Old Homestead - Ceasers Las Vegas

A transplant of the Old Homestead Steakhouse in New York, this restaurant offered a clean menu catered to the Las Vegas crowd.

All the hotels in Vegas are anchored with a steak house.  We decided to go to Old Homestead located in Ceasars Palace because its menu offered a 26 oz rib steak.

The bread basket offered four different types of breads. My favorite was the cheese bread.  The pretzel stick was also a nice touch and reminder of this restaurant's New York roots.

Bread basket : Cheese bread and and pretzel stick

The Maine Lobster tail is slightly overcooked,  so a little tough. Simple presentation and lemon was nicely tied up in practical yet visually appealing package.

Main Lobster with lemon juice and butter

This 26oz rib steak was grilled to perfection.  The charcoal flavor combines perfectly with the meat.  Dry aged to perfection, juicy and tender. We were able to share this among the three of us.

The “Gotham Rib” Steak on the bone

All in all, this was an excellent steakhouse. 

What I liked:

• excellent service
• beautiful cut of meat and perfectly seasoned

What I did not like:

• service is slow 
• lighting is too dark
• pricing is still on the expensive side. With all the offerings in Vegas, it is hard to justify spending this much on the steak alone.

Nero Begium waffle bar

Nero Belgium Waffle Bar -1703 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6G1C8

This cozy little waffle store located in the busy downtown Denman area has been one of our recent favorites.  I've been here multiple times and despite being busy,  service is always friendly.

 The Dame Blanche is served with vanilla ice cream, whip cream and dark chocolate.  You have a choice of liege waffle or Belgium. The vanilla and dark chocolate combination can never go wrong! 

Dame Blanche

The hot chocolate is made with real chocolate bits. The milk is served piping hot.  They tell us to stir the milk thoroughly until it melts.  The  rich chocolate makes this drink different from all the other ones that we have tried.  I love this hot chocolate!!.

Belgium hot chocolate

Liege, is a sweet dense waffle with sugar lumps inside.  The owner tells us that the sugar has to be imported from belgium.  The waffle is made fresh in front of us and served piping hot.

Liege waffle

Although this is a small store,  it is always busy! Great location
near to the busy Denman and Robson area.  I love that everything is made fresh to order.  This store is definitely here to stay! 

What I love:

• fresh ingredients
• fresh waffles
• the Belgium hot chocolate is a must to try!

What I did not like:

• does not really have much room for sit down customers.  

Modern City Chinese Restaurant

Located in the heart of Kerrisdale, and a block away from another 2 Chinese restaurants, the modern city Chinese restaurant opened to some tough competition. Unlike its predecessor, they have adjusted pricing to become more competitive, in an area that is overflowing with restaurant choices.

At first glance, there has been little change in the decor. They took over another Chinese restaurant that had lasted less than a year, so most furnishings were still new.

We chose some simple dishes in order to test the skills of the chef.


Soymilk (salty). The soymilk has a nice creamy consistency. Imo a stronger soybean taste would be nice, but the thickness of the soymilk was perfect as a soup like breakfast item.



Sliced beef with tripe in chili sauce. Allergy alert.... lots of peanuts, which really accents the marinated beef. I like that they make it less saltier than many other restaurants.


Steam dumplings. Juicy and holds its shape, this dumpling has a medium thickness skin that holds up to being picked up by chopsticks. Juicy and slightly chewy skin. Although not the thinnest that I have tried, it was still above average.


Ji Cai dumpling soup. A little on the oily side, but not too salty. The dumpling is a little denser than some that I have tried but I prefer the one at The Place restaurant on Granville & 64th because they add seaweed and egg floss to the soup.


Shanghai style pressed meat with noodle. Generous portion for the noodle. The pressed meat is standard for most shanghai restaurants.

What I liked:

• Good and attentive service - they refilled our tea regularly
• Spacious and clean - still relatively new restaurant
• Competitive price point and good quality good

What I did not like:

• Stereotypical food pictures outside the restaurant made it less appealing
• Very large space that is hard to fill with patrons

I think they have everything done right, good service, higher quality food at a competitive price point. I will definitely revisit this place to check out the consistency of its food.

3 1/2 out of 5 ( reserving the other 1/2 for consistency the next time I come here)

Nakamura in kerrisdale.

This small and cozy Japanese restaurant in Kerrisdale is tucked away on the less busy side of the street.  They do not have take out and the restaurant only has 7 small tables.  I like that this restaurant is small so everything is made to order.
I love the presentation of the food.  The menu has several less common items as well as the option of a $29 or $49 chef's menu. 
We tried most of the staple items:

It is hard to find monk fish liver on the menu of most japanese restaurants, so I had to try it. Good citrus yuzo flavour. 



Monk fish liver



The homemade gyoza was a bit of a dissappointment as the skin was too soft and falling apart.  Gyoza King still ranks first in this category.

Home make gyoza

Baked oyster has a bad reputation thanks to all the all-you-can-eat restaurants out there. I have to say this was a good dish.  Oyster was cooked just right, juicy and there was a thin layer of sauce. 

