Banh Mi Quest: Hai Phong

We didn't have access to a car yesterday, which is oftentimes true, so we had to find something that was within walking distance of the service centre (and we hadn't tried before). B found a couple that was close to Stadium Station and off we went. We spotted Hai Phong first, so we decided to try it and save Qieu Cafe for another time.

I almost never pay attention to the stores around T&T, so we wouldn't have found Hai Phong if we didn't specifically google search "Banh Mi". Hai Phong has a good, solid banh mi, but the unfortunate thing about it is that it's pricey and the price doesn't include tax. If the price were lower, we would definitely come back.

Cost per Sandwich: $7.50 + tax
Bread: 3/5 - Not fresh, but not bad either. It's still crispy. A bit dry, but not tough.
Sauce: 3/5 - Creamy, but could use more seasoning. The lemongrass chicken kind of overpowers the sauce.
Filling: 4/5 - Not enough, but has good texture and a crisp strong pickle taste.
Meat: 4/5 - Lemongrass flavour is strong, but it was juicy, tender, and had a good amount.
Value: 2/5 - It's a slightly above average banh mi, but at a significantly higher price.

Banh Mi Quest: Battle of the Ba-Les

Everyone says Ba-Le has great banh mi because they bake their own bread in-house. What's the difference between the two Ba-Les then? We went and tried them both. First up, Ba-Le Sandwich Shop (Chinatown).

We had high hopes. It was a small hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pops kind of place. Our old favourite (Golden Garden, who's stopped selling sandwiches now and sparked this quest) was just a block away. Everything pointed to this being our potential replacement. Unfortunately, it did not deliver.

Cost per Sandwich: $4.00

Bread: 1/5 - As soon as you touch it, you know it's stale. It was too dry and too flaky.

Sauce: 1/5 - The consistency is very thick, which may be why it didn't spread and ended up being so little of it we couldn't tell there was any sauce at all

Filling: 2/5 - Too much onion, not enough chicken or anything else. The onion is all you taste.

Meat: 1/5 - Barely there and too dry.

Value: 2/5 - Average price. We would eat it again if we had no other choice, but it's hardly worth it.

There's a reason the Ba-Le on Main Street is a "Sandwich shop" and the one on Kingsway is a "Deli and Bakery". The bread here is baked in-house and just about as fresh as you can get it. There's always a line, so it pays to call ahead to order - unlike the one on Main Street, where it's set up like a subway and made immediately. This is likely another hint at how everything at Main Street's just not as fresh as Kingsway.

Cost per Sandwich: $4.50
Bread: 5/5 - Even though it's toasted, it still feels soft, fresh, and moist.
Sauce: 4/5 - Good consistency and amount, but could do with more seasoning.
Filling: 3/5 - Good texture and flavour of vegetables, decent amount of chicken, but not enough vegetables.
Meat: 4/5 - Good amount of chicken and moist, but could do with more seasoning.
Value: 4/5 - Pricier than other places, but worth it. The bread is the freshest we've had.

Winner: Ba-Le Deli & Bakery (Kingsway)

Banh Mi Quest: Fami Pho

We found Fami Pho by searching for "Vietnamese food" on Google maps.

It fit the criteria of being within walking distance and having "Sandwich" advertised on their awning. Fami Pho makes a pretty good banh mi and would definitely be our "go to" place after the Banh Mi Quest.

Cost per sandwich: $4.75
Bread: 4/5 - Very good. Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside, but not too hard
Sauce: 4/5 - Creamy and has a good balance of flavour
Filling: 3/5 - Vegetables have a good crunch to it, but do with more filling and could be more pickled
Meat: 4/5 - Chicken is tender and flavourful
Value: 4/5 - Solid banh mi, but kind of small

Banh Mi Quest: Yen Linh

Today we went to Banh Mi Yen Linh. This restaurant was recommended by a fellow Banh Mi enthusiast.

With "Banh Mi" in its restaurant name, we thought, "Their banh mi has to be good." It was. The banh mi here sets a good baseline to build on. One downside is that they don't have regular chicken sandwiches, but they do have lemongrass chicken.

Cost per sandwich: $5
Bread: 3/5 - very toasted (hard), which is a hint that it's not freshly baked
Sauce: 3/5 - tastes fine, but not evenly spread and there wasn't enough of it
Filling: 3/5 - good amount, but not enough pickle flavour
Meat: 3/5 - has a very strong lemongrass flavour, but a bit dry
Value: 3/5 - more expensive, but we won't mind eating it again

Banh Mi Quest: Nha Trang

Late last year our favourite Banh Mi restaurant stopped selling Banh Mi. We are now on a quest to find the next best thing. First up, Nha Trang.

Nha Trang was recommended to us by G's parents. "It specializes in sandwiches," they said. We searched them up and there were only two reviews that mentioned their Banh Mi, and they both warned us not to try it. But G's parents said it was good. We had to try for ourselves.

