Rio Brazilian Steakhouse

I'm not afraid to admit it - I love meat.  In fact, I consider myself a meatatarian.  So when Samba closed its doors due to a building makeover, it made me sad.  Okay, I know there are those who couldn't stand the place.  I can't deny that on a bad day, Samba plain sucked.  Overcooked and salty meats...  who likes that?  And at a hefty pricetag of close to $40.00 a person, I can definitely see people steering clear of the joint.  Yet, on a good day (when the meats are fresh out-of-the-grill), one would experience juicy, flavourful, medium-rare cuts of meat. For that, I always went when it just opened for lunch and dinner and got all the meats on the first go-around.  Most times after that, the same cut (which was not fully consumed) would be placed back on the grill (which would lead to overcooking and saturation of flavours).  Okay, enough of my babbling...

So when Mijune suggested I join her and Cassandra at Rio Brazilian Steak House for some rodizio action (not what you think!), it didn't take me more than a millisecond to say yes.  In actuality, Cassandra was invited to try the place out and we just tagged along to help her with the copious amount of all-you-can-eat meat (again, it is not what you think!).  Before the meat-fest, we made our way to the Salad and Hot Food Bar.  What?  Salad???  Yah, I didn't really eat much of that.  It would only serve to fill the portion of my stomach reserved for meat. Wait, that's all my stomach!  I did sample their hot food though.  It consisted of 4 chaffing trays with Mussels and Shrimp, Meatloaf, Palm Oil Poached Cod, Seafood Risotto and Plain Rice. By virtue of sitting in a warming tray, the mussels and shrimp were overcooked and dry. The same could be said about the meatloaf.  I'm not sure if it was the intention or not, but there was little in the way of filler (such as egg and breadcrumbs).  Hence, it was mostly lean, dry meat which was both crumbly and hard.
On the other hand, I did enjoy the oil poached cod.  It was moist and flaky.  However, the seafood risotto did its best impression of wallpaper paste.  I give them kudos for trying to serve risotto, but I think it was ill-conceived since it was not going to get any better by sitting in a warming tray.

Already sitting at our table were some "appetizers" which included Fried Banana, Chips and Parmesan & Tapioca Biscuits. The best of the bunch was the fried banana as it was done nicely with a crunchy breading.  The fresh chips were somewhat soft and not all that crispy while the biscuits were quite salty. As with any Brazilian radizio, the requisite green/red cards were placed at each setting.  Green means keep bringing me meat and red implies "stop, I'm in a meat coma".  On that note, onto the meats (all 21 varieties in fact!).  We started with the Beef Ribs where our server sliced off a generous portion of the cap. The meat was fantastic.  It was moist, rich and super tender.  Mijune offered to share her rack, er..  I mean her portion since she wanted to save space for the rest of the meats.
 
After that, the meats came at us fast and furiously.  The Cubed Beef was dry and chewy, yet well-seasoned.  The Bacon-Wrapped Chicken was beyond well-seasoned being salty.  However, the chicken itself was moist while the bacon was crisp.  The house-made Sausages were grilled up nicely with a beautiful exterior.  Inside, the meat was moist, tender and quite greasy (hence being moist!).  The meat was well-seasoned with fennel and caraway seeds.  Although the Sirloin arrived a wonderful medium-rare, the meat itself was chewy and hard to eat.  Arriving on a wooden cutting board (much like the beef ribs), the Pork Side Ribs were were fatty and moist.  They appeared to be parboiled prior to BBQing which resulted in a tender, yet not-so-smoky flavour.  Once again, they were a bit too aggressive with the salt.
 
Smokiness was not a problem with our next item, which were the Smoked Sausages.  These were not made in-house and resembled a typical smokie.  Nothing particularly wrong with that though since there was a nice snap while the meat was fatty and moist.  Back to the chewy meats, we had the Pork.  By appearance alone, we already knew it would not be tender since it looked dry and overcooked.  And yes, it was salty as well.  Continuing the ride on the salty train, we had the Bacon-Wrapped Tenderloin.  It was tender as its namesake implied, yet it was cooked too long and salty due to both the seasoning and bacon.  On the other hand, the Chicken Drumsticks were not that salty and were quite tender.

