Miku

Located in Downtown Vancouver and near Canada Place lies Miku, a Japanese restaurant with a waterfront view that specializes in fusion and Aburi cuisine. Or, simply known as a must visit restaurant in Vancouver. Aburi cuisine is sushi or sashimi that is partially seared, which provides that smokiness and richness with the addition of sauces.

Miku is also considered a fine dining restaurant and with the higher prices, location and atmosphere it is certainly a restaurant where I would take out of town guests or go with a large group of friends. With that said however, I would never come here just for the food because I find the restaurant very inconsistent along with the service and nothing special.

My guest and I arrived on a weekend for dinner and we were offered a seat on the patio, which has an amazing view of course. We were told the patio is heated all year round and would not be cold at all, but man… we were freezing!

The "heated" patio was practically on the lowest setting and I could not help but think how Black + Blue or Coast Restaurant's heated patio are actually heated, heated to the point where the you feel warmth just by past the restaurants! To be fair though, Miku provides blankets but I am too OCD to use them (I rather not  have to wrap myself in a blanket when I am at a restaurant too). On top of that, it was more disappointing when despite that other tables were cold as well, the management could not change heat setting.

Chewies Steam & Oyster Bar : Coal Harbour Location

Chewies Steam & Oyster Bar is a New Orleans inspired restaurant serving Cajun and Creole dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya and fried chicken. The first Chewies opened in Kitsilano and the second location is located at Coal Harbour in Downtown Vancouver. At the Coal Harbour location, Chewie's happy hours run from 3:00pm to 6:00pm and I believe some appetizers are 50% off and oysters are $1.00 to $2.00.

We arrived around 2:30pm and were too hungry to wait thirty minutes for a cheaper deal, but a couple of tables waited and the staff had no problems with it. The atmosphere at Chewies is fun, casual and laid back, where none of the staff looked miserable. Our server was also professional, friendly and polite, but not very attentive. A few of our dishes sat at the counter for a while before they were delivered and we constantly kept hearing "service please" from the kitchen.

But meh, he was friendly. He did not have any problems when we asked to have three courses instead of having all the dishes arrive at once because of the small table issue. As for the interior, the restaurant is fairly spacious (excluding the area with half booth seats) and Chewies has a patio too.

The Fish Shack : Happy Hour

Man… I used to complain all the time whenever I have to eat around 4:00-5:00pm because it is not the "proper" dinner time and I never know which restaurants to go to. Then some friends would mention happy hours and I am like meh, I rarely drink and the food probably sucks. But lately I have been in the mood for happy hours because I think it is a great way to see if the restaurant is worth revisiting for dinner. Well, not really because the food is different, but it is a good way for me to think like that while cutting down on costs.

So when my friend from Toronto landed in Vancouver and settled down, I decided to take her to The Fish Shack for some snacks. I wish I could say that it is because The Fish Shack is a very popular and well known restaurant in Vancouver, but it is more because of my own curiosity to try out the place LOL. The Fish Shack is a part of the Glowbal Group of restaurants and is located on Granville Street. The atmosphere is very casual and there is an enormous chalkboard with information of a variety of fish.

Nicli Antica Pizzeria

A friend from Toronto was visiting and she loves Neapolitan pizza, LOVES. Her favourite Neapolitan pizzeria in Toronto is Pizzeria Libretto. So when she asked me to take her somewhere good, Nicli Antica is the first place that came to my mind. The reason is because Nicli is the first pizzeria in Vancouver to be certified by the Verace Pizza Napolenta. Although to be honest I was skeptical about taking her here because when I skimmed through some photos online, surprisingly a lot of their pizza lacked that nice charred leoparding! Moreover, even some photos on their official Instagram account lacked that beautiful blistering!

Nicli is located on East Cardova in Gastown, next to sibling restaurant Nicli's Next Door. The layout of the restaurant is long, but neither narrow nor cramped. The seating arrangements are fairly comfortable and the restaurant has a nice atmosphere. There is a spacious bar, a high ceiling, and a clean modern look. We arrived right at opening (11:30am) and the staff were friendly and welcoming. The restaurant filled up fairly quick too.

Next Noodle Bar 裕小館

You know that feeling when you are starving but have dinner plans in literally a couple of hours? I despise that because whenever I try to have a snack, I end up going for a small meal and spoil my appetite for dinner. Sometimes I am fine with spoiling my appetite but it sucks because I end up stuffing myself full during dinner, overeat until I cannot breathe and walk out with a food baby. So this was the case when I waited an hour for my sister to get off work so we could have dinner together, and I ended up trying Next Noodle Bar with a friend.

Next Noodle Bar is located on Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver and has been around for almost a decade. The restaurant is fairly large, there are booth seats along with spacious seating arrangements, a high ceiling and the staff are friendly. Every table is provided with a large plate and a fork, but chopsticks are available on the side.