Review: Cafe Ori @ Bellevue WA

Store: Cafe Ori
Location: 14339 NE 20th St, Bellevue, WA

Last week was our second time dining at Cafe Ori.  I have to say I was so excited to go back after our first try there.  We had pork chop noodle (in Taiwanese Style) and Portuguese Chicken Rice.  They gave us 2 pork chop and there's some pickled veg on top of the noodle, which was tasty.  The portuguese chicken was very yummy, it's a bit spicy with the nice coconut sauce.  I haven't been able to find another restaurant that serves portuguese chicken around the area yet and both dishes were so delicious.  Come the second time, the experience was very different :S  Not sure if we ordered the wrong dishes.

1. Pan Fried Rice Noodle Singapore Style ($7.75)
For someone who never tried this dish before, it's not bad.  However, I was expecting a dry rice noodle dish with curry sauce.  This was not the case when I tried this dish, it's a bit wet and I definitely did not taste any curry sauce in this dish.  Overall, this dish tasted more like pan fried rice noodle with soy sauce, which was nothing wrong, just what not I expected.

2. Baked Pork Chop Rice ($8.25)
Baked Pork Chop rice was my childhood favorite dish in Hong Kong.  I knew this dish was hard to please me, there's only one restaurant in Toronto where I think it's done right and I was hoping Cafe Ori can do the same.  Ok, wrong... or I just had high expectations. The color of the sauce was an orange-red color, not tomato red. The taste of the sauce was just soso, I prefer the tomato sauce to be a little bit stronger. Also, there's only 1 piece of pork chop instead of 2 large pieces we had in the pork chop noodle.  I definitely prefer the pork chop noodle much more and may want to try the pork chop rice in Taiwanese Style instead. However, I want to give credit to the egg fried rice. It was nicely done and goes well with the pork chop.

3. Taiwanese Shaved Ice ($3.30 + $0.5 (milk))
The picture can't do the justice for this dish. This dish was delicious and cheap.  It wasn't very colorful because of our choice of topping. It's red bean, coconut jello and some black jello (sorry, not sure what's the proper name for this, it tasted like herbal jello) I really like the coconut jello, it's soft and chewy. Also, I am happy that we ordered it with milk, so the ice on the top has more taste.  As usual, half way of eating this, I need to wear my jacket as I was getting too old. :)

Based on the dining experience this time, the food score is definitely lower.  However, if I rated my food experience last time, I will give it a 5. The environment score is a bit low as the restaurant is getting old.  It looks like an aged Chinese restaurant.
Food: 3.5/5
Price: $$
Environment: 3.5/5
Recommend to friends: Yes (It's still decent food at the end. Also, it's hard to find a HK style cafe like Cafe Ori!)

Tips: Safeway Shopping Trip

I was so happy shopping at Safeway this weekend.  I did an impressive 59% savings. Here are the items I got:
a) Ruffles Potato Chips x 2
b) Neuro Sleep drink
c) Bounce Sheet -105 sheets  
d) Stouffers Lasagna - Family Size
e) Banquet Sausage Links
f) Banquet Sausage patty
g) Sara Lee Lemon Cake
h) Texas Garlic Toast
i) Banana (~1.5lb)
j) Green Bell Pepper
k) Mushroom x 2
l) Safeway Brussel Sprout
m) Chicken Corn Chowder soup
n) Gap $25 Gift Card

In total, I spent $47.16 included tax.

I highly recommend signing up for Safeway's membership as Just 4 U discounts were amazing for me in March. I believe each person's Just 4 U offers are different because it depends on your shopping habits at Safeway.  I didn't really shop in Safeway until March when I saw these amazing deals.  For your reference, I spent $20 or so in January and February at Safeway and I am not sure if Safeway gave me extra incentives this month or their deals are always amazing.  Here are some of the discounts that I got. All of these were unlimited use for me this month, except indicated.  Also, they were stackable, meaning I was able to combine these with manufacture coupons, which makes it extra amazing.

- 10% off any refrigerated juice

- $1 off on your purchase of $6 or more in the Bakery Department

- 10% off any candy

- 10% off any potato chips

- 10% off any frozen entrees/ items in the frozen aisle

- 10% off any bagged salad

- 10% off any dried fruits

- Bananas $0.54/lb

- Safeway Farms - peeled baby cut carrots 1lb $0.99

- Safeway Farms - white mushrooms 8oz $1.29

- Buy $25 Gap Gift Card, take $5 off

- Purchase over $25, get $5 off

We shall see if I get anything better in April or they just do this so I will start shopping there.  In general though, if it's not for these discounts, I found Fred Meyer has better pricing.

