As much as I love All you Can Eat Japanese food, sometimes you just want some good ol’ sushi.  Some HUGE pieces of good ol’ sushi.

No, Samurai Sushi House wasn’t created by Financial Samurai.  Though it would be cool if he did create it

Samurai Sushi house is well known for their ridiculously large rolls (think sushi on STEROIDS).  They are honestly about double the size of normal rolls.  You definitely get your money’s worth here, and ordering three rolls will make TWO people full (instead of one person which is usually the case).

Samurai Sushi house is a small restaurant run by a Vietnamese family.  Their “sister” sushi place is Ban Zai Sushi House in Richmond.  I haven’t tried that place yet but will let you know when I do.

Samurai Sushi House is located across from Oakridge Centre (sort of in the heart of Vancouver, between downtown and Richmond).  It is located on Cambie Street at the cross section on 41st Avenue.  Very easily accessible by the new Canada Line (just hop off on Oakridge station).

Usually there is a line up.  It’s a small place and there are only about 4-5 tables (that may be an overestimate).  Most people order take out.  They are lightning fast with their service.  I suppose the only downside to eating at Samurai Sushi house is that some people may not like the lack of authenticity of the rolls.  Obviously sushi rolls are not meant to look like they are on steroids.  The chopped scallop roll also didn’t look like a “normal” chopped scallop roll you would get at another Japanese restaurant.

The California Rolls (invented in Vancouver #coolfactoid) are also very large and stuffed to the brim with imitation crab meat and very little avocado.  I found their yam tempura roll to be very delicious.

So how cheap is cheap?

Very cheap.

The yam tempura roll was $2.75 and the chopped scallop roll was only $3.85.  The california roll was $3.25.

See the picture I took below.  I know I should have included another item in the picture so you get get its perspective.  The plate is about the size of an outstretched hand (well, my outstretched hand anyway).  So as you can see, each sushi piece is about half the diametre of a plate.  The yam tempura sushi piece was about at least 3″ wide.

So total for (easily) two meals is $11!

Readers, have you tried Samurai Sushi House in Vancouver?  Would you prefer quality or quantity when it comes to Sushi?  Does size matter? (I personally prefer quality but that’s just me)

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This Cheap and Good Eats is brought to you by my recent trip to Oahu.  This is the fourth time I’ve been to Oahu, and each time I go there, I can envision myself living there.  Who can say no to sunny weather all year round?

BF rented a harley and we cruised around the island like we usually do.  Of course we had Giovanni’s (which did not disappoint) and on another day, we cruised around the island again and tried Romy’s Shrimp Truck.  It is located on the North Shore, near the Polynesian Cultural Centre.  We noticed it had quite a bit of a line up when we went to Giovannis so we wanted to give Romy’s a try too.  BF and I are like moths to a bright light when it comes to trying out places to eat that have line ups.

We noticed that they had HUGE prawns or pretty huge shrimp as options.  Their shrimp/prawn platters are priced at about the same price as Giovanni’s shrimp, about $12.  We shared a plate of butter and garlic shrimp.  I think the taste that made it so delicious was the shoyu dipping sauce (sort of like a soya sauce base).  It adds a bit of spicy kick to the flavours and makes you want to suck that shrimp dry of juice lol.

I guess they have huge prawns (or more selection: prawns or shrimp) because they have their own shrimp farm.  You can walk to them from the eating area.

The drawback was that we were waiting for our food for a lonnng time (maybe about 20-30 minutes).  They even had a sign at the cashier that said something to the tune of “we are not fast food- Romy’s is quality food so that is why you wait”.  However, I thought it was definitely worth it because the taste was really good.  It wasn’t too rich (like how Giovanni’s sometimes is) I guess because it wasn’t over the top garlicky.

Here is a picture of the garlic and butter shrimp.  Get ready to drool.

After you are done, there is a nifty sink (well, maybe not so nifty, ingenious because its outdoors? Ghetto looking? You decide) so you can wash your hands of the butter and grease and garlic.  I especially liked how they put the handwashing soap in a ketchup/mayonnaise container.  Smart!  You can see one of the shrimp farms in the back.

The next time I go to Oahu, I’ll probably have a difficult time deciding between Giovanni’s or Romy’s, now that I’ve tried them both.

Readers, have you tried Romy’s Shrimp Truck?  Or do you always stick to the same shrimp truck that you know in Oahu- tried and true?  Do you regularly go outside of Waikiki when you visit Oahu?

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I think I am starting to run out of cheap and good eats.  I’ve shared with you all my usual spots to eat and here’s my last “all time fave” place to eat.  BF and I don’t go here that often, maybe about once every 1-3 months, but I do enjoy it very much every time I go.  It’s a “BC classic”.  If you ever come to British Columbia, you’ll see the restaurants everywhere.  It’s a great family restaurant (they’re famous for their Pirate Paks! I always wanted them but my mom would never order one for me because she was so cheap).  A Pirate Pak is like a kids meal that comes in a pirate ship.  How awesome is that?

They also have DELICIOUS milk shakes.  They’re the ones with the whipped cream on top.  I tried to take a photo of the milk shake, but it was half empty by the time I got my camera out which makes for a less photogenic picture

White Spot has restaurants and it has drive thrus and a few fast food type stores.  At the fast food type restaurants, you can get a burger for $3.33 on a certain day of the week, even.

It all started with a hustlin’ entrepreneur named Nat Bailey.  We even have a Nat Bailey baseball stadium named after him here.  He started off with carhopping and drive thrus in 1928 and this probably makes White Spot probably the oldest restaurant chain in North America (it says this on their website).

