asticklerSurrey, B.C.Since September 1, 200733 Reviews
(2.5)- Food
(2.7) - Service (2.5)
- Value (2.3)
- Ambiance (2.6)
Do a search below using the city or postal code search box if your city is not listed above.
Get dining news including restaurant closures and qualify for giveaways.
(2.5) (2.7) (2.5) (2.3) (2.6)Had their lamb burger and fries for lunch today. Sounded lovely on the menu: cumin, feta, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, etc.
Well, what a disappoinment. I got a dry lamb burger, very bland, with 2 tiny pieces of chopped tomato and green pepper and a little red onion. I would have needed a magnifying glass to find any feta there! Not even a hint of cumin. The bun was the low-end, poor quality "sawdust" quality white bread. The fries were okay but nothing to write home about.
This came with a price tag of $14. For a lunchtime burger and fries!
Next time, I'll stay home and cook my own -- I can make a much better burger.
We were also pretty much left alone after we ordered -- didn't even get the waitress coming by to ask how everything was, so I guess, legally, I could have not paid.
I did, but I won't come back here again.
Our first visit to the Thai House in Richmond was a pleasant surprise. Is this the best Thai food I've ever had? Maybe not, but it was really quite good, with mostly nice flavour blending. Only one disappointment: the rather bland red curry that came in the coconut shell needed more intense flavours. Since there were four of us; we ordered the dinner for four, stuffed ourselves and there was still food left over! The bill, with a couple of extras, was still under $100! The place was full but our server made us feel as if we were the only ones there. He was cheerful and eager to please, even offering a substitution when my husband said he wasn't keen on ostrich skewers (which the rest of us wanted). Our drinks were regularly replenished. The food came out fast (at times, a little too fast) and hot. Standouts: excellent satay sauce and the seafood soup. Huge portions, good value, tasty food, excellent service, central location.
I love coming here for the people watching, for the music, for the books, for the stroll down the street after. However, strictly speaking about food, some of it is very good, very fresh, and some of it has been a little average, bland, not very homemade. All in all, though, worth it, despite the inconsistencies! Beats all the McChains and the Tim Hortons for a cup of tea and a snack!
I've eaten at this Earl's in Langley about 30 times over the past few years. Haven't been there this past year and, from reading the poor reviews, that's probably just as well. Used to be as good as any of the Earl's, barring the occasional faux pas, which were always corrected or the meal comp'd. Service was the usual Earl's standard: wannabe fashionista wait staff, usually friendly, sometimes vacuous. Nothing offensive. The menu is imaginative, lots of good pairings and it changes often enough to remain interesting but keeps the classics. If this Earl's is so bad now, I bet it's because it's being poorly managed. They need to fix that before they totally lose Earl's fans like me. If I can't count on all the Earls to be consistently good, I'll just stop frequenting any of them.
The decor was fine. The service was well-meaning, if amateurish. The food was quite ordinary but nothing tasted really bad. The price was inflated. I came here to eat because someone else suggested it. I wouldn't choose to come here. Oh, and stop using the same silly birthday "horned" hat for everyone. Good way to spread head lice!
Yes, I admit the food is good. But it's so crowded, so noisy and so very dirty. Wish they would spruce up the place and give it a thorough cleaning. I just can't bring myself to eat there since I read the restaurant inspection reports: they have had many infractions involving hygiene, including a problem with vermin... yuck.
Now that I no longer live in Vancouver, I don't get to Sawasdee very often. When I do, I realize how much I love their intense flavours. Thai spices are my favourite: I love basil, galangal, lime, lemongrass and chili especially. Tom yum soup and beef with basil are wonderful! And don't even get me started about their home made coconut ice cream!! I am such an addict that a friend who lives in Vancouver has to bring a huge container of it out to me in Surrey from time to time!
Used to be a great place for dim sum in the mid 1980's when I was a regular there. Lately, I have noticed that the food, although still good, has become very expensive. The crowds and noisy atmosphere and so- so service make it a whole lot less appealing. I can think of better places to go for dim sum.
I have only had their dim sum and it was quite good: fresh and flavourful. The service is typical of an asian restaurant: perfunctory not fawning. The decor is shabby-ish and the whole place could use a good clean and a vacuum. However, it is not bad enough to be off-putting. I'm from Surrey and I drive to Port Coquitlam for dim sum (haven't found any good dim sum in Surrey).... I'm surprised that a previous reviewer found the food bad.
Just had a fabulous dinner at Leela Thai, our first time there. Started with the Tom Ka Gai soup- #11 - (chicken, mushrooms, cilantro, coconut milk, lemongrass, among other spices). It was the best Thai soup I have ever had, without a doubt. The chicken satay was wonderful too; really liked the flavour and texture of the sauce. We had a couple of different curries, both good, but the beef, eggplant green curry (#61) was a standout dish, with incredibly layered flavours. Thai cuisine is already one of the most complex in terms of flavours and this dish did not disappoint. Only the Pad Thai didn't rise above the ordinary but this was easily forgiven, as all the other dishes and the service were excellent. We ate more than we thought we would and even managed to leave with a doggy-bag. Portions are generous and prices are reasonable. We left extremely satisfied and thrilled with having discovered a wonderful alternative to having to drive to Vancouver to get really good Thai food! We will definitely be dining here regularly! Well done, Leela Thai!
