THIS IS A RESTAURANT BLOG

THIS IS A REVIEW:
Recently The Boyfriend and I went to Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, on an errand. While we were there we planned to go to a Chinese restaurant in the area. The task of picking the place was supposed to be my responsibility, but I didn't have time to do it and still make it there on time, so I called up a friend and asked her for her advice. She mentioned a place and we walked there, but it was closed Mondays.

We sort of walked around after that and ended up picking, of all places, Felico's, a Greek restaurant. We agreed that there was a sort of delicious incongruity in Chinese food fanatics coming to Richmond, Chinese central of the Vancouver area, and not eating Chinese.

It was actually a rather cool and overcast day, so I don't know why I ordered a frozen mango margarita, but I did.



It was alright, neither fantastic nor horrible.



The pita bread, on the other hand, was fantastic. It was so warm and fresh like it had just come from the oven. Mmmmmm.



We ordered two dishes. Here is the Oreftika Platter, which is their appetizer combo and costs $19.95. I don't know if the picture does it justice but this thing had an overwhelming amount of calamari. Since The Boyfriend doesn't like calamari it was all for me, and it was a bit of struggle, because I like calamari but this was like five squids worth. We ended up taking most of it home, which brings me to something that really irritated me: there was a good amount of hummus and tsatsiki left, but they didn't pack it up. They did, however, carefully pack up the au jus that went with our lamb dish that neither of us gave a crap about. So it definitely wasn't that they didn't have those mini sauce take-out containers. Grrrr. It was really good hummus!

I also wasn't a big fan of the spanakopita and the stuffed grape leaves were too meaty for my taste. They were more like grape leaf wrapped meatballs. Which is good, but not what I think of when I think of this dish. Too much beef, not enough rice.



The other dish was the Kleftico ($16.95), lamb in mustard sauce served with roasted veggies. The Boyfriend was skeptical at the idea of mustard on lamb but it was quite good. Very, very fatty but so tender and juicy. It put me in mind of the traditional Sunday dinner, something that would be the highlight of your week.

My overall impression of the place was a mixed bag. They did some things really well but there were a number of things that irritated me needlessly. I'm somewhat of a stick in the mud so when I noticed that they hadn't charged me for my tea (I got mint tea) I brought it up to the waitress. In this kind of situation, when a restaurant makes a mistake and undercharges on a minor item, I'm used to them just waving it off, but she said she would fix the bill. I wouldn't have a problem with that either, except she took forever to fix it! We were standing right there and she couldn't seem to figure out how to add the tea. I was thinking "Surely at this point she will wave off what is essentially the cost of a tea bag?" But no, we had to wait for at least five minutes as she and another person (a manager?) wrestled the machine into adding the tea.

Even more irritating was the aforementioned failure to pack up the hummus and tzatziki. Even thinking about the hummus now, I want some. It was so full of garlic!

THIS IS A SUMMARY:
Name: Felico's
Location: 8140 Leslie Rd Richmond, BC (604) 276-8282
Prices: $7-11 for appies, $15-25 for entrees, as well as three platters for two around $35
Service: See above.
Food: Very good Greek food in an upscale atmosphere.
Recommended?: I'm undecided. I guess I would say I liked it. But there's this niggling dissatisfaction at the same time.

THIS IS A REVIEW:
I've decided to label the "neighborhoods" that Taipei reviews are listed and tagged under according to the nearest MRT Station, because to be honest that's how I organize them in my brain. You're going to see a lot of reviews from around Taipower (where I lived) and nearby Gongguan (where I went to school), and I basically never ventured anywhere that wasn't within walking distance of the MRT. The MRT is also extremely easy for non-Chinese speakers to use, so that's a plus.

Ok, that out of the way, to get to the current assignment, exit at exit 3, pause to wave at the building across the street where I once lived if you like, and go up Shida Rd. (By up, I mean not crossing Roosevelt Rd.) You'll see kgb across the street from the Wellcome Supermarket.

