Tag Archives: dinner

Han Woo Ri Korean Restaurant

With a bit of lineup and all the awards hung at the entrance, I was looking forward to trying this restaurant. The BBQ smell while we waited was mouth-watering. We stood there for a while, and we didn’t get any acknowledgement from any of the staff. I went to the bathroom during the wait, then we were seated shortly afterwards.
I was a bit surprised to see the prices of some of the dishes especially since it didn’t seem like an high-end restaurant. The plastic plates (ahhh my pet peeves in restaurants! lol) were wet… yuck… I know it’s clean, but there’s something about having to eat off of completely wet plates. This added to the impression that this wasn’t a high-end place.

There were 6 different types of Ban-chan (side dishes). My favourite as usual are the potatoes, and the sliced radish were also good. We didn’t get any seconds, since I saw on their menu that extra orders were $1.50 each. The broccoli was a bit boring in terms of culinary creativity, though I’m not against eating my greens, and sometimes, I do enjoy them without any additional flavouring.
Although I think I had only tried Jajangmyun once before, I thought I’d try it once again to see what it’s like since becoming a food blogger and really noticing the food that I eat.

The Jajangmyun $8.95 doesn’t look quite appetizing, but after you mix it all up, it’s ok. I didn’t find my taste buds celebrating the flavour. It wasn’t until the end that I noticed diced pork, which were tender. I ended up being interested in Sheepie’s dish more; Bulgogi Dukbaegi $11.95. It looked so much more appetizing with marinated beef stew with rice cake, noodles and assorted veggies. Unfortunately, it was mostly soup, and not much ingredients. I can never tell if I’m suppose to ‘drink’ the soup because I wonder if it’s just a ‘support’ for the flavours of the food inside, or if you’re suppose to consume it together as a soup. I think I mainly have this notion because for Japanese Ramen, we don’t ‘drink’ the soup. You can if you want to, and some do, but the soup is suppose to give the flavours to the noodles, so it’s often very salty and concentrated. Unless you need a ton of sodium, MSG and often fatty oils, I wouldn’t recommend consuming the soup.
This is the second time I’ve had something similar like this dish at a Korean restaurant, and I’ve often left the soup behind. I always find the flavour a ‘left over’ soup. As in like it was ‘water’ that the ingredients were ‘cooked’ in. If you know what I’m really suppose to do, give me a shout! Though, I guess even if you’re suppose to, I just don’t feel like consuming the soup part… Don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE soups, but perhaps not these kinds.
Service was satisfactory. The bell to ring for service is always very handy. The interior wasn’t really that fancy. It was kept clean, but does not have the characteristic or charm that say, Sura has.

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Junsei River

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A spacious and open restaurant on the very popular street of Robson. I know it’s a Japanese-cuisine restaurant, and we were all there for sushi, but I was craving for some pho. Yes, an odd combination, and you wouldn’t normally know they have Vietnamese food unless you noticed some of the photos of Vietnamese dishes on the wall.

I ordered the Beef Ball Pho $8.95. It was decent size, with good noodles, but I didn’t like the broth too much. The colour was darker, too salty, the ‘umami’ (flavour) was weak and overall not that good. However, my friend did take a sip of the broth and he seemed to like it.

If having pho at a supposedly Japanese restaurant wasn’t weird enough, we had Chinese plastic chopsticks…:P

The portion was good, but since I was still a bit hungry, I ordered Negitoro roll $2.95. The roll wasn’t done that well since the bottom of the pieces weren’t filled, but taste was satisfactory.

Two people ordered the square Green Matcha Ice cream $3.95. I had a small bite. It was not bitter, and not authentic – in fact, I can make better matcha ice cream with high quality matcha powder and vanilla ice cream. However, the creaminess was really good.

My friend ordered the Sushi Combo E $10.95 with Salmon Teriyaki, Tuna roll, Assorted Sashimi (5 pieces), salad, and fruit. He said the miso soup was weak…and rice wasn’t that great.

Sheepie ordered the Assorted Sushi $10.50 (seven kinds of nigiri sushi and a Tuna roll). It seemed ok, though being served on plastic plates make it seem cheap.

The menu is quite extensive, and as mentioned earlier, they do have a separate Vietnamese menu, though you would have to ask for that one specifically. They also have a lunch menu with some good deals, though I didn’t see many people from our 10-ish group members order them.The restaurant was kept fairly clean, though lacked character, but the service was alright.

