I was hit with a sushi craving in the middle of the afternoon and ended up at Shizen Ya. My expectations were fairly low and in the end, I left very satisfied. The inside is newly renovated and quite a bit different from the Italian coffee gelato place that use to be here. The menu at Shizen Ya has a very healthy spin to it serving organic and Ocean Wise fare; definitely not your typical Japanese menu.

We ordered some miso soup, a bunch of rolls including dynamite, negitoro and salmon & avacodo and a prawn tempura. All of the dishes came out of the kitchen very quickly despite being fairly busy. Somehow I missed the brown rice sushi sign outside so I was a little surprised when the rolls we ordered were all made brown rice sushi. I'd never tried it before and I was surprised how good the brown rice was. Overall, I enjoyed all the dishes and they were nice change of pace from the standard sushi fare served around Vancouver.

I think the bill came to about $30 including tip which was reasonable considering the dishes ordered. I will definitely return to Shizen Ya when I am looking for "off the beaten path" sushi.

I just tried Ji Sushi the other day. Normally I am not a huge fan of AYCE as I find the quality can be sub par but I decided to go for it anyways.

I ordered a bunch of items including the dynamite roll, tuna nigiri, saba nigiri, spicy tuna cone, chicken yakitori, bbq beef short rib, etc. They were all pretty decent except the chicken yakitori because it didn't have any sauce on it and just tasted like some sort of Asian five spice. I guess they forgot the sauce, hopefully that's not how they serve it.

The nice thing about their portions is if you are dining alone, you can try a lot of different things as most rolls are served as half rolls similar to other AYCE sushi restaurants. They also have daily beer specials which aren't a bad deal. Overall I enjoyed the food but not sure if I will be back given the number of competing sushi restaurants.

We were trying to go for some laksa at Bo Laksa King just down the street but unfortunately it was closed. We ended up here instead.

The restaurant was clean and has several Japanese style booths. There was quite a bit of seating for such a small place.

We ordered a bunch of dishes including a spicy tuna cone, dynamite roll, spicy agedashi tofu, gomae, a few pieces of salmon and tuna nigiri, avocado roll, chicken yakitori and gyoza. All the dishes were good especially the gyoza which are made in-house. The salmon was farmed but my fault for not asking beforehand. The nigiri pieces were much larger than average.

The bill came to just over $30 which considering all the dishes we ordered, I thought was pretty reasonable. I will return if I am in the area and craving sushi.

Wow, this place is busy and we were told it was quiet for a Saturday. We ordered a ham sandwich and a Margharita pizza. Unfortunately there was a little mixup with the sandwich but they sorted it out and comped it for us. The food was good and so was their Americano. They have a small patio out front; this would be a great place to come in the summer to have a relaxing, affordable lunch with a nice view. I will be back as its only a few minutes from home.

One of my favourite things about fall and winter in Vancouver is ramen. We tried to go to Menya but it was closed because of the holiday. We ended up at Ramen Jinya instead which was a good thing because I'd been wanting to try it since it opened.

Jinya replaces the long standing Ezogiku Noodle Cafe. The interior has been refreshed but the layout is pretty much the same. We both ordered a bowl of ramen; I ordered a shio and my dining partner had the shoyu. We also ordered some gyoza and karaage. The karaage was definitely the stand out for the appetizers; boneless deep fried chicken topped with daikon and green onion. It was really good.

My ramen was very tasty with a rich and flavourful broth although an extra topping or two would be nice if it was included. I guess I could have added it. The pork belly was fatty and really good.

Overall I enjoyed my ramen here and I will be back.

I have to state for the record that I have never been a huge Keg fan in the past. You pretty much know what you're going to get and not much more. I was in for a surprise when I visited the Keg in Yaletown. I've been here a few times before and normally just have drinks or maybe an appetizer if I'm really hungry. I go for the patio which is absolutely amazing; worth every penny of the however many million they spent renovating it.

