Romer's Burger Bar

I live near some trails and Bryan and I like to ride our bikes on them. It leads us down to the river district on Kerr Street, which is where Romer's Burger Bar is located. It has an urban look with a modern atmosphere. Great looking restaurant inside and out. They have sliding windows for the summer along with a great patio. They've got big screen tvs as well, great for watching the game and enjoying a burger and a beer :)

We went there for lunch one day. Got there at about 11:45am on a Saturday. It started to fill up real fast after 12! A friendly server brought us to a table by the window, as I requested, and set down our menus. She came with our menus, and when I asked her about one of the burgers, she was really informative and patient.
It was the weekend so they were also serving dishes on their brunch menu, which is where Bryan chose his meal.

This is the "Big Cheesey Omelette". It doesn't look so big, but it was definitely loaded with cheese. We were both disappointed in its size at first, but actually at the end we were both stuffed, so the portion is alright. The omelette had aged cheddar, amber ale, reggiano, boursin cheeses and green onions. Served with breakfast potatoes which were nicely seasoned and tomatoes. The omelette was heaven with melted combo of cheeses :p $9

Along with this he had a "Kickstart Power Juice" $4

Fresh orange, mango, protein, B-pollen and ginger. It was different, with more of the orange standing out in taste. More tangy and sourish than sweet. But it was nice to try something different than we're used to.

I ordered "Romer's Righteous Burger" $12 

I chose to "make mine green!" for 75cents extra. HOLY MEAT! this was frickin delicious! Bryan and I both agree! Thick-sliced applewood bacon, braised short rib, sweet onions, Gorgonzola garlic sauce, fresh thyme leaves. The meat was sooooo juicy and tender, I was sad when I had finished all the meat :( It left me wanting more! I'm glad I had it on the crispy fresh iceberg lettuce, it really showcased the meat. The sauce was to-die-for! They have the lettuce shaped like a bun too, so it was possible to eat it like a regular burger with your hands but I preferred a knife and fork. It was served with a garlic olive and pepperoncini.

Since the burger wasn't served with fries, we decided to order some yam fries. $7

Classic yam fries, yummy taste. served with chipotle garlic aioli and spicy banana ketchup for dipping. A little expensive for the amount of fries, but it still tasted good.

We were paying with debit, so our server brought the machine to us and while we were paying she chitchatted a bit with us, which was nice. Friendly servers is a must!

The bathrooms are nice and clean too. Even has like a mini tv with slides of ads playing.

We'll definitely be back here again, perhaps for dinner to see what the ambiance is like at night. It's also so close to home we could take a 10ish minute bike ride to it or 20ish minute walk.
Overall, Romer's gets a rating of 8.5 out of 10

Happy Eating! xoxo,

Dina & Bryan

The Wallflower Modern Diner

As my diet changes compose of sticking to gluten free and wheat free food, I looked up some places that offered a gluten-free menu. The Wallflower was one of them. (located at 2420 Main Street).
Bryan and I went there for a late lunch after my work shift on Friday. It was about 1:45pm and the place was just about full, but it also looked like lots were finishing up from the noon lunch rush. We were told to sit wherever we wanted. It took a few minutes before someone actually came over with some menus. Water came 5 mins after.
The decor was very artsy with some statement pieces on the wall

and one wall covered in "wallflowers". You can kinda see it behind Bryan to the right.

On the menu you'll find sandwiches, wraps, salads, some pastas, burgers - the food you usually find in a typical american cuisine restaurant. They have lots of Vegan choices as well. Most things on the menu can be requested to be gluten-free for an extra $1 charge.

Bryan chose the Philly Cheesesteak

Beef, swiss cheese, onions, mushrooms and peppers on garlic toast with au jus on the side. Served with fries. He really liked this sandwich. The garlic bread was nicely toasted and beef was juicy. He said he would definitely order it again. But the fries...yuck! they tasted like the frozen ones that had been heated up. Gross. not fresh at all! He should've went with a soup or salad instead. $12

I opted for the Pesto Foccacia Sandwich, but on gluten-free bread.

