karen "fresh breath is a priority in my life"

I came here after my haircut, looking like little orphan Annie, and fell in serious lust with this place. It’s a little slice of France tucked away in Post Alley near Pike Place Market. Seating is limited though, so unless you don’t mind eating at the bar, come here after lunch (but before 2) or early.

The Elbow Room is a Vancouver institution that isn’t as well known as it probably should be. It’s always packed for brunch and you should time your visit for a slot when Patrick is waiting on tables — if you have boys with you, he’ll hit on them; and he gives everyone a hard time.

The portions here are massive and most dishes are BC specials… if you come here for breakfast, you most likely won’t need lunch. There are a bunch of house rules on the menus (like if you want a glass of water, serve yourself) and up on the walls, and photos of celebrities adorn the walls.

The resons why I love Shabusen are multi-fold. Firstly, it’s an all-you-can-eat sushi and Korean BBQ restaurant in the heart of downtown Vancouver. Secondly, it’s one hell of a deal (less than $20 CDN for all-you-can-eat sit-down lunch on the weekdays + Saturday). Thirdly, they don’t scrimp on quality… the tuna and salmon are tender and have that melt-in-your-mouth quality, the Korean bbq meats are choice cuts, even the tea isn’t watered down.

A meal here requires military-grade planning though, since it’s all-you-can-eat you get penalized for leaving stuff behind (waste not, want not!), you have a 2 hour time limit and you want to optimize your meal (take it easy on the rice and carbs, go for the sushi and BBQ). The wait staff takes a while to make their rounds since the place is so busy, so you need to make the most of each order, but after 3 visits, our family got it down pat (order sushi in multiples of 10, skip the fried rice and most nigiri, load up on sashimi). I love Shabusen and every visit leaves me feeling overdosed on sushi/sashimi and ready for a year-long hiatus but I always end up coming back.

I love love LOVE Porcella. I’ve been there a few times and even if it’s a quick meal before driving back to Vancouver, it still has such a romantic French bistro feel to it that I at least order wine (not when I’m driving) or dessert. Their salmon with endive, their blue cheese steak and their tiramisu are to die for.

My follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here

The Nutella/banana crepe was quite possibly the best part of the meal! I can’t believe I didn’t review it.

Cafe D’arclee is my favourite creperie in Seattle. My boyfriend introduced this place to me last summer and we’ve been semi-regularly go here for weekend brunch.

I personally love their savoury crepes, but who can resist a good Nutella and banana crepe for dessert? We start off with some of their house coffee or a Limonata, then some savoury crepes and then share a Nutella/banana crepe for dessert. Although this place honours the Prime card, we choose to forgo the discount. They’re that good.

Another plus is the decor. Very modern and with a flair for design, you can see the quirky yet tasteful eye from the shelf decorations to the lighting treatments to the vases and cream containers on the table. Service is very good too – no interruptions and the dessert menu and food comes out at just the right time. After your meal, you can explore the Seattle Centre just across the street.

The first time I went to Hon’s was with my roommate in Germany and we got the salted fish and chicken fried rice, the gyoza and some chicken (which I’ve forgotten but it was flavourful).

The last time I went was with family and we chose a family meal — we had gyoza, wonton soup (has shrimp so I didn’t get to eat any), salt and pepper pork (lots of bones), mixed vegetables potato nest (bland), fried mushrooms (good but you reach the fried mushroom threshold pretty quickly) and salty fish and chicken fried rice. We got stuffed pretty quickly so we took the stuff home… unfortunately, it’s best served fresh from the kitchen. On reheating, it got soggy and bland… not so good.

Be prepared to line up outside and share your table with strangers at Hon’s if you come at peak dining hour. If you get in later though, there isn’t much of a wait but some of the hotter items may have sold out. The staff are helpful and assist in choosing dishes, but some of them assume that if you’re Asian, you must be Chinese, so that might need some clearing up.