Doolin's Irish Pub

A pub? Yah I know. Sure, there are great gastropubs around. However, with most pubs, the main draw here are barley sandwiches, not necessarily anything else. The "anything else" is merely an accompaniment. Hence, it generally isn't very good. When one is inebriated, everyone looks good and all food tastes good. Consequently, certain indiscretions often occur. Regretful hookups and equally regretful eats. Both can potentially have hazardous effects in more ways than one... Well, I guess I wasn't expecting much while sharing some drinks with Snake Eyes. And honestly, we weren't there for the food either. I am amazed that the pictures turned out the way they did. I don't really recall taking them! Luckily, I jotted down some notes...

So what does one order with a pint? Well, wings of course! In particular, the Salt & Pepper Wings. These were actually quite good being somewhat moist and really meaty. If you look at the picture, it is quite obvious that these wings were not skinny. And as the name suggests, the wings were salty and peppery with a touch of sweetness from the batter which caramelized when fried. Looking over the pub menu, the only other item that interested me was the Pulled Pork Poutine. This had some really nice components such as the fresh cut fries, cheese curds and tender pulled pork. However, the whole thing got too wet (and not by the sauce either). Therefore, the fries were soggy and bland; rather than flavourful from the sauce. At the very least, it was an above-average attempt for a somewhat creative dish.

Lastly, we had the culinary pinnacle of food in the Chicken Strips and Fries. Okay, I realize that this dish is as exciting as ordering a green salad. However, I must again give it to them because the chicken strips did not look or taste like a Sysco nor GFS supplied product. The light panko breading was crisp while the chicken was tender and moist. Again, the fresh cut fries did the job. Okay, enough said. It's a pub for heaven's sake. Enjoy the spirits and at the very least, the food is decent enough to go with it.

The Good:
- Nice atmosphere
- Decent snacks

The Bad:
- Don't expect a gastronomical journey

The Shanghai Kitchen

*Restaurant is now closed*

Wow, the softball season is already coming to an end. I guess it has something to do with the crappy weather we've had up until recently. Most of our games in May and June were either rained out or there was a Canucks game. Therefore, we never actually played much ball up until July. And now where we have just played our last 2 games! Oh no! No more eating out on Monday nights! Anyways, we ended up winning both of our games to finish the season 12 - 2 and good enough for the top seed in our group leading into the year-end tourney. For our final Monday meal, we decided to try out The Shanghai Kitchen. Okay, another Shanghainese restaurant in the GVRD, what's so special about that? Well, how about it being located in Kerrisdale, right next to the Avenue Grill? You see, these types of restaurants usually reside in Richmond or East Van. It is rare to find on the West side of Vancouver, let alone deep in the heart of Kerrisdale. The only other Shanghainese restaurant on the Westside (other than Downtown) is Lin. There are several reasons why there is a lack of these type of restaurants on the Westside. Much like my argument with Connie's Cook House, operating costs is probably the biggest thing. One could bring up the notion of demographics; but I personally believe it is not as important as it was before since Vancouverites are exposed to so much Asian cuisine anyways.

After the double-header, everyone was pretty much famished and didn't care what we ordered, so they gave me carte blanche to do whatever I wanted. Sweet! So the first item to arrive was the Pang Pang Shredded Chicken with rice noodles, cucumber and peanut dressing. The first thing that I noticed about this dish was the particularly dry chicken. Upon further inspection, the chicken was the same one found in the fried chicken dish. Hence, the chicken had an oily feel and taste to it (normally, the chicken found in this type of dish is either poached or steamed). The peanut dressing was alright flavourwise; but it was far too thick. The best part was the perfectly al dente rice noodles underneath. Up next was the Marinated Tofu which was pretty good. The texture was chewy and bouncy while still being soft and moist. It was a little lacking in the flavour department; but it was a decent dish nonetheless.

