Finch's Tea & Coffee House

Quite often, I refer to Urbanspoon for my dining destinations. Admittedly, it is not the end-all for all the best places to eat. Thus, I turned to Yelp! this time and found Finch's Tea & Coffee House. In actuality, I already knew about this place; but it was nowhere on my radar. Well... since Vandelay and I were nearby munching on tacos at La Taqueria, I decided to try out their popular Pear, Brie and Prosciutto sandwich. Obviously, there are other items on the menu including breakfast, soups and beverages. But there is no mistaking their signature sandwich.

Seeing that seating was at a premium, I decided to get my order to go. In addition to the sandwich, I got a Tomato Bisque. As I was waiting for my order, I kept thinking to myself about how the picture would turn out if they wrapped up my sandwich. Would it be smushed? Would it look unfresh? My OCD took over and I went up to the counter and asked if they could let me take a picture of it before they wrapped it up. With an excellent picture of the sandwich on my camera, I left happy as a clam.

One bite into the sandwich and as Kevin would put it best, I had a "foodgasm". With taste buds exploding and soft brie oozing out (sorry for the visual), it was really good. A perfect marriage of sweet, salty, aromatic and tart, this sandwich is one of the best I've had in Vancouver. In fact, for about the same price, I'm not even sure why people line up at Salumi in Seattle. Granted they make their own meats there; but this sandwich at Finch's kicks the ones I had at Salumi. The bisque was also quite good. With the taste of fresh tomato and basil, the soup was smooth and not tart at all. It was creamy without being creamy, if that makes any sense. I don't get excited about sandwiches very often; however, you really must try this sandwich out, it'll blow your mind.

The Good:
- Fresh ingredients, freshly made items
- The food just tastes great
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Not cheap
- It's small, go for takeout

La Taqueria

Here we go again... Mexican food. Yes, I am a bit biased when it comes to Mexican cuisine. I've explained it in my Los Compadres post. However, I'm always game to try new places out, especially if others have raved about it. Kevin (604Foodtography) blogged about La Taqueria out on Hastings in Downtown Vancouver. I seem to get quite a few good ideas from him and here Kev, you get all the credit here! I met up with Vandelay at the store early because a lineup usually begins to build after 11:30am. If you want a place to sit, then you'd better make sure to be early, there are not a lot of them.

Another thing, bring cash, they don't take plastic. Doh! Luckily Vandelay is like an ATM and he was able to cover my meal. We both opted for the 4 tacos @ $9.50. There are quite a few to choose from and the ones that caught my eye were the: De Lengua, De Cachette, Pescado and Al Pastor. Translated, these are the Braised Pemberton Meadows Beef Tongue, Braised Chilliwack Pork Cheeks, Grilled Fish with Pico de Gallo and Chilliwack Pork Marinated in Chili, Achiote and Pineapple.

As you may already know, I love tongue. No, not the one Viv gives me (well, okay I do... TMI!); but I love beef/pork tongue. It's especially good when it's cooked until it's nice and tender. Simply garnished with onion and cilantro, the tongue taco was delicious. Honestly, if you've never tried tongue (that sounded funny), this is the best way to do it. It seems that anything "cheek" is on the menu everywhere. I'm glad because that's another one of my favs in the meat department. Generally, the meat in the cheeks are quite tender if cooked properly. And this was no exception with the cheek taco. Again garnished only with onion and cilantro, the braised cheeks were not only tender, they were well seasoned.

Topped with pico de gallo and pickled cabbage, the fish tacos were also outstanding. Why outstanding? The fish was only partially cooked where most of it was still rare. This is perfect since overcooked fish is no better than canned tuna. Lastly, the Chilliwack pork was quite flavourful due to the moderately spicy sweet sauce. The pineapples were a nice flavour addition giving both sweetness and tartness. I'm gonna say it. To me at least, I think these are the best tacos I've had in the GVRD, even better than those at Dona Cata.

