Restaurants: Kimono Koi Crepes

The idea for today's lunch is thanks to the magic of the internet. It was a typical morning. The alarm goes off, I jump out of bed bright-eyed and ready to face the day. Make myself an exciting breakfast of flocons de maïs aux bleuets, tune the radio to the CBC Early Edition and fire up the laptop. A quick check of the email and one from Twitter tells me that Kimono Koi Crepes (@Kimonokoicrepes) is now following me. Fun! I love when strangers follow me! Today's lunch was decided.

Kimono Koi Crepes is another of the new street carts in the downtown area. They are in front of the Skytrain entrance at Georgia and Granville. If they decide to give out street cart awards, Kimono Koi will certainly win for cutest cart.



I had a great success at PanDa Fresh Bakery so I was pretty excited to try another truck. They were just setting up as I arrived at the corner. I asked how long it would take to set up the truck and he said about 20 minutes. No problem, I can come back in 20 minutes. I then realized that I don't own a watch or a cell phone so I have no way to determine the passage of time.

Restaurants: Deacon's Corner

Big M and I went downtown on Sunday to the Word on the Street festival. I love a good CBC event. I am sure Big M went to make sure that I didn't run away with Jian Ghomeshi.

Turns out that I had my timing wrong and we (I) didn't get to see him. But I did get a new CBC pen. Close enough.

Since we were downtown and I was hungry, we went back to Deacon's Corner for some brunch. We had gone with Wendy, Gabs and Rocket a couple of weeks ago but I forgot my camera. A good excuse to go back.  It was about 1:30 so the breakfast rush had finished and we were seated right away at a booth.

Restaurants: 100 Days

I love the idea of pop up restaurants.  I was listening to a podcast the other day about Ludo Lefebvre and his super hip pop up restaurant in LA.

During my wandering of Yaletown the other day I passed 100 Days in the Opus Hotel. This was during my $10.00 lunch search so I didn't stop but I did go back to the office and google.





There is some information on their website about the concept but I could find very little on who the restaurant owners or the Chef were. They do mention the artist who did the design in the restaurant. I asked the waitress how many of the 100 days were left and she said they opened on Aug 27th and the big "closing" would be on New Years Eve. She said that the owners decided to do a pop up style restaurant while they were working on the renovation idea for the restaurant that will take over after the 100 days is up- so they have popped up in their own space while they work on the main redesign.

Restaurants: The Irish Heather- Longtable Series.

Hipster food destination 2 and 3 of yesterday. Funny that I didn't realize that the people who own the Irish Heather also own the Acme Cafe.


The lovely Sarah and I decided we needed to hang out since I haven't seen her since the wedding. She chose the Longtable series at the Irish Heather. I hadn't been to the Irish Heather since it had moved across the street and I had heard about the Longtable series and really wanted to go. We decided to meet at Shebeen for drinks first since I like to be seen at as many hip joints as I can in one night.





We decided to invite along some good lookin' fellas to join us.

Restaurants: Acme Cafe

Today I mailed my back taxes and renewed my passport. Hooray for me! To celebrate I am having Hipster Food Day. First stop: lunch at Acme Cafe.

I have wanted to go here for a long time but it is just far enough away from my office that I don't think I could make it there and back in an hour. I didn't know how fast the seating and service would be either. Today I rode my bike to the passport office so I was in the area.

I love the look of this restaurant. Some booth seating, lots of bar and window seats, an exposed brick wall and an open kitchen. With a lovely assortment of downtown office hipsters populating those seats. Here is my artsy picture.



I sat at some window seating which I liked because I could watch my bike. This is still East Hastings... Has anyone else noticed all the "I (We) love you" grafitti downtown? This one was across the street. I like it. Happy.

Restaurants: Cafe Bon Appetit at the Bay

My favorite part of eating lunch at the restaurant on the 6Th floor of the Bay downtown- being the youngest person in the room. I was the youngest, hippest person there. That doesn't happen that often anymore!



The blue-hairs are definitely on to something. This place is a gem. They offer what you would expect them to offer and then some surprises. It is laid out cafeteria style. There is an excellent looking salad bar for $1.69 per 100g. They had about 5 soups, muffins, sushi, paninis, a hamburger bar and a hot lunch counter.

Restaurants: White Spot (Gilmore)

I have a complicated history with the White Spot.

As a child we lived in Delta and I LOVED the Pirate Pack. Who didn't love the Pirate Pack? As a young adult, I worked at a theatre (now a parking lot) by the White Spot on Georgia. We ate there quite often- until I got an intestinal infection.

Funny aside, sort of- I walked into the clinic to talk about the stomach problems I was having. The Doc asked me where I had eaten and I said the White Spot. He immediately wrote me a prescription without asking any other questions. Not his first undercooked White Spot burger experience, I guessed. That was my last White Spot experience for about 10 years.