Okay, here we go. The hallmark of any
Shanghainese restaurant is the Xiao Long Bao. Unfortunately, these were not what I was hoping for. One would expect a restaurant such as The Shanghai Kitchen to produce freshly-made XLBs that would be at the very least decent compared to the other usual suspects in town. Not only were they not comparable, I would not hesitate to say that these were unappealing. First of all, the wrapper was thick and gummy. Even by looking at the picture, that is quite obvious. Secondly, there was very little soup inside. Third, the soup and the meat filling were very bland with not much distinguishable flavours. Fourth, the meat was on the grittier side. In conclusion, these XLB were not very good. Continuing on the dumpling theme, we had the Shrimp and Pork Sui Mai (which resemble the ones from Din Tai Fung, but are actually Sui Mai rather than XLB with shrimp on top). Unlike the XLBs, I actually liked the sui mai. The meat had a good bounce-like texture and the addition of greens really helped lighten up the dumpling as well as providing different textures. Furthermore, unlike the XLB again, there was a meaty flavour with a touch of sweetness.

As for another dumpling - the Potstickers - they were also quite decent. They were large and there was a good amount of soup inside (for a potsticker that is). The wrapper was not too thick and it was browned nicely on the bottom. I felt there was a balanced mix of veggies and meat which kept the filling non-heavy. However, it still suffered somewhat the same problem as the XLB being slightly bland. On the topic of bland, the Handmade Noodles in soup were very much so. The broth was very mild where we couldn't really figure out what type of broth it was. However, it didn't bother me that much since I don't really like overly salty soups anyways. Yet, the biggest issue was with the noodles, they were far from al dente.

Now, on the other hand, the Fried Rice Cake with Pork was perfectly al dente. In fact, the texture was what we all look for in this dish. The slices of rice cake were chewy while still soft at the same time. Unlike some of the other dishes, this one was somewhat closer to being seasoned properly. Although the caramelization of the dark soy wasn't intense, it was still apparent and that was enough to bring the dish together. I liked how the veggies were still crisp as well. When the Green Onion Pancake arrived, I was slightly dismayed that it was the deep-fried type rather than pan-fried version. Although I don't mind it being deep-fried, I prefer the chewier, slightly crispy one more. With that said, this one wasn't bad. It certainly was very crispy and it was slightly dense inside. Otherwise, it was alright.

As for the savoury items, the last one we had was the Pan-Fried Pork & Eggs with Crepes (or by its better known cousin - Moo Shu Pork). This was actually pretty good with a large amount of filling which was cooked perfectly. It wasn't soggy and had a good amount of wok hay (caramelization). The crepes were probably the best part since they were soft, chewy and not dried out (even down to the last one). Now normally, our meal would end right here. But with Bear at the table, it meant only one thing - dessert! He would make Mijune proud... For our first dessert, Boss Woman wanted Coconut Pudding. Okay, lemme first state that this is not a Shanghainese specialty so I will give cut them some slack. Apart from using Mickey Mouse molds, the pudding was too sweet and lacking in the coconut flavour department. It had okay texture though and again, I wouldn't expect great coconut pudding here anyways.

Now for our next dessert, we got the Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Dumpling in sweet soup. Well, the soup was definitely sweet with copious amounts of rock sugar. The egg was a nice touch though, brings back memories of my childhood. As for the dumpling itself, I'm not sure if these were made in-house or frozen; but they were good. The glutinous rice exterior was soft while still holding together (except for some leaks). So this was a very sweet (literally) end to a wildly inconsistent meal. If I had to assess the food as a whole, it really would have a hard time comparing to the best Shanghainese food we have in town. To us, it definitely reminded us of "home-cooking" rather than restaurant quality. With that in mind, I still can't get over the XLB and how unappealing they were. Personally, I'd drive over to Lin or even to Richmond for my Shanghainese food fix. Despite the reasonable prices considering the location, the food doesn't stand up to what we can get here in the GVRD.

