Pho 24 Express

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... Okay, it wasn't in another galaxy and it wasn't really that long ago; but for Polka King, it seemed like a different reality. You see, he is an accountant by trade and when we last visited Gold Train Express out on Kingsway, there was some very strange mathematics at play. Hence, he was perturbed to the point of never returning. Oh and the large neon sign proclaiming "fresh washrooms" concerned him as well. Fast forward almost 3 years and here we are heading to the newest addition to the Gold Train family - Pho 24 Express, also on Kingsway. Now, 3 years later, we also see less and less of Polka King because he is so infatuated with Polka Dot. Well, I don't blame him really. She is a lot better looking than all of us and would you blame him for hanging out with her more than us? Besides, we had more than enough willing participants for our after-hockey-eats. Unbeknownst to him that we were heading to a place affiliate with Gold Train Express was Milhouse. He was with us last time and he has not forgotten as well. Emilicious willingly joined us since she doesn't mind the location out near UBC. Apparently, their math skills are more sharp out there. Sweet Tooth, Gordo and Apu rounded out the group.

Now if there was any doubt of its affiliation with Gold Train, the abundance of neon on the outside was a dead giveaway. Hey, at least it is easy to find... Sweet Tooth had a hard time deciding what she wanted and eventually settled on the Spring Rolls. We loved the presentation. It appears more and more places are cutting them diagonally, which makes them look "fancier". Despite appearing overfried, these were not greasy and crispy according to Sweet Tooth. It was nice to see that they were not made with wheat wrappers nor made to look like Chinese spring rolls. Since that was not enough food for her, she tacked on a Salad Roll as well. Also "artistically" plated with open ends, the roll itself was pretty standard. As for the dipping sauce, it was too peanutty. There was not enough hoisin sauce which made the sauce bland and one-dimensional. Milhouse suggested that we merely squirt some hoisin in ourselves. I guess we could've done that.

Now Apu, Gordo and Emilicious all had Pho in some shape or form, so there is no point in describeng them all. The corresponding picture is of Emilicious' Pho Tai (with the addition of vegetables). I tried some of the broth and to me, it was predominantly sweet and with a definite MSG slant. Not a bad broth per se, just not enough meat flavour and savoury elements. The meats were tender and plentiful while the rice noodles started off a bit clumpy before loosening up in the hot broth. For myself, I had an X-Large Bun Bo Hue. Maybe this is an unfair comparison; but I didn't find it any bigger than the large at Pho Tam. In fact, it was smaller. On the menu, it stated that there was beef, Vietnamese ham and pork's leg. There was definitely a lot of ham and tender beef; but I didn't see any pork's leg. The noodles were plentiful and cooked just right. I found the broth acceptable where it had some spice and sweetness. I didn't get any hints of lemongrass though. Milhouse went for the Bun Bo Nuong, Cha Gio and Nem Nuong (grilled beef, spring roll and marinated pork on vermicelli). This was also pretty standard stuff with the same spring rolls and meats. Nothing Earth-shattering; but solid nonetheless. This was pretty much our experience here (with proper mathematics). Decent for late-night eats.

The Good:
- Open late
- Food is okay
- Prices are okay

The Bad:
- Food is okay
- Is the X-Large really that much larger?

Docker's Diner

For the longest time, JuJu has been wanting to head to Docker's Diner for some breaky after Sunday morning hockey. Fate would have it that we would be going the very week he misses hockey. Oh well, them the breaks. I'm not sure if I want to see his reaction when we see him next. It's almost like cheating on him food-wise. Well, not all was lost since Mijune was going to make a cameo appearance on my Sunday food adventure (but due to scheduling issues, she didn't make it...). And this was somewhat of an adventure. Located on Powell Street, Docker's Diner is not in the usual places we would go get Breakfast. For us, Powell Street is a thoroughfare to bypass the traffic on Hastings. Hence, anything on the street itself is just a blur as we are traveling to our destinations.

Well, for today at least, we stopped and headed into Docker's Diner. What can I say, it looks like a diner on the outside and it looks like a diner on the inside. Nothing fancy, except for the nostalgic pictures adorning the walls. Kaiser Soze decided to go for the standard Breakfast, which included 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 strips of bacon, hashbrowns and 2 slices of toast for $5.45 tax inclusive. Not a bad deal in my books. As you can clearly see, it was a standard breakfast. Although the bacon was crisp and the sausages cooked right, the hashbrowns were a bit too hard in some places though. Another breakfast item was the Omelet special consisting of spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms. Overlooking the obvious overcooking of the egg (this is a diner), the omelet itself was very bland. All of the ingredients do not lend itself to flavour; thus there was a lack of seasoning.