I hate most pizza chains, with their over-cheesed but essentially bland pizzas and mediocre toppings. While this is not the best pizza place I've ever been to (you have to go to Vancouver for those), it's better than the horrible "Little Caesars", "Pizza Hut" and even "Panago's" (the latter being the best of the chains). If you are looking for value, order their 3 pizza party pack. Otherwise, for superior pizza, ignore their ordinary pizzas in favour of their extra-topping ones. They're quite good. The place could use a good clean (sticky seats and tables on occasion and the floor can be quite grimy). The self-serve, so called "homemade" soup in crockpots on the counter, is insipid and disgusting. It's like they threw a bunch of leftovers and boiled them in water and called it soup.
Go for the pizza, though!
This place is run by a Chinese family from India. It is quite startling to hear Hindi spoken like a native by a Chinese person. Even the English is Indian-accented! Once you get past that inconguity, you're faced with another one: A fusion of Indian and Chinese cuisine. Some dishes work very well, others bring out the worst of the two types of food. You should try this place out and find your favourites. Mine are the Bombay style shrimp curry and the skewered chicken appetizer. Very spicy, so ask for mild if you can't handle it. Bring a hanky to mop your sweating brow! I wish sometimes they would lower the chili factor and let the other spices shine through. Still, I like to eat here when I'm in the mood for not quite Indian, not quite Chinese. The prices are about at high as they should be. They have lunch specials but dinner can be expensive for what you get.
A terrible location but once you're inside, it's a pretty heritage house. Having said that, it could use a little sprucing up, as it's getting a little frayed around the edges. The owners are wonderful people and stay faithful to old-school French cuisine traditions. A lot of the menu items are authentically French and very tasty, albeit sometimes inconsistent in quality. If you want a quiet, romantic place to eat, with white linen, wood panelling and a fireplace, come here. Great frogs legs and excellent lamb.
If you like old-school ambiance, with starched white linen tablecloths and napkins and wood panelling, come here. If you like classical European cuisine, tasty enough, albeit a little stodgy, come here. If you like good value for your roast-beef meal, come here. In fact, bring your grandma! But don't expect innovative cooking or trendy decor. Service is fairly good but I've never been there on a really busy night or day.
A long wait, a noisy, crowded restaurant and a frazzled staff are all things I can handle but only if the food is really good. At Anton's it is not. I had heard about this place being an institution, so I went to check it out. The food is inconsistent and even at its best, it's nothing really special. Here's a tip: I'd rather skip the gargantuan portions and have them put their money into good ingredients and savvy cooking. Won't come back.
I've been eating sandwiches at Sam's Deli for over 20 years: first when I lived in Victoria as a university student in the 1980's and now whenever I come to visit or see friends. Love the roast beef sandwich. All their sandwiches are stacked high and the soups are tasty and filling. Self-service makes this a quick, inexpensive place to grab lunch when on the go in the inner harbour area of Victoria. Used to be a favourite place of our former PM Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
I went to university in Victoria (1978 to 1984) and Pagliacci's was a regular hang-out for my friends and me. In fact, for a time, I was eating there almost every day! Then I moved to the lower mainland. Now, every time I come to Victoria, I make a point of eating there. It has evolved from the early days, but still unchanged. Still the long lineups to get it (but worth it and part of the experience, actually!), still the good, honest, tasty food and generous portions, still the excellent value for money, still the noisy, crowded ambiance, which lends itself to leaning over and getting to know your neighbours. The owner is still there, making sure everyone is having a good time. The washroom (tiny!) is its virtually unchanged funky, shabby self. An institution.
This review may be a bit outdated: we had our fantastic, seafood wedding lunch there in 1985 and I have eaten there about 5 times since. Everytime, the decor, the service and the food have been very good. The chef and owner, if he's still there, is classically trained and understands food. His creations are simple yet elegant, with non of that "Feenie-ish" frou-frou, over-the-top pretentiousness. We live in the lower mainland but always attempt to eat there when in Victoria. Near the ferry terminal, in a beautiful spot, overlooking the bay. A lovely chalet, with pretty gardens.
My mother-in-law lives down the street and we have brought her here for dinner or tea many times when we come to Victoria to visit her. The place has slowly been going downhill, sadly. They used to have lovely, honest, fresh English food. Now it all tastes like it came out of a packet. I saw the chef smoking outside the back door: he and his clothes were filthy. Most unappetizing. The owner, originally from New Zealand, is a nice fellow. He supports local talent (they often have great musical entertainment in the evenings) and cares about his community (every year, the restaurant opens for a free Christmas dinner for the poor). However, he needs to makeover the tired decor and hire a chef who cares about making good food from fresh ingredients. English food already has a bad enough reputation -- we don't need the Blethering Place to make things worse.
If you simply have to come here, for the touristy experience of "jolly olde England", then just stay for tea and scones.
This cavernous restaurant is like the McDonalds of sushi places: fast, impersonal service, bland-tasting food with every possible corner cut to add to the bottom line, uninspiring decor. The all-you-can-eat menu is boring and the fish is often not fresh in taste and smell. Yuck! I have given this place about 4 or 5 chances over the past 3 years and it is just too inconsistent to become a favourite. There are so many other better places, even for all-you-can-eat sushi. Why come here? I think the sushi chefs must not really understand sushi. The general manager is a nice, cheeful chap, though. He has always greeted us as if we were regulars and he walks around, doing 'quality control' quite often. Too bad the standard of quality required is not that high. The place is a little grubby too -- needs a good clean and a makeover. I guess the location is a big draw, with all the others shops and services right there.
