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You are here: Home / Archives for Neighbourhood / Cambie

Build Your Own Pizza and Salad at Assembli

July 17, 2017 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

Newly opened in Cambie Village is Assembli, an eatery specializing in build-your-own pizza and salad all at one price.  Located at 2325 Cambie Street, Assembli features an open kitchen were you can see your desired pizza or salad literally assembled before your very eyes.  I was recently invited to Assembli to try out some of their offerings and learn more about their concept.

Disclosure:  All food and drinks in this review were complimentary.  Opinions are my own.

assembli cambie street vancouver

Assembli Menu

At Assembli, pizzas are $12.99 for an 11 inch and salads are $10.99 for a regular size or $12.99 for a large.  If you’re feeling adventurous, the DIY option is certainly the way to go with all the toppings you want.  Protein choices are aplenty including herb-roasted chicken, cajun chicken, pepperoni, genoa salami, ham, spicy chorizo, bacon, shrimp, herb-roasted tofu, vegan crumble, seasoned ground beef, and anchovies, and hard-boiled egg.  And there is certainly no shortage of toppings like chili pineapple, pineapple, roasted veggies, roasted root veggies, raw mushrooms, roasted mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and more.  To finish off, how about chose fron bbq drizzle, yogurt lime drizzle, balsamic drizzle, kosher salt, olive oil, and more.  The combinations seem almost endless but the recommended number of toppings is 3-7 to achieve the perfect balance of toppings to crust.

assembli cambie street vancouver

Now if you’re feeling lazy and want to keep it simple, Assembli offers house-made selections.  For pizza, the selection includes The Best Le’d Plans (ham, mozzarella, chili pineapple, spicy tomato sauce), Carne Dian (seasoned ground beef, pepperoni, bacon, mozzarella, sautéed mushrooms, red onion, spicy tomato sauce) and more  For salads, there is the O-Mega Braniac (mixed greens, quinoa, cucumber, cabbage, blueberries, beets, avocado salsa, walnuts, seed mix, glory dressing) and so forth.  The menu is available online here.

assembli cambie street vancouver

 

assembli cambie street vancouver

assembli cambie street vancouver

Modern, Cozy Interior

The interior of Assembli is modern-industrial, cozy and welcoming.  I feel like the restaurant is quite community-oriented.  There are a few two-person tables, a communal table and seating by the window.  Be sure to check out the beautiful mural of False Creek on their wall.

assembli cambie street vancouver

What We Tried

At the tasting, I had the chance to try their house-made selections of pizza and salads.  For pizzas, there were the meat varieties (Backyard BBQ, Carne-Dian, Mountie’s Margherita) and vegetarian (Smooth Crimini Kale, Root Cause).  For salads, there was the O-Mega Braniac, Wild Cowboy, the Big G and Sexy Hippie.

assembli cambie street vancouver

Regarding the pizzas, they are lighter and have a “healthier” feel to them.  If you’re looking for some greasy goodness, Assembli’s pizzas likely will not satisfy you.   But if you’re wanting a more guilt-free carb-centric indulgence, I think you’ll quite like Assembli’s style of pizza.  As for the crust, I thought they were nicely thin but could be a bit more crispier.  In terms of flavour, I enjoyed the Backyard BBQ the most which was a bit sweet and tangy.

assembli cambie street vancouver

Surprisingly, I think I enjoyed Assembli’s salads more than the pizzas.  Loaded with fresh ingredients and a tasty dressing, you definitely get the sense of feeling nourished with these salad bowls.

assembli cambie street vancouver

assembli cambie street vancouver

assembli cambie street vancouver

I quite enjoyed the O-Mega Braniac which had blueberries in them.

assembli cambie street vancouver

Overall Impression of Assembli

I think that Assembli has a lot of potential as a healthier, fast casual restaurant in Vancouver.  There are already plans for more locations to come soon.  While I quite liked the healthy, nourishing feel of their food, I wouldn’t mind seeing some tips for the DIY pizzas as to say make it “cheesier” or “heartier.”  I think that would help bring in customers who typically order from the larger pizza chains.

