Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2017 - The Boathouse

Wow, a record five restaurants during the Dine Out Vancouver Festival period this year! I took my family out to The Boathouse because I received a promotional email and I got sucked in by the dessert on their $30 menu. I guess advertising does work! A $40 menu is also available but I didn't like the options as much. We braved the snow last night and after driving at a snail's pace for an hour, we all feasted on delicious seafood.

We started with a sourdough bread basket.

West coast seafood chowder. This really hit the spot after being in the cold!

Coconut Pacific cod with quinoa.

Mocha ice cream pie. The whole reason we came to eat here!

I thought the food was delicious! I've also decided I am not that big a fan of cod, which seemed to be the fish that most restaurants were serving this year. The Vancouver Dine Out Festival ends this weekend, so make your reservations now!

Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2017 - C Prime

It was girl's night again with some other friends and we decided to try C Prime, located inside the Century Plaza Hotel downtown. The menu was a tad different than what was posted on the Dine Out Vancouver website, but the choices were delicious still!

We started with some delicious garlic bread and olives.

Grilled clamari steak on a bed of arugula.  

Mediterranean octopus with heirloom tomatoes and fingerling potatoes.

Arctic char with chickpeas and chorizo.

Gnocchi, wild BC mushrooms and porcini truffle cream sauce.

Lemon tart and Italian meringue. This was a little odd, since the filling was super runny and just poured into the tart shell. I'm not sure if it wasn't finished setting yet.

Spiced pumpkin bread pudding with salted caramel gelato.

I really enjoyed this meal! This is the last weekend of the Dine Out Vancouver Festival so make sure to book soon!

Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2017 - WildTale Coastal Grill

It was girl's night last week at WildTale Coastal Grill in Yaletown. The Dine Out Festival menu sounded delicious for $30, so we all went with that. We tried to order one of each dish on the menu so we could try it all.

Organic beets and watercress with toasted almonds, crisp apples, horseradish crème fraîche.

Albacore tuna carpaccio with baby gem citrus salad.

WildTale seafood chowder corn and crab fritter.

7-hour braised Alberta beef short rib celeriac pomme puree, roasted bone marrow jus.

Herb-Crusted wild coho salmon on bay scallop risotto, brown butter caper sauce.

Bittersweet chocolate mousse - no biscotti?

We sat near the kitchen so were able to watch the chefs prepare the food, which was really cool. The food was delicious! The chocolate mousse was suppose to come with a housemade biscotti but we didn't get one and it seemed like none of the desserts coming out of the kitchen had it. Maybe they ran out :( We looked at the regular menu and the dishes sounded yummy, so we all might go back another day!

The Dine Out Vancouver Festival is on for another week, so make sure to make your reservations soon!

Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2017 - Stages Bistro & Lounge

I took my family out for our second Dine Out 2017 Festival meal at Stages Bistro and Lounge, located at the Holiday Inn. This was one of the places with a $20 menu that looked pretty good.

Roasted beet salad with goat cheese.

Fire roasted tomato basil soup.

Pork tenderloin with a wild mushroom demi.

Cod loin pan seared and topped with a pineapple salsa.

Mango mousse cake and raspberry cheesecake.

I had the soup (a tad salty), the cod (a bit bland, but the pineapple salsa helped add flavour) and the mango mousse (yum!). The food was decent for the price and what you'd expect for $20. Dine Out Vancouver is happening until February 5, 2017.

The Lobby at the Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier

J and I headed down to North Vancouver over the weekend; we are rarely in the area, and with so many new restaurants to try, we decided to have dinner at The Lobby Restaurant and Lounge at the Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier. We were sticking to a a seafood theme for the day.

Signature crab cakes with frisée, orange segments, bell peppers, and edamame salad with mango citrus vinaigrette. These were absolutely delicious and made with lots of crab!

Ahi tuna tataki with togarashi spice, cucumber, edamame, beet curls, carrot, arugula, spinach and cilantro with ginger orange soy reduction. The dressing on the salad was so good.

Prawn and scallops on a bed of fresh herb risotto, daily vegetables and citrus butter sauce. Though there were only 2 scallops on the dish, they were huge and so sweet. The risotto was very rich, the citrus butter was great and parsnips were included as the seasonal vegetable; it was the first time I tried parsnips and I think I'm hooked.

Of course we had to order some surf and turf - filet and Atlantic lobster with sautéed fingerling potatoes, daily vegetables and citrus butter and Cabernet demi-glace.

The food was absolutely delicious. Everything was cooked to perfection and I will definitely be back if I'm in the area again. I plan on visiting the sister restaurant, Pier 7, next week!

Firebird Cafe

Chinese Bites is launching a new VIP program soon that involves various discounts for loyal diners at certain restaurants. I was invited to try out Firebird Cafe, a Hong Kong style cafe located at Continental Centre in Richmond, along with Mashed Thoughts, The restaurant is pretty spacious and we had plenty of seats to choose from when we arrived at 6:30, though they did get a lot busier later on in the evening.

Firebird Cafe serves a mixture of Asian and Western food, and has customizable menus, particularly for noodle soups and sizzling grills.

Most of the meal sets came with a drink. For a small upgrade, you could get a specialty drink like bubbletea, so that's what most of us ordered. I had the coconut smoothie, which I thought was very refreshing. It was a lot more like a slushy than a smoothie but there was a good coconut flavour. The others got passionfruit calpis, milk tea and horlicks. 