Baked Oyster

The flounder was the special of the day.  This fish is normally too fishy for sashimi,  but the citrus sauce covers the fishyness and makes that a very interesting dish. I love the presentation with the green plate. 

Flounder sashimi

Fresh seafood with a beautiful presentation,  I love the thought that the chef put into arranging the dish. 

Assorted Chirashi

All the sushi was fresh and the kani and tobiko roll had lots of crab in it.

Hamachi sushi, Ika sushi, and Kani and Tobiko roll,

There was a mix of good value as well as pricier items,  but I love that presentation was key in all the dishes.  Imo this shows the chef's passion for his craft.  Every dish came in a different dish, or plate and have lovely presentation.

What I liked:

• 2 thumbs up for presentation. 
• daily specials worth trying
• monk fish liver a must try

What I did not like:

• portions are on the small side
• restaurant not noticible from the street

Dunn's Smoked Meat

Dunn's famous smoke meat: 827 Seymour St.

Smoke meat sandwich with split pea and ham soup

Ruben Sandwich

I have always loved smoked meat, so when I heard that this restaurant was open, I could not wait to try it. The restaurant was spacious and the waitress was friendly and attentive.

I like that you have a choice of lean, medium or fatty meat. As I have never been here before, I chose the Montreal smoke meat sandwich with medium fattiness. The soup of the day was split pea and ham. As the platter comes with a choice of soup or fries, I chose the soup.

Our orders arrived swiftly. I loved the coleslaw that was sour instead of creamy. The split pea soup was lightly salted but not over powering. The smoke meat was just the right level of saltiness.  The mustard helped to cut the grease of the meat. Although a reasonable portion, I found the Ruben portion to be of better value.

I have to say that I did not really look at the other items on the menu, but given that I thoroughly enjoyed my smoke meat sandwich, I would definitely come back to try the other items on the menu.

Pink's Hotdog

 

Pink's Hotdog at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. http://www.pinkshollywood.com/

MUSHROOM SWISS DOG - grilled mushrooms,
mayo, one slice Swiss cheese

The "Planet Hollywood" Dog
Polish Sausage, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, bacon & cheese

The pink's hot dog is located at the busy entrance to the miracle mile shops.  There was a long lineup when we got there.  Apart from the location, the price point is also a plus,  most hotdogs are under $7.  We ordered 2 hot dogs and a coleslaw.  The hot dogs have a foot long sausage and have the option of various toppings.  

The sausages are flavorful with good quality meat and no fillers.  Unfortunately, there was nothing too special about the toppings combinations.  The precooked mushrooms and excessive mayo on the mushroom swiss dog was not that appealing.  The Plant Hollywood dog was piled high with toppings, but imo the hotdog would taste better if the toppings were grilled.

I have to say that we have been spoiled by the likes of Japadog here in Vancouver. Pink's was good, but not special.  Given its location, convenience and price would win over tastes.  

Ki Modern Japanese & Bar

The newest addition to the Shangri-la hotel is Ki, a Japanese fusion restaurant located on the second floor. Before coming here, all I knew was that there was another restaurant in Toronto and that this was a high end restaurant.

First impressions was that this was a large restaurant with expensive decor and an open layout. Offering small plates as well as mains; classical Japanese as well as fusion dishes, this restaurant seems to be having an identity crisis.


Seafood salad with spicy sauce. The sauce and the seaweed was served in a fried wonton cup. Presentation aside, the fish was fishy tasting, an indication that they were not using very fresh fish.


Tuna toro.


spider roll. A good roll, available at most sushi restaurants.


Kiwi tuna and the shrimp rice roll. The kiwi tuna had good visual appeal, but I did not really find the kiwi adding any flavor to the roll. The shrimp rice roll was reminiscent of a Vietnamese salad roll, but without any dipping sauce, the rice roll was a little dry.



Grilled Veal Chop with marinated king mushroom. By far the best dish on the menu. Shiso did no really add to this dish. The veal was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Juice and tender.



Creamy Miso Chowder with assorted seafood. Good balance between the cream and miso.



grilled shrimp and scallop skewer with mango sauce. Grilled just right. Sauce adds a sweetness which I found unnecessary as the seafood itself was quite flavorful already.



Grilled pork belly. This is more Chinese than Japanese. The pork pieces were too think making the dish too heavy. Thinner slices might have had a better effect.


Japanese Style Ceviche with sake, saba and amaebi. IMO the saba was too fishy to go into this dish. It overpowers the sweetness of the shrimp.


In conclusion,

• Liked the decor, the veal and the chowder.
• Did not like the pricing and many of the fusion dishes. Too much fluff that did not add to the flavor.
• This place may have been better marketed as a western restaurant than as a Japanese restaurant, as the better dishes all had little Japanese influences.
• Too overpriced to be worth a revisit. With Market just next door offering a $29 3 course lunch that is hard to beat, no wonder this place is so quite during lunch hour.