The Good:
- Reasonably priced for its location and decor
- We got good service (an achievement in any Chinese restaurant)
- Clean and modern decor

The Bad:
- Xiao Long Bao are disappointing
- Food on average is highly hit and miss

Ensemble

*Restaurant is now closed*

I guess it was inevitable. We finally have our very own Top Chef champion opening up shop in town. Well, to be clear, it was Top Chef Canada and Dale MacKay had already opened up shop prior to officially winning Top Chef Canada. Now this is where a strange dynamic occurs. Suddenly, the food is almost secondary to who is preparing it. Sure, a restaurant should generally have good food in theory; however, when you have a well-known chef, that can be the meal ticket in itself. I mean, look at Hawksworth. I certainly enjoyed my meal there; but honestly, I had to try the place out because it's David Hawksworth! So does that mean I need to go have The Burger at Cactus Club again since it is Rob Feenie's creation??? On that note, prior to being on Top Chef Canada, Dale MacKay's claim to fame was heading the kitchen at Lumiere (Rob Feenie's former stomping ground). I had the good fortune of enjoying the Grand Tasting Menu there prior to its closure (and db Bistro as well). In some sense, I already knew that Dale MacKay had immense talent. Sometimes, those with so much talent tend to over-analyze and/or over-think things. That seemed like the case with Dale on Top Chef
Canada. Doesn't matter tough. He won and with a full house on a Saturday night, it seemed the restaurant was winning too.

Since it was so busy, our table was not ready when we arrived. Seeing how we had to wait, they served us a complimentary appetizer in the Flat Bread with bacon and onion. Immediately, it brought back memories of the one we had at db Bistro. Coincidence? And much like last time, it was thin, crispy and mild-tasting. There was definitely the saltiness of the bacon and sweetness from the onions; it just wasn't very impactful. Nitpicking aside, it was fine and well, it was free. Elaine did a bit of researching on the Internet and concluded there were 2 things we had to try. One of them being the Sweet & Sour Eggplant. The plate was presented with 8 pieces of eggplant atop baba ghanoush and topped with cucumber yogurt, tomato and a fried eggplant chip. I found the eggplant to be cooked beautifully where it was soft while not crossing over to mushville. It was sweet with a light tang.

Her second choice also happened to be Dineout Girl's selection as well. So we ended up with 2 orders of the Black Cod with Thai Broth (which was featured on Top Chef). Good thing we got more than one because it was very modest in portion size. The picture that you see was the second order which was bigger than the first. The first one only had one piece of cod, albeit bigger than each of the 2 smaller pieces in the second plate. The cod itself was cooked perfectly being moist, flaky and buttery. The broth popped with flavour, possibly a bit on the salty side though (heavy on the fish sauce). Despite this, it was fragrant and had just the right amount of coriander. The few drops of chili oil didn't have a huge impact; yet at the same time, that was a good thing since it can be overwhelming especially with the cod. Another dish we had 2 of was the Pulled Pork Sandwich with apple-horseradish slaw, salted watermelon with mint and fried pickle. Yet again, this item was featured on Top Chef (and won too). Well, what can I say? This was a solid pulled pork sandwich. The meat was moist and had the just right amount of BBQ sauce which was smoky and sweet. The coleslaw was pretty good, it had a nice crunch with an apple tang and a slight kick. The bun was soft and held up to the wet ingredients.

Continuing on with more watermelon, we had the Tomato & Watermelon Salad with watercress, onion, chives, mascarpone and vanilla balsamic dressing. We rather liked this rendition of a watermelon salad. It was creamy and sweet with a hint of saltiness and tang. The salad was light and refreshing while exhibiting an herby
bitterness. A lot of different flavours going on in what some might consider a simple item. Moving along, Costanza ordered something that had the same deja vu feeling as the flat bread. The Foie Gras Mousse was exactly the same one I had at Lumiere. Not a stretch really, I mean, it was one of Dale's best dishes. So offering it here at Ensemble was only logical. The whipped foie gras was served with celery root, apricot, hazelnut, a touch of balsamic reduction and brioche waffle. The result was a very light foie gras dish with had a good balance of flavours. Viv opted for the Vancouver Island Mussels in a curry broth with cilantro. We found the mussels to be rather small; but the broth was quite tasty. It was fragrant with big hits of curry and much like the black cod broth, it was on the saltier side. The accompanying fries were crisp and potatoey.

