Rainbow Butterfly

I took by parents out for a belated Chinese new year dinner on Friday. They're in Coquiltlam and I'm in Vancouver, so it was difficult for me to get out to see them other than on the weekend. The selection of Chinese cuisine in the tri-cities area is pretty abysmal, but Rainbow seems to be one of the better ones. I first found it through Sherman's Food Adventures earlier this year, and have been back for dim sum and dinner several times since. They look to be a family run business, with some hired help.

Rainbow Butterfly isn't named like your typical Chinese restaurant, and doesn't look like one either. The place looks like it was a former western diner or coffee house of some sort, and it's clear that they didn't bother to redecorate much. This is probably because the Chinese population around Port Coquitlam is pretty scarce, and they cater to a lot of western clientele. If you ever come here for dim sum and dinner, you'll notice quite a larger demographic of non-asians than at your typical Chinese restaurant. Their menus are heavily based on Americanized Chinese food as a result, with lots of sweet and sour, chop suey, egg foo young, fortune cookies, and other crap like that. No self-respecting Chinese person orders this garbage for dinner.

They do have authentic Chinese cuisine, which I find delicious and well-priced, but they only bother to publish these on the menu in Chinese characters, which is a shame. This means I can only ever eat dinner here when I'm out with my parents or other Chinese literate people. Why they do this is beyond me. They're probably losing a great deal of business this way. It's also probably why their place is virtually deserted at dinner time, while packed beyond belief at lunch. Another odd thing to note is that despite some Chinese-only menu items, Some of their Chinese waitresses at lunch isn't fully Chinese literate!

Since I had my parents with me that night, I got to eat the good stuff! We ordered from their set meal, which comes with soup, a bucket of rice and dessert, with a minimum order of 2 menu items. We ordered 3 items, and was immediately served the soup of the day. It was a pork bone soup with veggies. There were bits of pork that fell of the bone, carrots, onions, and lotus root in the soup. This was mildly seasoned and a very nice way to start the meal.

The last time we were here, we had 3 hot pot dishes. They were all $10.80 and were HUGE. We though it was a great value and expected more of the same this time. Unfortunately, the first dish that we ordered, Cod Fillets with Gai Lan, was underwhelmingly small. As the most expensive dish we ordered that night, we were not impressed with the tiny amount of fish. The last time we were here, we had a cod and tofu hot pot, and it was cheaper at $10.80 and at least 3 times the size; a giant pot stuffed with cod , tofu, shitake mushrooms and Chinese ham.

Fortunately, it was made up for by the extremely tender gai lan and melt in your mouth fish. The dish was tossed in a lightly salted thin sauce. We griped quite a bit amongst ourselves about the disappointing portion  here, but agreed that it was very tasty. We wouldn't ever order this again, but at least it was enjoyable.

The second dish we had was also a bit of a disappointment. It was a vegetarian dish made up of Tofu and Bean curds with Veggies. I don't quite know how to translate it into English, so that's the only description you're going to get. Again, we expected more tofu and less veggies. It became clear immediately that we had ordered more veggies than we would have liked. Again, the tofu was a mild thin sauce and very appetizing, but the broccoli was less impressive than the gai lan we had earlier. Some of it was slightly bitter, and my dad thinks it's probably pesticide that should have been washed off. Yuck! That aside, I still enjoyed this dish.

The last dish to arrive was the eagerly awaited hot pot. We ordered this last time and was my favorite dish so we had to order it again: Chicken and Taro in Coconut Sauce Hot Pot. This was a huge pot overflowing with thin slices of taro and boneless, skinless chicken. Most places I've been to serve this with skin-on, bone-on chicken, and makes it a chore to eat. Rainbow's version is the best I've had, and a great deal at $10.80. The chicken and taro are stewed in a thick coconut sauce with large cloves of garlic, and slices of ginger. This was as delicious as I remembered. We couldn't finish all of it, and I ended up packing it home. I had some for lunch today, and will finish off the rest of dinner tonight. YUM!

To finish off the meal, we received the daily desert, which was Red Bean with Black Glutinous Rice Soup. Most places just give you plain red bean soup, and this version with black glutinous rice was very welcome, and successful. It was not overly sweet, and the rice added a nice pleasing chewy texture. It was a fine way to to end the meal.

The final bill is pictured here, so you Chinese literate people can see what we ordered. It was about $15 per person after tips, and I think it was reasonable. It was a little disappointing today, and we had a much better experience last time with all hot pot items, but I think that we will still return some time in the future.