When I visited kgb with a classmate, it had literally been open a week. But they had their act together already, and I'm happy to see that Google confirms they are still in business.



The interior of kgb is very hip, warm, cozy and bistro-like, with soft lighting. It's a good place to take a date because many of the tables for two are in the corner so that you sit next to each other rather than across from each other, hence why you can see my friend Anthony's hand. XD He was just a friend, Gordon, I swear!

As you can see, kgb offers a wide selection of New Zealand and Australian beer, as well as some beer from a Taipei microbrewery. Since I had never had NZ beer before, I tried the Monteith's Radler. I liked it. :3 If you click on the photo you can enlarge it and squint at the menu--if you have good eyes you might be able to make out that they sell a number of non-alcoholic drinks as well, such as teas, milkshakes, and sodas. Anthony is drinking iced rooibos IIRC.



I ordered the CC Chicken Burger. The CC stands for "camembert and cranberry" which is apparently a popular combination on sandwiches in NZ. They also sold a CC Burger (you know, with cow meat). I paired it with a salad (what is up with me pairing fatty sandwiches with salads, honestly, who I am kidding) with their tangy house dressing. Incidentally, the quality of the veg on the sandwiches is no joke. No sad, pale iceberg at kgb.



Anthony ordered his burger with lime aioli. I'm afraid I didn't write down the name, but it was awesome. Er, yes, he let me have a bite. *shifty eyes*

I went again at a later time on the spur of the moment with my roommate, and at that time I ordered the same thing Anthony had. They were sold out of their New Zealand beers so I tried Victoria Bitter (resounding "yay") and a North Taiwan Brewing Co. version of a witbier (resounding "meh").

Also apparently putting beetroot and egg on your burger is a big NZ thing to do, and kgb has a version of that as its signature dish.

THIS IS A SUMMARY:
Name: kgb
Location: #5, Lane 114, Shida Rd, Taipei, Taiwan ROC (台北市大安區師大路114巷5號) (02) 2363-6015
Prices: NT$200-300 (US$6-9) for sandwiches with sides, imported beers from NT$100-150 ($3-4)
Service: Friendly--like many places in the area, the waitstaff seemed to all be students at the very nearby teacher's college. Your server will definitely be fluent in English and Mandarin. Menus have English on one side, Chinese on the other. No service charge.
Food: To my American taste buds, the combinations were unusual but refreshing. The burger itself wasn't quite as good as nearby Evans Burger, but the toppings more than made up for that.
Recommended?: Take someone you are MOST DEFINITELY NOT HAVING A SUMMER FLING WITH to kgb. He or she will love you for it. Platonically. *coughs*

THIS IS A REVIEW:
The New Bohemian (subtitled "Local Restaurant and Social Lounge", I guess as opposed to restaurants that require out-of-province ID at the door and bars which cater to agoraphobics) sent me a card in the mail for $10 off. This is a good way to get me to try your restaurant because I am a sucker for coupons and sales. So, Gordon and I tripped over there.

The atmosphere is similar to a lot of recently opened high-end casual restaurants: lots of muted lighting and warm colors, hip music, couches for VIPs and their posses to crowd around, and at least one piece of bizarre decoration. In this case it's that "icon" sign you see to the right of the bar. What does it mean? Who knows?

Our waitress fit the scene to a T, with her stylish outfit that could have fit in perfectly at a club. She was friendly and gave me the frank advice that I had better not have the soup, because not many people order it during the summer so it's not as good. A quibble: we had to ask what the specials were, then we had to ask about drink specials, and finally I had to ask what the soup was (spurring her advice). Overall though she was excellent.



Drinks first. Gordon ordered the Bohemian Lager on tap, and I ordered a gin and tonic. Despite being a drink special, my gin and tonic didn't skimp on the gin. With my meal, I ordered a caipirinha, because I had never tasted cachaça before. Interestingly enough, although Gordon and I are often bitterly opposed on cocktails (he likes vodka, I like gin) we both really liked the caipirinha. COULD THIS DRINK BRING ABOUT WORLD PEACE? Possibly. We'll have to get a bourbon partisan and a scotch supporter to taste it, then we'll see.