They can also make things that aren’t on the dinner menu but are on the lunch menu.  They’re really good for that.  I usually order the “Dippin’ Chicken strips” with the honey mustard sauce and can’t bring myself to order anything else on the menu because I love those chicken strips so much.  I guess I’m a creature of habit.  Including the caesar salad on the side (or you could get fries), they cost $8.99.  Not too shabby I must say.

BF usually gets the Legendary Burger.  I’m not sure what makes it legendary, perhaps it is the signature “Triple O” sauce they use.  In any case, it’s pretty darn delicious.  It comes with coleslaw and fries usually, however, as you can see BF opted for the caesar salad too.  The legendary burger costs around $8-9 as well.

I really enjoy visiting White Spot and this is actually where BF and I had our first date six years ago! Haha, how sweet!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading about some of BC’s history!

Readers, have you ever been to White Spot?  I’d say it’s a “must do” if you ever come to Vancouver, especially if you have children.  Please do me a favour and get a Pirate Pak for your child if you go to White Spot

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Okay, this is NOT a cheap eat, but it is sure delicious and I think a “must try”.  I know I go “ga ga” over food and I know that I seem to praise the flavours of a lot of different restaurants, but this restaurant really is absolutely delicious.

This restaurant specializes in West Coast cuisine (yummmm..I love West Coast food).

It’s called the Daily Kitchen.  I’ll explain the origins of the name later.

I think I had the mushroom garlic butter risotto the time I went and it was so delicious… it was so good that I think I was eyeing my friends’ plates to see if they were finishing theirs and if they didn’t seem like they were going to finish, I was sitting there, devising some way to ask them politely if I could eat off their plate.

That’s how good it was.

Though it can’t be replicated (unless I go there like every day and beg to have that dish again) because you know what??

The novel concept of this restaurant is that nothing is repeated and the menu is updated DAILY.  You can also follow the Chef on twitter @ChefFowke to find out the daily menu.

It’s a new menu every. single. day.  Something different every day, based on what is fresh, organic, and available in season.

How delicious is that?

I wish I was able to take a picture for you guys but I didn’t

Now I promise I don’t go to these places all the time.  If I did, I would probably be in serious debt.  I went for a friend’s party, it was great.  Great friends, FANTASTIC food, and good wine.  What more could a girl ask for?

Daily Kitchen is relatively new (I think they’ve been around for only a few years) and they are located in the heart of Kitsilano.  Which means that after dinner you can stroll along for a romantic evening at Kits Beach and look at the skyline of Vancouver at night.

They are open daily (har har) after 5pm.

They even have daily wines.

I think ordering everything separately is expensive there, so what we did was order a sampler menu.

I recall it being a 5-7 course sampler menu and it cost $45 or so.  Wine was extra, of course.

It was really good even though it was pricey for my usual cheap taste.  I sometimes still think about that dinner it was that good.  I hope I get to go sometime again, maybe when I’m no longer a starving student hah. 

Readers, do you have something like this in your city? (I would assume this is a city thing since it would probably be very ridiculously expensive and nonprofitable to operate something like this in a town).

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This edition of the cheap and good eats is brought to you by my recent trip to Victoria, British Columbia.  I hadn’t been to Victoria since I was young, and I just absolutely love it!  Everyone is so friendly, people actually say “thank you” to the bus driver as the get off the bus.  Here in Vancouver, if you do that, you get weird looks from everyone (FYI, when I take the bus here, I still say thank you and disregard the weird looks I get ).

I tweeted Steve from Grocery Alerts who I know lives in Victoria for some recommendations on good places to eat (don’t you just love twitter?).  He said that the Blue Fox on Fort Street is really good for breakfast.  I did some research and saw that there are line ups.  You guys know how I am with places that have line ups.  I’m all for them!

So I went with my friends to check out Blue Fox.  My first impression was- Wow, what a line up!  It was noon and there was still a line up.  We were waiting for about 45 minutes and I ended up having to put more money in my meter!

It’s a small place, very cozy, very unique, and the food was incredible.  It was probably one of the best breakfast places I have ever eaten at.  I have never been that full from breakfast. Ever.  I usually am able to finish my plate, but this time I wasn’t and it was pretty heart breaking.  I had to leave a piece of the bagel on the plate.  None of my friends were able to finish their breakfasts either and they were heartbroken.  Because it was just so tasty.

I had the eggs benedict.  The hollandaise sauce was super duper creamy and smooth.  The potatoes were delicious and perfectly done.  I liked the presentation as well- it made it look somewhat fancy.

I also tried the almond latte.  It was so beautiful I didn’t want to ruin it.  I enjoyed the whip cream and of course knocked the almonds into the drink by accident because I’m clumsy like that, but I found the almond milk itself a bit bland.  It would have been nice if it was creamier, but I suppose almond milk isn’t supposed to be super creamy.

One of my friends had the french toast, and it was delicious as well.  It had velvet sour cream (I believe that’s what it was called) on the triple sec infused pieces of french toast.  Divine, if you ask me! Note the pretty decorations on the plate (I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff).

It was a great experience, and worth the wait (though I don’t think I would wait like that regularly).  It was close to downtown but off the main downtown touristy area.  It wasn’t expensive either, for what you get.  The almond milk was under $4 and the breakfasts were under $12 I believe.  They DID have something like $8 coffee though!  I didn’t try it because I’m too cheap, but I wasn’t sure why it was so much more expensive than regular coffee.  Any Victoria readers know why?

All in all, it was fantastic.  Thanks for the recommendation, Steve!

Readers, are you a big fan of breakfast joints?  What do you usually order?

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