Leela Thai

Okay, I know what you're thinking, Thai food in White Rock? Yes, Viv and I made the journey out to White Rock to meet Nikita and Bluebeard. They have have frequented quite a few Thai restaurants and rave about this place. They've been right about many restaurants in the past, so I was game for this adventure. Leela Thai, unlike many of the Thai restaurants in the GVRD, is run by actual Thai people. This might be one of the reasons why it is so popular out in the White Rock/Surrey area. Nikita made a reservation for the buffet, since it is apparently quite popular. Every year, Leela Thai celebrates Songkran, which is the traditional Thai new year, by offering a buffet for 5 days (normally they do not have a buffet). This year, it is from April 14 - 19th.

Upon arriving at Leela Thai, I noticed the buffet on the back wall, there seemed to be a good selection of items. We spotted Nikita and Bluebeard and quickly settled in. While the others began to get their food, I started snapping photos. I don't think I got to eat until everyone had almost finished their first plate. I'm so dedicated! Actually, one of the servers starting chatting me up as to what is better - Nikon or Canon. Well, I really didn't have an answer for that since I'm such an amateur with my DSLR right now.

When I finally got some food to eat, I started with the Me-ung Sod, which is essentially a lettuce wrap. The filling consisted of ground beef, chili paste, garlic, basil, onion and bell peppers. It was quite spicy and Viv made the mistake of adding more chili peppers. Suffice to say, it was fiery experience for her. I liked the dish, it was flavourful and spicy, it's just too bad it was a bit cold. I also tried the Spring Rolls and they were quite crispy and not oily at all. Combined with the sweet dipping sauce, it was quite pleasant to eat. Up next, I got some Tom Yum Gai, which is a popular Thai soup (this one had chicken, thus the "gai"). Unfortunately, the soup was lukewarm, I think the heating apparatus was insufficient. Overall, the soup was quite flavourful with lots of lemongrass and lime hits. However, I think they were a bit heavy with the Nahm Plah (fish sauce) since the soup was a bit salty.

The Pad Thai was a stripped down version of the regular version. It only had tofu, salted radish and eggs, while the shrimp, bean sprouts, green onions and peanuts were missing. I guess the carrots took the place of the bean sprouts. Despite being the bare-bones version of Pad Thai, it was still quite good. The noodles were soft, yet still firm and the taste of fish sauce were present. It could've used some tamarind though for more zing. I also tried a piece of the Thai Gai Yang, which is essentially Thai BBQ chicken. The chicken had really good colour and was super tender. The marinade completely penetrated the entire piece of chicken and every bite was flavourful.

There was an interesting dish called Ruam-mit Seafood, that I've never tried before. It consisted of mussels, prawns and squid sauteed in a chili sauce with peppers, garlic, onions and basil. I quite enjoyed this dish. It was very flavourful and a bit spicy; yet it didn't take away from the delicate flavours of the seafood. One dish that really didn't work was the Pad Ped Moo, which is fried pork spareribs sauteed in a roasted chili sauce with bell peppers, garlic, onions and basil. The flavours were really good; but the pork was severely overcooked. Fortunately the Pla Laht Prig was cooked perfectly. It's filets of Tilapia which are deep-fried and sauteed with a sweet & sour-type sauce.

Last on the buffet line were 3 types of Thai curry, there was a tofu red curry; a chicken yellow curry and a pork green curry. Being quite full, I only tried the yellow and green curry. Both were quite good. Lastly, I tried the Tub Tim Grob, which is a dessert soup consisting of sweetened coconut milk. What's in the soup is quite interesting. There were bits of pear that had been coated with tapioca flour and red/green food colouring (apparently, the traditional method uses water chestnuts). In addition, there were slices of jack fruit, young coconut and lychee. I really enjoyed this dessert and if I wasn't so full, I would have had a few more bowls of it.

