Kevin "McLovin" L.'s Profile

I have been eating there once a week since moving up from the Bay Area and I thought the food was pretty good. Then I noticed they closed for a few days and re-opened under new management. The new owners/staff are VERY polite and helpful and the dining area seems a lot cleaner. The biggest change was with the cooks. They are very talented and if you ask them anything about your meal they are almost excited to tell you about the ingredients or how it is prepared. I had asked about a specific green that was served along side my order of Pho and it was almost refreshing to hear the cook tell you "I don't care about the price; it makes the soup taste better so I serve it". I just stopped in today and wasn't sure I wanted the usual bowl of Pho on a semi hot day so I looked through the rest of the menu and noticed they were now making Banh Xeo. WOW! Until today I had only seen this dish on travel shows and in food blogs but I could never find a restaurant that made it. Amazing! They now have a customer for life. Oh, Banh Xeo is basically a crunchy crepe that's made with coconut water, rice flour and turmeric then stuffed with bean sprouts, shrimp and pork. You break pieces off and wrap them with lettuce leaves and fresh herbs. MMmmmm.  I would recommend this place to anyone.

I had lunch here a few days ago and I would have to say they were pretty good. I am not a real big fan of pita sandwiches/wraps but these were good. I had the chicken souvlaki. I usually don't like these types of sandwiches because they always "goop" them up with so much secret sauces and oozy crap that it totally masks the actual sandwich. These are totally made to order so you tell them what to put in with the main filling. We were there right around noon so the line was sort of long but over all I think we only stood in line for 2 or 3 minutes. They are located in a medium sized strip mall so there is plenty of parking. Seating during the busy times may be an issue because they only have a few tables inside but most of the people were taking their food to go so we got a place to sit with out any problems. The staff is friendly, the place is pretty clean and the prices are good. I am still not a huge pita/wrap fan but these are good enough to keep me going back.

I have eaten here a few times over the years. Recently I just moved here permanently and decided to drop in for lunch. It was not very crowded for the noon time hour which is fine. We had a trainee waitress that seems to do OK for her second day. I guess ranch and blue cheese tend to look the same so it can be confusing but hey, salad is salad. I usually get a few oysters on the half shell when ever I eat there and they are usually really good however this time around I don't know if it was because we went during lunch time but all of the oysters I got had chips of shell in them. Usually you find one or so with a few bits in it, "they do use a metal stabby thing to open them up" but this time they all had crunchy bits in them which was sort of annoying. All three of us liked what we ordered and it was all cooked properly accept for the crunchy oysters. I have never had any problems with their food and the bar tender can even make a decent dirty martini. I guess if I had to list a bad thing it would have to be the noise lever when they are full but that could be said about 90% of all restaurants. As far as price, the lunch menu is pretty reasonable and the dinner menu is comparable to any other fish house I have eaten at. Yeah you may be able to find cheaper sea food some place else but in my experience finding cheap sea food is more like drawing straws over who gets raging food poisoning that night.

I just moved to Vancouver and I have been on a quest to find a decent bagel with out having to drive a million miles. After three different places that were pawning dinner rolls off as bagels I ran in to this one. They don't have a huge selection of bagels but what they do have is pretty good. They also make pretty mean breakfast sandwich. I like the ham, egg and jalapeño combination. The coffee is good and there is always an open seat. They even have a play area that so far hasn't been overly loud with little kids. Parking is plentiful and easy to access. I am always on the hunt for new places but so far they take top spot.

I just ate here last night but I don't think I will be going back. Their burgers were decent. You could actually taste beef which is a good thing. I thought the fries were ok. The chili is chili, no beans, and tasted ok I guess. I have eaten this type of chili at other burger chains and it tasted like it came from the same can. They offer mac and cheese so we decided to try some of that as well but when it came to the table it turned out to be microwave easy mac. I take that back, this wasn't easy mac because the color was kind of pale and there wasn't much flavor to it at all, this tells me it was probably Safeway brand mac and cheese. We didn't finish it. I am not sure how they got such high praise from the burger world? I guess if you just eat the patty it's pretty good but the rest of the menu didn't warrant a return trip. Someone should bring back Johnny Rockets.

