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Where to Eat
Momo Sushi is fresh and cheap
Feb 28th
Momo Sushi - Salmon sashimi, dynamite rolls
Posted July 21, 2009
I noticed that Momo Sushi, a new Westend Sushi joint got a pretty poor review over at I’m Only Here For The Food, a Vancouver foodie blog. The author felt that while the rolls looked nice, they didn’t deliver on flavour, and that they were of dubious freshness.
Well, my experiences with Momo Sushi have been good if not excellent so far. The rolls themself remind me of Samurai Sushi, where you’re served completely unmanageable fist-sized multi-bite rolls. Like Samurai, the they’re fresh and flavourful, and priced reasonably. The tempura in Momo’s rolls seems to be made to order, because it is often hot when you get your order. The salmon seems fresh as well, because it still has bite to it rather than being spongey and soft like previously frozen salmon is.
The staff at Momo Sushi could not be more friendly, and they genuinely seem to appreciates the business. If you’re down in the West End, low on cash, and have a craving for fresh and flavorful sushi, give Momo a try. You won’t even have to tip, as they have a large sign on their front counter saying “We Don’t Accept Any Tip”.
Update:
Feb 21, 2010
Went back again last week – similar experience. Nice rolls, good flavour. Took some photos before stuffing my face.
Momo Sushi - Dynamite Roll, Beef Teriyaki Roll (That I covered in soy sauce before taking a photo of ... oops)
Review of 2001 Flavours Pizza
Jan 19th
I’m sure they’ve never had 2001 flavours of pizza, but the 6 or so that they generally have in the window are consistently delicious. This isn’t your typical next-to-Skytrain dollar pizza joint. Around lunch, this place will be packed, especially in the Summer. That’s generally the sign of a great local eatery.
For vegetarians, artichoke, garlic, mushroom slices can generally be found in the window, alongside the usual meat lovers, pepperoni, and ham and pineapple. The crust is crisp, and relatively thin. The sauce is basic but tasty and there are always a good amount of toppings and cheese.
Really, what more could you ask for?
Slices range from $1.50 to $2.25 I believe, and whole pies bring the price per slice down even more.
If you don’t think the stuff in the window looks good enough, or they’re missing whatever you’re looking for, the pizza chef [the owner, I believe], is always willing to bake off a new one. Try it, eat it, love it.
KimHo over at I’m Only Here for the Food has his own review from last year, complete with photos.
Azia Restaurant Review – Quantity vs Quality
Jan 19th
I tried Azia restaurant with my mother a few weeks ago, and what a mixed bag it was. First the setting. The restaurant itself is new and stylish; the wine cabinet looks nice, all the items inside fit with the theme (pan asian), but right above the bar, I guess for the bar crowd, are 3 giant plasma TVs. I was sitting facing them at the opposite side of the resaturant and let me just say that they were very distracting. I couldn’t care less about college football, but when it’s flashing at you right above your fellow diner’s face, it’s distracting. I think most other seats in the house would be fine, but the television didn’t enhance my dining experience.
Onto the food. We got a “large Sopporo beer” to split, and it was decently priced at $8 on special. We both got the set menu, hidden somewhere on their website, of 3 courses for $25. Both our meals were very good value, if you value quantity over quality. Plus, the set menu is the best ‘deal’, considering the regular meal prices. At many places (such as All India on Davie) a prawn appetizer will have 3 prawns. Not here. My Ebi Mayo appy was about 5 or 6 large prawns perfectly fried in a light batter.
My appy, as with all my other courses, arrived a good 10 minutes before my Mom’s. That’s not cool. She was okay with it, but it’s still bad form. The restaurant had one other table when we got there, and they were getting the bill. There are no excuses for delays to happen for every course. Yes we went at an odd time, 4.30 on a Monday, but if you’re open, you should be able to serve food properly.
My Mom got the spring roll app, which was okay. The garlic shrimp roll was very heavy on the garlic, and the peking duck roll was really greasy, but they were all okay. I’m pretty sure the dipping sauces, black bean and plum, were from a jar. For a $25 set menu, what do you expect?
On to the entrees.
I got the Kung Pow Prawns. Again, lots of prawns. Also lots of chunks of lemongrass and whole serano peppers. I thought they were there for presentation, but they were also mixed in with the veggies. I managed to avoid the peppers, but the lemongrass was unavoidable. The prawns were slightly undercooked. Just slightly. Maybe 30 seconds to a minute, but it was still noticable.
My Mom’s “Sambal Green Seafood Curry Hot Pot” was again heavy on the seafood, with lots of fish, prawns and scallops, but light on the sambal and the curry. Her prawns were better cooked than mine, as they should have been, having arrived 10 minutes after mine.