Would we come back? Despite the great location, I am not sure if it is on my list for to-go sushi restaurants.

Return for Dinner

So I returned again to give it another shot. It was 6pm on a Thursday, but there was only 1 or 2 other tables other than us, with perhaps 2 take outs during our dinner. The seats of the booths we were sitting at was a bit stained. They no longer had photos to Vietnamese dishes, so I wonder if they got rid of the menu, or just the photos were take down from the wall.

With the restaurant being so slow and having 2 servers on the floor, you’d think you’d get better service. But my friend just got up to fetch more water. She also had a cup of tea, but neither of the servers ever came to fill it up. Also, my pet peeve with cold water in plastic cups at restaurants…lol…

We both ordered a bento box.

I had Box #2 $9.95 which had Chicken or Beef Yakisoba (I ordered chicken), 5 pieces of assorted tempura, 6 pieces of California roll, green salad and a fruit (a slice of apple in this case). The price is good, but the quality isn’t. The Calis tasted a bit off, so I was a bit worried for my sensitive tummy, but no disasters to speak of later on. The tempura weren’t overly fresh…The server forgot to bring us the miso soups until we were half way through our meal. Better late then never, and to be honest, I didn’t even realize that the bento boxes came with miso soup, so I didn’t take it as bad service…

My friend ordered Box #6 with Salmon Teriyaki, BBW Scallop & Bacon, Termpura roll (5 pieces), Gyoza (3 pieces) and a Green Salad with Fruit (slice of apple to be more precise)

I ended up getting and paying the wrong bill (my friend’s bill instead), though there wasn’t much of a big difference in the price. I’m not sure how they’ve survived for so long with such few customers. If they don’t turn up the level of quality and start getting more customers, I think they will go on my list of ‘Restaurant Closures’ soon…

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Farmer’s Apprentice

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My friend sent me a link on Star.com. At second place was this restaurant called Farmer’s Apprentice. She wanted to check it out, so we went for lunch on Saturday. Their menu changes daily (which makes me think of how much paper they throw away compared to conventional menus) and are well known for cooking up their recipe using local ingredients.

I arrived to find a lineup and as I looked at the list of names on the waiting list, I was unsure whether we wanted to wait 30-40 minutes. However, since other parties had more than 2 persons, we got lucky and got our tables fairly quickly out on the patio at a tiny table for 2. They really put every inch of the space in and outside of the restaurant to use.

It was a nice cloudless day, but it was still chilly. I was glad that there was a blanket for my legs, but by the end, my butt was frozen cold. Note to self; do not eat outside if it’s not summer…lol. But that is only for me – I’m ALWAYS cold.

Since we couldn’t really decide on what to get, we decided to get 2 different dishes and share. We got the Smoke Sablefish $17 with wheatberries, braised greens, hazelnuts, yogurt, and 2 soft boiled eggs. The other one was the Oat Porter Bratwurst $15 with lentil ragout, fire roasted peppers, romanesco and 2 poached eggs.

Oat Porter Bratwurst $15 Smoke Sablefish $17

The portions were small, but still filling. The bratwurst was soft and juicy with a touch of herbs for flavour. Loved the poached eggs. My friend liked the lentil ragout, as did I, especially with the sauce.
The sablefish was a small portion but it was light and fresh. Presentation for both plates were alright.
My friend knows well about my blog, and we both discussed at the end of our meal on the carrot ratings. We both came to the conclusion that it is a bit over-rated. The food was good for sure, but we weren’t blown away for a second position restaurant.

It’s just my preference, but I’m not a fan of eating outside, lining up, being in a crowded restaurant or a noisy atmosphere. Service was a bit slow at times, but with a busy restaurant like that, I guess it’s understandable. But they were friendly.

As we left, we saw all the ingredients outside sitting in the sun. I hope it’s not like that during summer time.

As I checked their website for more info, they did list where they got their ingredients, but it wasn’t that obvious. From a marketing point of view, this should be more prominent and should be the USP (unique selling point) of this restaurant. After seeing how they were a lot more conscious of their sources, it did change my mind, especially after seeing a documentary on animal slaughterhouses and how animals are tortured, it did get me thinking of finding places that were focused on organics and humane raising of animals. But Farmer’s Apprentice should push this idea more.

Will we be back? Perhaps.

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