I had my transmission rebuilt by them less than three years ago and thought everything was good. The tranny is in a Jeep so I paid extra for a heavy duty tork converted and heavier components inside. On my birthday a week ago my Jeep decided to not shift higher than first gear? I had it towed from the shoulder of Highway 85 to a new shop "they were closer" and they proceeded to tear down the transmission to do an inspection. When the new shop finished their inspection they said my tork converter was coming apart and that the brand they used was from a company in Sacramento that went out of business due to their garbage merchandise. They then proceeded to tell me that the parts looked like they had been replaced but they were not the correct parts for that year transmission. They told me that in some places were there should have only been a few thousandths space were actually 1cm and they were not sure how it held together this long! To ad insult to injury, my house mate had his transmission done there a few months before mine and is now noticing some slipping in his gears as well. To make long angry story short, the new shop gave me a three year warranty and free service during the warranty. They even set me up with an external cooler to help the new transmission last a little longer and I will never go back to Winchester again.

I can't count how many times I have driven past this place and never stopped in. It sits in a small strip mall on a busy corner so if you blink you would miss it. The dining room is kind of small, I think there are only about 9 tables that each four each. The menu is a combination of sushi, teriyaki and bento plates. We each ordered a bento plate and some sushi rolls on the side just to try a little of everything. There was only two people working that night but the service was good and fairly quick. All of the bento plates and sushi rolls were great. The chef even brought by a new roll he was thinking of putting on the menu and asked us to try it and give him our opinion. The new roll was outstanding but since it was new he didn't have a name for it yet. If you are looking for a small "quiet" place to get a quick bite to eat, give them a try.

I just ate there for lunch yesterday and I would have to say it was pretty good. When I stopped in it was after 1:00 PM so there were only three other parties finishing up their lunches. I ordered the Aloo Tikki as an appetizer and it was excellent. The garbanzo beans they served along side were a spicy treat. For a main course I ordered the Tandoori Mixed Grill and a Sweet Lassi. The only thing I can kind of complain about was asking the waiter if he thought that was too large for one person and he said no. Then they brought be almost a whole chicken, a half pound of kabobs and almost half a fish. Don't get me wrong, I gave it my best shot and still had enough left over to make everyone on the train ride home real hungry. If I had known it was going to be THAT much I may have picked something else and saved the mixed grill for company. Everything was very good and the waiter was attentive and courteous. This restaurant is only a few blocks from the SF MOMA so I will definitely stop by there the next time I visit the museum.

This is my new pick for the crappiest Jack in the Box on the planet. I have been there before and it was sort of OK but when I went there to pick up some dinner last night it was nasty. I should have gotten a clue from the food like material that was smeared all over the front of the counter 'right in front of the woman at the register!". I had to tell a few people to watch out while they were ordering. You would think the grown woman behind the counter would wipe it up but nope. It sat there. They had run out of three item on the menu and didn't tell us until our whole order was almost complete so we ended up with three of one thing, two of another all crammed in the same package. While I was waiting for my order I tried to sit in the dining room but most of the tables had some sort of mystery liquid smeared all over them so I decided to stand. I ordered a Jumbo Jack with fries and two of the .99 tacos. When I got home I saw that the bag was extra greasy looking? When I opened it I saw that the dumbass that filled my order just threw my food in the bag. My fries and tacos were in the bag open side down so everything was covered with taco fillings and French fries! When I opened the wrapper that my burger was in, it looked like someone had punched it before they wrapped it up. All of the sauces were squished out and all over the bun. What the hell? Please, if you hate your job that much then you need to go find something else to do. If you are so careless that you can't tell if what you are serving is smashed up and looking like crap then you have been working at BK a little too long.  I hope to never go back there again.

We just went there the first time for brunch last Sunday and everyone's food was pretty good. I ordered the bistro steak with pommes frites and spinach. The steak was seasoned, sauced and cooked just right. Fries were real crispy like fries should be and they used the steamed spinach to keep the meat juices from making them soggy. They had a one man keyboard band playing and this was the first time I have been eating some place with live music and you could still hear the person sitting at the table with you. The day time menu didn't look huge but what we ordered was all good and pretty inexpensive. I would defiantly go there again.