Hana Sushi

It was quite a nice snowy Saturday and we decided to eat dinner before heading back home.

We decided to stop by at The Crystal Mall food court and I ordered from a place called Hana Sushi.

This is the Katsu Curry. You can see half of the picture on the menu sign up top on the left side. The pork itself was very good, both moist inside and crispy on the outside. As for the curry, I'm not sure how I should put it. At first taste, it's quite salty. You get hints of it being curry, but it's not flavorful. The sauce tasted like a curry cream paste. I didn't enjoy the salty curry, but the pork was very good. My dad ordered from the same place and said his dish was salty as well. Everywhere you go nowadays, people have such a high tolerance of salt. The more salted items we eat, the less salty we think it really is.



Location:

Hana Sushi (The Crystal Mall Food Court)
4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
1-604-434-1772
1-604-438-6263 (The Crystal Mall's #)
http://www.thecrystalmall.ca

Tamarind Hill

Early last month, I had blogged about eating Malaysian Cuisine at Tamarind Hill and how I was rather disappointed in their inconsistency. However, this time around, everything tasted great. I suggest people read the Malaysian Cuisine entry before continuing to read this one. It will fill you in on what I've said about their Restaurant.

This time around, I will be showing some photos of their interior decor.

The picture above and below shows a section where people can wait before being seated.

Here's a view of the counter/divider.

We decided to try some new dishes, but we did order the Malaysian Calamari and the Roti Canai again. The Malaysian Calamari was nice and crispy and the Roti Canai wasn't as bitter as last time. I sure love the dipping sauce that comes with the Malaysian Calamari.

This is Soto Assam. It's spicy hot and sour seafood soup with cut up tomato and papaya. It wasn't even that spicy, but it's quite acidic in taste and flavor. Quite appetizing.

This is a blurry photo of Mixed Seafood Sambal with a bit of onions and various peppers. Sweet and tasty.

This is the Malaysian Curry Laksa. It has egg noodle with dried shrimp, tiger prawns, chicken, bean sprout, egg and fish cake in spicy zesty curry broth. You can choose from three types of noodles for this one. I must admit, this was probably my favorite besides the Malaysian Calamari. The broth was aromatic and flavorful. The only thing we wished for, was for it to be a bit more spicier. I've tried the Singapore Laksa before and it's coconut base. I'm not a big fan of coconut, but it really did taste good. I still prefer the Malaysian Curry Laksa over the Singapore Laksa.

I think what they serve is moderate in heat and that the general public can easily accept it. As for my family, we can take a lot more heat than what's served at Tamarind Hill, but their dishes are really tasty and flavorful. There's still one place that serves Malaysian Food I have yet to try. Hopefully one day, I will be able to try it. I also recommended some really good restaurants that serves Malaysian/Singaporean Food in this Malaysian Cuisine entry. So go check it out.



Location:

Tamarind Hill
103 - 628 6th Avenue
New Westminster, BC
1-604-526-3000

Mui Garden Restaurant

I'll be keeping today's entry short. We went to Mui Garden Restaurant last night and upon walking into the place, the surroundings looked so out of place. It seems as if, half of the restaurant was closed off or something. Service has always been bad there and I don't think they're planning on improving it either.

We ordered the usual and it came with flavorless Condiments.

The Free Range Chicken was tough. I really disliked this.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Just a tad bit too salty.

The rice was gummy because it had been cooked in too much liquid.

I don't really like Lamb Hot Pot. I just ate the bean curd and one piece of lamb, which seemed quite tender. The flavor was light and medicinal tasting.

I hope I never have to go back to this restaurant. Well, only this particular location.



Location:

Mui Garden Resturant
4327 North Road
Burnaby, BC
1-604-421-1822
http://www.muigarden.com

Malaysian Cuisine

First and foremost, sorry for the lack of updates. I entirely skipped out on last week's tasty adventure, but I'm sure I'll be back to that place to take photos. This week, I give you a little inside scoop on Malaysian food. Now, I've been to numerous Malaysian/Singaporean style places and this restaurant is one I would recommend. It's called Tamarind Hill. I can't stress enough how important is it for restaurants to be consistent and most of them aren't. I've been to Tamarind Hill a few times and at first, it was a great experience for my taste buds and now it seems as if it's going downhill a bit. Don't get me wrong, it's still good, but it's not the same anymore. The portion is smaller and there's less meat than before. Even some of the items were cooked differently. There's items marked with a chili beside it, meaning it's spicy. However, the items we did order with the chili sign beside it seemed a bit watered down. Despite their inconsistency, I would still go back to try their other items, but their menu is pretty limited. Overall, the ambiance is intimate and cozy and the interior is decorated with items from Malaysia. It's a very authentic looking place and the service have always been good. I would prefer if the lighting was a bit better; it's quite hard on the eyes to see in the semi-dark restaurant, but I doubt they'll change that. That's just my own wishful thinking.

We had ordered quite a few items, but I forgot to take photos for some of them before they were consumed.

As a starting appetizer, we always order the Malaysian Calamari. Again, it's still good, but it's not the same. However, I love the spicy house sauce that comes with it. I believe it has tamarind in it.