So, technically it wasn't foccacia bread. Inside my sandwich was grilled tofu, lettuce, tomato, avocado and cucumber with a side garden salad. nom nom nom! soo good! 

 I loved the PESTO! It went great with the tofu. This was my first time having tofu in a sandwich, but I really like it :) $12 (it was $12 on our bill, so I guess she didn't charge me the extra $1) And the bun was pretty good too. A person not used to gluten-free might think otherwise though! And all the veggies were fresh and crisp.

Our table was small and cramped though. The whole restaurant isn't so big either. I enjoyed my meal, but I'm on the fence on whether or not I should return. Bad fries and cramped table....something to think about I guess. 

Overall, we give The Wallflower a rating of 8 out of 10.

Happy Eating! xoxo,

Dina & Bryan

red velvet cake pops :)

This isn't a new restaurant post, but it's still yummy food :) i looooove cake pops. I've been hooked ever since I tried one at Starbucks. So one day, I decided to try and conjure up my own batch of cake pops. I just bought a redvelvet cake box and a tub of cream cheese frosting, candy coating and lollipop sticks. They turned out so good! It's tedious work having to shape the cake into balls. It was fun tho...but more fun to eat them!! muhahahaha :) CAKE MONSTER!!

before they get dipped in coating (I only crumbled half of the full cake to make cake pops, so it would actually be twice as many as this!)

voila!! time to eat; nom nom nom nom nom

Happy Eating! xoxo,

Dina

Sushi S

My mom and I needed lunch after doing some shopping at Costco, and I said we should try S Sushi because it was new and on the way home. Sushi S was formerly Hibiki Japanese Restaurant but is now under new management. They're located at 4739 Willingdon Avenue near BCIT.
We walked in and it looked great! I had never been to this place before, but I was told they underwent major renovations.

We were seated promptly and given our menus. The waitress was very friendly. So we put our order in.

3 mins later we were told that they had run out of oysters!! But they were soooo nice about it and very apologetic. I think the guy said "We're so sorry" like 3 times. And I had asked for brown rice for my roll claiming it was only $1 extra charge, which I was fine with. ...Then another 2 minutes later...he says they are out of brown rice, but could offer me black rice. I was like what does black rice taste like?? sounds weird..I was assured that it pretty much had the same taste, so I agreed to it. And also, I was told that the girl waitress had told me $1 extra but it was actually $1.50. Again, they were very apologetic and super nice about it all, trying to accommodate to us as much as possible.

 I like the colorful glasses they use for the lemon water :) And the plates had modern shapes.

So here's our food!!

My green salad that I absolutely lovedddd. Fresh and crisp vegetables which were also showcased with different cutting techniques. fancy! This salad was different than all the other Japanese green salads I've tried because along with the traditional dressing, it was also covered in another white dressing. I didn't ask what it was, but it made the salad so much more delicious and mouth-watering. This was $4.

Chicken Yakisoba. It came on a hot plate and was sizzling when it was brought to our table. The sauce was good, chicken was tender and an all-around good dish. Plenty to go around, even took leftovers of this home.

 Ika Karaage (squid). We ordered this in place of the oysters. I didn't try this, but my mom enjoyed it. Came with chili sauce for dipping.

Here's my beef teriyaki roll with "black rice". My first words when I saw it was "It's purple!" Nonetheless, It was oh so yummy. I like it better than with white rice! I think because it had a sort of sweetness to it. My mom and I both said that it reminded us of Biko ( a filipino dessert). This roll truly didn't disappoint; although the meat was a little on the dry side. But I would get this dish again. It was $4 plus the $1.50 for brown/black rice.

Yakitori: chicken skewers. $5. These were fun to eat. Basically just chicken with teriyaki sauce, but it's simplicity was nice. yum :)

Then..to our surprise, a server came over and gave us an appetizer on-the-house! I guess to make up for not having oysters or brown rice.

Potato/corn and pumpkin croquettes. These were super delicious. It had a crispy outside and a soft melt-on-your-tongue texture on the inside. And being free, it made it even tastier :) hehehee

Then again....he came over with another plate of food on-the-house!

