Bonsoirée

We came here with a Opentable coupon before it expired. I've never heard of it before but I was thoroughly impressed. It's a very small space and no name on the front so definitely hard to find. We were asked many times for any dietary restrictions as they only offer pre fixe. My wife couldn't eat any raw or undercooked food as she is pregnant. It was a bit odd when we sat down, there was no menu, no drink menu nothing. We realize it's BYOB, but they don't serve any drinks (soda, juice) other than water and coffee. So we asked the waiter what's on the menu so he gave us a rundown. The waiter didn't mention the duck 3 ways but I saw it on the website so we ordered that too. Each dish was tasty and beautiful to look at. For my wife, they replaced the first item - a yellowtail sashimi dish for a celery soup (yum!) and a rabbit dish for artichoke hearts (which I didn't think was a good substitute), and a tobacco ice cream for espresso ice cream. My favorite was the duck 3 ways and the wagyu beef which actually tasted like real wagyu because of how it just melted in your mouth. The desserts had inventive unique flavors that was still tasty. For example, there was tobacco flavored ice cream, which seemed to go well with the sweet beet sauce. Highly recommend as a place to try. You'll be surprised.

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Fisherman's Terrace Seafood Restaurant (Richmond, Canada)

So after the successful and tasty meal recommended by our concierge we decided to eat at the Fisherman's Terrace in the Parker Mall.  The decor is very nice which reminded me of the places we ate at in Hong Kong.   Most dim sum places have large spaces and they are usually loud.  Luckily we came here on a weekday to avoid the crowds and noise.  This place doesn't push carts, instead you order off the menu and they bring it out to you.  So everything is cooked to order making it fresh and hot when you eat the dishes.  We ordered:


Sticky Rice with dried scallops - This was one of my top dishes here.  The rice was cooked perfect and the flavors from the scallops was in every bite.  


Pork Dumpling (shu mai) - These were really good.  As you bite into the pork, it's not hard but very tender and the flavors were great.


Chicken Feet -  The dish was good but I've had better elsewhere.


Pan Fried Fish Paste - I thought this dish was a bit bland and oily.  


Green Onion and Dried Scallop Crepes -  I like this dish a lot.  Most places don't evenly distribute the meat and veggies on the crepes evenly but they did a good job here.  I liked how the crepe itself was not too thick.


Spareribs infused with Pumpkin Flavor with black beans - This was my other top dish.  The ribs was so tender and full of flavor.  At first I thought the pumpkin flavor wasn't going to be tasted but they were in each spareribs I ate.  We ate everything and the sauce also.


Steam Duck Tongue with Taro - Okay so I've never tried this before but I wanted to try something I've never seen before at least in the Dim Sum in the States so we ordered it.  The tongue was very gamy and there is a small piece of cartilidge in each tongue sort of like Chicken Feet.  I think if it was flavored more maybe I would have like it more but at least I can say I've tried Duck Tongue.


Chilled Mango Puree with Tapioca - I loved this dessert!  You can taste the fresh mango and it was a nice dessert to finish off after all that dim sum we chowed down.


I thought the food was really good.  There was 1-2 dishes that was a miss.  The service was good and maybe it was because we came here during the weekday.  I can't imagine what it would be like on a Saturday or Sunday.  I would definitely recommend this place to others.  

Dried Scallop & Green Onion Sticky Rice

Pork Dumpling and Chicken Feet

Pan Fried Fish Paste

Dried Scallop and Green Onion Crepes

Spareribs infused with Black Bean and Pumpkin Flavors

Duck Tongue with Taro

Chilled Mango Tapioca Puree

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Alleluia Cafe (Richmond, Canada)

We decided on a short trip to Vancouver for 1.5 days to feast on the popular Chinese cuisine and do some shopping.  We stayed at the River Rock casino hotel in Richmond.  We did not know where to eat so we decided to ask the concierge for good/cheap eats and cheap shopping.  We ended up going to Parker place which was 100% Chinese and we went to try Alleluia Cafe (Cantonese style) for dinner that night.  I ordered preserved shrimp paste with fried tofu, pork and Chinese broccoli.  This is very typical Cantonese dish where most non Asian would probably not dare try this due to it's heavy aroma.  My grand parents made this for me when I was younger and it brought back some great memories.  My wife ordered some tonkatsu dish, chicken wings, and curry beef with some veggies on the side.  This meal costs us under 8 bucks that includes a soup, drink, and the meal itself.  You don't come these places for service.  You come here for great cheap authentic Cantonese style food under 8 bucks!  I would say if you come to Richmond and you want some good eats stop by Alleluia Cafe.  One more thing, they don't take credit card so bring CASH!

