Tomahawk Restaurant

A novelty gift shop, Canadian map place mats, all day breakfast and a First Nations theme defined our experience today at the award-winning Tomahawk on the North Shore. It's somewhere that I've been wanting to go to ever since I saw it on Diners, Drive ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri. When I saw one of my favourite Food Network hosts, John Catucci, take a try himeself, I thought to myself now I really have to go!

Tomahawk is located at 1550 Phillip Ave, North Vancouver. The exterior of the place looks nothing like an ordinary restaurant and it blends in with a residential neighbourhood. The totem poles in the front are what you'll have to look for to find the place.

Once you step inside in to the restaurant there is a counter where you can purchase little novelty items such as t-shirts, hats, and a rubber duck. The restaurant decor gives the diner a cozy homely feeling, with lots of First Nations style decorations, such as dream catchers, masks, drums, and many other interesting items. When you sit down at your table, the place mat is a map laid out that shows the different parts of B.C. and how the rest of Canada relates to our fabulous province.

I had the Yukon Style bacon and eggs from the all day breakfast menu for $11.95 and thought the meal was pretty good.  I was served with four pieces of toast buttered to perfection, five round slices of bacon, egg whites and instead of hash browns I got French fries. Yum! I loved the toast, it was so fluffy and soft and it went so well with the generous amount of butter that arrived already slathered on. The bacon was interesting, it tasted like a regular piece of bacon but it was in a circular shape. It was little dry to my liking, but it paired nicely with my toast. The egg tasted good, nothing too special, after all they are just eggs. The French fries were nice and crispy and I poured a generous amount of vinegar. Absolute perfection!

Michael had the Salisbury Steak for $15.20 which was a beef steak served with mashed potatoes with beef gravy and veggies on the side. Michael thinks the beef was around 7 or 8 ounces, a generous portion considering everything else on the plate. The beef was very tasty, and inside were onions and other veggies with seasoning. Nicely marinated and easy to chew - can't beat that. The mashed potatoes were served in a huge portion, I was lucky enough to try some, it was creamy, soft and had texture. It was clearly home made and it went really well with the rich creamy gravy. Everything was so well seasoned. Michael didn't have room left for the seasonal veggies that came with the dish though. Maybe next time.

After today, we would love to come back to Tomahawk, there are so much more things we would like to try on the menu and see their heaping amount of serving sizes. Today’s lunch affair was treated by my fabulous aunt and we would both like to say thank you to her. Michael says its his treat next time! 

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Ikea Restaurant

Hej! We were going through quite a hectic day when we decided to make a casual foodie trip to Sweden. It wasn't the most authentic of its kind, but not bad.

We visited the Ikea restaurant in Richmond located on 3200 Sweden Way. People who attended the grand opening had raved about it and Michael was really keen on it too, so I thought why not. The cafe itself had a very open space located upstairs of the store. There were dozens of people dining when we arrived, but the open space made it feel not so busy, no one was pushing or shoving.

The line up was simple and self-explanatory, you pick up a little cart that holds food trays, bring it along the railing at the serving counters where attentive staff serve food in a cafeteria-like manner. How smart and convenient. The best part was the food's so cheap it's nearly unbelieveable.

Michael and I both ordered the Swedish meatball combo, which came with 10 meatballs and a serving of mashed potatoes, topped with gravy for $5.99, with a salad on the side. The meatballs were decent quality, not the greatest but definitely satisfactory for what we paid. The mashed potatoes were delicious and really went well with the creamy gravy. We also both ordered garlic bread for 50 cents a slice. What a deal. The bread wasn't hard at all, it was nice, soft and flavourful, you could really taste the buttery goodness infused with garlic.

Next, we noticed they had a pasta dish with veggies and tomato sauce for $1.99. I was curious to try it, but the penne was sadly a little rough tasting and the sauce was very bland. But we couldn't expect much for less than two bucks.

To wash down this big meal we each got a can of Ikea-brand apple cider for $1. In total, the bill came to $20. What a bargain! We both felt full and satisfied. Coming to Ikea for linner (lunch / dinner) was really unusual since we don't usually go to places for express services. We even took a little after dinner stroll around the place to walk off the calories.

Overall, I would say it was a fun and enjoyable experience,  I would love to come back. Lyckligt ata alla! (happy eating everyone!)

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Posh Hot Pot

Michael and I had a short day Saturday and were looking for a place to eat after we paid a visit to one my friends graduation events. We stumbled upon Posh a Japanese style hot pot restaurant located at 1123-3779 Sexsmith Rd., right beside the popular Pearl Castle bubble tea cafe.

A little different from Chinese hot pots, it's much thicker

I am not a fan of hot pot and I could probably fill a phone book with my reasons. But we've both heard so many good things about Posh from our friends, and Michael seemed like he was really keen on trying it. It was also $17 per person for the all you can eat dinner menu. So I thought I would take a chance with him. The restaurant is very small and has only a few tables, seating at most two dozen or so, but the environment was  simple and modern.

Bok choi, enoki mushrooms and baby corn

Michael and I sat at the bar area, it was a little squishy but it made the dining experience seem more cozy. Another thing I liked about this hot pot restaurant is that it is very different from other hot pot places we've seen before. Where many of them are dirty, loud, and lack customer service. But Posh has none of that. The waitress was nice enough to explain to us the process and the how-tos, considered a rarity at Asian restaurants. There was water and soy sauce for us to pour in the pot when it gets dry, and when we eat our meats, dip the cooked meats in to the a sauce of raw egg, giving it a nice creamy texture.

The cooking element, adjust temperature as needed

The "pot" arrives with cabbage and broth inside, under a cooking element. In goes the vegetables that we had ordered, such as enoki and shitaki mushrooms, radish, potatoes, radish,and bok choi, combining their tastes nicely with the broth. What I thought was unique from this broth was that it there was a creamy and buttery taste along with the soy sauce, which I found very tasty. What can be wrong with butter?

All you can eat pork and beef!

For meats, Michael and I ordered pork and beef, both meats were very tasty, they were thinly sliced and soft to chew. It was weird dipping in to a raw egg though, at first it just felt it was meat going in to a raw egg but after I did taste the creaminess of the egg going along with the meat.

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