer. I really find the name amusing, despite the fact it's not pronounced the way it looks.

For my entree, I got the featured beef dish which was a Korean Style Braised Beef. The organic beef was braised with shitake mushrooms and Napa cabbage. Resting on top in a radicchio bowl was a buckwheat soba noodle salad with a ginger soy vinaigrette. The dish itself was quite spicy. I guess it shouldn't have been surprising since it was "Korean-style". I thought the shiitake mushrooms added alot of earthiness and flavour to the dish. I really liked the soba noodle salad. Too bad there wasn't much of it, I could've eaten a whole plate of it. While I had the beef, Miss Y went for the vegan dish. It consisted of an acorn squash stuffed with "spiced millet pilaf", chive and chickpea dumplings and lemon herb parsnip & carrot confit. Personally, I didn't like this dish so much. It's probably because I like meat. However, with or without meat, I found the dumplings and the millet to be a bit dry. I'm not sure if that was the intention or not; but I was expecting it to be a bit more fluffy. Mind you, the flavours were pretty balanced and delicate.

Judes had the Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken. I actually liked this dish the best. The chicken was ever so tender and the sun-dried tomato stuffing was very flavourful without being overpowering (not too tangy, it was balanced with sweetness). It rested on a bed of mushroom risotto which was perfectly cooked (neither thick or runny). The risotto had an earthy taste thanks to the mushrooms. Bear had the Cashew Crusted Pork Chop with Yam & Potato Pave. This dish was definitely the most impressive looking. On top of a large yam & potato pave rested an equally large pork chop. The dish was finished off with sherry-poached figs and prune compote. I thought the pork chop was cooked perfectly. The meat was moist and tender. I didn't find the cashews all that crunchy; but they did add a fatty nut flavour (that didn't sound right...). The yam & potato were soft; yet not mushy.

4 people had various pizzas; but I'll comment on only 2 of them. Milhouse ordered the Salmon Gravlax and Goat's Cheese Pizza. He thought that the pizza was quite balanced since each component was discernible. He particularly liked that there were ample toppings as well. I didn't try this particular pizza; but I had a bite of Hot Chocolate's pizza which consisted of Sopressata, Artichoke Hearts, Black Olives and Red Onion. I really liked the the pizza since the crust was quite thin and the tomato sauce was light. However, since all the toppings were bold, the resulting flavour was saltiness. Mind you, this was probably the only real criticism of the food. Another minor problem was that the food took a long time. Since Grub is a small restaurant, they may not have been equipped to handle a large group of us all at once. However, the service was very good and the servers kept us happy while we waited. The combination of good food, decent portions and attentive service makes Grub a must try.

The Good:
- Food tastes good
- Decent portions
- Friendly and unpretentious service

The Bad:
- Restaurant is extremely small
- No A/C, it was a bit warm
- Food came out a bit slow

one20 Pub & Grill

You're probably wondering why I chose to eat at a pub for lunch. No, I'm not boozing it up during lunch hour! In fact, I had to resort to drinking ice tea, in a bar. Pretty sad sight, I know! The real reason for my visit to one20 was that I had received a gift certificate on Friday and I decided to use it. Actually, when I went to pay, it was apparently expired!??!!? Luckily the server was nice and still accepted it. I've been to one20 before and despite it being a bar, the food isn't all that bad. Of course it's the usual stuff: fried appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and some entrees. But if you look more closely, there are a few interesting items as well.

As I was sipping my iced tea, amongst people drinking beer, I decided to start with the Hot Wings. I know it's quite difficult to get really excited about a pound of hot wings; however, these were pretty good. They were decent in size and fried perfectly. The outside was crispy, while the inside was still quite juicy. In addition, the wings were coated with just enough hot sauce which covered the entire wing without drowning it. Thus, the wings remained crispy even though it was completely coated with sauce. Despite it being an all day special, blue cheese or ranch dressing was included. The "second course" as my server declared tongue-in-cheek was a Beef Dip with fries. I was pleased to discover that the beef was actual roast beef (not that Arby's ham-like roast beef). Moreover, there was plenty of roast beef stuffed in a crusty bun. Although the au jus was probably powdered mix, it was not overly salty. The fries that accompanied the beef dip were pretty pedestrian.