Eating a buffet is both a blessing and a curse, especially for a restaurant that usually doesn't do buffets. The blessing is that you can try so many more items than a regular meal. The curse is that most the food is not exactly how it is supposed to be. The food may not be at the right temperature since it's been sitting there and the flavours could be a bit off since the food is being cooked in big batches. Moreover, meats and vegetables may overcook as it sits in the warming tray. Thus, I gave Leela Thai the benefit of the doubt for the issues with some of the dishes. But, the flavours were generally quite good and nothing was terrible. I saw a table having the regular menu and the portions seemed very decent compared to the pathetic-sized portions from Sala Thai. Combined this with personable service, I can see why Leela Thai is so popular in this area.

The Good:
- Food is decent
- Portion size is adequate
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Some of the items were salty
- Probably due to the buffet, some items were not representative

Leela Thai
1310 Johnston Road
White Rock, B.C.
604-541-9631
www.leelathairestaurant.com

Business Hours:
12:00pm - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Fri)
5:00pm - 10:00pm (Sat & Sun)

Fuel

*Restaurant is closed*

Quick... When you think of fried chicken in Vancouver, what comes to mind? KFC? Church's? Popeye's? Lee's? LA Chicken? Depending on your preference, you most certainly can get decent fried chicken at these places (well, maybe not KFC). Now I bet not many people would associate Fuel with fried chicken. After all, there is no drive-thru! However, you can get some pretty good fried chicken at Fuel from 12:00pm - 2:00pm every Friday until the end of summer. Mind you, at $19.50 (including beer), it'd better be good! Of course, the fried chicken at Fuel is not something you'd find at the aforementioned restaurants. The organic chicken are sous-vide in buttermilk before they are dusted with seasoned flour and deep-fried (you can watch the video of this here).

I have to give credit to Vandelay for our visit to Fuel. He has definitely been a great resource when it comes restaurants. Rich Guy and Donna Chang joined us for this meal as well. Vandelay and I both ordered the fried chicken, Donna ordered the Pork Schnitzel Sandwich and I bribed Rich Guy into ordering the Confit Albacore Tuna Melt. I promised him a drumstick for his troubles. I really didn't want 3 orders of the fried chicken, I'd have nothing to talk about! Before we got our entrees, we started off with complimentary bread with butter and sea salt. I usually don't talk about complimentary bread; however, the butter was so creamy and tasty. I just had to mention that.

The fried chicken consisted of 3 pieces, one side, a buttermilk biscuit and gravy. The side and biscuit change every week. This week, it was a red onion biscuit and a kale/black-eyed peas mix. The chicken was pretty good. It was very tender and juicy due to the sous-vide process. This involves placing the meat in vacuum sealed bags which are dipped into a temperature-controlled water bath. The chicken at Fuel is cooked for 2 hours in the water bath before they are fried.

One bite into the chicken and I immediately knew this was no ordinary fried chicken. It was so tender and juicy. It was as if the chicken was roasted, rather than being fried. I personally thought that the chicken was delicately flavoured, despite the fact some have considered it salty (have you not tried KFC, that's salty!). One complaint is that the chicken could have been a little more crispy. The biscuit was soft and fluffy with just a hint of red onion. Vandelay and I both dipped it into the gravy and it was very tasty. I didn't like the kale and black-eyed peas very much. It was cooked with shallots and the flavour was light; but I didn't enjoy the texture of the peas. They were done al dente and personally I prefer them a bit softer. However, I'm sure someone else will have a different opinion about them.

The schnitzel sandwich was good, but nothing special. The pork was well-seasoned and it was fried-up perfectly. However, it tasted like any other schnitzel that I've had. The tuna melt was a bit disappointing. The fish was good, but it was overcooked. I'm not sure if it was meant to be this way; but overcooked tuna has the texture of chicken breast meat. If the tuna was undercooked a bit, the melt would've been better. However, the homemade chips that came with the melt were quite good.

