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