Cost per sandwich: $4

Bread: 4/5 - reasonably toasted but still soft

Sauce: 2/5 - garlic flavour overpowers everything else

Filling: 3/5 - good amount, good mouth feel

Meat: 1/5 - chicken too dry, tastes ready made roast chicken

Value: 3/5 - cheap and filling, ruined by the garlic and dry chicken

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Edit: Upon reflection, we think Nha Trang's Value only deserves 2/5 (Feb 11)

Koko

We went to Koko because the chef we took cooking lessons with had recommended it and it shows up as Japanese owned and run online. It was surprisingly close to us as well.

We sat at the sushi bar, as we like to do when we try out new sushi places. The sushi chefs were very well trained and very fast. First we had the saba battera. We thought the saba was very well prepared and very fatty, as we enjoy it. I thought there was too much rice and that it would be better with two-thirds the amount. B thought it was perfect.

I ordered a bunch of nigiris to try. From top to bottom, we have unagi, uni, ikura, ika, aji, and hotate. The aji, uni, and ikura were labelled as "market price," but there were no boards that ever displayed what the market price was for that day. That was one issue I had because one of them turned out to be more than $5. Another issue I had was the uni didn't taste like it was properly cleaned - it tasted a bit muddy still. The ikura was not salty enough, but other than that everything was fine. I also thought the proportion of rice too large, but B thinks that it was fine given how large the slice of the fish was.

B had the Special Assorted Sushi. It came with 10 pieces of nigiri for the price of $22, which was a pretty good deal considering my 6 pieces came out costing more. From top to bottom, he had tobiko, ikura, ama ebi, ebi, tai, hokkigai, saba, hotate, salmon, and tuna. He said they were all fresh and really liked their treatment of the saba. Where some places may over-pickle their saba, which makes it kind of dry, this had good texture, a good amount of saltiness and oiliness, and not fishy at all.

We decided to try their tonkatsu, since that's B's favourite dish and they didn't have any saba shioyaki (my go to). We were also not impressed with their treatment of the squid - they were cut into rings and didn't have any tentacles. The tonkatsu was solid. The breading held together well and was very crispy. The pork itself was tender and juicy. The sauce had a nice balance of flavour.

We decided to add an order of hamachi sashimi because (a) they actually have it in their menu and (b) we were very impressed with the chef's knife work and wanted to see more of it. As you can see below, the pieces of hamachi are sliced evenly and smoothly.

Generally, we were impressed with the restaurant and had an enjoyable time there. We liked how the sushi doesn't fall apart like some places do, which speaks to the skills of the sushi chefs. The negatives, aside from those mentioned above, were that the server / hostess doesn't seem well trained and didn't notice when we tried to flag her down to order more and they only served one type of hot sake.

We would recommend it for those in Vancouver who don't want to travel to Burnaby or Richmond and would definitely return to try their udon, as we noticed they have quite the extensive selection of noodles. As for sushi, I would prefer going to Seto's, still.

Bao Down Gastropub & Raw Bar (Olympic Village)

I've referred to Bao Down's service before in my post on the Flying Pig. It's great to finally see how it works at the restaurant itself. But first, the decor. It had a nice rustic yet industrial look to it. Raw.

I especially liked the reclaimed wood, but it makes me think of this article about burgled barn wood because of interior design trends.

We started with 2 dozen oysters (they were $1 each during happy hour). They were very well shucked. I only got one piece of shell in the dozen that I ate. We especially liked the jalapeno ginger sauce that came with it. The Joyce Point ones were the best in our opinion. At least we *think* they're "Joyce Point" because the server who brought us the oysters didn't know what they were. It was only later, when the bartender / oyster shuck-er walked by and heard me talk about it that he pointed out what they were. This happened the second time we visited the restaurant as well. No one knows what they're serving except for the bartender / oyster shuck-er.

Of course we had to try their baos. Mini baos were $4 each during happy hour. We tried one of each flavour (from left): Bao Chicka Bao Bao, Vevo, and YVR. Our favourite was the Bao Chicka Bao Bao because it had some texture in it and the lemongrass flavour was prominent. The Vevo and YVR weren't that great because they had no texture at all. It was mush in a bun, but the flavour was good. I especially liked the peanut flavour in the Vevo.

Wings were half price and we chose the Spicy Thai flavour. They were well fried and the sauce was well balanced, though not spicy at all.

We liked the Bao Chicka Bao Bao so much we ordered one more for each of us. Unfortunately, the inexperienced server (referred to above) brought it to the wrong table and we waited quite a long time before following up with another server (who was serving the table next to us). She asked if we were sure it didn't come and then told us it will come soon. I then saw her approach the inexperienced server to tell him he brought the baos to the wrong table.

Overall, the food was good. The service was so-so. Our first server (the bartender) was quite attentive and knowledgeable. But then he kind of disappeared after we ordered the last two baos and the place got a little busier. It would have been more professional if he told us, "Hey, it's getting busy and I'm going to get behind the bar now. So and so will now be your server." We had no idea who to flag down when we wanted to order more food.

The staff need to communicate with each other better, or find a way to educate everyone. When the server brought us our oysters without knowing what they were, it was unprofessional. He was obviously not as well trained since he brought our food to the wrong table too. We later overheard him bringing more food to the table next to us, food they are sure they didn't order.

