Victory Seafood Restaurant

*Note - Change in kitchen staff may make this post outdated*

As much as I give Richmond a hard time, it is never about the food. There are so many options for Chinese cuisine, it almost seems like you're in another country (much like the driving). However, with an Asian population that is nearly at 50%, the number of good Chinese restaurants in Burnaby is surprisingly few. If we only count the larger Chinese restaurants, they only include: Fortune House, Top Gun, Grand Dynasty and the "customers are dirt" Po King. Now we can add another to the mix in Victory Seafood Restaurant located in Crystal Mall. Occupying what was once Victory Travel, the restaurant is large lengthwise and with little in the way of obstructions, is perfect for wedding banquets. My parents had their eye on this place for awhile since it had been under construction. Little did we know that our random dinner would be on their opening day. With that in mind, we had realistic expectations and were willing to cut them some slack since a restaurant is never at full-operation until at least a month later.

With that in mind, we were quite forgiving of the haphazard service. They were trying their best and were profusely apologizing for any mistakes. On a side note, that is refreshing for a Chinese restaurant. It seems that some places do not care about their customers and almost feel it is a privilege to eat at their establishment (such as Po King). My personal feeling on this is as the older generation is displaced by the newer generation of Chinese patrons, these type of "good value, bad service" Chinese restaurants will need to either buck up or risk losing a large portion of their customers. I digress. So, the whole family made it to dinner tonight at Victory and upon entering the place, we were graced with a dining space that was both spacious and classy (complete with table linens and cloth napkins). We decided to go for their set meal for 4 and added an extra dish for good measure. The first item was the Appetizer Plate consisting of jellied pork hock, jellyfish and sliced braised beef shank. I found the sliced pork hock to be good in both texture and flavour. The jellyfish was slightly on the chewier side while still having a nice snap. It was properly marinated with enough soy, white pepper and sesame oil. The beef shank had a nice gelatinous quality to it; yet it was slightly on the sweeter side.

Since it was their first dinner service, the expedition of dishes was slightly out-of-whack and the Chinese-Style Beef Tenderloin showed up next. Despite the name, it is rare that actual beef tenderloin is used. Rather, it is usually top sirloin marinated until it is tender. This was almost a perfect balance between tender and still maintaining a beef texture. It was cooked medium-rare and the sauce was tangy with a hint of Worcestershire. The Fish Maw & Crab Meat soup arrived next and was easily divided into 6 bowls (so if you actually had 4 people, you'd get 2 extra bowls). Although the soup was slightly thin, it was seasoned nicely. There appeared to be some depth while not being salty or overly sweet. There was a good amount of fish maw and crab as well. On the topic of crab, the Crab with Fried Rice arrived next. Normally, the crab is prepared with green onion and ginger in starch-thickened consomme; but we omitted the green onions. Despite this, the sauce was still very flavourful and had the right consistency. The crab was meaty and fresh while the star of the plate had to be the fried rice. It exhibited plenty of wok heat both in flavour and texture. Loved the abundance of egg in it too.

The strangest item of the dinner had to be the Stir-Fried Sea Cucumber, Celery and Wood Ear Mushroom. The individual components of the dish were fine with the sea cucumber being soft while still intact, the celery being crisp and the wood ear mushrooms being crunchy. However, they used hoisin sauce as the main flavouring agent and for me, that really didn't go. It was too sweet. A simple oyster-based glaze would've sufficed, especially with a delicate product such as sea cucumber. Our last dish was the Black Bean Spareribs served in a pumpkin squash. This was an interesting dish which probably needs a bit of tweaking. The squash could've used a bit more cooking and the spareribs could've used a tad less baking soda. Otherwise, it was fine in terms of flavour.

As part of the meal, we got dessert which was the Lychee, Dates and Almond Sweet Soup. Normally, I am as happy to see a Chinese sweet soup as I am happy about a prostate exam. You see, most places put so much sugar into these soups that it is practically impossible to eat it. Not this one. I found the soup to be only semi-sweet while still exhibiting depth. They used only a conservative amount of pian tong or Chinese brown sugar. Lastly, for the kiddies, they gave us Mango Pudding. It was the typical gelatin-thickened mango-like tasting pudding; but with slightly more mango flavour. My daughter liked it. And really, we liked our meal as a whole too, especially considering it was their first dinner service. Even without cutting them some slack, it was better than average. We also really appreciated the staff and management there since they seemed genuinely interested in pleasing each and every customer.