The item that stuck out on the menu for me was the Five Spice Pork Belly with smoked miataki, pear puree, pickled carrots & daikon and cashews. The pork belly was prepared beautifully where it melted in my mouth. There was a range of flavours: the buttery-nuttiness of the cashews, sweetness of the pear puree, subtle Earthiness of the mushrooms and tang from the pickled veggies. The pork belly was slightly lost with all of the ingredients on the plate; but in the end, I still enjoyed it, so no harm, no foul. From one plate with plenty of flavours to another that was very mild which was the Roasted Lamb Loin accompanied by radish, shiitake puree, bulgur wheat and black garlic jus. The lamb itself was cooked perfectly. It was both visually and texturally appealing. However, everything on the plate had a "muted" existence. Don't get me wrong, this was a pleasant plate of food and in no way, shape or form was it bad. We just thought it needed a little "something" to make the flavours pop.

The next dish was once again quite familiar and somewhat polarizing. The Cornmeal Crusted Scallops with corn succotash, mushrooms, sea beans and chicken & scallop jus reminded me of the one I had at Lumiere. Seems to be a trend here eh? Well, I don't blame them, why not go with what has been successful? Now to the polarizing part - Costanza wasn't really down with the corn succotash and others were slightly indifferent. For me and Elaine, it was delicious and went well with the perfectly seared scallops. It was sweet and full of pop from the "snap" of the corn niblets. I found that the jus didn't have enough salt to balance out the sweetness of the other components of the dish; yet that really wasn't a huge issue since it was ultimately tasty.

A dish that Costanza did want to try was the Beef Shin and Fritz. I couldn't hide my excitement over that choice since I really wanted someone to order it. When it arrived, I wasn't really expecting it to be shaped like a puck; but when flaked apart, the meat was like "pulled beef" which had some pepper notes and plenty of meaty depth. I particularly liked the crisp edges of the meat. Next, we had the Poached and Crispy Chicken with chicken veloute, morels and fava beans. For me, I consider chicken to be the perfect blank canvas for creative flavours. Where this dish fell flat was the flavour profile. It was far too mild and showed restraint. The veloute was smooth and rich; yet at the same time, having no impact. The morels compensated for this somewhat; but as Costanza remarked, "I've had much more flavourful morels than these ones". We did, however, like the crispy chicken. It was moist and tender on the inside while crispy on the outside. As for the poached chicken, it was super moist and tender.

For our last savoury item, we had the Herb Risotto with tarragon, chervil and chive. Despite its interesting serving vessel, the risotto was uniformly liked by everyone at our table. It was creamy, well-balanced and had good flavour, particularly from the herbs (and not relying on salt). I found the risotto just a minuscule past al dente; but that is nitpicking. Onto dessert, we shared three starting with the Precious Pavolova. Viv and I thought this was a nice whimsical shot at the judges on Top Chef Canada. We remembered this deconstructed pavlova where it was criticized for being too precious (much like many of Dale's other creations on Top Chef Canada). This particular pavlova came with cherries marinated in basil and balsamic along with candied ginger and more basil. For me, this was a pleasant, if not "okay" dessert. Nothing really made it memorable for me; however, the addition of basil did make it at the very least different.

