Decent Japanese and Korean Cuisine Fusion (Hon Sushi Kingsway )

Hidden on the second floor of a Earls Restuarant, Hon Sushi is one of my favourite go-to places for food when I am around.  I love coming to this place because it is always not too busy and the place is pretty spacious. Overall, the cost of food here is slightly higher than average (the reason being that the portions are not too big).

Sushi - Their sushi is a bit on the expensive end in my opinion. For example, they sell their spicy tuna rolls for $4.95 a roll and their dynamite roll for $5.95 a roll. In comparison, the portions of these rolls are fairly small. You can get the same sized rolls for around a dollar cheaper at other places. That said, the quality is pretty decent and tastes good. Also, they spend time on the presentation of the sushi, so you will always find condiments or little vegetables accompanying the sushi.


Korean Hotpot - I am not Korean so I don't really know a good benchmark for Korean food. However, when I was here, I shared a hotpot with my +1. They said there are two sizes for the hotpots, one for 2 people and the other for 2-3 people. We ordered the large size. They brought the hotpot in a gas stove and then a selection of condiments on the side. I absolutely loved the condiments such as the edamame, sweet potatoes and kimchi. The hotpot itself was alright. What I noticed was that it was full of processed food. There were alot of Spam and sausages as well as packaged ramen noodles. That said, the price was not too expensive (so what can you expect right?


Korean Fried Chicken - This was probably my favourite dish. I know... eating stuff like this isn't too healthy but letting loose a bit sometimes won't hurt. Their fried chicken is always freshly fried and the juices of the chicken are all locked inside the crispy layers of the chicken. I definitely recommend this.

Overall, this is a pretty decent place to come to. More because of the venue (as it's not too busy and it is very accessible). The price is a bit on the higher end, but the trade off is you get a nice venue. 

Lunch special in a dark dungeon like Japanese/Korean fusion (Yakiniku ya Downtown Vancouver)

I've been here a few years ago, and did a previous blog post on this place. I was in the area, so I decided to stop by. I noticed that they have a new menu and one of the things that were featured was the lunch specials. That got me interested as there was the $10.95 lunch menu. So I decided to go in and visit with my mother.

   The interesting thing about this place is that it's a fusion of Korean and Japanese cuisine. I have a hard time trying to figure out if they are Korean or Japanese owned because the waitress seemed to speak both. That said, the place seemed understaffed as they only had one waitress when I was there with my mother for lunch.
   We took a look at the menu and decided to get an avocado roll, a seafood cake (Korean style) and a Chicken Teriyaki Lunchbox special. Then we waited for our meal.. I noticed that this place is very fancy on decoration and setting. They spent a lot of time getting the decor of the inside. I am not exactly sure what the theme is.. but the insides do remind me of a cave (because it's dark on the inside and the walls and floors were stone (or what appears to be...)).
   Since there was only one waitress, it does seem like she was a bit rushed. The miso soup came first and then came the fish cake and the bento box. The table space was a bit awkward as it has a section for BBQ. When the miso soup came, I had to move it but instead the miso soup became me so wet when I spilled it everywhere...
   The next thing to come was the bento.  The portions were not as impressive as it seems in the pictures. For $10.95, it came with 2 pieces of tempura, a slice of orange 1 tofu, a bite of cold noodles, a few bites of chicken teriyaki, salad, rice and miso soup. The quality is on the higher end of things, but not super high end.
   The seafood pancake and the avocado roll was next. The avocado roll was nothing much to write about. However, the seafood pancake was pretty good. It had a good balance of seafood in it and the pan frying wasn't too greasy.
   What was the most interesting part of this visit was that just before I left, I saw a man (who looks like the owner) coming in and he cleaned the table next to ours. He then stacked all of the cups and poured the contents on his potted plants outside... That was definitely interesting watching that...
   Overall, the price of this place is decent. However, the portions are not the best. I won't go out of my way to come here but if I am around this area, I will visit. 

Fresh Sashimi and a funny owner (Yakinikuya Review)

Yakinikuya In a sea of Japanese restaurants in Vancouver, many of which aren't exactly "authentic", Yakinikuya is one of the few authentic Japanese restaurants around.
There are so many places that just squish rice and seaweed with a bit of overly fried shrimp together and called it sushi, but Yakinikuya stood out. It was around lunch time and I met with my friend to celebrate her birthday, and we were on Robson when their advertisement for the $8.95 lunch grabbed our attention.
Upon entering, the restaurant had a very authentic feel to it. The decor was all black and you can tell they've put a lot of thought into creating an atomosphere for their customers. We were immediately greeted by a very friendly waitress and seated. Looking around, we were surprisingly the only customer in the restaurant. She quickly brought us the menu and asked if we would like water or tea. The tea was the traditional Japanese matcha, which was pretty good.
 My friend and I decided to take selfies... So we took a bit longer than normal to order. I think because the restaurant was empty, the waitress came back at least 5 times before we made our order. It was hard to settle for what to order. There were so many things beside Japanese food such as Korean BBQ. My friend and I decided to get something we can share, so we decided to order two lunch boats. Our first boat is the sashimi boat while our other one was the Korean BBQ boat.
 While we were waiting, I noticed the owner (or what appears to be the owner, walking in and out of the restaurant as if he was patrolling. He seemed a bit bored and I see him rushing outside to remove a leaf that's fallen on to a table and cleaning up the leaves of the sidewalk. There was a moment when a couple walked in to the restaurant and he greeted them with joy. However they left after looking at the menu and the owner jokingly said "too expensive?'' This was definately the first time I've ever heard a restaurant owner saying something like this. After getting our order in, the waitress immediately brought us our miso soup and salad. The miso soup was very good and the flavour was just right. The salad was special too.
There was siracha sauce added to the salad, as well as a few pieces of sashimi (salmon and tuna). I must say, the Sashimi was very fresh and I was impressed. Right after the salads came, the boats came right after. My first impression of the boats was that they were very well presented. In many other Japanese restaurants, I noticed that they would just place their food on to the dishes without putting much thought into it. However, at Yakinikuya, there was thought put into the placement of food. Starting with the Korean BBQ boat, besides being very nicely presented, it tasted really good too. The pork had a texture where it was slightly harder on the outside but the center was full of juice and it was soft. The sashimi boat was very good too. The sashimi was fresh as mentioned before. Also, for both of the boats, asparagus bacon skewers were included. Besides being on the greasy side, the skewers were good too. The only downside to the two boats is that for $18.00 per boat, the amount of food that was included was not as much as I expected. I guess the trade off is that the quality of food was good. Overall, the service is good, the food is good, the price is on the higher end and I would definitely come back again (once my wallet stops crying).