We decided to share 2 desserts and that ended up to be quite the gong show. We ordered the Tahitian Vanilla Doughnuts with pumpkin ice cream and house made root beer. Also, we got the Kentucky Bourbon Creme Brulee with spearmint ice cream and cocoa nib biscuit. If you can imagine, sharing the donuts was no problem; but the root beer and the brulee were another matter. Let's just say it was a bit messy in the end. We really liked the donuts, they were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. There's nothing better than warm donuts! The pumpkin ice cream was dropped into the root beer so it became a float. We thought the root beer was very good, it had lots of root beer taste without too much sugar. The carbonated jelly on the bottom was a treat! The brulee was pretty ordinary; yet the top was caramelized perfectly. We like crunchy, caramelized sugar!

Of course, by virtue of having only one lunch at Fuel does not provide a true representation of the restaurant. However, I did enjoy my visit. I liked the open-kitchen, the decor and the ambiance. Moreover, the service was solid. Our server was knowledgeable, attentive and pleasant. Everything came expeditiously and I noticed the little details such as all of our meals arriving at the same time (with help from other staff of course). Although I wasn't fond of all the food, the combination of service and ambiance made it a good experience.

The Good:
- Impeccable service
- Modern decor and ambiance
- Good fried chicken (only limited time though)

The Bad:
- Some of the other dishes were average
- Parking could be an issue

Fuel
1944 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
604-288-7905
fuelrestaurant.ca

Business Hours:
12:00pm - 2:30pm, 5:30pm - close (Mon - Fri)
5:30pm - close (Sat & Sun)

Tasty Sweets & Restaurant

*Restaurant moved to Scott Road and expanded*

Alright, I was thinking about what I would eat for lunch today. I considered going to Mehfil for their Indian buffet. I decided to throw that thought up on Facebook and almost instantaneously, Nikita makes a comment that I should avoid at all costs. Well, I have heard conflicting stories about Mehfil. Some say it's good and some suggest to avoid it like a full-face-visor-wearing Corolla driver in Richmond. As I was just finishing responding to Nikita's comment, I got another comment from someone else suggesting Tasty Sweets and Restaurant. Well, that idea sounded good since Tasty Sweets is less than 5 minutes away.

Having never been to Tasty Sweets before, I really didn't know what to expect. From what people had told me, I expected it to be some fast food joint. However, it sure didn't look like one. In fact, it was quite nice inside. But, it was quite dark inside since all the blinds were drawn. Moreover, all the furnishings and decor were dark coloured as well. Why does it seem like every Indian restaurant I go to is dark? It makes for difficult photo-taking! Anyways, I looked over the menu and it's the usual assortment of items. Since I was eating alone (gasp!), I decided to get the lunch special for $9.95. It included a choice of Butter Chicken or Goat Curry, Palak Paneer, Tandoori Chicken (2 pcs), rice, naan and Gulab Jaman. There is a vegetarian lunch special for $8.95 which includes 3 vegetable curries, rice, naan and dessert. You'll find similar lunch specials at many of the Indian restaurants in the area. These specials are an excellent way of sampling an array of items from each restaurant. Similar to Mahek, the pop that I ordered was bottomless.

While I was waiting, I picked up a takeout menu. I was told that the prices on the menu were out-of-date. So for reference purposes, add about a dollar to each of the major items and 50 cents to the smaller items. My food arrived on a platter similar to Desi Junction. However, the one at Desi Junction was more aesthetically pleasing. There was ample amount of food for $9.95. There were 2 full pieces of naan that had been cut into halves. However, the naan itself was far from fluffy. It was doughy despite not being very thick. The Butter Chicken was full of large pieces of chicken; but it was super salty. All I could taste was salt and tomato; rather than the smooth delicate flavours that it is synonymous with. On the other hand, the Palak Paneer was quite good. It was a bit spicy, with nice fluffy chunks of paneer (cheese) nestled in creamy-textured spinach. The Tandoori Chicken was quite average. Compared to the flavours at Mirch Masala, it was a bit bland and overcooked. Yet, it was still better than the Tandoori Chicken at Mahek. Lastly, the Gulab Jaman was sweet, but not unbearably sweet. I'm not really a big fan of this dessert; but this one wasn't too bad.

