604: Vij's

The first time I had Indian food was at @tastyindian with my friend. He ordered all the renowned traditional Indian food to ensure I get a full on experience and made sure that I understood fully that “butter chicken” isn’t part of the national dish (he at least said it 3 times and compared it with the Chinese orange chicken from Panda Express lol). It was really good but unfortunately, I wasn’t used to the herbs and all my internal organs were like on fire. So I haven’t had Indian food since 🥺🥺 But my friend assured me that Vij’s is a more toned down version with a fusion twist. We ordered the “Thali” at Vij’s which we get to choose four dishes from the entire menu. My friend and I strategically ordered two Thali trays and had 7 different dishes to sample with. Other than the goat, everything was really impressive. My favourite was the lamb in cumin coconut curry (which we made sure to order one from each tray - wise decision) and the beef in Bengali style creamy curry. They also offer chai tea as a complimentary to everyone at the table. My friend decided to be adventurous and ordered the “nice guy chai” cocktail which he praised highly of.

Overall, it was a very fun experience. Thank you @eatdrinkvijs for the wonderful meal with the lovely fusion twist, and making it possible for me to enjoy it fully without any agony 🤣

If you had never tried Indian food, start with Vij's. It's the best place as an introductory for beginners.

Location: Here

Menu: Here

What we ordered (Rating out of 5):

1. Rainbow trout in coconut and fenugreek seed masala and sour cream curry (Rate 4.2)

2. Goat in Punjabi style curry with spiced vegetables (Rate: 2.8)

3. Braised grass-fed PEI beef in Bengali style creamy curry with naan and rice (Rate 4.6)

4. Lamb in cumin-coconut curry with tomato sauteed vegetables (Rate 4.8)

5. Kale, jackfruit, cauliflower in coconut curry with spiced pumpkin seeds (Rate 4.2)

6. Sauteed eggplant and bell peppers on fenugreek potatoes and cream curry (Rate 4.3)

7. Local Kalonji chicken curry with green onion/tomato green lentils (Rate 3)
   

Price: $45 pp

Overall Taste: 4.2 / 5

Atmosphere: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Price Performance ratio: 3 / 5

604: Milkcow (Richmond)

Whenever I'm in Japan, I'll get a soft serve ice cream from Cremia. Their soft serve has an intensely rich, milk flavour that only Japan produces this distinct dairy flavour. Luckily, Vancouver has an ice cream store that sells soft-serve ice cream that resembles this Japanese ice cream. It's still not exactly the same but it's 80% close.

My top pick from their menu are Milk Way, Milk Honey and Milky Comb. Any additional toppings would have covered that unique dairy flavour, which is the whole reason why I'm here in the first place.

I also tried the Ube flavour and the tiramisu flavour. The Tiramisu ice cream is just sponge cake, that's overly-soaked with coffee liqueur, topped with vanilla ice cream and cocoa dusting; and the Ube flavor isn't strong enough in the Ube ice cream.

So I think I'm just gonna stick with the Milky Way or the Milk Honey in the future.

P.S - this place definitely beats Soft Peaks. The dairy flavour is a lot stronger at Milkcow.

📍Location: Here

Website: Here

💵 Price: $5 - $7 per cup

🤤 Taste: 4.7 / 5

📈 Price Performance ratio: 4.5 / 5

Retention Rate: 100%

🕯Atmosphere: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🪑Seating: ⭐️⭐️⭐

604: Bubble Queen (Richmond)

I haven't been back in years and I don't know if the owner has changed or what happened. My friend and I ordered the matcha bubble waffle and a mango mochi slush and we were pretty disappointed with both orders.

The matcha bubble waffle was soft. Every single bubble was completely filled with mochi, which was nice but some crisps some where would be nice... The waffle also lacked matcha flavour. By the end of it, I wasn't sure if I ate a dozen plain mochis or a waffle.

The mango slush was COMPLETELY FILLED with mango mochis/pearls. You really get the money's worth but I really wasn't sure if I was drinking pearls or a slush... Every sip contains at least 20 pearls. Needless to say, the pearls were really in the way. We couldn't even finish a quarter of it and we were mochied-out. I guess they are living up to its name - they are THE BUBBLE QUEEN after all.

On the bright note, they've used fresh mangoes in the drink!

📍Location: Richmond

💵 Price:$6 - $8

🤤Taste: 3.2 / 5

🕯Atmosphere: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🪑Seating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

📈 Price Performance ratio: 4.9 / 5

Rentention Rate: 0%