Click here for Dim Sum Post

The Good:
- Excellent service
- Above-average food
- Spacious and nicely decorated interior

The Bad:
- It ain't cheap
- It's located in Crystal Mall which means parking lot from hell

Rockford Wok|Bar|Grill

My feelings about chain restaurants are pretty clear. Not exactly my first choice when it comes to eating out. Hey, I'm not trying to put them all in the same boat. After all, some are not bad and I would put up little resistance if asked to dine there. However, with the prevailing prices, one can easily eat anywhere but. Mind you, there comes a time when the chain restaurant is necessary and serves a purpose. When I was entrusted with picking a place for a party of 14 with kids (and Chinese and Japanese restaurants were not an option), I ended up suggesting Rockford. Honestly, I didn't have much knowledge about the place. All I knew is that it had taken over the location once occupied by Moxie's on Broadway at Burrard. Now I really should've known better when the place promotes itself as a fusion restaurant offering Asian-inspired dishes wok-fried on their 100,000 BTU wok stations. Okay, being Asian myself, I probably do not belong to their target clientele. However, in a city filled with wonderful Asian cuisine, one must expect some decent fusion eats right? Well, we were about to find out...

Now, the experience didn't start off well when I tried making a reservation over the phone. I was put on hold for nearly 10 minutes before I hung up. I finally did get to make a reservation taking up a long table out on the patio. One really good thing about the place is the validated underground parking. As many might know, the parking in the area is both scarce and expensive. Our server was really nice and did a good job attending to us throughout our meal. Now as for the food... Well, that's another story. Hey, it started off relatively well with the Wok-Seared Chili Squid with garlic, jalapeños and spicy sambal. I found the squid to be tender with still a bit of chew. It was crispy; but they seemed to use too much batter which made the squid itself slightly dense. Nothing wrong with the flavours though, there was a good mix of savoury, spicy and sweet.

For my main, I had the Grilled Peanut Chicken which was a double breast marinated with garlic, coconut milk, chilies, soy and crushed peanuts, served with pineapple salsa, peanut sauce and seasonal vegetables. The chicken itself was prepared perfectly with a beautiful charred exterior while completely moist inside. The peanut sauce was a tad weak and slightly watery while the salsa did offer up good flavour from the pineapple. The veggies were vibrant and crisp as well. As for the rice, it was plain disgusting. Honestly, for a place that promotes Asian-influences regarding their menu, not being able to cook rice is unacceptable. The rice was pure mush and was obviously cooked with far too much water. In fact, the middle was a solid clump that resembled paper mâché paste. The same rice plagued Viv's Red Curry Prawn Rice Bowl as well. Consisting of bell peppers, baby bok choy, Japanese eggplant, zucchini, onions, carrots, sui choy and bean sprouts in a mildly spiced red curry-coconut cream, describing it as mild was a complete understatement. As mentioned, the rice was mushy and dense which does not bold well for further moisture dumped on top. The result was even more mushier rice. Furthermore, there was not enough curry to flavour all of the rice and when there was curry, it was bordering on bland. We didn't get much fragrance, aromatics or spice at all. The bowl did look pretty though and the prawns had a nice texture.

Elaine and Costanza ordered a bunch of items starting with the Rock Salt Chili Prawns. Now these were quite good. The prawns were still cold-water crunchy on the inside while the shell was fried nicely where it could be eaten whole. Lots of flavour emanating from the salt and chili spice. As a second appy, they went for the Shrimp Gyoza served with hot mustard, sesame-soy and hot chili sauce. These were alright with a decent dumpling skin which was stil chewy and stayed intact. The dipping sauces were fine except for the mustard. It didn't seem to go with the gyozas. For the kiddies, they got the Ramen Noodle Bowl with housemade miso-dashi broth, ground pork, fresh corn, edamame beans, steamed spinach and nori. One sip of the broth and ???. There wasn't any flavour... For a miso-dashi broth, there was a noticeable absence of salt. Furthermore, the noodles were really overcooked and became mushy. Normally, Costanza's kid is pretty game to eat anything. Not this time, he refused to eat the ramen. Just in case, they also ordered the Fried Rice tossed with egg, snap peas, carrots and sui choy cabbage, drizzled with Indonesian sweet soy. Okay, are they serious? With 100,000 BTUs at their disposal, we ended up with fried
rice that was not only soggy and moist, most of the rice was broken. I recently made fried rice on my stove top and it had more "wok hay" than this. Fail. Seriously... Anyways, Elaine ended up with the Lemon Chicken (and I secretly snickered inside...). Described on the menu as battered chicken in a tangy lemon sauce with peppers, snap peas and onions over jasmine rice, one would expect plenty of flavour. Once again, the bland evil villain struck again. The lemon sauce was far from tangy and lacked sweetness too. It probably had something to do with the crappy rice again. It's hard to flavour rice that has the consistency of Play Dough. The chicken was a little dry; yet acceptable while the veggies were really overcooked. Costanza decided to go safe and ordered the Rockford Burger with cheese. He was pretty excited after reading the description: our burgers are char grilled and served on our signature golden-top bun with house sauce, lettuce, tomato, onions and pickled cucumbers. However, it was once again bait and switch. It sounded great; but in reality, the bun was dry and the burger patty was too. Not much in the way of flavour and essentially "meh". The highlight of this dish was the excellent side salad - enuff said.

