Restaurants

Guu for Otokomae used to be my favourite place for lunch in Gastown. So much so, that I went there once a week on average.

Well, I didn't go last week and today I went and was told that they are no longer open for lunch. I hope this was a one-time event but I fear the worst.

I'll double check next week and let you know.

It's too bad; I can understand why they might do this; the place was never crowded at lunch!

For some reason, we've never blogged about Koon Bo before, even though it's one of our favourites and we've been there many times.

Well, no more! Please check out Mini-Review: Koon Bo

Here's a picture of our favourite: shredded chicken salad

And pea shoots with garlic, one of my favourites:

Eastern style Chinese food, what's it like? First off, we need to get oriented. As our instructor, Lang Sun, taught us, Eastern style Chinese food comes from the area around Shanghai and his home province, Anhui.

The food is flavourful but not spicy like Szechuan or Hunan food. To me it's generally a bit sweet and not as colourful as Cantonese cooking but just as tasty.

We had a great feast but my favourites (together with their Manadarin transliterations) were:

Derek Miller, an excellent Vancouver blogger and writer, sent (thanks!) us the following short piece on Samosa Garden (3502 Kingsway, 604 437-3502) which we quote here with his permission:

QUOTE

Check out our Mini-Review of Green Village, a great place for a northern style Chinese lunch.

Here are some pictures of our lunch there last Saturday:

Deluxe stuffed sweet rice ($3.20):

Hot and Sour Soup:

I love Chinese Hot Pot and I love Grand Honour Hot Pot as I wrote about in my earlier Grand Honour Hot Pot First Visit report and Grand Honour Hot Pot Mini-Review.

Talk about warming winter food!

Anyways we had another fabulous meal at Grand Honour Hot Pot last night and I thought I'd share my photos here so for those who have never been to Chinese Hot Pot will have some idea what I am raving about. Unfortunately, I was so busy eating that I didn't take pictures of everything. Next time!

Vic and Jeremy (and O'Neill, not sure whether I have that spelling right!) of Nuba invited me to Nuba's grand opening tonight.

The room looks smashing . They've added some stunning photographs of Lebanon taken by Vic's friends and added a new menu board.

Happily, the food was as delicious as my first visit. Eat at Nuba! You won't regret it.

We hardly ever write negative things here but after a disappointing Dine Out Vancouver experience tonight, I had to write something!

There's no point in a restaurant putting on a promotion if they are not going to do it right.

Tonight is not the first night that we've been disappointed with a restaurant execution of a promotional offer. It doesn't just happen during Dine Out Vancouver unfortunately.

When I lived in Germany from 95-98, we used to stop by at a wonderful schnitzel restaurant in Austria on our way back from skiing at Lech. Oh the schnitzel! Enormous, ultra-thin and delicious.

Yesterday we tried the schnitzel at Cafe Katzenjammer (4441 West 10th Avenue, 604 222 2775).

Today, I ate some delicious Lebanese food at Nuba (322 West Hastings, 604 688-1655, Monday-Friday 10a.m.-7p.m. ) which is the new restaurant where Blitzen Break used to be.