preserved shrimp paste with fried tofu

Tonkatsu Dinner

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Matts In The Market (Pike Place Market)

We only heard about this place from the waiter who said we should go there for amazing food at Mistral Kitchen which I highly recommend.  I was a bit disappointed at this place.  First off, they charge for bread.  Really ?  This is the first time I've been charged for bread at any restaurant.  For appetizer we ordered the calamari and that was disappointing.  It was super chewy and wasn't good.  The bread we paid for was mediocre.  The wait staff didn't take any time to explain the dishes after they dropped them off.  They didn't even come back to check up on us.  The food here was okay.  The salmon was okay.  We liked the chicken the most but I didn't think it was worth 35 bucks.  People hype this place way too much and the fact is we tried 3 restaurants at pike place that people raved about and each time they have been a miss.  I wouldn't waste my time at this place.  I would say go to Mistral Kitchen where the food is way better and more attention to detail to the flavors.

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Mistral Kitchen

We were on vacation in Seattle for about 1 week and wanted to try a fine dining restaurant.  We took a chance by just looking on open table to see what are the top restaurants with the most positive reviews.  Mistral Kitchen was one of them.  I saw mixed reviews and was a bit hesitant in trying this place.  Sometimes the bad reviews don't turn out that bad.  We had a long day hiking in Discovery park and came back to our hotel.  Did a little bit of shopping to kill some time before we walked over to Mistral Kitchen.  We came here with our 2 cousins and wanted them to try this restaurant with us.


The decor was very modern and had a trendy feel without feeling pretentious.  They have a lounge area in the back if you wanted to just have a more intimate setting and they are also known for their drinks.  Mistral serves new American cuisine and when we were there, they had a special menu for that month which had Mediterranean cuisines.


For appetizers we ordered the Big Eye Tuna Crudo and that was really good.  The sauce on the side wasn't too strong where you were not able to taste the freshness of the Tuna.  We all really liked this dish a lot.  We also ordered the stuffed zucchini served cold.  My wife really liked this dish a lot because the zucchini itself still maintained it's texture without being too mushy after being cooked and made cold.  We also ordered the clams as an appetizer.  That dish was amazing.  The clams were really BIG and fresh and the broth that it was cooked in was some great flavors..  We had to ask for extra bread to soak up this dish.

For our entrees we had the Roasted Mad Hatcher Farms Half Chicken and the halibut.  In my entire life, this is the best chicken I've had in my entire life.  The chicken was cooked to perfection while maintaining all of it's amazing flavor in every bite.  The chicken is souveed for 1 day and then once that is done, they cook the chicken in a tandoori oven giving that crispy skin on the outside and cooking the meat to perfection.  Everyone tried the chicken and agreed.  This dish really defined fine dining terms for my 2 cousins.  The halibut was also really good.  It was fresh and the fish cooked perfect.  The meat itself slides off like butter as you cut into it.  Because our appetizers and entrees were so good we also had high expectations for their desert.  The desert was okay =/    Service was really good.  The waiter was very attentive and took the time to explain every dish once it came out even after explaining it to us when we ordered.  There was nothing left on each of our plates at the end of the night not even a drop of sauce.  I would highly recommend this restaurant to locals and visitors.  I don't know if Seattle will ever get the Michelin ratings but if they do, I would hope Mistral Kitchen get 1-2 stars.

Tuna Crudo

Clams

Stuffed Zucchini

Halibut

Mad Hatcher Farms Half Chicken

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union sushi

A new sushi restaurant in the river north area and not worth going to.  The food was not good.  All of the ikayzka tasted the same mainly from the same sauce used to grill everything.  Certain dishes were extrememly salty and I The sushi rolls didn't really work out.  Our final bill was 200 bucks for 4 people and we were not satisfied with the food here.  You could spend a lot less if you go to sunda or some other place nearby.  I don't even want to waste my time typing this blog up for these guys.

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