Cactus Club Cafe

I originally thought a bunch of us were going to eat lunch at the one20 today, so a couple of us made our way down there to find out nobody was there. Due to a lack of communication, there was no lunch planned. Despite the fact I like one20, we decided to head over to Cactus Club instead. To tell you the truth, I really do like Cactus Club. Yes, some people will point out that Cactus Club is expensive and a chain restaurant. That's is pretty much true; however, there are some good eats here. I still remember back in University, we would frequent 2 of the first few locations near Metrotown and on Robson. Their first location (North Van) opened in 1988. Much like it's competitors, Cactus Club has gone through come changes and has gone a bit more upscale.

Since the addition of Rob Feenie as a food designer, there have been some changes to the menu. Today, all 3 of us chose a Rob Feenie creation and in doing so, paid accordingly. Blondie had the Spinach Salad with Italian prosciutto, goat cheese, balsamic figs, candied pecans and sherry vinaigrette. She really enjoyed the salad; but did remark that the prosciutto's saltiness overwhelmed some flavours. My esteemed colleague, L-Pete, had The Burger which consisted of aged cheddar cheese, cured bacon, sautéed mushrooms and red pepper relish. This is a very large burger and he really liked it. I've had the opportunity to try The Burger as well and it is indeed very good. It's juicy, has more than enough toppings and the relish is pretty tasty. For my meal, I ordered the Prawn & Scallop Spaghettini. It wasn't a particularly large portion of pasta; yet it was enough. The roasted tomato sauce was light and fresh tasting. The seafood was cooked just right and the pasta was al dente.

Honestly, no complaints here about the food, it was consistently good. Only real concern was probably the price because it wasn't cheap. However, if you can get past the "chain restaurant" stigma, the food is actually quite decent. With that being said, yes it is true you can practically eat anywhere for those prices. I guess it would be a personal choice as to where you want to spend your money.

The Good:
- No surprises
- Fun atmosphere
- Good place for varied tastes or big groups

The Bad:
- Pricey (along the same lines as Milestone's, Earl's and Joey's)

Fish on Rice

Alright, I normally do not re-write an entire post; but I am going to do it in this case. I originally posted Fish on Rice back in November 2008. I used to enjoy going to Fish on Rice; in fact, I went there 3 times in 2 weeks once! However, either I'm getting my picky or possibly I was just plain wrong in my first assessment of Fish on Rice. Whatever the case, this visit proved to me once and for all that all-you-can-eat Japanese food is typically not a good choice unless you are very hungry. Well, today I was very hungry since at Greek Day, all I had to eat were desserts. We actually arrived at Fish on Rice during their happy hour ($13.95); but I really wanted more selection and went with the full dinner menu ($21.95). One positive thing I can say about Fish on Rice is that their dinner menu does have a good selection and it is less expensive than most of it's competition (for the same selection of food). Of course, we parked at the Old Orchard parking lot beside Fish on Rice. I'm sure one of these days they'll starting towing people who park there for Earl's and Fish on Rice.

Unluckily for us, we got a true table for 2 and it is not really that sufficient for AYCE. After a few dishes, our table was really full. I went ahead and ordered a bunch of food from the checklist and waited anxiously. I was super hungry! Played hockey in the morning and practically no food all day! That is probably what possessed me to return to Fish on Rice for the first time in 6 months. I'm not sure if the workers are disgruntled or they have been trained to be zombies because the service was robotic and expressionless. Even after I said out loud "thank you" to many of the servers, none of them acknowledged it. Would they have preferred plain rudeness instead??? You'd think that after all the negative reviews of the bad service at Fish on Rice, they would actually care to do something about it? Anyways, the first couple of things we got were Miso Soup, Ebi Sunomono and Green Salad. Really nothing special about these dishes, although they were pretty small. I know it's AYCE, but I ate the Sunomono in one bite. The Beef Tataki was decent enough, meat was sliced thin, sauce was decent and it was not chewy. Tuna Tataki was alright, a bit bland since the dressing was barely there. We only decided to get Salmon Sashimi and some Surf Clam. Again, both were alright, but the salmon was sliced poorly with the belly still attached and presented on the dish all curled up. Oyster Motoyaki was actually quite decent. It was hot and there was a large oyster nestled in the baked mayo. The Beef Short Ribs, Beef Teriyaki and Tonkatsu (we didn't even order it) were pretty standard. They didn't offend; but didn't stand out either. We only ordered 3 rolls: Spider, Spicy Scallop and Spicy Salmon. The spider roll was alright; but the other 2 were awful. They tasted okay, but the rolls were messy and loose. The worst dish of all was the Prawn Tempura. First, the tempura batter was thicker than paper mache, it was truly disgusting. Second, the dipping sauce was luke warm and tasteless. Third and most importantly, the shrimp were NOT deveined. In fact, these shrimp must've been constipated because they had the largest, blackest, most disgusting veins I've ever seen. Lastly, the Black Cod was a bit bland and unevenly cooked; yet it was edible and at least I got it.