It was the black rice with avocado and cucumber. It had a nice light taste. It was so nice of them :) Truly great service and extra friendly staff. 

I guess they also want to impress us, to get repeat business. He even told us that they'd have more oysters in 3 days lol 

But, I'm sure I'll be back here again in the near future, perhaps with Bryan this time.
Sushi S, overall, a rating of 9.5 out of 10

Happy Eating, xoxo,

Dina

Sushi Tengoku

I was in Surrey! (and I'm not down there too often) So Bryan and I decided to try a place we haven't been to, but in Surrey. We present to you: Sushi Tengoku. It was the former location of Anducci's, right beside Starbucks.We got there at 5:45pm and were seated right away at a booth by the window. We were immediately impressed. Great looking modern place, hip atmosphere and friendly employees. They all had smiles on their faces everytime they came over, which is important to us. It even looks like they have special seating upstairs.

LOL at Bryan's shirt! (It's very true!)

We didn't really have one particular server. There were 3 different people who were checking on us, taking orders, cleaning table, etc.

So we looked at the menu and there's definitely lots of choices, they have the traditional japanese dishes and also some creative ones like "the nude boy roll" haha that was my favorite (name), but we didn't actually order that. And the prices are moderate too. Not cheap, but not overly expensive either.

First up is my green salad :) Lol I don't know why, but I love the dressing on the salads at Japanese restaurants so I almost always order one, if it's not already included.

Good-sized portion. Veggies were fresh and crisp, not soggy and drenched with water like some places. And yummy dressing :)

I also ordered a Beef Teriyaki Roll. I don't like raw fish or raw anything so I usually avert to this roll.

To share, Bryan and I decided on a "Crunch Roll". This was pretty good too. It had prawn tempura and yam tempura on the top. Delicious!

Here's a close-up of the Crunch Roll:

Bryan on the other hand, loves raw stuff. So he ordered a Salmon Don.

Portion was good.And he says the salmon tasted very fresh! Also, with plentiful of rice, he almost had a hard time finishing.

I noticed giant Penguins in the decor so I had to take a photo of them :)

Here's our bill that came up to $26.29. Not bad for a great experience!

What I also like is on the receipt, the do the math for you and split the cost for each person. This is great if you're out with a bunch of friends and are all paying for their own food.

So if you're ever in Surrey, Sushi Tengoku is a great place to eat! Highly recommended :)

Overall, 9.5 out of 10 rating

Happy Eating, xoxo,

Dina & Bryan

Max's Restaurant: Cuisine of the Philippines

Wow! I was excited to see another filipino restaurant opening in Vancouver, Max's! (3546 Kingsway, Vancouver) From what I'm told, they are known for their chicken.
So, we got there at about 10minutes to 5pm. And there was already quite a large crowd waiting. I signed us in for a table for 6 people. We were told the wait would be more or less 20 minutes. And thankfully it was no more than a 20 min wait for us. We were given our menus ( they were even opened in front of us for us).

 We asked for water to drink, and being disappointed, it took forever for our water to come. I think it came about 1/3 way through eating our meal even when I had mentioned it to 2 other servers as well. So they get negative points for that. I even had to stop eating for a bit because I got soooo thirsty!
Here's what we ordered:

This is the "Max's Teasers" for $9.49 which is a sampler of their appetizers. What a disappointment!! The yam fries were soggy, shriveled up and COLD! So were the calamares! The calamares were decent in taste though. The only thing warm was the the lumpiang shanghai, but there was only 4 little pieces. It's as if the plate was sitting out for a long time waiting to be taken to our table :(

This is the "Crabmeat Fried Rice" for $9.99

It tasted okay, but that's all I can say! Nothing special about it. Not sure where the crabmeat was...the stuff on top looked more like scrambled egg... p.s.this dish was also on the cold side!! hmm....

