Izumi-Tei

Izumi-Tei is a new Japanese buffet restaurant inside the Japanese supermarket called Izumiya located on alderbridge way across from Delicious Cuisine. You can say that buffets are one of my favorite places to go to especially since growing up in Asia, I was so used to the usual buffets that they would have. Comparing Asia's to here in Vancouver's, there is for sure a huge difference in variety, quality and service. Unless of course, it's Sunday brunch at a hotel in downtown, then that's a whole different story. Since I live here in Vancouver now, I'm still on the constant look out for new buffet restaurants that would at least satisfy my taste buds and tummy as well as something that could be similar to how it is back home. So when my friend told me about this new Japanese buffet place that recently opened, I was really curious to check it out.

Going to Izumiya in general is easy and the parking is not as bad as it might be compared to parking for Delicious Cuisine because you can also park around the area of E-spot. When we got there, the place is actually quite small compared to most buffet style restaurants. You can say that this place is like the Japanese version of King Buffet, instead of serving Chinese food, they serve you Japanese food. And for $11.99 a person, I thought that maybe it's just similar to those all you can eat places like Ninkazu or Richmond Sushi.

Upon entering the restaurant, there's a cashier by the door for you to pay first. When we went, there wasn't a long line up so we were able to get a table after we paid. The only catch here is, your only given an hour to eat! they will actually put a note on your table saying when your hour is up, so make every minute count! 1 hour might not be enough time for you to eat or relax even because you kind of feel like they are rushing you to leave. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm eating I don't really like being rushed especially when it comes to eating buffet! At first though, we were a bit pressured with the one hour time limit, but after looking at the food choices and after taking our first bite, our appetites just started to disappear so that one hour limit didn't seem so bad after that.

There are a few things that I don't like about this place: 1) Some of the food items were really oily and it made me feel like I was drinking a bowl of oil (which is pretty disgusting if you ask me). 2) The servers are not efficient in clearing out the plates of the tables so by the time we were on our third round, there were a lot of plates that were piling up on our table. The service in all you can eat places are much better compared to this place. 3) Some of the food items look a bit disgusting to eat especially their tofu. I know they change their menu occasionally but the tofu just looked really disgusting. When I tried getting tofu, I couldn't get it out because it was sticking on the sides of the metal pan and it was really slimy too so it just reminded me of thick looking saliva (my appetite was gone after that).  I think out of all the items, the only ones that were okay-ish for me were the ebi fry, sauteed eggplant, chicken wings and their gomae. The chicken teriyaki was a bit salty for me and some of the chicken were really hard to bite into. Their takoyaki was a bit soggy and their vegetable tempura was drenched in oil (really not appetizing).

Personally, I wouldn't recommend anyone coming to this place. I think going to Ninkazu or Richmond Sushi might have been a better choice for us that day. What bums me out too is that this place charges for around the same price (or even less) as going to Ninkazu ($9.95) or Richmond Sushi ($12.95) for lunch! But I guarantee you though that you could get much more out of your $11.99 somewhere else than going to Izumi-Tei. At least now, I know where not to go for all you can eat.

Haroo

Haroo is a small Korean restaurant located on Alexandra Road in the same mall as Michigan, Cattle Cafe and Deer Garden. I've always passed by this place but never got a chance to try it out until a few days ago when my mom suddenly had a craving for Korean food. The decision to go to Haroo that day was perfect because we were going out for lunch on a weekday at around 12:30pm, which meant more chances of finding parking on Alexandra Rd and a 50/50 chance of not having to wait so long for a table. And Surprise surprise! we were right! Parking wasn't full and when we walked in the restaurant we immediately got a table! so credits to my mom for craving Korean food that day! When you enter the restaurant, the place is decorated with a very homey vibe. It's like your going into cooking mama's real world version of her kitchen/dining room. The guy that was serving us ( I think he's the owner) was very polite and friendly but I think when we went he was the only one serving customers and doing all the work at the front. I hope there's more servers at night because if he's by himself and it gets busy then service will be slow. Although we had to wait a bit for the food, after taking my first bite, I think it was worth the wait especially their Seafood Pancake! It was lighter and thinner than Jang Mo Jib's and it has more kinds of seafood in it which makes it taste even better (for me). The atmosphere also helped in the waiting part because it made us feel like we were in someone's home especially since there's also Korean shows playing in the background (or maybe I'm just so used to hearing my mom's Korean shows playing at home).

