Restaurants and food are hot topics in Vancouver. Everyone has an opinion, a favourite, a “must-try”, and a “must-avoid”. There are few topics in Vancouver that spark people’s passion, outrage and emotions as much as food. It’s easy to see why: it’s a true foodie town with a multitude of options from different cuisines, different neighbourhoods, different price ranges, and different styles.

I’m running an awesome contest this week and giving away over $100 in gift certificates to some of the best restaurants in BC and some amazing cookbooks. Scroll down to enter.

The Georgia Strait’s Best of Vancouver voting is going on right now! Want to vote for me? Simply go here and vote for VancityAllie under “Best Local Blog” and “Best Local Twitterer”. and it inspired me to create my own restaurant guide… especially after having so many people ask me for my suggestions. Keep in mind that these are just my personal opinions based on my experience after being born and raised, and living in Vancouver for 20+ years. So here are my “Best of Vancouver” restaurant suggestions…

My Favourite Fine Dining Restaurant (and Favourite Restaurant of all time): West Restaurant
Why: Impeccable food, service, and drinks. One of the best managed restaurants in thecity, not to mention amazing food. Ask for the “Chef’s Table”.
What to Order: Any dish is fantastic… but the Pea Agnolotti from their currentsummer menu is to DIE for. One of the best pasta dishes I have ever had. Ask to add bacon.
What to Avoid: Nothing!

My Favourite Weekday Brunch: Cafe Medina
Why: Really unique, interesting selection… everything from waffles to curries, to adventurous skillets.
What to Order: No matter what you get, you should get at least one waffle. Order it with some maple syrup, dark chocolate sauce and/or one of the other interesting sauces such as raspberry compote or raspberry caramel. Mmmm! Don’t forget to order a side of bacon… they smoke and slice it there.. it’s thick cut with a drizzle of balsamic reduction. DELICIOUS! The daily curry is also very good.
What to Avoid: The salads. They aren’t bad… but they also aren’t all that exciting!

My Favourite Lunch Spot for Under $10: Grounds for Appeal at the Law Society Building (845 Cambie St)
Why: Amazing butter chicken, veggie curries, and daily specials at prices you’ll be stunned at. They do take-out and sit in as well. Come a bit before or after the lunch rush as they can be quite busy.
What to Order: Definitely the butter chicken. Comes with a full plate of rice and lots of delicious naan. They also make amazing chai tea.
What to Avoid: I’m not a huge fan of the sandwiches or salads.

My Favourite Out-of-Town Restaurant: Araxi
Why: Amazing local cuisine, Chef James Walt sources much of the food from “100 mile” producers such as from Pemberton. He lives on a farm there and really understands the quality and flavours of local food.
What to Order: Chef Walt’s soup creations are always incredible. When Elk/Venison is on the menu, it is not to be missed… as well as any beef or pork dish. If you get a chance to try the souffle, you will not be disappointed! Don’t forget to chat with Araxi’s Sommelier/Manager, Steve Edwards about the wine… ask him for his favourite Mesclat! He is one of the most knowledgeable sommeliers in the country.
What to Avoid: Nothing!

My Favourite Weekend Breakfast/Brunch: Tomato Fresh Food Cafe
Why: Located at Broadway and Bayswater, Tomato gets quite busy on weekends, but never as much of a lineup as you would see at some breakfast diners. It’s a great bright open space, and the food is always very fresh. It’s also one of the few breakfast places that uses free-range eggs.
What to Order: I love getting the french toast there with bacon, and Allan loves the classic Bacon & Eggs. Don’t forget to try a chocolate milkshake!
What to Avoid: We’re not crazy about the Eggs Benny.

