Pearl Castle Café 圓香生活餐飲

This review is for the Pearl Castle chain, although my most recent visit was the Richmond Centre location.

Milky Seafood Hotpot

Pearl Castle was a long-time favourite of mine, but in recent years they have spread themselves quite thin and lost the focus on quality. They regularly raise their prices and keep opening new locations. 

My most recent visit was to the Richmond Centre location. Their menu is pretty consistent across locations and they have quite a bit of variety. I decided to try their milky seafood hotpot for a change and was a little disappointed. 

Milky Seafood Hotpot

The pot was rather large but most of it was soup and lots of cabbage. There were a few pieces of seafood in the pot including a shrimp and a mussel. The soup was rich with milk and pretty flavorful. However, overall I wasn't impressed and probably won't ever order it again. 

Service is standard for a Chinese restaurant, and the setting is pretty average. The only bonus for the Richmond Centre location is that it's in a mall so parking and shopping are readily available. 

Overall, I would recommend the Pearl Castle chain of restaurants, but I would stick with the Sexsmith location and some of the other dishes that you everyone else ordering like the crispy peppery chicken nuggets or the three spice chicken.

I find that in general, the Minoru (Richmond Centre) location is slower on service and the food quality isn't at the same level as their original location on Sexsmith. 

Summary

Food: Good

Service: Average

Setting: Good

Value: Average

Chongqing Restaurant 重慶飯店

Chicken Corn Soup

It's been quite some time since we went to Chongqing Restaurant on Kingsway (10 months!) so we decided to head there for lunch after H's gymnastics class. We arrived around 12:30pm and the restaurant wasn't very busy (yet).

Hot and Sour Soup

I asked for a high chair so the server directed us to sit at a table near the entrance so there's more walking room around the chair. However, the new booth he gave us was in direct sun. Even with the blinds down and closed, J and I were feeling the heat and asked to move. With a much cooler booth, we sat down and put in our orders.

Seafood Chow Mein - standard chow mein with some seafood included. It wasn't bad but it wasn't memorable either.

Seafood Chow Mein

Tan Tan Noodles with Pork Chop - I ordered this one because I like comparing Tan Tan Noodles at various restaurants. I have to admit that I really liked the way they made it. The soup is very thick but there's enough of it that the noodles don't absorb everything. This is important for me since I spend a long time feeding H while I eat. Some places, the noodles absorb all the soup and it's like eating dry noodles. Anyway, the noodles are good and the soup is a bit spicy. I would like to try the Deluxe version next time, which comes with ground meat in the noodles. The pork chop that was served on the side was pretty good. It's dipped in a curry sauce before being fried, so there's a curry taste to the meat which is actually quite original. H really loved the pork chop and ate all but one piece that she let me have..

Tan Tan Noodles

Pork Chop (c/w Tan Tan Noodles)

All lunch special menu dishes come with your choice of soup: hot and sour or chicken corn. We ordered one of each since H can't handle spicy. The chicken corn soup was very thick and had some egg swirl, shredded chicken and bean sprout tips. It was a little too thick and would have been better if there was more substance to it.

Service wasn't bad overall. It was very apparent that they didn't turn on the AC until sometime later when someone probably complained or the employees realized it. It also get pretty busy in there as the lunch crowd started to arrive.

I'm going to make an effort to try out Chongqing for dinner as they have a lot of Szechuan dishes that I really want to try and the food is pretty good.

Summary
Food: Good. Everything is average or better (more better). Soup can be skipped.

Service: Good. Nothing to write home about.

Setting: Good. They have their own parking lot and there's quite a bit of street parking nearby. The restaurant is pretty clean.

Value: Good. The lunch specials were $8.45 and a decent size. Food is good too.

Malay Curry House 馬拉星

Malay Curry House is quickly becoming one of my go-to restaurants for a hot bowl of noodles. They are located on Kingsway a block from Boundary and they specialize in Malaysian style curries. They also have a killer Hainan Chicken that's boneless and comes with your choice of 2 sauces from a pretty lengthy list of options.

