Step-daughter took the Other Half and I here for lunch recently. Three adults and a new baby in a carseat took two people to get us seated. We had barely opened the menus and the server was there to take orders. We asked for green tea and a few more moments and then didn't see her for quite some time. The tea was VERY weak and not very hot.

Step-daughter ordered a dynamite combo, the OH ordered a sushi/sashimi bento and I ordered ten-don, miso soup and spinach goma-ae. Spinach arrived almost immediately and was the first sign something wasn't up to standard. The goma-ae dressing was super-sweet and there wasn't much of it plopped on top of stringy spinach. The spinach had not been inspected for quality and some of the pieces were old and discoloured. The whole thing would have been more edible if the spinach had been chopped even a little bit, but the leaves were whole and stringy.

Step-daughter's combo arrived, the two miso soups arrived, and then the ten-don for me. The sushi looked to be standard issue, fake crab/surimi much in evidence. The ten-don was a disappointment. One tiny tempura shrimp, one half piece each of squash, sweet potato and white potato. Overall was poured a dark brown gloppy, very sweet sauce with some shreds of carrot and onion that was advertized as "ten-don sauce". Not tempura dipping sauce, but a mystery gravy poured over everything, soaking the rice below.
The OH sat back to wait, but nothing arrived.

After watching later arrivals being served their food, we asked the server about the OH's bento. "Just a minute, just a minute!" and she rushed away. After that, she was into avoidance mode, avoiding eye contact, avoiding passing by our table. By this time, I had finished as much as I wanted of my meal and step-daughter was still waiting politely for her father's order to arrive (mine was a hot - OK, warm - dish, hers was sushi rolls - in my defense for seeming rudeness!) While they WERE busy at lunchtime, no one stopped by so that we could ask about the missing bento. Finally, I was on my feet ready to go get the "boss lady" when she realized I was on my way over. When we told her that Bento F had not arrived, she said... "you didn't order it" and "I wondered why HE wasn't eating". WTF? Then why was a miso soup (part of the bento set) delivered to the OH? After a brief "discussion" (yes we did order it, no you didn't, yes we did), she headed for the kitchen. Both step-daughter and I had finished our meals by the time his arrived with a muttered "sorry".

During all this time, no fresh tea was offered, although the servers were bustling the teapot around to other tables.

OK, enough venting. Quality of food was "meh" to the extreme. Value was not there - my icky sauce-drowned "ten-don" was $10, small and stringy goma-ae was $4, the bento (standard amount of food, and the tempura was not hot) was $15. The room was standard "Japanese" with phony cherry blossoms. The bathroom was clean enough.

The bill was the only thing to arrive with any alacrity, and there was an extra charge for a soft drink that had neither been ordered nor received. The charge was removed without any apology, and there was nothing else removed from the bill for the aggravation of their "overlooking" one order. They actually stuck to their story that we had NOT ordered the bento!

Would NOT recommend for quality, will NOT return because of having to argue to get an order that HAD been placed.

.... the decoration of a restaurant is better than the food?

Took my son and a friend of his here for dim sum on a Wednesday. Having been overawed by the jammed parking lot out front in the past, we agreed to get there EARLY to avoid a wait. The place opens at 10:30, we were there by 10:40. No wait, no problem getting seated.

The room is open, not horribly crowded and nicely decorated. The front door has an arrangement of screens that keeps the people waiting in line from staring at your food and keeps the drafts out - quite ingenious. Also ingenious was the illustrated menu card with numbered items that matches the numbered tick-off sheet. I had a moment's panic when realizing that there was no English on the tick-off sheet, but son's friend pointed out the numbering system and all was well.

With two young men with good appetites, we were able to order quite a variety of dim sum. The usual suspects, plus a few different dishes over and above the run-of-the-mill. The quality varied from OK to pretty good. Pan-fried radish cake (lo bok gow) was cut into smaller pieces and fried with spicy XO sauce - great! Purple taro steamed cake topped with cheese was unusual and good. Deep fried spring rolls were crisp and served standing upright in a footed goblet; the presentation was interesting and preserved the "crisp", but the filling was skimpy. Steamed spareribs in black bean and garlic sauce dish was sub-standard - mostly tasteless and mostly gristle. Har gow, congee, egg tarts, cha siu bao were all good. A pan-fried egg batter folded over filling and topped with dried tuna shavings was a visual treat, the tuna shavings "dancing" in the heat of the dish. We ordered three sweet items for dessert - egg tarts, steamed sponge cake and a slice of papaya filled with a gelatin-based pudding.

