If you like a cheap, fast, and yummy lunch - check out the X-Site Grill and Bistro. I recently went there with 3 friends and we all had the $4.95 lunch special. X-Site is great because instead of the usual limited number of specials, there are many many specials to choose from: for example chicken souvlaki, 3 pasta dishes, daily soup and sandwich or caesar, and the daily omelette with potatoes and toast. I had the chicken strips with caesar salad and garlic toast. It’s a simple meal, but always done right.

If you want something other than lunch specials, there are many other delicious items on the regular menu. X-site has a full range of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, pastas and steaks. All the prices are reasonable - for example $6.95 for a classic burger - a homemade burger topped with cheese, mushrooms, and bacon. The burger comes with a green salad and spuds - red-skinned potatoes topped with sour cream. Filling and good. Be forewarned that if you have french-fry oriented kids, fries are absent from the menu.

The restaurant is busy at lunch time and they only have one regular server, so go early or prepare to have a leisurely meal. While the service is generally good, the server can’t always keep up with all the patrons.

X-site: cheap and consistently good eats. Can’t ask for much more than that.

Gohan (which means “rice” in Japanese) serves up Japanese food with a twist. If you’re tired of the same old Japanese food - sushi, teriyaki, and tempura, I suggest you give Gohan a try.

While Gohan does serve the standard Japanese menu, it’s their “alternative” menu items that I’m drawn to. Chicken karaage is one of my fave Japanese foods (fried chicken in bite-sized pieces, with a thin crispy coating). Gohan marinates the chicken first in sake and garlic and serves it with a honey cream sauce. Absolutely delicious.

They also make a couple tasty tataki items - a garlic tuna tataki and a spicy salmon tataki. The fish is seared and served with beautiful sauces - garlic for the tuna and jalapeno for the salmon.

Gyoza is also done with a twist. Instead of the usual pork and veggie filling, you can choose from a salmon gyoza or an ebi mayo gyoza. The salmon gyoza uses salmon instead of pork, while the ebi mayo gyoza is deep fried making a crispy coating, with the ebi (prawn) and mayo inside.

The kids always order udon (the usual thick noodle and broth soup) but my husband loves Gohan’s “spicy pasta.” This dish is spaghettini in a spicy seafood tomato cream sauce. It makes an excellent lunch.

Usually, miso soup is complimentary (although it’s not stated on the menu), and lunch specials start at $7.95. At a recent lunch for two which included two rolls of sushi, miso soup, salad, spinach gomaae, and two a la carte items, the bill with tax and tip was under $40.

Gohan is often very busy (especially during lunch hour) so get there early or be prepared to wait for a table.

Cristos Greek Taverna - 4624 Hastings St., Burnaby, BC, Phone: (604) 299-0008.  A great place to go for tasty, garlicky Greek food.  Try the appetizer platter.

IHOP Brentwood - 4567 Lougheed Hwy., Brentwood Mall, Burnaby, BC, Phone: (604) 299-1111.  Kids eat free for dinner when accompanied by an adult.  Standard fare well done.

PBF Pita Bread Factory - 7070 14th Ave., Burnaby, BC, Phone: (604) 528-6111.  Not a restaurant, but an excellent place to buy pita bread, naan, bagels, and tortillas.  It’s cheap to boot.

Viva Sue Pizza - 5115 Canada Way, Burnaby, BC, Phone: (604) 522-5200.  Take out pizza rules at Viva Sue’s.  Try the party pack (3 large pizzas with 2 toppings each) or the Chef’s Best.

No. 1 Beef Noodle House - 4741 Willingdon Ave. at Moscrop, Burnaby, BC. Phone: (604) 438-6648.  Great for noodles, dim sum, appetizers and bubble teas. 

Fortune House Seafood Restaurant - 2199A - 4700 Kingsway, Metrotown, Burnaby, BC. Phone: (604) 438-8686.  My favourite dim sum restaurant in Burnaby.  A bit pricier but worth every penny.  I always order the scallop and prawn dumplings, spring rolls, bean curd rolls in oyster sauce, and siu mai. 

Bon appetit!

Eat! Vancouver was divided up into different areas which included a wellness section, a wine and beer section, a chocolate section, an international section, and even a pet food area. There were also several stages for various chefs doing their thing, and the big name chefs were Rob Feenie and Anna Olson from the Food Network. You could easily spend the whole day sampling, tasting, shopping, eating, and drinking (my fave ways to spend a day).