My favorite items on their menu are the curry soup noodles. They have a kick and very deep flavours from the various spices that they use. On my last visit, it was a little bit on the salty side, but it was still very delicious. You get your option of a couple of different kinds of noodles, but I usually go with the oil noodles because they are thicker and don't absorb too much of the soup which I like drinking along with the noodles. You can get mixed noodles as well, which is what J usually does. You also get to choose what kind of meat you want in it. I tried the lamb and I have to say that I still prefer the beef brisket. The lamb was mostly bone and fat, so it took away from the dish. The beef on the other hand, is very good. The meat is on the fatty side, but they more than make up for it in the quantity that they give you. Their soup noodles all come with napa, fish cakes, and tofu puffs.

The Hainan Chicken is one of their specialties and they actually run out of it sometimes. When we go with a larger party, we usually order a half or whole chicken in advance to ensure that we have one for the kids. They serve their chicken boneless which is great for the kids, and the chicken oil rice is flavourful while not being too oily. The chicken comes with some pickled carrots, radish, and a couple of chunks of pineapple. Soup is also included but it's very light and a bit salty so it's nutritional value is questionable at best.

The sauces are the highlight of the chicken dish. The standard choices with Chinese oil chicken are present and they make them quite well. I am referring to the ginger and chives sauce, and the sweet chili sauce. I tried the lime sauce one time and while I was impressed, I still fall back on the standard sauces.

J has ordered a variety of their other soup noodles and she hasn't been disappointed yet. She loves variety and doesn't like eating at the same places very often, so it speaks volumes when she wants to revisit a restaurant within a couple of weeks.

Another feature that I like about Malay curry house is that you can add a cold drink to your meal for fifty cents. They only have one flavour available at a time, but so far it's always been something fruity like peach or passion fruit tea. It's quite good and balances the heat from the noodles very well (especially in the summer).

The restaurant is decently decorated and pretty clean with several tables and a bench by the window. It is quite spacious and I think they could probably fit a few more tables in there without much problem (although I can't comment on the legality of cramming more people in there).

Service is where a lot of people get turned off by the restaurant. The servers are not well trained and very inefficient. They are slow to respond to customers and they don't monitor the dining room very often. On one particular visit, our server took orders from 2 people at a time from our table of 8. She took 2 orders and went to the kitchen, came back for 2 more orders and went to the kitchen again, and then returned to take another 2 orders. It was quite bizarre and very inefficient.

We have had orders mixed up before too. I had ordered oil noodles and my friend ordered mixed noodles, but we ended up with each others' noodles in the soups that we each picked. They also forget small requests like additional plates or bowls. We end up just walking to the counter instead of requesting them from the servers.

Finally, and this is the biggest problem and probably a deal breaker for many people, the restaurant (or just the servers) often make mistakes on the bill. I know friends and relatives who have eaten there and been billed for more items than they ordered, or billed more for what they did order. This happened to me on both the last 2 visits I made there. Less than a month ago, we were billed for an extra meal. On my last visit, the prices on the bill were higher than on the menu, and we were billed for an entire Hainan chicken instead of just the meal. The number of mistakes we have experienced and have been reported by friends and family are quite high, but I will leave it at that. Make sure you read your bill carefully!

Summary
Food: Very good. Great noodles and Hainan chicken.

Service: Poor. Service is not great, even by Chinese restaurant standards.

Setting: Average. Parking on nearby streets and the dining room is spacious and clean.

Value: Good. Great food and decent prices.

Po Kong Vegetarian Restaurant 普光素食

Aside from dining with vegetarians, every once in a while we have a craving of the meatless variety and we pick from a short list of restaurants that serve no meat at all (because vegetarian options at regular restaurants often use the same cooking implements or even the same oil as that used for meat dishes). We've been to Po Kong on Kingsway once before and chose to go again this long weekend.

