thoughtbox

Yeah, Hanako, is my fav. The chef is Korean, trained in Japan. Atleast that is what I understood. His Chirashidon is unmatched in the lower mainland. And in my opinion, it is the Chirashidon that should be the signature dish, for any real sushi restaurant, but everywhere I go, it is disappointing, except for Hanako. The Salads at Hanako are also excellent, and unmatched. I prefer Hanako, to Tojo's and Toshi's, but it is in Surrey, so I don't usually end up making it out there. Hanako, aslo serves a "burnt" toro sushi, where he singes the top layer with a blow torch, it is delicious. If this place was in Vancouver it would have a constant line.

I am stuck. As a former "industry" person, I feel obliged to be a tipper. You know for those starving students and the single moms who can't make enough on the wage to feed her kids. But please. This is rarely the case...Too many people are becoming career waiters at nothing restaurants, offering no additional value for their experience. A Bartender in a night club can pull in $800 tax free in a single night, and it isn't becuase of his fantastic wine knowledge or that special experience he/she gives someone. Then I start to hear management threatening to dip into the tip pool to cover breakage costs....I am speechless. Where should it stop, perhaps a portion of the tips should go towards the lease???? Am I the only person who thinks this is ludicrous. Using tips to cover any cost should be purely illegal. Customers are simply not aware, what is going on with that money. Management at these restuarants make crappy money, becuase the restaurant pays them shit, because they can subsidize the cost of paying a manager a proper wage with tips earned by the service staff. This to me, is total bull shit. To hear it is happening at "CFD" restaurants, makes my mouth drop. To hear it happens everywhere is outrageous. Why am I only finding out about this now? If it is so moral, then why doesn't the average customer know about it? My tips, going into the revenue stream, but left untaxed, my mind is spinning. The 22yr old that was the manager I talked to made over %50 of her wage from tips. This is ridiculous on far too many levels. These restaurants are taking advantage of the young staff, it is that simple. I am this close to becoming a non-tipper. How will I survive in this food world if I don't tip? I'll be black listed. But how do I make my protest visible, without looking like a cheap prick. My thoughts are just sooooo mixed..I feel sad about this state of affairs.

So I'm in a CFD the other day, and start to talking with one of the managers. And apparently a major portion of the managers earnings is "tips". These tips are substracted out of the "tip pool", that back in my day was used for the dishwashers, bussers, and cooks. These tips are subtracted by the managers for the managers. Does anybody have any information here, is it just me, or does this sound illegal, or is it just plain immoral? Is this a common pratice at any real restaurants?

Just at a Filet Mignon at HSG on Saturday. The honest truth is the Hanger Steak just ain't my thing, but the Filet Mignon was magnificently delicious.

Whoa...this thread is dead. Do we have any new places to try?

Thanks. This is some serious burger research. :-) Is this first hand information that you have? From what I can tell, it is the Ecoli bacteria that the inspectors are attempting to protect the restaurants and consumers from, and apparently this bacteria will die at 155F. (this is just some online numbers I have found). So it makes sense the inspectors would request the restaurants to comply to a 160F temperature, but it is definetly not a "real rule". Something to protect the restaurants liability, because they do not want to incur the additional cost of obtaining a good quality product, or perhaps their clientele does not want to pay. In addition to this 160F is not always considered well done. I have seen some sites that state 160F is medium, so I suspect some pink is allowable. But it is usually the "pink" that the restaurants refuse to serve. I need to call a "food inspector", does anybody know how to contact one?

I couldn't agree more.

Very interesting indeed. I get various responses from restaurants when I request my burgers to be cooked to medium or medium rare. Most refuse to do it, stating some sort of food regulation. I remember when I used to work in the industry, I would site the same piece of information. However, I have been doing some on-line research, and I can not find any sort of regulation in existence. I figure if this is the burger club forum then perhaps somebody with some real expertise could comment? Anybody?

Gerald, you are absolutely correct. CC guys could read my post, and take it as a compliment. They are achieving exactly what they are attempting to achieve. Measured against thier goals, thier success is unmatched in the market place. I don't like thier goal, independant of the final product. Like I said, it just ain't my thing. The burger is just another piece of the pie, that is the Cactus Club, I don't like the piece, and I don't like the pie. But hey, I am sure tonnes of other people love it. :-)