Sexy Nurse went for the Black Pepper Beef with snap peas, carrots, onions, braised tomatoes
in a spicy black pepper sauce and tossed with shanghai noodles. This was actually properly seasoned with plenty of black pepper. I tried the sauce and it was probably one of the most flavourful compared to the other dishes we tried. The noodles were not overcooked and once again, the veggies were crisp. Yet there was one big problem - the beef was really gritty and overcooked. It was hard to chew and really messed up the dish. Marshmallow opted for the Pan-Roasted Salmon braised in a light broth
with baby red potatoes, shredded fennel slaw, grape tomatoes, spinach and basil. The salmon was overcooked and ended up to be rather dry. It was also quite bland seemingly not seasoned. However, the "light" broth was quite salty which did provide flavour for the salmon. Then again, it was hard to combine the broth with the salmon so there would be a uniformed taste. Postman ended up with the Peppercorn Sirloin dredged in fresh cracked black pepper and topped with a sundried tomato-green peppercorn sauce. Chatting with him about the dish, I'm surprised he didn't go "postal". The steak was overcooked and dry while the peppercorn sauce was anything but. It was not really all that flavourful with no kick, no salt, no nothing. The consistency of the sauce was not appealing either. He didn't like the mashed potatoes either because it was too creamy lacking any potatoness. Yet, once again, the veggies were crisp though.

Okay, this question needs to be asked: WTF??? We do realize that this is not an Asian restaurant so we were ready to cut it some slack; but seriously... A large restaurant chain such as this should be able to cook rice! Furthermore, did they not go through a testing stage to check if their food had any flavour? We've had much better meals at the Wok Box and Noodle Box. And for those who think I'm merely whining again, please check with the other 7 adults at the table. None were really happy with their meals. Sure, the food looks nice, as with the decor and the staff. Ultimately, whether it be a Asian-inspired menu or not, the food just doesn't cut it.

The Good:
- Excellent service
- Validated parking
- Nice decor

The Bad:
- They can't make rice properly
- Most dishes lacked flavour

Peckinpah

BBQ. Yes, we do have that in Vancouver; but it's far and few in between. In fact, it really shouldn't even be put into one category. It's the same as saying there is one type of Indian or Chinese food. However, it is a reality. The problem is that most people are familiar with "BBQ" from chain restaurants such as Montana's and Tony Roma's. As much as I don't mind it personally, there are those purists who would be offended by the parboiled then grilled meat slathered in sauce. So a place like Peckinpah might be misunderstood since it specializes in Carolina BBQ. This type of BBQ is smoked with a dry rub with sauce served table side. With that being said, I'll admit it right now - this is not my personal preferred form of BBQ (as much as it is authentic). This brings up another important point: if something tastes good for one person, is it important if it is authentic?

With that in mind, we headed over to Peckinpah after softball. This was planned all along because Judes missed out on our last BBQ foray and Hot Chocolate loves her smoked meats. We only had one thing on our mind and was the Everything Platter. Milhouse, Chill and Boss Woman completed our the party of carnivores. I must apologize for my crappy photos because we sat outside and it was getting dark. I resorted to using my prime lens which doesn't zoom and from where I was sitting, the depth of field was not exactly proper - no matter what settings I used. Okay, enough of the technical jargon. The Everything Platter consists of 3 plates starting with the pork plate. We found the Jalapeno
Sausage to be the highlight of this plate. They were very meaty, juicy and full of flavour. There was just the right amount of spice which gave a kick but did not mask the meat taste. The Pulled Pork was sufficiently moist and when combined with the vinegary BBQ sauce, it was pretty good. The Back Ribs were predictably dry; yet not overly so. There was a nice smokiness to them.

Moving onto the beef plate, the Brisket was plentiful and meaty. Again, it was on the dry side which was totally expected. Despite this, I was not really fond of it since it was a bit tough to chew. It was smoky and the bark was tasty; but with the meat so dry, it cancels everything out. The Chopped Beef was very similar to
the pulled pork except texturally being slightly chewier. Unfortunately, the Beef Short Rib was severely dry and in fact, half of the meat was inedible. It seemed like the whole rib was bark with no meat. This was a complete disappointment. For our sides, the star was the Hush Puppies with bourbon mustard dip. My goodness, these rocked. They were crisp and warm inside; yet the dip stole the show. We could've drank a cup of this sweet bourbon mustardy goodness. It was so good, we even dipped the Cornbread into it. As for the cornbread, it tasted okay; but again, the dry theme takes over again.

The Coleslaw was fresh tasting and crisp. Would've liked a bit more tang though. The Baked Beans were pretty standard and we didn't mind them. They were mostly sweet. We did like the Collard Greens though, it was prepared the classic way with onions and bacon. Okay, as a collective, we were not really all that down with the BBQ here at Peckinpah. Don't get me wrong, there were some highlights, like the sausage and pulled pork as well as the hush puppies. But the inedible short rib and brisket really put a bad taste in our mouths, literally.

The Good:
- Hush puppies with bourbon dipping sauce
- Nice vibe and location

The Bad:
- Yes, we know it is supposed to be dry; but if you can't even eat it...
- Pricey

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