From the beef ribs up to this point, there wasn't much to rave about until the Roast Pork majestically arrived.  The cracklings were on point.  They were crispy, airy and surprisingly light - really well-executed. The pork itself could've been more moist, but was not bad considering the previous meats.  Due to its size, the roast pork was not salty and in fact, exhibited a rich roasted flavour. And then we went back to salty, dry meats with the Buffalo.  Due to the natural leanness of the meat, we were expecting it to be somewhat chewy.  It didn't help matters that it was overcooked though.
Even the Chicken Hearts were overdone, but at the very least, they were still somewhat tender due to its inherent texture.  However, the Lamb was practically rare.  It was a fatty cut where combined with the doneness of the meat, it was not tender at all.  At least it wasn't too salty since it wasn't overcooked.  Yet, the Parmesan Pork was super salty due to seasoning and the cheese.  And since pork needs to be cooked all-the-way-through, it was dry.

As if on cue, the Roast Boar arrived to give us an intermission of sorts from the dry, chewy meats.  The meat was moist and fork tender exhibiting a roasted essence.  Okay, intermission over, onto the Picanha Tips (or tri-tip) which were *sigh* dry and chewy.  Yes, salty too. *sigh* And the Skirt Steak, overcooked and salty (am I a skipping CD or something?).  Flank Steak, chewy - yes, salty - yes...  Unidentified piece of meat - I'll let you have one guess...  If you said dry, chewy and salty, it proves you've been reading this whole article...  Going in a different direction, we had some Salmon instead of red meat.  As evidenced in the picture, it was cooked too fast and at too high of heat which lead to the protein "leaking" from the flesh.  Not a huge deal because it *is* BBQ after all.  The meat was a bit dry, but not horrible either.

Moving onto the sweets portion of the meal, we tried the "Grilled" Pineapple dusted with cinnamon.  I put grilled in quotations because nothing about the pineapple screamed out grilled.  The explanation we got was that customers didn't like charred pineapple and the cinnamon was there to add colour.  Um okay...  Alright, now a real dessert...  The Papaya Smoothie was really refreshing and our favourite dessert of the meal.  The "custard" was smooth and only semi-sweet.  I normally do not like papaya, but I liked this.  Next up was the Pudim de Leite Condensado or the Brazilian version of Creme Caramel.  I noticed some air bubbles which meant it was cooked at too high of a heat, yet at the same time, I didn't mind it.  The custard was rich and smooth and only somewhat sweet. Lastly, we had a Brazilian Chocolate Mousse type cake.  It was not really chocolaty enough for our tastes and it was pretty sweet.

Okay.  To put it bluntly, the majority of the meats we had were poor quality, dry, chewy and salty.  Even though there were some gems, such as the beef ribs, pork ribs, roast pork and boar, they couldn't make up for the the rest of the meats.  I give them kudos in trying to bring Brazilian rodizio back to Vancouver.  I also applaud them for offering up a mind-boggling 21 choices of meats.  Furthermore, their pricing at $15.95 for lunch (add $1.00 for weekends) and $29.95 (add $2.00 for weekends) can be considered reasonable for the amount of food offered.  However, they really must focus on the quality of the food rather than merely quantity.  They could easily eliminate half of the meats and people would not even notice.  Lastly, they need to ease up on the salt.

*Note: This was an invited dinner where all food was comped*

The Good:
- Lots of meats
- Reasonable pricing considering everything
- Comfortable dining space

The Bad:
- Majority of the meats are poor quality and chewy
- Overuse of salt

Nha Trang Vietnamese

After our first Sunday morning hockey game of the season, we briefly considered visiting Nha Trang on Broadway. We ended up passing and headed to Pho Quyen instead. It was an interesting choice considering both restaurants do not look that inviting from the outside. You have Pho Quyen with its tinted windows which made it appear closed and then Nah Trang's frontage is so cluttered that it looks more like a disorganized produce store than a Vietnamese restaurant. Despite this, I remained intrigued. So I made my way out there the following week. Upon entering the place, it was quite obvious that they kept the Greek decor of the previous restaurant. Hey, it's about the food, not the decor in a Vietnamese restaurant right?