Website: www.assembli.ca

Assembli Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Filed Under: Cambie, Media Event, Pizza

Hong Kong-style Eats at Copa Cafe

June 1, 2016 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

Copa Cafe Vancouver

I hadn’t eaten out at a Hong Kong-style cafe for a while and was eager to try out new place.  Located just across the King Edward Skytrain station, Copa Cafe is a restaurant that I have been meaning to visit.  They have three locations in Metro Vancouver: Vancouver, Coquitlam and Richmond.  Last weekend, my family and I went to Copa Cafe on Cambie for late lunch.

Copa Cafe Menu

Like many Hong Kong-style cafes, Copa Cafe’s menu is extensive.  They offer a variety of Western and Asian-style dishes including baked entrees, pasta, sandwiches, and curry.  According to Copa Cafe’s website, their most popular dishes are sizzling plates, Copa curry, Hong Kong style baked pork chop on rice, and rack of lamb. Their mini set menus seem very popular as well.  While Copa Cafe’s menu seem overall budget-friendly, you can enjoy a more upscale experience with some of the dishes that they offer.  For example, they offer roast Australian lamb rack in French style ($36) and 8 oz filet mignon ($27).  The menu can be found online.

Payment is by cash or debit.  Visa is accepted for bills over $25.

Modern Space

I usually don’t have high expectations when it comes to the interior of Hong Kong-style cafes but I was pleasantly surprised.  The interior space was modern and clean with a mixing of dining tables and cozy banquettes.

Copa Cafe Vancouver

What We Tried

For our lunch, we ordered the following:

  • Braised Chicken and Mushroom Linguini on Basil Sauce with Cheese ($15)
  • Scrambled Egg and Shrimp Fried Rice Noodle ($15)
  • Roast Chicken Fried Rice in Thai Style ($14)

The dishes came out fairly quickly after we put in our order and the plates were very hot!

The Roast Chicken Fried Rice in Thai Style was by far the favourite of the three dishes.  It had one red pepper on the menu and it did not disappoint in terms of spiciness.  It had just enough to tickle the taste buds but not set you on fire.  The texture of the rice was good too – fluffy with a slightly chewy exterior.  I would recommend this dish.

egg

The Braised Chicken and Mushroom Linguini on Basil Sauce with Cheese was okay.  Decent portions of chicken and mushrooms in a creamy white sauce.  The pasta was al-dente.

Copa Cafe Vancouver

Copa Cafe Vancouver

The Scrambled Egg and Shrimp Fried Rice Noodle is one of my favourite dishes at Hon’s.  I thought that Copa Cafe’s version was on point.  It was a saltier than Hon’s but still lots of sauce – just the way I like it.  The size of the shrimp was reasonably large.

Copa Cafe Vancouver

Service

The service at Copa Cafe was bare minimal and could use much improvement.  The staff seemed unhappy, disinterested and overall unhappy.

Overall Impression

The stand-out dish from the meal was the Roast Chicken Fried Rice in Thai Style while the other dishes were just okay.  Service was mediocre.  Rating: 3/5

Website: www.copacafe.ca

Copa Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Filed Under: Asian, Cambie, Chinese, Restaurant Review

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar

March 11, 2016 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

As a bubble tea and bubble waffle lover, I was excited to try the newly opened TMix Tea & Dessert Bar on Cambie.  I purchased their Social Shopper deal for $12 which was bubble waffles plus drinks for 2 people.  My husband and I visited TMix earlier this week for some late afternoon desserts.

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar

TMix Tea & Dessert Menu

TMix offers your usual Asian-inspired drinks and desserts like bubble tea, bubble waffles, shaved ice and gourmet frappes.  However, they also serve some other delectable goodies including crème brûlée and macarons.  They also have a small photo album of some of their menu items, which I found extremely helpful.  When I asked the staff person about an item that did not have a photo, he pulled out his smartphone to show me the photo he had of it!