Details of the transaction, as follows:

Grocery
a) Ruffles Potato Chips x 2
    Reg Price: $4.29 each
    Card Savings Buy 1 get 1 free @ $4.29 each
    Just 4 U Personalized 10% off on chips
    Total: $3.86 

b) Neuro Sleep drink      
    Reg Price: $2,69
    Card Savings                            - $0.19
    Just 4 U Manufacture Coupon FREE
    Total: - $0.19
    Notice, this is a money back!  As Safeway applied the Card Savings first, then when they apply
    the free coupon, it's on the original price. 

c) Bounce Sheet -105 sheets  
    Reg Price: $4.28         
    Card Savings                           -$1.50
    Just 4 U Personalized              -$0.21
    Just 4 U Manufacture Coupon -$0.50
    Total: $4.28

Frozen Food
d) Stouffers Lasagna - Family Size
    Reg Price: $8.49
    Card Savings                           -$1.50
    Just 4 U Personalized             -$0.70
    Just 4 U Frozen Food 10% off
    Manufacturer Coupon              -$1.00
    Total: $5.66

e) Banquet Sausage Links  
    Reg Price: $1.99      
    Just 4 U Frozen Food 10% off
    Total: $1.79

f) Banquet Sausage patty
    Reg Price: $1.99
    Card Savings                           -$0.99
    Just 4 U Frozen Food 10% off
    Total: $0.9

g) Sara Lee Lemon Cake
    Reg Price: $4.99
    Card Savings                           -$1.00
    Just 4 U Frozen Food 10% off
    Total: $3.59

h) Texas Garlic Toast
    Reg Price: $3.49
    Card Savings                           -$0.99
    Just 4 U Frozen Food 10% off
    Total: $2.25

Produce
i) Banana (~1.5lb)
    Reg Price: $1.87/lb
    Just 4 U Personalized             -$0.28
    Total: $1.01

j) Green Bell Pepper
    Reg Price: $1.00
    Just 4 U Personalized             -$0.40
    Total: $0.60

k) Mushroom x 2
    Reg Price: $3.98
    Just 4 U Personalized             -$1.40
    Total: $2.58

l) Safeway Brussel Sprout
    Reg Price: $2.99
    Just 4 U Personalized             -$0.50
    Total: $2.49

Deli
m) Chicken Corn Chowder soup
    Reg Price: $4.99
    Card Savings                           -$1.00
    Just 4 U Personalized             -$0.34
    Total: $3.65

Misc
n) Gap $25 Gift Card
    Reg Price: $25

    Just 4 U Personalized             -$5
    Total: $20

* With my $20 purchase, $5 off bonus!

   

Review: Haiku Sushi & Seafood Buffet @ Redmond, WA

Store: Haiku Sushi & Seafood Buffet
Location: 7548 164th Ave NE, Redmond WA

Price (Dinner Buffet) weekend: $24.95
Price (Lunch Buffet) weekend: $18.95
* They have discounts for birthday celebration, senior and certain employees! (Check their website for details)

As mentioned in my previous post, we went to buffet... Daniel said this after dinner "Go to Haiku, equals suicide"... lol...  you can tell we ate too much!!!

I always have these questions in my head when going to buffet:
1. Do people go on diet prior to buffet?
2. How much does buffet owner earn?
3. How full do people eat from buffet?  80%? 100%? 110%?

For us, we may make the mistake on eating too much that night, when we got up from our chairs, we almost can't walk. When we were on the ride home, I just hope it was a smooth ride. Afterwards, we need to rest at home for about an hour in order to get back to normal.  Never had this experience before, guess we were getting old??

The meal was delicious though, this just proves that if we want sashimi or rolls, it's much more worth it if we eat at buffet, just make sure we don't eat way beyond our means!

