Le Faux Bourgeois - Need to Go Back for Their Steak and Frites!!

We celebrated Lil Sis' birthday by having dinner at Le Faux Bourgeois (anyone know the proper way to pronounce this?). This little French bistro has always been on my to-eat list and I was so happy to finally taste what all the fuss is about. 

I liked Le Faux Bourgeois instantly because their menu was affordable and the quantity of food was great. I find a lot of French restaurants overprice their dishes and I end up leaving hungry and unsatisifed.

We started off with some complimentary bread and butter.

Anything with buoyancy and chew is always up my alley so these French snails aka Escargots De Bourgogne ($10.00) were right up there. I do prefer them cooked in garlic and only a little bit of butter versus submerged in a cup full like the one above.

Three of us ended up getting the Steak Frites ($20) but with different sides and sauces. This one is with a salad instead of fries, and is served with a slab of herb butter. I guess the salad compensates for the butter?? Haha.

This Steak Frites is also served with a salad and a side of red wine shallot jus.  The wine simmered down to a perfect sauce and it goes oh so well with steak. The only thing was that Lil Sis found her steak cooked just a little over her requested medium rare.

I wanted to try Steak Frites as is so I got them with fries and a peppercorn sauce. Dear lord these fries were good. They were not overly crispy and most of them still had skin attached to it (I love potato skin!!). My steak, unlike my girlfriends, was perfectly cooked to a medium rare and tender to the touch. I could cut it with a butter knife. :)

Rae couldn't rave enough about the Canard Confit dish. It has a a crispy duck confit on top of a warm salad of Sarladaise potatoes, goat cheese, arugula and port jus. The skin was SOOO crispy she nearly died eating it. I will definitely try this dish next time I go!

Service Rating: 3/5
Food Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $$$-$$$$

Overall Rating: 4/5


                      Eat all the carbs and meat!!

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Tipsy Cow Burger Bar (Redmond) - Burgers Like No Other

On my recent business trip to Redmond, I went with my coworkers to the Tipsy Cow Burger Bar. It's like Vera's or Stackhouse where burgers are taken to the extreme and combined with some really cool ingredients.

 

This place also serves alcoholic milkshakes. ALCOHOLIC MILKSHAKES!! 

They have the coolest burger names like "Beast Mode" or "The Notorious P.I.G". Half the fun was laughing at all the names and seeing all my guy coworkers choose based on how 'manly' the name was. :D

I didn't want to aggravate my wheat allergy so I chose the Big Eye (sub Bib Lettuce for the bun). The Big Eye consisted of ahi tuna, oven baked nori, wasabi aioli, and a purple cabbage sweet Asian slaw. I think I subbed the fries with truffle fries as well. This meal was absolutely fantastic. The ahi tuna was HUGE and so worth the money. The fries were the only let down. They were a little limp and not very crispy. But whatever, the burger was GREAT!!!

Another reason why some of my male coworkers got The Rockstar (even though I'm convinced they just want to say 'I'm the Rockstar') is because of the ridiculous toppings on this burger. It has brew battered fried bacon, maple syrup, Beecher's Flagship white cheddar, fried organic egg, carmelized onions, and tipsy sauce.

Clearly, everyone that ate this was in a bit of a food coma after. Also, their entire hands were drenched in juice/yolk. Not that anyone's complaining. 

This one is called The Brewmaster and has a thick cut onion ring right in the middle of it. I didn't try any of their burgers but it all looked really good.

And of course the Greek inspired one is called ZEUS. It has freshly ground lamb, feta cheese, olive tapenade, red onion, english cucumber, and fresh dill yogurt.

I wish I came back a couple more times before I left because this joint was da bomb. The burgers are outrageous and very unique so I'd recommend this place for casual eats any time of day. :) And try their alcoholic milkshakes!!

Service Rating: 4/5

Food Rating: 4.5/5

Price: $$

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Happy Eating!

                       A good burger gets me like...

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Purebread (Gastown) - Can I Eat Everything?

Purebread started off as a one off location in Whistler but progressively got more and more popular as the years went by. Now, they have a location in Gastown and it's FULL of carbolicious goodies.

I absolutely adore their display case. It's simple, lays out all of their products in an extremely attractive manner, and is honestly just a feast for the eyes.

Blueberry drizzle loaf.... Mmmm..

I was so tempted to get their Chocolate Bottom Banana Bar which is essentially a 50/50 bar of banana bread and brownie. How delicious does that sound?!

I ended up getting a Flat White and an Earl Grey Lavender Scone as a snack. It was nice to sit by the window and eat this while reading my kobo. It was a super relaxing way to spend the weekend.

Surprisingly, the lavender flavour was a lot more prominent than the earl grey. The floral taste really sets this apart from all the other regular scones like 'blueberry' or 'cheddar'. Also, the drizzle on top is a citrus icing which went beautifully with the scone. If you don't know what to get here, get this item!!

Purebread is an awesome little bakery and will satisfy any sweet or savoury tooth when you're in the mood. I will most definitely be going back to buy a whole bunch of items to try back home.

Service Rating: 3/5

Food Rating: 4.5/5

Price: $

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating! 

                            Habababa... Carbs...

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Pearl Castle Cafe - New Summer Menu

Pearl Castle has always been and still is a solid bubble tea option whenever my friends and I go out for late night drinks and bubble tea. However, with so many new competitors in the area (and especially in Richmond), I realize I haven't frequent Pearl Castle in a very long time. 

