Sunday, April 29, 2012

Café Salade de Fruits


Step into France with Café Salade de Fruits – a true hidden gem in Vancouver. This little treasure provided me with the best dining experience.  It is a local favourite and everything in this restaurant is homemade! Even the mayo that came with the fries, which was delicious! This is not an upscale French restaurant; it is a casual French bistro. The service is one of the finest in the industry. Each waiter is very knowledgeable and friendly with a personality. You do not have a waiter designated to your table, so you may approach each and every waiter, who all are always willing to help and are all very attentive to each table. There was never a time I had to wait for more than 10 seconds to grab a waiter’s attention.

Interior of Café Salade de Fruits
The decor of the restaurant promotes a fun attitude, so don’t get too dressed up for this French cafe. This is a small bistro, so be prepared it to be noisy. We went on Saturday evening, arrived at 6:45pm without reservations, which is not a good idea. Luckily, we only had to wait 10minutes. Those who came after us had a much longer wait, as the restaurant was packed and booked. When we were seated, we were provided with the menu. It was all in French with no English description. My French skills were limited to high school Grade 11 and so were Meko’s French skills. We were able to decipher 50% of the menu and the other 50% was kudos to Mr. Google to provide the answers to us. When we were ready to order, the cheery waiter offered to answer any questions we had regarding the menu. We ordered the escargot to start and share:

Escargots à l’aïl ($7.99)
This delicacy was baked in butter, garlic, and other seasoning. A simple dish well made!

Moules et frites ($20.99)
It came in regular and large. The regular is $17.99 and is ¾ pot full. The large is $20.99 and is 1 pot full. We opt for the large, since it takes a lot for us to be full. For those concern with health, they also have a ‘moules et salade’ option as well. These mussels are cooked in a white wine sauce; tasted perfect with the mussels. The sauce had a light, milky texture with no oily taste. The flavour was rich and Meko was actually able to taste the white wine. The fries were amazing. It is homemade with their house mayo. The waiter warned us that there will be no ketchup served with their fries. The reason being many of the customers are accustom to the ketchup from the grocery stores, which uses ingredients and processes that you are unable to do in the kitchen. With the numerous complaints regarding their homemade ketchup, the chef got angry and just eliminated the options of having ketchup with fries. I was disappointed with this decision; I really wanted to try their homemade ketchup. But none the less, the mayo was very tasty. I usually dislike the mayo, but this mayo was different. For mussels lover, this is the dish for you! The large was very generous. You may consider a regular if you are not a hippo eater.

Filet de boeuf ($24.99)
One word: awesome. Thick and juicy, this steak is the perfectly made. I ordered a rare, and this is one of the few restaurants who actually perfects is ability to cook a rare. Many other restaurants tend to cook my steak medium-rare, which was okay too, but I still prefer a rare. It was accentuated with a thin layer of sauce that wasn’t too heavy and did not take the original steak taste away. Furthermore, the filet de beouf was actually sandwiched between two pieces of pan-fried foie gras. The combination just simply brought me to heaven. On a side note, they also had the filet mignon roti, which was what I initially tried to order, but the waiter advised me that the filet mignon is actually pork. If I wanted the beef option, I should opt for the filet de boeuf. I appreciated that warning, since I did not know it was going to be pork.
 
Crême brulée ($6.99)
Smooth texture and is a great dessert to share with a friend. Not too filling and is quite tasty, but not a highlight of their menu.

Throughout the entire course of the dinner, they have served us bread (slices of baguette). It was so good! I couldn’t stop eating the bread. And we realize that once the bread plate was empty, the waiter instantly refills it with more bread. We had over 4 servings of bread... It is one of the only restaurants who will refill your bread without you requesting it, which I really enjoyed, because I’m a carb-addict.

Entrance of Café Salade de Fruits
Why is Café Salade de Fruits a hidden gem? One of the best meals I have had in my life. Highly recommended by Hippo!! Also, it is located on West 7th Avenue and Granville, just right off the Granville Street Bridge if you are coming from Downtown. You need to drive towards the residential zone to find the restaurant. It is actually located within the Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver. You need to go into the cultural centre to access the entrance to the restaurant. There is paid meter parking outside the centre ($2.00/80minutes). But if you are dining in the evening, there is actually free parking underground after 6pm.

