through the eyes of the a70

Another food outing. I promise this photoblog isn’t turning into a food blog anytime soon :-)

Suika is another Japanese izakaya restaurant (much like Guu) located on Broadway and Fir in Vancouver. ‘Suika’ actually means watermelon in Japanese – interesting. They replaced a Thai restaurant that was at that location. They’ve got a 88% rating on Urbanspoon and is one of the top Japanese restaurants in town. It was no surprise that they were still quite packed on a Wednesday night.

We ordered a variety of food from salads to fresh seafood to pressed sushi, an overall good mix. Their seafood is fresh, salad is well flavoured. The ma-po rice cake and Ebi-mayo could use a bit more work. Dish size wise they are about what you would expect from an izakaya place, and expect to spend roughly $20 per person to satisfy your stomach.

Tonight a my friends and I checked out a French restaurant on Cambie called Pied-à-Terre. The friend who recommended it had already been two previous times, and liked the food and atmosphere. It’s a quaint little restaurant, reminded me of La Quercia – seats about 30 people with simple decoration.

Their prices were pretty reasonable at about $10 for an appetizer (which can almost double as an entree), $25-$30 for an entree, and ~$8 for dessert. We started with some bread, which this one I found to be one of the better ones! (I’m picky about my bread, heh). I got some awesome BC mussels with chirozo and tomato (big, fat juicy mussels – delicious by the way) as appetizer, duck three-ways as main, and an apple and calvados parfait to finish off. Great food!

Another brunch place I’ve been meaning to try. Cafe Medina is located beside the wonderful Belgian restaurant, Chambar, and is operated by the same owners.
It’s quite a busy place and took about an hour before we were able to get a seat. Slightly pricey and I miss my eggs benedict!

Picked by VanMag as 2011 Restaurant of the Year, Best Restaurant for Informal Dining, and Best Casual Italian, I don’t think you can go wrong by trying La Quercia. It was recommended by a co-worker and we decided to go for the $60 11 course menu. Their courses were served family style, so it was more or less sharing plates for enough people. Since the dishes are decided by the chef, each time the experience may be different. I’ll attempt to go through the names of each course from memory. Definitely worth a try if you’re looking for some creative Italian cooking.

A week ago, a couple of friends and I checked out Ensemble Restaurant in downtown which opened a few months ago. The chef is Dale MacKay, who won the Food Network’s Canada Top Chef show just recently.
The prices on the menu were definitely manageable. All the entrees were less than $25, priced for anyone with an appetite for good food!

I chose the Dungeness Crab for appetizer, Pulled Pork Sandwich for entree, and the Soufflé of the Day for dessert. The food was great. We had to wait on a couple of occasions, but as Sonny says, it can only get better.

If you just want some dessert, definitely try the soufflé. The combo with the sorbet was excellent.