They are introducing a new summer menu complete with new drinks and food items to cater to the hot trends of Taiwanese cuisine. Thanks Chinese Bites for

I guess cotton candy drinks are now a thing in Taiwan because Pearl Castle will be introducing these funky beverages starting mid June! The blue one is called Blue Sky (made with blue tangerine, calpis, pop, and cotton candy) while the yellow one is called Sunset Love (made with orange, pineapple, and peach juice with cotton candy).

We were able to sample quite a few new drinks and a lot of them were super tasty! I especially enjoyed the jelly noodle topping (the waitress told me it's made with yam and is like a tapioca consistency) and winter melon juice. 

In order, the drinks from left to right are:

• Pudding Milk Tea
• Coconut red bean
• Peach lemon green tea
• Green tea red bean
• Traditional black tea with jelly noodle topping
• Winter melon juice with jelly noodle topping
• Green lattea
• Fresh taro green milk tea
• Roasted rice lattea

The Taiwanese Sausage was quite tasty and acted as a good appetizer to share.

When I come back, I'll definitely get this Deep Fried Fish Cake! It was delish and unlike anything I've tasted before. I think they make it in-house and deep fry them fresh. Nom nom nom...

The Wontons in Chili Sauce were typical but pretty good overall.

Deep Fried Mushrooms were tasty and different from your typical fried appetizer. Great for vegetarians!

Pearl Castle won the 2015 Chinese Restaurant Awards (Diner's Choice) for Three Cup Chicken and I can see why. A lot of my friends who go to Pearl Castle only order this item because they think it's just the greatest. It has great flavour and comes with three sides, AND butter cookies for dessert. Bet you'll be full after this meal!

I didn't really love the Marinated Chicken with Rice only because I am not fond of fried items that end up sitting in sauce.

The Garlic Sauce Chicken had tons of garlic!! Like 15- 20 cloves, no joke.

The flavour is very similar to three cup chicken, but I do enjoy the garlickiness of this one more. :D

For vegetarians, the Vegetarian Abalone Mushroom with Three Spices might be a good option. The mushrooms have a very meaty consistency so it's 'like' you're eating meat.

I think they revamped the Original Taiwanese Beef Noodle because it tasted better than normal. The noodles looked and tasted like they were made in-house and the broth was incredibly flavourful.

Calling all spicy lovers! This Spicy Incence Pot will burn your mouth and give you fiery breath for the rest of the night. It is heated so it stays warm throughout your meal.

This is my favourite dish of all time and I get this 90% of the time. It's the Milk Seafood and Pork Hot Pot ( I usually get the Udon version of this but it's the same broth). The soup is INCREDIBLE creamy and is a very hearty meal for a cold rainy night.

The Fish Nuggets with Sour Sauce didn't leave an impression on me.

The Marinated Pork with Rice is exactly the same as the other dish with Chicken. Again, not my cup of tea.

All in all, Pearl Castle is bringing some really great ideas to their summer menu and I can't wait to come back and bring my friends. For drinks, I'm excited to try the Fresh Taro Milk Tea and Green Lattea.

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 3.5/5
Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Happy Eating!


              sample ALL da food!

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Man Ri Sung Korean Restaurant - Peking Duck and Knife Cut Noodles

My family and I found an advertisement in the local paper about this Man Ri Sung Restaurant in Aberdeen. It was originally on Westminster and in a much smaller location. I guess business was good so now they moved to a bigger and better spot.

They specialize in peking duck and Korean food. It's kind of a weird mix but I have an inkling it's because the chef is Chinese and he married a Korean wife.

 They have some set menus for 4 (which we got) and 8 people which are great because the planning is already done for you. Both set menus include peking duck and a variety of different dishes.

For $75.95 (the 4 people set menu), we got a whole duck slicked up and ready for peking duck wrapping goodness, duck hot pot (with homemade knife cut noodles), and a choice of Japchae, blood sausage, or potstickers. We went with the Japchae.

Some banchans (Korean side dishes) for good measure. They had bean sprouts, kimchi, pickled radishes, and sweet potatoes. 

My whole family was impressed by the quality of the BBQ duck. The skin was extremely crispy and the meat was juicy. Furthermore, the famous Chef (his pic is on the menu) personally came to take our order and ask us how it was throughout the meal. I saw him do that with a couple of other tables too. It's nice to see a Chef or store owner take the time to know his customers and ask for feedback. That is what truly separates entrepreneurs who put their heart and soul into their business and the 'investors' or business owners that just do it for pure profit.

For peking duck virgins, this is how you make your wrap. You take a piece of 'crepe' or chinese pancake, put hoisin sauce on it, add the green onion and julienne cucumber, and top it with duck skin/meat.

Wrap it up and you're good to go!

 The japchae was flavourful and had enough veggies and mushrooms to fill me up before the hot pot arrived.

The set menu allowed us to choose between the 'Duck Hotpot' or 'Duck Congee'. After having this hotpot, I would absolutely recommend getting this over the congee. This hot pot is DA BOMB.

Not only did the hot pot have lots of leftover duck meat in it, it had tons of veggies and knife cut noodles (kalguksu)!! These homemade knife cut noodles were unlike anything I've ever tasted, and was cooked to a perfect consistency. Every single noodle was unique and different because thats how its made.

Here is a video of how knife cut noodles are made... the chef literally takes a block of dough and shaves off noodles one by one into a pot of boiling water.

I am definitely coming back again because the food was just so darn good.

Service Rating: 5/5
Food Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $$-$$$

Overall Rating: 5/5

Happy Eating!


                       Nom nom nom...

 

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