The Good:
- Nice selection of tacos
- Perfectly cooked meats
- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:
- Not a lot of places to sit
- Lineups are common

J. Beethoven's Pizza Gourmet

Man, I remember reading about this place in the early 90's in the Province newspaper. No joke! The reason I remember is the name - J. Beethoven's. If my memory serves me right, the review was favourable. It's funny how that I've never tried the place out, despite being nearby for almost 5 years. Well, today is the day. With my son finishing up his ice skating lesson, I needed to pick up some food along the way home for dinner. Not wanting to settle for a chain pizza joint (nothing wrong with that by the way), I reached deep into my memory and pulled J. Beethoven out of the hat. Apparently, this is Michael Buble's favourite pizza joint. It probably has something to do with the fact he is a Burnaby native himself. Well, when I arrived to pick up the pizza, there was no mistaking that Michael Buble likes this place. There must've been over 10 pictures of him on the wall. If I didn't know any better, I would mistaken this place for a Buble shrine! I'm surprised they weren't playing his music.

In terms of the pizza, the thing that sets it apart is the shape. You won't find many places specializing in square pizza, other than the infrequent specials at Pizza Hut and the lot. We decided to get a large pizza with one half being Hawaiian and the other being the Herculean. The Hawaiian is pretty self-explanatory, while the Herculean consists of Italian Sausage, Lean Ground Beef, Pepperoni and Salami. I'm not sure if pizza is the right description. To me at least, it resembled pizza bread more than anything. The crust is quite thick; yet soft at the same time. As you can see, there is a good amount of toppings and cheese. After 2 slices, I was pretty stuffed.

The pizza didn't feel greasy at all and despite being thick, the crust was easy to eat. There are actually tables for people to eat in; but it's a bit cramped. Moreover, you'll have to stare at pictures of Michael Buble since they're on every wall. I'm not with Michael here since I didn't love the pizza. I wasn't really all that wow'd by it. I thought the crust was a bit too much. I prefer Hot Oven Pizza where the crust is a bit thinner. With that being said, it was a decent pizza that I brought "Home" (sorry for the stupid Buble reference there).

The Good:
- Heavy on the toppings
- If you like thick crust...
- If you like Michael Buble...

The Bad:
- Too much crust for me
- A bit heavy to eat

Mr G's Fast Food

What to eat for lunch? What to eat??? Not a whole lot to choose from nearby. I've gone to most of the local restaurants more than 2 times already. I need a change. Surfing Urbanspoon pointed me in the direction of Mr. G's Fast Food. Why? Well, while scrolling through the list of Surrey restaurants, it was the most interesting name. Yah, it was completely random. Mr. G reminds me of the character that Eddie Murphy placed in Holy Man. I wonder if this visit to Mr. G will be enlightening? I would settle for somewhat tasty and cheap. It is indeed cheap, there are no items over $6.00.

I decided to try out 2 items with the first being the Chicken Wrap. Okay now. If you look at the picture, what does the meat look like to you? Chicken? If you thought that, you must have your eyes checked because it sure looks like bacon right? Well, it is indeed chicken. WTF??? I don't know about you; but you have to overcook chicken pretty badly to make it look like bacon. In fact, you'd probably have to fry it a couple times over to achieve such an effect. Trying to chew it was akin to eating the "Ton-Can't-Chew" at Kawawa. The good news was that the veggies were fresh and the mix of Tzatzki and honey mustard (at the suggestion of the nice guy behind the counter) tasted quite good.

Whereas the wrap was disappointing, the Fried Chicken was surprising. It's not much to look at and the batter was a bit thick; however, the chicken was moist, tender and juicy. I was quite shocked as to how tasty the chicken turned out to be. Despite being packaged French fries, they were pretty darn good as well. I think there was a starch coating on them and they were very crispy. Nice an potatoey on the inside too. There was one problem. A strange aftertaste, probably from the starch, occurred after eating the fries. Oh well, I shouldn't expect much, since Mr. G's is merely a place where you can grab a quick, cheap lunch. But honestly, what the heck was up with that chicken wrap? Could it be that they messed up that day? I'm not sure, maybe I'll give it another go to see if that was the case.

The Good:
- It's cheap
- Food is made-to-order (except for the "chicken meat")
- It's relatively fast

The Bad:
- Awful chicken meat for the wrap
- Limited parking

Kim Penh Xe Lua

For a big metropolis, there are not really all that many choices for late night eats in Vancouver. Sure, there is Denny's, Knight & Day and Tops. But I'd rather stand in the middle of #3 Road in Richmond with a bulls eye painted on my chest than eat at those places. This is the dilemma Polka King and I faced after our weekly late night Wednesday hockey - 1:30am on a weekday looking for eats... Well, there was one place that we noticed when we were at #1 Congee Noodle a couple of weeks ago. It was a Pho restaurant and it was open 24 hours. But we really couldn't remember the name. Well, it turns out the name is Kim Penh Xe Lua. Alright, what happened to easy to remember names such as Pho Tam, Pho Hong, Pho Hoa or even Pho T&A??? Like there is any chance we'd remember Kim Penh Xe Lua.