I've also been here for dim sum before, and as I mentioned previously, it's always packed. Their dim sum items are quite reasonably priced at $2.75 for most items, and with a wide selection to boot. As their restaurant was originally designed as as western diner, they have little room for push carts, so dim sum is by order forms only. They also have some cheap lunch specials from Monday to Friday, but the fact that these prices were only for weekdays is noted in Chinese only. This led to quite a rude surprise when we got the bill. The price for some items increases by as much as $2 on weekends, and others no longer come with soup and rice. On week days, these are under $7 or $8 and quite a deal in my opinion.

Also of note is that when I first sat down on Friday, I started snapping pics of the menu while my parents perused the menu. One of the wait staff (looks to be the owner or owner's wife) saw me and immediately came over to ask me to stop. She made it clear she didn't want their menu posted anywhere, and I will respect her request. I took one of their handout pamphlets on the way out, and will post pics of this instead. Unfortunately, it looks a bit outdated, and not quite the same as the one we were given at the table. Hopefully it will give you an idea of what they serve here and the price ranges.

Pros:
-large portions on hot pot items
-decently priced
-cheap dim sum
-mostly well-executed food

Cons:
-lots of westernized Chinese food on menu
-doesn't look like a Chinese restaurant
-packed during dim sum hours, doesn't take reservations for lunch
-good dinner items are in Chinese only
-inconsistent portion sizes
-parking lot can be packed during lunch hours

Notes:
-street parking can be found about a block away
-have cheap weekday lunch specials

Menu: (owner requested for full menu to be omitted, so here is the take out menu/pamphlet)

Peart Castle (Sexsmith, Richmond)

Pearl Castle is another restaurant that we've regularly frequented after Tuesday sports night. It's a Taiwanese bubble tea house, as its namesake suggests, but we come here for the food, which is surprisingly decent and reasonably priced. I find their drinks overpriced, as with most bubble tea joints, and come here exclusively for the food.

As with a lot of Taiwanese restaurants, they offer "set meals" which encompasses an entree with a bowl of rice, some daily appetizers, and a dessert. Pearl Castle offers set meals for under $9. I've been told that their food used to be over $10, but they've lowered their prices in recent years to be much more reasonable prices.

I felt like having fish today, but most meats in Taiwanese cuisine is deep fried,  and I didn't feel like a deep fried dish today. I asked the waitress which fish meal wasn't deep fried, and it turns out there was only one: Sliced Cod with Dried Soy Beans.

I've never seen this item before and wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a fillet of cod topped with a puree of soybeans stir-fried with scallions and dark soy sauce. The soybeans were very crunchy and nutty, and complimented the cod well. It was a little on the salty side on its own, but was delicious when mixed with the cod and rice. I enjoyed this dish quite a bit, and the fact that it's healthier than their usual fried meat dishes is a big plus.

The appies today consisted of stir-fried celery, stewed cabbages, and sweet and sour tofu with scallions. The veggies were well-seasoned and very tender. Both were cooked in a nice broth and not overly salty. The tofu was very nice and tangy, and I wish they gave me more than the 5 tiny pieces.

Unfortunately, the dessert have been quite underwhelming here lately. Maybe it's because we come here so late, but we've been getting just a small cup of prepackaged lychee jelly. The first time we came here, we got some house-made sweet grass jelly, but since then it's been this crappy commercially bought crap. I hope it's just because they've ran out for the day, and not defaulting to this to cut costs.

Only Material Boy came out with me today for late night eats. He ordered the Fried Pork Chop with Rice, which turned out to be fried rice. The is your typical Taiwanese fried meat, which some people love but I'm not a big fan of. This pork chop was lightly breaded and not overly oily. There was also a lot of bone, but I guess it's the luck of the draw.

The rice was fried with egg, scallions, grated carrots, and large slices of onion. This was a very large portion, and also very delicious. Material Boy thought it was a bit on the oily side though. He though his meal was too large and couldnt' finish it all. He elected to eat all the rice instead of all of the pork chop, and I think  he made the right decision since the rice was very tasty. This also came with a complimentary dessert, which again, was the store-bought lychee jelly. He also ordered a Mango Slush, which was nice and refreshing, but again, I think is overpriced.

I think the food at Pearl Castle is well-priced for what you get. It's also well-executed, and we're sure to be back from time to time in the future.

Pros:
-good food
-decently priced
-decent portions

Cons:
-overpriced drinks (IMHO)

Notes:
-plenty of free parking in the complex 

Menus: (Argh! blurry pics again...)