Tasty Sweets was okay, I didn't hate the meal, but it definitely lags behind the other Indian restaurants in the area. Yet, I was intrigued by the good selection of sweets available for takeout. I will return to get a box of those one day.

The Good:
- Good value
- Comfortable surroundings
- Good service

The Bad:
- Food is inferior to other places (at least the things I tried)

Tasty Sweets & Restaurant
12047 80th Avenue
Surrey, B.C.
604-543-9113

Business Hours:
9:30am - 10:00pm (7 days a week)

Dragon Ball Tea House

Heading home from Bo Kong, I decided to take the scenic route home and drop by Dragon Ball. It's on King Edward near Oak, you won't miss the dragon sipping on bubble tea. I seem to be in the mood for bubble tea lately; mind you I've been in the mood for lots of things (gelato, Chinese pastries, izakaya's...). From my many previous visits, I do agree with most people that Dragon Ball is one of the better bubble tea joints in the GVRD. Dragon Ball has the usual choices of powdered bubble teas and fresh fruit as well. Green Leaf used to one of the few that served fresh fruit; but it seems that most places have fresh fruit now.

Although Dragon Ball is good, I'm not convinced that it is incredibly better than a lot of other bubble tea places. I think what sets Dragon Ball apart is its consistency. I've never had a bad experience with Dragon Ball. With that being said, I still think Bubble World (some people may disagree with this) is a good choice for bubble tea as well. When I get bubble tea, I usually go for my favourites: lychee slush, green apple slush (powdered), pineapple slush and strawberry slush. Today, I decided to have something a bit different. I wanted to try the fresh Bartlett pear slush. Of course, with my luck, it was unavailable. So I decided to go for fresh green apple slush. Well, I have to say it was fresh, I actually felt like I was eating an apple. It wasn't sweet, which made the slush quite refreshing. Viv thought it was bland, but I thought it was just right. Some complain that bubble teas are too sweet; however, I find that Dragon Ball is not crazy sweet. I think Dragon Ball is a solid choice when you want bubble tea. It's definitely one of the better ones in the GVRD.

The Good:
- Consistent
- Sweet, but not too sweet
- Fairly clean compared to some other joints

The Bad:
- Cramped store, you may want to just order, pay and then leave
- There is no parking in front, you'll have to park a block away sometimes (not that a block is really that far)

Dragon Ball Tea House
1007 West King Edward Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
604-738-3198

Business Hours:
2:00pm - 12:00am (7 days a week)

Bo Kong Vegetarian

*Restaurant is now closed*

How I love the Easter long weekend. It gives me some time to relax a bit from my hectic schedule. Moreover, I get a bit more time to go find some tasty treats! It was M & M's (both of their names start with M) son's 1st birthday today and we made the trip out to Tsawwassen in the pouring rain. Why does it seem to rain every Easter long weekend? Luckily, there was a covered promenade outside of the heritage house where the party was held. The kiddies seem to have lots of fun looking for Easter eggs. We took advantage of our location to have dinner in Richmond on our way back home. Vandelay, Donna Chang, Costanza, and Elaine all joined us at Bo Kong Vegetarian Restaurant. Vegetarian?!?!? Has Sherman lost his mind again? Well, we decided to eat something a bit different this time, especially since all of us eat a lot of meat to begin with.

We arrived at Bo Kong in Richmond and got a really choice spot right in front of the restaurant without incident. You're wondering why I am mentioning this... Well, finding a parking spot anywhere in Richmond without an adventure is extremely rare. Either someone will:

a) try to steal it;
b) back up into it even if they passed it;
c) reserved it for someone with either their body or double-park their car;
d) park their car in such a crooked fashion, you can't park in the spot next to it
e) or play chicken with you for that last spot

Costanza and Elaine got a choice spot right next to me and Vandelay parked nearby without any troubles as well. Hell must be freezing over...