For an appetizer, we ordered the 1/2 pound mussels and frites ($9), because Gordon had never tried mussels. We picked the leek and chardonnay sauce option for the mussels. I think the subtlety of the sauce was the perfect way to let the plump mussels shine. The frites were sprinkled with kosher salt, and although they were served with ketchup, we dipped them into the mussel sauce.



We had long debates about what to order for our meals. The New Bohemian uses organic meat and Ocean Wise seafood, "Ocean Wise" meaning that the Vancouver Aquarium approved of it in some fashion. After a number of rounds of "Well if you get that then I could get this, but if you get this I'll get this other thing," we decided on the grilled wild salmon sandwich for him ($14, plus $1.25 for yam frites instead of potato frites) and the slow-braised organic lamb shank for me ($20). Gordon asked for no tomatoes. Well, I asked. He didn't want to make a fuss. LOL.

His sandwich was great: two thick pieces of salmon steak with a splash of lemon aioli and some greens, served on a warm and crunchy ciabatta. And served with a truly enormous bowl of yam frites, with a curry mayo to dip them in. I don't know what's up with Vancouver and yam frites, but I can get behind it.



As soon as my plate got to me, I just sat and inhaled for about a minute, it smelled so good. The lamb was fork-tender and covered with a tangy tomato puree. The angelhair pasta's truffle cream sauce was low-key, yet it held its own against the strong flavors of the meat. I would have liked a few more veggies, but that's partly because the ones that were there were so tasty. :3

Gordon was still slightly hungry after we finished our main courses. We debated getting another food item or dessert, and finally decided to split a vanilla bean cheesecake ($6.50) and two signature coffees.



I was a little sad for our dessert. Real vanilla bean is such a lovely flavor. There was absolutely no need to smother the poor little vanilla bean cheesecake with raspberry and caramel sauces, not to mention the assertive flavor of graham cracker crust. I don't think that caramel and raspberry go together that well in the first place. The bites I enjoyed the most were the ones I got with only cheesecake on my fork. However, this might be another case of YMMV. Gordon remarked on how great the raspberry sauce was, and he used his fork to scrape up caramel and raspberry sauce when the cheesecake was gone.

Gordon told me his verdict was that this was a good place to impress a date. ^_^ He didn't really need to impress me, but I agree that this is a fun date place. I think it's especially a good place to try something new, either libations-wise or food-wise, but their more conventional offerings will please the hidebound. It's not a cheap place if you're drinking--our bill was about $86 (including tax, not including tip, not including our coupon). If you need a place to unwind after flipping another downtown condo, you could eat here regularly. The rest of us can have it as a special occasion. :)

I should also note that The New Bohemian is open nightly until 2am, and it advertises that its kitchen is open "late". How late is late, I don't know, but Vancouver's cardinal flaw in my eyes is that even restaurants are mostly closed by 10. I'm the kind of person who thinks life doesn't even begin until then. So if you're looking for something late night, this might be a place to try.

THIS IS A SUMMARY:
Name: The New Bohemian
Location: 3162 W. Broadway, Vancouver, BC 604.736.7576 (reservations recommended on Fridays and Saturdays)
Prices: $15-25/person for food, beers $4-7, cocktails $5-10, wines by the bottle $27 and up, wines by the glass $6.75-12.50
Service: The waiters may be cooler than you, but they won't be snooty. Attentive, friendly, and prompt. Food and drinks came out quickly. Restroom clean, but it looked like it was not wheelchair friendly (the toilet blocks the path to the sink).
Food: Contemporary Western fare done excellently with fresh, often organic ingredients. An inventive and skilled bartender offers old standbys and many intriguing new combinations, with champagne cocktails a specialty.
Recommended?: A special occasion and a wish for experimentation? Look no further.