Basil Pasta Bar

Time of Visit: Lunch
Price: $7.95
Location: 636 Davie St, Vancouver BC
Website: www.basilpastabar.com

Dorothy’s POV

I first encountered this place through a picture I saw on instagram. After doing some look-around, I found out that basil served all-you-can-pick-toppings and pasta for only $7.95… Which isn’t thaaat pricey compared to if you were to order a pasta dish at a restaurant. Who doesn’t like (basically) free toppings?

Basil is a restaurant that really blends in with its neighbourhood. With a painted wall and a huge glass window, this is what I call a restaurant with a personality. However, the restaurant is quite small and doesn’t offer many seats – although most people choose takeout anyways.

I’m not as adventurous as Calvin and I’m faithful to penne, although I have tried out two sauces to date. I really enjoy the Alfredo sauce as well as the rose cream sauce. For toppings, I usually choose salmon, bacon, most of the vegetables, as well as Parmesan. Having the freedom of choosing your flavors really appeals to me, and the possibility of choosing new combinations is what drives me back for more. Another motivator is their punch card; buy eight pastas and you’ll receive one side dish free of charge!

Rose sauce

Alfredo penne

Mandalay Lounge & Steakhouse

Time of visit: Saturday dinner
Price: $15-$30 without appetizer or drinks
Location: 3900 Bayview St, Richmond, BC V7E 0A4
Website: mandalaysteakhouse.com/

Demitri’s POV

Chicken tagliatelle with mushrooms: The pasta was in a generous portion and aforementioned chicken in plenty, but the flavour was straying a bit on the salty side for my taste.

Chicken tagliatelle

 

Dorothy’ s POV

I had the chance of visiting this beautiful restaurant for my friend’s birthday. We managed to get a private room on the second floor so I unfortunately, did not get to experience the rest of the place. The room has a really nice view but is too dark to take good photos in.

I ordered the wild salmon as I am a big fan of salmon and I wasn’t in the mood for burgers or steaks. The presentation of the dish was very appealing: the salmon rested upon a mound of rice with what I believe is hollandaise sauce as decoration. The roasted vegetables and crab & corn hash also complimented the salmon very well.

The crab & corn hash was absolutely amazing. It consists of crab meat, corn, and dried apricots for sweetness. The salmon on the other hand, was slightly drier than I’d like it. Although not the best salmon I’ve had, it is not the worst.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience at Mandalay. The service was friendly and the food was great, although slightly pricey (The view makes it all better).

Wild salmon with crab & corn hash

 

 

The Famous Warehouse

Visited: lunchtime, Monday March 24
Price: $4.95 all menu items (minus drinks), $6.95 for all you can eat days
Location: 989 Granville St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2C9
Website: thefamouswarehouse.com

Dorothy’s POV

This time, I decided to give their burgers a try and “The Works” caught my eye. It’s a meaty burger consisting of onion rings (yes, inside the burger), lettuce, tomato, cheese, “premium Alberta beef”, and bacon. I don’t know man, I think it’s a pretty good steal of a deal. For $5, you can get a much better burger here than what you can get from McDonald’s and it’s quite filling. I also substituted my fries for yam fries which cost an additional $1.95 and the chipotle mayo was an extra $0.99, making my total around $8. The yam fries were thick cut and absolutely delicious. The mayo was also really good as it wasn’t too spicy.

HOWEVER, the Warehouse isn’t located in the most appealing of places. It’s located in the sketchier part of downtown – which is understandable because of their low prices. The restaurant has a unique garage atmosphere which I really like and I would’ve taken more pictures if not for the lack of light in the restaurant. My previous visit was more pleasant than this one mostly because their music wasn’t as loud. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike it but it just makes having conversations difficult.

As this is a smallish restaurant, bringing large groups here for lunch/dinner is probably not a good idea. Maybe. But they charge a whooping 18% gratuity for groups of 5 or more so watch out for that.

Good eats, 10/10 will visit again.

Warehouse interior

“The works” burger

Update:

Time of visit: Saturday lunch

I visited the warehouse for a third time except this time, it was with a rather large group. We were a party of 6 and found ourselves a seat at the back of the restaurant. Mind you, it was lunch time so the waitress was quite busy.

This was not the most pleasant visit here. It took a long time for our food to arrive and more importantly, it took 20 minutes for the waitress to collect our money and give us our change. Usually it’s not a big deal if we have to wait a bit but 20 minutes is too long.

I would not recommend bringing a large group here, especially not during lunch time.

HOWEVER, I really like the braised beef spaghetti. The beef was plentiful and the dish came out piping hot (literally, the plate was hot too). The portion was also right on mark as it was perfect for my appetite. My only complaint is that it took longer for the food to come out than my previous visits.

Braised beef spaghetti