Ten Ten Tapas (Dine Out Vancouver) - Come Here for Tapas only...Skip the Dinner

I like Dine Out Vancouver because it gives Vancouverites the opportunity to try out new restaurants at a relatively discounted price. I've accepted the fact that it's usually a hit or miss because set menus are usually never as good as ordering a la carte. Nonetheless it's still a good opportunity to taste a bit of everything.

With Ten Ten Tapas, I'll preface this with.. it was a miss. A pretty big miss. I'll try to be as constructive as possible.... but to be honest, (most of) my friends and I left this restaurant pretty disappointed.

Their menu looked promising on the dine out website, but I quickly realized the item I was most excited about got changed... :( More on that later.

I'm sad to say that the Spicy Tuna Barley Sushi was a complete disappointment. The presentation looked incredibly sloppy and I literally had less than half a typical spicy tuna roll. For an appetizer on a $28 menu, I expected MUCH more than this.

All my other friends got the Dungeness Crab Bisque and the general consensus was that it was bland. The soup lacked depth, seasoning, and overall crab flavour.

 I applaud their freshly made pasta for this Winter Squash Ravioli dish. However, the portion similar to the appetizer was quite small and none of us were close to being full after this.

Though the brown butter sauce and golden beets were quite good, the blanched spinach was really odd and felt like it was just put there to add some greenery.

These Braised Beef Short Ribs. I only have one thing to say about them: it tasted like Chinese style beef brisket in mash potatoes and blanched spinach.

Overall, it wasn't a horrible dish. It was solid and if I was paying something more reasonable and it was coming out of a casual restaurant, I'd be happy. But again, for $28, I expected the quality of the food to be higher and more compelling to eat.

This was the item I was most excited about and I can't believe it disappointed me as well. The menu on the dine out website described it as "Fudge Brownie S'more By Candlelight with Walnut Fudge Brownie and Graham Crumb, Ice Cream, Chocolate Sauce, Housemade Marshmallow to roast by candlelight". Where's the ice-cream, graham crumb, or roasting of marshmallow by candlelight?! Sigh.

Lil Sis's brownie was also cold so the marshmallow didn't melt. She left her dessert mostly untouched.

The (slightly) saving grace was the live music during our dinner. They were lively, great with the crowd, and sang the jazzy blues everyone knows and loves. Fon loved it so much she said she would come back just for the music.

Ten Ten Tapas seems to be a great place to have drinks, eat the occasional pita and dip, and enjoy live music. It's not a place for full meals or dine out so I definitely suggest coming with that in mind to avoid disappointment like us.

Service Rating: 2.5/5
Food Rating: 1.5/5
Price: $$$-$$$$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!


                  unimpressed face during dinner

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Le Petit Saigon - Alright but Not Amazing

After our throwback party at PNE with BoyzIIMen, my friends and I went to Le Petit Saigon for some hot comforting pho. Who doesn't love pho on a chilly cold night? :)

We've heard of Le Petit Saigon before so we had some pretty high standards Walking in, the atmosphere was homey though service was lacking throughout the entire meal.

They had some pretty cool smoothie varieties including Durian, Sour Sop (what's that?!), and Avocado. I was SO tempted to get the Durian Smoothie but decided to spare my friends the car ride with me and my durian-breathe. :P

Number 22: Tai Sach ($7.75 Sml) consisted of only rare steak and tripe. For rare steak, I was surprised by the chewiness of it as it should be quite tender having just cooked in the boiling broth.

Though the broth had an intense umami flavour to it and was without a doubt delicious, we all thought it had a lot of MSG and slowly felt its effects thirty minutes after our meal. All in all, for eleven bucks and two toppings, I didn't think this was worth it.

Rae ordered the same thing as me except she had meatballs and Fon ordered the No.1 Special. Both were average and none of them were wowed at all by the pho.

I'm surprised by the 93% rating on Urbanspoon because I didn't think it was impressive at all. Their prices are on the higher range compared to my favourite pho spot Thai Son, and they use way too much MSG in their broth.

Service Rating: 2/5
Food Rating: 2.5/5
Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!

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Joe's Grill - All American Breakfast

Joe's Grill is a classic breakfast joint on West 4th and I've read many a post on their toasts, eggs, bacon..etc. I didn't understand what makes them stand out from all the rest so I decided to go with my coworkers Bing and Robot to find out.

To our surprise, there was a GIGANTIC line up in front of the restaurant. They told us it would be about 20 minutes or so but it turned out to be 45 minutes. Needless to say, we were hangry (hungry + angry) by the time we sat down.

They have their usual egg items, pancakes, bennys, and wraps.

Bing ordered one of the Omelettes ($9.35) and it consisted of three eggs, panfried potatoes, and toast. He thought it was pretty good.

Robot got the Mimosa and The Basic ($6.85) which had two eggs, bacon, panfried potatoes, and toast. She said it was pretty good and satisfied her bacon craving.

I felt like a big ol' steak for breakfast that day so I went all out and got the New York Steak ($13.95). It looks pretty good in the picture but the 6oz grade 'A' steak was actually very thin and slightly tough. I absolutely did not think it was worth the $16 (including tax and tips) because I can easily find something similar at a HK Style Cafe for $8.