Food: Amazingly delicious! A 10/10 for the food we ordered. The best French bistro in town!
Service: Friendly and approachable with personality. Very good!
Price: The total came to $68 with tax for two people. For the portions and flavour, it is a very well priced restaurant.
Will I come back? YES! I will definitely be trying the remaining of their menu very soon!

- Hippo


Café Salade de Fruits
1551 W 7th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 604-714-5987

Café Salade de Fruits on Urbanspoon

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Arriva Ristorante Italiano

Does anyone still buy the entertainment book anymore? Well, Meko did. There were many 'buy one entree, get the second entree free' coupons. Meko gave me a choice of two neighbouring restaurants: La Rocca Ristorante Italiano and Arriva Ristorante Italiano. I've actually been to La Rocca a few times; their food and service are quite inconsistent, but we will leave that for another foodprint. I chose Arriva tonight. They were both on Commercial Drive and we all know that is the renown Italian street. I love Commercial Drive, each shop and restaurants are unique in their own way.

Interior of the restaurant. House of the kitchen
Bread basket
The exterior this restaurant is does not capture any attention. It is very easy to miss if you are driving on Commercial Drive. The interior, on the other hand, had a fun design. The kitchen was a little house in the middle of the inside. It has a dimly lit, laid back atmosphere, so not a bad place to bring dates. Near the front of the restaurant, there is a separated area of the restaurant that can be used for party of 30.

The main selection in the menu is 10% appetizer, 80% pastas, 10% entrees.

Pennette al Salmone Offumicato: smoked salmon, vodka, cream, tomato sauce ($16.95)
When the menu said smoked salmon, I automatically thought it was the thinly sliced smoked salmon. The chef of Arriva actually chose to use salmon filet. The portion of the pasta was set for an average individual, but the amount of salmon they have added was very generous; approximately 25% of the pasta dish was the smoked salmon. The pennette was cooked in a creamy vodka sauce. Please not that it is not a red sauce, even though it is indicated tomato sauce. I will consider it a more creamy rose sauce. It tasted very delicious; the sauce wasn't too thick nor too heavy, and the pasta was cooked just right. However, the smoked salmon was not flavourful enough for my taste buds. I prefer a more smoked aroma, but it was only lightly smoked.

Risotto con Salsiccia: risotto with Italian sausages, white wine sauce ($16.95)
I've had amazing risottos; I've had horrible risottos. This risotto was just good. Does not impress me, but it will not let you down. There is an option of white wine or tomato sauce. The waiter recommended the white wine sauce, which would have been my choice as well. Flavour was good, but maybe a little too strong (suggesting too much MSG?). Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my risotto. Did I mention I love cheese?! The parmigiano cheese they usually offer with the pasta was wonderful. Even if you don’t like cheese with pasta, get some to just try on the side. As for me, I usually have my cheese on the side anyways. This is because I would like to give credit to the food before needing to add extra flavour. This risotto did not need any more cheese. Adding more cheese actually makes it more heavy, so I just ate the cheese by itself. The risotto had great taste and texture without it.

After our server had taken away our dishes, I spotted a dessert on another table that caught my attention. I thought it was a panna cotta! I was so excited; it is one of my favourite Italian desserts. When our server came back, offering us the dessert menu, I interrupted him asking him whether the other table have ordered a panna cotta. He looked very confused and started to list out the dessert they have. One of them was the crème caramel, which was what looked like a panna cotta from a far. In the end we didn’t order any desserts. I found it slightly humourous that he didn’t know what a panna cotta was, but I explained to him what it was. Hopefully this knowledge will be of good use to him for his future days of work in the restaurant industry.

Arriva Ristorante Italiano is a casual restaurant located in the heart of Vancouver’s Italian street. If you are down for some pasta with high quality of ingredients, give Arriva a visit. I definitely prefer Arriva over La Rocca, which is next door. Unlike Anton’s, which is a complete plate of carbohydrates, Arriva will provide more meat/seafood to go along with the wonderful pasta.