So here are the things I picked from the buffet table.  (Note: This is only my portion and I finished them all)  Daniel had his too, but he didn't plate it as nice as me.  :)

First, I started off with some sushi and sashimi, I didn't know the sashimi were at the end; otherwise, I will get less rolls.  There were at least 10 types of sushi roll to choose from and I was picky on my selections.  The scallop you see at the top was raw!  It's delicious but the stock was low. When I asked Daniel why you didn't pick one up, he said where... oops.. he didn't see it.  So we kept going back to the sashimi section and looked for it, we at least went back there 3 times, and he was able to get it once.  And when I went right after him, it's already all gone.  Daniel clearly saw them having more, but they didn't place them out :S  I think those scallops were expensive, maybe that's why??  My favorite on this plate is the spicy tuna sashimi, guess they were mixed with the non-spicy ones on the top left corner.

After the sashimi, I started to get some hot food.  One of the noticeable item is the raw oyster... I am not really a fan of raw oyster but I usually get one to try.  This one really surprise me, there's no fishy smell or taste at all and this thing was huge!  Guess you can tell from the picture.  Another of my favorite is the top scallop shell, it's cream sauce with lots of tiny scallops, that was pretty good.

After all the cold food, I had some hot seafood,  I had calms, oysters, lobsters and soft crabs.  They had cold snow crab too, but I didn't pick any... I did't really want to eat any seafood from shells but I could handle these lobster pieces without using my hands touching them.  We also had some soups and noodles, including miso soup, udon and sweet and sour soup.  The one on the picture was their special soup, which was seafood with radish soup.

Finally, it's dessert time, they don't have a lot of cakes, maybe 4-5 to choose from, but all of them were cut tiny, like the cheesecake in this picture.  The desserts in this buffet were just soso... The ice cream flavors on the picture were vanilla, butter pecan and green tea.  The green tea flavor wasn't very green tea, ok... maybe I had high expectations, it's very similar to the Haagen Dazs green tea.  I like the butter pecan most, it's basically vanilla with pecans.  They also serve creme brûlée.  The sugar coating was good, but the pudding was a bit thick for me.

In general, you can tell I really enjoy my meal here.  I love their environment too, it's the clean and modern look I like.  Also, I may recommend dinner over lunch as they serve more seafoods during dinner.  If I recall, I don't think they serve sashimi during lunch as well.


Food: 5/5
Price: $$
Environment: 5/5
Recommend to friends? Yes, but I will only recommend if you are hungry.  If you are not very hungry, maybe better to head to Oto Sushi.

Review: Belle Pastry @ Redmond, WA

Store: Belle Pastry
Location: 8918 161st Ave NE, WA 98052

Belle Pastry has 2 locations, their original location is at downtown Bellevue, the one I went was in Redmond.  I haven't been to the Bellevue location, so can't compare their quality.  All I know is their Redmond location has a lot of desserts!!  They have at least 5 tables and have plenty of enough room for people to have a coffee or enjoy some desserts.

Daniel and I went there for a light breakfast because we were planning having an empty stomach for buffet, I will write the review for that later.

We had croissant, chocolate croissant and macaron.  Sorry, the chocolate croissant is not in the picture, guess Daniel just finished it without taking the pic.. :S  The croissant is fluffy, had a good texture, I just wish it was warmed when it's served though.  The macaron is a good deal, $1 each, it's actually pretty cheap... I remember paying more than $2 for something like that in Toronto easily.  They also sold the macarons in a bag, but they are pretty much the same price, so I suggest buying individual macarons instead.  My favorite flavor is the orange, it's very refreshing.  The biscuit is very fragile and it's best to eat it with one bite.  The filling inside has the right texture too.  I forgot what's the flavor in the yellow one, but it's not lemon and it's chocolate inside.

Food: 4.5/5
Price: $ (This is cheap but for the type of food you are paying, it's pretty expensive)
Environment: 4/5
Recommend to friends: Yes

Review: Kukai Ramen @ Bellevue, WA

Store: Kukai Ramen
Location: 14845 Main St, Bellevue

Daniel and I wanting to have ramen for a few weeks, but he told me that he never really had a perfect ramen in Seattle before.  I got a bit turn down on that so didn't want to try ramen.  However, I accidentally came across Kukai ramen online and knew that it's a chain in Japan.  I thought... this should be good.  Also, based on their menu, you can choose their thickness of their ramen and saltness of the soup base.  I believe this place was new as it's nicely decorate and looks very modern inside.