After this visit, I still don't understand why Joe's Grill has endless line ups. Their breakfasts tasted okay with above average prices.

Service Rating: 2.5/5
Food Rating: 2/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!

 

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Jade Seafood Restaurant - Only Come Here For The Honeycomb Brown Sugar Cake

Funny enough, I've lived in Richmond all my life and I've never once attempted The Jade Seafood Restaurant on Alexandra road. 

This is a popular local spot for dim sum and Alaskan king crab. Their most famous dish (and the dish that I was itching to try) is their Brown Sugar Rice Cake that resembles a honeycomb.

Their dim sum menu at a glance. Prices are around the mid to high range I'd say.

First off, I have to say their service was atrocious and the cleanliness of the tables and cutlery were off-putting. We found dirty cups, tea leaves stuck to the outside of the teapot, dirty tablecloths, and our waiter was non-existent.

Anyways, their Steamed Mushroom Dumpling ($4.98) is one of their most popular dim sum items and for good reason. The abundance of mixed mushrooms and the hint of truffle oil really brought the flavours to life. I loved this dish.

The Steamed Fish Maw with Fish Paste ($5.68) on the other hand, was quite disappointing. They must have overworked the shrimp paste because it tasted bland and completely void of the bouncy texture you get when biting into real plump shrimp.

If they can serve this Steamed Brown Sugar Rice Cake ($3.98) at the food court or another dim sum restaurant... that'd be great. I absolutely loved this bouncy, slightly sweet, honeycomb cake but I wish it was offered at a different restaurant! This is a must try item. The texture of the 'honeycomb' on your tongue is quite the experience.

  

I really liked how the Fried Chicken Knee (~$7-8) was served with edamame. It was fried in fresh oil and had a very clean crisp taste.

I saw another blogger try this so I decided to order the Steamed Rice Roll with Fish Paste ($5.38) as well. The texture was surprisingly soft..too soft for my liking but I can imagine some people enjoying this.

 I had high hopes for the Durian Glutinous Rice Dumpling ($3.98). Unfortunately, it fell short of expectations.

As you can see, the rice dumpling aka 'mochi' is filled completely with whipped cream. I would say in the entire dumpling there was only 20% durian. Such a let down.

All in all, my experience here was quite a let down. Not only was the bad service enough to keep me from ever coming back, 80% of the food we ordered was merely passable. In a highly competitive dim sum market like Richmond/Vancouver, there are so many better options out there.

Check out Western Lake for my BEST dim sum experience ever.

Service Rating: 1/5
Food Rating: 3/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!

 

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McDonald's Poutine: Hit or Miss?

McDonald's recently came up with a new product that I feel like should've been on their menu a long time ago. The 'Poutine'. The Canadian Classic of fries, gravy, and cheese curds.

However, after having a taste of it I realized why it isn't on the permanent menu and only offered as a promotional item. It sucks.

The well known McDonalds fries are way too skinny and limp for the poutine so it adds nothing texturally to the dish. The gravy was really sweet (I don't know why), and the cheese curds were alright. Overall, it just wasn't good. Especially if it's going to cost me 4 bucks. I'd rather go to New York Fries and get their more expensive poutine there.

Service Rating: 2/5
Food Rating: 2/5
Price: $

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!

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Sura Korean BBQ Cuisine- Not as Great as It Looks

There is a new Korean restaurant at Aberdeen (in Richmond) that just recently opened up and I went with a couple of friends to check it out. It replaced the old Tropika (which I'm still sad about) and completely renovated the interior.

They have a lunch special which is a set menu consisting of all the items below. It seemed like a pretty sweet deal because you get about 15 different items for 15 bucks.

Here is a closer look at exactly what was included in the set menu that we chose. We went with the Course SU ($15).

Our Daily Congee and Green Salad was quite unamusing. The congee was favoured with red bean which was kind of cool but weird at the same time.

I quite liked the Mung Bean but most of my friends didn't particularly enjoy them. They just taste like gelatin strips with sesame oil.

The Sweet and Sour Pork didn't have enough sauce and wasn't crispy on the outside.

The Spicy Squid Salad was INCREDIBLY spicy and had barely any squid. We also had a couple of Banchans (little side Korean side dishes) but it didn't have any of the common sweet potato or seaweed so nobody really touched it.

The Potato Pancake is pretty much the Korean seafood pancake without any seafood. Not very good at all.

The Grilled Atlantic Croaker had a lot of bones in it so only a couple of people ate it. Shinto just ate them with bones and all so I guess they're technically edible.

At this point, nothing that came before this was very good so I was happy to see the Bulgolgi. The meat wasn't bad and the sauce was quite good with rice.

The Pork Belly was another item that was also pretty good but nothing spectacular. It would've been cool if we could grill our own pork belly though and eat it hot because this dish was pretty lukewarm when it was served to us.

The Soybean Paste Soup, was super spicy but good with rice.

Tea in the rice stone bowl.

Two of my friends ordered Bulgolgi Bibimbap instead of the set course and because the waitress mixed it with spicy sauce before we could stop them, it was too spicy and they didn't like it.

All in all, my friends and I all think that while it was a cool idea to have a set course for lunch, the quality just didn't cut it. We most likely will not be coming back.

Service Rating: 2/5
Food Rating: 2/5
Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!

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