For myself, I had the Roast Beef Sandwich served open-faced. When it arrived, I have to admit it scared me a bit. With a copious amount of pale lumpy gravy, it didn't look all that appetizing. Despite its dry appearance, the roast beef was actually very tender. But the gravy was as bad as it looked. It was bland and unappealing. The mash potatoes were more starchy than creamy, which I didn't mind except the gravy didn't help things. I really like the bread though, it was really soft and the crust was removed. Milhouse went for lunch menu and had the California Clubhouse with fries. The twist is the imitation crab in place of turkey for this sandwich. He thought it was alright since there was nothing amiss. The fries were your typical frozen krinkle-cut; however, they were decently crisp. So as you can tell by the photos, the food is pretty simple and honest here. It is advertised as home-cooking and I guess they are exactly that. Expectations cannot be too high. I really wish I didn't order the roast beef sandwich because if I didn't, my overall impression would be more favourable. But since I did, I would say the food is passable, especially at the prices they charge. The one thing that is an intangible is the real people that work there.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Real people, real service

The Bad:
- Food is average

Atithi

As much as I love Indian food, I tend to avoid it when I'm in Vancouver. Not that Vancouver doesn't have good Indian food - check South Main Street. However, I'm spoiled by the great, inexpensive Indian food available in Surrey. So it has not even occurred to me to go for it after softball on Mondays. And possibly I was assuming too much as well. I didn't think anyone on my softball team wanted to go for Indian food. How wrong I was. It seemed like the prevailing choice. So with a few options nearby after a game at Canarvon, we headed over to Atithi on Burrard. With the limited amount of free parking spots in the area, I decided to try my luck with the first one I spotted on 8th Ave. Despite being just big enough for my car, I made it with the aid of the backup cam. Hence, no cars were harmed in this food adventure. I can't guarantee that on my next Richmond foray...

As a table, we decided to share a couple orders of Samosas to start. They split them up for us since we had 7 people at the table. This maybe a bit nitpicking; but we would've preferred the tamarind chutney and cilantro sauce to be served on the side rather than directly on the samosa. As for the samosas, they were fried until crisp with a soft potato filling which had an underlying heat. I personally like the tamarind chutney more since it has a nice zing to it. In this case, the cilantro sauce was quite flavourful where it actually had a pronounced chili pepper kick. I was not satisfied sharing samosa's and also ordered a Chili Gobi. This consisted of lightly battered and fried cauliflower tossed in a sweet chili sauce. Not too dissimilar to a Thai sweet chili, this one had more kick to it. The cauliflower was perfect - cooked all-the-way through while still crispy outside. Everyone at the table universally liked this appy and would gladly order it for themselves if they had the chance.

Milhouse was famished. So just like me, he got an appy all for himself. I was secretly hoping he would do so and also, I was routing for the Frankie. As if he had telepathic abilities, he did order it. Looking almost like a Taiwanese pancake roll, the Frankie consisted of egg, lamb curry and cucumber. It was accompanied by the same cilantro sauce and tamarind chutney (and a few fries). Now this particular item is one of the specialties and I wouldn't go as far as to rave about it; however, it was quite good nonetheless. I found the wrap to be soft and easy to eat while the lamb was tender and well spiced. With the appies out of the way, we all had our own entrees. To my horror, both Miss Y and Judes had the Butter Chicken. Duplicates! Anyways, the butter chicken was um... "different". It was rather sweet and didn't have any other distinguishing flavours. We felt more tomato paste was needed. There was, however, lots of tender white meat.

Now duplicates was bad enough. Try triplicates! To my utter shock Bear, Milhouse and Hot Chocolate all had the Lamb Palak. If Mijune was here, she would've put them in their place! This was really thick and in somewhat of a smaller portion compared to all the other dishes (even with the sauces taken into account). Despite this, it was full of tender pieces of lamb and was quite filling in the end. The flavours were quite muted which suited most people quite fine. Boss Woman mercifully had something different in the Railway Station Curry with lamb, tomatoes and cilantro. This was also a very mild offering which didn't mean it wasn't good. The flavours were just muted (which I'm sure tailored to the prevailing clientele). Other than the muted flavours, the lamb was plentiful and moist while there was plenty of tomato goodness.

