Fortune Restaurant (Vancouver, CANADA) ★★★☆☆

I literally grew up with this restaurant and still remembered the time when it first opened doors to customers at the Oakridge Mall. Time really flies. This is a place famous for its bird's net, shark's fin, braised abalone among other dishes. I told my parents I needed to be here at least once before I left.

Oh my.....braised abalone with spinach.



and shark's fin soup, still tasted like the good old days.

 

Lobster with noodles in creamy cheese sauce. It's a classic here.



Things have changed a lot since I left but I still remembered those days when my family friends used to gather here for special occasions. Those days were golden. 


Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 650 West 41st Avenue #608, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tel: +1 604 266-7728

Le Crocodile (Vancouver, CANADA) ★★★★☆

It's always nice to visit good friends. Le Crocodile and I went way back. If my memory serves me correctly, I had my very first dinner here in 1992 and have been a regular customer ever since. I could recall some of my fondest memories celebrated here so this is a very special place for me. 

It's difficult to explain why I like this place so much. Perhaps it's the cozy ambience that makes me feel right at home. Could have been the impeccable service and the extensive menu as well. Now whenever I visited the city again, I would make sure that I pay them a visit.




As always, we started dinner here with a nice warm quiche.

 

Half Roasted Lobster in thermidor style. I had this dish a zillion times before and it's still as good as ever.



But I thought no starter could beat my favorite dish, the Dungeness Crab Cake with basil Aioli. Stunning presentation and the taste was even better!



We had a third starter which was a garlic sautéed frog's leg in chive butter sauce along with tomato puree. I thought it was just average.



Unfortunately, the main courses (both the meat and fish course) paled in comparison to the starters. That was disappointing.

Petite four was their signature crocodile chocolates. That remains a constant all these years.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 100-909 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tel: +1 604 669-4298
Website: http://lecrocodilerestaurant.com/




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Sockeye City Grill (Vancouver, CANADA) ★★★☆☆

We're spending much of the afternoon in Richmond; first off a short stint at the Fisherman's Wharf near Steveston Harbour.

For a day in June, it was certainly a very windy one. Luckily for us, we did bring our autumn clothes along on this trip.

There were still another few hours to go before dinner so Jelloman didn't even brink when she got her hands dirty with this seafood platter at Sockeye City Grill. Look at the three huge piece of deep-fried local oysters!

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 108-3800 Bayview Street, Richmond, BC, Canada

Tel: +1 604 275-6790

Website: www.sockeyecitygrill.com

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 7:00pm (Mon - Thu), 11:00am - 8:00pm (Fri - Sun)

White Spot Cambie & 13th (Vancouver, CANADA) ★★★☆☆

When White Spot expanded its Triple-O's chain into Hong Kong, it was primarily a burger joint but I have been telling Jelloman that it's more of a North American diner with a small selection of sandwiches and burgers back in my hometown. Seeing is believing so I decided to bring her to a White Spot nearby. After all, we have a very light itinerary today before we fly over to Alberta tomorrow morning.

Some selfies before our dishes arrived.

Fried eggs, bacon, harsh brown and butter toasts; haven't had these for ages. Jelloman thought this was boring so she ordered egg benedict instead.

After breakfast, we took a slow walk down Cambie Bridge to get a closer look at some of the city's landmark architecture including General Motor's Place. 

And BC Place. It was at this time that it started to rain a little bit. And I thought June was the best time of the year to visit Vancouver with some of the best weather of the year. 

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: $$$

Address: 2850 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Tel: +1 604 873-1252

Website: www.whitespot.ca

True Confections Denman (Vancouver, CANADA) ★★★☆☆

We didn't eat much at all during dinner tonight cuz we knew about our mission later in the evening - to visit one of my favorite cake shop near Stanley Park, called True Confections. 

I used to visit this branch of True Confections a lot during my university days partly due to its proximity to UBC where I studied. It's a short 10-minute drive so whenever we studied late, it was the perfect venue to charge our battery with something sweet. There were two things that we would always order - their pecan pie and New York style cheesecake. I won't say there were the best pecan pie and NY cheesecake ever but back then in Vancouver, there were just not that many choices out there when it came to desserts, or more especially cakes.

We got here pretty late and were dealt with a huge blow when we saw the long lineup in front of the cafe. There was no way we could get in before their closing time so rather than wasting time in the lineup, we wound up getting our pecan pie and cheesecake to go. These tasted exactly like they did more than a decade ago. I was nice to get those flavors back in my mouth.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 866 Denman Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Tel: +1 604 682-1292

Website: www.trueconfections.ca

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 12:00am (Sun - Fri), 10:00am - 1:00am (Sat) 

Cardero's (Vancouver, CANADA) ★★★☆☆

It was really sad for me to find out that a lot of those restaurants I used to visit during my university days are no longer here. Cardero's is one of the few that still survives.

Cardero's is located along the waterfront of the Coal Harbour Quay and we used to come here a lot before moving back to Asia many years ago. The company behind Cardero's also operates the Tea Room (Stanley Park) and Seasons on the Park (QE Park) so they have been in this business for a long time.



As their slogan "We are fish, chops and wok" already gives it away, this is a place you come to enjoy seafood while also have the luxury of having great food from the grill and wok (Chinese kitchen). And if those do not excite you at all, they also have sandwiches, burgers, pastas, pizzas etc. to pepper your palates. 

My personal favorite here has always been the local BC Albacore tuna crusted with sesame that was lightly seared rare and served with wasabi and soy sauce. The albacore always melts in my mouth. Can't beat that feeling! 



Their pan-fried oysters were also to die for although I didn't like the horseradish cocktail sauce that goes with it.



Today we simply couldn't get enough of the local seafood so we went on to order an ahi Tuna & tomato salad to get the parade going.  






Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$

Address: 1583 Coal Harbour Quay, Coal Harbour, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tel: +1 604 669-7666
Website: www.vancouverdine.com/carderos