The food came intermittently, which was good as we were able to sample the dishes while they were hot. When we reviewed the orginal order sheet (returned to the table as an "all done" signal), we realized we had not received the papaya/pudding item. Asking for the dish resulted in three people double-checking the order slips delivered to the table with the dishes. By the third sour face, I felt that they were doubting our honesty. After a manager checked the slips, the papaya dish was dumped on the table by the stone-faced manager lady. Guess they don't like it when they get caught out in a slip-up?

Anyway, lots of food, some of it outstanding, but most of it pretty average. Quite pricey, in my opinion. This place is supposed to serve some of the very best dim sum in the Lower Mainland, or so I've heard from Asian friends. I'm glad we went, REALLY glad we didn't have to wait in a long lineup, and glad that my curiousity has been satisfied. I would investigate some of the other well-regarded restaurants in Richmond for dim sum before I return to Sea Harbour.

Being in Maple Ridge at lunch time on a Thursday, the Other Half and I stopped by for a snack.

Not many people there, which was odd. The pub is located in a busy mall-ish area, lots of traffic.

We settled at a visible table, nothing in the corner or a dark area. Eventually, I got up to retrieve menus myself. After a bit longer, a sullen server was dispatched to ask about drinks. The OH and I both ordered pints, then sat back to wait. And wait. Eventually, the server reappeared and we ordered yam fries and calamari. "That's IT?", she asked with a suprised tone. Yep, that's it, sunshine.

Food took quite a while to get to us. The yam fries weren't very hot. Calamari was good, but an extremely skimpy portion for $10. No return server-visit to check on drinks or food. After waiting a while after we finished, we finally stood up to put on our coats and that's when she reappeared, wanting to know if we wanted another drink! No, just the bill please. Suddenly, she was in high gear, zipped to the bar, retrieved the bill and got it back on the table before we were completely into our coats!

Not one instance of a smile or or one single effort at eye contact. Apparently she wasn't having a good day and didn't care who knew it.

Seems like a nice enough pub, but with the slow and unfriendly service, coupled with the lack of value, we won't be going back.

A co-worker and I went for supper on a Wednesday evening. We arrived around 7:00, and the place was pretty empty.

Lots of booths around the perimeter, with a couple of long tables for bigger crowds. Bollywood and sports on the big screens. The place was tidy and clean, lots of room. Washrooms were very clean.

Service was excellent. Very friendly lady, and very attentive. My friend is a bit timid with heat-levels in food, so we settled for "Canadian medium", not "desi medium". Very little heat at all.... but the food was tasty.

We ordered butter chicken (their newspaper ad said "best butter chicken" - so of course we had to try it), dal tarka, raita, garlic naan and rice pullao. Butter chicken was tender, but the sauce was very, very thick and tomato-y. Dal tarka was excellent.... nice balance of spices. Raita was standard, naan was lovely with a bit of a "chew". The rice in the pullao was perfect, with sweet peppers, peas and onions added.

Dinner for two, with a beer and a glass of wine, no dessert, was just over fifty dollars. Lots of leftovers.

We stayed chatting for quite a while, but the staff did not rush us. The place was very busy when we left just after 9:00 pm.

Nice place, good food, nice people. I would return.

I'm reposting this because the food rating was too high...

Always a special occasion
The Other Half and I have been to Pearl several times. Always a pleaseure.

We took the OH's daughter and son-in-law for dinner on a Saturday night. We made reservations for 6:45.

Turns out it was SeaFest in White Rock. Beach access and Marine Drive were closed to traffic. We were redirected to a local high school for shuttle mini-bus service. This was a complete surprise, as the restaurant neglected to mention the road closures. The OH's daughter is pregnant to a point that makes moving around not so easy, so this was hard on her. If the restaurant had mentioned the closure, we would have gone somewhere else. When we arrived (finally) at the restaurant, they acted very "surprised" that the closure and the parade were happening that night. Like the businesses on the main drive were NOT advised.....? Don't think so.

The food was a bit hit and miss. Tempura calamari was excellent, sweet corn bisque was very good. Seared scallops with salad was more "iffy"...the scallops were over-cooked.

Three of the four ordered the beef duo... grilled filet and short rib meat fritters. Potatoes were presented as "pomme pomme frites", meaning half a dozen huge bars of fried potatoes arranged in a square stack. The filet was excellent, the fritters were overcooked. The "frites" were soggy. I ordered the evening's special:: butter-poached prawns, one grilled (huge) scallop, tempura cauliflower and braised chard. The prawns (two) were huge, but were strong-tasting. The scallop was the size of a small can lid, cut into a checkerboard on the top. The scallop itself was chewy. Tempura cauliflower was OK, a bit salty.