I apologize ahead of time for the spelling/grammar I have to agree with you, sort of. You are correct, Cactus Club is not a franchise. But when I was typing out my distaste for everything that is Cactus Club, I wasn't so much pondering the meaning of "franchise" or "chain", but I was so much pondering, on how boring, and produced, and repeated thier collection of Restaurants is. The point remains the same, they are all governed by the same set of rules. The restaurants are copies of eachother, used to sell you something repeatable, and dependable, and sort-of good tasting. Brought to you by, a cute girl, with a fake smile, and a 22yr old manager, who for some reason needs to wear a tie? Oh by the way, did you know they have a correct way to put the coaster? So it says Catus Club, under your drink. Cause the other side, doesn't say Cactus Club. Am I the only one afraid here? ;-), jks. I'm must apologize, I'm kinda a little jaded, when a buddy of mine who was managing at a CC, was told by his "superiors" to have a "sit down" with one of the waitresses, cause all her pens................... "were not black, bics!"............. hum............ let me see, one pack of 12 bics, for the low low price of 1.99 at london drugs = 0.165833333333333333333333333333333333 dollars per pen. So if I go through 4 pens a week, my total pen cost for one year of employment at CC = 4*52*0.165833333333333333333333333333333333= $34.4933333333333333333333333333333333. Now that sounds like a real cactus club experience, to the 34th decimal point. Something tells me nobody is impressed. The fact that they measure something so insignificant to me, is total foolishness. 4 decimal places, that is 10,000ths. Ok, lets say there are 10 ingredients used per burger. If we were rounding to the 3rd decimal place, our maximum error would be 0.0005 dollars times 10 ingredients would = 0.005 dollars. Sor the Cactus Club would have to sell 200 burgers to make a single dollars difference. How many burgers does a Cactus Club sell in a month, 10000(I doubt anywhere near this, probably more like 2000), to make a difference of $50, or more like $10, and that is only MAXIMUM error, odds are it will be usually close to zero, and over a long period of time it will even out.. They are probably spending more on worring about it than it is worth. To me it is a shame, I want my food, a little different each time, I work with decimals all the time, when I go to eat the last thing I wanna think about, or even know, is that my burger was made to the 4th decimal. To me it makes the whole experience fake. its not cooking, its accounting. Its bad leather jackets and those terrible Ikea lamps that line the garbage bins in the alley behind my apartment. Its trying so hard to be something that it is not. Does the Cactus Club make money:Yeah Do tonnes of people love the Cactus Club :Sure, I can't imagine why, but sure. Does anybody else think the way I do: Probably not, I'll conceed that. :-0). Who am I kidding, nobody does. I don't think, anyway. (-: Would it be a good move for Cactus Club to shut thier doors right now? From a business stand point, no ofcourse not. From a humanity standpoint, yeah I think they should. What can I say, it just ain't my thing, and I really feel it is a detriment to the Vancouver dining experience. Again, I must agree, sort of. Had I not tried the burger. Yes that is true. But I have tried the Cactus Club, many times. You know the sensation, gotta go someplace to eat, don't really wanna spend that much money, just looking for some filler, and hopefully a hot waitress. Trust me I know. But now I'm beyond that, I don't fall for the "crappy food, vieled behind a cute waitress" gimick any more. Its like a cheap fake leather jacket, its black, it looks like leather, it keeps the rain off, kinda, but come on, it ain't leather. But anyways, I was simply suggesting that instead of rushing off to the Catcus Club to try thier new burger, I wanted to wait it out a bit, and see if the burger could pick up a few more accolades, before the club paid a visit. Nobody listened, but that is ok, it was only an opinion. :-) With that said, I had, since putting up my original message, gone and tried the burger out. That is when I learned about how they require one side of the coaster to show, not the other. But anyway, I tried to open my mind, I said to myself, "this burger is gonna be good. Give it an honest opportunity. Don't hate it before you try it." Well I had that burger, I even cut it down the middle(I like doing that). I ate it, and I thought, ok, chew....chew...chew, ok. I ate the whole thing. All the while not letting my mind form an opinion on this little critter. A few days later, ordered one to go, trying to avoid the repeat experience at a table. Get the burger, ate half, and gave up. I tried to like it, I really did, but once again, the Cactus Club was able to serve me the exact same thing that I have always.recieved.there.terrible.food.and.a.terrible.experience. I figure that is "always" to the 8th decimal(it works a little different for words, ;-D). Does the Cactus Club feed a hungry market need. Yes it does. And it does it well. But as far as the burger goes, it ain't even worth the brown paper bag(which by the way, are specifically designed to look like shopping bags) they are gonna be putting it in. It just ain't my thing. P.S. don't take anything I say too seriously, really I'm just a burger eater, who loves his burgers.