Ah yes, the black cod controversy. Before this visit, every other time (at least 15), we have either not received our order of black cod or have received it last and with half the pieces we requested. Imagine my surprise when the black cod arrived in the middle of our meal this time! However, sadly it was only half of what I ordered again. On my second round, I accidentally marked off Tuna Tataki rather than Beef Tataki. When it arrived, I told the waitress that I didn't order Tuna Tataki. The female manager comes up to me, shows me the original checklist and showed me arrogantly that I had made a mistake. Okay yes, that's true and it's my bad. However, did she need to do that? Besides, someone else for sure would order tuna tataki, give it to them. Whatever, I didn't want to argue, I just took the tataki and ate it. As I was eating it, 3 separate orders of food arrived at our table that we never ordered. So should I in turn go up to the same female manager and show her the checklist and point to the fact I didn't order those 3 dishes??? Not to mention, we got a tonkatsu that I never ordered either!

So on this most recent visit, I have to sadly say that I was horribly mistakened to even say I actually liked this place. With the combination of awful service, mediocre food and questionable business practices, I will not be coming back. With that being said, Fish on Rice is still better than some of the other AYCE Japanese joints out there. That statement alone is an indication of how sad some of these AYCE places really are. If you must go to an AYCE place, then I think Ninkazu is probably the best of the bunch. Of course AYCE has a place and time, especially for big groups of big eaters; but really, if you want good Japanese food (assuming you are not starving), go to a non-AYCE place. You will probably end up spending the same amount or even less for much higher quality food.

The Good:
- Good selection
- A bit cheaper than most the competition for the same selection
- There's sashimi on the lunch menu (albeit limited to 6pcs per person)

The Bad:
- Service is god awful, they don't seem to care that you are spending $22.00 for this
- Some of the food is not very good
- Restaurant needs a cleaning

Greek Day

I had originally tweaked my ankle during floor hockey on Saturday, so Sunday morning ice hockey seemed in doubt. However, finding a sub was going to be difficult since Sunday was Father's Day. I decided to tough it out with some Advil and pain tolerance. It turned out to be a really good game and afterwords, I was famished. We decided yesterday on attending Greek Day along West Broadway on Father's Day. So we loaded up the kids and headed down there with my parents. Finding parking was a challenge since most of the streets were for resident parking only. Fortunately we didn't take too long to find one and it was only 4 blocks away. Bad planning on our part, we didn't have any cash, so I had to go find an ATM. I spotted Great Western Bank and upon getting to the front door, it stated they didn't have an ATM yet. Seriously, what bank doesn't have an ATM??? I trekked a bit further past Blenheim almost to the Eatery, to the TD Canada Trust.

Money in hand, I was ready to acquire some tasty Greek food. However, there were massive lineups 20 people deep at practically every food stand. I hate lineups. I decided to pick the shortest lineup; but this particular food stand mostly sold desserts. Whatever, I was hungry, I really could care less. I ended up getting Spanakopita, Baklava and 2 slices of the Galaktobouriko. I passed the Spanakopita to Viv and ended up eating most of the sweets myself. I did give one of the 2 Galaktobouriko to my mom. I really enjoyed eating the Galaktobouriko. The combination of fluffy egg and lemon zest made the dessert light tasting. I really liked the crunchy filo as a contrast to the egg. Viv didn't really want anything to do with the Baklava since it is typically very sweet. I ended up forcing her to eat a bit of it. I didn't get anything else because the lineups were so long. Although I really wanted to get some Loukoumades for my kids; but then it started to rain. Not wanting to be drenched, we high-tailed it back to the car. Although Greek Day was a short visit, it was good to get out and walk around. It's nice to see that Vancouver isn't totally devoid of special events (there really should be more though).

