Joey's Urban

*Restaurant is now closed*

The dreaded Groupon/Living Social trap got me again.  Drat!  Normally, I would actually do some research about a place before I give my hard-earned money away for a coupon that I might or might not end up using.  But I took a chance this time, partly because of the name - Joey's Urban.  Hey, I remember Joey's Only...  I used to get my fill of fish n' chips there. So there was not much of a risk right?  Oh how I would learn to regret that blind trust...  So I bought the darn thing and asked Big D to join me in the food adventure.  He was not up to the adventure at all...  His pained expression was the total opposite of a foodgasm.  Reading some reviews revealed that I may have messed up.  Oh no!  What have I done?  Who could I possibly convince to eat there with me?  Aha!  Viv!  LOL...

Rolling up to the place, I didn't expect it to be a counter-service restaurant, considering the prices.  Whatever, I had a coupon right?  We started with one each of the Ahi Tuna and Joey's Fish Tacos.  The tuna was cooked pretty nicely with a completely rare centre and only a slight sear on the outside, (which was dusted with plenty of seasoning).  However, the taco itself was not great.  First, the shell was dry and second, the shredded marble cheese did not go whatsoever with the tuna.  Maybe with beef, but not rare tuna.  The fish taco was afflicted with the same problem.  Lose the cheese for goodness sake. Too bad really because the fish was fried just right being flaky and moist with a crisp exterior (a bit greasy though).  Moving onto our next fried item, we had the Calamari.  It was a very modest portion for the price.  It was fried up crisp, but the squid itself was a bit too chewy.  Furthermore, it was pretty much oil-logged and the bland dip didn't help things.

Oh the fried fiesta didn't end there, we had the Cod and Chips next and yup, the piece of fish was greeeeasy.  At least it was crispy while the fish was moist and flaky.  The fresh-cut fries were not bad.  They were somewhat crisp.  The most disappointing part of the dish was the tartar sauce.  Honestly, it was more like Miracle Whip than tartar sauce.  They can do better than that... Last but not least, we had the Poutine.  The gravy itself wasn't bad being a decent thickness and not overly salty.  The cheesecurds were small little bits which were mostly melted.  Meh.  Pretty much sums out this food adventure.  I expected better.  This was not worth the prices they are charging.  Luckily I had a coupon...  or maybe not...

The Good:
- Proteins were cooked nicely
- Service was good

The Bad:
- Greasy
- Expensive
- Some things need to go back to the drawing board

Kim Phung

There I was.  All alone. With no one to eat with.  The horror, the horror...  No, my name is not Kurtz nor do I weigh 400lbs (well, not yet at least...).  Rather, I really had no one to eat with.  Never fear when Whipping Girl is near.  She wasn't really near, yet she did have a nasty flu which according to her, needed some Pho therapy.  Excellent. Better yet, she was hungry.  Hungry enough to "pull a Mijune" in her words.  Music to my ears.  So I picked her up and headed over to Kim Phung on Victoria.  After some fancy Vietnamese joints such as Broken Rice and Chopsticks on Pho, it was nice to visit a lil' dive where the prices did not elicit any sticker shock.

When Whipping Girl indicated she'd pull a Mijune, she wasn't kidding.  We ended up with 5 items starting with the Salad Rolls.  These were modest in size, especially for the price.  However, they were constructed tightly with crisp, fresh ingredients.  I liked how they didn't overload on the bean sprouts.  As a result there was a balance of ingredients consisting of shrimp, pork, vermicelli, sprouts, lettuce and basil within a nicely textured rice wrapper.  One thing that could've been better was the dip since it was predominantly hoisin.  Next up was the Grilled Chicken Banh Mi arriving hot and crunchy.  The bread was slightly on the denser side while retained a crunch due to the fact it was toasted.  The chicken was really good being tender, juicy and flavourful.  The pickled daikon and carrots did not have much impact since there was a lack of acidity.

Onto our 3 mains, we had the Pho Bo Vien (or pho with meatballs).  The broth was clean and on the lighter side with a noticeable meatiness.  It was not as sweet as some of the other broths I've had recently, but then again, I'm not a huge fan of sweet broths anyways  For a large, there could've been more rice noodles (although they were al dente and not clumpy). We also had the Bun Bo Hue which contained the prized pork knuckle in addition to the pork blood, beef and pork slices. The broth, much like the Pho, had a good amount of meat flavour.  Again, it was light and wasn't all that spicy.  There was nothing amiss with the noodles nor the meats.

