Shabusen Yakiniku House

Burrard location, couple of blocks up from Burrard Station.

We had a large group, but this shouldn't mean we should get treated badly. The service was horrible, waitress never came when we asked. She also kept rushing us to finish and kept messing up the orders. And she constantly gave us dirty looks. The food wasn't great, it wasn't absolutely horrible either. Nothing special about it. I thought it was overpriced, even for their all you can eat. It was.. $23 dollars a person without tips I think. And with service like that? I don't think so.

Not coming back here. I have gone to the one on South Granville, it's better than this location. But that might have been because my cousin worked there. Plus they have this salad bar thing. But this was awhile back..

L'Hermitage

At 1025 Robson Street, across from Cafe Crepe.

This place was probably the first French restaurant I've been to. I actually liked the decor of the place, it's very.. cozy? I don't know how to describe it. I guess it's dated in a good way.

The waiters that work here.. well, they were nice. I'm just being mean here, but their voices were a little irritating, especially when they laughed really obnoxiously.

I remember having the tomato soup here, it was really sour and tasted a lot like ketchup to me. Didn't want to finish it. I came here before I turned vegetarian so I had some kind of chicken? Don't remember, but it wasn't bad, the veggies on the side weren't though. Tasted kinda weird. Had a crepe suzette to finish, which was probably the best part of the meal. But yeah, the tomato soup totally ruined it for me.

Anyways, I found this place to be overpriced (well, probably cause it's on Robson) and I wouldn't recommend it. Will go try Le Faux Bourgeois Bistro instead.

Bino's

Located at 3312 Kingsway Street.

I know I know, the food isn't the best. I think I've been coming here for three years now. I almost always get their breakfast special, but their Bino's enchilada is pretty good too. Their eggs are rather bland.. and the syrup has changed.. but I still come here for my breakfast food. They have a special at $3.95 for 2 eggs, 3 sausage links or bacon, and pancakes or hash browns with toast. How do you beat that?!

It's quiet at night, sometimes busy in the morning, especially on weekends. I come here quite often with my friends. I've figured out all three waitresses. The lady with the darker skin that usually works at night isn't always nice. She likes to talk on the phone or certain customers. There's an Asian waitress, slim, medium length black hair. She is usually tired, but she recognizes the regulars and talks to them. Friendly. And my favourite waitress is another Asian waitress, more curvy, and she never ties her hair up. She usually has on lipstick. She's very friendly and she remembers my order.. even if I don't come for a month at a time. She even remembers I'm a vegetarian! She definitely keeps me coming back to Bino's. Plus they're open very early and until 1am.

It's pretty clean and this is like my version of Central Perk from Friends. Hahaha.

BAD: Fantastic Restaurant

Located at 3309 Kingsway Street.

Being a Chinese person, I've been to quite a few dim sum places for lunch. This place isn't great. But if you're out just to mainly chat with friends, then it's fine. If you're out looking for Fantasitc dim sum (hahaha, sorry) then this might not be right for you.

The service was efficient, but the waitresses act weird if you're younger or not Chinese. They kept saying everything really slowly for my friends and I (we're 18 years old) cause they thought we didn't speak any Cantonese.. but yeah. I found the rice noodles in soy sauce to be way over steamed, to the point where it just falls apart if you try to pick it up. The vegetarian fried noodles were okay.. nothing special. The veggie spring rolls were NOT fresh. I bet they ovened it from yesterday. All in all.. the food was mediocre. I only come here cause it's convenient and close to my place.

The place is kind of clean. Ish. I didn't wanna go into the washroom.. might be scary.

Vanya Sushi

5615 Harold Street, turn the corner from Bino's.

Just went here not too long ago. As a vegetarian, they don't have many items on the menu for me. As expected. They were very friendly and greeted me as soon as I came in. They did apologize for their lack of a veggie menu, but told me the few items they did have without meat.

I ordered two orders of avocado rolls. They were good.. but I wished they put a bit more avocado in. The rice is fine, maybe a tad too much vinegar though. It was nearly 7 dollars for the two orders, so I wish the portion size was a bit bigger.

The restaurant itself looked clean, could use a couple of decorations though.

Gold Train Express Vietnamese Cuisine

At 3320 on Kingsway in London Square.

This place is nothing to brag about. The overall appearance of the restaurant seems a little creepy if you ask me. 24 hour joint.. mirrors.. neon lights. The service is pretty quick, and the waitress usually comes when you need her to refill or take orders. Doesn't take long for order to be done. Nothing to brag about really, never really had a problem with the place.

They could really change up and renovate the place.. and just clean/sanitize everything more often.

Kishu River

At 3339 Kingsway, across from the London Drugs area.

Okay. I remember coming here awhile back with a couple of friends. The food was okay, nothing special, typical sushi place. I thought they're pricing was a bit high for the quality and quantity. They do have their specials at night though, my brother goes often. So unless you go then.. not really worth it.

I had a huge problem with their service, which is the main reason why I won't ever go back. Our bill came to about 22 dollars or something, and I gave the waitress 30 dollars. We waited for about 10 mins and they didn't come back with my change. I asked for my change and they told me there wasn't any. I told them how much I paid, and they STILL refused to give me back my change.

After that experience, I'm not going back to Kishu. So many other places to go to instead, like Fish on Rice on Kingsway.

The X Spot

Small cafe right at the corner of Denman and Robson, across the street from Starbucks.