Jai (Gluten) Combination

The restaurant is located at a busy section of Kingsway near Knight Street, so parking can be challenging. We ended up a block away right on Kingsway, so it wasn't so bad. The restaurant has about 3 parking spots out back, unless you feel like double-parking and having to move your car if you box someone in, or get boxed in yourself.

Baked Vegetables in Portugese Sauce

The interior is very... green. They have quite a few tables of various sizes and on the Saturday that we went, it was half full when we arrived. Throughout our meal, more patrons showed up and a small line started to form by the entrance, which is almost always a sign of good business.

As a Chinese restaurant, you get your choice of tea as you sit down and we ended up ordering perhaps a little too much.

Jai (gluten) combination. A combination of different kinds of marinated wheat gluten. Spongy in texture and easy to chew, Bo Kong's wheat gluten is a great appetizer and goes well in the main dishes as well.

Enoki Mushrooms on Fried Tofu and Broccoli

House special chow mein. A myriad of vegetables and thick broth-like sauce over a bed of crispy fried noodles. Meat or no meat, this dish is excellent for the variety of vegetables and textures of the ingredients. There's bok choi, bamboo shoots, marinated wheat gluten, wood ear (a type of fungus), broccoli and carrots. I think there was bean sprouts in there too. There is so much variety in this dish that you forget there's no meat.

Sizzling Steak with Black Pepper Sauce

Baked vegetables in Portugese sauce. If you like Portugese sauce and the chewy, stringy taste and texture of baked cheese, order this one as soon as you sit down. There's a 20-30 minute preparation time for it, but it's well worth it. The dish is comprised of mostly broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and taro, baked with Portugese sauce and covered in cheese. The sauce works very well with the baked vegetables and the portion size is very generous.

Enoki mushrooms on fried tofu and broccoli. The overall taste of this dish is similar to the house special chow mein, except it is a little more subtle. The enoki mushrooms are mixed with carrots and poured over a stack of fried tofu on a bed of broccoli. The tofu and broccoli aren't completely dry, but there wasn't quite enough sauce to spread around the whole dish. This dish was pretty average overall.

Plain Rice Roll 

Sizzling steak with black pepper sauce and broccoli and cauliflower. The steak is imitation meat or sausage (really made of tofu or other bean ingredients) and sliced up and pan fried on the sizzling plate. The black pepper sauce very good and adds a bit of kick to the 'meat' and the vegetables. It might be better with corn or cabbage to soak up the sauce, but it's a good pick regardless.

Plain rice roll with sesames. The rice rolls are pretty standard. The dipping sauce is pretty good with a peanut taste to it which goes well with the sesame seeds.

Sesame sticky rice balls with lotus paste. J had a craving for these so we ordered a small plate of them. The balls were served piping hot and we had to wait a few minutes for them to cool down. The sticky rice balls were thin, soft and not too sticky. My only criticism was that the amount of lotus paste inside was little more than the size of my pinky fingertip.

Service at Po Kong was pretty standard for a Chinese restaurant. The owner/manager (I think) was very active in playing the part of host for new guests and departing customers.

After this good experience, we will definitely be back.

Summary
Food: Very good. The food is made well with quality ingredients and not as greasy as average Chinese restaurants that serve meat.

Service: Good.

Setting: Good. The interior is brightly lit and spacious.

Value: Good. The prices are similar to meat-serving restaurants, but the food quality is on par, if not better, than many.

Green Lettuce 貴賓閣

Indian and Chinese fusion? Yes please!

It's been a few years, so we planned a dinner at Green Lettuce in Vancouver with our friends. We made reservations and showed up for dinner on a Friday night. We were surprised that the restaurant wasn't very busy, as in the past it was always packed for dinner.