I know a lot of reviewers online said that their service was not very good.  I disagree with that.  First of all, when I went into the store, the hostess asked whether I want some hot tea to wait, it's cold outside.  The wait was actually short, maybe 5-10minutes and outside wasn't really that cold.  Also, after the server knew we were first timer, he proposed us to have full soup base and can offer us compliemntary regular soup to dilute the soup if required.  We loved the soup base though, so we didn't get the extra soup. But I know if we order the extra soup, Daniel will just drink it all. lol.

Here are the dishes we tried:
1. Takoyaki ($5)
This dish is best to eat when it first arrives.  It was very fresh, there's a hint of crispness on the outside, but if you wait, that crispness will be gone!

Takoyaki

2. Tonkotsu ($11)
Pork bone soup base is my favorite.  That's my go-to for ramen.  I loved this soup base, but yea.. there's definitely a lot of salt in this as I need to drink a lot of water afterwards.  Regardless, I loved this ramen as I loved the soup.  I didn't put any extra add-ons on this, but there were a lot of add-ons options, i.e. corn, extra meat, etc.. The pork slice had less fat compare with other ramen shops, and was more marinated.  The egg wasn't fully cooked inside, as expected but it wasn't cut in half either.  Overall, I highly recommend this!

Tonkotsu

3. Spicy Ramen ($10)
Daniel ordered spicy ramen (medium spicy).  I wasn't sure why he ordered spicy ramen, this was not the usual him, he will normally go with miso... I will be bias as tonkotsu is my favorite ramen.  However, Daniel loved his spicy ramen too.  There's veg but no egg in this ramen.  Also, even though he ordered medium spicy, the ramen was pretty spicy.  We think that the soup base was the same as tonkotsu but they may have added the extra spice in it to make it spicy.  

Spicy Ramen

P.S. I waited for 5-10 minutes in order to get a table on Friday evening around 6:30pm.  However, when I leave around 7pm, there were at least 10 people waiting in line.  So best to go early to avoid the wait.

Food: 5/5
Price: $$
Environment: 5/5
Recommend to friends? Yes

Review: Oto Sushi @ Redmond, WA

Store: Oto Sushi
Location: 8015 161st Ave NE, Redmond WA

This week was Japanese food centric, guess we can't handle the spice anymore!  Umm, or maybe not... will show you in the next post.

Oto Sushi is an authentic Japanese restaurant and it looks big.  The restaurant uses a lot of wood as decor and had a Japanese feel to it.  They also had a Japanese bar if anyone is interested to watch the sushi chef make sushi. Depending on what you order and how much food you order, this can be more expensive than a Japanese buffet.  So if you are really hungry, you may want to go across the street and have Haiku buffet instead.  Otherwise, Oto seems to serve decent food.

Here are the items we had:
1. Edamame (complimentary)
They placed this after we ordered.  Nice gesture of them.  Normally, this may cost anywhere from $3-5.

Edamame

2. Music Roll ($12.95)
Sushi with lightly cooked salmon on the outside, avocado and tempera shrimp in the side.  Not quite sure what's the sauce on the plate, but it made the sushi quite wet, so I didn't prefer it, or I shouldn't  dip the sushi into the soy sauce.  I was just ok with this roll.

Music Roll

3. Yakitori ($5.95)
Very flavorful teriyaki chicken on a skew. I don't see this dish often so ordered this.  Not bad, it's a nice change from gyoza :)

Yakitori

4. Ton-Katsu ($12.95)
Not sure if the best was saved for last, or we didn't order the right things.  I liked Ton-Katsu the most.  Ok, before the dish came, I thought it was the other don, i.e. the one with onion and egg... sorry, wrong.. didn't read the menu properly.  I still love this dish though, and the salad on the side was quite good, it's simple and the salad dressing was light.

Ton-Katsu

Overall, I like the plate presentation of Oto Sushi, that seems to impress me.


Food: 4/5 (a bit disappoint with the music roll, will try something else next time)
Price: $$
Environment: 5/5
Recommend to friends? Yes

Tips: Asian grocery shopping in Seattle

By far, I think the cleanest Asian grocery store around town is Hmart. I can't go to Hmart alone to get all my groceries, so I will tell you the path/ stores I will go nearby the area and get everything done.  This maybe a bit excessive, but I only target this once a month; otherwise, our living space will run out fast if I do this weekly. Here's what happen after a crazy grocery trip, Daniel will remove the grocery bags once we got home and let me fit everything into the freezer.  Every time, we barely make it and feel so proud if I can make the freezer close.  Maybe that's a hint I need to get a mini freezer.

