Lhy Thai

It's been a while since I have updated my blog. Well, that is because I have been away for 3 weeks on an Asia trip!! It was super amazing. My girl friend and I had a ton of fun. And of course, knowing me, I definitely tried a lot of traditional and cultural food that you do not normally find in Vancouver. I will be blogging about that once I finish sorting through the million of photos I have taken.

But anyways, I am finally home in Raincouver. Definitely not missing the rain, but I do miss the lovely, breezy Vancouver weather. I took it easy with the food I ate the first week I was back. Now, I am ready for more food adventures! My friend, Flash, was mentioning to me that we can eat emu at this restaurant in Richmond. Despite it being such a cute animal, I was totally down for trying new meat. Unfortunately, the restaurant we were originally going to did not serve emu. Being slightly disappointed, we decided to go grab some Thai food in Burnaby at Lhy Thai.

When you enter Lhy Thai, it is a small, cozy restaurant that appeared to be family owned. Very laid back and casual dining. On a Thursday night, it was not busy at all and our server was highly attentive. After reviewing the menu, we have decided on a couple of simple dishes:

Phat Thai Gai: rice noodles fried with chicken, tofu, green onion, tomato sauce, bean sprouts, egg, and sprinkled with peanuts ($10.95)
This pad thai was very tasty. You can choose between chicken or prawn. We chose the chicken. The portion is smaller than most restaurant, but it was full of flavours and definitely had a good balance of sweet and spice to it. However, it is a bit oily and can be heavy if you were to finish the platter to yourself. I will recommend sharing.

Green Curry with Beef: bamboo shoots, green and red pepper, sweet basil ($10.95)
This curry disappointed me. It was very liquid and watery. We ordered the green curry in mild, so I hope they did not just dilute it with water to achieve the mild flavour. We didn't want it too spicy, but we still wanted the thick curry flavour. The sliced beef was average and slightly dry. Side note: this dish does not come with rice. We ordered a bowl of steamed rice for $1.50.

Lhy Thai is located near the South Burnaby-Kingsway-Edmonds area. It is on Edmonds Street and Linden Avenue cross street to be exact. There is free street parking at the front of the restaurant on Edmonds Street. The restaurant is quite small, so I will make reservation if you plan to attend with a larger party. Please note: they are closed on Sundays. Their hours of operations is as follows: Lunch from Monday to Friday (11:30am to 2:30pm); Dinner from Monday to Saturday (5:00pm to 10:00pm).

Food: Only average. They serve great pad thai, but definitely need to work on their curry.
Service: Excellent. Warm and friendly staff from a family owned restaurant.
Price: We paid a total of $25 with tax for two people.
Recommended? I do have preference for other Thai restaurants, but they are located in Vancouver.

- Hippo


Lhy Thai
7357 Edmonds Street
Burnaby, B.C.
Phone: 604-526-8085

G-Be Izakaya

Happy Birthday Jodie ❤ It is my bestie's birthday weekend and she chose G-Be Izakaya for a casual dinner with the girls. Don't let the restaurant name fool you - it is no longer izakaya. Last time I visited G-Be Izakaya was over a year ago when it was still an izakaya restaurant. I actually did not know it changed owners until she told me; G-Be Izakaya now only serves hotpot! The owners are Chinese but the employees remain Japanese. I was quite shock. From my memory, the old G-Be Izakaya was decent, but pricey. I assume there isn't enough market and attention in the Grand Villa Casino area for it to prosper.

I usually dislike all-you-can-eat menus. It has been years since I've been to one, since it is often overpriced for the quality you are getting. For $20-$30, I can get much better food else where! But of course, it is the birthday girl's call. Plus, I love trying new places. Despite my initial opinion, I will still judge the food from a fresh pair of eyes. I am always ready for a surprise.

From the menu, you can see that the soup broth are Japanese inspired. We chose the Hokkaido Miso Broth.

There are also three hotpot sets you can choose from:
1. SuperSave All-You-Can-Eat Hotpot: $13.99
This includes all the SuperSave snack and hotpot items.
2. Deluxe SuperSave Upgrade: +$5
For a $5 upcharge, you can get everything in the SuperSave snack and hotpot items, PLUS all the Deluxe SuperSave snack, handcone, and hotpot items.
3. Premium SuperSave Upgrade: +$8
For a $8 upcharge, you can get everything in the SuperSave and Deluxe SuperSave, as well as the Premium SuperSave items. The Premium SuperSave includes all-you-can-eat sashimi. And includes unlimited canned beverages.

 

 

 

After we started cooking, I've actually forgotten to take the remaining dishes we ordered. I was not impressed by the food. It was poor cut of meats. You can not choose specific vegetables, you must choose the assorted vegetable plate. The curry tasted potato fries were popular in our table though. We added the $8 to upgrade into the Premium SuperSave, so that we can order the sashimi. The salmon pieces were the size of a quarter. The tuna was still half frozen. Another restaurant that serve hotpot and sashimi item is Toyotomi in Richmond. For similar pricing, I rather head over to Richmond and have all-you-can-eat at Toyotomi.

Post Dinner Celebration
We headed over to a friend's house to cut the birthday pie! I had to include this in my post since it was so amazingly delicious! This is homemade. Special thanks to Sarah for this delicious melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate and Nut Pie.

My creation! Topped with chocolate/vanilla marble ice-cream.

