The One Spot Soup House 湯.com (2nd visit)

FIRST POST ON THE ONE SPOT SOUP HOUSE 湯.com [HERE]

The One Spot Soup House (湯.com) specializes in herbal soup along with clay pot rice, and closed their restaurant to move to a larger one a few doors down on Victoria Drive.

The restaurant is a lot larger than their previous location and there are plenty of seats as well suitable tables for parties of ten (only a couple). Furthermore, asides from the larger restaurant, 湯.com has expanded their menu as well. There are more options of clay pot rice and the new additions of congee as well as Hong Kong style noodle rolls. We wanted go for their geoduck and sea cucumber with chicken congee, but the restaurant did not offer any at the time. Perhaps later on in the future?

Huang's Beef Noodles

Huang's Beef Noodles is a small neighbourhood restaurant on Victoria Drive and has less than eight tables available. Walking in, the restaurant was full with two large families and a few single diners. One of the diners was friendly and quickly slurped up his noodles to give us a table!

Golden Swan Restaurant 金天鵝海鮮酒家 : Alaskan King Crab

DIM SUM POST AT GOLDEN SWAN [HERE]

ALASKAN KING CRAB POST AT TOP CANTONESE [HERE]

ALASKAN KING CRAB POST AT EMPIRE CUISINE [HERE]

A friend of mine has been wanting to try dinner at Golden Swan for quite a while and as for me, do not have much interest. I used to come here for dim sum a few years ago but stopped due to inconvenience and that there are better restaurants. As for dinner, I have never tried. Golden Swan is located on Victoria Drive and I forgot how big the restaurant is! The restaurant has plenty of seats and comfortable seating arrangements, although there is one crappy table for two near the washroom which was BF and I's seat for our last dim sum visit. Asides from the seating arrangements, the restaurant is fairly clean and is considered one of the "nicer" Chinese restaurants due to the high ceiling, chandeliers, and managers wearing a suit which generally means better than usual typical Chinese service. 

9LB ALASKAN KING CRAB ($21.99/LB) + GLASS BOTTLE OF COCA COLA ($2.75).

Fortunately for my friend, I was craving for Alaskan King Crab and since Golden Swan is currently offering a great price at $21.99/lb, she finally got her wish to dine here. When only dining for two, I like to find a better deal for AKC since, well, it will be cheaper LOL. Anyways, something I have always liked about Golden Swan is that the restaurant serves glass bottles of Coca Cola! Also, the price is pretty fair considering some restaurants charge the same for a glass of fountain pop. 

The One Spot Soup House 湯.com

Revisit post on The One Spot Soup House 湯.com [HERE]

For someone who claims there is nothing to really eat on Victoria Drive and loves herbal as well as ginseng soup, how could I have never heard of 湯.com?! And for someone who loves clay pot rice… how has BF never heard about this place?! After posting a photo of dinner from Cindy's Palace on Instagram stating I only went there for the herbal soup, a follower of mine suggested 湯.com! The restaurant is fairly small and has around ten seats. Coming for a late lunch, the restaurant was empty and we did not have to worry about a line up.

Western Lake Chinese Seafood 西湖海鮮酒家

Western Lake is an occasional dim sum restaurant of mine but I have never been here for dinner! On a weekend evening, we made last minute reservations just in case the restaurant was busy and when we walked in, there was a family of six waiting for a seat by the entrance. The staff was very busy and no one paid attention to the door, however, when our reservation time came up, one of the waiters came to look for us. This was nice considering that we were not forgotten. The restaurant's interior is clean as well as simple and not too cramped.

GINSENG CHICKEN SOUP, SCALLOPS WITH SNOW PEAS, LOBSTER IN CREAM AND BUTTER SAUCE, STEAMED TILAPIA, GREEN BEAN SOUP WITH TAPIOCA, AND BRAISED SQUAB.

Fatty Cow Seafood Hot Pot 小肥牛火鍋專門店 (2nd visit)

FIRST POST ON FATTY COW SEAFOOD HOT POT [HERE]

When I like a restaurant, I really like it. Meaning, I rave about the restaurant for days and do not shut up about how good it was. Sometimes, I even want to revisit the next day and lose sleep over thinking about it. Although rare, it happens, and Fatty Cow was one of them. Located in Vancouver on Victoria Drive, Fatty Cow is an all you can eat late night hot pot restaurant. We were seated at the same table as the previous visit and the staff was pretty much the same. 

ADULT $19.95 CHILDREN (5-10) $13.95 [+$1.00 for weekends/holidays]

DOUBLE SOUP $8.50 SINGLE $7.00 POP $1.50

Fatty Cow Seafood Hot Pot 小肥牛火鍋專門店

REVISIT POST ON FATTY COW SEAFOOD [HERE]

So… imagine this, a hungry starving girl around Victoria Drive, Main Street and Fraser Street at 9:00pm with no delicious places to eat. Might as well mention I am a picky eater too. Of course Yu Xiang Yuan is obviously my first and only choice (well, Golden House Seafood is pretty good too!) but both restaurants were closed.

So, avoiding the usual circling around for thirty minutes to an hour (no exaggeration), we went straight to Fatty Cow. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Fatty Cow? I rather eat McDonalds than come here or just have ice cream for dinner. I remember Fatty Cow when the restaurant first opened and the food sucked. Anyways… this visit was on a Sunday and the restaurant was 70% full when we walked in. The manager kind of neglected us, which I did not take personal because I expected my experience to "meh" or pretty crappy. After waiting ten minutes unspoken to, we were seated as he cleared a table for us.

ADULT $19.95 CHILDREN (5-10) $13.95 [+$1.00 on weekends/holidays]

DOUBLE SOUP $8.50 SINGLE $7.00, POP $1.50

El Caracol Cafe

A restaurant that I have wanted to try for many years has been El Caracol Cafe and since I have been in the area for the last week or so, I finally made the visit. 

The restaurant is on the smaller side with only seven tables and the interior has bright orange coloured walls, yellow tables, with a counter resembles a cabana. In addition, there are a few nicknacks such as a Mexican pinata and a Japanese lucky cat. Furthermore, the restaurant has a case of jewellery for sale beside the pop machine and the back of the counter has DVDs available to purchase.

Kalvin's Szechuen Restaurant 松林居

Kalvin's Szechuen is a small family owned Taiwanese cuisine restaurant. By small, I mean there are only nine tables in the restaurant.

Luckily, on a Sunday evening we were fortunate to grab a seat without waiting. Kalvin's Szechuen also sells housemade frozen goods (dumplings, xiao long baos and buns) and unfortunately we were seated by the freezer which was quite cold. In addition, the restaurant gets quite chilly, especially when customers walked in and out.

Golden Swan Restaurant 金天鵝海鮮酒家

ALASKAN KING CRAB POST AT GOLDEN SWAN [HERE]

A couple of years ago, my friend and I would frequently visit Golden Swan for dim sum every few days a week. However, our more than weekly dim sum visits came to an end when she starting choosing Dai Tung out of convenience (btw Dai Tung sucks!). Since BF and I have never tried Golden Swan together, I thought it would be a good chance to revisit the restaurant after a couple of years. Golden Swan is one of the very few restaurants that still offers push carts during dim sum. Also, diners can order off the menu as well.

SMALL $3.75 MEDIUM $4.35 LARGE $4.95 SPECIAL $5.65 KITCHEN $7.25