For dessert, the son-in-law asked for an iced version of a fancy hot coffee. He said it was good. Stepdaughter had frozen three fruit granita. OH had semolina cake with orange sauce and raisins. I chose a brie cheese with fruit, plum preserves, crackers and raspberry cordial.

No one complained, but the desserts did not knock our socks off.

Service was impeccable.. Casual, professional, prompt and friendly. Absolutely perfect. Two special requests were handled graciously.

Ambiance is modern, upscale, clean lines. Washrooms are very clean.

-Value... just OK. This is an upper-end establishment. For the price, I would expect something a bit more even in quality. Some items were perfect, excellent. Some items made you think...."hmmmm".

OVerall, a satisfactory visit. A few rough patches, which should not be there for the price.

The Other Half and I have driven by countless times and said, "We should try that place." We finally stopped in on a Thursday evening for an early dinner.

We were there around 7:00 pm. Not many people there....a couple of gentlemen in the bar area and a mixed familiy group in the dining room area. The building is semi-circular which breaks up the area a bit.

The "bar" side was banquettes and high tables, as well as the bar itself. The "grill" side was mostly very large booths. Not feeling energetic, we let gravity guide us to a booth on the "grill" side.

Not too much interesting "on tap", mostly the megabreweries. We ordered two pints of ale and settled down to the menu. The first page was Western-style pub appies. Next page was Indian-style appies, and the rest of the menu was pretty standard Indian.

We ordered tandoori chicken wings (from the appies menu - they came before the rest of the food), lamb and potato with methi greens (fenugreek), garlic naan, plain raita, plain rice. We asked for the wings to be "medium" - they came cloaked in a sticky killer "medium" sauce and ranch dressing. Garlic naan was VERY good, quite garlicky, with tender, flaky layers. Raita was very plain (we ordered plain, but it seemed to be just yogurt and black pepper), basmati rice was perfectly fluffy and hot, and the lamb....OMG. It was SO good. Lots of meat, very tender, a few chunks of potato and a wonderfully complex "dry" sauce just clinging to the meat and potatoes. Very flavourful, very nice. The OH found the tandoori wings a bit too hot for his taste, but a sweet mango lassi fixed that.

With three ales, a lassi and the above dishes, the bill was less than $50.00. Enough leftovers for another meal for the two of us.

Not sure what the "bar" side does later in the evening.... we're staid old folks, and left by 8:00. I would assume a later hour would bring in a younger crowd. Lots of screens, mostly Indian pop music videos playing. The "grill" side had just us and the other extended family with three kids.

Ambiance... spacious, modern, dark, tile floors. The water feature behind the bottles at the bar was soothing and a bit hypnotic.

Service... two young ladies, seemed a bit nervous. Could be we were out of their comfort zone, colour-wise, but they were very sweet and efficient.

Value... really very good, compared to some other Indian restaurants in the area. Certainly the lamb dish was piled high with tender lamb, the raita and rice were generous portions, the garlic naan was a large serving. For the same price (or more) other places seem to have smaller servings.

Washrooms were trendy and impeccably clean.

Recommended. Families with children steer right at the door!

Stopped in for lunch on a whim and a coupon. The place was NOT busy at all on a Sunday afternoon.

The Other Half ordered a hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes. I ordered a Reuben sandwich with fries.

The hot roast beef was ordinary, gravy rather glue-y, the potatoes tasted like instant. The fries with the Reuben were very good. The sandwich itself was tired. The bread was falling apart, the corned beef was dry, and they seemed to be a bit short on cheese in the kitchen.

Serv ice was OK - the server seemed very tired and avoided eye contact.

Ambiance - having never been in this pub in its previous incarnation, I am assuming that the whole thing is original from the late 80's. Carpet needs replacement - stains and duct-tape patches. Bathrooms were very clean.

Value - most menu items under $10. Pub food without any frills.

The Other Half and I needed a quick breakfast on a Saturday morning. Always on the lookout for restaurants we haven't tried, we spotted Kalmar. Sign said "open", menu said "all day breakfast"... how bad could it be for eggs?

First "uh oh" moment came when I asked for a large orange juice. For breakfast. Waitress just said, "out of orange juice" and stood waiting, pencil on pad. The OH ordered a special with french toast, 2 eggs over easy and sausages. I ordered at "Lite Breakfast" = choice of three items = 2 eggs.. bacon, sausage, ham ("1/2 slice") toast, hashbrowns. Further choice of chunked or shredded potatoes. I asked for eggs over medium, bacon and extra crispy shredded hashbrowns.

