Ciao Bella Ristorante Italiano

Ciao Bella is an authentic Italian restaurant conveniently located by Denman and Robson.  The romantic setting and live piano entertainment makes it a great place for date nights.  

Complimentary Bread

Appetizer: Eggplant Parmesan

Penne Putanesca

Meatball Bolognese

One of the best places to go to for authentic Italian food. The place, food and service was excellent! :)

Ciao Bella

703 Denman Street

Vancouver, BC

604-688-5771

Memphis Blues Barbeque House

Memphis Blues is perfect for meat lovers like J. They have big portions and a lot of meat options to choose from. Being more of a seafood and chicken type of person, I chose the roasted chicken while J had the combo platter with beef brisket and smoked sausages. Each order came with seasoned fries, beans, slaw and corn bread.  They also provide each table with condiments to season the meat to your liking. :)

Pulled pork nachos: It was average. I would have liked it with more melted cheese.

Chicken platter: I enjoyed the seasoning of the fries - very tasty. But it wasn't crispy enough.  The chicken was a bit on the dry side so I had to season it with their condiments.

Combo platter: J really enjoyed his meaty dish. His beef brisket was tender with just the right amount of seasoning. He also liked the burnt smoky flavour of the meat. He was very satisfied with the generous portion of his platter and will definitely be back with his boys next time.

Memphis Blues Barbeque House

http://www.memphisbluesbbq.com/

Torarenbo Japanese Restaurant

We celebrated Valentine's on the weekend to avoid the busy crowd. So we opted for something more casual during the actual day. I've been wanting to try Torarenbo and J was finally able to make a reservation after several tries. When we got there it was so busy and still had to wait for a table even with our reservation. We ended up sitting by the bar. The food also took about half an hour to come out.

We ordered a variety of food from their menu.

Grilled Black Cod

Salmon Sashimi

House roll

Beef ribs

Torarenbo roll

Complementary ice cream

Overall, the food was pretty good and staff were very nice and friendly. The wait for the food just took longer since it was one of their busiest day of the year. It might not be so bad on a regular day.

Torarenbo Japanese Restaurant

8191 Park Road

Richmond, BC

604-214-1402

SING Hainanese Chicken House

When my dad visited us in Vancouver he was raving about this hainanese chicken place. He said it tasted a lot better than the ones we had in Vancouver.  Now that we are visiting the Philippines, he brought us to Sing Hainanese Chicken House (located on the 6th floor of Edsa Shangri-la) to try it for ourselves.

Dad ordered a whole order of their roasted and white hainanese chicken.  Each came with 4 bowls of rice, soup and three kinds of dipping sauce (hoisin, chili and ginger).   Dad's right - they were both really delicious! They were just as good as the ones I had in Singapore.  The chickens were already de-boned and very tender.  Everyone liked the soup because it was very tasty but I found it too salty.

We also ordered their specialty drink, coco pandan, which dad gulped down so fast :) He really enjoyed it but I thought it was more suited as a dessert than a drink.

I had the fresh mango shake which is my absolute fave drink here in the Philippines :)

Sing Hainanese Chicken House

6th Floor, Edsa Shangri-la Mall

Tel: 710-3511

Athene's Greek Restaurant

J & I was in the mood for some Greek food. My sister recommended this place on West Broadway called Athene's which she found in the entertainment book so we decided to give it a try.

The place was pretty quiet since it was a weeknight. The server was very pleasant and attentive.

They gave us two buns as we sat down. I didn't like them very much because they werent as soft and warm as I would have wanted. I guess it's also cuz I was expecting pita bread instead of buns since we were in a Greek restaurant.  But I finished them anyway :) hehe :)

J ordered the daily special (roasted lamb) while I had the roasted chicken.  Both dishes came in big portions and were very tender. The prices were reasonable and our buy 1 get 1 free coupon made it even better :)

Roasted Lamb

Roasted Chicken

A good meal is not complete without dessert (hence, my chubby cheeks) so we opted for one of their popular desserts, Ek-mek. The Ek-mek is soooo yummy and delicious. It has a spongy wafer soaked in liquor and topped with custard, whipped cream and cinnammon. I was very satisfied with my meal and will definitely go back with J :)

Athene's Restaurant

3618 West Broadway  

Vancouver, BC V6R 2B7
(604) 731-4135