The menu is rather extensive and it took me a while to decide what to order.  Here are photos of the menus:

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar menu

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar menu

What I Tried

We had a lavender milk tea with strawberry cotton candy.  They only had strawberry flavour for the cotton candy at that time.  The lavender flavour was nicely strong and the drink was pretty sweet overall.

TMIX Tea lavender

Next up was the Ultimate Mango with pudding, mango cubes and pearl.  We had to wait 15 minutes for the pearls to be done cooking.  I was a bit concerned at first in case they rushed the cooking of the pearls, but they turned out just fine – soft and chewy.  The mango flavour was also delicious and on point.

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar

The first premium bubble egg waffle we had was the Frozen Brûlée Banana.  It had torched bananas, frozen crème brûlée cubes and whipped cream.  The torched bananas were warm but I was expecting them to have a bit more of a golden brown appearance.  The bubble waffle are thinner than the ones from the BBT Shop but stil crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar

We also had the SnowMochi which had three mochi-filled ice cream (strawberry, matcha and vanilla), raspberries, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.  I loved the fun with textures from the mochi-filled ice cream: the mochi shell was hard but the ice cream was soft.  I would order this bubble waffle just to have the mochi!

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar

Overall Impression of TMIX Tea & Dessert

I know the reviews from a few months ago for TMIX have been pretty harsh, but I didn’t find my experience so bad.  The desserts and drinks were pretty good overall.  Their items do seem a bit pricey but fair for the area.  To read my other reviews on TMix, follow the tag Tmix.  Rating: 3.5/5

For more information on TMIX, visit their website or social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

TMix Tea & Dessert Bar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Filed Under: Asian, Bubble Tea, Cambie, Restaurant Review

Crepe Delicious Oakridge Centre Review

April 25, 2015 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

Crepe Delicious New York Oakridge Vancouver

Crepe Delicious is Canada’s largest mall-based creperie.  Their Oakridge Centre location opened a few months ago and occupies the old Mmmuffins space.  I bought the Groupon voucher for this new location to try them out.  The deal was $18 for three $10 vouchers and could be used towards any of their menu items.

Crepe Delicious Menu

Their menu consists of breakfast crepes, savoury crepes, sweet crepes, salads, panini, gelato, smoothies, and coffee.  The sweet crepes range from $5 to $12, while the savoury are mostly around $8.

Crepe Delicious Menu Oakridge

The Crepe Test

The Cordon Bleu ($8.95) I tried had chicken breast, diced ham, lettuce, tomato and mozzarella, and caesar dressing.  I was a little disappointed that the crepe fillings were cold and the cheese was not melted.  The crepe was also barely warm and the presentation was a bit boring.

Crepe Delicious Cordon Bleu Oakridge

The Banana Split is their most expensive sweet crepe ($11.95).  It consists of crepe topped with banana, strawberries, a scoop of gelato, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.  I enjoyed the presentation much more than the Cordon Bleu.  The gelato I had was tiramisu and was okay.  The amount of bananas and strawberries used for the filling was decent.

Crepe Delicious Banana Split Oakridge

The New York ($9.95) was quite the indulgence. It had Nutella, a slice of cheesecake, and strawberries topped with dulce de leche.  I had several looks from other people at my plate while I carried it to a table at the food court.  I was impressed that the slice of cheesecake was reasonably sized.  The cheesecake seemed standard in taste and quality.

Crepe Delicious New York Oakridge

I noticed that for all three items I tried the crepes seem to be on the thicker side, rather crisp, light and airy.  The crepes ideally should be warm but they seemed a bit cold, particularly the Cordon Bleu.

