Trying Recommendations: Lin's Chinese Cuisine, Chatime

The new first year dorm at UBC, called Orchard Commons, has such good food in comparison to my first year dorm D: seriously not fair.

This was a Mexican rice bowl, which was soooo good. I loved tbe fresh avocado and the pico de gallo. Simple and delicious.

Despite not being a total fan of Chinese food, I still had a few dumpling places left on my list, like Lin's Chinese Cuisine. I thought this place wasn't half bad. Their menu is gigantic, and everything my family and I ordered was rich in flavor and unique. I probably have to come back again to try even more things.

Cheshire Cheese Inn and Kingyo!!!

Brunch day with my squad! :) They had such good food, oh yes. I just got some eggs Benedict, but I also took pictures of other stuff. Pretty basic brunch menu, and the quality is there.

I loved Kingyo, it was so good. Everything kit surprised me, and was so flavorful. Their vegetarian options are also really good.

This looked really simple, but I just had to have some. So many people were getting it that I got tempted. The seasoning is sweet soy sauce, and most likely mirin? Super delicious.

My pizza buddy here got the Dan Dan noodles.

This is tomato kimchi!! I love kimchi, and they made it even better by adding seaweed sauce and tomatoes. Their kimchi is not exactly like any other kimchi I've had. Definitely worth a try, especially if you love kimchi like me.

Ironically, I recommended the chicken karaage to Mr. Pizza Dude, even though I'm vegetarian haha. I think I've had it once in my life, and I can't say that it wasn't good. My brother also loves it. They served it with imported salt (fr Utah?) And pepper.

This salad was also really yummy, aw yes. I know it doesn't look like much, and it isn't....which is good because I can order other stuff :) the avocado definitely made everything really good.

They were having an anniversary, so this mango cocktail was on anniversary menu, where featured items are cheaper than usual. I shared this with Pizza Guy. The mango was smooth and,s and the calpis was a delicious aftertaste.

This is him, photo bombing, as usual.

Moderne Burger, La Taqueria, Lennox Pub

Found the time to catch up with friends and enjoy some good eats :)

I got to revisit La Taqueria :D they have authentic tacos, they're vegan friendly, and the staff and environment I quite cheerful. They're happy to answer any questions :)

Word of advice, take a lot of napkins because this stuff is super messy. Also, don't overload your tacos with the extra stuff; it takes away from the foundation (imo), and everything starts falling out.

Sankiupo put a lot of extra stuff, lol

Pizza guy and I tried Moderne Burger for the first time. The place is super retro and neat. I liked the veggie burger here. In comparison to others, it's definitely one of the better veggie patties I've tried, but still doesn't beat Flipside or Kaboom Box. The fries are really good here, nice and crispy! Yas

I also went to Lennox pub to eat and catch up with friends. It's quite pricey here; food and drinks add up pretty quickly. Surprisingly, I found some vegetarian options on the menu, and they weren't half bad. Just too pricey for the quality.

These are called cigars, which are filled with beans and Chipotle dip. It was quite good, nothing too amazing but nothing was horrible either.

This was classic comfort food for me, oh yeeesss; baked potato skins. They still leave a chunk of potato, which tasted really good with everything else.

Peaceful Restaurant in Downtown Vancouver, The Naam

Just for funzo, my family went to the Peaceful Restaurant downtown, even though we already tried the one of Broadway. Honestly, there's no too much of a difference in my opinion. I did get to try the pan-fried version of the vegetable dumplings, which I honestly prefer over the steamed version. I just like fried stuff <3

These are just some simple stir fried vegetables and noodles.

The classic xiao long bao, which I heard was pretty decent here.

Chinese chive pancakes, which I like because they're pan-fried <3

Sankiupo ordered a pork noodle soup dish, which he wish he didn't get. He really likes fried pork, especially the Taiwanese pork, but for some reason this just didn't do it for him. I think it was a little too soggy and a bit under-cooked in some areas? Kinda sad :/

Sankiupo is literally the opposite of me; raw vegetables, especially squashes will make his throat itchy, and really bitter vegetables like alfalfa sprouts and raw beansprouts will make him gag. Also, he's dangerously allergic to papaya and many nuts and seeds. Basically, he's consumes well-cooked veggies and lots of meat, and yet I brought him to a vegetarian restaurant :D 

The Naam is honestly one of my favorite places to go. It's just kind of a wait, and the place is really small. In my opinion, I think the wait is worth it.
The type of food they serve here is like, guilty pleasures but less guilt. Things are saucy, can be fried, and usually doused in melted cheese (which you can get vegan). This place just makes me happy.