I ended up ordering the Bun Bo Hue since someone else already got the Pho Dac Biet. Despite the lack of pork knuckle, the Bo Bun Hue was passable. It wasn't that spicy and did exhibit some fragrance. There could've been more lai fun noodle, but there was enough meat (which was tender). As a side, I got a House Special Banh Mi which was toasted up nicely where the bread was crunchy while airy inside. There was a decent amount of meats. The pickled veggies were a little weak, yet were still crunchy. The meal would not be complete without an order of Pho Dac Biet right? Well, if Miss Y was here, I guess we wouldn't even order Pho. She'd probably ask for a Moussaka or something... Considering the leftover decor of the former restaurant, I would probably not be surprised if someone tried to order that... So the Pho was actually not bad. The broth wasn't exactly super flavourful, but it was pretty typical and exhibited a sweeter taste. We couldn't really pick out the individual flavours as it was on the lighter side. The noodles were slightly clumpy while the meats were tender an moist. The portion size was neither big nor small.

With trying to cover all the basics, we also got an order of the Lemongrass Chicken & Pork Chop on rice. The chicken was moist and tender with a mild char on the outside. There was definitely a lemongrass hit. The same could besaid about the pork chop as well, yet it was not as moist as the chicken. This was quite a large plate of food consider the amount of rice as well (which was chewy and well made). In general, Nha Trang did the job with little fanfare. In a sea of Vietnamese restaurants in Vancouver, it merely slots in the middle somewhere. Okay if you were in the neighbourhood, but not some place you'd need to specifically drive to either.

The Good:
- Food is passable
- Prices are not bad (like most Vietnamese joints)
- Service was decent

The Bad:
- A bit messy inside and outside (if that matters to you)
- Pho broth a bit weak

Hukuya

Back in the day (and I mean really back in the day), I would frequent Red Robin. Hey, despite what you think, their burgers are actually not bad. Furthermore, their fries with a side of tartar sauce really rocked. In addition to the Metrotown location, we'd hit up the Lougheed Mall spot every now and then (since we went to SFU). Each time we went, there was this Japanese restaurant right next to it that I didn't pay much attention to. In fact, even more recent visits to Red Robin (it's for the kids I swear!) have yielded as much attention to that Japanese restaurant as a handicap sign in a Richmond parking lot. Vaguely, I think Viv has actually tried the place out on her own and it wasn't very memorable. Then that begs the question: why was I wanting to try the place out anyways? Well, one was due to location because Rich Guy was in the neighbourhood and the second was plain curiosity. Let's just hope it doesn't kill the cat.

We started with Tuna & Salmon Sashimi which was not bad. The slices were large with the salmon having a buttery consistency with some resistance. The tuna was not mushy while still being soft. It was pretty fresh as much as frozen fish can get. Next up was the Appetizer Tempura which were in big pieces served in a cool basket. They were crispy and not oily. The batter was thin and each item was not overcooked. This was not bad. We got a couple of specialty rolls with the Volcano arriving first. It was large and presented on a long narrow plate. It consisted of a dynamite roll inside (imitation crab and ebi tempura) with tuna on top. The spicy sweet sauce had a good hit of srirracha. The sushi rice was on the gummier side, yet did have okay flavour with some sweetness and rice wine vinegar.

As a filler of sorts, we got the Katsu Don which was not very good. There was far too much in the way of wet ingredients such as onions and veggies. This made the rice mushy and soggy. In fact, there were more ingredients than rice (may seem like a great idea, but in the end, did not work). The fried pork cutlet was super thin and the batter merely slid off, not being crispy at all. The sauce (there was too much of it) was predominantly sweet and only further made the rice more soggy. Lastly, we go our second specialty roll in the Baked Scallop. There was a mess of small scallops on top of the roll. And when I say mess, I mean literally. This was probably one of the few times where I will say there was too much scallop. Yes, it was a good value, but the considerable amount of scallops (which were a touch fishy) only served to degrade the eating enjoyment.