Me-n-Ed's Pizza Parlor (Burnaby)

Deciding on a restaurant to eat at is usually a relatively simple exercise. There are so many choices in the GVRD. However, trying to find a suitable restaurant for 4 adults with 4 screaming kids is another story. Costanza and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out where we could go. Finally we settled on an ol' standby, Me-n-Ed's. To those who are not familiar with Me-n-Ed's, it's a family pizza joint with 5 locations in the GVRD. Today, we went to the location in Burnaby on Kingsway near Edmonds. Much to our surprise, it was retro-pricing due to Me-n-Ed's 40th birthday; thus we put away our Entertainment coupons. We were seated at the back of the restaurant and that was a good thing, by the time we left, we were the only ones there and the kids could run around free-range.

Normally, without a coupon or retro-pricing, Me-n-Ed's is not a cheap place to eat. The large specialty pizzas are $27.00 each. Today, they were only $22.00 each. Rather than going with the specialty pizzas, we made our own large pizza with as many toppings as we wanted for $22.00. We ended getting 2 large pizzas, one small for the kids, nachos and Caesar salad. We were seated at a large table in the middle of the dining area which was devoid of any real good lighting. Therefore, the chances of taking some really good pictures was compromised. That's when I decided to take all the dishes over to a table near the window, snap a shot and then bring it back. So when the Caesar salad arrived, I swiped it and took it to the table near the window. The server came back and was thoroughly confused as to what happened to the salad. After an explanation from Viv, he was on-board with my antics. The remaining table in our section was quite intrigued as to what I was up to. Again, the things I do for his blog...

The pizza at Me-n-Ed's is a bit different than most of the other pizza chains out there. The crust is very thin and light, bordering on resembling a crunchy cracker. Consequently, the crust is not oily and in fact, the whole pizza is not really all that oily either. Since the pizza is relatively light and easy to eat, you will find that most people will eat more slices than regular pizzas. This actually makes the pizzas here even more expensive because you will need more of it to make you full. The pizzas, salad, nachos and 4 soft drinks pushed the total to nearly $100.00 (including tax & tip). Remember, this is with retro-pricing too. Me-n-Ed's is indeed great for families; however it's not cheap.

The Good:
- Great for kids
- Light, easy-to-eat pizza
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Pizzas are not cheap

Booster Juice

You couldn't imagine how much discomfort I was in after an extremely salty Dim Sum at Pelican. I was dying for a large cool beverage. Initially, a Slurpee or Super Big Gulp came into mind; but I just had a Slurpee a couple of days ago. I dropped Viv and the kids at my in-laws and headed out in search for an oasis of refreshment. That certain oasis would be located below the Skytrain station at Broadway and Commercial. No not Blenz, the last thing I needed was a hot caffeinated beverage. The place I speak of was Booster Juice. Ah yes, one of the many copycats of Jamba Juice, only found in the States. I am truly beginning to believe that the only reason I prefer Jamba Juice is because it was the first one I tried. Jugo Juice has been quite a decent substitute so far, maybe Booster Juice can do the same or better.

To be honest, I really didn't care because I was really thirsty. Scanning the menu quickly, I decided on the Mango Hurricane which is a tropical mix of strawberries, mangos, peaches, guava, passion fruit and sorbet. While I was waiting for my drink, a transit guy was looking at me funny while I was taking photos. I explained to him what I was doing and that made him feel better. He thought I was weird or something. The drink itself was pretty good, a bit on the tart side; but I didn't want anything sweet anyways. I really like how Booster Juice uses the insulated cups like Jamba Juice as opposed to Jugo Juice. It keeps the drink cold and thick longer. Moreover, it doesn't feel like a block of ice in you hand either.