This is the Kare-kare, one of their "house specialties" regular size for $14.99 ( You could get Large for $19.99)

I didn't get a taste, but Denise loved it! and Bryan said it tasted like home-cooking, which I guess is a good thing. We ran out of bagaoong (shrimp paste) and they had to charge us an extra 99cents which I think is dumb...

 Here's the Pancit Palabok for $8.99. This was quite tasty actually. Again, it's nothing extraordinary, but I did enjoy it.

And of course, Max's fried chicken (whole) $14.99. This dish, everyone enjoyed. But I feel like it's still ordinary...even the chicken at Nando's is yummier! Ssshhh! don't tell anyone I said that!!

I think what we all enjoyed most was the DESSERTS! 

MMMMMmmmm!! Leche Flan! $3.29. It's a rather small piece, but enough for everyone to have a piece. So creamy and delicious!!

HALO-HALO!! $5.99 (ouch! says the wallet :)) Classic dessert that didn't disappoint. And loved the little umbrella touch :)

And finally, a Sago't Gulaman $3.29 More of a drink, not a dessert, but we preffered it after dinner. This was delicious. My little sisters drank it so fast, I was lucky to get a quick drink. Refreshing!

Service was rather slow, but they were super busy because it was a Saturday evening. Our server seemed like she was in LaLa Land half the time. When she came to take away some of our plates... OPA!! she dropped one and glass was everywhere. And it was SLOW, did I already say that? :) haha. 

I think it's a little overpriced and the food tasted so-so. I'd rather go to PinPin or Josephine's for filipino cuisine. I'm disappointed with this experience quite frankly :(

Oh wells..
Overall, Max's gets a rating of 7 out of 10

Happy Eating! xoxo,

Dina & Bryan

The Famous Warehouse

If you haven't already been....you HAVE TO GO!!! I know many of you have tried this place, so you get a pat on the back :) Located at 989 Granville Street Downtown Vancouver. It's essentially a pub/bar-style setting/restaurant. Everything on the menu is $4.95!!! And the portions are pretty decent at that price. I was here last weekend with my fam. Here's what we ordered:

The spicy chicken Quesadilla - authentic mexican tortillas, shredded cheddar and jack cheese with sauteed peppers and onions. It came with sour cream and salsa for dipping along with a few nacho chips and bite of greens. I didn't try it, but my sister loved it! Chicken was tender and moist and just what you'd expect from a quesadilla :)

Second was the Nachos for One. Fresh and crisp nacho chips, shredded cheddar and jack cheese with bell peppers, onions and jalapenos. We added the spicy chicken to it which made them even more delicious. Also served with sour cream and salsa.

Next up, the Teriyaki Crispy Chicken Wings. You also have a choice of salt & pepper, hot, hotter, lemon pepper, honey garlic or bbq. These were scrumptiousssssss. Also served with a couple carrot sticks and celery sticks with ranch sauce.

Here we have the Works Burger and substituted fries for beer-battered onion rings for an extra $1.55. The burger is made from premium alberta beef, maple bacon, cheddar, crispy onion strings,shredded lettuce,tomato, pickle topped with macho sauce (slightly spicy) all inside a toasted brioche bun. Definitely a winner. You're sure to be full from this one! Oh so yummy!

Here's the smokey bbq burger my mom ordered. I've ordered this before, and I knew she'd enjoy it just as much as I did. Premium alberta beef, cheddar, smokey bbq sauce, jalapenos, macho sauce, shredded lettuce, tomato, pickle on a toasted brioche bun. The meat was sooo juicy and with the cheddar melted on top....BURGER HEAVEN!  She chose the local wild greens salad instead of fries.

Finally, I ordered the Veggie burger, but without the bun. It orginally comes with corn salsa, fresh avocado, macho sauce, shredded lettuce, tomato and pickle and of course the soy patty. But since I'm starting to watch what I eat, I asked to have it without the salsa, sauce and bun. And our server was really nice about it and understanding :)

It gets really packed here especially after office hours and on weekends! One time we had to wait almost 2 hours to get a table for a large group. Other times the wait is about 15 minutes or no wait at all. It's great food for a cheap price! Other things on the menu are baja fish tacos, braised beef spaghetti, or a union street noodle salad. Take your pick!!

