29th Ave Cafe

*Restaurant is now closed*

Generally, Vancouverites have been exposed to many different types of Asian cuisines - some over-represented and some under-represented or even non-existent. By now, the Hong Kong-style cafe is not the mystery it once was. Well, to most people that is. For those who need the info, a Hong Kong-style cafe is a restaurant that serves up a Chinese interpretations of various types of cuisines such as pasta prepared with a ketchup base or a white sauce that usually involves milk and corn starch. How about the traditional 2 egg breakfast served with a side of Spam or hot dog wiener? Alas, we can't forget about the Portuguese chicken or baked fried pork chop rice. Yes, the food sounds weird and the ingredients even weirder; but people love it. Now, there is a Japanese version of sorts to this type of cafe. It also includes their interpretation of Western food with a combination of Japanese comfort foods. There are several places that do serve this type of food, namely Hi-Genki, Vanya, Tenhachi and Kimura. However, there was one place on Denman that served only this type of food. Unfortunately, Yoshoku-Ya closed its doors recently after many years of being at that location. Now, the owners have set up shop at the former location of James Street Cafe on Boundary at 29th Ave. Simply named 29th Ave Cafe, they are serving up the same favourites from before.

After 3 games of softball for our tournament, we were pretty tired and somewhat hungry. Well, most people were hungry; but for me, I had just finished a large corned beef sandwich from Kaplan's not too long ago. Oh, and I had a matzo ball soup too... Well, that didn't prevent us from heading over to the newly opened 29th Ave cafe for some Japanese comfort food. Bear, our resident Japanese food expert, reminded us to save room for purin, in this case the Japanese version of creme caramel. Now, the menu is simple; yet there is a little of everything for everyone. For myself, I had the Chicken Saute with Mushroom Sauce. For the price, it was a fairly good portion with a perfectly cooked chicken breast. And when I say perfectly cooked, I mean juicy, moist and tender. That is easier said than done, especially with such a thick piece of meat. The sauce was silky and flavourful with a hint of wine. I could barely spot the chicken at first because there was so many mushrooms on top. I had to get a side of rice to eat this so I could soak up every little drop of the delicious sauce. Bear asked me if I wanted to share an order of Chicken Cream Korokke and there was no
doubt I would oblige. I'm glad I did since the korokke was very good. Very crisp outside (not oily either) and filled with a pleasantly creamy inside full of chicken and onions. For his main, Bear had the Hamburg Steak or their version of the Salisbury steak with tonkatsu sauce on top. The meat was extremely moist and juicy. This is due to steaming it first before pan-frying. The meat itself had lots of flavour and a touch of onion. However, the tonkatsu sauce was a little weak. Of course the accompanying veggies were coated with an obscene amount of butter (which is a good thing!).

Boss Woman went for the Pork Cutlet Curry Rice, which should have been called: A Lot of Curry with some rice and a pork chop. Anyways, typical of Japanese curry, this one was sweet with only the mildest hint of spice. The pork chop was meaty and fried beautifully. It was moist and tender. Judes went for the Pork Cutlet (Tonkatsu) and much like Boss Woman's pork cutlet, it was thick, juicy and crisp on the outside. With a bottle of Tonkatsu sauce on the table, I merely doused my piece of meat. Finally, Milhouse had the Pork Tenderloin Cutlet, which was similar to Judes' order except it was a different cut of meat. And much of the same, it was equally moist and crispy. At this point, I was not really in the mood for more food since I'd already ate essentially 2 dinners within 3 hours apart of each other. But Bear insisted I try the Custard Pudding (or Purin or Creme Caramel or whatever you want to call it). For $3.00, this was a friggin' steal. Not because it was merely cheap either. This was so good; it could rival or surpass many "fine dining" establishments in terms of execution. No joke! There was no air bubbles within the silky smooth custard. It was only semi-sweet and the best thing of all was the rich, smoky caramel - so tasty. In fact, all of the food was yummy and well-priced. Despite the lack of staff, our glasses were always full of water and we never felt neglected. Sure, the place isn't much to look at; however, if it's Japanese comfort food you're looking for, this is the place to be.

The Good:
- Reasonable prices
- Wonderfully executed dishes
- Super friendly owners

The Bad:
- The place is not much to look at
- If the place gets busy, service might possibly suffer

Ramen Jinya

Another ramen joint? On Robson no less? Alright, I know this is getting a bit repetitive and honestly, how many ramen restaurants do we need anyways? Apparently as many as Vancouver can support... The newest kid on the block is Ramen Jinya. They hail all the way from L.A. and boast to be one of the top-10 things to eat in 2010. Now with anything that brings that form of hype to the table, there are some lofty expectations. After all, we do have good ramen nearby in the form of Santouka, Kintaro and Motomochi. Some other decent spots include Benkei, Menya and Sanpachi.

