Where's the last place you ate at and rate it ...

[CivicBlues]

Yeah but we don't jack up our billing rates when we win some BS industry award that we bought off the judges for

[westopher]

Yeah you just jack them up for no reason instead

[Gerbs]

Anyone tried Chef Pin, I find it's one of the few filling good eats left at sub $20 -25 per person after tip taxes.

[punkwax]

Originally Posted by westopher

Yeah we paid to be on the list. It’s funny how worked up people that don’t know fuck all about the restaurant industry get about their personal tastes and experiences being more important than everyone else’s. I don’t come to your insurance sales awards and be like “seriously that fuckin idiot got it? His paperwork was so disorganized when I looked at his desk behind the counter”

Companies paying for/buying awards to boast is nothing new across multiple, if not all verticals. Sad that businesses that might be more deserving won’t get the recognition if they don’t pay to play.

Gross really.. plenty awards out there are all for profit and the rich continue to get richer.

[westopher]

Guys, fucking Barbara got a Michelin star. Pat came back from horrible illness that nearly killed him, has spent his whole life as a chef, opened a restaurant in the dtes in the middle of a pandemic that he operated by himself to get by. He’s not out buying awards. Kissa got an star. Joël opened bao bei 13 years ago (what I think is top 5 restaurants in the city) and has trained some of the best chefs in the Canadian food scene. To think these guys are buying awards is absurd. Michelin guide doesn’t even make advertising revenue from these restaurants. It started as a scam to get people to wear out their tires by driving further to try new restaurants.
Absolutely it happens, but we aren’t talking about vanmag or scout here, an advertising avenue masquerading as journalism. I assure you I have an inside line on the finances of this industry and how things work.
I’ll be sure to post my P+L statements next month if they show a payment to Michelin for our recommendation. If you could pay for these awards hawksworth would have 3 stars. Hell I would have paid for that shit too because it would have paid for itself.

[racerman88]

Went to pho hoa on Oak and W 49th yesterday. Have not been here in a long time.
I was very disappointed in how much I got in a large house special. The bowls were big but the serving was equivalent to a small with minimal meat.


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[6793026]

QJD was a shock but when i went, I have to say it's probably one of the better serviced chinese restaurant I've been.

Their service is surperb, bar none super memorible and this was even durign the tough times during COVID.
The duck is really crap, to be honest, maybe because i'm from HK and what I think the way they do duck is very diff than what we are used to.

There were 2-3 dishes, even in chinese cusinine, totally epic. I thought the 1 star was well deserved there.

[bcrdukes]

Thanks for sharing your experience on QJD. I've heard, consistently over and over, the duck isn't great but I think this could be to akin to sourcing and farming practices of duck as compared to what can be had in HK. Having said that, I've had a few friends try QJD and one they they all agree on is the service and dishes there were superb. Would love to try it out when I'm back in Vancouver for a visit.

[westopher]

I've heard that the product they get here makes it impossible to do it well in the style they are going for. People said the same about mott32. I don't know why, as I'm not well versed in asian cooking at all, but it sounds totally reasonable. There are definitely traditional cuisines from many places in the world you really can't replicate here, and same goes for those other places trying to do something from other parts of the world.

[bcrdukes]

I forgot to mention that I went to Tagine in Los Angeles. This restaurant is co-owned by Canadian-American actor Ryan Gosling.

I've been meaning to try this restaurant out for a while now and finally had an opportunity to do so. Four of us (including myself) booked a table and it took a few tries as the restaurant is quite small and it gets pretty busy.

We all tried the tasting menu at $94/$95 each (regular tasting menu and pescatarian menu.) A lot of courses and the hummus was fantastic. Some dishes, mainly sides, were overly seasoned, but overall, a great menu but often times confusing.

I personally wished the dishes were more consistently representative of authentic Moroccan cuisine but as you go through the dishes, it felt more West Coast American. As westopher said, you can't always replicate something you can get somewhere else. We went on a Tuesday night so I'm not sure the head chef was there. All in all, we all enjoyed dinner and service was excellent. Too bad Ryan Gosling wasn't there himself as it was confirmed he's been busy with his recent movies and his commitment to his family.

[Hondaracer]

I feel like there’s this balance, or maybe call it lack of balance, where places try to create what they THINK the clientele wants instead of just creating the traditional flavours and dishes most people are after?

[westopher]

I think realistically, chefs need to not try and replicate flavours and just taste taste taste and decide what they think is best.
When we were doing some off the cuff dinner services I was just making whatever I felt like and we’d change the menu weekly. We had a customer ask to meet me and she was like “wait you aren’t middle eastern?”
She was telling me how much she loved the food and it reminded her of her husbands moms cooking who was from Morocco, which was super cool. We had a good laugh how I’m just a regular white guy who read some books and threw some shit in a pan and hoped it turned out well. It was a really awesome experience and very validating, but I’m not trying to replicate anything traditional. Just trying to make shit taste good. It’s all a simple formula. Use good ingredients, season your food well, cook things as perfectly as you can and use flavours that work together. If you try and replicate things, ingredients vary so much so you can throw the balance way off if you aren’t cognizant of that.