On a return visit with Pomegranate, I finally got to try their Loaded Beef Burger. For all my previous visits, I've had anything but the burger. And we all know that a good pub needs a respectable burger! And yes, it was a respectable burger. The patty was not overly dry and not oily while the bacon was lean and crispy. The mushroom were sauteed nicely; but the onions are hardly caramelized. I decided to substitute yam fries and they were crispy. The chipotle mayo had a decent kick to it, which I enjoyed very much. Pomegranate had their Chicken Wrap and although the flavours were good with some spice and fresh veggies, the chicken was quite dry. It probably needed more sauce to make up for that.

I don't usually head to a bar to get lunch. Frankly, my image of a bar includes beer, beer and more beer. Food is almost an afterthought. However, the food at one20 is more than passable. It's not gourmet; but it really isn't expected to be. Moreover, the prices are very reasonable, nothing is really over $10.00. Mind you, my ice tea was $3.75. I could've had a beer for a little bit more. But I can't go back to work after guzzling beer! I will go back to the one20 for lunch again; but I'll just stick with water.

The Good:
- Food is pretty cheap
- Food ain't bad for a bar
- Service is pretty good

The Bad:
- Beer everywhere and I can't have any...

Ramies

Originally, we were planning to go out as a family for some schnitzel at Old Bavaria Haus tonight. However, the parents didn't feel like going out and the kiddies were a bit sick. Incidentally, Viv wasn't in the schnitzel mood either. What's wrong with everyone? Where's the love for some fried veal? Fine, so we had to pick another place to eat. You'd think this is an easy task don't you. Well, I really didn't want to do the Asian restaurant thing again and trust me, in the GVRD, it's hard to avoid Asian food (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Thai, Malay etc...). Okay, there is this one place that I used to frequent with my hockey team - Ramies. For those who are not familiar with Ramies, it's a small Greek restaurant on Kingsway across from Saffron and Curry King. One look at the place and you'd really wonder what was the big deal. It's not really all that noticeable, it's small, it's not really that cheap and the portions are not particularly large. Not a ringing endorsement eh?

The whole story is in the food, period. Whatever they lack in quantity or in price, the food makes up for it. If you want quantity on the cheap, then go to Stepho's. Tonight, HL joined us for dinner. And yes, we do refer to him as HL because his name is a bit difficult to pronounce (for some people). Believe it or not, he wanted to join us on a food adventure because he kept reading my updates on Facebook. We decided to split a Calamari to start. I thought the pieces of squid were the perfect size. When they are too small, the squid gets tough and hard. When they are too big, the squid doesn't become crispy enough. The batter was not over seasoned; yet there was a bit of a grease on the bottom of the plate. The tzatziki sauce was very good. It was full of garlic and lemon flavour while having the right consistency.

HL and I both had the roast lamb. I ended up taking a picture of my plate because it looked nicer. Although the piece of lamb was modest in size, the quality more than made up for it. It was tender throughout and perfectly seasoned (just the right amount of garlic and saltiness). The Greek salad was fresh, the lemon potato was soft in inside and nicely broiled on the outside and the rice was cooked perfectly. Only complaint were the veggies, some of the beans were a bit soft.

Viv had the Lemon Chicken. No, this is not some Greek version of the Chinese dish. Although it would certainly be a sight to behold a fusion Greek/Chinese Lemon Chicken! Rather, the chicken here is marinated in lemon and roasted. Viv really enjoyed this dish. The chicken was really tender and juicy despite it not looking as such. Curiously, the chicken did not have a strong lemon taste, almost barely detectable. Once again, we had a good dinner at Ramies. Food tasted great, textures were bang on and service was decent.

The Good:
- Food is made with care
- Food tastes as it should
- Textures are correct

The Bad:
- A tad pricey
- Not much in the way of ambiance

Business Hours:
11:00am - 10:00pm (Mon - Sat)
4:00pm - 10:00pm (Sun)

Dolce Amore

For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what happened to Dolce Amore. Well, I could plainly see Dolce Amore on the same corner across from Norman's. But what happened to the gelato? Finally, I got a chance to stop and actually take a look. In a non-descript building right next to the restaurant was the good ol' gelato shop. Fine, I must've not seen it the countless times I drove by or I just didn't pay attention to Viv. It appears she's told me on a few occasions. I guess I have selective hearing. So after a great dinner at Chambar, whipping girl and I went to get some dessert. We had our hearts set on the Drive (Commerical) and we set out to find Dolce Amore gelato. This time I didn't have to pull the "turn into a lane and reverse out in the opposite direction" to park in the few spots available. In fact, I saw a space that someone was trying that maneuver on, but I was already facing the right direction. Guess who got the parking spot?