I was kind of hungry so I decided to get some dinner even though I'd already had a light dinner a few hours before. I ordered the sirloin Oscar with a twice baked potato. Imagine my surprise when the Oscar sauce came with a whopping 6 prawns and 4 scallops. They were cooked absolutely perfectly so they had to be thrown in there and not just the luck of the draw with the sauce. The asparagus in the sauce was perfectly crunchy as well. To top it off, the twice baked was incredible! I highly recommend you try it as your side. My only quibble was they left the skin on the roasted pepper. Overall though, an excellent meal for 30 bucks.

Normally I would rate the value at the Keg average, but considering the insane amount of seafood in the Oscar sauce, I have given it a boost to reflect that. The service was chophouse style, great, and what you'd expect at the Keg. One area they could improve is their beer selection. A couple more craft beers (not Granville Island) to complement the Brooklyn beers would be nice.

Overall, I had a great meal and will return. I definitely know what I am ordering!

I have been eating Taco Time hard shell tacos since I was a little kid. Maybe there is something nostalgic about them. Or as I've eluded to before, maybe they put something in the seasoned meat that makes me keep coming back for more. Either way, I still keep ordering them at mall food courts everywhere I go and its certainly not because they are cheap or something special.

At almost 2 bucks each, they are actually kind of pricey when you consider you are only getting some meat, lettuce and a few bits of tomato. They do have better hot sauces now though with spicier options and even have a hotter verde. Not really recommended but not a bad choice in the mall.

We were craving sushi on a Saturday night and decided to check out Shima-Ya based on the solid food ratings on Dine Here. It is a little out of the way for us situated near the London Drugs on Victoria and 41st. It turned out it was well worth the drive.

The restaurant is small and a little shabby inside but is very clean. We sat at the bar because of limited table seating and it was busy. We ordered a bunch of items including a spicy tuna cone, special chopped scallop cone, salmon sashimi, house dynamite roll and negitoro roll.

The spicy tuna cone was really good; the seaweed was really crispy and it was probably one of the spiciest cones I have ever had. It might have also been one of the best cones I have had in recent memory. The other items were all well executed with really fresh ingredients and not too much rice. The house dynamite roll was another standout. Instead of the usual prawn tempura, it had a giant cooked prawn and asparagus in it. It was a unique twist to the usual dynamite roll and I really enjoyed it.

The service was a little slow with only one server in the restaurant and she was a little overwhelmed. It didn't really effect our dining experience so I am giving the benefit of the doubt on the service rating. The sushi chef was very friendly, quick to prepare sushi items and definitely made up for any shortfalls in service.

Overall, I really enjoyed the food at Shima-Ya. I will return even though its a bit out of the way in East Van because of the fresh, creative, and very tasty sushi.

We came here without a reservation and as expected for a Friday night, it was packed. Our name was put on a list, we came back in 30 minutes and had a table waiting for us. We started things with a bottle of their house Bibo Barbera from the owner's winery in Italy: Monterosso vineyard estate.

They have a large, wood fire pizza oven in the corner that was full of pizzas so we definitely needed to order something that came out of it. We settled on the Bresaola pizza which is very similar to the Crudo except it has cured beef instead of proscuitto. Our server brought out slices of both so we could taste the difference which was great. We also ordered the Bibo Matteo, a wide noodle pasta with a porcini mushroom sauce.

Both of the dishes were fantastic. I was feeling like pasta that night and really enjoyed the Bibo Matteo but I wished their was a little more porcini mushrooms in the dish. We were pretty full after the mains and were about to opt out on dessert when the server brought us some Tiramisu to sample. It was really good but we were both too full to order anything more.

Overall, we both enjoyed the evening. The food was made with fresh ingredients and you could taste the passion that went into it. The service was efficient and friendly. I will return and I definitely recommend this restaurant.

I brought my Mom here for Sunday brunch last weekend not knowing that they didn't have menu service and only were serving a brunch buffet. We weren't really looking for a buffet but we decided to stay since we were there. I'm glad we did.

The buffet was surprisingly good, especially for a pub. They had a nice variety of food including 3 different types of eggs benedict, pasta, a variety of fresh fruit, an omelette station and several other breakfast staples. Overall, everything was really good.

I was surprised at how good the egg bennies were for a buffet. Usually I am not a huge fan but they were perfectly cooked and never sat for long. For around $15, I thought it was a good value.

I will return when I am in the Colwood / View Royal area looking for a solid Sunday buffet.