This place has soups, sandwiches, and other small meal sort of foods from organic foods I think. The food is okay..nothing special. They have a few vegetarian choices. Their sandwiches aren't THAT filling. It's like your regular home made sandwich really. The service was a little slow when I went, they were training a new employee. A regular sandwich cost me over 6 dollars though, not really worth it. Didn't have to wait too long.

It's pretty spacious in there, so no rush or worrying about seating. Nce that they have outdoor seatings and window seats too. They used to have a bit of competition from Bojangles across the street, but it has been replaced by yet another Starbucks.

Don't really recommend it that much. If you want good food, just walk further down Denman, there are tons.

The Crime Lab

Went to Crime Lab for a staff party. I work about a block away from this place so it's convenient. The place is kind of small, right next to the water at Stanley Park. The staff were friendly but they seemed a bit understaffed when we were there.

We had about 15 people go and told them in advance.. but they didn't have enough tables for us. We ended up having to all squish into a couple of those tiny high top tables. I didn't drink, but my coworkers did. They were pretty efficient with supplying alcohol. We ordered random platters of food, from what I heard the crab cakes were decent. Everything else was just kind of bleh. A lot of mussels leftover really. The flat breads with the dip were okay. Don't suggest going there for food at all. It's nicely presented, but it's not that great and not really worth your money. Especially don't go if you're a vegetarian. I think there's about three items on the menu for you to try.. one was an appetizer, and the other two was a veggie platter sort of thing with everything ($22) and there's a veggie burger. That's it.

Other than going there for a quick drink and a stroll around the park, I wouldn't recommend this place for food. Honestly, if you want a good dinner around that area, take just a bit of extra time to go down either along Denman or Granville Island. Won't be disappointed.

Samurai Japanese Restaurant

Compared to some of the other places in downtown area.. it's decent for the price you pay. It's not super high class, it's just somewhere to grab some take out or a quick lunch that's filling. This is for the Davie location

They're pretty efficient and don't have to wait SUPER long for your food. It's usually pretty packed depending on the time you come. The staff there are pretty brief but friendly enough.

The quality of food is okay. It's not disgusting like some of the other places, such as Sushi Go at Bute and Melville, but the rice could use a bit more attention. I usually order their avocado rolls cause I'm a vegetarian, and it's pretty good, avocados are always at the just ripe stage. Their portions are bigger than a lot of other places, but like one of the previous reviews.. I think the one on Cambie has bigger sized portions. But then I also heard that that location on Cambie had some problems with food safety (heard from my mom's friend who's a food safety inspector). Apparently they don't freeze their fish properly before using. But overall, I go their routinely for my avocado rolls. Good for the price you pay.

Would probably go if you wanted to just eat something with friends or was ordering party platter for big group of friends. Super filling.

Sammy's Hot Wings

I work about 3 blocks from this place, right at the corner of Denman and Robson, and a lot of my coworkers come here for lunch. The owner is really friendly once you get to know him, like my boyfriend, he'll give you extra fries and whatnot. Whenever I go, I would get the veggie burger which is pretty good. I like their fries a lot, not super salty and I've never had them burnt like the review before mine. Neither has anyone else from my workplace actually. It's quiet sometimes when it's rainy out. Unfortunately they hired a new waitress who's kind of bitchy. If you get to know the owners well and they know you're on a break, they'll try to speed up your order for you!

I go from time to time. It's a nice place to go for a half hour break.

Bo Kong

Bo Kong is one of the few vegetarian restaurants in Vancouver. There are more in Richmond..but that's out of my way. My boyfriend and I came here once to try out their food, after hearing about it from another vegetarian coworker and my Buddhist friend.

They have a really wide selection of vegetarian foods, with fake seafoods and chicken. We had the pineapple delight, with house special fried rice, and a hairy melon vermecilli pot I think. Really really good. My boyfriend loved the pineapple delight. Love the food here.

It looks like your typical Chinese restaurant, just more Buddhist like. It's pretty much priced the same as a regular Chinese restaurant too, but I would say the portions at Bo Kong are a bit smaller. The service wasn't very good though. Even through my coworker, he had said that they always seem to be understaffed. We had to wait a while for our order.. and for them to pack up when we were leaving. As well, the waiter was very brief. Biggest problem was asking for a glass of water, it took THREE TRIES, with two different waiters/waitress. Very annoying.

But other than that, will definitely go back for food.

Section 3

Went to this place for dinner. Food was okay. I ordered a pad thai with tofu.. found the noodles a bit too soft and too saucy. The waiter was nice, not very interactive. I didn't come here to drink, just to celebrate a birthday. It's reasonably priced, not like some of the other places around the Yaletown area. I liked the ambiance, nice looking bar, cool pictures, cool lighting. Not somewhere I would go back for a place to get dinner.. but maybe for drinks?

Right when you walk in, there's a picture of a girl.. naked. It showed nipples. Just so you know.

Mosaic Bar and Grill

I went to Mosaic for my friend's birthday dinner. And being a vegetarian, the menu is very limited. I picked from their set course, which was $30. The tomato bisque was okay, it was a bit sour. Oh god, I ordered the risotto.. because there was nothing else that was vegetarian on that particular menu (their regular menu had a potato enoch or something). It was terrible, tasted like a bad version of Kraft Dinner, but harder. Seriously, it was disgusting. The dessert was probably the better part of my meal, I had an apple strudel.

Service was very nice, my waiter was very attentitive. And the ambiance was nice, but the music was a little odd. Didn't really suit. I heard the place is good for people who actually eat meat, such as their crab cakes or pork chop. But if you're a veggie, don't go, not worth your money.