Upon walking into Marutama Ra-men we were greated warmly by all the staff. We sat down at one of the large wooden tables and placed our order. The food came quickly and hot which I appreciated.

I ordered the Tamago Ra-men with the soft boiled egg. The broth at Marutama is not as milky white as some of the other ramen places but I still found it good and flavourful. The pork slices were better than the ones I had at Kintaro because these were layered with meat and fat making each slice extremely easy to eat. I was most impressed by the egg because when you bite into it, the centre flows out in a thick yellow gooey consistency that is slightly sweet. It's not easy to make this egg without overcooking it.

Tamago Ra-men

Overall I really enjoyed my dining experience here and would definitely come again if I am craving ramen. However given the small size of the restaurant don't come here in a large group.

We went to Hapa Izakaya on Robson during their Hapa Hour (5:30-6:30pm) and had such yummy food with great service! All the items on the Hapa Hour menu were under $5 including $1.5 each fresh raw oysters.

Beef Tataki: Lightly seared AAA beef, sesame chili sauce

This was like a Japanese version of beef carpaccio and tasted good in its own way. The sesame chili sauce was flavourful and mixed well with the fried onion pieces and raw beef. There is no cheese like in beef carpaccio.

Beef tataki

Ebi Mayo: tempura prawn, spicy mayo sauce

There were 6 prawns fried to crunchiness and generously covered in mayo sauce that wasn't that spicy. Very yummy appetizer to share with friends.

Ebi Mayo

Hanabi Roll: Spicy tuna, cucumber, wasabi tobiko, spicy miso

The Hanabi roll was one of the most fun dishes on the Hapa Hour menu because when it came, the server took a torch and blasted fire at our sushi dish! It didn't make the sushi hot like I thought it would but just added some crunch to the top pieces.

Hanabi Roll

Joyce Point Raw Oyster: Cortes Island BC - mild, sweet, briny finish

There were three dipping sauces that came with the oysters - sweet, slightly spicy and savoury. The oysters were plump, cleaned well and tasted refreshing!

Joyce Point Raw Oysters

Spicy Pork Ishi-Yaki: Rice, minced pork, flower, chives, egg, tomato,lettuce, spicy miso, served in a hot stone bowl

When this stone bowl came, it reminded me of Korean bibimbap but didn't taste like it at all. Our server mixed all the contents of the bowl thoroughly for us then told us to wait for a minute to let the rice harden on the edges of the bowl which will taste crunchy later. It was a hearty bowl of rice that was quite wet with the sauces and ingredients.

Spicy Pork Ishi-Yaki

Overall, I'm glad that I found out about Hapa Hour here and ate all this good food during dinner time for the price of a lunch meal. Will come again!

I've been curious about Joe Fortes since I saw it on the Dine Out Vancouver website so I did not hesitate to take advantage of their lunch special for the month of March. This post compiles photos from two visits: lunch and happy hour.

There was complimentary baguette with lobster oil and sweetened vinegar. My friends and I all agreed that the lobster oil reminded us of XO sauce!

Complimentary bread

The Salmon Cakes was a carb loaded dish with its buttery mashed potatoes and squash plus all the buttery oils in the cakes themselves. Unhealthiness aside, this was a great dish! Each bite was smooth and effortless comfort food.

Salmon Cakes

I believe last summer was the first time I've tried fish tacos and now every time I go to a restaurant and see it on the menu, it is my immediate choice. The freshly deep fried tempura style fish strips smelled so good as the dish was placed in front of me. I also appreciated how there was plenty of chipotle aioli, guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo because some restaurants only give a very small amount of sauce for their dishes. Don't forget the tortillas in the top left corner to wrap it all together! The dish made four tacos and I was happily full after the second one.

Fish Tacos

The Ling Cod and Chips was made with the same crispy, light batter and served with tartar sauce, ketchup, and coleslaw. The size of the piece of fish definitely outcompetes any fish and chips I've seen before!