Spicy Chili Garlic Wings

We started off with a couple of orders of Spicy Chili Garlic Wings. The wings were quite crispy depite being covered in their chili garlic sauce. They tasted fantastic and had a bit of kick to them. Peeling away the sauce and the skin, the kids had some as well.

On top of the wings, we put in our order for a few share plates.

Chili Beef

Chili Beef - This dish is listed with 3 chili peppers next it (the maximum), and When asked if we could turn down the heat level, the server said that it can't be adjusted for this dish. As it turned out, it was only mildly spicy. The beef was rolled in batter before being fried. As a result, we had a bit of difficulty discerning 'where's the beef'? The texture of the fried batter made it taste very much like fried fish. Upon closer examination, the beef was thinly sliced and likely pre-tenderized so there wasn't much beefiness spring to it.

Sweet & Sour Fish with Pineapple

Sweet & Sour Fish with Pineapple - This fish tasted very similar to the beef in that it was battered and fried as well. The blend of sweet and sour sauce mixing with the batter was quite delicious (even though the result was that it was hard to tell the difference between fish and batter). There could have been more pineapples though.

Vegetable Korma - This dish was quite simply a stir-fry of vegetables with some curry sauce. It wasn't spicy despite the chili rating in the menu. I would have preferred a thicker curry, but the vegetables were a good break from the other (fried) dishes.

Vegetable Korma

Service and setting weren't bad overall. When I spilled some water on H, our server came by quite quickly and gave us extra napkins (racial stereotype about Chinese and Indians purposely omitted). She also recommended a small bowl of rice which would be enough for all of us.

When the restaurant is full, it can be a little crowded. However, that Friday night it wasn't very crowded at all, so it was quite comfortable. Parking is also readily available in the nearby residential streets if you can't find a spot on Kingsway.

Overall, the dining experience was good, but I would definitely order some different dishes the next time so we don't end up with 75% of our dishes being fried.

Summary
Food: Good. The wings were excellent, but the heavy batter on 2 of our dishes was a little too much.

Service: Good.

Setting: Good. Restaurant is clean with many tables, and there is parking nearby.

Value: Good. The prices are moderate, with the popular dishes being a little pricier.

Hamilton Street Grill

The day after our return from our Hawaiian vacation, we didn't (I should clarify that by "we", I mean "I", because J doesn't cook) feel like cooking and we happened to have a Living Social or Social Living or some Groupon-like coupon to use at Hamilton Street Grill, so we decided to eat there.

Thankfully we made reservations because when we arrived it was quite busy. It was a Monday night but just about every table was occupied. We were given the option between a high chair or a booster for H and we chose the former since boosters don't have straps. It was a surprise to us when we were led to a booth that was elevated half a foot off the ground. The host tried to put the high chair under the table but on the ledge which is an accident waiting to happen so we opted for a booster after all.

Aside from H's seating considerations, we sat down, ordered some drinks and showed our server the voucher (which was non-descript about what was included). The voucher was valid for an appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert all from the Summer 2013 Price Fixe Menu. We quickly made our selections and our food arrived in timely fashion.

Gorgonzola Fondue

Gorgonzola fondue with sliced garlic bread for dipping. Let me start by saying I love gorgonzola. It is part of the blue cheese family (I didn't know cheeses had family) which is surprising because I don't particularly like blue cheese, and goes great with pasta. We chose the fondue because the other choices were pretty standard as far as appetizers go at restaurants. The garlic bread they served it with was toasted up and pretty crispy. The blend of textures between the bread and the fondue was interesting in a good way. The fondue itself was absolutely fantastic. Although J thought it was a little too strong, I thought it was perfect. The fondue size was quite generous as I ended up completely covering the last few pieces of bread and still had some left over. We used the remaining fondue to accompany the steak that came later. It is a true shame this appetizer is not on the regular menu. I hope they bring it back or give it a permanent spot on the menu.