For myself, I had the Punjabi Style Goat in light tomato & cilantro curry. Even though the ingredients seem similar to the Railway Station Curry, the flavours were much more prominent. There was a certain richness that highlighted the ingredients, particularly the tomato. Moreover, a certain level of spice made itself known without being offensive. Coupled with large pieces of moist, tender goat, this was probably the best dish at the table. Miss Y and Boss Woman kept returning to the sauce and ignoring their own dishes. A good sign. Now all of our meals included rice and Naan. The naan was was quite pale and doughy. They probably didn't have a tandoor on-site which would greatly hinder their abilities to pump out really good naan. With that being said, I've had decent naan cooked without the use of a tandoor as well. One side note is that we ran out of naan partway through our meal and we were offered more naan. We were never notified of the extra charge for the naan. To be fair, we would've been fine with the charge since it was negligible. It just would've been nice to know ahead of time. Despite all of our reservations about the muted flavours at Atithi, we still enjoyed our meal. In all fairness, a restaurant is only there to satisfy the majority of diners. Hence, our expectations were not unreasonable considering the location. It is nowhere near Main Street nor Surrey. With that taken in consideration, the meal as a whole was alright and reasonably-priced.

The Good:
- Reasonably-priced
- Service is quite friendly

The Bad:
- Some flavours are muted
- Naan needs some improvement

Spicy Legend

Seeing how the Canucks' Stanley Cup run went all the way to the very end, our softball games were postponed. The result? Almost every game from now until the end of the season will be double-headers. Great. That delays eating even more. And me being hungry during any game is not a good thing. Such was the case in our double-header on the first game back from nearly a 3-week hiatus. It started off okay - I was blocking errant throws and hitting the ball decently. Then, as my stomach began to grumble, that's where the wheels fell off. Once I had Arby's on my mind, I could not catch anything if my life depended on it. Silent Bob suddenly became vocal Bob. I don't blame him. I bobbled every throw he sent my way. I was so desperate for food, I snatched half of Chill's granola bar. Remember that Snicker's commercial with Betty White? That was me.

At the end of both games, everyone else was famished. Boss Woman thought that since it was not that warm, we should do hot pot. Sure, that sounded good to me, especially if it was all-you-can-eat. Rather going to Richmond for our Hot Pot, we decided to try out Spicy Legend on Kingsway. Located in the former location of Fantastic Restaurant, this is not your usual hot pot joint. Rather, it is Szechuan and it means business. As the name suggests, there is a choice of spicy broth with an option of how hot you want it. We originally though we could take medium; but the server warned us that if might blow our socks off. Hence, we went for mild instead. While waiting for everyone to arrive, we took turns heading off to the washroom. The consensus was that these were some of the worst washrooms we've seen in awhile. They were absolutely filthy. Furthermore, the back door was open throughout our meal. A clear health-code violation.

Now, when the split broth arrived, the spicy side looked ominous. With what looked like scotch bonnet peppers floating on top of a chili oil slick that looked thick enough to fry something, we were concerned. No matter, Milhouse, Miss Y and I proceeded to cook things in the spicy broth. Now as we began to eat it, it was sure tasty. It was darn spicy too! You know when it is so spicy, your tongue begins to numb? Well, this was it. I personally like spicy and I didn't mind this; but it was really killing my tastebuds after awhile. And this was mild! Imagine how spicy it was when we dumped the Spicy Beef and Fish into the broth? Yes, doubly-spicy. The beef was your typical marinated and tenderized slices while the fish appeared to be Basa. Both were very moist and very spicy. We liked this very much.

When we marked off the items off the order sheet, the server told us they would bring out portions that would be sufficient for all of us. We were a bit hesitant since most hot pot places bring out very little and we have to keep ordering over and over again. Not here. The plates of meat were huge. As evidenced in the picture, the Beef was stacked high on the plate and was relatively flat. The significance of that is there is very little space in between slices; hence, there is more meat. Some places have curled up frozen slices which look impressive on a plate. In actuality, there is very little meat. The meat here was pretty good, it had a nice colour and when cooked up was tender. Much of the same with the Lamb. A generous amount of slightly fatty slices were equally tender after a quick dunk into the boiling broth.

With many of our various items, they amalgamated it into one large plate consisting of shrimp, pork kidney, duck gizzards, intestine, tripe, fish meatballs and cuttlefish meatballs. Naturally, the shrimp were the previously frozen variety while the offal was pretty standard. However, we were dismayed at the frozen fish meatballs. Most places now have freshly-made meatballs (albeit from frozen ingredients). Hence, they were pretty generic and stiff. In a colander, we had the spinach, fried bean curd, vermicelli, mushrooms, dumplings and frozen tofu. Of note here, the dumplings were actually quite good. The skin was slightly hard (even after a long boil); but the filling was both flavourful and meaty in texture without being gritty. The fried bean curd stick was not very good though. It was very hard and dry. Despite boiling the heck of it, it remained very chewy. The Fried Meatballs sounded good on paper; however, I personally didn't like them much. Don't let the dense appearance fool you. They were actually very loose inside and I found the texture to be very weird, almost mousse like. I didn't feel like I was eating a meatball.

