Marble Slab

So, the weather is getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter. What helps more in this situation than ice cream? A super popular ice cream destination by English Bay, on Denman- cross street is Davie. Marble Slab is a hot spot for people going down to the beach, whether during the day to get a tan, or on their way down to see the HSBC fireworks.They have various locations throughout the Lower Mainland.

Their service is pretty quick I would say for what they do, and the amount of people that go in. They have a line of staff waiting to take your order. They have various styles of cones, pick your own ice cream, and you get to choose what goes into your own ice cream. The condiments vary from Skor to pineapples, and ice cream flavours from pina colada to birthday cake flavour. Staff creations board allows their employees to display their own favourite mixes for customers to try out as well as other classics displayed on posters.

As far as the pricing goes.. it's a little bit price-y for ice cream I would say? I think it's about $6-7 each. But it's worth it if the weather is hot outside, haha.

Joey's

Many locations, including the one on Burrard St. Typical food really, nothing super special. Because I'm a vegetarian, I seriously detest this place. I would never come here to eat. The waiters and waitresses give great service and are super friendly. They drop by to see if your food is okay and give suitable suggestions. The mood of the restaurant is nice, and the overall ambiance is quite relaxing and well put together. Their menu.. I hate. If you are a vegetarian, STAY AWAY from this place. I heard that their seafood pasta is exceptional.. but if you don't eat meat, there are no items on their menu for you. Not even a veggie burger. I ended up extremely annoyed with a salad for dinner with a meat substitute, which was soy chicken. It was disgusting. Even though their service and everything else was great, I will not come back here. They should really make their menu more vegetarian friendly. Icks.

BAD: Sala Thai

This restaurant is located on Burrard St, across from Japadog. I don't actually know the cross street. So Sala Thai is.. as guessed, Thai food. The only reason really, why I chose to go there was because I haven't been there before, and my cousin used to work there. So based on her recommendations on the pad thai, I went.

Decorations and designs of the restaurant were impressive, dimly litted and traditional Thai figures. Exceptional ambience. Wondered if food met the same standards.

The food was alright, my cousin's recommendation for the pad thai- from what I heard from my friends who ordered it- was only mediocre. It was okay, but nowhere near exceptional. I ordered with a vegetarian friend, a rice noodle dish (flat, dough-y rice noodle) with soya sauce.. eggs.. and tofu I believe, and some brocolli. It wasn't great at all, and the noodles were all clumped together. Probably some take out would have been much better than what I got there. I also ordered an eggplant dish which was delicious, S10 on the menu in the back, one of their specials. It was also cooked with green and red peppers as well.

I had a huge problem with service. When I ordered my dish, they gave me the rice noodles with chicken shreds as well.. which was not what I ordered. The waitress refused to admit to her mistake, and I had to speak to the manager which was really frusterating. They had to replace my dish. And they also charge an extra 15% service charge for groups of 6 or more people. So the service is a definite no no.

Sejuiced

This is to all the vegetarian and vegans out there, get Sejuiced! Located on the popular West 4th Ave in Kitsilano, it's a bright vibrant orange colour and a fairly small place. Along West 4th, there are various boarding/ski/snowboard shops, and going up the hill some salons, lots of restaurants, and popular stores like Gumdrops- for rainboots, raincoats, umbrellas, Gravity Pope (clothing and shoes), Moule, and other places.

At Sejuiced, they offer a variety of burgers, sandwiches, wraps, soups, SMOOTHIES, and pastries. Why I capitalize smoothies is because they're awesome. I don't know which one to recommend because they're all really deelish. The last one I had was called Blue Lagoon, and I loved it, wanted to go back and get another one. Also, their burger combos all come with salads. Their food is a little bit more expensive because it's made with all locally grown and organic foods, which takes an easier toll on our Earth and is good for our bodies! There is no price for that.

So drop your bag of McDonald's and head over to Sejuiced for some healthy and nutritient packed meal! The staff there are friendly, and offer vegan friendly food. They have seating indoors and a couple of seats outdoors too.

Take Sushi

One of the many sushi places in Vancouver, located on 4528 Hastings St and cross street is Willingdon Ave. It's pretty unknown, but the food there is fairly good. Plus the owner is a friend of my mom's, so they always ask us to test out new dishes for them to see how we like it. The sushi maker/chef is very friendly, and spends time with the customers to ask for their feedback on how the food is.

