Tung Hing Bakery 同慶餅家

After a long disgusting sweaty game of basketball, we were already running late for a double date and needed to get home fast. But, I was really hungry so took the opportunity to grab a quick snack. Tung Hing is a popular Vietnamese bakery that sells Asian baked goodies and banh mi.

This is also BFs favourite place for banh mi and he is not even a fan of bread, sandwiches or subs. Something about him having too much when he was a child… to the extent that he even gets full just looking at bread! Weird. Tung Hing's baked goodies range from a variety of buns to sesame balls, Chinese donuts and butter croissants.

As for the Vietnamese subs, it is BFs favourite place because he likes to see the preparation. Tung Hing offers the house special, meatball, vegetarian, honey garlic sausage, shredded garlic chicken and lemon grass chicken banh mi. The prices are pretty average and run from $3.50 to $3.95.

Sushi Tengoku

After watching Sin City: A Dame to Kill for and disappointed we had regular seats instead of D-Box because we did go all the way to Langley for that… I let BF choose where to have dinner. Our two choices were between The Keg or Tokyo Hon. I mean, we can do better in Langley right? I like The Keg but would rather pass on a chain restaurant because we are in Langley! Despite that many Langley residents prefer chains… As for Tokyo Hon, the restaurant is great and it was another option because we stopped by Save On Foods which is very close by. But because I wanted to go somewhere new, I let him choose where in the end.

He has been eyeing Sushi Tengoku on three occasions now, once in Langley months ago and another time when we were at Guildford Centre (which has a horrible layout by the way). Since I really did not care which restaurant we went to because that would result in at least an hour of driving around, Sushi Tengoku it was.

This is a time when I wish I bothered to purchase a good camera because I cannot capture how nice the interior is. Sushi Tengoku is a large restaurant with a high ceiling and majority of the seating arrangements are booths. The interior is spacious and the cosmetics are nice, making Sushi Tengoku definitely one of the better looking Japanese cuisine restaurants.

King Mahal Restaurant

King Mahal has been around for twenty years and the restaurant was formerly located by UBC. Then a few years ago, the restaurant moved to North Burnaby and their $9.99 all you can eat lunch buffet is very popular. Also like many Indian restaurants, King Mahal is a family operated business and the father as well as son runs the front of the house.

Walking in, we noticed King Mahal is a very clean restaurant and perhaps even the cleanest Indian restaurant I have been to (the table glass tops are squeaky clean and shinny too!). The interior also looks traditional and there are Indian tapestries along the walls. Since we were the first to arrive, we had the option of choosing any seat and ours had glasses with red cloth napkins.

After seating, we ordered our drinks and of course I went for the hot water. As the owner was pouring hot water in the glass, I was thinking oh my god… what if it breaks? I am too used to restaurants serving hot water in a mug that I actually felt awkward having hot water in a glass! However, the restaurant uses quality glasses and the glass did not break. In addition, he even brought over a kettle! This is a dream come true because I honestly drink a lot of water, it is really ridiculous.

Estrella's Montreal Deli

On the way to a barbecue in Langley, my friend gave me strict instructions "no food stops". Umm excuse me? I guess some people are really into their barbecuing… Do not even get me started on the horrible 200th Street too and I cannot stop for food?! Madness! I never complain about Richmond or Downtown traffic, but WTF is up with 200th Street? I hate it. The traffic can range from a mere ten minutes to a forty five minute difference off the highway to anywhere I have to go! So of course to treat myself, I had to stop at Estrella's.

Estrella's has been my go-to place for many years, as in half a decade! A couple of my friends from Montreal first introduced the restaurant to me during my SFU years and I fell in love. I even used to come here at least twice a week whenever I was in Langley.

Walking in, there is a nice smoked meat aroma which is not to be mistaken with greasy or the non well-ventilated kind. The restaurant is clean and there are a good amount of seats for this type of joint. Although during busier hours, Estrella's does get busy and a wait can be expected. As for the organized chalkboard menu, it is posted on the wall and customers order as well as pay at the front.

Waraku Sushi

The last time I had sushi in North Vancouver was at Sushi Bella, an experience that makes me steer clear of the franchise. Also on that day, I considered going to Waraku Sushi but because the exterior looked meh… I passed on the restaurant. However, I decided to give the restaurant a try after finding their Facebook page. There is not much information online but the photos on their Facebook page did not look bad. What lured me in is that the restaurant used to offer mirugai and there are a few unique dishes, so I thought perhaps the restaurant could be a little gem on the Lonsdale strip.

Walking in, the staff was welcoming and we were seated in a tatami room (minus the tatami…). The interior has a rustic look and majority of the material is unfinished wood; from the booths, dividers, pillars and the rooms to the tables. As for the seating arrangements, there are booth seats along the wall, the usual seats by the sushi bar, a few rooms at the middle of the restaurant and smaller tables on the opposite side. All the booth seats were taken when we arrived and I appreciate the waitress for seating us in a room rather than at the small tables. The restaurant is also fairly clean but the rooms could have been wiped down better.