Lastly, the Oysters were pretty much your plastic tub variety. They were fine and of a decent size as well. Well, I would definitely say that Spicy Legend is one of the few places that puts hot into hot pot. For me, I was able to stand it; but I can definitely see some people not liking the spice at all. With that being said, they can order a non-spicy broth. Yet, that defeats the purpose of eating here. In terms of the food, it was okay. I would say there are much better places to do Hot Pot in the GVRD for the same price. The one thing that did bother me was the lack of cleanliness and that is already taking into account that this is an Asian establishment.

The Good:
- If you like it spicy...
- Meats are plentiful and good

The Bad:
- If you don't like it spicy...
- Selection lags behind other AYCE hot pot joints
- Clean it is not

Britannia Sushi

Due to the many kid's birthday parties that fell on Sundays, I have missed a month's worth of hockey. Worse yet, I missed 4 eating opportunities too! Determined to reverse this trend, I ignored the fact it was Father's Day and not only played hockey, I was determined to eat afterwards. JuJu declared in the locker room that eating was not in the cards since he had Father's Day plans. Pffft... Where's the eating dedication??? No matter, Milhouse had finally come out for the Sunday morning session of hockey and I knew he was up for eats after. Upon hearing this, JuJu was hurt. He felt like yesterday's trash, thrown out just like that. I must admit it. He's no good to me if he ain't eating. The plain hard cold facts! See if he wants to eat out with me ever again!

After we were done, Kaiser Soze pipes up that he only had about 1 hour to eat. Wow, that's not much time if we had to factor in driving. Hence, we went somewhere close by to the rink which turned out to be Britannia Sushi. I know, I know... This is another one of those non-Japanese run mediocre sushi joints. Trust me, I am fully aware of that. Just call this a "convenience" influenced eating destination. Despite the plethora of combo options, I opted to order a la carte. I started with a small order of Salmon and Tun Sashimi. The slices of fish were very thick and actually not too bad. I would say they were middle of the road. I actually thought the salmon was rather sweet. The tuna was a bit too cold; but I'm nitpicking. Being somewhat different, the Ebi Salad Dragon Roll was not what we see typically in a "dragon roll". Instead of the centre being either a California Roll or Dynamite Roll, it consisted of chopped ebi and masago mixed with mayo. The familiar unagi topped the outside of the roll. Although the whole thing was essentially one texture, which was mushy, I didn't mind the flavours. It was predominant sweet; but it was at least different than any other Dragon Roll I've ever had. The rice on the other hand lacked bite and flavour.

For my "main" I had a Teriyaki Chicken & Tempura Don. Yah, I wasn't exactly inspired today, I just wanted to get full. I found the tempura to be coated with far too much batter. It was too crunchy and the ebi got kinda lost in there. The teriyaki chicken was overcooked and dry. Event the large amount of sauce couldn't save it. At the very least, I didn't find the sauce too sweet. Surprisingly, the rice was actually very good. It was chewy with loads of bite. For some reason or another, the Bento Box that Milhouse got escaped my attention. You see, it had practically everything that I had ordered for half the price in one box. Well, the sushi was different; but it was close enough. He pretty much echoed my experience especially with the dry teriyaki chicken. Kaiser Soze had a combo which included Teriyaki Chicken, Sushi and Udon. I guess third time was the charm as he reiterated the dry chicken. I guess they were consistent on this one, consistently bad. In his opinion, he thought the teriyaki sauce was too salty. The same could be said about the broth for the udon. The noodles were fine; but the broth killed it. Well, I guess this is really another mediocre sushi joint. Boy there are a lot of these around Vancouver. At the very least, the place has renovated (which is a good thing according to how dirty it was before) and the prices are good.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Lots of combo choices

The Bad:
- Food is "meh"

Dinner @ Spicy Court

*Restaurant is now closed*

Although I've been to Spicy Court countless times, I've only blogged about their Dim Sum. They do have a very good Dim Sum service with a diverse menu which includes some items not found at other places. I'm no stranger to their dinner menu; but it has been awhile since I've been back. Initially, my parents were wanting to head over to Victoria Seafood Restaurant for dinner. That plan was kiboshed due to weddings booked on every weekend in the foreseeable future. For me, I don't understand why they like that place so much. It is indeed solid; yet there are so many better choices out there. I suggested we try a different restaurant and for once, they listened! And that's how we ended up at Spicy Court. As we were deciding what to eat, I noticed that the next table was having Peking Duck. I think my mom noticed too as she suggested we order it. We wanted the 3-course Peking Duck at first; but one of the managers said that it was unavailable. That's fair. After all, there was a wedding that took up 1/3rd of the restaurant. I was sure the kitchen must've been stretched to the max.