Overall Impresion

I have mixed feelings about Crepe Delicious.  The sweet crepes seemed better in terms of taste, amount of ingredients and overall presentation.  I think the crepe texture could be improved.  For a mall-based creperie, Crepe Delicious may be okay.  However, it would not be my go-to creperie.

Website: www.facebook.com/CrepeDelicious

Crepe Delicious on Urbanspoon

Click to add a blog post for Crepe Delicious on Zomato

Filed Under: Cambie, Casual, Dessert, Food Court Tagged With: crepe, dessert, Gelato

Solly’s Bagelry

April 9, 2015 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver Bagel

Solly’s Bagelry has been serving customers in Vancouver since 1994 and is one of Vancouver’s go-to places for bagels.  This cute little Jewish bakery has quite a selection for a deli menu, which consists of an all-day breakfast, sandwiches and soups.  Their signature “Brooklyn style” boiled bagels can be prepared as “Eggels” with cheese, eggs and choice of toppings.  For people on the go, you can simply get Sally’s Shmears – bagel and low fat cream cheese with choice of flavours.  Sandwiches and soups round out the menu, but they offer an extensive variety of fresh baked goods and baked goods that you can take home too.

Tip:  you order from the right of the counter, pay on the left, and food is brought out to your table.

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver Bagels Counter

Solly’s Bagelry Food

When you approach the counter, you see a tower of bagels showing you the types of bagels they have.  Interesting flavours include pumpernickle, herb and sundried tomato, and “mish mash.”  I find that their bagels are chewy and quite delicious.

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver Bagels

I’ve tried their sammies which included a bagel with tomatoes, onions, sprouts, chips and a kosher pickle spear.  The Lox & Cream Cheese ($8.95) was so good.  It was made of BC wild salmon lox on cream chese topped with capers and onion rings.  I love the mix of the salty-sugary taste with the cream cheese.

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver Lox Cheddar

The tuna melt had cheddar melted over tuna salad on a bagel.  The amount of melted cheddar looked impressive and the tuna salad was pretty good.

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver Tuna Salad

On one visit, I tried the latke special consisting of three latkes (fried potato pancakes) with Solly’s homemade apple sauce.  They were soft on the inside, and golden and crunchy on the outside.  It was a bit too greasy for my liking, but dabbing off some oil made it much better.

Processed with VSCOcam with a6 preset

Family Friendly

Solly’s Bagelry has highchairs and booster seats in the dining area that you can help yourself to.  They even have a small area with toys to help entertain kids.  The inside of the restaurant has an overall relaxed and Bohemian feel.  There are quite a few tables indoors and there is also a patio setup so that you can enjoy your food outside on a sunny day.

Sollys Bagelry

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver West 7

Solly’s has such a large number of products along with their regular deli counter that it feels more like a mini supermarket.  There are still many items that I would like to try.  With two other locations in Vancouver (Main and Kitsilano), I’m looking forward to my next Solly’s Bagelry experience.

Solly's Bagelry Vancouver Rugoleh

Website: www.sollysbagelry.com/

Solly's Bagelry on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Bagels, Bakery, Cambie, Sandwiches/subs Tagged With: Sandwiches/Subs, Vancouver

Beans On Cambie

April 6, 2015 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

Beans Cambie

With the abundance of franchise coffee shops, it is easy to forget about the small locally-owned ones.  Beans on Cambie is a local cafe on South Cambie between West 17th and 18th.  I saw a Groupon deal for $10 for $20 worth of sandwiches and soups for two for Beans and decided to try this cafe out.  The South Cambie area beyond the Broadway Skytrain station is not an area that I frequent, so it was a bit of an adventure for me.

Beans on Cambie Vancouver Interior

The decor of Beans on Cambie is grungy and cozy with a dark ambiance.  You get the feeling that you are in someone’s home.  The space is small with a few two-person tables, some larger tables and couches.