We got to the restaurant pretty fast because not many people would be on the road at 1:30am on a Thursday morning. We stepped into the restaurant and it seemed like we'd never left the ice rink. Talk about a slippery floor! Did they mop the place with oil??? More on the oil later... Another thing we noticed was the communal tables. In the middle of the restaurant, there are 3 long tables. I guess you'd better not be OCD about personal space because you won't get any here. Despite a free table for 2 available, we sat at the communal table since there was sufficient lighting for pictures. Hey, you know me! I decided to order the XL bowl of #16 which was the Pho Chin, Nam, Gau, Gan and Sach. However, #17 was exactly the same thing. I was a bit confused. But in Chinese characters, #16 had one more item, so I went for that one. I still don't know what I got extra for ordering #16 and honestly, I don't want to know.

I gotta say, for $6.79, the XL is a fantastic value. The bowl was large, the noodles and meat were plentiful. One problem. The broth was fattier than Rosanne's liposuction. In addition to the considerable oil slick, oily "floaties" were everywhere. Not the most appetizing sight. Looking beyond that, the soup itself was quite flavourful without being salty. The noodles, however, were a bit clumpy. Good value; but overall disappointing execution. For curiosity sake, I also got the Grilled Chicken Banh Mi. It came steaming hot and I really enjoyed eating it, the bread was crunchy and light and the chicken was tender. Polka King had the Chicken Curry (yah, I wouldn't order that here) and predictably it was so-so. I guess we shouldn't be complaining since it's early in the morning and choices are limited; but compared to other Pho places, this would not be my first choice.

The Good:
- Large portions
- It's cheap!
- It's open 24 hours

The Bad:
- Pho is pretty average and the broth is oily
- The floor is oily
- What else is oily? I don't want to know...

Hibiki

It's not often that I say this... but it was a long and hard day at work today. Yup, I was mentally exhausted. Due to a meeting, I wasn't going to get home in time to take my son to his skating lesson. However, with some help from my parents, Viv was able to take him. I ended up making it in time to meet them at the ice rink. It's quite amusing to watch the kiddies learn how to skate. If it were me, I'd just give up after 20 minutes of falling down over and over again. He was a good sport and kept trying. If that weren't enough, once he was done that, we had to boot it over to Bonsor for his floor hockey session. Luckily he's full of energy. Too bad he thinks picking up the puck and chucking it across the gym is a legal move in hockey. We'll need to work on that... After such a long day, I was not in the mood to do anything more. Thus, we headed over to a restaurant that we have avoided up until now. Actually, there was no good reason for us to avoid it other than that their parking spaces never seem to be full. They are in the same complex as #1 Beef Noodle House and Tasty Village. I guess no restaurant would have the crazy double... I mean triple-parked cars in front as #1 Beef Noodle.

Today, we took advantage of the available parking for Hibiki and decided to give it a try. The interior of the restaurant is indeed interesting with painted murals on most of the walls. I see they tried to spruce up the sushi bar with a curtain covering some white Christmas lights. I also though the aquarium at the front with a water-breathing dinosaur was a bit... interesting. Overhearing the server speak to one of the chefs in Mandarin, I knew this was not a Japanese-run establishment. But once again, it's not important who prepares the food if it ends up being good. Time to order and time to put this theory to the test. We started off with a small order of Salmon Sashimi. The slices were quite thick and the fish was indeed fresh. However, what is up with the presentation??? Let's take a slab of salmon and put 5 cuts into it and slap it on a plate and presto, we have salmon sashimi! Uh... I don't remember that I have ever received sashimi presented in one long piece before. Moving on, we got the Tempura Udon for my son. Served separately from the udon, the tempura was both generous in size and well prepared. The batter was not too thick and it was crisp. The udon itself was al dente; but I personally felt the soup was a bit weak and thin.

