Thursday Things

1)  I've spent about about six hours in my evenings this week talking to people from Microsoft (three different people over two days) to deal with really annoying Windows 10 problems.  Finally my computer seems to be working as it should.  In addition to these six hours, I also spent a few hours dealing with this outside of the time that I spent talking with someone.  It has been a frustrating week.

2)  We went out for a late Korean dinner on the weekend after spending time with my mom.

3)  Just over a week ago we met up with some pals for wing night:

 
It was nice to catch up with some friends that we hadn't seen in a while.

4)  Christopher's parents had us over for dinner the other night.  His dad made a rotisserie chicken on the BBQ:

We also had corn, and tomato salad.

And for dessert he served up homemade strawberry ice cream, and homemade watermelon sorbet!  My father-in-law has so many hobbies, and is always trying something new.

It was such a summery dinner, and everything was scrumptious!

5)  Now that it is so nice out we've been BBQing a lot.  We've done salmon and veggies:

Chicken with veggies, and a homemade BBQ sauce:

Carrots and pork chops:

And hamburgers with Greek pasta salad:

We also had some of the pasta salad another day with meatballs and chimichurri sauce:

6)  It's a long weekend this coming weekend, and we are looking forward to having dinner guests, and spending a lot of time outside.

7)  We don't usually re-watch TV shows, but we've been re-watching The Office, and I cannot get over how incredible the writing is for that show; funniest sitcom of all time!

Do you have any weekend plans?  

Are there any shows you've re-watched?

Vancouver Getaway: Saturday/ Sunday

Last Saturday (Cinco de Mayo), we ate breakfast at The Distillery.  The food was just okay, and the service was terrible, so that was a disappointment.  The atmosphere was good though; it's a really classy looking pace, that gave us a New Orleans feel.

No one ever came around to check on how we liked our food, to fill up our coffees, to bring butter or any spread for our toast, or to bring us more ketchup.  We ate at three breakfast places in Yaletown, but unfortunately we wouldn't go back to any of them.

Our hotel was connected to a Cafe Artigiano, so after breakfast we picked up some lattes and enjoyed them on the patio while people watching.

Lunch was at Minami, where we were excited to try their unique flame-seared sushi.  We started with the Brussels sprouts:

And then shared the aburi oshi salmon sushi:

And a champagne roll:

Both were fantastic, and the flame-seared sushi just melted in our mouths.

The rest of the day we explored, and sat on a couple more patios.

Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we figured we'd have Mexican food for dinner.  We went to Salsa and Agave, and shared dip and tacos:

Our last day in Vancouver was Sunday.  After sleeping in a bit, we went to Homer St. Cafe and Bar for brunch.

We were planning on having eggs and things, but the rotisserie chicken caught our eyes.  They are known for this dish, so we shared a 1/2 chicken with potatoes and coleslaw.

Following brunch we did a bit of shopping, and eventually rested our feet with some bevvies and a snack at The Flying Pig.  The snack size mac and cheese was so delicious!

For dinner we went back to MeeT for a second time, as the vegan food was spot on, and we wanted to try a couple more dishes.

Sweet chili cauliflower:

Kimchi poutine:

And an insanely good (but highly fattening) cronut to-go:

Our flight wasn't leaving until the evening, so we made the most of the full day in Vancouver.

We got home around 10:00 p.m. last Sunday, and then it was straight to bed so we would be well rested for the work week.  The week flew by, and then we were out of town again this weekend.  We are really excited to not leave the house during the upcoming long weekend.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  Did you do anything special for mothers' day this weekend? (we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with both our moms 💜)

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.)