Anyways, back to my route:

1. Dollar Tree 
13233 Aurora Ave N, Seattle WA

Who doesn't like dollar store.  This is a true dollar store.  Everything is a dollar.  They have lots of snacks and grocery products for a dollar. I love Daiso too, which is a bit fancier but at the same time they are charging $1.50. So if Dollar Tree has the same product, I may want to get it in Dollar Tree instead.

2. Grocery Outlet
13201 Aurora Ave N, Seattle WA

Grocery Outlet is located right next to Dollar Tree, so you don't need to re-park your car if you go to both.  And if I can't find any kitchen stuff I want in Dollar Tree/ Grocery Outlet, I can go to Ross, which is right next door.  Nice, I can park once and go to three stores here!  I was really impressed by Grocery Outlet's price but I wasn't sure whether I will purchase produce or anything I can consume from this place.  However, based on reviews online, I just need to make sure they don't expire and I am probably safe.  Anyways, the deal I found last week was $11 for 105 counts of Cascade ActionPacs Dishwasher Detergent.  Normally, $11 will only get you 60 counts from a grocery store, meaning I got this almost half price!!  Well, I also compared with Sam's Club, it's $15 for 105 counts.  So yes... Grocery Outlet beats bulk prices too :)  Since last week was my first visit, I will do more price comparison in the future, likely at a closer location to home if possible.

3. Sam's Club
13550 Aurora Ave N, Seattle WA

So back in November, I got this membership deal from Sam's Club and I practically got their membership for free as I received a $25 gift card and 3 food coupons for free. At this time, I am not sure if I want to renew their membership this year as they don't normally have sales and it's a bit of a drive from home. Their prices are not always cheaper than a regular grocery store either so I really need to do my math and research before I shop there. I may want to try Costco next year when I see a deal in Costco membership. But a worthy mention is Sam's Club's gas prices is usually 10% off compare with other gas stations.  And whenever Daniel want to fuel up, we normally go to Sam's Club and combine with this extreme grocery shopping trip.  Mind you, driving to Sam's Club alone is $5 for us, that's why I want to get my money worth and get all Asian groceries and deals at the same time.

4. Boo Han Market?
22618 Hwy 99, Edmonds WA
I haven't been here. I just discovered this on Google Map and its right next to 99 Ranch, maybe I will give this a try next time, likely next month!

5. 99 Ranch Market 
22511 Washington 99 Ste 1092, Edmonds, WA

Uwaijimawa is my go to Asian grocery store, but they don't have everything I need, like some of the Chinese green leaf veg and Chinese snacks.  Therefore, I go to 99 Ranch if I want Chinese snacks and Uwaijimawa if I want Japanese snacks.  Also, I like 99 Ranch because they always have items on sale that I can stock up; for example, dumplings or fish balls for hot pot or certain sauces for cooking.

6. H-Mart
3301 184th St SW, Lynnwood WA

Last weekend was my first time in H-Mart Lynnwood but H-Mart was not new to us as they exist in Toronto.  H-Mart here is different compare with the one in Toronto as they sell household stuff here.  Also, not sure if we went there at a bad timing, I didn't see any cooked food in Lynnwood, I only see different kinds of kimchi.  H-Mart is my go-to place to get fancy meat and frozen products (i.e. buns, dumplings) and other Korean snacks.  Guess what I found last weekend, a mountain of chips!

Also, not sure how good this is.. but you can get real candies from Candy Crush!

P.S. This is a super long post, likely not the next one.

Review: BCD Tofu @ Lynnwood, WA

Store: BCD Tofu House
Location: 3301 184th St SW, St 210, Lynnwood WA

Months ago, we drove by H Mart Lynnwood, but we didn't have time to check it out and I begged Daniel to go there last weekend.  I will write a grocery review for that later.  In the meantime, I want to share with you my experience with BCD Tofu House, which is outside of H Mart.

BCD Tofu House is a food court vendor but their service is on par with a restaurant.  After you order, they will give you a tag and they will locate you once the food is ready.  In my past experience, food court Korean food will not give you side dishes but BCD did!  That was surprising and plus, they have this fish (in full) for side dish.  I am very picky on seafood and the fish has too much bone, not my cup of tea, but still, Daniel was happy with his fish and finished it all.

