Vancouver Getaway: Friday

Friday was a slightly cooler day in Vancouver (maybe 15 C), but still absolutely beautiful, with no wind.

La Pentola in our hotel won best new restaurant in Vancouver years ago, but I am thinking it has gone downhill.  We went for breakfast on Friday, and thought it was terrible (although we've read good reviews about the lunch/ dinner).

The omelette was, in my opinion, the worst kind of omelette there is.  It was puffy eggs (microwaved?  pre-cooked?) wrapped around the filling, instead of the filling being added to the eggs during the cooking process.  I don't think there was any cheese in it; I couldn't detect it.  The veggies/ meat all just fell out, so it was next to impossible to get a bite of it all together.  The Italian sausage was tiny, diced up pieces of cured sausage, like you'd cut up for a charcuterie board or to have with cheese and crackers.  It tasted weird warmed up and in an omelette; I was expecting meat that started out raw, and was cooked for the dish. The tough stems of the shiitake mushrooms were left on and quite difficult to chew through, so I just left them.  The potatoes were unseasoned and completely flavourless.  It was bad.  And we aren't overly picky people.  Christopher had the oatmeal, and called it gruel.  It too lacked flavour, and toppings.  Even a sprinkle of brown sugar would have gone a long way.  I didn't think it was possible to screw up breakfast this bad, but it was awful.  Also, the service wasn't good, which made it an even worse experience.

The lunch and dinner menu at La Pentola sounded really good, but we were too scared to try.

After breakfast we walked, and walked, and walked.

We got to Stanley Park, which is absolutely gorgeous!  I had been once as a kid, but I didn't remember it at all (I think we only drove around it), and Christopher had never been, so we were really looking forward to exploring.

We had a late lunch at MeeT, which is an excellent vegan restaurant.

The burger special was made to taste exactly like beef, and it totally did!  We would have never guessed that it was vegan, and that it also contained more protein than a beef burger of the same size!

On the side we had topped fries, which were amazing.

We also shared the mac and cheese, and it was pure perfection - the cheesiest, creamiest, most delicious bowl.  We ate every last bite of everything.

After lunch we popped into The Distillery to hang out and rest our feet a bit more, and then we were on the move again, wandering all over the place.

For a late dinner we headed to Sura, a Korean restaurant.

 

 

This was a late meal, and to top it off we hopped around to a couple of different places for private-room karaoke, which was so fun!  We sang songs we wouldn't normally sing, and had a great time picking random songs, and then often cancelling them halfway through when we realized we totally didn't know them as well as we thought we did - haha!

Have you been in Stanley Park?  When was the last time you were really disappointed with a restaurant dining experience?  How is your week going?  Any plans for the weekend?

Vancouver Getaway: Thursday

On Thursday we took a direct flight to Vancouver for a little getaway.  

We were at our hotel by 8:20 a.m., which was awesome!  We were staying at the trendy Opus Hotel in Yaletown, and they held on to our bags and then texted us two hours later when the room was ready.

In the meantime, we went for breakfast.  Being pretty hungry, we went to the first place we came across which was Elbow Room.  It wasn't until we sat down that we realized where we were; it's one of those places known for their curt, sarcastic service.

When reading reviews months ago, we had come across this place, and specifically mentioned that we did not want to eat there.  We like to have kind, thoughtful interactions, and aren't really keen on rude banter (even if it is a gimmick).  Anyway, we stayed and were very polite to the server, who seemed a little taken off guard - haha!  I guess the customers usually play along.  He asked instantly where we were from, as he knew we must not be locals, and was kind and polite to us the entire time.

The servers will pour the first cup of coffee, but after that it's a serve-yourself policy.  I really enjoyed this, as it seems that at most places we are always waiting forever to have our coffees refilled.

After eating we grabbed a turmeric shot, and some green juice to share, and then wandered and explored.

Lunch was at The Ramenman:

The appetizer poke bowl was great, as was the ramen.

A turmeric latte (no espresso) from Blenz, and then more walking:

It was a beautiful day, and it seemed to last forever.  We walked so much, had a lot of laughs, sat on a few patios, and spent some time in our hotel coffee shop/lounge too.  In the evening we hit up Simply Thai for dinner, where we had excellent service and delicious food.

The cho muang dumplings were unreal good!

We shared those, some larb gai, and a curry with coconut rice:

When we got back to the hotel we saw that there was some candy left for us with the turn-down service, which we thought was a unique touch.

Have you ever been to Vancouver?  Did you dine anywhere memorable?  Would you visit a restaurant where part of the theme was for the waiters to be snarky/rude?  (I know Vegas has a restaurant like this, and it's the last place we'd ever choose to go; it's just not our thing.)

Vancouver Getaway

On Friday morning we were up around 3:30 a.m. to head to the airport for a little, extended weekend getaway.  We flew to Calgary first, sleeping for the hour flight.  We had a very short layover in Calgary, and we shared a breakfast bagel while we waited to board our flight to Vancouver.

I had a pumpkin spice flavoured coffee, mmmmm!

We were in Vancouver by about 10:30 a.m..  After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we headed straight to my favourite coffee shop, Cafe Artigiano. 

By the time we were done our coffees, we were hunnngry! 

The first thing we snacked on was a fish burrito.  We normally won't eat at chain restaurants when away from home, however we no longer have Taco del Mar at home, and Christopher had to show me the fish burrito that he loved, that inspired our fish burrito recipe.

We shared a small fish burrito, just for a taste, but our homemade ones are better.  We ate more delicious things on this first day - posts to come!

The hotel we stayed in was L'Hermitage, downtown.  On Trip Advisor it was voted #1 hotel in Canada for the past two years, and #25 in the world!  It was pretty nice, but the best part was the excellent service, and the fact that when we paid for the room it was HALF as much as what we had initially booked for - nice!  We payed just over $400 for 3 nights.  Not bad!

Have you been to Vancouver?  How was your weekend?