Dining Diva

Prima Taste offers Roti Canai? The handful of times I've been they didn't have it on the menu, only the Roti Prata. Cool, I'll have to go and try it there Will have to arrange an outing there soon!

I just gave up a 9pm spot Sun, Feb 3rd at C Restaurant so if anyone would like it, you may want to call the restaurant soonish

I booked through Opentable.com at both Chambar and C Restaurant and wasn't asked for my CC #. I wouldn't have had any issue with providing one if asked though.... especially since I've heard, as Chef Rotherham stated above, that the no-show rate is unbelievably bad.

[Moderator note: The original Dine Out Vancouver - The Topic topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Dine Out Vancouver - The Topic (2002-2007)] Is the new list of restaurants that are participating in Dine out Vancouver 2008 out yet? Any way to see any menus??? I'm DYING to see them!!

that's great to know lauraf... i'm in the planning stages now and every little bit of advice from you guys is greatly needed! i need to get clarification of budget from my boss and at that point will know if we're going to use servers but i suspect that we're not... i think it's going to be a buffet-style affair and i think we're estimating about $10-$12 per head with about 50 people.... is that about right? should i be asking him for more $?

thanks for the heads up dumpling girl about the savory coast dine out menu. i booked a reso for fri night because of what i'd read too in an earlier thread and also when i checked the tourismvancouver website it confirmed what i'd read so i'm disappointed to hear that it's not really the entire menu that is being offered... although i guess i shouldn't be too surprised.. lobster IS a little pricey at this time of year

wow! thanks for the great suggestions! i'll check into these as quickly as possible as i'm sure i should book a caterer well before our event. i think it'll be a buffet event but servers are a great idea (depends on how much the boss is willing to shell out and exactly how 'high end' an event he wants to make this.) thanks again -i

Hi guys, I thought this would be the best place to ask if anyone knows of a caterer that is good and reasonably priced (or is that too much to ask? ) Event is a luncheon for about 50 -ish people and the location would be in a downtown office. Not sure what I should be looking for so if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

i was there about a week ago and they were still pretty busy so they're open......

when i made my reservation at west last week i'm pretty sure he said they're only doing the dine out until feb 2nd... also heard that as of today their earliest reservations available are for 10pm....

I went to Chambar a few weekends ago for a friend's birthday dinner and while I had been there before, my two friends hadn't. They were very impressed with the service and food and Quentin of course was very nice to us (i mentioned that it had been a rough week and he gave me a shot of tequila lol). We had 2 orders of mussels (the first one was so good we had to order another!), the filet mignon and the maple seared scallops. heaven

have to agree with what was said above about new town bakery. they have the most amazing steamed buns, with the 'dai bao' and the spicy pork bun being my favorites from there. i took pao pao and yummy there a little while ago and they were suitably impressed heh. a great place for chinese bakery items is st. germaine bakery, i think they have a few locations but the one i go to is in metrotown. very good butter buns and also their egg tarts are very creamy with a buttery crust. the best portuguese egg tart i've had was at first avenue bakery... they're so popular that usually u have to order them ahead of time. fresh out of the oven they're like a little taste of heaven.

you have a great looking list there but thought i'd bring up an obvious suggestion to add: chambar at 562 Beatty St,(604) 879-7119 they have wonderful seafood and the atmosphere is also fantastic. there are a few threads devoted to this restaurant so you may want to check them out. also would add another gelato place you may want to add during your travels called dolce amore on commercial drive. if you're out that way i'd recommend trying the reese's gelato...velvety chocolatey peanuty goodness! enjoy your trip to vancouver!

i have recently gotten back from only a couple of weeks in europe and i desperately missed the vancouver food scene during that short amount of time! i think i ate only asian (dim sum, sushi and some good chinese home cookin a.k.a. "mom food") and seafood for the two weeks since i've been back... don't get me wrong, europe for the most part was great but it just wasn't as varied and as fresh as home. damn, i love the food here!

my favorite f&c place by far is C lovers in coquitlam. they've been fairly consistant and their batter is light and crispy and not too greasy.