This is Hokkien Mee. I've had it numerous of times and the first time I've had it, I was surprised at how good it was. This time it's not bad, but it lacks a bit of flavor. It seemed a bit soggy and bland to me.

This is the remainder of what's left of the Roti Canai. The texture of this is very authentic and true to its natural roots. However, it wasn't sweet and I found it bitter. The curry sauce lacks heat.

We also ordered Red Snapper with Sambal and Curry Chicken. The red snapper was cooked totally different and the Curry Chicken just didn't seem authentic. It's okay for people who have never tried Malaysian food to have the Curry Chicken, but it just didn't taste like it. I mean it wasn't bad, but it wasn't the real deal. Next time, I'll order the Beef Rendang and hopefully, it'll be spicy.

If anyone's going to Richmond and interested in trying some Southeast Asian food, go to Ellie (Located in Continental Center). Be warned, their food packs a punch, but it's so good. I just hope it doesn't go out of business. It seems like they are losing business to the other restaurants around them, but their food has always been consistent. The service isn't great, but their food makes up for it. I suggest trying their Chicken Satays for starters. It's not authentic, but it's really good. Actually, a lot of places that have Satays aren't very close to being authentic. Ellie, Banana Leaf and of course, Tamarind Hill remains my top picks for Southeast Asian Food.



Location:

Tamarind Hill
103 - 628 6th Avenue
New Westminster, BC
1-604-526-3000

Bad Experiences

Just as the title says, I had a bad experience with what I ordered on Saturday at both places. For lunch, we went to Golden Oscar and I ordered Curry Beef Brisket.

I've been to Golden Oscar numerous times and ordered the same thing before, as well. However, I was very disappointed with how it turned out this time around. The meat was tough and the curry itself was so salty. The dishes my family ordered was actually pretty tasty.

For dinner, we went to this Taiwanese Restaurant beside Richmond Sushi. I think. I'm really not too sure and I don't remember the name of the place, but I will probably never go back. We ordered some side dishes that weren't bad, but the main meal was pretty bad for all three of us.

This is Deep Fried Tofu with a chili soy sauce. It's not bad, just average.

Next up we have, Deep Fried Pork Intestine. Very crispy on the outside. I ate the very small pieces since I'm not too fond of pork intestines.

I ordered this Vermicelli with cuttlefish and fish paste in soup. The mouth feel of this, kind of reminds me of the sour and spicy soup. It had so much vinegar added to it that I almost wanted to gag. It's a healthy portion of vegetables, but everything was just drenched in vinegar and cornstarch thicken soup. It was nasty. I tasted the cuttlefish and its rubbery texture, but the fish paste wasn't really fish paste. It was more like, bits of cuttlefish tossed in a batter and deep fried. It was all soggy. My parents weren't very impressed with what they ordered, either.



Location:

Golden Oscar Cafe And Restaurant
3868 Rupert
Vancouver, BC
1-604-437-8138

All you can eat...

At Richmond Sushi. That's where we went for lunch today. I won't get into an elaborate post today, since I'm dead tired from manual work. However, you'll get a few more photos than normal. The service we had today was absolutely awesome. She was speedy, efficient and never missed anything. The lunch menu for "all you can eat" is very limited. I didn't see any Tempura Prawns, Unagi or Tamago as an individual item, but I'm sure that's available during dinner time. Some items were good and some weren't, but I've had better "all you can eat" elsewhere. I don't know whether to label it as average or just a bit more than average.

To start off, we've got Miso Soup in the red and black bowl. In the back we have Ebi Sunomono, Fried Scallops and Agedashi Tofu. The Miso Soup was so-so, Ebi Sunomono was refreshing, Fried Scallops was good and the Agedashi Tofu was not so good to eat or look at, either.

We have Chicken Karaage in the front, which, was pretty good. It's not greasy and salty at all and it's quite crispy. The Gyoza on the right of the Chicken karaage was pretty disgusting. The Beef Spare Ribs above the Gyoza was so tender and flavorful. As for the Motoyaki (in the tin cup), I don't know what it taste like since I don't like oyster.

This particular Chicken Yakitori tasted quite different from what I've had at other places. It's not bad or good, but at least it had flavor and it was white meat.

Bring on the sushi rolls. In the front row, we have, B.C. Roll. In the middle, it's Dynamite Roll. At the very back, it's Futomaki Roll. They were just so-so.

California Roll on the left and Spider Roll on the right. Again, these were just so-so, but the Spider Roll had a nice texture.

This was called, Curry Croquette. When I was in Culinary Arts, that shape is not what we considered as croquette. However, it was light and fluffy and the taste of curry was really mild and sweet. The outside was really crispy.

Split Salmon head; it was quite tender. We did order more, but they didn't look too pretty to post and I'm lazy. The Yakisoba and Seafood Fried Rice was bland in taste and plain to look at. The Teriyaki Chicken and Beef was literally drenched in sauce.



Location:

Richmond Sushi
8388 Capstan Way #1488
Richmond, BC
1-604-207-7799