[whitev70r]

Alpina Restaurant at Villa Eyrie, Malahat. https://www.villaeyrie.com/alpina-restaurant/

Beautiful view! Apparently, chef was trained by Michelin star chef, upper end prices. 8/10.

Stock photo but pretty indicative of seating and views.

[sonick]

Yea I stayed at Villa Eyrie last September, great views. The restaurant was pretty good, was upscale German or Austrian cuisine from what I remember.

[whitev70r]

Just read that Willows Inn @ Lummi Island is permanently closed. Lost a few cases of labour laws, sexual harassment, wage theft, etc. Owners decided to close and donated the facility to a Bellingham non-profit who is probably in the process of selling it. That's too bad how this turned out. Has anyone eaten here?

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/wil...egations-abuse

[westopher]

Wow. I heard about some turmoil but it just got worse and worse. Don't know anyone that has eaten there but they were world renowned. However, I think a lot of it was bullshit. People often hype these big restaurants because they think they are supposed to like them. There was a TON of lying about ingredient sources and quality coming from there. Like Sysco shit being passed off as shit from well known local farms.

[sonick]

I ate there a few years back and it was an amazing experience.

It's been reported for about half a year now that they were shutting down, and then the scandal that came out a year or so before that about the poor work conditions and the lying of the suppliers and sources. That said, not everything was fake, I toured the farm and there were what looked to be local apples/veg that I saw on the farm.

A shame that the chef turned out to be a huge asshole.

A few of the better pics from my experience there: https://imgur.com/a/DzGgUca

[supafamous]

https://the-seahouse-fish-and-chips.business.site
https://www.yelp.ca/biz/the-sea-hous...ps-vancouver-2

Run by a couple of Cantonese grandmas, it's dirt cheap ($36 to feed my wife and I and our 4 year old) and the fish was perfectly cooked. No frills and a big bargain for what you get (the clam chowder is pretty meh though). Next to Chili Pepper house on Kingsway.

[supafamous]

Dropped in on HK BBQ Master for the first time in nearly a year and was kindly reminded that the man is the Michael Jordan of Chinese BBQ. His is stuff is just so much better than the "decent" stuff I've been subbing in from Bonafide BBQ (Brentwood Mall) and Cantonese BBQ (Kingsway/Joyce). Silky smooth soy chicken, roast duck with crispy rendered out skin but juicy meat, and tender bbq pork.

I do miss the rude service from before they renovated - felt like part of the whole charm but now that they're so well known they can't do that anymore. They've even gotten up to a 4/5 on Yelp.

[whitev70r]

I thought Cantonese BBQ (Kingsway and Joyce) was same owner or associated with HK Master (Superstore in Richmond)? Maybe they are but still not as good as the original.

What about Master Hung on Garden City, I remember them being on the higher tier.

[racerman88]

Tried Mount Pleasant Vintage and Provisions. Tapas style with vintage decor. Nice atmosphere and crowded on a Saturday. Food was good but tapas is not my thing as portions too small. For two of us we ordered 4 dishes and had two drinks each, it came to around $150.
I was still hungry after


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[westopher]

I find with tapas it really helps to have a selective ordering mentality if you want any value. Unfortunately that requires a knowledge of product costs haha. That's why restaurant industry people or rich people that don't care about what it costs love that style of food. One of my part time dishwashers works there too part time and has good things to say about it.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by supafamous

Dropped in on HK BBQ Master for the first time in nearly a year and was kindly reminded that the man is the Michael Jordan of Chinese BBQ. His is stuff is just so much better than the "decent" stuff I've been subbing in from Bonafide BBQ (Brentwood Mall) and Cantonese BBQ (Kingsway/Joyce). Silky smooth soy chicken, roast duck with crispy rendered out skin but juicy meat, and tender bbq pork.

If you just want to get a cheap quick thing to satisfy your Cantonese BBQ cravings, I find that the Canto BBQ department at the Burnaby Price Smart is pretty good. Being part of Price Smart, they have rotating discounts on their BBQ stuff. Their menu basically boils down to:

- regular BBQ pork
- 1st cut BBQ pork (more juicy / fatty blend in the cut of meat)
- roast pork
- BBQ Chinese sausage
- Canto BBQ ribs
- mush ginger (spring) chicken
- salt-baked (spring) chicken

Generally, I like their regular BBQ pork, roast pork, Canto BBQ ribs, and salt-baked chicken. With BBQ pork and esp roast pork, don't be afraid to ask for something specific -- a lean cut, a lean-fatty half-and-half cut, buttock, etc. Their BBQ sifu will generally accommodate the request.

The Canto BBQ dept in the Richmond Price Smart, however, is absolute crap.

[whitev70r]

Hmmm ... will give it a try. Just thought that Price Mart, T&T were sub par BBQ but yah, on the cheaper side.

I noticed that the price of BBQ duck is gradually falling everywhere .. I guess the stock of duck is slowly building.

[racerman88]

Originally Posted by westopher

I find with tapas it really helps to have a selective ordering mentality if you want any value. Unfortunately that requires a knowledge of product costs haha. That's why restaurant industry people or rich people that don't care about what it costs love that style of food. One of my part time dishwashers works there too part time and has good things to say about it.

The food was good and atmosphere was nice.


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