Rating / 3 out of 5 stars

Seb’s Market Cafe is the restaurant arm of Hot Stuff Catering, located in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood on East Broadway. The cafe has a bohemian feel that is warm and comforting and makes Seb’s a popular weekend brunch spot.

(Above: Bacon and caramelized apple omelette.)

Seb’s menu has a variety of dishes, enough to satisfy the pickiest of eaters. Tre opted for the seared Elk Medallion Benny in Chipotle sauce. It is served over grilled savoury biscuits and accompanied by home cut fries. I had the Bacon and Caramelized Apple Omelette served with home cut potatoes, toast and homemade preserves, plus two cups of coffee.

Tre’s Elk Medallion Benny was good, but the Elk itself was a bit dry. The grilled biscuits were alright but one was soggy from the Chipotle sauce while the other was nicely toasted. My Bacon Caramelized Apple Omelette was light and fluffy. Bits of bacon were nicely mixed in the omelette and the caramelized pieces of apple tasted like it was baked first then mixed in. The sourdough toast with the homemade preserves were honestly the best part of the meal. The preserves had chunks of fruit that wasn’t too sweet and paired well with the perfectly toasted, thick cut sourdough.

(Above: Seared Elk Medallion Benny’s with Chipotle Wild-Berry sauce on a homemade biscuit.)

Our bill including taxes and tips came to just under $25. The bill would have been more, but the waitress accidentally spilled milk on Tre’s jacket. They were extremely apologetic and did their best to clean up the mess. They also didn’t charge for the coffees. Despite the milk incident, the staff is friendly and the food is decent, so we wouldn’t mind returning to try other items on the menu. If you come on a weekend, though, be prepared to wait.

Perfect for: a cozy brunch with friends and family.

The Details

592 East Broadway, Vancouver
604.298.4403
hotstuffcatering.com

Rating / 5 out of 5 stars

We’ve heard a lot of goods things about Nook, a relatively new Italian kid on the block. The Denman block just North of Robson to be precise. This modest sized, 30 seater restaurant boasts a humble exterior and a heavily edited menu. And they don’t take reservations, so waiting for a seat on a weekend is a distinct possibility.

(Top to bottom: 1. Handmade Burratta Cheese Crostini with Pancetta and Asparagus. 2. Smoked Wild Boar Capeletti.)

Our server seated us with a smile and a question, “Are you thirsty?” We responded with two glasses of Chianti. As our drinks were being prepared we perused the menu which we noticed was fairly brief — half a sheet of paper, no more than a dozen and half dishes with a focus on pastas and pizzas. While studying the menu, we were pleasantly serenaded by the sounds 80’s rock: The Cure, Billy Idol, et. al. — a strange counterpoint to the modern, yet bare bones Italian restaurant.

Our server returned with the wine and let loose the daily specials, which sounded so good we put aside the menu and ordered those instead, beginning with the Burratta Cheese Crostini with Pancetta and spears of grilled asparagus. The handmade buffalo mozzarella cheese was richly creamy, yet had an amazing elasticity. The soft creaminess was a nice contrast to the crispiness of the crostini, and the grilled asparagus was super tasty. You could taste all the ingredients — simply prepared and well seasoned.

(Top to bottom: 1. Double Americano, 2. Strawberry Rum Panacotto.)

For our main dish, Case and I had the Smoked Wild Boar Capelleti, a hat-shaped pasta with shards of smoked wild boar in a light creamy sauce, covered in a mound of fresh grated parmesan cheese. The dish looked plain, yet the flavours danced off our tongues the moment we tasted the pasta, which was perfectly Al Dente (something we’ve become unfamiliar with in most pasta dishes lately).

We finished our meal off with two Americanos and a Strawberry Rum Panna cotta served in a pint-size mason jar. The Panna cotta was creamy (not the last bit runny, or rubbery) and the tartness of the fresh cut strawberries played well with the drizzle of rum.

Our meal came to $87 including taxes and tips. Although not the thriftiest meal, it was certainly one of the best value.

Perfect for: good, rustic Italian food.

The Details

781 Denman Street, Vancouver
604.568.4554
nookrestaurant.ca

Rating / 1 out of 5 stars

Broadway Chinese is a hole in wall located in a plaza sandwiched between an adult video store and a Bella Pizza. Tre and I used to come here when it was a Taiwanese restaurant, serving the best noodle and fried chicken, before it closed down suddenly. We noticed the restaurant re-opened, but with a name like Broadway Chinese we knew mostly likely it was under new management. We figured we’d try anyway.

The restaurant looks oddly unchanged — sparse. We sat near the window to absorb some sunshine and people watch. There wasn’t much going on, although the adult video store seemed quite busy next door. We looked at the (somewhat random) menu and selected fried rice noodles with beef and steamed Shanghai buns. Somehow, I knew this wasn’t the place to try the Shanghai buns, but I like to do things out of the ordinary from time to time.

(Top to bottom: 1. Pan fried rice noodles with sliced beef. 2. Something masquerading as Shanghai dumplings.)

When our dishes arrived, they looked sad. The plate of fried rice noodles with beef was small and looked pale. The dish was very lightly seasoned with soy sauce, had barely any bean sprouts and was missing green onions. But the noodles were fried well and the odd piece of beef was okay. The steamed Shanghai buns tasted just like how it looked — blah. The wrapping was thick, shriveled, and tasted stale (freezer burn?). The minced meat was dry and didn’t have any of the signature soup inside.

Our bill including taxes and tips came to just under $20, which is overly priced for what we got. We can see why the restaurant was empty when we walked in, and why it was still empty when we walked out.

Perfect for: absolutely nothing.

The Details

1410 West Broadway, Vancouver
604.731.0488

Rating / 3 out of 5 stars

Toyotami is an unassuming sushi restaurant located on North Burnaby’s restaurant strip along Hastings near Gilmore. There’s nothing remarkable about the exterior facade, so unless you’re actually looking for the restaurant, you’ll likely walk by without noticing.

(Top to bottom: 1. New York Roll. 2. Combo 608, Spicy Tuna Roll and Tuna Sashimi.)

Case and I started with the randomly numbered Combo 608: Spicy Tuna Roll encrusted encrusted with Tempura batter bits and tuna sashimi. The hot sauce was mixed well with chopped tuna (not simply drizzled over like most places), and the Tempura batter provided a nice crunch, although the rice was sloppily put together. The flavour of the Tuna sashimi was decent, but the texture was slightly mushy.

Signature rolls appear to be a speciality of the house, so we ordered one — the New York Roll: prawn tempura, cucumber, avacado topped with spicy salmon, drizzled with Japanese mayo with a sprinkling of Tobiko, spring onions and sesame seeds. It’s a surprisingly tasty, organized chaos looking dish — very rich, with some strange flavour combinations that shouldn’t work, but somehow blend harmoniously.

(Above: Various Nigiri Sushi: Otoro, Tamago, Saba, and Tobiko.)

The Tempura appetizer was a miss; we could taste the oil used to deep fry the batter hadn’t been changed in awhile. Luckily, the Nigiri was pretty well executed: the Saba (mackeral) was tasty, as was the Otoro and tobiko. Only the Tamago seemed to suffer from being slightly anemic.

Our bill came to $35 including taxes and tips. Service was so-so, and the meal had both its high and low points. They also have daily dine-in only specials with heavy discounts on certain dishes for each day.

Perfect for: Sushi. If you happen to find yourself in North Burnaby for some reason.

The Details

4121 Hastings Street, Burnaby
604.676.1506