We wanted to order something a bit more substantial and agreed on the Katsu Don. It came with a Miso Soup and *gack*, it was bordering on cold! Would it have hurt them to nuke it or something? I hate cold soup! Even when it's supposed to be cold! The don itself was quite large with plenty of tonkatsu on top. I also liked the rice, it was a bit chewy and each grain of rice was discernible. Lastly, we got a sushi combo which consisted of 1 California Roll, 1 piece each of salmon, toro, tai, hamachi, amaebi, tako, unagi, tobiko, chopped scallop and shark's fin nigiri. The nigiri wasn't too bad; but the California roll was not very good. It was a bit loose and for some reason or another, the imitation crab meat looked and tasted unappetizing.

We didn't dislike our meal at Hibiki; in fact, we thought the prices were pretty reasonable for what we got. Yet, it wasn't all that exciting either. Was it the poorly presented sashimi? The cold miso soup? Or was it the California roll? Well, one thing is for sure, there is better Japanese food to be had elsewhere.

The Good:
- Reasonable prices
- Good portions
- Fairly fresh ingredients

The Bad:
- Like the other restaurants in this plaza, there is not enough parking spots
- Food is a bit average

Ajisai Sushi Bar

The previous night, Rich Guy and I attempted to watch the new movie 2012 after dining at Toshi. However, I guess we were a bit naive to believe we'd actually get tickets for opening night. Tonight, we gave it another go by arriving more than an hour earlier. Once again we were denied faster than trying to fight for a parking spot at Yaohan Centre. I suppose next time we should actually just get our tickets online, just like the commercial tells us to before every movie. I guess we just don't pay much attention to ads and previews that last longer than a sitcom on TV.

A bit dejected, we found solace in the only thing that would do the job - food! We took the opportunity that we were without our respective kids once again, to eat at a place which would be either too small, wrong type of food or have a potential lineup. Yesterday was Toshi, today was Ajisai. Bear has been raving about this place before; but it could never accommodate our entire softball team in the summer. With only 2 people and eating at 9:00pm, we felt our chances at getting a seat were better than having your windshields forcibly squeegeed at an intersection. Why must they do that when I have just washed my car? I digress. We ended up sitting at the sushi bar, which was fine by me. I enjoy watching the knife skills of the sushi chef. At Ajisai, they are Japanese sushi chefs and staff. That's right folks, a real Japanese restaurant!

We decided to start with the Salmon Sashimi and it was excellent. The fresh buttery and sweet flesh was a great way to begin the meal. We were quite impressed with the next dish which was the Geoduck in a ponzu dressing. The geoduck was very fresh being sweet and crunchy. The tangy ponzu really enhanced the sweetness of the geoduck by giving a contrasting flavour. We also got a few pieces of Nigiri which consisted of Red Tuna, Inari and Whole Scallop. Predictably, they were once again really fresh (Inari was fresh too, despite being only tofu skin). The sushi rice had the desired soft while slightly chewy texture. Presented on the same platter was the House Roll which consisted of Tuna, Salmon, Tobiko, Imitation Crab, Ebi and Cucumber. Despite being a relatively large roll, it stayed together without being squished.

Saving the best for last, our order of BBQ Gindara arrived with lemon, asparagus, grated daikon and nato (fermented beans). The perfectly cooked black cod melted in our mouths. When combined with the other items on the plate, there was a nice combination of salty, sweet and tartness. At this point, we were a bit full; but a dish we had seen prepared earlier was still on our minds. The Seafood Salad looked so good, we just had to order it! And order it we did. There was a bounty of seafood resting on a bed of lettuce and spring mix. Tako, ebi, salmon and tuna was generously distributed over fresh greens laced with a light vinaigrette. To top it all off, there were corn flakes! It added a nice crunch to the salad.

Seriously, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of food we ate at Ajisai. Not only was it fresh, it was masterfully prepared and presented. It definitely is a hidden gem since you actually cannot see it from the street. I'm inclined to say that this is now one of my favourites for authentic sushi. Having visited Toshi the day before, I can confidently state that Ajisai is better. If you ever make it out to Kerrisdale, you gotta give this place a try.

The Good:
- Carefully prepared sushi
- The stuff just tastes great
- Authentic

The Bad:
- The place is so darn small, not sure why the washroom is so big...
- If you didn't know where it was, you'd never find it