Feeling quite refreshed and having exorcised the MSG demon, I was feeling a lot better. I really didn't get to drink the whole thing because my daughter kept grabbing the cup away from me. She just loves smoothies. Too bad she can't hold a cup without spilling it. Booster Juice does cost more than most other beverages, but seeing how it's full of fruit, I think it's reasonable.

The Good:
- You get 5 servings of fruit in a cup
- Insulated cup
- Healthier choice than a Slurpee

The Bad:
- Costs more than your regular drink (worth it in my opinion though)

Dim Sum @ Pelican

Alright, I really wasn't planning on eating Dim Sum today. In fact, I really wasn't in the mood for Chinese food period; however, we were taking my father-in-law out for Father's Day and he's not into other types of cuisine. I considered Dai Tung and Western Lake; but those places are crazy busy and you know how I love lineups. Thus it was between 2 other places on Hastings: Pelican or International. My father-in-law choose Pelican because he knows some of the people who work there. We arrived pretty early at 10:50ish, but the place was already packed including the parking lot. I dropped my father-in-law off so he could get a table. As I was backing up out of the parking lot, people just walked behind me like I wasn't there. I really can't understand these people. If you play chicken with an SUV, who do you think will win? Better yet, I re-entered the parking lot to drop off Viv and this lady beside me was so concerned I was going to take her spot. She was so worried that she almost ended up blocking the person coming out. Relax! It's just a parking space! Incidentally, someone else was leaving and I ended up getting a better spot than her. Karma. As mentioned, there was a lineup at the front door; however since my father-in-law had some friends who worked at Pelican, we got a table right away. Ahhh... such a Chinese-type of maneuver! Normally, I'd be at the other end, cursing at the fact people had skipped the line. Call me a hypocrite.

Just recently, I had read the post by Danny & Jeremy (Five Loaves) on Urbanspoon indicating their disappointment over their meal at Pelican. That got me a little worried because I was going to play hockey after this and the last thing I needed was grease and msg overload. I guess I totally forgot that since we ordered 14 dishes between the 3 adults and 2 children. We started with the Beef Rice Noodle Roll. Nestled in the soft rice noodle was plenty of tender beef and only a smidgen of cilantro. Hmmm... A decent start to the meal. Not sure why we got the Egg Tarts as our second dish (this happens a lot at Chinese restaurants); but they were pretty good. Crust was flaky and filling was soft and light tasting. The next dish, Stir-Fried Green Beans with Conch, was both really good and really bad at the same time. Texture-wise, the green beans were perfectly crunchy; yet cooked (fried) all the way through. However, the sauce was incredibly salty and sweet. I like flavour in my food; but this was too much.

The Steamed Shrimp Dumplings were big and looked pretty good; however, the skin was overcooked and too thick. I got a mouthful of dumpling wrapper before I even got to the shrimp which incidentally was quite salty. I concur with how Danny & Jeremy described the Shrimp Balls with Fish Maw; it was terrible. The fish maw was cooked until it was a melted mess and the shrimp had barely any texture to it. At least this one wasn't too salty. The same could not be said for the Honeycomb Tripe & Tendon. I know there is very little flavour to tripe; but did they really need to put so much salt, msg and sugar into the sauce? Eating it made me want an entire Super Big Gulp to myself. Texture-wise, the tripe was soft; but the tendon was too soft, resulting into an inedible mush. At least the Black Bean Spareribs had texture. The chewy texture was perfect; however, it suffered from over- seasoning once again.

Suffice to say, I could go on a bit further regarding the remaining dishes; but to me, it's
pointless. I'll merely sound like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller repeating "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller"; but in my case it would be "MSG, MSG, MSG". It's really too bad because there were some really decent dishes which were ruined by over-seasoning. What made it worse was that our teapot was never refilled, compounding the problem because we couldn't quench our thirst. I do understand that the Dim Sum at Pelican is reasonably-priced and the portions are good; but if practically everything is super salty, it becomes pretty inedible. I really wanted to like the Dim Sum, partly because my father-in-law knew the people; however I cannot be biased. I guess if they read this post, we'll not be skipping the line anymore...