Big M and I then moved to NoBu and there is a White Spot down the hill. We started eating there again. In fact, we got engaged at that White Spot. More specifically, we had a semi-drunken conversation about what we see as the next step in our relationship and came to the agreement that marriage it was. Ah, the romance.

So we have had our ups and downs, the White Spot and I. I like their food enough, they do a good burger, but I find them overpriced for what they offer. One time we went for pancakes and they said they had "run out" of pancakes. More specifically, they had run out of the pancake mix sent from Head Office and the cooks were not authorized to mix together some flour and water to make a home made pancake. They would just rather not serve them at all. The chain restaurant mentality. Don't think outside the premade-pancake-mix box.

Mom loves the White Spot burger and we always go for a burger when she is in town.



I do enjoy their salad. I like the mix of sunflower seeds and cranberries.

Restaurants: PanDa Fresh Bakery

Today I was lazy and decided that I would take myself out for another lunchtime adventure! Of course, today was the day that I forgot my wallet at home. I realized that in line for coffee this morning. So it was office drip coffee and no lunch for me.

Thankfully I told my boss my sob story and she lent me $10.00! Hooray! This called for something special, a lunch time challenge. I decided to try to get lunch for under $10.00 in Yaletown!

I walked down a street that I hadn't tried before and quickly realized that I could get something for around $7-8 in some of the sit down restaurants, but that would leave about $1.00 for a tip. I didn't want to be that person, especially in Yaletown. I decided a take out or sandwich joint would be the best option so I rounded Pacific and saw the perfect answer, a food truck! The PanDa Fresh Bakery food truck to be exact! My first food truck was the perfect way to spend the $10.00.

Restaurants: Me & Eds Burnaby

I suffer from lunch envy. No matter what I bring myself for lunch at work, someone else's lunch looks better. Today a co-worker was having pizza. Pizza. Sigh. That got me to thinking about my favorite pizza joint, Me & Eds Pizza Parlor in Burnaby.

I did have pizza on Friday after Yvette and I had a beer or two down at the Railway Club. I came home *totally sober* and Michael took pity on me and we ordered some Panago. He offer to get Me & Eds but I was too impatient. I should have waited because I love that pizza.

Our first trip to the Me & Eds parlor was the day we found out that Big M had been laid off from eBay. We went back when he got his new job and then again to celebrate his promotion. We have also had celebration delivery when we finally hauled the couch onto the patio. And sorry Vancouver, they only deliver in Burnaby and the Tri-Cities. For some reason, it is also the most controversial of my Facebook albums.

I can't remember the last time I was actually inside a pizza parlor before going here. Who does that anymore? Remember the old sit down KFCs? I love the inside of Me & Eds, it is exactly what you expect a pizza parlor to be.

Restaurants: Rodney's Oyster House

Jenny figured out what she wanted to do in life so she left us at work to go back to school. Good for her, sad for us, and an opportunity for food and drinks.

Jenny picked Rodney's Oyster House in Yaletown. She was also foresighted enough to make reservations for our group on Friday after work. The restaurant was packed the whole time we were there.

Rodney's is predictably decorated in white wash, fishing nets and sea-themed decor but it has a warm and fun feeling. I recommend checking out the pictures by the sink in the ladies bathroom, unless Michelle has stolen them.

The oysters are lined up in ice against one wall and it seems that one person is in charge of shucking:



He stood there the entire time and shucked. And yes, we did make many "shucking" jokes. You might notice that all the waitstaff are men. Big, muscular men who must lift a lot of oysters. The service in Rodney's was fine. We had a few different waiters and we mostly had to flag someone down if we wanted something, but they were friendly enough when we got their attention.

Restaurants: Kamiya Sushi

Sushi is the staple of the downtown worker's lunch. A big reason for that is the abundance of sushi joints in the downtown area. According to Urbanspoon there are 60 sushi restaurants within walking distance of my work. That does not include the west end/Robson street where there are another 20 or so.

Which one do you start with? The one where the rest of your co-workers go! For us, that is Kamiya Sushi in the Vancouver Public Library.

I love the location, especially now that the Library and I have made up and become friends again. (It was a big payoff on my part for that friendship). Grab a book, grab some sushi and sit on the steps of the library with the rest of the downtown office workers trying to get some sunshine in their day.

Kamiya has 2 types of service for the lunch worker. Near the entrance they offer a selection of premade sushi for takeout and then some group tables and bar service for eat in. If you eat at the bar, they have a selection of trashy entertainment magazines to read, which I like. There is always a line for the takeout sushi but they restock quickly and the line moves fast.

I am not an expert sushi eater because I have a fear of seaweed. Ever since I was child I have hated seaweed. It is slimy and gross and moves to attack you when you are swimming and contains ocean bugs and yuck. Don't get me started on kelp. Thank goodness no one is trying to get me to eat that too.

My forages into Japanese eating has mainly been of the teriyaki, donburi and gyoza type foods. I can eat rolls as long as the seaweed is on the inside of the roll and the pieces are small. I am trying to be more adventurous and try more sashimi since it doesn't involve seaweed.