Their menu is a bit confusing, I am not sure what BCD combination menu really is.  But after we ordered, I think combination menu means you get 2 main dishes.  We had:

1. Beef Bulgogi Premium Tofu Combination ($14.99)
They served us one big plate of beef bulgogi, a small tofu soup and purple rice.  Inside the tofu soup, there's beef and seafood (one shrimp and one clam) Their portions were huge.  The beef was a huge portion and marinated well.  However, I wish it's a bit more moist.  Their rice was also cooked within the stone bowl, nice!

Beef Bulgogi

2. Dumpling Premium Tofu ($9.95)
The tofu is very similar to the small tofu soup served with the beef bulgogi but bigger portion.  Of course, this dish had dumplings, 4 of them in total.  I loved the shape of the dumplings, pretty cute.

Dumpling Premium Tofu

Bonus, they served complimentary barley tea, if anyone likes them :)

Food: 4.5/5 (consider this is food court quality, this is pretty good)
Price: $$ (consider this is food court quality, this is pretty expensive, same price as sit down restaurant)
Service: 5/5
Recommend to friends? Yes

Review: Spicy Talk Bistro @ Redmond, WA

Store: Spicy Talk Bistro 麻辣誘惑
Location: 16650 Redmond Way, Redmond WA

As recommended by some of our friends, Spicy Talk Bistro is an authentic Chinese restaurant.  We decided to give it a try.

Here are the dishes we tried:

1. Szechuan Crispy Tofu ($10.95)
The tofu was very crispy with a hint of spiciness.  This is my favorite out of the other dishes.  They also serve some green beans in the dish.  I want to say this is a healthy dish as there's tofu, but it's fried, so not sure if I can say that anymore :)

Szechuan Crispy Tofu

2. Sizzling Beef ($12.95)
We loved this dish, and it's best to eat it when they first serve it!!! i.e. sizzling!!!  This dish smells so good!  Guess it's because of all the onions on the dish... I was wondering how can I make those mushrooms... and what mushroom is it.  I bought different types of mushroom from 99 Ranch this weekend and will do some experiments.

Sizzling Beef

3. Special Chow Mein ($9.25)
Special chow mien means there's shrimps, chicken and beef.  I just added the sizzling beef on my noodles so I get more beef!  This dish is spicy but not as spicy as the tofu.  I don't really prefer thick noodles, but that's a personal preference.  Otherwise, I believe Daniel really enjoy this dish.

Special Chow Mein

In general, the portions served by Spicy Talk were big, so even the price maybe higher than some other Chinese restaurants, their quantity was generous.  The inside of the bistro was a very typical Chinese restaurant look, they also had lots of lanterns hanging, guess those were from Chinese New Year?  The parking outside the bistro maybe hectic though, we were lucky to find the last available parking slot in the plaza on Friday night.  A worthy mention is the exact Chinese translation for the restaurant name is "spicy temptation".  I just find the word temptation interesting, and because of this fact, it made me wanting to try this place when I drove by previously.

Food: 4.5/5
Price: $$
Environment: 4/5
Recommend to friends? Yes

Review: Stone Korean Restaurant @ Redmond, WA

Store: Stone Korean Restaurant
Address: 16857 Redmond Way, Redmond, WA

If you don't already notice, Daniel and I normally crave for Asian food because we miss the selections we get in Toronto!!!

We had some decent Korean food at Stone Korean Restaurant.  Notice, this isn't Stone House, which is a restaurant that's rated pretty high in Yelp.  We may want to try that one day too.  Stone Korean Restaurant was ran by Korean, the food is authentic.  According to Yelp, their price is on the pricer side.  I really can't comment as this is our second time dining at a Korean restaurant in Redmond and their price wasn't online so I took a picture of each page of the menu and will compare later.

Here are the dishes we ordered:

1. Beef Tofu Soup ($10)

As usual, we ordered spicy... ok.. maybe not next time.. as Daniel couldn't handle the spiciness of this dish... this was probably the max. he can handle.. oops... I have to say their soup was pretty good though, it's spicy and thick.  It's not watery as some of the other Korean restaurant served.   There weren't a lot of beef but I think that's pretty normal for this dish.  One worthy mention is the rice!!! I believe they cooked the rice in that stone bowl they served.  There weren't a lot of rice, and when it's done, you saw the dried rice at the bottom and it's hard to take out.  I can't wait to try their bibimbob, I think that will be good as the rice on the side will be crispy... I remember I had a similar experience in Japan and couldn't find it anywhere else, maybe I can find that in Redmond?