Food was edible. The OH's sausages were miniscule, but OK. Eggs were overdone, the french toast was thick slices of soft white factory bread, briefly dipped in egg batter. Soggy and tasteless, not nice at all. My eggs were OK, but the bacon was cheap, cold and half-cooked. As were the shredded hashbrowns - no evidence of crispy. OH had coffee ("meh") while I contented myself with ice water (no offers of refill on the water...)

One server, moving fast. Very business-like, to the point of being brusque. No eye contact, no time to waste talking to a customer.

For the above amount of food, I wavered between rating the value as decent or poor. If the quality had been there, the value would have been decent. As I only ate two eggs and a few forkfuls of hashbrowns, I feel that I wasted my money. OH was full but not satisfied. Bill for two came to $16.00

Ambiance? Old, tired, worn out carpeting, 80's peach paint on the walls (painted in the 80's, I'm guessing) arborite tables. Pretty grubby. Very stingy with napkins - the kind that come out of a stainless upright container - TWO of these flimsy things, under the bent cutlery. Bathroom had one set of taps working. The papertowel dispenser looked grungy, but was one of those "wave at it" models, so I didn't have to touch it. By this time, I could NOT bring myself to peek at the toilet to assess cleanliness. My nose was telling me to get out of there.

Would not recommend.

My sister and I went for lunch a day or so ago. We arrived near the end of lunch service, just a few tables still occupied.

It seemed as if the hostess/server/owner? was surprised to see us. I suppose they thought they were done until they re-opened at dinner. The stated time for the end of lunch was 2:30 - we were there 1:45-ish. It didn't seem like there should have been a problem (to me), but it was a very awkward feeling.

My sister was having a major pasta craving; she ordered linguine with olive oil, garlic and Parm. cheese. A steak sandwich and Caesar salad seemed to be calling me.... what could I do? We split a half litre of Sangiovese.

The pasta was very garlicky and very good. The steak was nicely cooked, I appreciated the absence of Montreal Steak Spice, and the Caesar salad dressing was great. Unfortunately, a lot of the Romaine lettuce had seen better days, and the home-made croutons were stale and oily. Sangiovese always saves the day.

The room is neo-European bistro style, open and spare. Washroom was nicely decorated, but could have used a bit of cleaning.

Service.... again, an awkward "vibe". Not quite "oh crap, another table when we want to close", but pretty close. Not much attention paid during the meal either. Both water glasses could have used refilling. I also found the "what, you didn't like the salad?" comment, when I left about a wilted third of it, to be a teensy bit aggressive.

Value? OK. Seems like the tables still occupied when we arrived had opted for pizza, and several take out pizza orders went out while we were there. If there is a next time, I'll try the pizza.

Ambivalent feelings about this place.

Located on the Scott Road corridor, where Canadian Tire used to be. The Other Half and I dropped in for Friday lunch to "celebrate" a job layoff (mine - but that's a story for another place and time).

It wasn't very busy when we arrived around 12:30. We were greeted pleasantly, but there seemed to be some difficulty in deciding where to seat us; it took two young ladies a few minutes...

Ambiance - since I know it was a Canadian Tire store, I kinda can't get that out of my mind. Very high warehouse-type ceilings, slate tile floors, dark upholstered booths, low coffee tables with low club chairs. It is very new, very clean. Also, I think it might get VERY loud later in the day. Even with just a few people in there, it seemed echoing, noisy.

The OH ordered pepper steak cubes and linguine with extra garlic bread. I dithered, but ended up with my usual steak sandwich with an upgrade from fries to a caesar salad. Hey, it's a steakhouse....gotta try the steak! The portion of linguine was ample, the peppered steak cubes were plentiful, the whole dish flavourful and the pasta was perfectly al-dente. The extra garlic bread was less of a success - they use a garlic-flavoured oil on pretty flabby french bread and charged $3 for two pieces. My steak sandwich came on the same gutless garlic bread, but was garnished with two very decent breaded onion rings. The steak itself was amazing.... very tender, very tasty, and cooked perfectly (for me, that's "rare"). Caesar salad was also excellent - fresh crispy romaine, a zingy dressing and real parmesan cheese shavings on top. There WERE croutons in there, all two of them - I counted.

For three beers and two meals, the bill was $60.00. For lunch! Yeah, that's what I said too. Seems a bit steep for a steak sandwich and a pasta dish. The beers were the chain's "house brew", and I guess that excuses the higher price for them.

Service - a very young server who seemed nervous and hesitant. Might be her first serving job, and we've all been new at the job once. We had some paperwork along with us (re: layoff), and were busy with that for a while. She seemed to want to get us served and get us out of there. It was NOT busy; no one was waiting for our table.

Having said all that, I would go back here before I go back to the Keg. It's worth a look, even if just to see what they did with the decorating of what was a warehouse store.