Okonomi Sushi (6th Street)

*Restaurant is closed*

Awhile back, I had noticed that The Orange Room in New West was covered up by a really big banner advertising the new location of Okonomi Sushi. Hmmm... It appears that New West is still not ready for a place like The Orange Room. Rather, places like The Waffle House a few doors down continue to flourish. While I was there, I did sense the faint smell of Ben-Gay though. Make what you wish of that information... So on a random Monday, Karl and I decided to take advantage of Okonomi's 30% off grand opening special. So what do 2 people order to get a sense of the menu? Well, fortunately for us, Okonomi has quite a few "Complete Meals" which, for allintents and purposes, offers up a little of everything.

We decided that Special Assorted Combo A had the right mix of things for our lunch. This included a choice of specialty roll, Chicken Karaage, Nigiri, Sashimi, Salad and Dessert. Also, all of these meals included either Chawanmushi or Sunomono Salad and Miso Soup. For this combo, we chose the Sunomono Salad which as you can see was neatly prepared. It was almost perfect with chewy noodles, cold water shrimp, fresh cucumber and julienned carrots. But the vinegar dressing was a bit bland and really needed more sugar and tartness. On a side note, I love it when a Japanese restaurant (well Korean-run in this case) throws in complimentary Edamame. Next up was the Chicken Karaage which consisted of 3 fried mid-sections of the wing. I found these to be a little lacking in seasoning and a touch overdone. Not a huge problem though. The meat inside was still quite moist, it was just the parts near the skin that were dry. I also didn't find them very crispy, possibly because they didn't serve them right away?

Moving onto the Sashimi and Nigiri, it was apparent that they are very generous with their cuts of fish. Looking at the salmon and tuna nigiri, it was almost as if there wasn't any rice underneath since the slices of fish were that big. Indeed there was rice and in fact, the rice was purple, the benefactor of red cabbage juice. I found the rice to be slightly gummy; yet decent. As for the fish, it wasn't bad. I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was bursting with sweetness and flavour; yet it was better than average. Furthermore, the texture of the salmon was pretty firm and the tuna was not mushy. Decent sashimi. The specialty roll we selected was the Okonomi Special House Roll consisting of imitation crab meat, cucumber and avocado all wrapped up with bacon, then the purple sushi rice and deep fried. It was topped with spicy tuna, tempura bits, house sauce and aonori. The picture doesn't do this roll justice. The darn thing almost stretched the width of the table. Each of the 8 pieces were large and filling. Due to the aggressive drizzle of the sauces, not much of the other ingredients came through other than the spicy tuna. No matter though, this fried roll was more about textures than anything. If one was to order this a la carte, it would be only $8.95 - a very good value if you ask me.

For our second combo, we got the Okonomiyaki and Tempura meal. Since we already had the sunomono, we went for the Chawanmushi. We found it to be silky; yet bland. The ebi was cooked nicely and sweet having a nice snap texture. Somehow, this wasn't served really hot either. Could it have been premade and reheated? Next, we had the Tempura which was very good. The batter was crispy and not greasy. The veggies and shrimp were perfectly cooked. The grand finale of the meal was the much anticipated Okonomiyaki. When it arrived on the table, it sure looked impressive. It was of a decent size and topped by a generous amount of bonito flakes, mayo and sauce. Furthermore, as you can tell in the picture, it was packed with seafood, meat and cabbage. So this was good right? Nope. Nothing could be further from that. The darn thing was so dense, I could've chucked it across the room like a Frisbee. In fact, it could've hurt an innocent bystander. It was that dense. The texture was highly unappealing being doughy and heavy. It was really too bad since the flavours were fine due to the high amount of ingredients and toppings. In the end, I forced Karl to take the leftovers.

Lastly, we were presented with our desserts, which were included with the combo meals. We got one each of the Tempura Fried Banana and Tempura Fried Ice Cream. I decided to only include the picture of the ice cream because they were practically alike in appearance. Both were fried in tempura batter and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Karl and I agreed that the desserts were forgettable since the batter was doughy and not really all the crispy. It's really too bad our meal ended in this way with the okonomiyaki and dessert. If we didn't look at these items, the meal as a whole was decent (especially for New West). Yet, the real draw here are the reasonable prices and large portions.