Our last dish was the Vermicelli Bowl with spring rolls and grilled pork.  We were slightly disappointed at the use of wheat wrappers for the spring rolls, yet in the end, it didn't really matter.  They were crispy, light and not greasy.  The filling was not dense and had a sweet onion hit to it.  As for the meat, it was slightly dry, yet nicely caramelized and charred. All throughout our meal, the owners were very friendly and attentive.  We generally enjoyed our food, however, we did think it was on the pricier side.

The Good:
- Carefully prepared food
- Friendly owners

The Bad:
- Slightly pricey
- It's kinda divey, but then again, it's not that important

Calvin's Cafe & Catering

After driving all the way to Deep Cove for some donuts, we were hungry for more food.  Seeing how most of the restaurants in the area were either mediocre or expensive, we decided to head somewhere else.  Well, it was actually *I* who decided that...  Hey, I had the car keys!  We didn't venture very far though.  Just up the road on Mount Seymour Parkway is a little place called Calvin's Cafe & Catering. It's one of those places where if you weren't looking for it, you'd drive on by not knowing it ever existed.  Much like a stop sign in Richmond...

Well, I did end up driving by the place and had to resort to parking at the back lot rather than the front.  Not a huge deal since there is a rear entrance as well.  After we were seated, it took like an eternity for water and our order to be taken.  Don't get me wrong here, the server was very pleasant.  I think she was just over-extended.  However, we were perplexed by her response when my Yukon Gold Potato Soup with mint arrived.  It was not the large that I had ordered and she realized it.  But she proceeded to serve it to me anyways saying that she had brought me a small by mistake.  Um, couldn't she just turn around and put it in a large bowl and add more?  Oh well...  Turns out that she did me a favour because the soup was pretty bland.  It was slightly sweet with some savoury notes, but I did not taste any mint at all.



For something a bit different, I decided to try their Swiss Rosti which consisted of a hash of potatoes, bacon and Swiss cheese topped with 2 poached eggs and Hollandaise. As you can see, the eggs were perfectly runny, although the Hollandaise was rather
salty.  The eggs were a nice contrast to the crispy hashbrowns.  I liked this dish, but it was pretty small for the price. Now, about 25 minutes after we had ordered (and I was already eating), our server informed Viv that they were out of chili.  Um...  Wouldn't chili be pre-made and hence easy to figure out if it was all out?  Anyways, VIv went for the Smoked Meat Sandwich instead.  Not a particularly impressive sandwich considering the meat was the store-bought pre-sliced variety. It was also quite small.  My kids ended up with the Grilled Cheese with fries and it wasn't bad.  The fries were very crispy.  Honestly, I really wanted to like this place.  But in the end, the value wasn't there and neither was the service.

The Good:
- Quaint place, pleasant surroundings
- Some interesting items

The Bad:
- Confused service
- Pricey for what you get

Honey Doughnuts and Goodies

How far will I travel for a donut? Well, since I technically have driven all the way to Portland for Voodoo, I guess quite far. Not really sure what the fuss is all about with Voodoo anyways. Definitely a been there done that type of establishment. Novelty does have enormous power. So with the current rage of "gourmet" donuts in the city, I decided I needed to hit up a local favourite - in Deep Cove... Not as extreme as Portland, yet still not exactly close, I was on a mission to find out what the fuss was all about. Turns out there was quite a bit of fuss inside and outside.

To keep it simple, I got one each of the Honey Donut and Chocolate Glazed. Okay. Let me get to the point. I wasn't sure whether I was eating honey or grease. At first, I was enjoying the warm sweet donut until around my 3rd bite. It just seemed very oily. Setting it down on the paper bag for a bit confirmed it was indeed grease. My initial enjoyment was quickly quashed by the heaviness and richness of the donut. It's not that I disliked it. It was just a bit too much for me to handle in one sitting (and that was from one donut). In some sense, it makes Cartems seem light. As for the Chocolate Glazed, it was better as it wasn't soaked in anything. It was still heavy though and was quite sweet due to the glaze. My kids seemed to like it though. For Viv and I, we were not really sure if we'd drive out again for these donuts. They were fine for what they were albeit greasy. I guess it comes down to personal taste.