nice lean grilled chicken for $1.79/100grams (Greenday Salad Bar)

During lunch time, the streets of Downtown Vancouver is usually bustling with people (usually people who are at work) in their business attire trying to find food. I was also doing some work and it was lunch time and my friend wanted to meet up. She suggested going to this salad bar. Before coming in, I noticed that Fujiya next door was packed with people trying to get their sushi. Because it was so busy next door, this salad place was easy to miss as it was located deeper within this building complex.
The thing I love about salad bars, like this one is that you can walk in and choose whatever you like in whatever amount you like and pay for just the total weight (they call it gross weight I think... But it's abit weird to call the total weight of food gross, unless of course, the food itself is gross). Also, I think salad bars are rather better than going to a fast food places at the food court where you pay for a set amount of food and feel bad about not finishing it all.
   This salad bar contains over a few dozen varieties of vegetable dishes. All of these dishes looked relatively not greasy. Also, I think this salad bar is Korean owned because I noticed some of the items do have an Asian twist to it. In addition, when you walk into this salad bar, you immediately smell the aroma of freshly baked bread.
The way this salad bar is laid out is that the food is located around the corners while the middle of the store has a long table for people to sit. I would not recommend eating in here because the table looks abit uncomfortable to look at. Not to mention that with traffic of people going around getting food, I'd imagine it would feel abit pressuring for you to finish your food.
   Because I already have food with me, but I didn't want to make my friend feel bad, I decided to get something small. For $1.79 for 100grams I would say the price is decent. That said, it depends what you get. If you got something like potato wedges only, $1.79 for 100 grams is pretty expensive compared to getting 9 pieces of potato wedges at 7-11 which is roughly 100 grams for only 99 cents. I'm saying this because I got some potato wedges and grilled chicken thinking one piece or two shouldn't be that expensive.    The grilled chicken I got was pretty good. The seasoning was not too overwhelming, yet it wasn't too bland. In addition, what I liked most about the chicken was that it was relatively lean and not as fatty as some of the chicken I've had. With regards to the potato wedges, besides the fact that it was slightly over cooked, it tasted pretty decent.
   Overall, I would say this place is definitely tailored towards business folk who wants something like a quick lunch, yet want variety in their meals. The quality is pretty decent and it's definitely a good consideration if you are in the area and is looking for lunch.

Jang Mo Jib (Robson)

This was the first time that I've been to Jang Mo Jib. My friends have recommended me to eat here but I've never really got the chance, but today when I was passing by Robson and Denman I decided to stop by. First and foremost, the interior of the restaurant is pretty nice. It has a simple and not too complicated eating atmosphere.

When we entered, it was about 12 and it was lunch time. The server greeted us at the door and took us to our seats. She was very nice and when my mom asked her where the washroom was, she even offered to take her there, whereas other servers would only point to the direction of the washroom. The men's washroom was abit of an inconvenience because it was located upstairs and when you go upstairs, you can see that the place is undergoing renovation so it is slightly in a bit of a mess. 

After going to the washrooms, we were seated at our seats and the menu came. One thing I noticed about their menu is that most of the items on it contains beef. It's either hotpot cooked in beef broth, or beef rice. They do have options that allowed you to take out the beef. However, the compromise is the flavor because the dish itself is based upon beef broth. 

We ordered a Korean Rice and a Hot Pot. With ordering, we got 4 appetizers that came with the meals. The appetizers themselves were really good, there were kimchi, cabbage, potato and sprouted beans. The funny thing though, was that the waitress gave us a bottle of hot sauce... but the appetizers themselves were already covered in hot sauce... Otherwise, the appetizers were delicious. I would caution anyone who isn't use to eating Kimchi to not eat a mouthful at once. At the instant you put kimchi in your mouth, you will be fooled by the coldness that it isn't spicy. It's when the Kimchi goes down your throat that you start to feel it...

After, the hotpot and the Korean Rice arrived. Because we ordered the vegetarian option, it tasted abit bland. The hotpot itself had tofu, mushrooms and a bowl of rice while the Korean Rice (Not sure what it is called, can't remember) has a half cooked egg, some vegetables with it. One thing I noticed with their rice is that oil was added to it for the taste I believe. Another interesting thing was that I found hair in my Korean Rice, so I let the waitress know. She was so nice about it and the head waitress brought me another one and she was apologizing like 10 times. The service itself was pretty good, but the food is mediocre I would say. 

In summary, the portions themselves were pretty small. For something that is almost $10 and it only includes a small portion, I would say that the vegetarian options are slightly overly priced. That said, the service was good, and I would consider returning again.