Monthly Archives: May 2013

Vancouver Alpen Club Deutsches Haus

Been here several times to enjoy real German food – hence the name Deutsches Haus (German House). Located a bit underground, I never knew about this restaurant. But it’s cozy and decorated with photos of Germany. The restaurant is open and quite large. It’s usually only half full, so never have to wait to sit down.

The first time I came to Deutsches Haus last year, it was also my first time trying out German food, so all was very new to me. I had been on a almost no-red-meat diet the year before, so that was also new in terms of introducing meat-heavy dishes. I didn’t know anything about German cuisine, so I left it up to my company to decide, as he was from Germany. Most staff there are Germans and so far, I’ve never really interacted with the servers since my company does all the talking in German.

German bread – hard and dense

Leberkase

Pretzel

Schnitzel

The leberkase has become one of my favourites. It looks like a thick ham, and is similar to bologna sausage, topped with a sunny-side up egg and lightly seasoned potatoes on the side. We also ordered the German pretzel $3 – pretty much like the New York pretzels. We also ordered the infamous schnitzel with vegetables and fried potatoes $11.

My company noted to the server that the schnitzel is NOT supposed to be breaded and deep fried – that is not the way in Germany. Apparently, some of the servers didn’t know about even though they were from Germany…and they used the excuse that the cook was Chinese – LOL.

The food is pretty good. The portion may look a bit small, but since it’s meat and oily, it quickly fills you up. It is on the pricier side, so not your everyday dine-in place, but worth the trying it out.

Sept 29 2013 – No Longer a Public Restaurant…
Sheepie wanted to host his birthday dinner at Deutsches Haus, so we went to see if we could make reservations. Surprisingly, it seems like it is no longer a public restaurant. When Sheepie went in to make reservations, he was told that he now has to become a member which would then allow him to bring 4 other people as guests. With 10 people or so in mind, that would mean that t least another 2 people would have to become members. We thought the membership was free, but after reading a review on Urbanspoon, it seems like the membership costs a whopping $10. Now why would I pay $10 to become a member, and have to pay for food on top of that? Ok, so they may take that off the food bill, but does that apply to your guests?

It seemed a bit strict. Not only that, you must fill out a form with all your info like full name, address, contact info, and it even asks you if you can speak German – but written in German, so if you didn’t check ‘no’ the staff would still know that you don’t understand German because you wouldn’t have been able to read it in the first place. Sneaky.

From what we speculate, it could be because they were not able to get a license from the city so they are not allowed to serve food to the public. But if they are a private ‘club’, then they are able to serve to those members as usual.

It’s sad, as I don’t know many German restaurants in the Vancouver area. (there’s Jagerhof, but that’s all the way in North Van…) Luckily, the last German food I ate was in Germany – real authentic German food…ah…I miss it…even though I’m not much of a meat-eater. But where to get some here?

2016 Update

They have since reopened to the public! Yay!

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Mr. Zhang Karoake & Restaurant 川東飯莊

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I have been to this restaurant numerous times since it seems to be my friend’s favourite Chinese restaurant. He says it’s the closest cuisine to his home town. I am not sure if I’d get treated differently if I were to come with non-Chinese friends, but since my Chinese friend is always there when I go, and he usually orders in Mandarin for us, I don’t really know what the interaction would be like.

However, it goes well. No happy, cheerful, ‘how are we doing today’ attitude from the waitress like you usually get with Western-style restaurants. It’s more like ‘Ok, what do you want, ok, ok, ok.’ and your food arrives later – quite fast for a busy restaurant actually. They never come to ask how everything is, but I guess most Chinese places are like that. I guess for this place there’s no need, as it’s always really good. I haven’t had one dish that I didn’t like. So I’m really surprised by the poor rating on Urbanspoon.Rolled Bean Curd Skin (small) $3.50
Lightly salted, a bit odd texture, but I really liked it. Good!

Beef with Sichuan Spicy Sauce $13.98 (no pic)
Quite spicy – but goes really well with steamed white rice (a bucket is $3)

Dry Fried Green Bean $11.98
I think I like the regular green bean mix better instead of the dried. The dried part makes it a little bit harder, but the sauce is delicious. Again, tastes really good with rice.

Sliced Lamb with Cumin Spicy Sauce $13.98
Sauce is really rich. I’m not a huge fan of lamb since it leaves that odd after taste, but I didn’t mind for this dish.

Cold Noodles in Soup $7.50
Yes, so the soup and noodles are cold. I know Korea has cold noodles, and of course Japan has them too, though the noodles, soup and taste varies. This is the one reason that my Chinese friend loves this place so much. He loves the cold noodles. I wouldn’t say I’m craving or in love with it, but I really like it. It’s refreshing, especially on hot summer days.

If you want authentic Chinese food, not the usual cheap types you can get at the fast food places, try this place out!

They don’t take credit cards, so make sure you have debit or cash!

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Milestones on Cambie

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So after going to eat at Sake Maki on Broadway, we went for dessert at Milestone. We originally went to the Cheesecake etc. but it was full house with people waiting in a line up. We both don’t like crowded and noisy places so there was no hesitation to turn around and look elsewhere.

I drive by this Milestone everyday from work, and had been attracted to the cool lights…hehe…like moths to a light bulb…lol.

The restaurant is split into a lounge/bar and table/booths. It’s really roomy and very modern. High-end, slick and targeted for the young, urban professional. The lights are very moody, but the right ambience. Not too dark nor bright. They even had a private room as well. This location is on the second floor, but it has an elevator, so it’s wheelchair accessible.

The hostess greeted us and asked us if we were there for dinner or dessert. We replied ‘for dessert.’ Then asked us whether we wanted to sit in the lounge or booths. We chose booths. Most of the cake slices were around $7. There was a Milestone’s Dessert Shots set for $10.99 that really looked good (in the photo), but unfortunately, it seemed that most of them contained nuts (damn…hate having this nut allergy!)…so instead, I was told that the Decadent Duo $10.99 was the safest bet with the 2 cheesecake.

I wouldn’t recommend this dessert if you have a really severe nut allergy. The 2 cheesecake comes on one single plate. The chocolate cheesecake is full of nuts. I had the white creamy one. All I can say is “it’s way too damn sweet” and that’s not in a good way sweet. I felt I was just scraping off from a lump of sugar…argh… The only thing I liked were the strawberries and whip cream… I couldn’t even eat 1/3 of it. Not my cup of tea…

I’ll defintely be returning to Milestone again, but one thing I’ve learned about most western desserts is that they are often way too sugary for my liking…and for anyone who wants to avoid becoming diabetic!

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