My Favourite Cocktails: West Restaurant
Why: David Wolowidnyk is one of the city’s best bartenders, if not the best… His attention to detail, creativity, and extensive knowledge is unsurpassed in my opinion. David W. is the bar manager, but the other bartender, David is also quite good as well.
What to Order: The Noyeau Glacé — a jewel of a drink with interesting flavours including apricot, ginger vodka, lemon, other fruit juices and topped with chamomile flowers. Amazing (it’s actually my favourite drink to have when I’m sick)! It’s also worth trying whatever his seasonal “fizz” drink is, but David W. is so creative he will be able to come up with something new for you every time. Like simple sour apple martinis? Yep, he can do them to perfection as well.
What to Avoid: Well, they have a proper absinthe contraption. Whether you choose to avoid or not could be a good or bad thing

My Favourite Malaysian: Tropika (Cambie Street)
Why: Fast service, no fuss, and extensive menus. Food is always served hot with lots of flavour. We like the Cambie street location vs. the Robson or Richmond ones.
What to Order: You must order the Malay bread! Also good are the satays, fresh lime soda drink, Sambal beans, Tropika homestyle chicken, and the lemon chicken.
What to Avoid: The fish curries, the Haianese chicken.

Best Place to Take Someone on a Date: Hapa Izakaya on Robson
Why: Great ambience, delicious food, fun vibe, just the right amount of lighting, and the tapas aspect makes it easy to keep the date as short or as long as you like.
What to Order: The “Hello Kitty” drink is the perfect cocktail to suggest for your female date, and there are plenty of different beers for the guys. All the tapas are good, but I highly recommend the sushi, gindara (baked sablefish), beef short ribs, and the grilled asparagus when it’s on the menu.

My Favourite Japanese: Tojo’s
Why: Although quite pricey and considered “Japanese fine dining”, Tojo’s has been a long-time Vancouver legend for their creative food, traditional Japanese methods and flavours, and gorgeous dining room.
What to Order: The Chef’s Omakase menu is a must if you are brave. You set your price, and the Chef creates a unique menu for you based on your preferences and what’s seasonal/fresh. Myself, I always order the sablefish or Halibut cheek. It’s amazing. If you like beef, the tenderloin is incredible. The cocktails are also very good, from the lychee to the asian pear flavourings.
What to Avoid: The chicken dishes. They are a bit boring.

My Favourite Indian: Handi’s North Shore (Honourable Mention to Vij’s)
Why: You can’t get better Indian food than Vij’s in Vancouver. However, the no-reservations policy and lining up the door every day is a lot to deal with on a regular basis. The flavours are very traditional and the spices are subtle and complex. That being said, if you’re looking for a good Indian take-out or a great Indian experience, we like Handi’s on the North Shore. They also have a restaurant on Dunbar. The food is rich, flavourful, and always good.
What to Order: Butter chicken is amazing, so are the lamb curries, the vegetable curries, and the naan. Definitely order a mango lassi, they make one of the best in the city.
What to Avoid: The desserts.

My Favourite Dessert: Cheesecake etc.
Why: Amazing, creamy cheesecakes in a quaint little room with live piano music on weekends. If you like “creamy” soft cheesecakes, this is the place to go. If you’re looking for firm NY-style cheesecake, this might not be the place for you. It’s busy, so try to come early or don’t go if you’re in a rush.
What to Order: The chocolate cheesecake, make sure to add strawberries and dark chocolate sauce. There is no replacement. This is the only way to go here.
What to Avoid: Everything else. OK, the other desserts are good, but not as good.

My Favourite Fish’n'Chips: Pickwick’s Fish and Chips on Granville (Marpole)
Why: Okay, so fish and chips is probably the most hotly debated cuisine in Vancouver. EVERYONE is picky and has their own style. Pickwick’s is my personal favourite. Crispy, hot, fresh, and just the right amount of batter with great pieces of fish. What to Order: You just can’t go wrong with two piece Halibut/Cod and chips! Note that the Granville St location is the best, the downtown one doesn’t even compare.
What to Avoid: Anything that isn’t deep fried fish and chips.

My Favourite Milkshake: White Spot
Why: It’s chocolatey, always consistently good, and a good price.
What to Order: The chocolate milkshake
What to Avoid: N/A

My Favourite After Bar/Clubbing Snack: Megabite Pizza (Honourable mention to Fritz for Poutine)
Why: Cheap, greasy, and delicious. Great crust and toppings. Not to mention close to the clubbing districts downtown with multiple locations.
What to Order: Any of the pizzas! Don’t forget to squeeze a little “white ranch” sauce on top… it’s popular with the regulars.