As it was our first time attending the festival, we erringly purchased a bunch of food tickets. The tickets were good for appy-sized samples of the Bite of Vancouver restaurants’ menu items. Most of the samples were in the $1 to $4 range. We ate sate, cupcakes, chocolate covered fruit kabobs, Malaysian noodles, and coconut rice. Sure, it was good, but the free stuff we got was even better!

The free samples we had included salmon, ice cream cones, pumpkin seeds, trail mix, flax cereal, triple chocolate desserts, popcorn, cassava chips, pomegranate juice, rice crackers, and yogurt. Other free samples included espresso, rice pudding, soda pop, flavoured water, kettle chips, sesame snaps, and cheese. I could go on. We got so full on samples that we had leftover food tickets and ended up buying baked goods to go, just to use up our tickets.

It was hog heaven.

The cost for entry tickets was $14 dollars for adults, $6 for kids 7 to 14, and free for kids 6 and under. We went on a Sunday and the crowds weren’t too bad until about 2 p.m. So if you get a chance to go next year, try to get there early to avoid long lineups - especially if you take the kids.

I’ll definitely be back next year.

If you want to go to Howie’s you better make it soon. This location has been notorious as a revolving door for restaurants and I don’t think Howie’s will break the trend. We went for a weekday lunch and during the hour or so we were there, I counted a total of 6 other diners. That’s not quite enough to keep their dance floor disco balls rotating.

The food was passable but not stellar. I had the “fire roasted chicken” with seasonal veggies and yam fries. The chicken was crispy and moist and was served with Frank’s hot sauce on the side. The seasonal veggies were essentially a Chinese stirfry of mostly bok choy and orange peppers. Cooked nicely but not much flavour. The yam fries had some sort of starchy coating (cornstarch?) and were pretty but not delicious.

My companion had the St. Louis BBQ pork ribs with the same veggies and mashed potatoes. The rib meat tasted previously frozen. The sauce was tasty and the mashed potatoes were okay - if not quite warm enough.

The rest of the menu consists of a variety of appies - potato skins, calamari, coconut shrimp for example, soups and salads, steaks and prawns, and a few desserts.

The service was friendly and attentive, albeit the waitress was not taxed by the number of diners.

Price for two including two soft drinks, tax and tip was under $35.00.

In general, Howie’s was not a standout. Any bets on how long they’ll last?

For my money, a good takeout place is one you have ordered from enough times to know which are the best dishes.

Capitol Hill definitely fits the bill for our family. While we rarely eat in the restaurant, the takeout menu has been a lifesaver many times over.

Some of our fave dishes are: spicy garlic chicken wings. These are beauties. Spicy, crispy, garlicky, deep fried wings. Need I say more? The kids love them even though they’re hot hot hot. We order the wings every time.

Scrambled egg with prawns. This dish is sort of like egg foo yung, but without any filler - it’s just eggs and jumbo prawns. Yummy.

Gai lan and beef. Gai lan is an irreplaceable veggie - that crispness and slightly bitter flavor can’t be beat. Capitol Hill does a pretty good job with it.

Bean sprout fried noodles. These are fairly plain noodles but I just love the flavour. Beansprouts, chow mein noodles, a few other veggies (some carrots thrown in for colour) and a bit of sauce. They really go well with the other dishes.

Fried rice. My fave is the duck meat fried rice but the kids love the shrimp fried rice. Both are good. Not too greasy, with meat, egg, peas, and green onions.

Tofu. Order either the bean curd in oyster sauce (also comes with a nice assortment of veggies), or the rock cod and tofu hotpot (comes with lettuce, Chinese mushrooms and tons of garlic cloves).

Most dishes are in the $7 to $10 range, and they offer free items for take out orders of $20 and up.  Chopstick lickin’ good.

No, you’re not seeing things. On this particular day, for this particular meal, IHOP did a bang-up job.

We hadn’t intended to go to IHOP (don’t you kind of just end up there?). We actually tried two other restaurants first. But since it was a beautiful Saturday evening, and it was prime dining time, we couldn’t even get a spot in the parking lot. So, we figured, what the heck, we wanted some pretty simple food anyway, so we decided to give IHOP a try.