Beans on Cambie Vancouver Quote

Beans on Cambie Menu

Their menu includes breakfast bagels, salads, homemade soups, baked goods and a decent selection of gourmet sandwiches.  I stood there looking at the menu board for a while trying to figure out which sandwich to order.

Beans on Cambie Vancouver Menu

The selection of hot and cold beverages looks good as well.  Bean serves 49th Parallel Coffee, has loose leaf tea and even smoothies.  The pricing for the coffee beverages seem standard for a coffee shop in Vancouver.  I had a 12 oz organic matcha tea latte, which had decent green tea flavour.

Beans on Cambie Vancouver Matcha Latte

Sandwiches and Soups

We ordered two sandwiches and soups as part of the Groupon.  A full sandwich with soup or salad combo is around $9 while and half sandwich combo is about $8.  I had the tuna melt with red onion, tomato, lettuce and melted cheddar on sourdough bread and a ginger carrot soup.   

Beans on Cambie Vancouver Sandwich Soup

My husband had the chicken breast panini with roasted red pepper, caramelized onion, tomato, mozzarella, and veggies and a  mushroom soup.  

Beans on Cambie Vancouver Combo

The food had good flavour, tasted pretty good and the ingredients felt fresh.  The only weird thing was that the amount of ginger carrot soup in the bowl was less than the mushroom soup.

Overall Impression

Beans on Cambie is place where you could enjoy an intimate conversation with someone over coffee and treats or work on your laptop.  It has a very mellow vibe and you feel even more relaxed after having their food.  It is a great thing to support a local business as well.

Beans on Cambie Vancouver

Website: www.beans-on-cambie.com/

Beans Central on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Cafe, Cambie, Casual, Coffee Tagged With: cambie, coffee, Vancouver

Moii Cafe Review

January 18, 2015 by foodgressing Leave a Comment

I decided to try out Moii Cafe after seeing a Social Shopper deal for $14 for savoury or sweet crepes and drinks for 2 people.  Moii Cafe is a crepes, desserts and bubble tea cafe next to popular La Taqueria on West Broadway and is across the Broadway Skytrain station.  I visited Moii Cafe twice using Social Shopper vouchers.

IMG_1549 copy

Moii seemed like a restaurant frequented by a younger or student crowd.  There were some customers with text books and laptops.

IMG_1546 copy

Vintage chair and typewriter are presented as decor pieces near the entrance.

IMG_1550 copy

I like this this display of Nutella along their counter.

IMG_1547 copy

For drinks, we ordered milk tea with jelly or pearls.  I really loved the coconut milk tea with jelly.  They also have coffee and smoothies as well.

DSC00868 copy

I tried the Terimayo savoury crepe: BBQ chicken, Bonito lakes, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, Okonomi Sauce and Wasabi.  This asian-inspired crepe was delicious!  The Okonomi sauce made the crepe taste a bit sweeter.  The Bonito flakes were deliciously crispy.

DSC00479 copy

My friend ordered the smoked salmon and cheese crepe.  He thought it was pretty good as he had not thought that salmon and cheese would make a tasty combo.

DSC00461 copy

I enjoyed the caramel apple specialty sweet crepe made up of apple slices, walnuts, caramel, cinnamon, and condensed milk.  It had the right amount of sweetness.

DSC00877 copy

The banana and Nutella crepe was delicious.  I don’t think you can ever go wrong with this classic combination.

DSC00897 copy

Jacky Chan tells you “This is Not a Washroom!” on one of the doors.

DSC00900 copy

The staff person provided some helpful advice on crepe recommendations.  Our crepes were delivered to our table within 10 minutes.  The crepes were tasty and we enjoyed the overall dining experience.  Moii cafe has a very relaxing vibe and I would recommend it for crepes and bubble tea.

IMG_1548 copy

Last but not least, a *creepy* Vine of the bonita flakes moving on the Terimayo crepe:


Moii Cafe Cambie on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Cambie, Dessert

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