VANCITYALLIE’S WORST OF VANCOUVER LIST

Worst Pizza: Whole Foods Cambie
Why: The pizza staff here knead every last bubble out of their dough consistently until it is rock-hard cardboard. It’s also extremely expensive. They generally let the pizzas sit out too long as well. Too much greasy cheese, not enoguh sauce, bland sauce, not enough herbs, and terrible, terrible dough/crust. I’ve tried it over 10 times, and have been constantly disappointed.

Most Overrated: Go Fish on Granville Island
Why: Long line-ups, bland and lacklustre batter, and overpriced. I realize I am probably going to take some heat for this one

Worst Buffet: UBC Golf Course
Why: Overpriced, bland, and food tends to be quite soggy.

Most Trying-To-Hard-to-be-Trendy: Society (Yaletown)
Why: Expensive prices, tacky decor and slow service. I’ve eaten here a couple times and the crowd itself is a bit pretentious. The food is made with a heavy hand… too much cheese/butter/salt in many dishes. Avoid the mac and cheese… the truffle oil is completely overdone and a poor substitute for real truffles at those prices.

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VANCITYALLIE’S BEST RESTAURANTS IN BC GIFT CERTIFICATE GIVEAWAY CONTEST

Grand Prize: $50 gift certificate to West Restaurant in Vancouver and a copy of the West Restaurant Cookbook and Blue Water Cafe Cookbook
How to Enter: Leave a comment on this post by Tuesday, July 20th 2010 at 10:00 PM PST.
Additional Entries: Tweet “I entered to win a $50 gift certificate to West Restaurant & 2 cookbooks from @VancityAllie … RT to win! http://tinyurl.com/2buhqgs/”
Prize will be drawn randomly on Tuesday night and the winner will be e-mailed details on how to claim the prize.

Best-of-Whistler Twitter-Only Prize Pack: $50 gift certificate to Araxi Restaurant in Whistler and a copy of the Araxi Cookbook
How to Enter: Tweet “I entered to win a $50 gift certificate to Araxi Restaurant & a cookbook from @VancityAllie … RT to win! http://tinyurl.com/2buhqgs/” by Tuesday, July 20th 2010 at 10:00 PM PST
Prize will be drawn randomly on Tuesday night and the winner will be e-mailed details on how to claim the prize.

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AND THE WINNERS ARE…

After 65 comments and over 250 retweets on Twitter…

For the Grand Prize: Comment #33 Vinci Au!
For the Twitter-Only Prize Pack: @kumii

Disagree? Agree? Have a suggestion for the “Best of” or “Worst of”… ? Just leave a comment here and you’ll automatically be entered into the Grand Prize contest.

I am absolutely THRILLED to finally announce that we have selected our dream wedding photographers… Jonetsu Photography!

The past few weeks, Allan and I have been on a thorough search for the best possible photographers to photograph our special day. We weren’t able to find the level of quality we were looking for in Tofino, so we decided to look for Vancouver wedding photographers. We looked through about 60 different wedding photographers in Vancouver, and narrowed it down to just a couple choices.

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

After a couple in-depth meetings, I am proud to say we were able to secure Jonetsu! We really clicked with Camille and Chadwick. Not only are they beautiful, authentic people… but they have great energy and you can tell they are really in love with each other. They really have a connection with nature and I honestly can’t imagine anyone else shooting our day. We love their epic “dreamscapes” and attention to detail with telling a story in their albums. Not to mention they are so similar to us in so many ways. They are extremely accessible too since they are based here in Vancouver and they get back to us with e-mails faster than any other photographer we have dealt with — this is actually a very important part of the selection.

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

Thanks to everyone who recommended us to them on Twitter. I can’t believe how many of our favourite couples have been photographed by them, and the reviews they have all given me of Jonetsu have been beyond glowing. I think we will be good friends with Camille and Chadwick for a long, long time

Yesterday we signed the contract and I am just giddy with excitement that we were able to get them! I can’t believe it! WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

Camille and Chadwick will be shooting our wedding in Tofino, as well as our engagement shoot in Vancouver and a boudoir/saucy cat session that will be my wedding present to Allan! Can’t wait. We will of course be posting some of the photos on the blog here. Thanks to everyone for all your advice and help with planning this wedding so far… I couldn’t do it without you!

