Tag Archives: food

One Night Cruise with Holland America Line to Seattle

I’ve always heard about this great deal, so for my birthday, I booked the over night trip to Seattle with 3 other friends.

Warning: this post is heavy with photos!

Cost per person with double occupancy was only $143.96 CAD – including all taxes and fee that’s paid upfront to CruiseAbout. Later, you’ll also be charged onto your credit card for gratuities at $11.50 per person/per day. You can purchase professional photo (taken before you board the ship) later that day for $20. Yah, it’s a bit expensive, but since it was to celebrate my birthday and my first time on a cruise, it seemed appropriate.

The cruise was departing at 4:45pm, but we were lined up around noon as embarkation started at about 11:30am. We got on and were allowed to start feasting on all the food which is included in the fee. Don’t be late! Everyone must be onboard no later than 90 minutes before departure!

YAH!!! I was so excited for my first cruise trip. Oh!!! so much food!!

What should I get?

Time for lunch!

Nice decor inside

Thirsty? They’ve got everything from tea, coffee and juices. Soda and alcohol are extra.

More…pasta and jello~

Look at all those desserts!

Salad~

More salad~

View out the window. Canada Pacific Place as we went for departure.

Fruits time!

Small room, but good enough. We are only there to sleep at night. Otherwise, the rest of the time is spent elsewhere.

We go out on deck to enjoy some sun as the ships starts to move

Nobody was swimming in the pool…but oh well, relaxing time!

Hallway and elevator

Some ice cream in the sun

Going underneath the Lion Gates Bridge

Bye bye Vancouver!

We come back down for some dessert

The doors to the dining area. We wait until it opens.

Nice fine dining room.

Soup

Salad and Salmon

Main entree – Chicken.

The sun goes down and the dining area is more romantic.

Time for dessert!

Tiramisu~

Entertainments/shows in the evening

The next morning, we have breakfast and arrive in Seattle around 10:30am.

After we got off the ship, we spent the day in downtown Seattle until around 3pm and took the Quick Shuttle to Vancouver $40.85 per person. I was super happy with the trip. I think an overnight cruise is the best (even though I’ve never had anything longer), but the length is perfect. The buffet style is great since you can go and eat whenever you want, as much as you want. The quality is ok for your typical, average buffet. There are different stations that have different kinds of cuisines, like pasta for Italian, sushi for Japanese and so on. So you’ll never get bored eating the same stuff. I was pretty much eating most of the time on the ship…lol.

The fine dining was pretty good. We got to sit by the window, so we were able to watch the sea and the sky gradually turn into the night sky. With a price that usually would only include a hotel room in Vancouver for overnight, this is an AWESOME deal. I hope to do it again – next time I’d like to treat my parents

These great trips are only offered in May, so book now with Cruise About!!!

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Hakkaku Ramen

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I decided to take a fairly large group of friends to try out Hakkaku Ramen. Since there were 10 of us, I wanted to make reservations. I called on Thursday to make a reservation for Friday at 7pm. A girl with a heavy Asian accent picked up the phone. She said that she needed to call the manager for a big group. She took my number and said that she would call right back. After 5-10 minutes, she called back saying that the manager wasn’t picking up the phone, but would let me know as soon as she knew. A while later, a call came directly from the manager, Yoshi.

He told me that for a large group, it would be best if we could come at 5pm or 6pm instead to avoid the peak period. I told him that although that most of us are working till 5pm, and that we were coming from all over and trying to make it, even for 6pm would be a little tough. He seemed a little reluctant, but said he would try and accommodate our group. I appreciate the effort.

When I got there the next there, there were already a line of 2-3 groups. Luckily, I had made reservations, and I sat at a big table of 6 to start of with. I felt bad that all these ppl were waiting while I sat with a big empty table, waiting to be 7pm. It seemed like an eternal wait.

I’m not sure if the Asian girl that served the entire restaurant on her own was the same girl that picked up the phone. She told us that she had just started working there 2 weeks ago. Aha. However, I thought she was doing a pretty good job serving the entire restaurant of 26 seats. Crazy. There were 3 guys in the kitchen, and some of them would come out to help out.

We got our tea right away. She moved quickly and efficiently as she could. Unfortunately, a big group may not be a good thing…Sheepie ordered the same ramen as I did, Shio Ramen, but his didn’t arrive until everyone was almost done, and that was after we had to remind not only the server, but Yoshi who came out of the kitchen from time to time. Our other guy’s soup was completely bland. The other friend tried it out and said that this wasn’t what it was suppose to be. It was like water with maybe a grain of salt. They told Yoshi and he made a brand new one – apparently the new was alright.