E decided on a noodle soup. You choose your own soup base, noodles and two toppings (additional toppings with extra charge) and a drink. She went with the gingko and pepper fish soup with egg noodles, bok choy, sliced pumpkin and fresh bean curd. The soup was SPICY. It was actually quite good, but I couldn't take the heat! E loved it so much she ended up drinking all the soup and had dry noodles left.

I ordered a custom sizzling grill - it comes with 2 items, a side, sauce, soup of the day and a drink. There was no choice for the soup (some restaurants usually have the option of a cream soup or borscht) so I had borscht. I went with beef shortribs and chicken wings with a side of fries and garlic sauce. The short ribs were very tender and the chicken wings plump and crispy. I rarely get to eat chicken wings so I was in heaven. The fries were similar to Costco fries, with the extra crispy outside. I'm drooling just thinking about it! 

V ordered the Baked Chicken Spaghetti in Meat Sauce. I normally don't order pasta at Asian restaurants, but this was actually very good and everyone agreed it was the best dish of the night. The chicken was very flavourful and tender. Mmm!

Mashed Thoughts ordered the custom steamed rice with free range chicken and pork liver with an egg ($1 charge). The dish was one of the last to arrived, probably because it took time to steam everything. The egg looked like it was microwaved though, so I probably wouldn't add the egg in next time. The liver and chicken were good, and the rice was very flavouful from the ingredients that were cooked on top of it. 

We ordered several appetizers to share, however, they were the last dishes to come out!

First we had Takoyaki, which seemed to be a hit or miss because some were very mushy on the inside but some were dryer. It came on a bed of fried onions which E couldn't stop eating (she actually took the onions home after).

Next was deep fried squid. They were nice and crispy but the batter did not seemed to be seasoned. There was a sweet chili dipping sauce on the side which made it better. The squid sat on a bed of fried onions again.

Last we had a giant bowl of Taiwanese Chicken Nuggets. They were really good and seasoned well. I ate so many even though I was so full! 

Overall, the food was decent at Firebird Cafe and the selection was typical of these type of cafes. Most of the customers seemed to be ordering the fish soup noodles so I would definitely go back when I'm craving noodles!

Disclaimer: The food mentioned above were provided free of charge by Firebird Cafe and ChineseBites. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way. 

P2B Bistro and Lounge - [Dine Out Vancouver 2016]

J and I took out the family last night at another Dine Out Vancouver restaurant. We headed downtown to P2B Bistro and Lounge. We've been here before and really enjoyed the food. We decided to order a couple of extra appetizers to add on to the $30 Dine Out menu.

Lasqueti Island honey mussels with chorizo sausage, honey ale, tomato, artisan baguette. These mussels were huge!

BBQ duck spring rolls with spicy dipping sauce. These were delicious, hot and crispy.

Albacore tuna tataki with seasame ponzu vinaigrette, radish and papaya slaw. The tuna was delicious but the vinaigrette was a bit salty.

Panzanella salad with wilted grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, bread shards, bocconcini cheese and arugula.

Grilled Pemberton Meadows flat iron steak with salt spring island goat cheese, yukon smash, asparagus, forest mushroom and onion confit. The mushrooms were so yummy. The Dine Out menu had brocollini but I guess they ran out! The steak was a bit chewy but was cooked to a nice medium rare!

Cioppino - prawns, honey mussels, halibut, sockeye salmon and bread. The tomato sauce this was cooked in was really good and the bread was great for soaking it up.

Chocolate gianduja pate with sour cherry coulis, almond tuile and toffee brittle. This was a very rich dessert and almost tasted like Hedgehog chocolates. Definitely pick this if you are a chocolate lover!

White chocolate creme brulee. This was very liquidly so I'm not sure if the dessert was ready.

It was great meal and the service was great as well. Check out the menu at P2B here. Tonight is the last day of the Dine Out Vancouver Festival this year.

Chew Restaurant - Grand Opening

I was invited by Chinesebites to attend the grand opening of Chew Restaurant on Kingsway a few weeks ago, a new Taiwanese bubble tea and snack place. The place is spacious with very cool decor.

To celebrate the grand opening, a full roasted pig was ordered. This was so delicious, with very crispy skin. Yum!

We started off with fresh water melon and pineapple juice. The presentation was amazing - the fruit was carved out and served on a tray with dry ice. I tried the watermelon drink - very cool and refreshing. It will definitely be something I order during the summer!

Next we had a sharing platter with various Taiwanese snacks. My favourite was the deep fried chicken nuggets. They were tasty with a crunchy outside but moist inside.

Clockwise from top left: Deep fried chicken nuggets, lotus root chips, Taiwanese-style kimchi, marinated pig ears, and deep fried squid.

Next we had three spice stewed chicken, which is a very popular dish in Taiwanese cuisine and some sauteed shrimp.

Another round of drinks! These were green tea and black tea with coconut jelly on the bottom and a cream on the top. It's a very rich drink and had an interesting taste - almost like buttercream!

These dumplings had a juicy morsel of pork inside. A perfect meal for a cold day in the winter.

We also tried some hot pot. One was spicy and one was regular. There were lots of fish and meat balls and glass noodles. Mmm.

Last we had some blanched pork served with green onion and some sauce.

Make sure to check out Chew Restaurant to get your fix of Taiwanese food! The full menu is available on Chew Restaurant’s Facebook page.

 

  
 Disclaimer: The food mentioned above were provided free of charge by Chew Restuarant. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way.