Beef tofu soup

2. 1/2 Fried and 1/2 Marinated Chicken (12 pieces) ($22)

We really want to try fried chicken because people in New York City were craving for these. At the time, Daniel and I were tourist in New York's Korean town and someone came to us and asked where's the best Korean fried chicken.  We were liked... what's Korean fried chicken.  Since then, we were curious about Korean fried chicken.  When we saw fried chicken on the Stone Korean Restaurant menu, we didn't hesitate to order.  They have 2 options a) wings b) whole chicken.  They don't offer marinated wings, so we decided to go with half half on the whole chicken.  The fried chicken were similar to KFC, maybe less greasy and definitely crispy, similar to Popeyes. The marinated chicken was sweet, like honey with green onion.  We liked the dishes but that's a lot of chicken for both of us.  It's better if we were having this with a group!

Korean fried & marinated chicken

Price: $$
Food: 4.5/5
Environment: 4/5
Recommend to friends: Yes

Tips: 
The restaurant was clean; however, the floor was slippery.  I was wearing hunter boots and still, I slipped.  I believe I wasn't the only one, while we were eating, we saw at least one more person who slipped.  So be careful when you walk into the restaurant!!!

Review: Canyon's Restaurant @ Redmond, WA

Store: Canyon's Restaurant
Location: 15740 Redmond Way, Redmond, WA

Over the weekend, we were doing grocery shopping in the Canyon's Restaurant's plaza, and decided to have dinner at Canyon's.  We discovered Ben Franklin Crafts and Frames in the plaza, it's a heaven there, they look more organized than Michael's and have a stamping booth where you buy your own paper and you can use their stamp to shape your paper, i.e. flags, shopping bags, etc... pretty cool.  Will definitely come back if we want to decorate our home later.

Back to Canyon's, it's an American restaurant, i.e. where you get burgers and fries.  Also, they have a good selections of Mexican food.  The restaurant is roomy and has lots of tv, not sure if it's because we were sitting near the bar area.  Their service on the other hand will be where the marks got deducted:
a) The menu they provided me had a few drops of water on it. :S
b) Their fries were unlimited but my glass of water was empty for awhile and they didn't notice.
c) When ordering chicken enchiladas, the waitress asked us whether we want guacamole, we said yes but we didn't know they were going to charge $0.99!!  And later we found out that the dish already has avocado; if we knew this, we probably won't bother with the guacamole.

Their food is decent though, here are the dishes we tried:
1. Chicken Enchiladas ($14 + $0.99 for guacamole)
Nice presentation, decent amount of meat. Good food.

2. Crispy Fish Burger ($10)
Normally, I wouldn't order burger but I was craving for a St. Lawrence Market fish sandwich and so decided to go with this.  The fish was crispy and we loved their fries because of its spiciness.  We also ordered an extra plate of fries as it's bottomless! However, the sandwich here is not as good as the ones in St. Lawrence market, guess I had high expectations when ordering, if not, I should have gave this a higher score.

Price: $$
Taste: 3.5/5
Environment: 3/5
Recommend for friends: Maybe?  If you are a sports person and there's a game playing that day.  Or if you have discounts, this restaurant will be a good deal.

Tips:

1. One big reason we will go back is Daniel gets discount when dining here, buy one entree get one free!!  How can we go wrong with that?!?! We paid $20 for these two entrees including tax and tips!  

2. When they offer you add-ons, check if there's extra charge.

Tips: Coupons Online

Guess how much I spend on the below?

Here's the breakdown:
1. South Beach Meal bar x 2 (FREE)
2. Premier bar x 2 (FREE)
3. Progressive Soup x 2 ($2.00)
4. Quaker Rice Crackers ($1.00)
5. Green pepper ($0.58)
6. Campbell Soup ($2.54)
7. Lysol Cleaner ($1.69)
8. Bartilla pasta ($1.29)

Total: $9.26

Tips: How did I manage to get a few items for free?

Grocery store normally has an online site with manufacture coupon.  In my case, Kroger (Fred Meyer, QFC) is giving away free items on their website every Friday.  Therefore, every Friday, I login to their website, clip my free item in preparation of grocery shopping in the weekend.