As usual, there was a lineup; but that gave me more than enough time to snap photos and ponder what I was going to order. Whipping girl decided on 2 scoops in a cup. I wanted the large 3 scoops in a cup. This was a decision I would learn to regret. I went for the Limocello and Green Apple sorbetto and the Cheesecake Gelato. While the server was scooping the sorbetto, I knew it was going to be next to impossible for me to finish it. I swear the portion size of my 3 scoop cup was at least 3 times bigger than that of Amato, La Casa, Mondo, Cumpari's and Vivo. I don't even remember it being that big before they moved the store over. Look at the picture! The cup is even the large cup already and it's overflowing! Best of all, it only cost $5.50!

Of course, quantity is one thing, we also have to talk about the quality. First of all, both gelato and sorbetto were bursting with flavour. The sorbettos were tart and sweet, truly refreshing on a warm day. Texture-wise, they were not icy. The cheesecake gelato was very smooth and had plenty of cream cheese flavour. I ended up only finishing 2 of the 3 scoops which was honestly an achievement in itself. Whipping girl finished 1 of 2 scoops. My advice is to get one scoop less than you actually wanted. I really liked the gelato at Dolce Amore, as much as I like Vivo. However, the portion size (combined with quality) at Dolce Amore is hard to beat.

The Good:
- Huge scoops!
- Moderately priced
- Good quality gelato and sorbetto

The Bad:
- Not a lot of places to sit
- Lack of parking in the area

Chambar

I was both hungry and tired after playing hockey this afternoon. Viv had report cards to do, so I was without a dining partner. Not to worry, never fear, from out of thin air; whipping girl appears!!! Yes, I found a willing dining partner in whipping girl. We were trying to decide on a restaurant for a little while. You'd think it wouldn't be this hard! She suggested Chambar, just as I was thinking of it! Excellent! I've been meaning to visit Chambar for quite some time. Mind you, there are lots of places I've been meaning to visit! Before I picked up whipping girl, I took the opportunity to get some exterior photos of establishments that I never go a chance to take. Yes, people were looking at me like I was some weirdo. Anyways, a good thing about Chambar is that parking is quite plentiful in the area. We parked only half a block away.

We started with the Les Crevettes de la Colombie Britannique (BC Spot Prawns 3 Ways). The first set of prawns were coated with panko and fried. These were cooked perfectly retaining the texture of the prawn, while providing a solid crunch on the outside. The second way was citrus oil poached with grapefruit wedges. It was both refreshing and flavourful. The third way was a curried bisque. This was an extremely luxurious and rich concoction. We wish we had much more of it.

Next up were the Moule Frites Coquotte (Mussels and Fries). We substituted our frites with the Poutine a la Belge. Let me say that the poutine was fabulous! It was quite different than the ones you'd find at a fast food joint. First of all, the fries were very crispy so that they held up to the demi-glace. The strong flavours were complex due to the use of blue cheese and cilantro. There are 3 ways you could choose to have the mussels perpared: Coquotte, Vin Blanc or Congolaise. The one we choose, coquotte, was a broth consisting of white wine cream, smoked bacon and spring onions. The broth was wonderfully aromatic and rich. I guess anything with bacon fat is delicious! We had to order some bread to take advantage of the broth. The mussels themselves were large and sweet.

The last dish was definitely a case of "saving the best for last". Le Canard Aux Epices (Five Spice Rubbed Duck Breast) was beautifully presented in 3 large pieces atop truffled goat cheese green beans, orange spiced beats and walnut mashed potatoes. The duck was cooked perfectly, with each piece being buttery smooth. The duck skin was nicely charred and with the five spice added a nice smokiness. The green beans were fresh and crunchy. Mixed with the goat cheese and truffles, it was mouthful of flavours. We could've eaten much more that. The walnut mash potatoes were also a highlight, resembling taro with the crunch of walnuts.

We really enjoyed our meal at Chambar. The flavours were unique and really worked. The service was impeccable, being casual and professional at the same time. Naturally, all this comes at a cost. But we felt it was worth every penny. I wasn't hungry after the meal (thus no searching for a Filet-o-Fish) and I went away impressed.

The Good:
- Bold flavours
- Casual and upscale at the same time
- Food was impressive

The Bad:
- A tad pricey (but I thought it was worth it)
- Bread should be complimentary