Anyways, we were looking over the menu and noticed a dinner for 6 which costs $89.95. We were very interested in this meal; however, none of us other than Viv knew how to read Chinese. Unfortunately, Viv couldn't decipher some of the dishes, so we actually had to get the server to explain it to us. She was very nice and took time to go over every dish and even offered to change the Chinese vegetables to broccoli. Uh... sure we're bananas (yellow on the outside and white on the inside); but we're still somewhat Chinese... We had a good laugh about that. So we actually ended up ordering the set meal and it consisted of: a Cold Appetizer Platter, "Fish" Maw Soup, Fresh Bean Curd Skin with Lemon Sauce, Fried Tofu with "Meat" Sauce, Deep Fried Tofu Rolls and Crispy Seaweed & Soft Curd Roll, Spicy Stir-Fried Green Beans, Yau Choy with Enoki Mushrooms and Assorted Vegetable and Tofu Fried Rice.

The appetizer platter consisted of mock ham, beef and goose. The ham was very close to the real thing, mind you it's more close to canned ham than anything else. The beef was not close at all, but it was still good, being a bit chewy and flavourful. The mock goose, which is essentially bean curd sheets wrapped around shiitake mushrooms, was just as good as larger Chinese restaurants. The soup was very good, it had good depth of flavour without being salty. It had lots of enoki mushrooms, mock ham and bamboo pith. The bean curd sheet in lemon sauce was a vegetarian attempt at Lemon Chicken, and it wasn't bad. The lemon sauce was a bit weak, it probably needed a bit more lemon. However, the fried bean curd had a good contrast of crispy, chewy and soft. The fried tofu with mock meat sauce was very tasty. The bits of "meat" could've passed for ground pork and the tofu was fried perfectly. It was ever-so-soft in the middle while being crispy on the outside.

The fried taro rolls were fabulous. Lightly crispy on the outside, but fluffy soft on the inside. However, the taro was a bit flavourless; mind you there was sweet and sour sauce on the table. It went quite well with the taro rolls. The seaweed curd roll was good; but I think we were suffering from bean curd fatigue by then and no one really said anything about it. I thought the sauce was quite good, it gave the bland bean curd some needed flavour. The spicy green beans were awesome, they were bursting with flavour (spicy, salty & a bit sweet) and they were not overcooked. The yau choy was not overcooked either, they were still a bit crunchy. I also really liked the generous amount of enoki on top. Lastly, the fried rice was excellent. The rice was seasoned correctly and it was dry like it's supposed to be. The addition of roasted pine nuts on top really added to the dish. It provided both aromatic flavour and texture.

Honestly, I really didn't miss the fact there was no meat in any of the dishes. When food is executed this well, you will forget that you are essentially eating a lot of vegetables and bean curd. Mind you, some of the mock meat may not be everyone's cup of tea; yet, if you take it for what it is, the food is good. I will never give up my meat; however, I don't mind the occasional vegetarian meal. The experience was enhanced by the great service we received. It was efficient, attentive and extremely friendly.

The Good:
- Creative dishes that made you forget about meat
- Good use of textures and flavour
- Really good service

The Bad:
- You really can get bean curd/tofu overload here
- Some people may not get the mock meat concept

Bo Kong Vegetarian
#80 - 8100 Ackroyd Road
Richmond, B.C.
604-278-1992

Business Hours:
11:00am - 9:00pm (Mon - Thu)
11:00am - 9:30pm (Fri - Sun)