Shio Ramen $7.45

Regular soup and lean shoulder for chashu

Gyoza that I had to reorder since they forgot

Despite the busyness of the restaurant, the poor girl has to write out every receipt by hand…even per person for our 9 person group…

There are some options for the ramen – you can either have it in regular soup, or rich (oily) soup and for the chashu (pork) pieces, either shoulder (lean) or belly (fatty). I ordered regular and shoulder. The portion was quite a lot compared to any other ramen-ya. The chashu was really good, but that was about it. Soup – no, didn’t really have much koku (flavour), and as for the noodle, one friend said it was those cheap generic yellow Chinese noodles. The other friend left about 80% of the noodles.

Since I was chatting away, I completely forgot about the gyoza that I had ordered until another friend got his, but not mine. I asked if mine was coming, and Yoshi asked if I had ordered. I guess they’re all confused in the back. Anyways, I do appreciate the effort by the girl who handled the super busy restaurant on her own. However, it would have been busy even without our large group. That’s no excuse for missed orders and watery soup. I would NOT recommend Hakkaku Ramen, although it seems it very popular by the lineup. If you do decide to go, one thing I can say for sure: do not go with a big group.

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Jinya 陣家

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We went to Jinya on a Friday evening around 7pm. I had heard that you had to line up and wait, so was happy to see that we were able to get a table as soon as we walked in. However, it was constantly busy, and there was always at least one group that would wait at the door for 5-10 minutes.

Before Jinya, the location had a different ramen-ya – Ezogiku. They were the early, perhaps even the first ramen-ya here in Vancouver. They used to be really small, and ghetto, but it was really popular as it was the only place you could dine out for ramen. I still remember the cramped 5-6 seating tiny restaurant over back 20 years ago.

Like many popular ramen-ya, there were tables, counters and big tables where strangers sat next to each other as you ate. I really don’t like this style. A ramen-ya is not a place to take your date haha – unless you both agree that you like this eating style. I prefer to get my own private table, and not have to squeeze in between unknown strangers and listen to their conversation.

Small selection on menu

I also can not stand the Japanese servers shouting “Ichimei-sama desu” (one person has arrived) and each of the customers orders across the restaurant. The restaurant is already loud enough with customers jam packed into the restaurant. Yes, I am Japanese (sort of lol), but I don’t like it, and usually don’t end up going back (like Guu for example), even though their food may be good. I am just not the hussle bustle, let’s cram into a small area in very loud place to dine. But that’s just me.

I ordered the Shio Ramen $9.75 which was quite oily. It seemed that it lacked a bit of ‘koku’, and the men (noodle) was again very thin like Marutama Ramen‘s). Sheepie also didn’t think anything too much of his cold soup-less Tan Tan Men $9.75. With people waiting, they bring you the bill right away, and feels like they expect you to go right away. No pressure right?

Shio Ramen $9.75

Tan Tan Men $9.75

Will we return? Likely not, unless I’m dragged over by a friend that really wants to go there. One friend said he liked it, but he thinks their ramen is loaded with MSG. He said he didn’t feel too well afterwards. I also talked with another ramen-lover friend, and he said he really liked Jinya. So did this Japanese guy…so I guess it’s just us who’s not really into it… I dunno, I’m into the traditional, simple, not-super oily soup ramen. Perhaps I’m too old fashioned

Jinya – Second Round
This time, I went in with my dad for lunch on a weekday. It was still crowded, but not full house. It seemed a bit more roomier and breathable than last time. This time, we sat on a high stool at a big oval table. As we sat down the group at the table got up and left so we had the entire table to ourselves.

A friend had mentioned that the Black Tonkotsu Jinya ramen was pretty good, so I decided I’d give that a try this time. $11.25 (noodles in pork broth with pork chashu, kikurage, bamboo shoots, green onion, seasoned egg, dried seaweed, black garlic oil, garlic chips).

Black Tonkotsu Jinya $11.25

Miso Ramen

This time, I had my dad (a Japanese born+raised) as guidance on how real Japanese ramen is suppose to be. Although previously, I have been complaining about really thin and al dente ramen, after my dad tried it out, he said that ramen was suppose to be thin for shio/shoyu. He ordered the Miso Ramen which had much thicker noodles. I felt both men (noodles) were al dente, but he said it was cooked properly through. This has changed my thinking on ramen. I had always remembered ramen in Japan to be like the ones at Menya. But perhaps I have been wrong. Of course there are tons of different kinds of men and soup base, each location with their unique flavours and texture but perhaps I had gotten use to one type of ramen.

With that in mind, I tried out Jinya’s ramen with a new perspective. Although I wasn’t still too big of a fan of the type of men they used and the soup was a bit too oily, I didn’t think it was as bad as last time. However, the price was a bit outrageous. Even my dad thought it was way too pricey for ramen.

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