Lily Mae's Comfort Café

Lily Mae's Comfort Cafe is located in Gastown and the interior looks very cute, resembling a french bistro with a homestyle atmosphere. The comfort cafe has been on my list since the beginning of the year, but my interest to visit has been delayed since there are some negative comments regarding the service. However, Lily Mae's was still my first choice when looking for a cute breakfast date with a friend. My friend actually suggested going to Cafe Medina's new location for an Instagram worthy photo, but I gave her a dirty look because she agrees that the food is only average.

When I walked in to meet my friend, our server provided us with menus within minutes. I was a bit sad she did not say hello to me or one word in fact, considering the restaurant appears to be a family operated business. In addition, as she poured water in our drinking glasses, I could not help but notice the red pigment at the bottom of the jug inside. She also spilled some water on the table which was left alone, so my first thoughts were that the little things are overlooked here.

My friend mentioned she was greeted and offered any table in the restaurant upon arriving however, and the server was friendly throughout our breakfast.

Every table is set up with white cloth napkins, cutlery, water glasses and a mini vase. We seated near the window and of course me being OCD, took a look at the window sill and was very pleased to not see one speck of dust! Doing the "finger swipe" is actually more accurate… lol. Dining at "historic" or old places are not really my thing, but I certainly do not mind clean restaurants such as Lily Mae's. I could not help but think back to how the The Pie Shoppe looked too, which I visited the day before here. Both restaurants have a homey atmosphere but one looks clean.

The Pie Shoppe & Panoramic Coffee

As C'est la vie a Maggi and I were about to go our separate ways after a short food date, I shamelessly mentioned that we have to make another stop because I was not satisfied. I needed to kill a craving for something delicious in order for my stomach to feel full, so we searched the available eateries in Chinatown. And as it turns out, The Pie Shoppe has been on my wish list without me even knowing!

The Pie Shoppe is run by two ladies, who I presume are sisters because of an overheard phone call of one saying, "I love you too, mom!" as the other lady was about to end the call. The small shop serves housemade and fresh pies daily, with a focus on locally sourced and seasonal fruit. The pies are also made on site!

When we walked in, we headed straight towards the pie display. There are no tags in the display because the selection can change daily so a chalkboard menu is conveniently located high up and at the back of the shop. Our our visit, the selection included Caramel Apple, Chocolate Pecan, Rashberry Rubarb and Blueberry Apple Crumble. The prices range from $5.00-$7.00 per slice and $20.00-$30.00 as a whole.

After getting our pies, we grabbed the only table that was available. I will admit, I was a bit uneasy having the pie here rather than to go because the interior does not look very clean. Maggi calls this the "grungy" atmosphere however, and is supposedly sort of popular nowadays… But to me, the decor resembles a thrift store. There are stained stools and the atmosphere is not my cup of tea. I even felt uncomfortable with the idea of sitting on the stools too and preferred a seat on the short wooden coffee table, which I confirmed if I could sit on just in case it broke LOL.

South Ocean Seafood 南海漁村海鮮酒家

The last time I had live seafood was a bit over a week ago and my cravings were really bad, so a trip to Richmond was called for. My original destination was Chef Tony, but $32.00/lb for lobster is very steep considering there would only be the two of us. This is where South Ocean comes in, we called a few restaurants while circling Richmond and the restaurant offered the cheapest price. A mere $11.95/lb for crab and lobster!

Walking in, the restaurant looks outdated and old. There are chipped plates, partially ripped tablecloths, one of the chairs at our table is taped with masking tape, and the table setting is dirty. Furthermore, there were seven waitstaff at the front of the restaurant and it was impossible to order? There were only three large tables at time of our visit too! 

In addition, the old looking and stained yellow as well as browning pages from the menu did not help either. In essence, I had no expectations and expected the worst. But hey, $11.95/lb for live seafood? It is worth trying. As for the photo of the interior, I snapped it as we were leaving and the restaurant looks way better than it is! The interior resembles Pelican Seafood Restaurant because of the lighting.

Sushi Yoi

Finding a really good Japanese restaurant in North Burnaby is a bit harder than it looks, despite the plentiful supply of sushi restaurants in the area! Do not get me wrong, there are a few average restaurants that occasionally serves fresh (not the freshest) sashimi… but I need consistency. Revisiting a restaurant only to discover that the quality of food is not the same compared to a former visit (Sushi UOmo) is a big pet peeve of mine, and I am fairly selective towards Japanese cuisine. Why else would I revisit if it was not for the former positive experience, right?

So as I was looking through some Japanese restaurants in North Burnaby, Sushi Yoi caught my attention. No, the restaurant is fortunately not related to "Yo Sushi" In North Burnaby! The Chinese owned and operated restaurant is located near the Madison Centre, and is one of the newer restaurants in the area. What lured me in is a photo of their hamachi sashimi, which was uploaded on Urbanspoon from someone related to the restaurant. The photo shows hamachi at its best and with their reasonable prices, I declared the restaurant as a must visit.

I was really excited about trying Sushi Yoi too because asides from the aforementioned photo, the last sushi restaurant I went to a couple of days before was Sushi Hiro *cringe*. The interior of restaurant looks clean, modern and relaxing. The sushi bar is located at the back of the restaurant, there are booth seats along the walls, and the seating arrangements are not too tight. On our visit, the restaurant was not busy and the food arrived very fast, within minutes. This is always disappointing because I do not like too much food on the table at once, but it is understandable.

Crackle Crème

Crackle Creme is a one man operated dessert shop that is located in Chinatown, serving creme brûlée and waffles. I only know of Crackle Creme because a few months ago, photos from the dessert shop were popping up on my Instagram feed almost every day! I was more interested in trying their waffles than the creme brûlée though. So after finishing up at The Fish Counter with C'est la vie a Maggi, we decided to make a dessert stop and headed to Crackle Creme.

The interior of Crackle Creme looks clean, tidy as well as simple, and the space is properly maximized. There are seating arrangements along the walls and a few seats outside of the shop. During our visit in the middle of the afternoon, the shop was not busy so fortunately we had no issues grabbing a seat. If the shop is full however, Crackle Creme offers creme brûlée to go in disposable tin cups.

On our visit, the flavours of creme brûlée included Bailey's, Madagascar Vanilla Bean, Cream of Earl Grey, Salted Caramel, Black Sesame, Pandan Coconut and Durian. In addition, there was some sort of event(?) that the shop created more flavours for which included Spiced Pumpkin Pie, Matcha Green Tea, Ferrero Rocher, Honey Lavender, Lemon Basil, Guinness Espresso, Maple Topped with Walnuts, Bourbon Butter and Chai Tea. Basically, there is a large variety of flavours available!