Both desserts were incredibly dissapointing. I know you don’t go to Asain food places for the desserts, but still.
I got banana tempura, which came with freezer burnt bought in vanilla ice cream – it tasted like it probably wasn’t that good before the freezer got to it, and canned whippy, which I hate at the best of times. It also came drizzed in chocolate sauce which was as bad as it ever is. The banana tempura itself was pretty bland and soft. I think it had been sitting at the pass for a while as the ice cream was pretty melty too.
My mom’s wasn’t much different or better, same ice cream, whippy and sauce only over a coconut crepe which was not a lot better than my tempura.
All in all a completely arbitrary score of 4/10
Review: Mondo Gelato, Robson St, Vancouver BC
Nov 8th
Just a quick blurb about Mondo Gelato on Robson St. Victoria and I went out to grab some gelato last night, and it was as tasty as always. Mondo offers gelato in cones, cups, scoops in affogato, and cakes for special occasions. Victoria got a delicious affogato with dark chocolate and marzipan gelato. I tried their soy chocolate and soy coffee (damned lactose intolerance!). The soy flavours were lacking in richness, and quite sweet, but nevertheless still tasty. Next time I’ll give their frozen yogurt flavours a go, as they may come closer to the richness of regular gelato.
Affogato with two scoops and a two scoop cup, about $9. Not bad.
Lots of seats, on Robson st, and over 100 flavours with new ones coming fairly regularly. If you like gelato, give this place a shot.
Whineos, a wine bar first, eatery second
Aug 4th
Whineo’s on Granville bills itself as a “Wine bar”, which should have been my tipoff that the food comes secondary to the drinks.
In the midst of a recession, and Granville street torn up due to Canada Line construction, Victoria and I thought we would check out one of Vancouver’s many patio-less restaurants on a sunny Monday evening – when independent places desperately need business.
To give Whinoes a try, we decided to sample a selection of their appetizers, mains, and desserts.
Appetizers
Wild mushroom risotto cakes
These arrived tepid, and were quite bland. It was probably my fault that I didn’t enjoy these, as I was expecting the battered and fried variety full of rich and creamy risotto. These were just sticky, bland risotto stuck into ring molds.
Maccaroni and Cheese
Once again, arrived cold. Was slightly underseasoned, but was a decent homestyle mac n’ cheese.
Entrees
NY Strip (If I recall…)
Steak ordered medium rare arrived half blue, half well done. The flavour was great, and it had a nice crust. Ordered with a ‘lobster tail’, which was fairly overcooked for what was basically a 2-4 count prawn. It just needed to kiss the grill to be done, but this one arrived charred, curled, and dry.
East Coast Lobster Dinner
It was billed as an ‘East Coast Lobster Dinner’ but it felt….lacking. A side salad, 3 somewhat split mini lobster tails (just as rubbery as Chris’) and a dinner roll. The menu didn’t lie at all though it does mention ‘paprika mayo’, which was as I recall minimal and what little was there sat under the shell of the lobster tails meaning if I had wanted to eat it, I would have needed to suck the shells….hmmm…pass.
The spinach salad was fine, nothing to write home about, but a decent salad, and the roll was, a room temp bought in white roll.
The thing that annoyed me most other than the fact that the lobster was overcooked, was that it was near impossible to eat. The shells weren’t split all the way and the knife I was given was quite dull, I can’t help think that if I had been able to pry the meat from the shell sufficiently, I wouldn’t have been so hungry at the end of the meal.
Desserts
Chocolate apple tart
Not even remotely worth the cheap price of $6.50. Bottled chocolate sauce on some phyllo pastry with a quarter of a diced apple and a scoop of ice cream. Seriously, they couldn’t even put more than a quarter of an apple on it? An apple costs 30 cents. This was a disappointment.
Deconstructed cheesecake
Acceptable, but flawed. Served with some small pieces of biscotti to dunk, you get a boat of cheesecake-like filling and berry compote. Too rich, not enough compote, and the few biscotti weren’t enough, or thin enough to be pleasant.
Would I go there again? Probably. It seems like their kitchen is very small, and its always possible that the cook was having an off day. It was a slow night for them, so there were no servers; only the bartender doing double duty, so I can forgive the cold food. If I do go back, I’ll be skipping dessert.
Victoria’s Update: Overall, I was pretty dissapointed too, but the 3.50 raspberry mojito drink special somewhat made up for it. The service could be forgiven for being somewhat slack as the only guy was busy, but there weren’t that many people eating, so there was no excuse for the food being so bad.