When we got there, we found out they had a dinner special - with any adult meal, your kid 10 or under gets a kid’s meal free. This is a definite bonus. They have a good selection of kids’ meals - ranging from steamed fish with potatoes and veggies (do real children actually eat this?) to the usual chicken strips and fries, hamburgers, and of course lots of breakfast meals with pancakes. My younger daughter only eats chicken strips when we go out so that was what she had. The fries were light, yummy, and plentiful. The chicken had a tasty coating (not too spicy) and she ate it all up.

My older daughter had an adult meal - ham, cheese and scrambled egg sandwich on sourdough bread with fries. She loved it, and it was so big she brought half home for breakfast the next day.

My husband and I both ordered the same meal (almost unheard of!) - burgers with bacon, cheese and a fried egg, with onion rings. The burgers were surprisingly well done. The meat patty was tasty, bacon makes everything better, the fried egg was over medium and properly cooked. The whole thing was on a cheese bun and was served with either fries or onion rings. Usually you have to pay extra to get onion rings with your burger, so of course we opted for the free onion rings. They were huge, crispy, and had a generous piece of onion in them.

The service was very friendly and courteous. The servers were prompt and attentive and we were waited on by several different staff members. The kids can hardly wait to go back!

Our meal, with tax, tip and a beer was under $45.00 for the whole family.

The Pita Bread Factory is not a restaurant, but it is a darn good place to pick up pita, tortillas, bagels, and naan at greatly reduced prices. Excess products and factory seconds are sold in the reception area of the factory. The product varies from day to day but you can almost always find something good. Mornings are the best time to visit as product often sells out by the afternoon.

The prices are unbelievable. Generally, bagels are $2 for a bag of a dozen or more, tortillas are $1.50 for 24 huge ones, and pita bread is around $1 a bag. Naan is also usually around $1. And did I mention they often have “specials” and 2 for 1 deals? It’s not unusual to find their regular prices slashed when they have lots of product to move. If I go on a “special” day I usually pick up bagels and tortillas for all my friends and family.

The Pita Bread Factory - a cheap, delicious, thrill.

When we first moved to the area several years ago, we spent many nights ordering and eating mediocre pizza. We finally wised up and asked an Italian friend where he ordered his pizza. The answer - Viva Sue!

Viva Sue has been our favourite pizza place for years and our kids compare all other pizzas to Sue’s. Most of the competition just doesn’t stack up. What’s so good about Viva Sue’s pizza? The crust, the sauce, generous toppings and full fat cheese. And the price is great to boot. We usually order the “party pack” which is 3 large pizzas with two toppings each and 3 pops, delivered, for $35.00. The pizzas last us several meals and even taste good frozen and reheated in a pinch.

All their other pizzas are 2 for 1. The Chef’s Best is one of my favourites - ground beef, onions, fresh tomato, green peppers, and feta cheese. Other standbys are the capicollo and pineapple, fresh tomato and feta, and the kids’ fave is pepperoni and either ham or salami. Pastas and salads are passable, but the real star here is the pizza. Viva Sue is family owned and operated and you can expect friendly service, both over the phone and in person.

You can’t beat pizza for a good time!

The things I like best about going out for dinner are: the opportunity to try new and wondrous foods; having many different tastes and textures in the same meal; and of course, not having to clean up afterwards.

I must be getting jaded in my old age. While Kirin serves up quality ingredients with attentive service, I just can’t get overly excited about the food.

At a recent dinner for 10 people, I was somewhat disappointed. Everything just tasted too much the same.

We started with the appetizer platter - smoked salmon, jelly fish, barbecued pork, steamed chicken. Nicely flavoured - nothing outstanding. We then had the eggplant and scallop hot pot in a spicy sauce. I think this was my favourite dish of the night. The chilis added some zing, and the eggplant was tender yet not over-cooked. More scallops would have been nice, but that is usually the case!

Enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef tenderloin in a garlic sauce - while the texture of the mushrooms was interesting, the sauce itself was boring. The panfried tofu stuffed with shrimp on a bed of broccoli sounds much better than it tasted. The tofu was too mushy, and the shrimp was tasteless. The broccoli was excellent though - both crisp and tender.

The Chinese mushrooms and bok choy dish was typical and uninteresting. Our noodle dish - panfried noodles with beef and peppers - had a nice sizzling sound, but again just didn’t stand up in the flavour department.

Overall, the white table cloths and cleanliness are exemplary, but for the money, you could have a much better meal at many other Chinese restaurants in the city.