Ling Cod and Chips

Now onto the Happy Hour menu items. These are just appetizers that you can order during restaurant hours but during Happy Hour (4-6PM) they are 50% off. Our server for lunch was very friendly but our server for Happy Hour was more dismissive. I couldn't help but think that it was because our bill total was lower with the discount so that was why the service was inconsistent.

Anyways, onto the food. This is the first time I've had raw beef and I'm happy to say that it was a delicious experience. The Beef Carpaccio included grainy mustard, roasted garlic, grana padano and crispy capers. The beef slices were very tender with absolutely no tough veins and a great match with the spinach and cheese.

Beef Carpaccio

I didn't catch the name of the raw oysters but they sure were fresh. I've had raw oysters before at an oyster farm where the fisherman opened it in front of us almost directly from the sea. Those were very salty from the sea water.

Raw oysters

The Tempura Prawns were fried as nicely as the fish tacos and ling cod above. There was an excessive amount of togarashi mayo on the side considering that there were only three prawns.

Jumbo Tempura Prawns

Overall, the food at Joe Fortes is definitely worth the hype and even better with their promotions. Since I use social media often, I like that Joe Fortes engages in good social media use to answer customer questions and release news. For example, I learned about their lunch special on Twitter.

The last Capstone I visited was the Richmond location and tonight I visited the Robson Street location. It was filled with customers when we arrived at 6pm and even with pre-made reservation we had to wait a little while.

We tried two drinks, one was a Blueberry Shaken Iced Tea and the other was a Strawberry Banana Frappe. Both were good but slightly too sweet especially paired with chocolate fondue.

The cheese fondue was swiss cheese and tasted slightly sweet. It may have had some chicken broth in it but I'm not sure. I liked the bread and pretzels best with the cheese.

The chocolate fondue was very rich and filling. We chose almond and peanut pieces for dips. The ice cream flavours were mango, black seasame, and green tea. When I ate at the Richmond location the green tea ice cream was so rich in matcha flavour but this time it was lacking so the black seasame was the best for me tonight. In general the chocolate fondue tasted better than the cheese one.

Some friends and I were talking about Korean BBQ so I searched online for restaurants around Vancouver and the name Pork Belly Beer House stood out.

It is a small restaurant with mostly Korean customers which is a good sign if locals eat here!
There's only one choice on the menu which is the $15 all you can eat. There were pork slices, beef bulgogi, kimchi soup, rice, lettuce, kimchi, egg and sausage, and assorted soda.

Eating here was a little like eating in a Korean family's home because it was so laid back.
All the meat was already precooked and marinated with wine. We only put it on the grill to reheat and form grill marks.

The walls are filled with signatures and writing so we added our own as well :)

Overall the food is not the most delicious and the menu variety is far from plentiful but I enjoyed my meal  here where we just ate as much as we wanted and shared stories.

Yesterday Robson Street was crowded with bloody, ripped clothed people and it wasn't even Halloween! I accidently stepped on a bloody ear while crossing the street. Later I found out that it was the Zombiewalk.

We stopped by two Japanese places for snacks while on Robson. The Donburiya menu with the picture of takoyaki caught our eye so we went in. A friendly Japanese girl greeted us behind the cash register and we ordered our food then sat down. It is a self serve restaurant.

Takoyaki was $6.25 for 10 which is a better deal than the night market. Most importantly we could sit comfortably to eat unlike at the night market where you have to eat amongst the crowds of people in the food aisles.

The takoyaki came almost hot with plenty of mayo and sauce on top. Each one had little cubes of squid and warm batter. The only thing missing were the bonito flakes that are fun to watch "move"!

For dessert we went to Bon Crepe and ordered the Banana Chocolate Whipped cream crepe. They were so good! There were thin banana slices and the whipped cream was thick enough so it did not melt immediately from the heat of the crepe. I had crepes twice in Quebec but I prefer Japanese crepes better. I want to try the savoury crepes from Bon Crepe next time.