Located in the former Ezogiku, the hope is that Jinya will do ramen justice since the previous place did not. The source of this food adventure was thanks to Vandelay who scouted out the place earlier (since he works nearby). So it was only natural to meet up with him for some hot soup noodles on a warm summer day. Once we sat down, Vandelay was all ready to order. Was he hungry? Well yes and no. Actually he was anxious to get one of the 20 bowls of the Fatty Tonkotsu Ramen. There are only a limited amount of this one per day. When it arrived, it looked like a cross between Kintaro and Santouka. The creamy rich broth had elements which came near to Santouka; yet fell a bit short. It was silky and gelatinous with fatty bits reminiscent of Kintaro. Again, it was not as fatty as Kintaro. One thing we did appreciate was that the broth was not as salty such as Sanpachi (probably a little less or no MSG). The fatty chashu was not worthy of chopsticks. It was so soft, it could barely be classified as meat. Might as well call it the the thing formerly known as pork. Very good, very fatty and tasty. As for the noodles, they were al dente while not seeming substantial. Too thin? Loved the spinach, it added colour and some form of nutrition to the bowl of fatty goodness. Same for the fried shallots - good flavour and texture.

For myself, I got the regular Tonkotsu Ramen and the broth was noticeably less cloudy which would indicate less fat. It was still silky and pretty rich. Despite this, I'd still stick with Santouka. Viv went for the Miso Ramen and there was no denying the miso flavour. Once again, it was rich and silky (or was that fatty?). Whatever the case, it was good. Yet again, Viv repeated the what we all thought, Santouka is better. One item didn't need any debate though. The Chashu Don was not very good. We found the pork to be chewy and dry while there wasn't anything flavouring the rice other than the dry pork. The rice was chewy and prepared properly, too bad it was not accented. Rice aside, the ramen was more than respectable. Possibly the portion size was a bit small for the premium prices (around $10.00) and they might want to consider doing an Ajitama egg rather than the hard-boiled variety. Good ramen, it's not Santouka good though.

The Good:
- Broth has depth, is silky and not overly salty
- Service is efficient and friendly

The Bad:
- Price-to-portion ratio a bit off
- Limited choices

Kingsway Deli

For those who live in Vancouver, it is easy to see that Kingsway is a mecca for Vietnamese food. There seems to be a Pho or Banh Mi joint on almost every block in between Main and Nanaimo. Call it whatever you want, the Banh Mi Highway, Street of Banh Mi, The AutoBanh or The Phoway, it all comes down to one thing - choice. Yes, we as diners have an incredible amount of choice when it comes to Vietnamese food. Hence, on my way home from the hairdresser, I decided to grab some Banh Mi. So I drove up Kingsway in search of a place I've never tried before. As I was passing by one of my favs, Tung Hing, something caught my attention. Hey! A brand-new spanking place opened up right next to Tung Hing! Wow. That is brave indeed. Competing head-to-head. Either paying homage to the street or they really had no creativity in their store name, the place is simply named Kingsway Deli. Despite being located right next to Tung Hing, Kingsway Deli does offer more than Banh Mi. They have hot meals to go a la Kent's Kitchen. But I really wasn't there for anything else.

I decided to do a variety starting with the Cold Cut. The crusty bread seemed familiar to me and I suspect it is supplied by Empress Bakery. If this is truly the case, then that is a good thing since I think they make the best baguette. They also supply Kim Chau with a custom long narrow baguette. With familiar bread and familiar ingredients such as the Vietnamese ham, pork, pate, pickled daikon & carrots, cucumber, hot pepper, cilantro, butter-mayo and Maggi, this resembled the one from Ba Le of yesteryear (before they started making their own bread and lessened their ingredients). I would've liked the daikon and carrots to be more "pickled". They were noticeable in texture only. I also gave their Meatball sub a try. With a predominant onion taste, the meatball was not bad. The meat was a bit gritty in parts, possibly because it was pretty lean. Again, the daikon and carrots didn't provide the necessary zing to liven up the sandwich.

Moving along, the next sub was the Pork Belly. This one, as you can see in the picture, had a good amount of pork belly and Vietnamese ham. The pork belly was prepared properly where it didn't require much chewing. Furthermore, it had enough seasoning. This was a sinful sandwich. The last sub and probably the worst was the Satay Beef. The positive was the large amount of beef. The negative was that the beef resembled jerky. It was so overcooked, chewy and salty that it was a bit difficult to eat. It required quite a bit of gnawing. So, let's just put this place on the long list of Banh Mi joints along Kingsway. The best in my opinion is still Kim Chau with Tung Hing close behind. Kingsway Deli ranks somewhere in the middle.

The Good:
- Large selection of Banh Mi
- Good amount of filling
- Crusty bread

The Bad:
- Pickles need more pickling
- Some meats are gritty or overcooked

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