They also have monday all-you-can eat pasta for $6.95, All-you-can-eat Taco Tuesdays for $6.95 and Wednesday Wing day-15cent wings all day.

Overall, The Warehouse gets a 9.5 out of 10 rating

Happy Eating! xoxo,
Dina

Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant

After shopping at the "rummage sale" at Front & Company (got some great finds btw!), Bryan and I needed a quick fix for an early dinner. From a distance, we spotted a japanese restaurant, Nikkyu (3302 Main Street) and decided to try it. Two ladies were leaving, the same time we were going in. It was about 4:30pm and we were the only ones there. It was nice getting to choose our own spot by the window, but also weary about the fact that no one else was there. Was it still too early on a Saturday? ...By the end of our meal, a family of 4 had come in, so maybe they get more busier later on..

Anyways, we were promptly given our menus and tea. They had a dinner special where you can choose either 3 items on a given menu for $12.50 I believe or 4 items for $13.50. So we went with the 4 items. Here is what we got: 

Beef Teriyaki with steamed white rice. I enjoyed this very much because the sauce was really tasty! There's places where the sauce makes or breaks the whole meal, but this one was good. But other than that, it's pretty standard. 

 And the other 3 choices were: Unagi Roll, Alaska Roll and 3 pieces of Salmon Nigiri. All pretty standard with taste, nothing special.

And for $1.00 more I added a salad and miso soup!

 Not much else we can say about Nikkyu, it wasn't expensive, but it wasn't the cheapest and tastiest in town either. Probably won't be back here unless it was the last thing opened. 
Overall, a 7.5 out of 10 rating for Nikkyu

Happy Eating! xoxo,
Bryan & Dina

Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates and Patisserie

I've been wanting to visit Thomas Haas since forever and we finally did! We visited the Kitsilano location at 2539 West Broadway Avenue, Vancouver, BC. 
We arrived there at about 10:45am and boy! it was packed!! All the seats were occupied and they had a long lineup going. It's a lovely place, I fell in love! We stood in line trying to decide what to order, we didn't wait longer than 15 minutes. After placing our order, I stood around with a hawk's eye, scouting out people who were leaving so I could grab it. Bingo! got a table :) 

I admire the ceiling! Great piece of art :)

Here's Bryan's Matcha Latte!! He says it was deeeelicious! He's really into matcha lately :) this was $3.75 and well worth it

Here's a Pear Almond Tort. This tasted great! It was a simple, yet elegant taste. A great treat without being overly sweet.

We also ordered something from their pastry menu: a Fresh Fruit Danish. This tasted sooo yummy. The bread was flaky and buttery goodness! The fruits definitely tasted fresh and were a great addition. There was some kind of fruit syrupy thingy on top too. YUM!! this was $2.95

And finally for dessert we ordered a Pistachio Apricot Cake: Pistachio white chocolate mousse with apricot gelee on vanilla shortbread. This isn't something we usually would order, but we wanted to be daring this time. We quite enjoyed this one. The soft frothy texture of the mousse plus the zing! of apricot gelee on top of a crumbly texture of shortbread was divine. definitely a winner. And it was topped with a thomas haas chocolate and flower petal.

 Here's some of his chocolatey creations in the store:

We also took home some goodies and bought a chocolate bar from the "tea series": Matcha - handmade white chocolate with matcha green tea

It has a smooth and mild taste, definitely high quality chocolate. Bryan and I love this chocolate soooo much, our new favourite! you MUST try!!! One bar was $4.95, but definitely a must-try indulgence

Also bought a box of bake-at-home chocolate sparkle cookies, which are gluten-free, for $9.95

Haven't tried them yet, but I can't wait to.
What's also great was that when Bryan went to pay, the owner himself was there and wrapped up our goodies for us. Very friendly service! He's got great things going for him. We will most definitely be back :)
Overall, Thomas Haas gets a 9.5 out of 10 rating

Happy Eating, xoxo,
Dina & Bryan