Typical and traditional sushi, like avocado rolls, BC rolls, and dynamite rolls, the usual. But also, they have their own unique sushi types which are house specials. Many with a thin layer of avocado on the outside, or salmon, or others, with some kind of sauce zigzagging on top of the sushi. Also they have several unique dishes including their tuna fish dish, which is cooked halfway through purposely and partially submerged in a sauce, very tasty (I tried it before I turned vegetarian). One of the favourite things I like to order are from them are their salads, a definite recommendation from me. The calamari salad is my favourite- I get my brother to eat the calamari.

Yum yum yum. I always have a good time there, and it is usually pretty quiet there so orders don't take too long. And they have Mario Gelato's ice cream too!

Han Gu: Korean Tofu Pot

This is a fairly quiet place, not very popular located on the corner of Kingsway and Wessex St, across from the London Square place where London Drugs is. The sign above it is bright orange, and next to the TD bank in green.

I've been here several times now and I love the food. It's a very limited menu for vegetarians, but there IS a vegetarian tofu pot, with assorted veggies, tofu, eggs, and noodles. For those of you who eat meat, there are many options of tofu pots and lunch boxes (with rice, meat, and veggies) all in there for you. Would recommend the tofu pots (which is why it's called tofu pot place), especially for those of you who like spicy food. They do give you an option of how hot you would like it. The side dishes are kind of silly to me, cause for the price of two side dishes, you can just get another main course. The cucumber dish is really plain, and the side plates of tofu are alright only if you dip/eat it with your tofu pot.

Han Gu isn't pricy at all, and less than $7 I think for a tofu pot. And they also give you a small bowl of rice with the tofu pots. It's usually pretty quiet, and not really busy at all. The service is alright because of limited servers. Worth your money, and totally beats Honolulu across the street.

Martini's

Martini's is located on Broadway, precisely at 151 W. Broadway. It's along a street full of bicycle shops, including Bike Doctor and La Bicyletta, and other sports places like Hillsound and Mountain Equipment Co-op. Anyways, it's known for their pizzas, and is worth a try if you're trying to pick a restaurant in that area.

They offer a wide variety of whole wheat pizzas, with many different toppings. Options vary for vegetarians, but still, it's yummy. Their pasta is alright too, and the restaurant does offer drinks and requires ID. The last time I went to this place was for a friend's birthday and was well worth my money.

Parking is kind of limited, as it's along W. Broadway for those of you familiar with the area. The service we got wasn't the best.. actually the waitress was kind of rude to be quite frank, but the food is recommended.

DIY: Ice cream

So.. you have only vanilla ice cream at home. And maybe you want to spice it up a little bit. Not actually spicy, but just to add some "OOMPH" to it. Add your own toppings! A lot of people don't bother.. just because they're at home, but whenever they go out, they add the extra toppings when they go out and buy ice cream. Why not do it at home yourself too? That way you can enjoy a treat worth comparing to somewhere like Purdy's or Baskin Robbins.

Different condiments I like on mine include: maple syrup (yes, the stuff that goes on pancakes), chocolate syrup (can be the stuff you mix in your regular milk to change it into chocolate milk), crushed nuts (walnuts, almonds, etc), shaved chocolate, and so on. You can add candy if that's your preference! I mean, all these condiments are probably found within your own kitchen, so make yourself a real treat!

Also, if you want a healthier option to ice cream, try frozen yogurt! It tastes great, and fewer calories as well as fat. And for vegans, there is the option of lactose free frozen yogurt.

BAD: Honolulu Cafe

For the inexperienced, the Honolulu Cafe located on Kingsway and Wessex is a NO GO. The only reason why you would go there is because you were starving and your bile is consuming your intestines or something. But seriously, it's not worth it.

The service is terrible. The attitudes of the waitresses are rude and careless. Most of the times they don't bother to greet you, just ask you eat in or take out. The food is not that great either. I don't know, plus all the waitresses there have been working at that place for YEARS. It's always the same ladies who walk by with a scowl on their face. And yes, I think everyone who works there are Chinese. Be ready to get your Cantonese on. Other than that, nothing else. Maybe the other locations are better, but the one near my house is a no no.

Blenz

An old workplace.. same place that fired me after a month of working there. Nevertheless, they still have some good drinks. Located everywhere really, you'll see one.

