This got to be one of worst Hong-Kong style cafe restaurants I have been to, in terms of food and service. We ordered three dishes for lunch: Hainan chicken, pineapple fried rice and curry pork chop. The Hainan chicken lacked the tenderness that is usually expected of even a mediocre restaurant. The curry pork chops was a joke, the pork chops was slightly better than chewy pork jerky and the curry sauce was very thick. The food portions were small and do not justify the higher price.

It was about 2:30 p.m. when we wanted to leave. So when I saw the waitress coming our way, I waved to the waitress (there were only two waitresses at the time). There was direct eye contact between me and the waitress, but the waitress just pretended as if she didn’t see anything. We waited a while longer and still couldn’t get anyone to give us the bill. All in all, I cannot find a single reason why I would want to go back. Going to food court is perhaps better than eating in this restaurant.

I have been to this restaurant on Cambie Street a few times. The reason I kept going back is I really enjoyed the different selections on their menu. I like slightly spicy food, and the Asian fusion flavours they offer suit my taste well. Their food quality is usually quite decent and their prices reasonable. The restaurant inside has a nice modern Southeast Asian décor. The ambiance is acceptable if the restaurant is not busy. The noise level could get pretty bad when customers start to gather. This last time we went, we ordered a Hainan Chicken and a pork rice noodle dish. However, I couldn’t find the same tenderness in my chicken as in my previous visits. To be sure, the chicken was a little overcooked so it lost the tenderness. The rice noodles were also a bit sticky and looked and tasted lumpy. I had to agree with my wife that this time it was different and I hope this was just an aberration.

My son recently told me that the really annoying thing about cooking when living on his own is he puts in the effort to cook, and then if it turns out bad and he has to finish it. By that he meant he put in too much salt in his cooking that made his dish twice as salty as it needed to be. Well, we have a similar experience, except that we didn’t cook it, the restaurant chef did. My wife and I went to this restaurant on Wednesday evening around 6 o’clock. Looking from the outside, it seemed like a nice and clean restaurant. The inside décor looks pretty decent, though not the greatest. We were seated at a table by the front glass window with a view facing Hastings Street. It didn’t take long for the waitress to respond to our order. I ordered an Arni Psito Roasted Lamb dish. The salad and pita bread was quickly served. Everything including the service was good up to that point. Then the main dish came. My whole dining experience was about to change. The roast lamb was tender enough. However, it was so salty that without the rice, it was just impossible to eat. I had to keep drinking water to wash out that salty taste in my mouth. After I came home, I was reading some past reviews on this restaurant. I wasn’t surprised to find that several reviewers had already commented that the food was too salty. I guess I should have read the reviews first before I went.

This is my second visit to this downtown Japanese restaurant. The impression I got is still more or less the same – good food, nice décor and reasonable prices. Three of us went in for a Sunday lunch, each sharing our food so we have a sampling of all three dishes. They have many combinations of lunch specials. For example, you can order salmon and tempura or teriyaki chicken with California roll, teriyaki beef with tempura and so on. So it was not hard for me to find a selection I like. I love prawn tempura and I was glad to find prawn tempura included in the lunch special which costs only $6.95. If it were some other Japanese restaurants, I probably had to order the prawn tempura as a side dish.

The service was pretty quick – the waitress brought us miso soups almost as soon as we placed our order. The main dish soon followed. The Salmon was fresh and so were the veggies. The California rolls were decent and not falling apart. All in all, this is a decent restaurant with some good Japanese food. Above all, the price is quite reasonable, considering it is downtown. If I am in that area again, I won’t hesitate to go back for a third visit.

We actually found this place from the Entertainment Book. This little Thai restaurant is nestled in a corner of a small strip mall at Broadway and Oak. After paying for our parking, we went right in. As soon as we were seated, we were immediately reimbursed for our parking. The décor inside was not particularly impressive. The prices on the big menu seem quite reasonable, especially when compared to other Thai restaurants. I ordered a Red Curry with pork Bento box. The order came pretty quickly, first with a small bowl of hot and sour soup. It was a bit on the salty side. The Red curry port Bento box came with 2 Thai spring rolls and salad. Everything seemed to be rather mediocre, except the red curry pork was very tasty. Well, what can I expect with the price I paid? It is not the greatest Thai food, but it is good enough, especially considering the service, the price and the different fusion food selections on the menu.

We went to this Thai restaurant for lunch mainly because of its decent ratings in Dinehere.ca. The weather was excellent with a lot of sun shining through the windows from outside. With the Chinese New Year and Valentine Day falling on the same day, and with so many Olympic visitors in the nearby downtown area, one would expect that it should be pretty busy for restaurants in the area too. To my surprise, when we entered the restaurant, only one table had guests. The restaurant has a regular menu as well as over ten different lunch specials. I ordered a lunch special dish of pork “Pad Kee Mao”, a kind of wide, flat rice noodles with eggs and chilli. The noodles were actually not as spicy as advertised and it was not too greasy either, as compared to some rice noodles dishes in other Thai restaurants. It also came with spring roll and salad. Although I would have liked the pork to be less dry, still the dish was acceptable and pretty tasty too. Considering its inexpensive price, it is probably good for a quick bite of Thai food.

We drove by this restaurant along Kingsway so many times, mostly impressed by its name, which in Chinese, means generations (or dynasty) of Wonton noodles. We finally ventured in for the first time today. The menu was big, resembling most decent wonton and noodles houses except it has more Cantonese dim sum and appetizers. We ordered a bowl of wonton noodles, a bowl of beef brisket, beef tendon noodles with sui-gow dumplings, as well as a dish of gai-lan. It was around 1:30pm, the restaurant was still very busy. It took us a while to get the attention of a waitress for ordering, but it didn’t take long for our first dish to arrive.

I would say the wonton and sui-gow dumplings were pretty tasty and their sizes exceeded our expectations. The quality of the noodles was not really as fine and chewy as we would like it to be, but still acceptable. The only thing I thought it could improve was the beef brisket broth which actually tasted as if lots of MSG has been added and somewhat salty. Other than that, the wontons and dumplings seem to have lived up to its name.