The Point Grill

Instead of going to the student-run Pit Pub for the upteenth time, today we decided to go to Point Grill. It was sunny out for a change, and no one was interested in sitting in a divey, aptly named Pit in a dark dank basement. The Point Grill is on the pricier side of campus eats, and just a shy less expensive than dining at the Sage Bistro.

I've never been here before, and was recommended to go for the Berber Chicken Burger, or one of their gourmet thin crust pizzas. I haven't had a burger in quite a while, so I decided on this plus a gluttonous side of their famous garlic fries instead of a healthy salad.

The burger "patty" is several slices chicken of boneless, skin-on chicken thighs marinated with "berber" sauce and topped with vegies and avocado salsa. Berber sauce is apparently a sauce of north African origin, and it was very mild here. The thigh, while moist and barbequed to a nice crisp skin, wasn't very flavorful on its own, and the sauce and salsa was a bit to mild and didn't quite work for me. I ended up having to add a couple of shakes of Frank's Red Hot sauce to kick up burger up a bit; It wasn't very tasty on its own. There also wasn't a lot of thigh meat on the burger, and it was definitely less meat than you typically get with a chicken breast patty. I find this odd since thighs are usually cheaper than breasts.

The Garlic Fries, however, were a great side. They were fried to a good crispness but not oily to the taste, and tossed in a generous amount of aromatic garlic salt. There were also a good portion served with the burger, and I had to pass some around as I just couldn't finish it all. Despite the generous portion of delicious fries, I would rather have had more meat on the burger instead.

The other burger they are famous for is the Canadian AAA Prime Rib Burger. This is a 6oz patty topped with cheddar, bacon, onion marmalade, mustardy  mayo, and greens. Mr. Production practically inhaled this burger and accompanying fries without chewing. He  loved the burger and was fully satisfied and fully stuffed. I probably should have ordered this instead :P


The third burger we had at our table was the Veggie Burger. It's a brown rice and soy patty topped with gruyere and avocado salsa. Few people who order a veggie burger get it with fries, and of course, Bookworm opted for a side of Farmer's Green Salad instead, which again was a very generous portion. She had no complaints about the burger.


Point Grill is also remarked for their thin crust pizzas, and the one represented at our table was the Prawn & Crab. This was adorned with large chunks of prawns and real crab, feta, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and onions. This also looked very delicious and something that I want to try when I come back.

A unique item on their menu is the High Fiber and Protein Wrap, described as "Vancouver Island smoked tofu, bulgur wheat, Colusari red rice, quinoa flakes, brown flax seeds, alfalfa spouts, & tomato salsa, all wrapped in a jalapeño tortilla." Booties loved the smoked tofu and remarked that this is probably the "whitest" tofu you can get. She's probably right since I don't think I've ever seen "smoked" tofu served at any asian restaurant. As with the veggie burger, fries wouldn't be on the mind of anyone who orders a high fiber tofu wrap, and Booties too opted for a side salad.

One of our party had already eaten lunch, and so ordered just a dessert. She choose the Chocolate Marquise, which is described as a "chocolate paté" garnished with heavy cream and fruit coulis. She didn't really enjoy the paté, indicating that it had the consistency of a very hard fudge.

The last item at our table was a side Classic Caesar Salad. This again was a very generous portion for a side salad.

Although I didn't really enjoy my burger, the fries were very good and most everyone else seemed to be happy with their meals.  I was told that the food would take a long time to arrive, and it was indeed a long wait after we ordered before we received our food. The decor was sharp and wait staff was very attentive, constantly  refilling our waters. It is more than twice as expensive as the burgers we normally get at the Pit Pub, but the quality of the burger and fries were definitely a few notches up. The locale is also well-designed with large sunlit windows on every wall. A great contrast to the dark dank pit that is, well, the Pit Pub.

The point grill is decent place to go when you are at UBC and want a good dining experience that doesn't break the bank, but if I wanted a good burger, I would go to Vera's Burger Shack at the UBC Village Complex. I will, however, have to come back sometime to try their prime rib burger, and the high fiber protein wrap.


Pros:
-new restaurant with modern pleasing decor and well sun-lit dining room
-attentive staff
-a place to eat at UBC that isn't a cafeteria, franchise, or hole in the wall.
-large side portions

Cons:
-food takes a while to prepare
-a tiny bit on the pricey side for what you get
-parking on campus is pricey and limited unless you are already there for the day.