This is Sankiupo's tomato and cheese sandwich, which you can't really see well, ahah. The vegetables covered up the bread.

I got an enchilada, which was douuuuuuuuused in cheese. I love it.

Moire cheeeeese. This is like the fries that almost became poutine, but isn't. The gravy is miso gravy, and it comes with ketchup and thinly sliced carrots and beets for a fresh taste that contrasts the fatty goodness of the fries. Oh yeeesss.

Mr. Pickle got the special, which was some kind of egg and potato omelet served with beet soup. So delicious.

I ordered a chai latte, but then got my order wrong...but I kept the regular latte and the chai anyways :P I kind of feel bad when I call them out on their mistake, but Sankiupo and Mr. Pickle urged me to tell them, since it was the right thing to do even though they're super busy. Is it really the right thing, I don't know. I just wanted a chai latte.

This is the regular latte with a questionable topping...looks like a kidney according to Mr. Pickle, lmao.

Hime Sushi, Midam

To be honest, I didn't expect much when I came to Hime Sushi, but the quality of food was better than I expected. The flavors were rich, the food was filling, and the environment was pretty cozy.

I ordered the Kimchi Yakiudon, which was really flavorful. There's not a lot of places where I can find Kimchi Yakiudon, so I was delighted and satisfied. The flavors are super rich, and it was slightly creamy. 

My family also ordered salmon rolls to share, though I didn't have any.

Some shrimp and vegetable tempura.

I believe this was one of their featured specials at the time, which my dad enjoyed. It was some sort of hot rice bowl.

This is tempura udon.

At Midam, Sankiupo got a featured special bento box, which came with purple rice upon request :) the meat was really good, according to him.

This was soooo yummy; this was basically pasta, but with ddukbokki instead. This is one of the best ideas ever, and it has inspired me to make my own.

We also ordered a bunch of Japchae. Nothing too strikingly unique about this, but it tastes great.

As usual, we ordered a hot tofu soup (soodubu). I love Korean tofu soups; their distinct, and they warm you up.

Peaceful Restaurant, Suika, Sura, and Chicco

Finally, I went to Peaceful Restaurant. Their dumplings are apparently really good, so this was on my list for a long time. Unfortunately, we ordered all of our dumplings steamed because it took faster to cook, and we were on a time crunch. They do have the option of frying the dumplings, which I really want to try next time.

This was the zha jiang mien, which I didn't eat except for the cucumbers because Sankiupo doesn't like them. Can't really compare it to other places, sorrryyy.

Ah the xiao long bao. According to my family, they thought it was pretty okay. This place actually served spoons with them :D Usually other places already have the utensils laid out, so not many people understand the correct way of eating xiao long bao. What you do is scoop the bao, poke a hole, drink the soup, and consume the rest.

They ran out of green vegetarian dough, so they inserted a vegetarian bun with my dumplings.

My family really over-ordered; this was some beef patty covered in dough (I think it's just rice flour and water, it wasn't porous like bread) and sesame seeds. I had to help my family finish the food, so I only ate the outside, which was covered in a bit of the sauce. The sauce tasted like Mexican fajitas...I was really confused for a second, lol.

My phone committed suicide, so I couldn't take pictures when we ate at Suika :( I decided to screenshot my dad's photos of our food instead.
Suika is one of those places where it's pricier, but the quality is worth it. I think below is just some fish that they ordered...

...and here are the avocado rolls :D They're covered in seaweed sauce. The ingredients were fresh, and the avocados weren't too soft. This was really yummy.

Another fish dish...I don't know what my family ordered lol.

Oh yes, for Fatshrewm's birthday (at least I think that was the reason for this dinner), we went to eat at Sura! The Korean food here is really good, one of the best that I've had. Everything was fresh and flavorful, and well-balanced.

For dessert, we went to Chicco, which was a Japanese parfait place, but they serve other cute Japanese desserts.

Here is the Sakura parfait, which was so gorgeous. Some of the ingredients they include were a macaron, strawberries, strawberry and vanilla ice cream, cantaloupe, and cereal. I definitely can't eat this by myself, I recommend sharing with someone.