The Good:
- Large portions
- Reasonable pricing
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Food is largely hit and miss

Public Lounge Eatery

* Restaurant is now closed*

Seriously. Is it the food equivalent to writer's block? I really couldn't think of anywhere to eat after hockey on Friday. Of course, much of that had to do with trying to satisfy locational and type of food concerns for the team. But really, there must be places open late for eats right? Well, Gordo came to the rescue when he suggested Public Lounge Eatery on Main which also happens to be his brother-in-law's joint. Open until 1:00am, it fit within our schedule since we wouldn't be out of the ice rink until 11:00pm. There was one sticking point though - it's a tapas place. So what's the problem you may ask. Well, tapas usually an excuse for small portions and high prices.

Well, the good news about the menu at PLE is that only a few items are $10.00 and over. We ended up splitting up into 2 tables because the place was pretty full and not really all that big either. So Milhouse, Apu, Boss Woman and myself ended up sharing a some dishes starting with the Dill Hummus with pita. Right away, we noticed that the portion size was in line with the price of $6.00. This was a good start literally and figuratively. The hummus had a nice texture that was smooth yet not over-processed. We really didn't notice the dill too much; yet we did get good hits of lemon and garlic. The one thing that could've put this over the top would be toasting the pita. It was a little cold and hard.

Next up was the Chorizo Pizza with cremini mushrooms on a pita crust. To put some scale into the size of the pizza, imagine it smaller than a small (roughly 6"). So at $10.00, it certainly was not exactly cheap. On the other hand, the flavour made up for the lack of size. The tomato sauce combined with dry-cured chorizo made the pizza very zesty. There was the right amount of toppings and cheese, so every bite had texture and taste. The crust itself was fairly crispy and thin. Loved the fresh basil on top - only wished there was more of it. Now for the same amount of money, we thought the Roast Back Ribs a much better value. With 6 really large and meaty ribs, this could've been a main entree if there were a side or two. These ribs were moist and fall-off-the-bone tender. The maple BBQ sauce was sweet with a bit of tang. We felt that the ribs themselves could've used a bit of salt. Other than that, this was a real crowd-pleaser. These were never advertised as BBQ ribs and in a way, most of us preferred it this way. Of course authentic BBQ would mean smoking or cooking them for a long period of time from a raw state, which would render them dry. Good for BBQ purists; but we like it this way instead.

Then we had something most Chinese people would cringe at - Anthony's Wontons. True, ordering wontons in a non-Chinese restaurant can usually mean 2 things: overpriced and not good. Well, at $8.50, this was not exactly cheap. Remember, we cannot possibly compare a wonton noodle joint with a place such as PLE. Just like you cannot compare it with Bao Bei or Terracotta. Not the same. So yes, it would be expensive if we say compared it to spicy wontons at Chinese restaurant. There was roughly a $3.00 premium paid here. Yet, the place is trendy, washrooms are clean and there is infinitely more booze choices other than Tsing Tao. Ultimately, the wontons were good. We were all Chinese and we all liked them. It was a balanced combination of pork and prawn with some water chestnuts. The wontons themselves were slightly bland; however, the sesame oil soy vinaigrette added the necessary flavour. Lastly, we had the Frites with pepper & truffle oil and aioli served on the side. These were fresh cut and fried until crispy. Well, most of them were, some of the larger fries were not as crisp. I didn't get much truffle oil; but the aioli was quite good.

Since the place is quite small, we had to split up into 2 tables with Gordo, Emilicious and Sweet Tooth sharing their own dishes. Gordo ordered the Carnaroli Risotto with wild mushrooms, parmigiana and pinot gris. For me, I found the risotto to be overcooked. I'm not sure if this was the intention or not since they formed it into a cylinder. Furthermore, it was very salty albeit very cheesy as well - this goes hand-in-hand though. Lastly, they got Antipasto for 2 consisting of beets, brie, spicy salami and artichoke hearts served with crackers. I didn't get to try any; but they said it was pretty standard stuff. In general, most of the food we tried was pretty decent except for the risotto. Combined with reasonable prices (as reasonable as tapas can be) and a lively environment, Public Lounge Eatery is a good place to meet up with friends for some spirits and some food to snack on.