Cafe Gloucester

Having driven by Kintaro Ramen and witnessing the really long lineup, we tried to decide on an alternate place to eat. One place that came to mind was Cafe Gloucester, which is a Hong Kong-style cafe on Cambie near 18th. This place has been here for quite awhile and had closed briefly in 2007 because of the dreaded Canada-Line construction of the Skytrain. It's now apparently under new management and I wanted to check it out (I actually visited it last year, but I wasn't blogging yet). For those who are not familiar with Hong Kong-style cafes, it's basically a restaurant (western-like decor), that serves up Hong Kong versions of other ethnic foods. However, they do still serve up stir-fried Chinese noodles and rice dishes. I've been to Cafe Gloucester many times in the past and I do consider it one of the better Hong Kong-style cafes. It's in a nice location (lack of parking withstanding), the food is consistent, service is decent and it's clean/modern.

Upon our arrival, there was only a short wait for our table. However, I must give credit to the hostess, because some waitress was going to give our table up to a group that had arrived after us. The hostess immediately stopped the waitress and pointed out that we were first. That is refreshing, a Chinese restaurant that not only keeps to the list; but also is not afraid to correct a mistake.

The menu at Cafe Gloucester is a bit classier than other Hong Kong-style cafes in the GVRD. They even have a prime rib carving station at the front of the restaurant. However... the person carving the prime rib was butchering the poor thing. Looking over the menu, I chose the set meal, as I always do. Even though the set meals at these places are usually well over $10 (except for Alleluia), you do get good value. Similar to most other places, the set meals at Cafe Gloucester include soup (Russian borscht, cream soup, fish chowder or clam chowder), bread, 2 or 3 meats, one carb (rice, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, fries or baked potato), vegetables, sauce (black peppercorn, garlic, demi-glace, onion, mushroom or curry), coffee/tea and dessert. There is no one set price here at Cafe Gloucester; rather, it depends on which combination of meats you choose. I chose S7, which included Ox Tongue (yes, my favourite, you can never get enough tongue!), Rib Eye Steak and Fried Pork Chop. This particular combination cost $15.88. Viv wasn't that hungry so she was going to eat whatever else we ordered. Since my son likes noodles, we got the BBQ Duck Lai Fun. I got one more dish for good measure and decided on the Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice.

I chose the "Russian Borscht" for my soup and it was balanced; being tart but not too tart. I put Russian Borscht in quotations because an authentic borscht would be more red because of the beet content. This one had beets, but just like other Hong Kong-style borschts, it's closer to vegetable soup. My meal came on a sizzling hot plate and it kept everything hot, including the lemon wedge that I picked up without thinking... HOT! The tongue was tender and seared perfectly. The pork chop was very crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. I still laugh at the mayo that's served with any fried items in a Hong Kong-style cafe. But I guess Viv ended up doing the laughing... I used it for my pork chop. The rib eye steak was quite large; but was cooked all the way through. I did find it odd that the waitress never asked me how I wanted my steak done. However, the steak still retained its meatiness since they did not marinate it in baking soda. I liked the peppercorn sauce that came with my meal, it was loaded with peppercorns and was very flavourful.

The BBQ Duck Lai Fun was actually pretty good, considering the fact we were not at a noodle joint. The soup was light, the noodles were not overcooked (still had elasticity) and they gave us the duck leg (it was tender and not too salty). The fried rice was not bad, the rice was dry (which is good) and there was plenty of salted fish flavour. However, I wish they would put some lettuce in it, the rice was very plain without it. I prefer the one from The Boss. Lastly, my dessert was a piece of coffee pudding. Don't judge it by how it looks because it was quite good. Velvety texture and lots of real coffee taste. Although the service was hurried, it was always polite and attentive. So there it is, Cafe Gloucester is still a good place to get your Hong Kong Cafe fix, even after the whole Canada-Line mess.

The Good:
- Clean, modern dining room
- Food is consistent
- Service is good

The Bad:
- A bit pricier than other Hong Kong-style cafes
- Parking is hard to find
- Seating can be a bit tight

Cafe Gloucester
3338 Cambie Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-873-3338