Location: On Commercial drive. It can be difficult to find parking. Occasionally will walk by a few homeless individual who will make random remarks.  

Food: Standard pasta with high quality ingredients. Will not be disappointed.
Service: Our server was very friendly, but his knowledge of the food and restaurant was minimal.
Price: The total came to $38 with taxes. Including the entertainment coupon, total came to $21 for two people.
Will I come back? Maybe. It will be listed in the mid-rank of my list.

- Hippo

Arriva Ristorante Italiano
1537 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 604-251-1177

Arriva Ristorante Italiano on Urbanspoon

Sunday, April 22, 2012

La Brasserie

April marks the death month of all university students. Had two finals today and will be having a celebratory girls' date with Ada! She is more the 'hipster' type, so somewhere chill and cozy will be the perfect place to bring her. La Brasserie is a Franco-German restaurant in downtown. They do not take reservations as it is a small restaurant that holds approximately 40 people.

Overlooking into the kitchen.
We got to the restaurant at 7:00 and all the tables were full. However, they had a bar which overlooks the chef in action. These seats were perfect for us. The only downside of these seats is that it is right near the door, so it can get a little crowded when people are coming in and waiting for seats. Our humorous waiter made us very comfortable during the entire meal. Even with the busy flow in the restuarant, he was always there when we needed him and will drop by once in a while to make a smart remark.

Bread to start.

I ordered the Suckling Pig
Suckling Pig: house made sauerkraut, schupfnudel ($22)
This piglet is very tender and fat; this equates yummy in tummy! The chef prepared an entire piglet and simply cut a slice and served. Imagine a prime rib and a slice is cut and served. The meat was cooked perfectly. There was no tough pieces in the entire slice of suckling pig. The skin was crispy due to the barbequing. This dish came with sides of house-made sauerkraut and schupfnudel. The sauerkraut was not too sour, which I prefer. And it was my first time trying schupfnudel. The first thought that came to mind was gnocchi! After some researching, apparently this schupfnudel is a thick noodle, similar to gnocchi. I find this tasting better than the Italian's version. I usually do not order pork, but this will amaze you. Definitely recommend this entree!

Ada ordered the Brasserie Burger
Brasserie Burger: aged white cheddar, bacon, cripsy onions, truffled aioli, and frites ($17)
Her first bite: "This is the best burger I have ever had." said Ada (with a drooling face). This burger looked huge. Well half of it is actually fried onion straws. I was quite amazed at how she took a bite out of it. I am never a burgers person; had Romer's Burger and it wasn't satisfying. Nonetheless, I took a bite out of her burger, and I must admit, it was very tasty! The patty was juicy and flavourful. The onions were fried, but did not fill your mouth with grease. It was actually one of the best burger I have ever had as well! Ada actually finished that entire thing, along with the fries. Even after gobbling down that, she felt fine as it wasn't heavy, as compare to other burgers. For all you burger connoisseur, this is a must try!

La Brasserie specialize in French-German cuisine and they do it well. For casual European dining, you will not be disappointed here. Overlooking the kitchen, we saw the two chef created all the appetizers and entrees. It was beautifully done for each dish. They all look so appealing! I have already decided on my menu for my next visit to this restaurant!

Location: On Davies Street, between Burrard and Thurlow. There is paid parking on Davies Street.

Food: Excellent!
Service: Friendly, with a fun and relaxing atmosphere. Note: great for dates!
Price: The total came to $44 with tax for two people.
Will I come back? Yes! Probably back very soon!

- Hippo


La Brasserie
1091 Davie Street
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 604-568-6499

La Brasserie on Urbanspoon

Ajisai Sushi Bar

Ajisai Sushi Bar
After a long day of studying, I've decided it was time to treat my tummy to some food to fuel up for the rest of the long night to come. Michael just got off work and is ready to eat! I have already read his mind where he decided to go: Ajisai Sushi Bar in Kerrisdale. It was quite obvious he wanted to go there since we headed over there on Monday but they were closed. Quite upsetting, but we managed to eat at another Kerrisdale restaurant.