We will likely only return during happy hour (which we have done already) and recommend that people visit during happy hour as well. It's not as busy so they'll serve you better.

Tokyo John

Tokyo John, another Korean-run Japanese restaurant. It was kind of odd, because it was located a couple stores north and then we thought it was closed. But we eventually found it.

The decor was nice, I liked the details on the walls.

B couldn't turn down a Tonkatsu, so that's what he ordered. He said the meat was very tender and the breading was nice and crispy. The sauce was very well balanced as well. All in all a good dish.

I saw a picture of the flaming unagi roll (not sure if this was the correct name) and thought it looked cool, so I ordered it. I don't think you can see the flames in this picture, but it was burning for a good 3-5 minutes. It burned a little too long, in my opinion. I was just sitting there staring at the flames for the longest time and just wanted to eat.

The taste was fine. The parts at the end were a little "burnt" tasting, but otherwise, it had great texture (from the tempura) and the flavours were well balanced.

B had to order a Saba nigiri, of course, but he accidentally ordered the ebi nigiri instead of the ika. He said they were well prepared but the Saba wasn't rich enough.

Overall, it was a solid restaurant. It's a little difficult to get to for us and parking may be an issue, but we'd recommend it to people in the area.

Manna Sushi

We went to Manna Sushi because it was close by and my parents said good things about it. The decor was subtle and nice, but not quite the rustic style of a Japanese-run restaurant. That was the first hint it's not Japanese-run.

We started with the Angry Jalepeno which wasn't angry at all. There was barely any spicy taste to it. It was uninspiring and sad looking.

Next, B ordered the Assorted Aburi Nigiri combo because it's always nice to have the chef choose their best stuff to present to you. Not here, apparently. All the nigiri look the same and there were a lot of common fish on the dish. It was hard to discern what each piece was because they were drenched in sauce.

Of course, B has to order Tako Sashimi. As you can see, the knife cuts were not great. It's not the worst we've had, and at least it's not slimy.

Lately we've been on an Ika Karage (sic) binge (ever since Yuji's), so we decided to try it here. Ika Karage is a misnomer. They should really call it calamari, because that's what it is, substitute the mayo instead of the tzatziki. The texture of the squid itself was tough and the breading was so oily it was nauseating.

I ordered a bunch of different nigiri's. The chopped scallop was bigger than expected, but the ikura was sadly lacking (look at how flat it is) and very fishy, like it's been sitting in its juices for a long while. The ika was very tough and the amaebi were sadly too tiny. I don't remember much about the hotate but I do recall the Saba was over pickled. It was like I was transported to a Swedish restaurant. The Toro was fishy and not that creamy and the negitoro was fine.

Overall, the experience was not worth recommending or returning. We would prefer walking those few extra blocks to Hime than to come back here.

Clubhouse Japanese Restaurant

We were craving Japanese food so we thought it was about time we tried the restaurants in our new hood.

First we stopped at Toko, because Google said it was a Japanese Restaurant and it was heavily advertising their Asahi. After we walked in, I noticed the decor seemed more Chinese than Japanese. Lo and behold we looked at the menu, and saw wonton, chow mein, and a bunch of Chinese dishes. We left.

Then we thought we should try the yakitori place down the road because we walked by it once. The host greeted us, asked us how many (2), and said wait a moment. He proceeds to walk around the restaurant and then grab two menus and set them on a table. Then he walks around the restaurant some more, serves a couple dishes, and tells us to wait 5 more minutes. It struck me as odd until B heard the host say something about happy hour ending soon to a couple patrons. So basically, he didn't want to seat us until 6pm, when regular dinner begins. Why didn't he just say so? Or just seat us and wait until 6pm to take our order? We left.

Finally we thought maybe we should try the Clubhouse since we drive by it all the time and it looks pretty cool from the outside. We walked in, and it strikes me as one of those restaurants on Restaurant Impossible that used to be good and then everyone just gave up trying to make it better.

We started with the Assorted Sashimi. We didn't expect it to be good, but we didn't think it could be this bad either. The knife cuts were noticeably sloppy, the tuna was still frozen, and the salmon had no taste at all. 

The Sweet Jane vegetable tempera roll was better than the sashimi but not that great. The rice was overcooked and soggy, the seaweed was tough, and he yam tempera was undercooked and had a bit of crunch to it still.

Next we had the Chicken Yaki Soba. It tastes like ketchup. B said he's had bad food and he keeps eating it, very rare does he not want to eat something and this was the dish.

The Squid okonomiyaki came smelling like it was burnt-and not because of the smoky fish flakes on top. It tasted a little burnt too, and soggy, and generally had very little texture. We found four squid rings in total. If the chef would only chop them up and divide it evenly throughout the pancake, it would have more texture and we wouldn't notice how little squid there is.

The only redeeming factor was that the owner came to pick up the dishes and saw that we didn't finish the okonomiyaki and asked if we didn't like it. We told her it was bad and she offered to refund us. We didn't want to be those customers who complain to get free stuff, because then our complaints won't be taken seriously. She thanked us for our feedback so we decided to tell her how bad EVERYTHING was. She seems to take it all seriously so I appreciated that. We probably won't return, but I appreciate the effort.