The Good:
- It's got that quaint location thing going on
- Fresh products

The Bad:
- Greasy
- Not the most welcoming place despite being touristy

Nong Chinese Restaurant (ChineseBites Dinner)

*Restaurant is now closed*

While trying to finish up all the Dim Sum I foolishly ordered while at Nong, I briefly thought of a dinner revisit.  Well, that didn't last long because everyone was complaining about all the food on the table.  And about that food, it was a combination of Cantonese Dim Sum, Szechuan and Shanghainese dishes.  We were wondering if one restaurant could be everything to everyone.  Generally, that would be a recipe for disaster.  Yet in the end, the food was acceptable albeit a bit pricey (reflection of the neighbourhood).  Ironically, an upcoming ChineseBites dinner happened to be at Nong, therefore, I would be able to satisfy my curiosity.  The fact it was hosted by ChineseBites didn't hurt either...

Once again, the usual crew of  Rick, Janice, Alvin, Grace, Sean, Dave and Kevin were there to create the spectacle otherwise known as "when food bloggers attack with their DSLRs".  Yes, every time we do one of these dinners, people gawk at the food nerds doing their thing...  So we started with an array of appies, which are typically plated together, yet were served on individual plates.  Starting from the top left and clockwise, we had the Vegetarian Goose, Five Spice Sliced Beef Shank, Chicken with Chili Sauce and Jellied Pork. The names of these dishes are not exactly as provided, but the last meal we had at Golden Ocean proved I just need to go with what I know than to rely on the supplied names. As for the food itself, I found the beef shank on the drier side, yet full of rich flavours such as 5-spice and sweetness.  The mock goose was fantastic with nicely texture bean curd skin and a plethora of properly prepared ingredients (such as the crunchy celery and plump shiitake mushrooms).  The jellied pork was a touch stiff and meaty.  However, it did have a nice sweetness to it.  The chili chicken lived up to its namesake providing a good punch as well as a peanutty hit.  The chicken itself was moist and the skin was bouncy. Onto the soup course, we had the Crab & Wintermelon Soup.  Although the soup had the right thickness, something about the texture was strange.  It felt almost a bit gritty as if they used arrowroot or something like that.  But it was actually the addition of wintermelon that threw me off.  Looking beyond that, the crab was fluffy while the egg was silky.  The soup itself was mildly seasoned and only slightly sweet.  After this, an interesting dish of sorts arrived - Lobster with Bittermelon and Shredded Pork.  Essentially it was a bittermelon stirfry interrupted by lobster.  Hey, nothing wrong with that considering I'm not a huge fan of bittermelon.  At the very least, there was lobster!  There was good flavour happening in the form of spice and saltiness.  The lobster meat was bouncy and naturally sweet while the bittermelon did its thing...

Have you ever had too much of a good thing?  Well, this is how we felt when the Dong Po Pork Hock showed up.  I think we've had this dish a few too many times lately.  Even with that in our minds, we still enjoyed this dish.  The skin was gelatinous and didn't feel fatty (even though it was all fat).  The sauce was fairly sweet while the meat was much more tender and rich tasting than its appearance.  With all that heaviness, we were relieved to see the Stir-Fried Shrimp with Vegetables.  Sure, it was more of a "regular" dish, but it served its purpose.  The prawns had a wonderful snap (although a touch overcooked) while the wood ear mushrooms were curiously soft.  The veggies were crisp while the seasoning was balanced.  Of course, the very next dish had to be heavy once again being the Braised Pork Belly with mui choy (preserved vegetable).  This is a classic dish which I ate lots of at home when I was younger.  Although this was pork belly, the meat was stringy.  On the other hand, the fat melted in our mouths.  The preserved vegetable added a nice amount of saltiness and some tang which made the sauce scream out foodgasmically - Need Rice!

