Estea Beverage Club 生活小品 : Burnaby location

Continuing with my interest in finding a regular bubble tea joint to frequently visit, Estea Beverage Club was next on my list to try. There used to be a couple of other Estea locations in Burquitlam as well as Richmond, and both the restaurants have closed. The only Estea locations that appear to be surviving is the restaurant in Burnaby and an "express" location at the Aberdeen food court.

Walking in from the back, we seemed to have startled the owners and the wife immediately walked up to greet us. She was friendly and passed us off to the rest of the staff, where the rest of them greeted us as well.

Estea is a very large restaurant and is the largest bubble tea joint that I know of. There are plenty of seats and the seating arrangements are not cramped at all.

Poco Ocean Restaurant 海富小館

Having tried Kam Ding in Coquitlam which was mediocre, we decided to try another Chinese restaurant in the area; Poco Ocean. When we walked in, the two of us stood by the entrance for a good ten minutes and the owner's wife as well as a waitress stared at us, but never spoke a word or acknowledged us. After feeling a bit awkward just standing there, I decided to wait outside because the restaurant was fairly hot and the waiting area is quite small. As another ten minutes passed, BF came out and I asked him how long the wait would be. Surprisingly his answer was, "I said 'excuse me' twice to the owner's wife but she ignored me." LOL at the time it was a bit hard to believe, so I decided to walk in myself and ask.

When I walked up to the waitress at the front counter, I asked how the long wait would be for two people and she walked away. Usually at this point or honestly even standing there earlier for ten minutes without even being acknowledged, any normal person would leave. However, I was curious to see how a family operated business could treat their customers like this. Is the food really that good or something? When the waitress came back and I was still standing by the counter, she looked at me like why are you standing here? So, I asked in Chinese how long the wait would be for two and after she kept waving "no" while cleaning up a table, her response was "I don't know." Okay… after telling her we will wait outside, she walked away without saying anything.

Shortly after five minutes of waiting, we went back to the car and was thinking it is not normal to put up with service like this. But at the same time, we really wanted to find out how good a restaurant must be to treat their customers so rudely. On the way back to the car and about to leave, we noticed some people leaving the restaurant and decided to walk back in.

After settling down, we waited around ten minutes for tea which is not a big deal since neither of us drink tea and only use it to clean the table setting if needed. Poco Ocean has an outdated Chinese menu written on a whiteboard at the back of the restaurant and an English menu is available if requested. If comparing the two, every item on the Chinese menu is offered in the English version, except the prices have not been updated. 

While we were waiting for the food, a couple came in and asked how long the wait would be. Usually I would be surprised at this response but considering our experience so far, it seemed normal. The waitress said, "it's very busy today, maybe thirty minutes but even if you wait, we might have to close the restaurant." Wow, imagine waiting thirty minutes and having to leave because the restaurant is closing. This is certainly a first, it is basically like saying there is enough business for the day and the restaurant is busy enough.

Cafe Gloucester 告羅士打餐廳

So I apparently think I am the queen of Hong Kong style cafe restaurants. I know the concept of ordering, what a set menu usually includes, and can distinguish between a better or not so great one. Cafe Gloucester can be considered a "higher end" HK style cafe and was the first to offer steaks as well as lobster. Having said that, obviously I had to make a visit.

Cafe Gloucester is a large restaurant and there are plenty of seats. The restaurant is divided into two sections by wooden dividers, and is very spacious as well as clean. Furthermore, Cafe Gloucester is the only HK style cafe I have been to that provides placemats. Although not like it matters… lol.

Donair Star

Fifteen years ago, I was obsessed with Donair Star and always asked my parents to take me here. The shop served one of the best donairs before and I was only in Elementary school back then! Fresh sautéed mushrooms were always an option, the tzatziki sauce tasted rich, the housemade hot sauce was not very spicy but provided a nice buzz in the mouth, and the meat was always sliced fresh off the rotisserie to order. Furthermore, there was always a generous portion of meat!

However, after a year of my discovery, the owners sold the shop to a married couple. The donairs were still pretty good because the couple kept everything the same; from the menu as well as the ingredients, to the quality. The second owners operated exactly like the former ones, and the donairs continued to be my favourite.

But again, after more years passed, the third ownership was taken over by two brothers and they changed a few items as well as ingredients. Since then, the donairs have never been that great. However, the brothers were always humble as well as welcoming. Well, fast forward to more years later, Donair Star is now under the fourth (or perhaps fifth) owner and management, which made me curious to see how the donairs are. 

When we walked in, the staff was not very inviting and I wanted to take a photo of the rotserrie but felt like this would be a situation where "no photos" would be allowed.

Pearl House Restaurant 珍珠小館 : Burnaby location

After a disappointing meal at No.1 Beef Noodle House, I was craving for some good Taiwanese snacks and headed to Pearl Castle a couple of days later. From what I remember, I thought Pearl Castle sucked and offered nothing but cheap quality bubble tea food. However, after trying Pearl Castle in Richmond, their Taiwanese popcorn chicken along with the beef noodles were good! So, of course I had to try Pearl Castle in Burnaby.

Walking in, my friend and I were hesitant on grabbing dinner here because we peaked into the kitchen and noticed most of the cooks appear to be young students. However, after taking a look at the menu, we noticed  the dishes are a lot simpler compared to Pearl Castle in Richmond. The menu is very simple and assuming because the cooks are young, there is less room for mistakes. There are a lot of simple items such as fried goodies, stewed dishes, noodles and snacks, like pancakes as well as egg rolls. 

Oh yeah... by the way, I thought this restaurant was Pearl Castle for the whole time until I started writing my post LOL.