This is going to be the longest dinner post in the history of iPanda.ca!  Haha!  The reason is because we are going to review what a traditional Chinese style wedding banquet looks like.  iPanda recently had the pleasure of going to a wedding banquet at Kirin.  I had heard great things about this restaurant before and was excited to try their food.  The restaurant was wonderfully decorated with lights all along the windows.  The room had ceiling to floor windows that showed Richmond Centre across the street.  My favorite part of the room was this amazing crystal chandelier.  I hope we can have one just as nice in our panda pad later~  Hehe!

It’s always nice to be prepared with some well wishes for the couple when going to a Chinese style wedding banquet.  Kirin added a nice touch by printing these wishes and nice greetings on their red chopstick holders.

The wedding couple made some center pieces for the table.  It was an elegant glass filled with glass marbles.  CUTE & SIMPLE~

On to the condiments!  Here is a tip from iPanda’s papa.  If you see wasabi at a Chinese dinner, then you will probably be served smoked salmon!  HAHA!  Papa panda is so wise.

And here it is!  The appetizer consisted of marinated pork, smoked salmon, roasted piglet, tofu wrapped with mushrooms and jellyfish~  Everything was great. You can really see the care they put into making each one.  Can I use the word “CLEAN CUT” to describe a dish?  Because this is how this dish made me feel.  Perfectly marinated without lots of msg and oil.

The second dish in a typical Chinese style banquet is usually the crab claw.  This is the giant ball in the middle.  It is basically crab breaded and fried.  This was served with green beans, squid and chicken slices.  The crab claw wasn’t oily.  It was a bit smaller than what I usually have, but it was still delicious.

And here is the famous shark fin soup.  I’m not sure of the history of the shark fin soup.  I don’t think this is real shark fin.  But I think it’s at most Chinese traditional dinners because it has always been a tradition.  It demonstrates the wealth of the family and future prosperity.  I think this dish is sometimes over rated.  It’s yummy but the price restaurants put on it is too much.

Ahhh.  And here is the giant lobster. Are you full already just looking at the appetizer courses?  Well….the lobster which is cooked in a special soup is the transition from appetizer to main course.  There were two lobsters and each one was cut up into small pieces.

It is cut so that guests can easily dig out the meat.  What I enjoyed most about Kirin is that their foods are very fresh.  Most Chinese restaurants serve their food with way too much msg, sauce and oil.  It’s often difficult to taste the acutal flavors of the food.  Kirin definitely didn’t make this mistake because each dish had a unique taste to it and wasn’t overwhelmed by add ons.

The abalone dish comes next.  This is served with a giant mushroom and some vegetable.  Abalone is best eaten in slices.  Make sure you chew it well because it is very hard on your digestive system.  I don’t think abalone is for everyone because it has a fishy smell to it.

The fried chicken with shrimp chip!  The outside of the chicken is crispy where as the inside is juicy.  You can definitely see that in the picture.  The chicken is served with a couple pieces of shrimp chips.  I normally do not eat the chip because it is quite greasy.

Meat is always followed by fish.  A whole fish is steamed in soy sauce with green onions and ginger on top.  Chinese people prefer to steam fish to keep it’s original flavours and freshness. I’ve never been a big fish eater.  But it is definitely a must try in a Chinese restaurant.  The steamed fish is a good indication of how good a restaurant is.

Because this is a wedding banquet, we were served numerous deserts.  This is not typical of Chinese banquets for smaller family occasions because we are usually served a sweet soup.  But this time!! We were served coconut jello, almond cookies, and a sweet rice dumpling with lily.  Each desset is made by the restaurant.  My favorite was the almond cookie because it was freshly baked and had a sweet sugar glaze on top.  I could easily eat 5 of these!

WOW!  Are you amazed yet?  One traditional Chinese banquet is equal to what I eat in 2 or 3 days.  HAHA!  I definitley left feeling very satisfied.  Overall, Kirin gave us all a very positive experience.  Everything was nicely presented.  Service was pleasant.  This is a pretty good place to hold a wedding banquet.

Favourite ipanda saying at a wedding:

“and they lived happily ever after….”

Rockia’s company bought them to the KEG Steakhouse and Bar.  The interior of the restaurant is mostly made of hard wood.  The lighting was very dim and made it challenging to take pictures.  In addition, the service was not pleasant and the cleanness of the restaurant left us doubting whether we will return.

Rockia: Here is a pictures of the miscellaneous stuff on the knife.  Ewww…. This is probably the number one mistake that restaurants make.  Regardless of how good the food is….if the utensils are dirty then we won’t returning.  After we notified the server, it took almost 15 mins before we were given a clean knife.  Oh my!

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1335 Robson St

(604) 681-0339

Another day of shopping in downtown Vancouver made us hungry for some Japanese food.  This time we walked down Robson Street and decided to try Miko Sushi~ This place is fairly small but it was packed when we entered.

The first thing we noticed was that the walls were all covered with autographs from famous people (many of them hockey players).  It was a very impressive display of autographs indeed.  As well, they had a big television on top of the sushi bar which was also showing a hockey game.  So I guess this place would be good for anyone who loves hockey!

For dinner, we order one unagi rice box which came with miso soup and some small veggie dishes as well as an assorted sushi.  The miso soup was pipping hot~  But there was nothing special about it because it was very normal and similar to miso soups from other Japanese restaurants.  There were only a couple of pieces of tofu and seaweed in it, but it was salty and got our stomachs ready for the rest of the meal.

This little dish of spinach salad was a very small portion.  It was good, but once again…nothing to make me jump out of my seat for.  I noticed right away by looking around the restaurant that the portions here are fairly small.  Is this typical of most authentic Japanese restaurants?

The next dish to arrive was my unagi rice box.  There were two fairly long pieces.  They were nicely done with a ton of bbq unagi sauce.  There was a thin layer of rice underneath the fish which was not enough to finish the two pieces of unagi.

The bbq unagi was not pre-made and the sauce was definitely the yummiest part.  They were a bit crispy on the edges and the bbq sauce was surrounding the fish.  It was a pretty good piece of bbq unagi.

These couple of pieces of veggies came with the rice box.  I tried a bit of each and didn’t finish it.  We were not used to the taste because it was sour and cold.  I would have preferred another side dish to go with my unagi.  Simlar to the spinach, the taste and size of it was only enough to make us say, “eh?”  This unagi rice was $14.95

And here is Rockia’s assorted sushi.  This was $19.00.  The fish was definitely fresh.  I loved eating the giant salmon roe.  That was my favorite piece out of the whole set.  Rockia doesn’t eat it because he doesn’t like the saltiness of it.  So I guess salmon roe isn’t for everyone.  The server was great and asked us if we were ok with salmon roe in our assorted sushi before placing our order.  However, I love how they pop when I bite into it.

Overall, we probably won’t be visiting Miko Sushi again.  Even though their food was pretty fresh,there were no surprises in terms of creativity.  As well, the dishes were all pretty small and we ended up still hungry afterwards.

Overall impression:

Good:

• Fresh tasting fish
• Authentic Japanese chefs

Bad:

• Small portions
• Fairly expensive
• Nothing extra special or creative