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Good portions
- Excellent selection

The Bad:
- Too much salt and MSG!
- Slow service
- Crowded

Business Hours:
9:30am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 2:00am (7 days a week)

Lucky Gate

Honestly, if my parents didn't recommend this place, I would have never eaten at Lucky Gate. First of all, it's in Coquitlam. No offense to Coquitlam, I used to live there, but it ain't the hotbed of Shanghainese cuisine. Second, it looks rather dumpy from the outside and trust me, I've been to some dumpy looking places. When Viv and I arrived at the restaurant, I was extremely skeptical and was bracing for the worst. Upon entering, my fears were tempered somewhat since there were other Chinese people dining - that's a good sign. Surprisingly, part of the kitchen is open with only a large plexiglass window separating it from the dining space. From time to time, when a noodle order is placed, the chef begins making fresh noodles by hand. Again, something I didn't expect here.

Foregoing the dinner fare, we opted to order mostly Shanghainese Dim Sum since it would probably be the best indicator of the food. My parents assured me that the food is decent because they have been going here for awhile. We started with the Wine Marinated Chicken. The chicken itself was cooked perfectly and seasoned really well. Maybe a bit too well because as I continued chewing, it became more and more salty. Despite that, the chicken did have good wine flavour. As always, we ordered the Hot & Sour Soup. It was a vegetarian version; thus it did not have the usual shrimp and slivered pork. Despite that, the soup still looked and tasted pretty good. I only wish that it was more bold in both the spicy and vinegar department.

Another favourite dish of ours is the Stir-Fried Sliced Rice Cake. It was available in Shanghai-style (spinach, shredded pork, shiitake mushrooms and dark soy) or with sprouts, pickled vegetables and shredded pork. We went for the latter this time and despite looking a bit pale, it tasted quite good. There was a good mix of saltiness, sweetness and zing from the pickled vegetable. Continuing on the pale theme, the Noodles in Soup with Tendon was completely lacking in colour except for the baby bak choy. I was surprised to see the tendon (which was soft) devoid of any colour. Thank goodness everything tasted much better than it looked. I especially liked the fresh hand-made noodles, they had really good elasticity and flavour (fresh noodle flavour, hard to explain).

The one dish that had plenty of colour was the Peking-Style Shredded Pork with Steamed Flour Crepes. The addition of hoisin and dark soy gave the shredded pork a really nice deep colour. It tasted as good as it looked. Wrapped within the large soft flour crepe, the pork had a sweet, rich and almost smoky flavour. One interesting thing was that the pork was not marinated in baking soda and retained it's natural chewy texture. We actually liked this quite a bit because we also go the natural pork flavour as well. It's rare to find places that serve meat without baking soda and still being tender enough to eat.

Okay, eating Shanghainese Dim Sum without Xiao Long Bao is like going to Richmond and finding polite drivers. It just doesn't happen. The Xiao Long Bao at Lucky Gate were unusually large looking. I was nervous at first, expecting to find a really tough and thick outer skin. This was not the case. Although I've had better Xiao Long Bao, these ones were not half bad. Only complaint would be that there was not really all that much juice in them. Also, the vinegar served with the Xiao Long Bao was a bit too powerful, it would have been better if they stuck with a lighter malt vinegar.

The last dish that we ordered was the Pan-Fried Dumplings. They resembled potstickers; but were not really potstickers per se. They were lightly fried on the bottom and pleasant to eat. I only wish they would've been fried a little bit more, so that there would be more of a texture contrast. I think the one word that would sum up the food at Lucky Gate is "home cooking'. Most of the food didn't look very refined and lacked presentation. However, it usually tasted better than it looked. In comparison to the big boys such as Shanghai River, Shanghai Wonderful, Top Shanghai, #1 Shanghai and the sort, Lucky Gate may be inferior. But, it is decent for where it is located since there is no competition within a country mile.

The Good:
- Decent portions
- Decent prices
- Food is fresh

The Bad:
- Food presentation and colour are lacking
- Friendly service, but since it's a family operation, not enough servers

Business Hours:
11:00am - 3:00pm, 5:30pm - 10:00pm (Thu - Tue)