Special: Battle of the Flo Tea Rooms

Happy New Years everyone!

AMY: A typical meal-time scenario between the two of us goes something like this: First we start off by asking each other multiple times "what should we eat?", which is usually followed up with a half-assed reply of "I dunno...". We then proceed to spend a good 20 minutes flipping through restaurants on Urbanspoon before finally making up our minds. This little ritual is how we decided to visit Flo Tea Room on Granville. We've only been to Flo a couple of times in the past, despite the fact that it has been open for a while now. 

LULU: Our love for Taiwanese beef noodle is a well-known fact, so it was no surprise that we went for it after seeing it on the menu at Flo. Having tried countless beef noodles in Vancouver, I have to say that Flo would be pretty up there in my rankings. Maybe we were too hungry, but I almost want to use phenomenal to describe their beef noodles. The soup and the meat had very strong beefy flavours, unlike other places that may just taste diluted or heavily seasoned. It seemed like they stewed it for a long time. 

It was a really pleasant surprise to me since I always thought Flo was more of a Hong Kong style restaurant. Apparently it is Hong Kong and Taiwanese style. Now that I think about it, it makes more sense since they did have a lot of Taiwanese dishes in their gazillion menus. 

AMY: Two words: Absolutely Scrumptious! One of the best beef noodles I've had in Vancouver. Now hold that thought...let's see if Flo Richmond can live up to the competition. 

Bubble Waffle Cafe: a little excitement, a lot of disappointment

Drum roll please! 'Cause Amy and Lulu are bringing the co-blogs back! 

AMY: While scouring the streets of Richmond on a rainy day in search of lunch, Lulu and I decided to give Bubble Waffle Cafe a try. I noticed that the older place was replaced with Bubble Waffle Cafe a couple months ago, but haven't had the chance to try it. When we arrived, the place was packed and had a few people waiting outside. I took that as a good sign...who would line up for bad food? It wasn't long before we were offered a seat, but immediately I noticed that their chairs and tables were quite  dirty and cheap looking...nothing like what a new restaurant would look like. Well, can't judge a book by its cover, right?

DIY Noodle Combo $7.50 + tax (includes hot drink)

AMY:  For my noodle combo, I chose the vermicelli in original fish soup, with pork intestine and fish ball with shrimp. The first couple sips of soup were pretty good, but that slowly diminished as I went on eating. It wasn't particularly bad or anything, just nothing special. There was good amount of noodles and vegetables, as well as pork intestines. The fish balls with shrimp were very disappointing -- bland and boring. I was expecting a savory, juicy center...but all I got was some mush that didn't even taste like shrimp. Overall, I didn't really enjoy this dish as much as I expected to, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't stomach it.

LULU: Wow, I would not have known that those were fish balls with shrimp if Amy hadn't mentioned it. I agree with the fish balls being unsatisfactory, since I was totally expecting hot flavoury stuff gushing out when I chewed on the fish balls. 

Beef Teppanyaki Rice Meal   $7.50 + tax  (includes hot drink)

A Little Warmth on a Rainy Day at Carthage Cafe

Since I've been back in Vancouver for winter holidays, I've been eating out a lot catching up with friends and family. One of my family friends took us to Cafe Carthage for a semi-fancy lunch on Christmas Eve.

Sitting among other boutiques and small restaurants/delis on Commercial Drive, Cafe Carthage is not exactly eye-catching and we actually took a while to find the place. The interior of the restaurant  is quite small but definitely cozy.
Upon entrance, a very friendly waiter greeted us and led us to our table. Once we ordered, the waiter brought us a basket of bread. The bread was surprisingly delicious, crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. You can get free refills and the bread goes well with soups and sauces from other dishes.

The specials for the day all sounded pretty good, so we went with almost all of the daily specials except for the soup. Starting with the salad, I really liked it, mostly because balsamic vinaigrette is one of my favourite salad dressings. The vegetables were very fresh and the amount of dressing was just right - the salad wasn't too dry or tasteless but the vegetables weren't soaked in dressing either.

Special: Hunters Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette   $10.50 + tax

Since it was somewhat of a french restaurant, I wanted to try the french onion soup, which is another one of my favourites. The soup was very thick and rich in taste and almost a little too salty for me. Overall it was good but I would recommend sharing it because of the strong flavour.

French Onion Soup   $9.00 + tax

You Don't have to go Uptown for Good Food: Bubble Republic (Updated)

I've updated this post with the prices and also new food! 
After a quick vacation back to Taiwan, I started craving Taiwanese food again. One night, in hopes of finding a good tea place for midnight snacks, I stumbled upon Bubble Republic in Mississauga. The online reviews for this place were fairly good and a friend of mine who lives in Mississauga also recommended it. I visited this place on the weekend of Halloween and found it pretty cool that they had decorations. The washroom was so spooky I was scared to go in a second time!

古早味焢肉飯 Traditional Marinated Meat on Rice  (Meal: $6.99)

Not knowing whether the restaurant was 100% authentic or not, my friends and I still decided to go for the Taiwanese dishes along with the Bubble Tea. They offer combos that include a meal and drinks from a certain category. If you want fancier or other drinks, then you have to pay separate prices for the different food items.

筍乾爌肉飯  Marinated Bamboo Shoots and Meat on Rice  (Meal:$7.50)

George Ultra Lounge: a little taste, a lot of wait

Please excuse us as we sneak back into blogging and pretend like we never stopped...

For Taste of Yaletown 2011 (same concept as Dine Out Vancouver, for those of you who don't already know), we decided to go to George Ultra Lounge. Their menu set is $25, which includes an appetizer, entree and dessert. 

When we arrived at 7:30, we were told that they were currently fully booked, but that a table might free up in about 25 minutes. Unfortunately, after many inquiries, our wait ended up being over an hour. However, I did notice that a couple of reserved tables were completely empty the entire waiting time. 

Prosciutto Wrapped Scallop

For appetizers, everybody had the Prosciutto Wrapped Seared Scallop, which was rested on some barbecue duck fried risotto. I couldn't really taste the prosciutto, but the scallop itself was very plump, juicy and sweet. It was seared nicely and had a slight opalescent middle.  The fried risotto was also very good and added a bit of a chewy texture. This arrived not too long after we ordered all our food. 

For entrees there is a choice between the Spaghettini Bolognese and the Ling Cod.