oooooh! cheezies! that's a good one. i've been known to head down to the store about 5 minutes before they closed for those things. other cravings include a lot of stuff that's already been posted and a few new ones... salted cashews, smoked almonds, chips (flavoured and plain) philidelphia cream cheese dip (either the dill or the herbs/spice) old cheddar on arrowroot cookies, lots and lots of chocolate and occasionally singaporean spicy pork jerky...... them's good eatin'

hmm.. to be honest i wasn't that impressed with C restaurant, we went there for mother's day brunch and the food was okay (just okay) and the service was disappointing. i'd been before for dinner and when i went that time it was fabulous so maybe i'll just go for dinner not brunch next time. also wasn't too terribly impresssed when i went to blue water too. food and service both were mediocre. did i catch them on an off night? i loved the fish house tho. thought everything was very fresh and flavourful. anyone been to kettle of fish lately? i haven't been in a while and am just wondering if it's still good.

that IS really good... we used to do that as kids, picking the apples from our yard so they were extremely fresh... but we added one variation. we added chili flakes to the soy sauce. heaven

hmm i've eaten some pretty adventurous food at home too.. just part of growing up chinese that kind of stuff would include, snake, cow's tongue, duck tongue, intestines and other various organs.... needless to say, they're not my favorite and i don't partake of those as an adult. while travelling in singapore and malaysia i had some pretty interesting food. in malaysia i went to a place in kajang (sp?) that served satay skewers of different meats. not an adventure in itself but the adventure in it for me was the fact that you tell them the kind of meat you want, chicken, beef, etc, and they just bring u a plate of them without asking for the quantity you want. you eat what you can and they count the skewers of what you ate and then serve the rest to other people (!!!!) yuk. in singapore i went with a friend to a little hawker stand and tried the frog in a chili kind of sauce that was cooked in a clay pot (very good flavour but i don't care much for frog, esp since they used the whole frog yuk again), we had the stringray barbequed in a sambal/chili kind of paste, which was delicious... and also we had venison which was stirfried ... was pretty good but overall preferred the stingray.

GREAT thread! brings back a lot of childhood memories as well as making me crave all the new additions to the chocolate bar lineup my parents owned a grocery store right up until i was out of my teens so i'm VERY familiar with a lot of the candies and bars that were mentioned on here (unfortunately lol). personal favs as a kid were those little cocolates that were shaped like a football (with the gold foil and silver lines depicting said football), marshmallow strawberries and bananas, charleston chews (the chocolate ones), nibs when they were fresh out of the box and super chewy, laura secord mint choclate bars and jolly rancher stix.... oh man, i really enjoyed those childhood years.....my dentist loved me some newer favs include the fusion bar...... so yummy! i love that mix of carmel, crispy bits and chocolate... and that chocoate and caramel covered prezel that's sold at starbucks. delicious!

oddly enough, pao pao and i were talking about going strawberry picking as soon as the berries are ready to be plundered. we passed a few fields out in richmond and that looks like a good place to start as any. the link to that thread is great daddy-a! thanks!

you can definately buy it from your local hon's in the refrigerated section. you add water to it to make it whatever consistency you like and voila! it's actually quite good and i know my mom used the hon's version.

i'm heading to london in the summer and my friend there has requested a few boxes of bits&bites. apparently they don't have anything like it there. i'll bring a few extra things as well but that'll be my starting point. as for the salmon jerky, i'm pretty sure there's a place at granville market (in the marketplace) that sells it... and from what i recall it was pretty darn tasty too!

check out simply thai or urban thai bistro in yaletown. i'm pretty sure they're both open on sundays. given a choice, i prefer simply thai, i find it a bit more authentic

i went to a friend's bday party where he and a friend roasted a whole pig. very interesting experience but to be honest i didn't think it was that great. the pork was tender but had a strong taste and i love it when the skin is really crispy but this was a bit chewy ... just too used to the chinatown roasted pork i guess where the skin is always super crispy and the meat is tender and flavourful the highlight of the evening tho was when one of my friend's neighbours took the roasted pig's head and snuck back into his house with it on a stick and scared the living crap out of his daughter and her "friend" that was over.