Author: poeticnook

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

aka the restaurant that fried chicken wings built? I’m not really a fried chicken wing connoisseur nor do I like fried food in general but when I heard about this place, I felt like I had to give it a visit.  Phnom Penh sits right 

Poké Guy

Poké Guy

So, what’s your favourite Poké? This Hawaiian marinated raw fish dish on a bed of rice with tons of add ons has been invading Van City by storm.  Like most poké places, this shop takes you to an assembly line of ingredients where you first 

Peaceful Restaurant

Peaceful Restaurant

I’ve wanted to try this resto for a while because it was featured at drives, diners and dives but it required a bus or a train ride to get there so my lazy self scratched it off my list. Last month however my cousin told me that they opened a new branch along Kingsway and since that was in the hood, I went ahead and sampled the goods..

Fieri’s order in his show was the beef roll, noodles and dumplings but of course I didn’t try them all in one sitting, the menu had many tempting dishes so I had a hard time choosing. I ended up ordering the stir fried hand pulled noodles, general tsao’s chicken and the xiao long bao – no I wasn’t hungry at that time, I’m just really a bottomless pit haha or I was hungry for something else that couldn’t be filled..

Anyway, on to the food.. I’m not much of a noodle person but after tasting and making fresh made pasta at home, I’m impressed when dishes served at restos are made fresh so I like the hand pulled noodle dish.. I want to try making one from scratch too!

I was expecting the general tsao chicken to be crunchy and then coated with sauce but this dish ended up swimming with sauce and that somehow made the chicken a bit soggy.. I’d like to recreate this with my baked chicken wings next time

The xlb always amazes me, I mean soup in a dimsum? first time I tried it I think I burned my tongue and spilled soup all over the place haha this time I was careful not to do the same mistake.. I like the vinegar.. but I prefer a stronger black vinegar.. this dish was ok but I’ve had better..

I pass by this part of town when I need to pick up a package from Canada post so my second visit was in order when I received another claim stub in my mailbox. This time I ordered the pork and shrimp dumplings because that’s one of the specialities, I still haven’t worked myself up to order the beef roll, maybe on my third visit.. I also got the honey glazed spareribs because I’m a sucker for spareribs haha

Honey glazed spareribs came in first and I wasn’t disappointed but it didn’t taste spectacular and at almost 15$ it’s double the prices of other restos serving the same dish..

Pork and shrimp dumplings took a while to come and when it finally did I was a bit scratch a lot disappointed, the filling wasn’t tasty and the wrapper was too thick.. I pushed myself to finish one piece and had the rest to go.. definitely not a dish to hype about..

Would I go back a third time? Maybe, just to finally try that beef roll and put it to peaceful rest 😉

Overall, it’s a place to go to for hand pulled noodles but the other dishes were underwhelming.

Verdict:
N: 3/5

Casino Español

Casino Español

Vegetable salad, pork chop and fish fillet  Lengua estofado, chop suey and fish fillet  Chocolate monster Casino Español de Cebu 107-109 V. Ranudo Street Cebu City 6000, Philippines Verdict: N: 3.5/5 I had high expectations for their lengua but it was just ok..A:

Postrio

Postrio

Postrio is the best place to hang out on a lazy Saturday afternoon, especially when you’re fed up with the usually coffee shop crowd. They serve freshly baked bread and pastries plus they have wifi and electric outlets so it’s common to see people with their laptops and books piled up on their table, typing and enjoying their baked goodies.

We usually go here to buy whole wheat pandesal and sliced bread but today we decided to add lemon square and their best seller apple pie on our list. It was great that they have a couch just outside the premises that looks out to the fountain of The Terraces. That’s where we whiled away the time till dinner at Red Kimono.

Verdict:

N: 4/5 I have yet to try their drinks but I love their pastries, their lemon square rivals Leona’s. Now if they only have friendlier cashiers then it would be perfect. The one who attended me wouldn’t give up the wifi password, what a grinch!

The Best Fried Chicken Ever

The Best Fried Chicken Ever

  Verdict: N: 5/5 seriously, I can eat a bucket of these and I’ll be the happiest person on earth =)

The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory

We often go to the cheesecake factory meaning to order cheesecake but we end up sampling their entrees until there’s no more room for dessert. This time we resolved to change that so we had an early dinner and after a fair amount of strenuous 

Five Guys

Five Guys

How many guys does it take to make one good burger? Five!

If In and Out is to California, Five Guys is to Illinois. When in America, you have to eat like Americans, that means all the meaty, beefy, greasy goodness of burgers and fries and soda all rolled into one meal.

I ordered the small bacon cheese burger, and believe me it wasn’t small at all. Their regular burgers have two patties and probably 4000 calories, so I opted for half of that =) Their serving of fries made from Idaho potatoes was a meal by itself, it’s good with vinegar and the huge portion is perfect for sharing.

My friend said she preferred In and Out but I think Five Guys is ok, I can’t really remember the taste of the former, I should go back to LA soon and compare ^^

Verdict:
N: 4/5 – great burger experience

Sea Ranch Sushi

Sea Ranch Sushi

For my friend’s birthday. her housemates took her out for a sushi dinner, it’s an hour drive from Buffalo Grove but it was all worth it. After feasting on sushi in Vancouver, which costs really cheap over there, somehow a $20 sushi place looks so 

The Italian Kitchen

The Italian Kitchen

After watching the movie version of Elizabeth Gilber’s book, I had a sudden craving for Italian food – blame in on all the pasta and pizza Julia Roberts ate on that movie! The Italian Kitchen was the perfect restaurant to satisfy that craving. I browsed 

Korean Cactus

Korean Cactus

It was Labor Day weekend so it was a lazy Sunday and we decided to use up all my movie tickets, which are expiring next year, and head downtown to watch Eat, Pray, Love. But first we had to eat.

Cactus Club is right across Burrard skytrain station so it was an easy choice on a balmy, cloudy, rainy, gloomy Monday. It was sometime in the middle of breakfast and lunch so I wasn’t really in the mood for a full meal – I would have ordered steak otherwise, instead I chose their lettuce wraps – the presentation was great, that made it hard to eat it, maybe that’s why I couldn’t finish it haha – nah, it was just a lot. I forgot, I’m back in North America, the land of the plenty.

N: 3.5/5

Cactus Club
588 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC