After finishing our
donairs and grabbing my freshly tuned up bicycle, we cycled to UBC and headed back to Kitsilano. About the tune up, I was pretty pissed and not happy. Denman Bike Shop has disappointed me more than once and with their rude customer service every single time, I am done with them. For my tune up, the shop did not even check my brakes and adjusted my seat four inches higher than what it was originally. Furthermore, when I mentioned my brakes still screeched, the owner/manager's response was "did you tell us?". Uhh… what is a bike tune up then? So they did not even check the brakes at all? My brakes were pretty bad and even with the slightest use of them, they caused a loud screech.
When the bike shop did end up adjusting my brakes, they did a crap job. The brakes were crooked and pressed against the tire, which I was too dumb to realize until after an hour of riding. At a professional bike shop? From mentioning they will give me a call when my bike is ready (which they never did!), my seat changed and not adjusted back, and plain messing up my brakes, why support this business? This was not even during a busy time too! I am always more understanding if a business is busy, but when it is not? Seriously? Note - this is only for the location on Denman, I have never been to the shop on Main Street but I hope the staff are certainly friendlier and do not make careless mistakes. The brakes are a goddamn main component of a bike.
After having to cut our ride short because of my brakes, we cycled through Kitsilano and decided to try out Aphrodite's Organic Cafe and Pie Shop. The cafe has an organized, colourful and easy to read chalkboard menu. There are generic cafe offerings such as drinks, sandwiches, pot pies, quiche and puddings. As for the highlight, there is a separate chalkboard menu for Aphrodite's organic pies and quiches!
After spending two hours stuck in traffic coming from White Rock because only one lane was open on HWY 99, we finally made it to Gang Nam in Richmond. When Gang Nam first opened, I laughed it off and assumed the restaurant chose their name based on the popular music video at the time "Gangnam Style", rather than after the city in Korea. However, after seeing a few photos on Instagram and Eating with Kirby's blog post, I had to make the visit. The quality and value looked definitely there.
Before turning the corner to get to Gang Nam, we could already smell the barbecue from outside. The barbecue aroma was very strong (which is not bad) and we secretly hoped to be seated by the open front door. After waiting literally only five minutes, a friendly waitress seated us and apologized for the wait. Wow, she did not even need to apologize and so far Gang Nam has the friendliest service out of many Korean restaurants.
The main reason that lured me in to visit Gang Nam is because I assumed their grill was similar to Go Gung's, which is known as a "five star barbecue" in some parts of Asia (at five star restaurants to be exact). However, the grill is not the same and is a lot simpler. We went for the priciest combo (Combo C $59.99) which consists of pork belly, beef rib eye, marinated beef short rib, prime rib eye rib, pajeon or japche, and a choice of bibimbop.