Another dessert, that actually did quite well on Top Chef Canada, was the Souffle. The Souffle of the Day was a Pineapple Souffle with pineapple carpaccio and sorbet with toasted coconut. The souffle looked impressive and didn't collapse despite my photo-taking delay. It was eggy, light and not too sweet. The pineapple and sorbet added more pop to the dessert and overall, it was pretty good. Lastly, we had the Chocolate Fondant with Hazelnut-Nougatine Ice Cream. This was my favourite of the three desserts. The cake was warm, decadent and rich. It was not overly sweet while definitely chocolaty (dark). The accompanying ice cream was good with the nougatine providing a nice crunch. This was a good end to a relatively decent meal. Did it "wow" us? No, it didn't. But it was far better than what I expected. Now that is a bit strange since one would expect a lot from the winner of Top Chef Canada. However, that would be both unrealistic and unfair. We felt that the overall execution of the food was pretty good considering it was a full house and we had ordered a large percentage of the menu. In terms of flavour, there are some tweaks needed in some of the dishes. One important thing to note about the food is that the portions are very modest. If one wanted to be satisfied, I would say that 2 - 3 dishes per person is necessary (not including dessert). Depending on which ones you choose, it can quickly add up.

The Good:
- Generally well-executed proteins
- Service we got was pretty good

The Bad:
- Can get pricey depending on what you order
- Depending on what you expect from Ensemble, the atmosphere is quite loud

Toyama

All-you-can-eat Sushi. Aiya. I knew we were asking for it. More often than not, this type of Japanese cuisine (if you can even call it that) is an exercise in disappointment. Just look at places such as Kawawa, Sui Sha Ya and Kisha Poppo. Definitely quantity over quality. To be fair, there are some acceptable places such as Ninkazu and Tomokazu. It was not our intention to go for AYCE sushi after Monday night softball. Our original plan was to try out Kingyo's latest venture - Suika. I did my due diligence and made sure it was open on Monday nights. Yet, as we pulled up to the place on Broadway, it was *gasp* closed! Turns out of all the Mondays, we had to pick the one they were closed for a "staff meeting". WTF? So as a backup plan, we headed to Toyama for their late night AYCE. Hey, how bad can it be? They do claim to be "Vancouver's best sushi" in all their ads on the Beat 94.5. If you are snickering right now, I don't blame you. When one hear such claims, it is almost an invitation for ridicule.

At the very least, everything started off fine as we got rock star parking right in front of the place along Seymour. To top it all off, it was free too! The restaurant is not very big and the seating is a bit tight. But that is to be expected with a Downtown location. As mentioned, we made it for their late night AYCE for $13.95. For $1.00 more per person, we could've have sashimi included (limit to 6 pcs per person). That is a pretty reasonable price tag for that addition. We didn't end up getting it and instead started with the Nigiri. With this, we could still get a taste of their raw fish. For once, the rice to fish ratio was good. Mind you, there was very little fish too. The slices were razor thin. If we could rate the different fish (salmon, tai and tuna) as one, the consensus was "okay". Nothing particularly wrong while nothing particularly memorable as well. The rice itself was on the drier side and a bit too vinegary.

We also got a variety of Maki Sushi including BC Roll, California Roll, Yam Tempura Roll, Unagi Roll, Tuna Roll and Oshinko. If we had to group them into one again, the best way to describe these rolls would be "typical Japanese fast food sushi". That is not a criticism per se; rather than an observation. Not horrible while not great either. It filled our tummies. Interestingly, there were several options for Motoyaki including oyster, fish and scallop. We went for the oyster and scallop; but they put it all on one plate. With everything looking the same, it was a guessing game as to what we would be eating. Now, the scallops and oysters were okay; however, as you can clearly see, the motoyaki was not really all that broiled. Thus, it was essentially a lukewarm mayo-concoction that was not all that appealing. On the topic of unappealing, the Gyozas were very inconsistent. As you can clearly see, they were all fried up in the same pan or flattop; yet each one had a different texture. These premade gyozas were actually alright with a decent pork & veggie filling. However, some had dumpling skin that was tougher than shoe leather which rendered them inedible. Then surprisingly, some were perfectly cooked.