Hello, egullet-ers. I am an avid egullet-er from Vancouver, Canada. And I absolutely love food. Could anybody point out a few "must haves" while I'm in Singapore. I will be in Singapore for a few months(atleast). What interests me most are dishes that I would not be able to get at home, or authentic dishes. Any recommendations? Any good websites, with directions? etc. Thanks,

my 2 bits..... ;-). 1. Count me in on the next burger club meeting. I'm on a stomach stretching diet as we speak, and would love to pound back a burger, not to mention everybody elses leftovers. :-). My vote is for Burgers Etc. 2. I'm a tad skeptical over the whole Cactus Club thing. I don't wanna sound like a hater......BUT, I find it hard to believe anything tastey could come outta that franchise joint. I could go on for hours about how I loathe that CC joint(but this is not the time nor the place) Lets give it some time, if the burger is good, we will continue to hear about it, then we can decide to make a trip. But as of right now, I'd rather wolf down one of the burgers at my works cafeteria, and trust me, those things are terrible. 3. FUD....you make a good point about the grill cheese burger. I personally, and it may sound a little off the top, but I think burgers on bread is fantastic. Rare juicey meat, a thick chunk of semi-melted extra aged cheddar, and some delicous fresh bread. Count me in. Plus the bread can hold way more toppings, allowing for the ability to properly layer all your components. I see it right now, square patties. This is a great idea, anybody wanna open a burger shack with me?

I recently went to CRU for the first time, and never posted my experience. :-(. Sorry, just being lazy. I will start with this, my experience at CRU was amazing, and the food was delicious. If your going with one other person, I suggest getting the three course dinners, its only like $30. In my case, I ordered 6 different dishes, and requested that they come out one at a time. I love eating like this. They were also willing to split the glasses of wine, which allowed me to make additional wine pairings as we ate. Yummy yummy yummy. The restaurant itself, is sexy, smallish, comfortable, I really really liked everything about it. Here is what I had(in order). -Course 1. Ceasar Salad. This ain't the Ceasar Salad that you continually regret ordering at some bad pub, cause you just dont want the fries. Deliciously greasy croutons. Served in such a way that you have to cut the lettuce to divide it up, but it really makes it fresh and delicious. -Course 2. Carpaccio. With Dried bread cracker. Delicious. Fat chunks of delicious parmesan cheese. I paired course 1 and 2 with a lighter white. I requested that we split the glass of wine, the waitress brought two glasses and split up the wine. I don't like too much wine with my food. Plus this is a great way to share an evening with a date. My date was loving it. -Course 3. Sorbet. Pear and Strawberry. I loved the pear, my date was diggin the strawberry. I like sorbet before main courses. It really helps freshen up the palette. Just so refreshing, and it really throws in an exciting twist. -Course 4. Lamb, medium rare to rare. Melt in your mouth delicious. Served with a sort of filo pastry. I had to order extra bread $4, to slop up all the sauce. Just could not let it go to waste. -Course 5. Tenderloin. medium rare to rare. Soooo good. I paid the extra and got the fried foie gras. It too was sooooo good. Soooooooooooooooo good. The waitress paired course 4 and 5 with a fuller red. Did the same thing, one glass split into two smaller ones. A great way to allow you to pair more wines. -Course 6. Creme brulee. Need I say more. It was Creme brulee. Really sweet top with a soft delicate under. Pretty good, nothing to write home about. Total.... $120. $140 with tip. One of my fav restaurants for sure. The restaraunt itself is small, simple and elegant. It was busy but not loud, it was just fantastic. Allowed for a very good experience. I have also heard the macoroni is to die for, and the short ribs too. I discussed these options with the waitress, and she convinced me I'm just gonna have to come back to try those ones out.

Glad to see everybody had a great time. I've got to admit, I've never been in there when it was so busy, and I've never had such good service. Our waitress kicked. This place even suprised me. The pop, was well carbinated, and the poutine was hot. And Sylvain, I have to admit is one of my favorite entertainers in Vancouver. Ladies, I suggest a trip down to wreck beach next summer, where Sylvain has been know to play in the buff. Got to love this guy, doesn't take requests. Plays what he wants. Loved it. My double muskox, cooked medium rare, came out more like rare. And it was over the top delicious. Keep it up Normand. I eat one of these burgers and I feel the lean wild natural protein pump through my blood. I talked to Normand about how I recommended his joint for the burger club, and my triple cheese order came out looking like quintuple cheese. Man oh man, need I say more. Then came the fixin's. I consider myself a bit of a conservative stuffer. No greens. Just thinking of those rare muskox juices, swirling around with the tobasco. Throw in that nicely toasted bun, and a meaty punch that I have not experienced in a farmed beef burger in my entire life. I'm sold. Hungry right now just thinking about it. The hot peppers, the corn relish(I'd love to try that Big Al's stuff), the red onions(although I would prefer a thicker cut). Thats it. I think I know where I'm headed after work today. ;-) Once I polished my burger and poutine, and that ice age meat soaked into my bones, I began scouraging around like an ancient cave man, polishing the remainders off other peoples plates. ;-). Sorry, I couldn't help it.

The bayside lounge(denman and davie) has Nacho's that can feed 4 easily, order with the Beef, extra Jalapeno's, and chow down(run you around $18). Kitchen last call is at 12:45 even on Mondays. Plus the atmosphere is pretty kick'n for after work, a little chill, with a great old school layout.