I also learned some websites will compare prices for you (depending on where you live, just google your neighborhood name with the word 'coupon', then you maybe able to locate them).  These sites will let you know where to find the best deals.  Sometimes, they will let you know you can stack one of your coupons on a sale item, then you should be getting the best deal.  For example, the original price of a progressive soup can is $2.49 vs on sale $1.25 vs $1.00 on sale with coupon.  By using coupon on a sale item strategy, it helps me reducing my grocery bill by a little.  I am not trying to become an extreme couponing person to reduce all bills to $0 or close to $0, but saving a little bit helps!

Review: Mcdonald's

I know everyone has been to Mcdonald's.  However, I want to document this because I want to show you the dollar menu.  Dollar menu on Mcdonald's doesn't mean everything is a dollar.  My favorite will be 20 pieces Chicken McNuggets for $5!  Ok, for Americans, this may mean nothing to them.  But for someone who comes from Canada, this is a great deal as $5 should only get you 5 McNuggets in Canada.

Back to the menu, there are a few new items, including Bacon Cheddar McChicken which I wanted to try.  There's also 2 big mac for $5, which seems to be a good deal.

Here's what I had on Friday night with Daniel.  Daniel loves fries and we managed to get them for free from coupon.  Total $10 for this dinner!  By the way, I thought spicy buffalo sauce will be good with the Chicken McNuggets, but we ended up liking the sweet n sour more, guess that's our childhood favorite.

Review: Monga Cafe @ Bellevue, WA

Daniel and I were craving for Asian food as usual and so I decided to document our restaurant hunt. We passed by Monga Cafe when we shop at Asian Food Center and so we decided to go there for dinner last weekend.

Monga Cafe looks like a newly opened Taiwanese restaurant and has the new modern look that we liked for a dining place.  There are 2 new stores next to it, including Swish Swish (a hot pot place) and Smacha (a tea shop).  We see that there's room for one more store... Daniel is thinking the mattress store should just move somewhere else, such that we will have a whole strip of Asian stores.. wohoo!!!

Store:       Monga Cafe
Location: 14603 NE 20th St, Bellevue, WA

Price: $$
Taste: 5/5
Environment: 5/5
Recommend for Friends: Yes

Here are the dishes we tried:
1. Pork Burger ($3.49)
I always order popcorn chicken as appetizers and decided to give pork burger a try.  This is delicious with a lot of favors and definitely healthier than popcorn chicken!!!  There's pork belly, pickled vegetables, crushed peanut powder, and some sweet and spicy sauce.

2.  Beef Noodle Soup Combo ($11.99)
Beef Noodle Soup: Very tasty.  Satisfy my spicy crave as I ordered very spicy!!!  It's acceptable by Daniel too, haha... who told him to ask me to choose the spiciness, of course I will choose very spicy!!! One of the best beef noodle soup we tried in town, Daniel and I found this is better than Facing East and Din Tai Fung.  We ordered half shank and half tripe.  There were 2 pieces of shank and 4 pieces of tripe.  Daniel said this is comparable to the ones we tried in Taiwan.  I on the other hand loved this because this doesn't have the herbs that some restaurants serve, not sure what that is... but I loved this... beef was tender, with the right texture of the noodle.  (Sorry, will capture a better picture to show you what's in the noodle next time)
- Mini cucumber: This is your standard pickled dish, with a few slices of carrot.  
- Bean Curd: Again, this is a very standard dish, and I loved bean curd :)

3. Lu-Ron Fan (Braised Pork with rice)
I don't know any restaurant which mess up this dish, so of course, this tasted good.  If anything, I may want a little bit more sauce then this will be perfect.

4. Shaved Ice with 3 toppings (Flan, Red Bean, Tang Yuan) $5.99
They ran out of Green Bean and Big Red Bean as our choices but that's ok, as we likely won't order those anyways.  Daniel loves pudding and can have that 24/7.  However, the flan in this shaved ice may not be the best he had, he wished it's a bit softer... I loved the red bean with a bit of milk on top, the red bean is soft, yum yum.  Tang yuan is a different texture which makes the shaved ice special.  I loved shaved ice and wonder how can I make this at home.  Though this is too cold to have in winter..... Best to order this in the summer time.. lol.

Here's the pic from Monga Cafe.  I will definitely recommend...

Welcome to my first post

Hello everyone,

I recently moved to the Greater Seattle area and would like to share with you my experience here.

Please feel free to make suggestions as I am new to blogging.

Thanks.
Kitty