Photo Credit: JONETSU Studios

You can follow Jonetsu on their website here, their Twitter or their awesome blog!

Here’s a question for you… can you recommend any cool places in Vancouver for Allan and I to do our engagement shoot? Any ideas for cool shots that we could do that involve surfboards/snowboards/bikes/golf etc? What do you think of Jonetsu’s photos?

That’s quite a spread of topics eh? Everything but the kitchen sink! I’ve got a couple weeks of activities to catch up on here… so here we go!

The weekend before last we got a chance to go out with some friends to the Marpole Curling Rink for… yes… some curling! It was a blast.

There were only 5 of us, so it was a small group, but I think 6 or 8 people would have been just perfect.

We got a quick introduction from the manager on how to curl, and then we were off on our own to have fun! We all picked it up really quickly and I gotta say… curling is one of the most fun sports I have ever played and I can’t wait until September when the rink opens again so we can get out and shoot some rocks!

After curling was Allan’s championship hockey game… and the Puck Nuts won! Wohooo! After 5 years in the league it was their first win and it was really exciting. I’ve been coming out off and on to the games (although much less lately) and it was a real treat to see the boys finally get a win.

Proud of you guys!

The Friday before last was some of my favourite people coming into town to visit: Alex, Sandy, Niki, and Moritz. Allan and I went out for dinner with them to Lumiere here in Vancouver.

The ambience was amazing. Gorgeous intimate room, great seating and really beautiful lights.

We did the 5 course meal which was delicious. It was meticulously prepared, pretty good flavour combinations and beautiful presentation.

My only complaint was that they ONLY offer prix-fixe meals so there’s not a lot of choice. For this reason alone I probably wouldn’t visit Lumiere more than once a year. Not enough variety.

The best part of the meal was definitely the dessert… soooo soooo good. I had the hot and cold tiramisu (hot chocolate sauce melting the chocolate top mixing with the cold tiramisu in the cup), but I really loved the chocolate fondant that Allan ordered. The fruit pavlova also looked good.

And to cap it off, my favourite part… the warm freshly baked madeleines… oh so good.

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In other news, this weekend I will be heading with my friend Amy to do some press coverage of the Twilight Convention here in Vancouver. We’ll be bringing our cameras and press passes and looking forward to meeting Twilight fans and the stars.

Is anyone else going? Stars appearing are Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), Charlie Bewley (Demetri), Bronson Pelletier (Jared), Kiowa Gordon (Embry), and Jodelle Ferland (Bree). There will be exclusive footage, panel discussions, themed parties, musical performances, competitions, auctions, autographing, merchandising and photo ops!

The lineup looks pretty good if you’re a fan. You can still buy tickets at the Twilight Convention website for only $10 a day.

Scroll down to see the yoga contest – I’m giving away THIRTY DAYS (one month!) of free yoga.

I thought I’d spend a little bit of time today honouring about some really amazing people in my life. Some really amazing women. They are friends, mentors, colleagues, classmates… and they are all women that I look up to. I spend way too much time on this blog talking about myself, and not thanking or talking enough about the people that made me who I am today.

KIM S – I don’t know where I would be without Kim. Kim has been my best friend since we were 7 years old and happened to live on the same street. My dad and I went over to welcome them to the neighbourhood with a purple balloon with Kim’s name on it, and well, I guess we just went from there.

Kim is an incredible women and a great friend. Kim is the same age as me, and at 25 she has already opened her first business – a hot yoga studio. What I most admire about Kim is that she had a dream and she made it happen. She’s been in love with yoga ever since it changed her life and her arthritis in her back, doing years of training as a yoga student and then years of training as a yoga instructor. She took it all on herself: finding and leasing the property, drawing up the business plans, managing the contractors to do the renovations, handling the marketing, hiring of new employees and launching the business. It’s now a thriving successful hot yoga studio (Moksha Yoga Vancouver).