Notes:
-parking available across the street at West Parkade

Website and Menu: http://www.food.ubc.ca/locations-and-hours/campus-restaurants/the-point-grill

Aqua Riva

For Dine Out Vancouver 2011, we decided to go to Aqua Riva, simply because they were the only restaurant that could accommodate our group at the time everyone was available. It started out pretty terrible, and stayed that way. Half of us couldn't find the damn place. The address is listed as 200 Granville St, but the restaurant is actually on Howe... This is because it's part of a complex called Granville Square that spans several blocks. For those looking to find the place, it's on Howe right next to Canada Place.

Aqua Riva is usually ridiculously expensive, but the $28 Dine Out menu brings them into affordable territory. The restaurant itself was impressive large, and most impressively, completely packed at 8pm on a weekday. We were lucky enough to be seated window side and had a gorgeous view of Canada Place and Vancouver harbor.

We received the usual complimentary baskets of bread after we made our orders. Instead of your usual sourdough, there was french bread and slices of focaccia. These were served with the usual whipped butter, but also some mild salsa, which complimented the bread very well. The breads themselves were very fresh, with a crisp crust and soft, moist interior. This was a very pleasant start to the meal, but it wouldn't last.

I, along with several others opted to start with the Sesame Crusted Scallops with Spinach and Cous Cous Salad and Orange Sesame Vinaigrette. The scallops were supposed to be seared but they turned out to be cooked on one side and raw on the other. The raw portion was also very gummy and rubbery, and not very appetizing. The cous cous, on the other hand, was a great appetizer. Dressed in a mildly tart orange sesame vinaigrette, it was a very good way to whet one's appetite for the entree.

Others in my party had the Manhattan Seafood Chowder with Chorizo Sausage and Saffron. I'm not a fan of soups, but everyone who had the soup enjoyed it. I guess I should have had the soup instead. No one opted for the third appie option, which was Baby Green Salad with Smoked Wild Sockeye Salmon and Grilled White and Green Asparagus and Sherry Dijon Vinaigrette.

For the main, I choose the Ginger Potato Crusted Wild Salmon with Grilled Asparagus Risotto, Corn and Black Bean Salsa and Basil Butter Sauce. Everyone enjoyed the deliciously crisp potato crust, and found the salmon well-seasoned, but all agreed the filet was a bit dry. The corn and black bean salsa was bland and detracted from the flavorful fish. I could have done without it.


Those that ended up with the Wood Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Cajun Jumbo Fries and Salsa Verde weren't too happy with their meals. Nobody had their steak cooked to the degree they wanted. Medium became medium rare, and medium became a bloody chewy piece of rubber. Nobody sent their steaks back to the kitchen but they really should have. The "cajun jumbo fries" turned out to be greek style baked potatoes, but the cajun spice was so mild they tasted practically like plain baked potatos.

The Orecchiette Pasta with Grilled Prawns, Shiitake Mushrooms, Spinach, Ancho Chilies and Basil Pesto Cream Sauce turned out to be the entree to get, as everyone who had the pasta thoroughly enjoyed their dish. Unfortunately I didn't get an acceptable photo of this dish. As you can see from the blurry pics above, I'm still struggling with my new camera :-(

For dessert, I had the Banana Chocolate Mousse Cake. This was garnished with a fried banana and fruit coulis. Neither the fried banana nor cake was very successful. The banana wasn't fried to a good crispness, and wasn't sweetened. This piece of banana wasn't very naturally sweet either, and this made for a very soft, yet chalky slice of banana. The cake also had a serious lack of sugar. The chocolate ganache had a rough texture and the cake was very dry. The middle layer was just a blended banana paste, and the whole thing felt like a chore to eat. I had McDonald's new baked banana chocolate pie just a few days prior, and enjoyed it much more than this, and that only costs 70 cents. I guess this might be suitable for someone who likes a very mild dessert, but for a guy with a sweet tooth, this was a failure.


Conversely, the folks who had the Apple and Cranberry Crisp complained that it was too sugary. To put it into perspective, one said that you needed to mix the ice cream to drown out the sweetness of the rest of the dish. I ended up taking some apple crisp to sweeten and moisten up my dull, dry cake.

Given the asking price, the food here definitely wasn't worth it. If you're going to be asking $25-30+ for an entree, serving dry fish and undercooked steak isn't acceptable. This Dine Out experience certainly didn't entice us to return for their regular menu. I'm quite surprised that there were such glaring mistakes with each course that was served. Given the price and locale, Aqua Riva seems like a tourist trap, so I guess we'll be leaving it to the tourists.

Pros:
-great ambiance and view
-attentive, friendly service

Cons:
-expensive
-underwhelming food
-hard to locate

Notes:
-easily accessible by skytrain

Website and Menu: www.aquariva.com