Now on that note, what better dish to follow a foodgasm than the Spicy "Cumin" Lamb. Gosh I love cumin...  Ahem... I found the lamb to be moist and tender while some pieces were a bit chewy.  There was plenty of cumin as well as spice and sweetness.  I would've preferred less veggies in the dish though because it made the dish wet (bad choice of words, I know...).  From lamb, we went to the Tea Smoked Duck.  Although its name would suggest a lot of tea flavour, there wasn't.  In fact, the duck tasted more like the air dried variety albeit it more moist.  Now, if we looked at it as a duck dish and ignored the name, it was pretty good with crisp skin as well as moist and salty meat.  At this point we were bursting at the seems and of course we were presented with the Vegetable & Salty Pork Rice. I thought it was pretty good since the rice was chewy while not too dry.  Furthermore, the addition of cured pork added plenty of aromatics and flavour.  The crunch from the veggies didn't hurt either.

For our final dish, we had the Xiao Long Bao.  Huh?  Yah, kinda confusing, but welcomed nonetheless.  As mentioned in my Dim Sum post, these were pretty decent.  Sure, the skin could be thinner and yes, the soup could be more flavourful (although I like the hit of Shaoxing wine), but they were above average. And that pretty much sums up our dinner at Nong.  I thought as a whole, the food was above average.  Nothing really stood out, yet nothing was bad either.  Therefore, that would be considered a success.

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

The Good:
- Above average food
- Classy dining space
- Free parking

The Bad:
- Expensive
- Restaurant is below ground (lacks natural light)

Paros Taverna

Sometimes, it seems like most restaurants fall into the "okay" category.  You know, the food was fine, but not life-changing.  Yet, how many meals can we expect to live up to those lofty expectations?  Therefore, we have a very small handful of outstanding meals, a large number of decent meals and a small number of terrible ones. And honestly, those terrible meals are necessary so that we can set some sort of baseline as what is decent and what is not.  Well, Yianni's in New West had the honour of being that baseline for not-so-good Greek food. Not sure why they have such a high rating on Urbanspoon... Big D wanted to exorcise that particular meal and suggested one of his favourites - Paros in Burnaby.  Actually, it was in Coquitlam before they moved into the old Anducci's near Lougheed Mall.

Originally, Slick was supposed to join us, but he had a meeting of some sort.  Bah.  He doesn't have his priorities straight.  Meeting or food?  Duh.  But that didn't stop us from ordering enough food for 3 people!  We started with the Calamari Dinner which included the tentacles.  That made us happy campers because that is the best part.  The squid was only lightly dusted with batter which made it light and not too greasy.  On the other hand, it wasn't as crisp as we would've liked, yet the squid was far from chewy.  The tzatziki was on the lighter side.  It was not devoid of flavour though and exhibited a a good amount of dill. For me, I rarely pass up the opportunity to do some lamb (uh...  wait, that's not what I meant!).  Anyways, the Roast Lamb was somewhat stringy and chewy.  Not exactly what I was expecting...  On the other hand, it had a rich roasted flavour along with a nice hit of herbs.  The roasted potato was on the firmer side and was well-seasoned.  I didn't have any lemon kick, hence it was just a roast potato.  The rice was on the softer side and despite being a little different (it had a considerable amount of dill and tomatoes), it was okay.

After my Moussaka disaster the week before, I was pleased with the one I had here.  There was a good bechamel-to-meat ratio where the meat was moist and flavourful (with good hits of allspice and cinnamon) while the eggplant was tender while not mushy.  The bechamel sauce was of a good consistency where it was thick enough, yet not gummy nor chewy.  Lastly, we were presented with some Baklava on the house.  Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this dessert due to its sweetness.  And yes, this one was pretty sweet.  The layers of phyllo were soft and a touch chewy.  All-in-all, Paros did the job and was, at the very least, far better than Yianni's.  I was a bit disappointed with the lamb, yet everything else was more than acceptable.



The Good:
- Decent eats
- We got friendly service
- Comfy digs

The Bad:
- Curiously, the lamb was not tender
- On the pricier side

4th Anniversary Draw Winner

As promised, here is the winner of the draw...  Congrats to Joanna T who was randomly picked using Random Line Picker.  Yes, the picture is very small, just click on it too take a better look.  Thanks again for those who left such kind comments.  It really means a lot to me.  I promised to continue this blog as long as I am able.  So Joanna T, please email me directly at admin@shermansfoodadventures.com regarding your $50.00 prize! Oh and yes, there is a new post for today, just look one post down, it's Paros Taverna...

The Good:
- Joanna T. won

The Bad:
- You didn't... LOL...