In the end, we were pretty full since we had ordered quite a bit of food for 2 people. At the same time, we were feeling "meh" about the eats. Nothing particularly inedible, but nothing was memorable. The food could be classified as serviceable for a decent price. The Korean lady that served us was very friendly and accommodating. I would say Hukuya fits into the group of the many Japanese (non-Japanese run, just FYI) restaurants that are acceptable in the GVRD.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Good portions
- Nice people

The Bad:
- Food is average

Pho TEN

At one point in time, there was little to no eating options along Steveston near Highway 99. I remember playing hockey at Richmond Ice and the only places we could hit up were Boston Pizza (*shudder*) or the bar upstairs. Now with the development of Ironwood, there have been more options added over the years. I have to say most of them have been less than impressive. Well, the fact that some of them are just standard chain restaurants didn't help too (Kesley's didn't survive here). So when I was reading up on where to eat around the area, I was drawn to Pho TEN. So many great reviews. I just had to see for myself.

And yes, I did go by myself, trying out 2 dishes and 2 more on a subsequent visit. The first visit, I had the Pho Dac Biet. The broth was light in flavour and colour. Although it was lacking depth, the broth was balanced though with equal amount of sweetness and savouriness. Yet, there was very little in the way of meat flavour nor the usual ingredients that go into the soup. There was a decent amount of noodles, which were not exactly chewy nor soggy. The meats were sliced thin and very tender. A decent, if not average, bowl of Pho. The Lemongrass Chicken Banh Mi was nicely plated and carefully constructed. There were chopped pieces of chicken combined with pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, cilantro, a thin slice of pepper, black pepper and mayonaisse. The bun could've stood to be toasted a bit more, but it was not bad. The chicken was pretty flavourful with a good char on most pieces. It was slightly dry though. The amount of mayo was excessive where I got good gobs of it in several bites. Of note, it was actual mayo, not butter mayo usually found in a banh mi.

On a second visit, I started with the Salad Roll. This was a pretty basic roll consisting of shrimp, vermicelli, pork and sprouts. It was wrapped neatly where it wasn't too tight or loose. The rice wrapper had a nice chewy texture which was still moist. The dip had a good balance of hoisin and peanut sauce. One thing I would've liked to see was some basil in the roll itself. For my main, I went for the Lemongrass Chicken & Spring Roll on broken rice. The large piece of chicken was cooked perfectly where it was moist and juicy. I particularly liked that the fatty chicken skin was removed. I am personally not a big fan of unrendered chicken skin. I didn't get a whole lot of lemongrass flavour, yet the chicken was still tasty. I was slightly disappointed at the use of wheat wrappers for the spring rolls, but they were still decent nonetheless. The filling was flavourful and of the right consistency (not mushy nor chewy). So you know the expression, "it's all relative"? Well, that would be the case here that Pho TEn is relatively better than the other dining options in the area. I've had better Vietnamese (more authentic too), yet Pho TEN is more than acceptable for what and where it is.

The Good:
- Good service
- Clean and tidy
- Okay food

The Bad:
- Not the most authentic

L'Artista

It seems like whenever we meet up with Italian Stallion and Wolvie, we go for pasta. Is it due to some subconscious decision on my part? After all, Italian Stallion is well... Italian! Maybe he legitimizes the meal for some reason? Not sure, but once again, here we were eating Italian food. And much like other times, we were at a place (L'Artista) on Hastings in North Burnaby. Not a difficult thing to do since there are so many Italian eateries in the area. We were lucky to score a last minute reservation on a Saturday. They were fully booked and we had a 1.5 hour window to eat. We really had no problem with the time limit since we were warned in advance when making the reservation. We were just happy to get a table.

We started out with a plate of Antipasto which was pretty standard and did the job. It was a pretty decent portion though. For our first dish, we had the Gnocchi with meat sauce. We thought the texture of the gnocchi was a good compromise between being dense and soft. The sauce was very mild with only a light tomato tang. It could've used a touch more seasoning. It did have a nice consistency though as it clung onto each gnocchi. When the Risotto Alla Toscana was presented at our table, we looked at it in a bit of confusion. If someone told us it was a vegetable rice medley, we would've believed them. In fact, it was a good vegetable rice medley with more ingredients than arborio rice. There was plenty of flavour from the Italian sausage and cheese. However, this was not really a risotto in our minds. It was far too wet and brothy.