Kim has also been an inspiration to me as an athlete. In high school we played competitively on the junior and senior basketball teams for several years together… she always encouraged me to play hard and practice more. Kim went on to play varsity basketball at McGill. She’s one of the best athletes I know – her determination and never-give-up attitude sparks any team she plays on.

More importantly, I can honestly say that Kim has had the single most impact on who I am as a person toady. Several years ago I sat down with her and she opened my eyes to the kind of person I was, and the kind of person I should be. I changed my outlook on life because of her and I wanted to become a better person. I can never thank Kim enough for inspiring me to make change in my life… and I know my friends, Allan, my parents, and even my career have benefited from her advice to me. She has always been able to give me practical advice and tell me the hard truth about myself. She is always there when I need her. Thank you Kim. I know we’ll be lifelong friends.

CHRISTIE G – Christie and I have been best friends since she moved to Canada from England in the middle of elementary school. With her wacky British fashions and her quirky sense of humour, I knew I wanted to be friends with her when she first walked into the school. Christie has always moved around, from Hong Kong to England to France… but no matter how many years or even days she is in Vancouver, we resume our friendship right where it left off and stayed in touch.

Christie is another one of my friends who has been able to follow their dreams… she knew she wanted to be involved in the fashion world and pursued those interests throughout high school university, and in her first few jobs. She did modeling in London and Hong Kong. She started out as a purchaser at a prominent department stores in London (Browns, Matches), and then her career exploded as she worked at the high fashion house of Mulberry, and now… premier fashion website Net-A-Porter.com. I couldn’t be more impressed with her ability to go after what she wants and get it. I’m pretty sure in a few years she’ll have her own fashion house or something.

Christie and I have been through a lot of tears and laughter, and she’s probably influenced my “coming of age” more than anyone. From teaching me about boys, how to kiss, school dances, men’s magazines, and all sorts of other hilarious experiences… she and I have been through some pretty funny times. But she’s always been someone I can call or talk to about my problems and she’ll always give me practical advice. So thank you Christie, for all your advice and for all the laughs.

NIKI T – Niki is someone I met in university, whom I always looked up to. We’re not best friends, but I’ve always seen her as a close friend, and sensed that we could grow into really great friends one day. I think more than anything I’ve always seen her as a role model, and I think she’s a great person to talk about in this post because she’s quite inspirational.

Niki and I first got to know each other in university when working on a business project with a few other classmates in our first two years of school. We all got quite close over the process, with long nights, fights, and the stress of making it to the championships of the business competition and doing many, many presentations. We both got into business school after that and ended up in the same class “section” (you stay in your section for almost all your classes for the first year). We ended up on many projects together, were on the same inner tube water polo team, and spent a couple summers together at her cabin and went on many double dates.

Her father is actually an extremely famous author, and despite having access to what I’ll loosely call “fame and fortune” (that’s a terrible way to put it, sorry Niki), she’s one of the most down to earth people I know. She works her butt off and does not take anything for granted. And ridiculously modest. Niki is the kind of woman that is going to end up as Prime Minister of Canada… I know it’s a potential aspiration for her, and I know if she ever decides to go for it that she’ll be able to do it. She speaks with confidence, makes friends effortlessly, has great fashion sense, is incredibly perceptive, and has a great sense of humour. She’s also very, very smart.

Niki got hired out of university as a consultant for Accenture. This is a very tough position to get and she’s already managed to make a big impact even at a company of that size. On a leave from Accenture, Niki is now working as an Associate Director of the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. Yes, she is 26 years old and is an Associate Director. CRAZY! Niki lives and works in Geneva with her boyfriend, Moritz who is also a very good friend of mine. Throughout my adult years, Niki and Moritz have always been wonderful friends and I’ve loved going on double dates with them. Niki is also a fashionista, an accomplished singer (she tried out for Canadian Idol, and has a band in Toronto), is an avid skier and surfer, and is always up for new adventures. Oh yeah, and she hob nobs with people like Stephen Harper.