For those of you who don't know what Blenz is, it's a coffee place. Like Starbucks. Actually, it's quite expensive for the drinks. But here are a few that are worth trying on a cold, rainy/snowy day. I don't really recommend their cold drinks much. The hot chocolate at Blenz is definitely worth the money. It's much better than Starbucks hot chocolate and Tim Horton's (it's just a powder mix). It's made with homogenized milk I think.. or you could ask for skim, 2%, or soy milk (costs extra). They steam the milk to 180 degrees and add in 3-4 spoonfuls of actual chocolate chips- your choice of milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or white chocolate- and blend it. Really good. I suggest either white chocolate or milk chocolate. Another line of drinks worth trying from Blenz are their tea lattes. Strawberry one smells really good, and.. London Fog? I can't remember completely. They make the tea first, and add in the shots (could ask for half sweet) and mix in steamed milk. Very yummy. While I was working there, the matcha products were fairly popular, but I never tried it. Anywhos, definite recommendation on the hot chocolates and tea lattes for suresies.

Blenz also offers free internet.. so yeah. Though a lot of their drinks are kind of pricy, some of them are actually worth it. Oh, and the Blenz franchise is Canadian.

Babylon Cafe

Another downtown eating spot. Maybe you've noticed this tiny little store amongst the oversized brand name clothing shops along Robson because of its popularity. Babylon Cafe often has quite a line up during lunch time, but it is definitely worth the wait. It's at the corner of Robson and Granville, near the construction area. Next to True Value Vintage (it's not really true value.. not for their vintage stuff) and diagonally across from Future Shop. There's also another one by English Bay which offers a few seats indoors and outdoors, as well as a bigger menu.

What they offer are mainly wraps, chicken, falafel, and veggie. It is very filling, especially the chicken one from what I've heard. Lately I think they added lamb to the Robson location. Inside the wraps, they add hot sauce, tzatziki sauce, various veggies (pickles, peppers, lettuce, etc), hummus(if you ask for it), and so on. The veggie one is good, but not as good as the falafel wrap though. For those of you who are curious of what the falafel actually is, it's just made of chick peas. And delicious, which is why it is listed here I suppose. For first timers, the wraps usually make you really full.

Seating wise.. the Robson location doesn't have any. But it's conveniently wrapped for you to eat on-the-go. For people who are going there for the first time, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I go there so often I recognize all the people who work there.. AND they recognize me too. It isn't really expensive.. less than $7 for chicken and less than $5.50 for the falafel one.

Japadog

If you haven't heard the excitement of Japadog, you must be nuts. And if you haven't tried it, you must try. Japadog is actually a hotdog stand. Actually, they've expanded to I believe three locations, original one being on Burrard St. If you get off at Burrard Station, and walk towards Robson St.. past Robson, you'll see the Japadog stand right before the crosswalk in front of IGA.. and it's near the Scotia Bank Theatre place.

Japadog is Japadog because it's unlike any other hotdog stand. The workers there are all Japanese- appreciate this because these things don't happen anymore. For example, when you go into a Japanese restaurant, how many Japanese people are actually working there? Heck, is the owner CHINESE? Happens a lot. Anyways, they have a variety of Japanese style hotdogs, sometimes topped with mayo, various sauces, onions, seaweed, other condiments. There are veggie dogs, and beef dogs, and all chicken, and other ones too. Amongst their choices, Terimayo and Oroshi are the most popular I would say. Food is $5 or less, depending on what you pick. Honestly I've NEVER had a bad experience here, and the people who work there are super happy (not in a creepy way) and are very welcoming when serving you.

As for seating, I normally walk and eat my Japadog. If not, I would sit outside of the Sutton Place Hotel in front of the wine shop and eat there like many others. They also have up pictures of famous people who have been there, hahaha. That includes Ice Cube. It's been hard to walk away from a Japadog stand, so be ready to be addicted!

FOOD.

Food is a huge part of my life. This will be my first blog.

So.. I've been meaning to make a page like this for awhile now. But finally making it I suppose. I've been known to talk about food, eat food, know certain food places, make food, complain about food, describe food.. you get the picture. I love food. Hence yes, I'm a fattie. I enjoy finding new places to eat, and new things to try. All the food places that I will blog about are all vegetarian friendly.. cause I AM A VEGETARIAN. Enough said, hopefully this page will lead you to discover new food places of your own, and share it with me, as well as help you find some of the most delicious food places- mostly around Vancouver area.