2nd year anniversary at Horizons – Vancouver Dine Out #1

January 28 marked D and I’s 2nd year anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, we decided to participate in Vancouver’s Dine Out 2013 event that happens annually in the Lower Mainland. After much research, we finally chose Horizons restaurant, a very secluded, fancy and posh restaurant up on top of Burnaby mountain. The drive there was pretty eerie as it was quite foggy and the long, dark winding roads reminded me a bit of a horror movie. Scary things aside, once we got to the top, we were mesmerized by the beautiful view of the Lower Mainland that we got. 

Freezing cold, but definitely worth the shot!

After taking a few pictures, D and I walked up to the restaurant and found the outside to be inviting and reminiscent of cabins in Whistler.

The entrance!

We entered the restaurant and I was greeted by one of my friends from college who happened to be on her first shift as a hostess there. She seated us and both D and I were impressed by how spacious, luxurious yet comfortable the inside was. Unfortunately were weren’t seated by the windows, but by simply looking out of any window, you were granted a fantastic view of the city. The chairs were super comfy and the table was set very nicely.

Romantic candles

Isn’t he handsome?

Since we were participating in the Dine Out event, we were given a special 3-course menu and we both ordered different things to try and get the most out of the experience. For our appetizers, I had a delicious albacore tuna tataki with a few greens while D had a hearty cream of wild mushroom soup. Both were super yummy!

Albacore tuna tataki for my appetizer

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup with baby green pea shoots, sourdough croutons

For our main dishes, I had the 8oz NY Steak with veggies and D had the BC sockeye salmon with tomato basil risotto and veggies. Both were super delicious and filling, and I had to admit – I preferred his entree much better. 😛

BC sockeye salmon, grilled on alder wood BBQ, tomato basil risotto, charred asparagus, spiced lemon emulsion

NY Steak, 8oz char grilled, red wine demi glaze, pepperberry butter, nugget potatoes

Lastly for dessert (my favourite!), I had the chocolate hazelnut creme brule and D had the cinnamon poached pear with warm pecan brioche pudding. Honestly, my dessert was hands down, one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth – it was delicious! D’s was super comforting and tasty, but mine just hit it out of the park. Wow.

A to DIE for chocolate hazelnut creme brule with house made biscotti

Cinnamon poached pear with warm pecan brioche pudding, and butterscotch rum sauce

Service was prompt and super friendly! Just as I read from other reviews from this restaurant, the service was very good and our servers always came by to make us feel comfortable and to get our food on time and with a smile. Our server was even nice enough to accidentally mistaken the card D gave me for our anniversary as a birthday card, and she had told the chefs to put a candle on my dessert! I was so impressed and flattered, and told her that it was indeed our 2 year anniversary and not my birthday. 😛

The server thought it was my birthday… so she kindly brought a candle out with my dessert. SO thoughtful and adorable. D couldn’t stop laughing and said “Happy birthday, babe” repeatedly. 😀

As expected, since Horizons is considered a fine dining restaurant, the portions were small but surprisingly made the both of us very full and happy. It was definitely worth the $38 price for the Dine Out menu considering normally, an entree is worth $24-38. I would love to come back here on another special occasion and I really hope that their management/staff don’t change anytime soon – they were all so lovely!

Score:

Ambiance: 4.5/5
Food: 4.5/5
Price: 3/5
Service: 5/5
Experience: 5/5

Total Score: 22/25

Rain and Mo-Mo’s

Today, I had the opportunity to have lunch with my good friends Ashley and Anna, along with my boy friend, D. At first, we were intending on eating at Guu in Vancouver Gastown, but upon arriving, we found out that they didn’t open until dinner time! Luckily we found a cute little Japanese restaurant called Mo-Mo’s that was open and quite busy.

The restaurant seems very small upon entering the foyer, but once you are seated, you realize that it is quite spacious and is pretty neat in that it turns into an underground restaurant. The hardwood flooring, wooden benches and tables made for a surprisingly cozy atmosphere, reminding me of a warm cabin.

Once seated, I was surprised to find a bottle of sriracha next to the soy sauce! I thought that was a cute and thoughtful little thing they added to the table. The noise level was normal and not too distracting while I was catching up with my friends. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the aesthetics and layout of the place. It was clean, simple and surprisingly cozy. What my friends and I also found really cute were their chopsticks that they offered at the table that had cute little texts on them.

The menu was well laid out, easy to read and had a variety of options and combos for reasonable prices. My friends and I ordered a bit of everything to share, and once the food started coming in, we were surprised by how much food there was! The portions were quite generous and pretty tasty. Some of the sushi rolls were a bit poorly made as they easily fell apart from having too much filling and not enough rice to support it. Otherwise, the food was very good and quite filling.

 

 

 

 

My two friends who could pass off as my siblings: Ashley & Anna 🙂

My least favourite part about my experience was the service. Although the servers and hostess seemed friendly enough, they didn’t check up on our group as frequently as I have experienced in other Japanese restaurants. The only time they came often was when they were handing our food to us and when they were not so subtly signalling that they wanted us to pay the bill and leave so to seat other diners. They also managed to get one of our orders wrong, so I felt bad for wasting food. Other than that, the service was not too shabby.

D & I 🙂

By the end of our meal, we were surprised that our bill was very inexpensive for the amount of food we had ordered altogether. Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Mo-Mo’s and if I am in Gastown, I will definitely go back there to catch a bite to eat!

Score:

Ambiance: 4.5/5
Food: 4.5/5
Price: 5/5
Service: 3/5
Experience: 4.5/5

Total score: 21.5/25

Starting a new journey

Hi readers!

I have been so interested in starting up a food blog and have been so excited to finally launch this thing. Having a personal blog for other things is also fun, but I thought it would be better to have a blog specifically for food. Having eaten at so many places, I am always looking to try new things and hopefully, gain a great experiences and a happy tummy out of it! Hopefully I will be able to explore cuisine outside of the ones I have already tried and will be able to provide great and helpful recommendations for locals or travellers looking to dine in and around the Greater Vancouver area. Aside from restaurant reviews, I would like this blog to also be a place I can archive my personal culinary pursuits at home cooking for whoever happens to be over at the time. It is one of my top personal goals to be able to cook well and make a great meal for those I care about.

I really hope that the readers who happen to stumble upon this blog will find it helpful and entertaining. I cannot wait to share my culinary adventures with you, both dining out and in. Enjoy!

– P