Tojo's - Vancouver, BC

Our first night in Vancouver we made reservations at Tojo's, a very popular Japanese restaurant. They confirmed reservations online and were very pleasant in the Japanese manner over email. In person they were just the same and called me "Goto-san", how novel :-). The restaurant is located in a business building on the second floor. The decor is very understated and simple.

Our dishes in order were:
1) Tuna tartar - 3 types of tuna chopped up. It has a ponzu and lemon sauce it floated in. I thought it was neat that when you finished the dish the sauce was perfectly proportioned that it was gone when you finished. I don't care that much for tuna tartar. I think my taste buds are attuned to poke more and I always expect that when eating raw tuna. However, not to say it wasn't prepared very well. Very tasty and it contained a multitude, if not a plethora of flavors. I tasted shiso, lemon zest and ginger. . . don't know what else was in there.

2) Our next dish was described as "Japanese escargot". I think that wasn't a good description because you think about garlic and buttery flavor. This was Japanese flavored sea snail with hints of bonito broth. It was very tasty and was a mixture of the broth, different mushrooms and snails. It was nicely presented in a shell which was HOT and placed over on bed of sea salt.










3) "KFC". . . is what the waiter said. . .well he actually said "Keee-Effu-SHE". . since he had a Japanese accent. Then he explained it was cod. This dish reminds me of a Chinese dish overall especially the gravy sauce over it. It was topped with mushrooms, mussels and some greens. The fish was deep friend with a corn flake coating. . .not the panko flakes you would have expected.

4) Salmon with miso sauce came out next. By now were thinking. . .are we going to have sushi? Oh well, David liked this fish dish. I though it was a little dry and not too fatty. The miso sauce was some complicated teriyaki-miso mixture. The garnish was fried tofu and fern stems.











5) Ahh, Sushi finally. I can't remember exactly what everything was but it was interesting mixes. Pinapple, mango in one of the rolls, Salmon skin in another. One had lobster the other had crab.

6) The dessert was refreshing. Ice cream floating in yogurt sauce with pieces of mango and pineapple.










Over all it was a neat meal. It's kinda like having a meal prepared by Iron chef except there wasn't a special ingredient. One thing though I noticed I drank a lot of water. The food didn't taste salty when eating it, but it must have been. We had dinner at 7pm and when we left, the place was packed. The service was very good and friendly and it was nice to have the Vancouver city background outside. I don't know if we'd go back or recommend the place. San Francisco probably has some comparable places. However, pretty great food presentations and solid dishes of Japanese influenced food that didn't taste like weird fusion dishes.

We picked a set price for each dinner and they feed you accordingly. There was an option of "no price limit" and wondered what that entailed. Do you keep eating until they have to roll you out the door? Hmm, if I was rich I'd go for it!

Berkeley Thai House

Got up late on a Saturday morning so we looked for a place in Berekely to eat lunch. Dropped in at the Thai House. We sat outside and the weather was perfect. The Thai ice tea is good. Sweet but not too sweet.

We ordered the Roast duck. It was really good. I would eat this again. Served with Rice and over cabbage it’s perfectly cooked. The sweet soy sauce isn’t really needed but it was a nice touch.

Also tried the rice noodles. It was good. I’ve had it before and it’s one of my favorite dishes. We only had two dishes so it’s tough to really judge someplace on two dishes. The roast duck was really good so I’ll up the rating to 4 stars just for that.

They don’t serve a whole lot of food, so there’s no extras and it’s not served family style. But over all was a good experience and I’d go back to try some other things. The desserts looked good.

Pho Ca Dao

Good Pho Restaurant. They have fast service and fairly cheap prices. I had the regular pho with tendon and beef. They didn't skimp on the beef and tendon too. Big pieces and the broth is tasty. The noodles were cooked just right too.. . .aldente. . .but then if you let it sit too long it's too soft. . .so eat fast

Legoland - Apple Fries

Have you ever had deep fried granny smith apples? This is a specialty apparently at Legoland. Pretty good stuff with whip cream on the side and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. My friend said it taste like apple pie. . .so I was thinking about McDonald's apple pie. . .but I think the crust makes apples taste like apple pie. . .it was better than that I think.

Crustacean Restaurant

I am a master crab eater with no shame at all with a bib on my neck and all my finger into it. . .so I enjoyed the Crustacean very much. Went to this restaurant with David's Co-worker's on Sunday night. Sometimes it's just good to sit for a long meal and get ridiculously stuffed. Everyone on the table ordered a whole crab. You could pick which sauce the crab seeped in. I chose the garlic butter and David chose the one with a wine based broth.

I give it five stars because it was finger licking good. Of course we didn't pick up the tab and if we did I might be way more critical, so keep that in mind as you continue to read on. The calamari was nicely fried and not too much coating. The spring rolls and coconut shrimp were good, but the papaya salad with octopus is the best appetizer of the four we ate.

The crab in butter gets cold if you don't eat fast but it was tasty since the salt, pepper and garlic is added on top so you don't have to be dipping anything. Oh and you have to get all of your hands involved in this one, two fingers ain't going to cut it. The one in the wine broth was okay.

