We went to Folietta on Nanaimo street to celebrate a birthday. We arrived on a Saturday evening, with reservations, and were told to wait a few minutes for our table to be prepared. Their menu is a selection of mostly classic italian dishes (with a mix of Italian-american dishes), including fresh house made pasta Arancini…
Restaurant review: Onda by Casereccio
The italian pizza/pasta place (Gusto) in the Olympic Village was sold in the summer of 2025, and the new owners (from Casereccio) rebranded the restaurant and reopened just a few weeks later. I’d had the gelato at Casereccio on several occasions, and I’d bought fresh pasta noodles and sauces from the Kitsilano location, but I’d…
Restaurant review: Paramount Seafood Restaurant
Met with the family for a dinner over the holidays at the Paramount Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver on the corner of Rupert and east 22nd avenue. This restaurant took over the space that was previously home to “Lucky Plus”. The menu is pretty expansive We ordered from a menu combo. The first item was soup….
Restaurant review: Mei Le Bakery & Restaurant
Mei Le is a “all-in-one” chinese restaurant in a small strip mall in Coquitlam, near Lougheed Highway and Schoolhouse Street. By “all-in-one” place i mean it’s a restaurant, a dim-sum place, a bakery, and chinese barbeque shop. This blog entry represents two different visits, one for breakfast, and one for dinner. There are separate menus…
Restaurant review: Old Surrey Restaurant
To celebrate an anniversary, we visited the Old Surrey Restaurant on 72nd Avenue in Surrey. Its on the upper floor of what appears to be a heritage house in, what is otherwise, a light industrial area of Newton. The lower floor is a Mexican restaurant. The house has been restored, and very well maintained over…
Restaurant review: Lavidas
We had reservations for sunday dinner at Lavidas on West 4th Avenue in Kitsilano. This restaurant was previously La Cigale Bistro (same ownership and staff, just a name change in 2023). The menu at Lavidas is an assortment of contemporary french cuisine, using local season ingredients. It changes on regular basis so its best to…
Restaurant review: Pho Anh Vu
While visiting the Walmart in Richmond, my lunch companion spotted a new vietnamese restaurant on Garden City and Alderbridge. This restaurant is part of a chain in southern Ontario, with Richmond being it’s first outpost in western Canada. Pho And Vu occupies the restaurant space that was previously home to Dragon Group Seafood Restaurant. The…
Cooking: Longevity Yee Mein
These noodles (also known as e-fu noodles), symbolic of longevity, are a common dish served in cantonese banquets and celebrations. The noodles can be served in a soup, or stir fried like this. They have a tender, almost spongy bite, and go well with savory and aromatic ingredients. ingredients I didn’t have any garlic chives,…
Restaurant review: Nonna’s Cucina
We decided to stop for lunch at Nonna’s Cucina on East Hastings. In contrast with it’s sister location on Commercial Drive, this is more of a take out place than a sit down restaurant. The interior seating is minimal and the room is pretty spartan. During the summer, there’s additional outdoor seating on the sidewalk….
Restaurant review: Oddfish
Oddfish is a west coast seafood restaurant in Kitsilano, at the corner of West 1st Avenue and Cypress Street (once home the Smoking Dog Bistro a decade earlier). I had intended to visit this place for years, but never got around to it until now. The restaurant has a compact casual dining space indoors, with…
Restaurant review: Bamboo Grove Restaurant
The Bamboo Grove restaurant on Number 3 Road in Richmond has been serving cantonese cuisine since the 1970s, undergoing several facelifts and menu changes along the way. The current incarnation is an upscale format, serving refined cantonese cuisine. Even the menu looks pretty posh. We had reservations and arrived on time. The restaurant was full,…
Cooking: Cinnamon Apple Buns
When I was a university student, the campus food services had a pretty decent bakery, and among their most famous offerings were cinnamon buns. Oversized, loaded with cinnamon, and coated with a caramel glaze, big enough to feed two or even three people. Years after I graduated, the recipe for those cinnamon buns (among other…
shinyandbright 