The Good:
- Relatively reasonable prices for tapas food
- Lively fun atmosphere
- Decent eats

The Bad:
- As with any tapas-type joint, some portions are small
- The place is tiny, better limit your group to 4 people or less

Suika

*Restaurant is closed*

Alright. We are a persistent bunch. Last time we tried to visit Suika on a Monday after softball, it was closed due to a "staff meeting". As Bear put it best, "What kinda staff meeting closes a restaurant for dinner???". I'm not sure; but there must've been a good reason? Whatever the case, I made sure it was open this time by calling ahead. No epic fails this time around. We got a free parking spot and almost even got a table immediately. Persistence pays off. The newest venture from the people who brought us Kingyo, this little place on West Broadway brings the Izakaya experience to Fairview. The next closest Izakaya, other than in Downtown, is Hapa on Yew at Cornwall.

After organizing our thoughts about which dishes to order, we started with the Torotoro Cha-Shu consisting of roasted and then braised pork served in with the cooking liquid. The pork was super moist and literally melted-in-our mouths. It disintegrated on contact. The sinful pork fat added another layer of flavour that worked well with the sweet soy braising liquid. The only thing that they could've paid more attention to was the slight portion of unmelted fat when they reheated the pork (at the lower left of the plate). Bear noticed the Teriyaki Chicken Pizza and in his mind, envisioned something really special. Unfortunately, it was exactly what the description implied. It was a thin pita-like crust with marble cheese and pieces of teriyaki chicken. Nothing inherently wrong with it. In the end, it was tasty; yet it was really uninteresting. We though the addition of something that added
colour and/or texture would've really made this a better dish.

Now Boss Woman is not really into the raw stuff, so we tried to stay away from ordering any. However, there was no way around it when we got the Deluxe Suika Box. Although disappointing to her, I was secretly loving it since I prefer the raw stuff. Included in the box starting on the bottom left moving clockwise was Hiya-Yakko, Lotus Root Kinpira, Pickled Veggies, Tuna Tataki, Cream Cheese and imitation lobster on melba toast, Salmon Tartar, Tomato Kimchi, Black Cod Salad and at the centre, Kazunoko (herring roe). As large as the box may look in the picture, it is best to be shared by a maximum of 2 people along with other dishes. The highlights from the box were the herring roe (it was crunchy and fishy in a good way), salmon tartar (very smooth, sweet and well-seasoned), tomato kimchi (tangy, aromatic from the sesame oil and a nice pop of flavour) and the tuna tataki (prepared properly, sweet and fresh). You'll notice that I didn't include the tofu as on of the highlights. Well, we actually had a whole plate of it in the Tori-Yakko, which is the same as the box except with fried marinated chicken. If we look at the individual components of the dish, the chicken was very good. It was tender, flavourful and had a nice texture. The chili oil was tasty with a nice balance of spiciness, sweet and savoury elements. The tofu itself was smooth and went well with the other ingredients. However, we felt the tofu was too cold. Okay, I know it is supposed to be cold; but it was really, really cold. After we left it for a little while and came back to it, the dish was much better.

Now for one of the standards - the Ebimayo. This was a good portion of large fried prawns accompanied by an obscene amount of chili mayo. However, that didn't take away the fact it was a good dish. The batter was crisp and light (despite how it looks) and the prawns had the desired snap texture. There was only a modest amount of chili which was fine by us since it didn't overwhelm anything. In the end, there was so much mayo, we used the rest for the Chicken Karaage. It went well with the large pieces of crispy fried chicken that was super juicy and moist inside. It was sufficiently seasoned that we really didn't need to use the salt on the side. With a squeeze of the lemon, combined with the chili mayo, it was delicious.

Something that caught our eye right away on the menu was the Chinese Poutine. Described on the menu as French fries topped with spicy ground pork sauce, mozzarella, chili oil, sansho and minced cilantro, this could've been a disaster. And it really wasn't. I was all ready to hate this because it reeks of fusion gone wrong. However, the poutine worked. The pork sauce was sweet and savoury with a bit of a kick. The meat was moist and not gritty while there was a good amount of melted cheese (not cheese curds I know). Now we all know that Izakayas are not exactly the best places to get full (and neither is the intention of such an establishment). So we got 2 filler items starting with the Asari Yaki Udon. This was stir-fried with Manila clams and citron pepper. This was a very mild yaki udon where the noodles were still chewy while the ingredients didn't make much of an impact. Despite this, it was a pleasant dish nonetheless.

For our second filler, we got the Kakuni Bibimbap served in a hot stone bowl. It consisted of rice, stewed pork belly, sweet dried shrimp and scallions. This was a winner and probably my favourite dish of the night. It was a good mix of flavours including the wonderfully prepared pork belly which added richness and depth to the perfectly cooked rice. The rice was still chewy; yet didn't develop much of a "crust" from the hot stone bowl. Lastly, we decided to try the Matcha Brulee which was frozen then torched on top. We loved the flavour, it was not too sweet and had a nice green tea essence. However, the frozen creme brulee was rather icy and didn't have a nice consistency. It didn't mean we didn't like the dessert, it could've been just a bit better with the texture.

In the end, the food did all the talking here at Suika. Much like its bigger brother, Kingyo, the quality is top-notch. The service was also very friendly and attentive. There is obvious care and thought put into the food. Of course the cost can quickly add up since the portions are modest (you'll need 3 dishes each at least to be full assuming you are eating it for dinner). But as they say, quality comes at a cost.

The Good:
- Friendly and attentive staff
- Care is put into the food
- On average, execution is good

The Bad:
- Can get pricey if you order lots
- Seating isn't exactly comfortable

Pho Gizmo

*Restaurant is now closed*

Have you ever noticed that there is a severe lack of Vietnamese restaurants on the West side of Vancouver? Is it due to the high rent? Clientele? To the best of my knowledge, there is probably around 10 places to grab Pho to the West of Ontario Street. One of these places is tucked right in the Safeway complex on King Edward and Oak Street. Pho Gizmo is the name, Pho & Bubble Tea is their game. Yah, not a conventional combination and really not a good idea when Dragon Ball is across the street. But whatever, I wasn't here for a bubble tea anyways. The place is small though, much like a bubble tea joint. Seating arrangements are made to maximize the amount of customers dining at the same time. Hence, there is a good chance you'll be really close to the table beside you. For me, that doesn't matter since I'm too busy taking pictures of my food. Ha! It might freak out the person beside me though...

As for food, I went for the usual Special Pho or better known as the Pho Dac Biet. It was a reasonable portion with a decent amount of al dente noodles and tender meat. I found the broth to be on the lighter side. I didn't get much in the way of meat flavour; yet it was aromatic while leaning towards the sweeter side. At the very least, it didn't exhibit much MSG. A respectable bowl of Pho considering the location. Of course that wouldn't be the only thing I ate, so I also got a Cold Cut Banh Mi. This wasn't bad as well. The bread was crunchy and actually quite airy inside. As evidenced in the picture, there was no absence of meats and ingredients. I wouldn't say the flavours hit me with much force; but it was still a very satisfying sandwich considering that this is not a Banh Mi joint. Furthermore, there is not much in the way of Banh Mi on the Westside period. So that brings us back to my original point. Since there as many Vietnamese restaurants as one can count on 2 hands on the Westside, Pho Gizmo does the trick. Of course there are better; yet not close by. I do have to note that the service was quite good and at one point, was "served" by the kid (with help from the mom of course).

The Good:
- Convenient location with lots of parking
- Decent eats considering location
- Inexpensive

The Bad:
- Seating arrangements are tight
- There is better Pho elsewhere; but not close by

Victory Seafood Restaurant

*Restaurant is closed*

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

*Restaurant is closed permanently*

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