Despite the fact that we’ve never lived in the same city, I think we’ve stayed close friends and I’m looking forward to our relationship growing. What I value most about our relationship is that she’s always up for anything, and she’s always someone I can count on when she gives her word that she’s going to do something. If we lived in the same city, I think we’d probably do a lot of snowboarding and surfing together and probably be really great friends. Thank you Niki — I’ve learned a lot from you about confidence, being yourself, and being down to earth.

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In honour of these wonderful women, I’m doing a fantastic giveaway on my blog to Kim’s studio, Moksha Yoga Vancouver which is an amazing hot yoga studio here in Vancouver.

MOKSHA YOGA VANCOUVER YOGA GIVEAWAY CONTEST

About the Studio: Moksha Yoga Vancouver is a hot yoga studio that Kim personally manages to make sure that it is run with integrity, energy, responsibility towards the environment, and kindness. She even teaches. She’s got some great instructors and classes and also a charity volunteer program that really gives back to the community. It’s located in Jericho Village at 4th and Alma and is one of the few dedicated hot yoga studios in Vancouver. They offer beginner-friendly classes that practice on a bamboo floor with infra-red heat panels at 38 degrees. Some classes are offered by donation and student rates too. Oh yeah — and if you go for their morning classes you get freshly baked muffins and scones. Yum! You can follow them on Twitter here.

What you’re playing for: A 30-day (one month) all access yoga pass to MYV.. enough yoga to get you all fit for the summer!
What you have to do: Leave a comment on this blog post by Sunday, May 9th at 10:00 PM PST, and then check back on Monday to see who won.

Good luck, and thanks for reading!

Update: May 10th, 2010: Congratulations to Comment #4… Nolwenn! I’ve drawn you as the random winner for the contest for one free month of yoga courtesy of Moksha Yoga Vancouver!

On Monday we watched the Men’s Canada-USA Curling game at the Olympic Curling Centre.  It was an intense game.

Of course, no curling blog post would be complete without a photo of the famous Norway curling pants. They have two different variations… these red ones and also the white ones with blue/red checkers. Awesome.

We had a blast. I honestly think that it’s almost more fun to watching curling live than hockey. *gasp* Yep, I said it.

It was great watching Kevin Martin and his team beat the US, especially after losing the hockey game the previous night to the US team.

Afterwards we headed over to the Hockey House where we spent the entire day with a group of 9 friends.

We managed to take tons of group photos, including this one with the hosts of the Hockey House. Awesome white suits. P.S. Check out my awesome 2010 commemorative hockey stick (I got it signed by a ton of people!)…

Cam Neely was also there… what a legend!

We spent most of the afternoon watching the on-stage entertainment and wandering around the pavilion taking photos of everything.

Oh, and lots of bubble hockey was played.

We made sure to get clappers, and took this group photo…

… which we loved so much that we got them made into 9 souvenir pins! Haha.

I loved getting a photo with the sexy Hockey House babes.

It was so much fun to watch the women’s Canada-Finland semifinal there… we won handily, but every goal was a huge celebration.

And the main event… we got to watch the Triple Gold Club celebration on stage. The Triple Gold Club presentation is for the 22 players who have achieved the three most important accomplishments in hockey… winning the Stanley Cup, winning Olympic gold, and winning the IIHF world championships. As you can imagine, this is an extremely prestigious award and very, very few players ever win this.

I love this photo of Vladislav Tretiak, Rene Fasel, and Gary Bettman. It’s kind of ominous… but cool. They did the presentation to all the players.

Peter Forsberg was there..

… and Alexander Mogilny…

And Joe Sakic!

Sakic is one of my faves. My old bedroom at home still has his posters plastered all over the place.

Rob Blake too..

Here’s Brendan Shanahan, Joe Sakic, and Rob Blake on stage.

Allan and I posed inside of the hockey mask…

At the end of the night, the band Five Alarm Funk took the stage and they seriously blew the roof off the place. They were a lot of run.

We made sure to take lots of photos with them when they came off the stage and partied with us.

DJ Skratch Bastid closed off the night and he was really good. He was great at reading the crowd and reacting accordingly.

The view of our group from the stage.

Yeah, we had a ridiculously good time.