If you're shopping at Metrotown, take the extra 5 minute walk and eat at the Crystal Mall food court instead! There is a good variety of food that is better value than the Metrotown food court.

Wang's Shanghai Cuisine: The past few times I ate at the Crystal Mall food court, I ordered the xiao long baos (steamed soup dumplings) from Wang's Shanghai Cuisine. You can see the ladies making these dumplings from scratch to ensure freshness. There is a lot of juice inside the dumplings and the skin is thin which is why I like them so much. For the food court price, these xiao long baos are great value and comparable to ones sold at restaurants.

Xiao long bao

Cherry Fruit Juicy and Ice Bar: The dessert on the left is the Mango and Strawberry shaved ice topped with vanilla ice cream and the dessert on the right is red bean with tang yuan (glutenous rice balls). The shaved ice dessert was pretty good with its fresh fruit and ice cream. The dessert on the right was good too but personally I prefer more thoroughly cooked red bean. I've also had their bubble tea before which I like!

L: Mango & Strawberry Shaved Ice; R: Red Bean & Tang Yuan

Overall, I don't ever go to Crystal Mall to shop but to eat then YES!

Soho Tea Room was all filled up even on a weekday evening, so we had to wait around 15 minutes before we were seated.

Sweet & Sour Fish Meal: I ordered the sweet & sour fish meal which came with a bowl of white rice and two side dishes. The fish dish was pretty flavourful but a little bit too sour for my liking.

Sweet & Sour Fish Meal

Honey Toast Box with Condensed Milk: This toast box tasted better than What8ver. Each piece of bread inside the box was coated with honey and bread mixed with ice cream was delicious. The dessert wasn't too sweet and there was lots of it to share!

Honey Toast Box

Chocolate Lava Cake: This lava cake was baked too thoroughly, causing the middle to be only mushy and not melted chocolate lava. Despite the lost lava texture, the cake came hot and tasted strongly of ooey-gooey chocolate served nicely with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Overall Soho Tea Room serves pretty good food, especially the desserts!

I think I ate one of my favourite pizzas in Vancouver at Bellaggio Cafe, the Vancouver Convention Centre location. I say think because I don't eat a lot of gourmet pizza.

The restaurant is a nice location and has a nice view looking out on Coal Harbour. They accommodated our large group very well and were attentive.

Baggio pizza: olives, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, parmesan, garlic, fresh basil

The pizza was 12 inches and sold as an individual portion but could easily fill two nicely. The crust was fresh and nicely bubbled from the oven providing crunch and some chewiness. I loved the small piles of goat cheese (white spots in photo) distributed over the pizza which added a punch of flavour and made the pizza even more delicious. YUM!

Baggio Pizza

Overall, the ambiance and food of Bellaggio Cafe would bring me back which is why I'm surprised the ratings on Urbanspoon is so low.

On a weekday evening, Las Margaritas was pretty crowded with diners but we were seated quickly by the hostess.

While waiting for our food, we were given a basket of complimentary tortilla chips with salsa. I liked these chips a lot because they seemed to be freshly fried and the salsa was a good consistency.

Salsa and chips

Cantina Platter: mini chimis, flour chicken flauta, chicken wings, cheese quesadilla, jalapeno peppers, chilima sauce, chipotle dip

This was a shared appetizer platter for two and filled us up well. All the items came hot but started to taste similar after awhile because there was a lot of fried tortilla. I didn't prefer the cheese quesadilla much because it was very plain without dip and the chicken wings were a bit overfried.

Cantina Platter

Fish Tacos: Each taco had two pieces of tortilla holding a piece of fried fish with beans and salad on the side. I really like fish tacos and have ordered them at many restaurants before. This one tasted good but definitely not the best I've had. There wasn't much flavour to the fish.

Fish Tacos

Overall, it was a solid meal at Las Margaritas albeit not very memorable food.

I don't think I have ever left the Granville Island Market Place without trying some type of dessert! This time I went to Stuart's originally intending to try their blueberry cheesecake but saw this French Opera Cake which I've never had before.

Stuart's cake box

The cake was too sweet for my taste and had layers chocolate, almond sponge cake and coffee buttercream. However, I can see this as a favourite for chocolate lovers.

French Opera Cake

Next time I'd probably try Stuart's cheesecakes, tarts or macarons instead!

Haroo changed their lunch hours again, now only open Friday to Sunday for lunch so when we went on a Wednesday afternoon it was closed. We walked next door to Deer Garden for lunch. All the tables were full when we were there but it didn't take too long until we were seated.

I ordered the noodle soup where you can choose the soup base, noodles and ingredients. The meal also comes with a complimentary drink which I added $2 to upgrade to a Red Bean with Vanilla Ice Cream drink. 

Here are the contents of my noodle soup:

Soup base - tomato and pumpkin

Noodles - udon

Toppings - fish fillet and beef slices

Overall, it was a large flavourful bowl of soup and the service was quick and efficient.

Trees Organic is known to some as the best cheesecake place in Vancouver which enticed me to try when I passed by it while in Gastown. The little shop's tables were all full with customers all eating their cheesecake.

I tried the blueberry cheesecake with high hopes and Trees Organic did not disappoint. This was a cheesecake texture that I have not tried before. It was more dense than Cheesecake Etc. but less firm than the typical New York Cheesecake. It was like firmer mousse cake which made it easy to consume. The cream cheese flavour was just right but the crust could be improved as it was too delicate and crumbled when the spoon hit it. Just personal preference that I like crust that supports the cake and stays together.

Blueberry cheesecake

Overall, although a bit pricey for one piece of cake I do like the cheesecake here and would visit again when I want to treat myself :)