If you haven't had a chance to visit yet and your thinking of going but don't know what to order. I would highly recommend trying out their Bibimbap, Seafood pancake, and their Bulgogi rice or just get their lunch specials for only $9.95! You can choose from a couple of different combos like the ones that we ordered such as Bibimbap or Bulgogi Rice and it usually comes with a couple of side dishes and either tofu soup, rice cake, bulgogi soup or something else (depending on which set you order of course).

Since we went during lunch, the parking and waiting part wasn't much of an issue but if your planning to go to Haroo for dinner, I would suggest going early because this place fills up pretty fast at night especially on weekends!

Tofu Soup + Bulgogi Rice lunch set

 Pajeon (Korean Style Pancake)

 Tofu Soup + Bibimbap lunch set

 Tofu Soup

 Bibimbap

Qoola (Oakridge)

If you were to let me choose whether I would have ice cream or frozen yogurt for dessert or maybe even as a replacement meal for either breakfast, lunch or dinner.. I would definitely 100% tell you I would choose.. frozen yogurt! When Qoola closed in Aberdeen Center, I was devastated (no joke) because I always go get frozen yogurt almost every week, no matter how cold or bad the weather is outside. Besides Timothy's, Qoola is one of my favorite places to go to for frozen yogurt. One of the reasons why is because they have the self serve option for their customers. I just love the idea of being able to put in and control how much I want to eat, how much toppings to put in and how many flavors of yogurt I want to mix in. And compared to other places I've been to, I also just preferred Qoola's original flavor better than the original flavors of other places. So when I found out that Qoola recently opened in Oakridge Mall, I just had to go there immediately and get my weekly cravings of frozen yogurt! Since there's no more branch in Richmond, the closest Qoola that I can get to now is Oakridge. Although it's quite far (around 15-20 min drive), this location is still closer than going all the way to Metrotown mall. This post also goes to shows how far I would go just to get frozen yogurt (even if it means driving all the way to Oakridge or Metrotown mall).

Mega Sushi (Steveston)

The weather is finally starting to welcome summer in and if you live in Richmond you would know that Steveston is one of the best places to go to for awesome bbq, biking, frozen yogurt and nice walks by the wharf. But guess what?? Now I have new reason for you to go to Steveston if your hungry! Besides the usual spots: Hogshack, Timothy's, Pajo's, Outpost, Steveston Pizza, Kisamos and etc. I found a new Japanese Restaurant that can be considered as the new hidden gem in Steveston.

Mega Sushi is a new Japanese Restaurant that recently opened their second location in Steveston (their first one in Coquitlam). The place may be hard to spot but it's located at the very end of Chatham street near Garry Point Park. When we arrived, there weren't much cars parked outside the restaurant but when we walked in you would be surprised at how much people knew about the place already. We were thinking maybe some of their customers lived near/around Steveston so instead of driving they probably just walked to the restaurant, that's why there weren't as much cars as we thought it would have. Although if your planning to drive, parking is limited but then again street parking is also available. Upon entering the place, I was again surprised.. but this time because of their interior. It was actually pretty modern and designed well! Their menu was also pretty impressive and unique with multiple food options that looks amazing and delicious to eat! They even have funky titles for their food (such as Monkey Brain: Fried Avocados stuffed with crab meat or Lion King Roll: avocado, cucumber, crab meat in a roll with baked salmon, tobiko and cheese on top) which is cool and fun especially for the customers and adventurous eaters. The servers were also quick at their work, very polite and friendly which is great because you don't have to keep waving your hand around and keep looking at them to try and catch their attention! (but then again, maybe it's because they just recently opened.. I can come back another time to see whether the service is still as good as my experience that day). With the ones that I've tried so far, I would highly recommend trying out their Monkey Brain, Salmon Flower, and their Cherry Blossom Roll. I wanted to try out their Big Boss roll, Paradise roll, and Tank roll but we already ordered too much for three people. The description of these rolls sounds really mouth watering good! Hopefully I'll get a chance to try all of them next time when I come back!

So next time when your in Steveston and you had a craving of Japanese food all of a sudden, go give Mega Sushi a try! I hope you'll like it as much as I do!

 Seaweed Salad

 Salmon Flower: Radish Sprouts wrapped in salmon served with house special sauce)

  Yam Tempura

Salmon Don

Cherry Blossom Roll: Avocado, cucumber, crab meat in a roll with salmon, avocado, apple sauce and caper on top

Lion King Roll: Avocado, cucumber, crab meat in a roll with baked salmon, tobiko, and cheese on top

Agadeshi Tofu

 Monkey Brain: Deep fried avocado stuffed with crab meat and cooked tuna