To spice things up, we went for the Spaghetti All'Arrabbiata prepared with tomato sauce, garlic, capers, chili peppers & anchovies. I've had this many times before except with penne rather than spaghetti. The pasta was perfectly al dente with lots of chew. The sauce was hearty and tart, yet not really all that spicy. I guess this would be due to our personal preference of having it spicier. Lastly, we had a meat dish being the Veal Pompei consisting of lightly breaded veal, topped with ham, fresh sliced tomatoes and mozzarella, then baked in the oven. I wasn't a huge fan of this dish. In general, the whole thing lacked flavour and since there was so much sauce, the breading became soggy and slid off the veal. The veal was moist though. The plate itself was a large portion and the flavours were non-offensive. I can envision this doing really well on an early bird special. If you know what I mean... So it wasn't terrible, just not overly exciting or impactful.

"Non-offensive" would be the best way to describe pretty much all the food. The gnocchi and spaghetti were pretty decent while the risotto and veal could be polarizing. You either would like it or not. Considering the portions sizes and the fact we were able to use the Entertainment card for this meal, it was acceptable. One thing to keep in mind is the food at L'Artista cannot be compared to more modern Italian eateries in town. So if it is judged on its own merits, it is an okay option along Hastings street.

The Good:
- Portion size is pretty good
- Service is friendly
- If you have the Entertainment Book, the price becomes pretty inexpensive

The Bad:
- Some of the flavours are muted
- Food is okay, but not really all that interesting either

Ali Shan

How I loathe thee Crystal Mall... For your circular parking lot with only one way in and out. For your pie shaped parking spots which only serve to confuse already confused drivers. For your narrow pathways leading to lower levels (with various scratch marks on the walls as evidence). I loathe thee enormously. However, you tempt me with your wares, in particular, good eats. Therefore, I can put up with the aforementioned challenges, including those who rush into the elevator before I can actually exit the darn thing. I can also put up with a door slammed in my face. And yes, I can even put up with the utter chaos in the marketplace (lineup anyone?).

Yes, on my quest to finally dine at all of the restaurants at Crystal Mall, it brought me to Ali Shan (incidentally located on the exterior of the mall on Willingdon). I had the option to park outside, but my Chineseness prevented me from putting coins into the meter. Therefore, I ran the gauntlet and parked in the circular lot. The things I do to save a buck... So with kiddies in tow, we weren't in the mood for any form of lineup. Naturally, there was one at Ali Shan which lasted about 30 minutes. Once seated, we quickly got down to ordering and started with the Chicken Nuggets. Originally, I had hoped that my daughter would nibble on some, but that was quickly quashed due to their spiciness. For me, I liked the spice and the hint of five spice powder as well. The nuggets were crisp and juicy in the middle.

Viv went for the Spicy Beef Wide Noodles, which as the name implies, had a good kick. The broth wasn't exactly meaty in flavour, yet it was plenty flavourful nonetheless. The wide noodles had a nice bite while the beef was tender albeit fatty. For myself, I went for another prototypical Taiwanese dish being the Chicken with Rice Noodle in Sesame Oil Hotpot. There was no mistaking the sesame oil in the broth. It was pretty strong while the broth was on the sweeter side, which I particularly liked. The thin noodles were on the softer side (which is pretty typical) while the good amount of chicken was tender and moist.

Lastly, we got a plate of the Seafood Fried Noodle, which was full of properly cooked seafood. The noodles were al dente and there was no absence of seasoning, yet the pool of water at the bottom was not appealing. What was even more unappealing was the long waits for service. The severs were clearly overextended and they did the best they could. However, they really must hire more people because it took forever for everything. Other than that, the food was both inexpensive and above-average. Moreover, my car suffered no dents while parked at Crystal Mall... Bonus!

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Decent eats

The Bad:
- Overextended staff, long waits for everything
- Not the most spacious of setups