Hands down, Beef Short Ribs are Bear's favourite food. So it is not a stretch for him to eat a whole serving by himself. Hence, we marked down 25 pieces on the checklist. What you see in the picture is how much we got. Rather than 25, we received 8. Um, how does 25 become 8??? Yes, I do realize that some AYCE joints do the same trick, namely Fish on Rice. C'mon. Honestly. Look at the gyoza. We ordered 10, we got 10. So obviously they can count. So what's the deal on the short ribs? If you don't want to give people what they asked for, why offer it? I mean, they have this "no wasting" policy already. What's the harm? I truly think that this tactic is unethical. Oh, and as for the short ribs, they were chewy and too salty. And for our second order, we wrote down 50 and got 16. So obviously, the count by 8's with the ribs. Must be some kinda foreign math.

Now here is where the thought of Kawawa slowly creeps into the meal. The Yam Fries were not like any yam fries we've ever had. These things were cut up into little slivers and then flash fried I would assume. But these came out more limp than someone who ran out of Viagra. Oil-logged and showing no cooking technique whatsoever, this was terrible. Oh it gets worse! The Croquettes were a complete surprise to us all. Normally, it is filled with potato or pumpkin or something like that, especially when they are fried up in the way they appear in the picture. What was really inside was some dense, sweet mochi. Okay, there is a mochi croquette out there; but it doesn't look like this. Then it only gets worse with beef jerky masquerading as Beef Teriyaki. The thinly-sliced meat was so overcooked and dry, it began taking on properties of Jimmy's Beef Jerky. Factor in the powerful sweet and salty sauce, it was actually more of a beef jerky than anything. Moving along to the Chicken Karaage, it didn't get much better. They were overfried which made the meat hard and a bit greasy tasting. The skin was no longer crispy; rather, it was dried out and was not pleasant to eat. At the very least, there was enough seasoning.

Okay, onto something that was actually quite good. The Tonkatsu was fried up perfectly crisp on the outside while still being moist and tender on the inside. There just enough sauce to flavour the pork chop without drowning it. We ordered this twice since it was pretty good. However, on our second order, we marked down 2 and ended up with the same amount as our first order, which was 1. It appears their abacus was broken. So 1 pork chop is equivalent to 2 pork chops... Sounds like the Government here with the HST. Anyways, another fried item that was half-decent was the Tempura. Consisting mainly of yam and sweet potato, there was this one piece of squash? Not sure what it was. It just looked strange. Whatever, the batter was not too heavy and turned out crispy. Not much more to be said about it.

We had a few more things that were not really worth discussing. They were neither great or terrible. However, the last thing worth mentioning was the Unagi Rice. Milhouse and I both decided to get an order despite it violating the AYCE "maximum benefit" rules. You see, it is a bowl of rice and it fills you up while not being worth all that much. We took a gamble because the last few times we have ordered it in an AYCE setting, it was not too big and had a good rice-to-unagi ratio. When it arrived here, we were really sorry that we even tried. There was a full bowl of rice and a measly piece of unagi. Heck, there wasn't even enough sauce to flavour all of the rice. Serves us right though. We should've never have ordered it. To be fair, they didn't charge us for leaving half of the bowl of rice untouched. If they had, we would've been very P.O.'d. That pretty much summed up everyone's sentiment about the food here. For a place that boasts in their ads that they serve some of Vancouver's best sushi, it cannot be more further from the truth. Again, to be fair, the food is not inedible. But compared to even the local hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant, the food we had was sub-par. Sure, it was in an AYCE format, which could be the reason why it was not that great. Maybe their a la carte is better. Maybe someone can confirm or deny this. All we can say is to avoid the AYCE. There is much better to be had in the GVRD.

The Good:
- AYCE price is reasonable considering its Downtown location
- Heard the service is poor here, not sure why, we got good service

The Bad:
- The food we had in general was pretty poor
- Apparently the kitchen can only count if they feel like it (such as a cheaper item)