The garlic noodles are really really tasty that even after a whole crab you can still eat the noodles. . .it's that tasty.

The desserts weren't anything out of this world, but nicely prepared and decent.

Overall the wait staff was very attentive. I don't think any of the crab shells pilled to any rim before it was replaced with a clean bowl. One thing to note is that you can't be wearing a regular t-shirt if you go in. David had to borrow a collar shirt from the restaurant to meet dress code. The host however was very pleasant when he told us the dress code so it didn't ruin the evening at all, and it gave us something to point and laugh at. . . David of course. Hehe....

Angelfish Japanese Restaurant

Went last week and it was a good Japanese restaurant. The wait staff is friendly and service is good. Of course we came on Saturday around 5pm when they open up, since we were starving.

Ordered the monk fish liver, sashimi for two and pot stickers. The monk fish liver was okay but I was expecting a different consistency. It was served cold with a sho-yu type sauce, and had the consistency of pate and compacted.

The sashimi for two is a good deal $25 for 25 pieces of the chef's choice of 5 fish. Ordered bowls of rice to eat with it. The rice is perfectly cooked too. Also had an order of Toro since it seems to be a popular thing.

Should have stopped eating there but since the stomach is slow to react to tell you it's full, we ordered shrimp pot stickers.

Every dish was meticulously arranged with nice touches like shiso leaves and daikon shreds. So decorative and thoughtful. The only thing I thought was lacking was an extensive menu of selection. But I think that's because they choose to do the simple things great instead of many things okay

Tandor Kitchen - Again

We like it when you want a cheap and tasty rice and gravy meal. The spinach and cheese is good, although this time it tasted less spicy. We ate some beef curry which was a block of beef in a gravy sauce. The gravy was a bit gummy so we'll stick to the lamb I think.

Tribu Grill

Okay new rule for August. . .If it cost less than $30 it doesn’t count as eating out and our bill from Tribu Grill was $22.00.

Just came back from dinner at Tribu Grill. It was pretty crowded for 7pm on a Thursday night. Good sign. Although there was a party there which probably is why we had to wait 10 minutes for a table. However the hostess was polite to let us know that a table would be ready soon. The décor is quite modern and clean and the wood floors kinda gives it a homely feeling. Nice. The kitchen is open though which I really wish it wasn’t because it adds to the noise in the restaurant and they put in nice speakers too. I think they’ve read some previous reviews because they have covered that spot in the corner with a nice decorative screen so you don’t see exposed kitchen things anymore.

Actually I should have read the previous review over what to try because I’m semi new to Filipino food (my only exposure was because I grew up in Hawaii and there’s a Filipino population there). My boyfriend went there for lunch and said is was good which is why we went there for dinner. So anyway, I had no idea what anything was on the menu, so as we walked to our table I took a look what other people were eating and asked the waiter “what’s that ?” and settled with what sounded good.

I deduced our order to the Laing and the daing na bangus. The laing was sooooo good. I asked for it not spicy though. It reminds me of a Hawaii dish called squid luau, only there’s squid in it instead of pork. Their version was really tasty and so melt in your mouth, a tad bit oily for me which would make me feel guilty if I picked up the bowl and poured it down my mouth. The “milkfish” daing na bangus was excellent also. It was topped with crispy garlic. We also ordered rice with our meal. For dessert we had the puto bumbong which is like unsweetened Mochi with coconut and sugar.

This place has got good food and could be a 5 star if they were a little bit more service organized and a menu with pictures and translations for us non-filipino’s. . . but that’s about it because the food’s great and the price is right.

Tokyo Fish Market

Why I love Berkeley, CA: The other day I stopped by Tokyo Fish Market to see what it was about since I've been driving by all this time. I just thought it was a fish market and that's it. However, when I went in it was actually a Japanese goods store and a fish market. Very clean and not fishy smelly at all, what you would expect a "fish" market to be. But ahh. . . Hand it to the Japanese to be clean and orderly. The place is not cheap though but what do I find in the freezer but Laualau from Hawaii and POG drink (that's Passion orange guava). The got the gambit of Japanese dry goods, but I have seen that before at 99 Ranch Asian market and slightly cheaper too. Seems like they have some Hawaii ties because when I visited the gift shop there was a handful of Hawaii brand things I recognized and also Hawaii cook books.

Okay so I'm too cheap to buy any fish over 10 bucks a pound so I passed on the selection that day, and besides it was Tuesday so I don't know if that was a good selection in the first place. I'm used to fresh Ahi for 7 bucks a pound and I just can't bring myself to paying more than double the price for it. I will wait until I go back to Hawaii to gorge on that stuff. But Laulau. . . Oh well I'll pay the dam 40% mark up because I can give up a few bucks now to eat it now.

Since we're going to Vancouver at the end of the month and will be eating out all the time there, I have decided that we aren't going out to eat in the Month of August . Although that yummy food at Tandor Kitchen will be calling out and that slide down your taste buds spinach dish. . .so tasty. . . might not be counted since afterall you order and pay at the counter.