Back to G-Be Izakaya...
Location: Next to Grand Villa Casino, at the end of Dominion Street. You can find parking at the lot next to the restaurant or head to the casino parking lot at south building parkade.

Food: Not very good. Fusion of Japanese and Chinese hotpot.
Service: Slow. They were not low on staff, but was still no where to be found. However, they were nice and courteous. They notified us 5 minutes prior to last call to our 90 minutes dining limit.
Price: The total came to $157 with tax for 6 people.
Recommended? No.

- Hippo


G-Be Izakaya
4331 Dominion Street
Burnaby, B.C
Phone: 604-435-6002

Yo Sushi

So I am slowly running out of places to grab sushi. But Meko still managed to surprise me with this newly opened sushi restaurant in North Burnaby. What use to be Bombay Bhel / Bombay Beat Indian Cuisine is now Yo Sushi! The dining area of this restaurant is quite large and spacious. The two of us was seated in a booth that can fit 6-8 people. Everything is newly renovated, so the seating is very comfortable.

Salmon Nigiri and Toro Nigiri
Tasted average. The salmon and toro pieces appear large, but it is actually thinly sliced. Overall, the fish quality was average and the rice was a bit too sticky.

Black Dragon Roll: prawn tempura, cucumber, avocado topped with BBQ eel and unagi sauce ($11.95)
I think this roll can taste better. The unagi did not have much flavour, so most of the flavour of this roll was derived from the sauce. There also was very little avocado in the center. Adding more will definitely improve the roll.

Red Dragon Roll: prawn tempura, crab meat, cucumber topped with spicy tuna, crumbs and spicy sauce ($9.95)
This roll was surprisingly good! There were two pieces of prawn tempura that was fresh and meaty. It was topped with a generous amount of spicy tuna with spicy mayo! The tempura crunch was a very nice addition. Very delicious! Recommended by Hippo.

Yaki Udon: thick white wheat noodles with chicken ($8.95)
Well made, great flavours. No complaints :)

Overall, I think Yo Sushi has potential for growth, but definitely need improvement in some of their dishes. They are still new, so hopefully they will make some changes in the near future and be successful. Quite a decent sushi place for the neighbourhood.

Location: In North Burnaby, on Hastings Street and Madison Avenue. You can park on Hastings after 6pm. There is also street and lot parking on Madison. Should not be a problem on a weeknight, may have a little more trouble during weekends, as Anton's is just next door.

Food: Currently average, need some improvements.
Service: Great. Very pleasant staff members.
Price: The total came to $43 with tax for two people.
Recommended? If you are in the area and is craving sushi, then definitely. But there are a lot more options when you head towards Vancouver and the Downtown area.

- Hippo


Yo Sushi
4266 Hastings Street
Burnaby, B.C.
Phone: 604-299-2500

Hi Genki Japanese

I love home-style food. Hi Genki serves delicious Japanese comfort food. They do not offer sushi nor sashimi in their menu selection; although they do include a few pieces of sashimi in their bento boxes. This was the perfect lunch spot for us! After many nights of raw fish consumption, I miss those yummy deep-fried dishes!

Ebi and Satsuma Tendon: prawn and fish cake tempura on rice ($8.95)
First thing I noticed: the rice was cooked perfectly. I usually dislike tempera with rice, since many restaurants fail with the rice cooking. I love rice and it upsets me that Japanese restaurants will use undercooked or dried out rice for their dishes. After sampling the rice in the Satsuma Ebi Ten, I fell in love. The prawn tempera was deep fried, but there was no greasy after taste. The fish cake was prepared quite healthy: it was white fish paste mixed with peas and carrots. Lastly, it was finished with a drizzle of rich tempura sauce.

Pork Katsu Curry: deep fried breaded pork cutlet ($9.50)
I really enjoyed this. The portion was generous. I find this curry tastier than the curry made by Saboten in Aberdeen. The pork cutlet was thick and juicy. The side salad came with half a boiled egg, which was a nice touch. Despite the deep fried pork cutlet, it was quite a hearty meal with the many uses of vegetables.

Ice Cream Tempura: deep fried vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce ($5.50)
Perfect for sharing and is a very nice finish to our big meals. The vanilla ice cream was actually good quality vanilla full of flavor. It is coated with corn flakes and lightly fried on the outer shell to give it a crispy crunch. The strawberry sauce was drizzled on top and on the sides if you want a strawberry touch to it. It was very good even without it.

My overall experience was good. Food was amazing, dine in the warm family atmosphere. Design is very simple, so probably not somewhere you want to take dates to. Many tables are filled with family with children. The waitresses are dress in casual clothing with a simple apron, wearing comfortable shoes. They aren’t dressing to impress, but their service is great.

Location: Inside of the National Nikkei Heritage Centre. You can park in the underground parking for free. Then walk up the stairs towards the front door of the heritage centre. The restaurant will be on the ground floor located inside straight from the centre’s entrance.

Food: Excellent! A nice change if you want Japanese food but are not looking for a sushi bar.
Service: Friendly, casual staff. They are Japanese and are not fluent in English, but they are all very approachable and are willing to help. Note: not to bring dates.
Price: The total came to $27 with tax for two people. Can be quite well priced if you do not order the Ice Cream Tempura like we did.
Will I come back? Of course. I look forward to try the grilled fish specials on their daily menu.

- Hippo


Hi Genki Japanese Restaurant
6680 Southoaks Crescent
Burnaby, B.C.
Phone: 604-777-0533