We got there at 5:15pm and the restaurant was still relatively empty. The inside was quite small, but very cozy. We were greeted with smiles and friendly offer of drinks. After looking through the menu, we started off with two appetizers:

Tuna Sumiso: tuna marinated in sweet and sour miso ($5.50)
The tuna was 90% cooked. We actually expected the texture of tuna tataki, because the waitress told us the middle of the tuna is raw. But when we got it, it was almost fully cooked. Although we both thought the tuna was too cooked for our taste, I still enjoyed the flavour of this. The sweet thick miso sauce blended well with sour cucumber.

Mirugai Ponzu: geoduck with ponzu sauce ($8.50)
I would consider this dish as a substitute of a salad. The ponzu sauce is on the sour-side. There was mostly seaweed soaked in ponzu sauce with a few slices of geoduck. The geoduck was only average and the portion was quite small.

Moments later, our sushi arrived. There wasn't much presentation in this restaurant. We ordered two rolls and 6 pieces of nigiri sushi; they were all placed in the same dish. We aren't the type to judge a book by its cover. Presentation and taste doesn't have a correlation, in my opinion.

Dynamite Roll ($4.50)
This dynamite roll was recommended to us by the waitress. It had boiled prawn, tobiko, avocado, cucumber, and flavoured by spicy mayo. What I really liked about this roll is that it is made of boiled prawn instead of tempura prawn! I personally would never order dynamite roll when I go to restaurants due to the face that the tempura prawn is never fresh and crispy. Ajisai is very creative, they used corn flake to create the crispy texture and the blend of this with the boiled prawn was very good.

Unagi Avocado ($6.00)
As the name of the roll says, the roll had only unagi and avocado in the middle. Very simple roll, but made very delicious. The avocado was at the perfect ripeness and they used quality unagi pieces, instead of chopped up ends. The amount of sushi rice they used was perfect. And it was topped with the special sweet unagi sauce. In other restaurant, this will usually be consider a special roll, either called 'dragon roll' or 'caterpillar roll'. This roll is better than others' special roll.

Nigiri Sushi: red tuna ($2.00/piece), hamachi ($2.50/piece), toro ($2.50/piece)
Fresh and fully thawed. The sushi rice was soft. The red tuna and hamachi was only average. The toro, on the other hand, impressed us. It had a great 'melt-in-the-mouth' marbley fat taste. It was so good that Michael had to order more of it!

Saba Shiso: mackerel and o-ba leaf ($3.00)
This hosomaki was very good! Saba have a natural salted taste that blends well with the pieces of aromatic shiso o-ba leaf. They also included a piece of sour cucumber? or ginger? I'm not quite sure. For a small piece of maki, it was very flavourful and you can taste all 3 component of the roll. We also had to order 3 more toro nigiri because it was so creamy and delicious!

Finally we have filled up our stomach with high satisfaction. Ajisai has great sushi for great value. The high quality ingredient they use will keep us coming back! By time we left, the restaurant was packed! A waiting list have formed. We went on a Friday, so make sure you come early to skip the wait.

Location: This little sushi bar is hidden within Kerridale. If you simply drive by or walk by Kerrisdale, you will not spot it. It is actually hidden in a small plaza (near London Drugs). Beware: they close on Mondays and close for lunch on Sundays.

Food: Great taste. Quality food. Definitely come here for the sushi.
Service: Courteous, approachable, and friendly; very willing to answer any questions. Tea cup was never dry.
Price: We spent a total of $55 with tax for two.
Recommended? Highly! I love this place!

- Hippo


Ajisai Sushi Bar - Kerrisdale
2081 W 42nd Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 604-266-1428

Ajisai Sushi Bar on Urbanspoon

Friday, April 20, 2012

Welcome to Hippo's Food Blog

Welcome to Hippo's food blog where we will review restaurants throughout the lower mainland. We are currently under construction, please come back soon!