So without the option of the duck bone soup, we went for the Daily Soup instead (which was the pork bone, watercress and snakefish). The soup was pretty good with plenty of flavour from the slow and long boil. I particularly liked that it didn't rely too heavy on salt to season the soup. Since it is Spot Prawn season, we got some prepared by simple hot water blanching. For me personally, I like it done the other ways (such as soy wok-fried, tomato sauce or salt and peppers); yet, to get the true taste of the sweet prawn, the simpler the preparation, the better. These were huge and cooked perfectly. Now onto the first course of the Peking Duck. I found this attempt to be sub-par. Not only was there far too much fat underneath the skin, the skin itself was not even crispy in most sections. Rather, it was soft much like a regular BBQ Duck. That is not exactly the texture that makes a good Peking Duck. Furthermore, the accompanying crepes were doughy and unappealing. If one wanted good Peking Duck, they should head over to Red Star or Koon Bo instead.

Remember when I said that they informed us that the soup course was unavailable? Well, the table beside us apparently got the soup. That incensed my mom so much, she walked up to the manager and complained why we didn't get to order it. The manager gave us the reason that after that first order, no other duck soup orders would be taken. Again, fair enough. They were extremely busy. However, my mom then continued to say that they would be "written-up" by me. Yes, she pulled the "you know who he is?" routine. *Gasp*. That was ultra-embarrassing. Personally, I would never do that. Anyways, on a related note, my mom asked for the Lettuce Wrap to be made without green onions as she gets an upset stomach from them. The manager said that she cannot promise that. She went on about the kitchen being used to making a certain way and they may not be able to accommodate that request. Again, being quite familiar with a Chinese kitchen, I found that a fair remark as well. However, her next remark was just plain stupid. She told us that if it came out with green onions, we'd have to take it as is. WTF? Would any non-Asian restaurant do such a thing? Geez, only in a Chinese restaurant...

I guess we were fortunate though since the Duck Lettuce Wrap arrived without green onions. This was very good. Lots of duck meat and the veggies were all still crunchy. It was only moderately seasoned which was fine because of the accompanying hoisin sauce. Oh and about that hoisin sauce, they actually provided more than enough. I hate it when restaurants supply only a small sauce plate of it for the whole table. The one thing that bugged me though was the hack job done on the lettuce. I could barely make a decent wrap since everything fell out. To satisfy our requisite veggie quotient, we got the Stir-fried Pea Shoots with Garlic. This had the makings of a very solid dish. It had high-quality pea shoots and was properly cooked being soft while still exhibiting a slight crunch. Also, there was little to no water at the bottom of the plate. Lastly, there was plenty of garlic and seasoning. The problem? It was super greasy. After eating one small portion, my lips were no longer chapped.

Seeing how we love their Szechuan Beef Noodle during Dim Sum, we ordered the Szechuan Beef & Tendon Hot Pot. And as expected, it was very familiar. The beef shank was pretty moist with a few dry pieces while the tendons were soft; but not falling apart either. There was a considerable kick to this dish and we should've had some plain rice to go with it. We didn't get plain rice due to our order of Fook Chow Fried Rice. I'm sure the name of the rice may raise a few eyebrows. Rest assured, it is not what you think... Rather, it is a fried rice base with an oyster sauce-based topping with carrots, shiitake, chicken, gailan stems, conpoy and duck meat. This one wasn't bad, if not too wet. The sauce was seasoned just enough to provide flavour. Lastly, we had the Peking Pork Chops for no other reason for another plate of meat. The meat was tenderized properly where the it had a bounce-like texture. I thought the sauce was a bit weak without any discernible hits of tang or savouriness. It was slightly sweet and mostly bland. Overall, the meal was decent, if not a bit hit and miss within each dish. I will give them a mulligan since they were probably busy with the wedding. Normally, the food here is quite solid. However, just like the past few times, service could and should be better for this class of restaurant.

The Good:
- Based on past visits, the food is generally good across the board
- Portions are relatively good

The Bad:
- Service is not up to par for this class of restaurant
- Seating is a bit tight even for a decently-sized dining room