Certified Angus Beef Sirloin

Certified Angus Beef Sirloin with mushroom red wine sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. J felt like steak, seeing as how we were at a steakhouse, and since we had a whole week of fish. The sirloin was ordered and served medium rare, but already sliced up. I'm not a fan of pre-sliced steak, but J didn't mind. The beef was good and went well with the left over fondue. The sauce was pretty good, but fairly standard. J's only criticism was that there was no garlic taste in her garlic mashed potatoes. I tried a bite and I would have to agree that they could have accentuated the garlic flavour a bit (or a lot) more.

Penna Pasta

Penne pasta with salmon, halibut, prawns and Vancouver Island mussels with tomato cream. After a week of fish, I had grown fond of it and decided to go with a seafood pasta. The seafood was fresh and tasted great along with the penne in the tomato cream sauce. I'm not a fan of shrimp/prawn, but the prawns in the pasta were actually quite good. The sauce was flavorful and not overpowering. Overall, the dish was well put together and I enjoyed it.

Belgian Chocolate Mousse

Belgian Chocolate Mousse. Aside from the whipped cream on top (I'm pretty sure it was compressed canned whip), the mousse was quite delicious. It was sweet enough that it didn't get boring, as mousse often tastes to me. I would have liked a bit more variety in textures, such as a layer of cake, crust, or crushed nuts, but it was still quite good on its own.

Being a restaurant in Yaletown, parking isn't always easy. The interior of the restaurant is pretty nice. It's dimly lit which is great for setting the mood, and the tables are spaced out so you have some sense of privacy.

Summary
Food: Very good. Their Gorgonzola Fondue was very good, as were their entrees.

Service: Good.

Setting: Good. Parking isn't easy but the restaurant interior is pretty nice.

Value: Good. The food was very good and the entire experience was quite satisfying.

Frostcity (Hawaii, US)

After posting shaved ice photos on a social media site, we were recommended to try Frostcity. On our last night in Hawaii, we did just that.

Frostcity isn't far from the Waikiki area, but it is a bit of a drive. It's a small establishment on the first floor of what looked like an apartment complex of some sort. They have quite a bit of seating inside and several parking spaces right outside their door.

Their prices are moderately high, even for their Small size, but you do get quite a bit of 'frost'. They serve Taiwanese style (based on what I read) shaved flavored ice. Basically, imagine freezing juice and then shaving that. So the flavors are available in limited quantities by their stock. Some of the flavours that we wanted weren't available, so we had to pick others. In the end, we ordered 3 Small plates of the following: durian, Nutella, and mango.

Durian

The texture was similar to soft serve ice cream when it's made with yogurt instead of milk. It was very soft, but cold (LOL) and had a slightly frosty texture to it. The flavoring was good for the first few minutes, but as my mouth got colder, the taste became very subtle. Even with a Small, I started to get tired of the singular taste as I finished it. In terms of mixing flavours, they have some set combinations that you can choose from, but you can't make your own.

Nutella

They must realize the taste and texture monotony of eating a small mountain of singularly flavored ice, so they include some garnishing on the side of each plate consisting of passion fruit gel balls, mochi, coconut jelly, and honeydew pieces.

It's not easy to directly compare shaved ice to the flavored ice that Frostcity serves. They are made differently and therefore taste different as well. In the end, it comes down to preference. I prefer the flavour and texture variety of shaved ice with toppings over the shaved flavored ice.

Mango

Overall, Frostcity ice plates are great to share if you're inclined to do so, or if you really like eating a lot of one flavour.

Summary
Food: Very good. The flavored ice is very fine and you get a good portion even for a Small plate.

Service: Average. You go up to order, sit down, and they bring you your dessert. They also remind you not to steal their spoons.

Setting: Average. They have quite a few tables and probably expanded to a neighboring store as it looked like 2 separate sit-down areas.

Value: Good. Prices are high compared to shaved ice, but keep in mind that you're not eating ice.