$5.50 Sandwiches at the Delly

Hi Stephanie here,

So for the past few weeks, I’ve been addicted to the $5.50 Sandwiches at the Delly.  The Delly, located in the UBC Student Union Building is really great! I think it’s one

So simple, but so good!

of the few places on campus that doesn’t serve really greasy food. And it’s quite tasty and also healthier than most things you can get at the sub.

At the Delly, you just go up the counter and order your sandwich and they make it right in front of you! It’s like subway, but no assembly line). They have different varieties of meats such as pastrami (my favourite), turkey breast, slices of chicken breast, montreal smoked beef etc. I usually change up the meats but I always get the same toppings : edam cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, raw red onions, green pepper, cucumber, mayo and salt & pepper on multigrain bread.

The sandwiches at the Delly are just normal sandwiches (i.e. you can easily make it home) but there’s something at the Delly that make them taste so good! Probably because they have so much stuff in it, and I’m too lazy to make my sandwiches have that much filling in it. Anyway, for $5.50, the sandwich is really filling so I think it’s a pretty good deal! Go check it out!

PSST: I heard if you get chicken breast with avacado, it’s a really good combo!

$2.29 Costco Fries

Hi Stephanie here,

So cheap!

So it was another day of intense studying with GP.  Our Saturday study sessions usually turn out into an adventure, and this was quite the adventure! If you don’t know what our study sessions are like, visit our earlier post: $6.95 Mediocre Beef Broth Soup at H-Mart Food Court for the deets. If you’re ever at Central Library downtown on Saturdays, you’ll probably find us!

I’m pretty excited to write this post, because this has been one of our most cheapest study sessions yet! For dinner, we decided on Costco, which is

$4.29 Poutine

located next to stadium skytrain station. We were planning to visit Costco around 5ish (Costco food Court closes on 6 on Saturdays), but we were kicked out of the library because there was a fire alarm. No worries! We were getting quite hungry anyway, since we skipped lunch.

So GP and I decided to get the $1.50 hot dog and drink deal.  We also decided to get a Poutine ($4.29) to share and our friend got the regular Fries ($2.29).  My other friend got a twist cone  for

Twist cone!

$1.99.

I’ve had Costco fries before, and I think they are really good! They’re very crispy on the outside, and the outside has some crunchy bits on it. I don’t know how to describe it- they’re really good. (although, I am sure they are quite unhealthy). You definitely have to try them. For $2.29, these are a fantastic deal! The only place that I’ve been that I know that has something similar is Cattle Cafe! (Yes, the HK Style Cafe). See my post: $6.25 Pork Chop in French Bun at Cattle Cafe. The poutine was OK. I don’t these type of fries worked well with the gravy and cheese curds, but nonetheless, GP and I finished everything. Overall, the prices are dirt cheap and the portions are quite large. Thumbs up to Costco Food Court!

PSST: The cheapest meal at Costco is probably their $1.50 Hot Dog and Drink (US). I went the the states and it’s a $1.50 there as well! See $1.50 Costco Hot Dog and Drink (US). The hot dog is 1/4 of a pound! So filling… 🙂

$6.50 Mac n’ Cheese at Lucy’s Eastside Diner

Hi,

Lucy's Eastside Diner!

Stephanie here,

So one of my favourite show is called Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives! Ever since I’ve been watching that show, I’ve had a craving to visit a real American diner in the States. Too bad, I live in Canada. I love America. LOL. Well, in Canada (or at least Vancouver) , there are not that many options for diners so I was pretty excited when my friends and I decided to share some eats at Lucy’s Eastside Diner.  I’d been here once before, but it was before I started blogging. So now was my chance!

Lucy’s Eastside Diner is quite small (don’t come in more than groups of 4) and it is very retro-like.  Settling down, my friends and decided to share the Mac n Cheese, Cinnamon French Toast, Poutine and the Strawberry Milkshake.  The prices are quite reasonable (ranging from about $6-$12), but the portions are on the smaller

Cinnamon French Toast

side.

Out of all the dishes, the mac n cheese was the best. It was creamy and very cheesy. The french toast was pretty good as well. It came with mixed berries and syrup, but it was very simple. I think I could’ve made it at home, but there was nothing wrong with it. The poutine,on the other hand, was not very good.  I knew they used their regular fries (shoe-string fries) but it did not work at all in the dish. It was way too thin and the cheesecurds weren’t right either. It was cut up very small

Strawberry milkshake!

and didn’t really melt at all. It was quite hard actually. The gravy was OK.  The last thing that we had, was the strawberry milkshake. I forget how much it is, but I thought it was a good deal! Around 6 bucks I think for a large glass and a refill tin. Overall, the food was just average – I wouldn’t even consider it an authentic diner. Though the inside is nice and retro-like it also lacks that homey diner feel.  Oh well, I guess I have to go to the states for that!

PSST: This place is also open 24 hours!

$2.75 Turkey Roast Sandwich at The Delly (UBC)

Hi Stephanie here,

Only $2.75!

For those of you who go to UBC, there’s a little special deal every Friday happening at the Delly in  the UBC Sub. After 3pm on Fridays, EVERYTHING at the Delly is 1/2 price!! Well ok, I must say that I’m not sure it’s EVERYTHING but I know the wraps, sandwiches, baked items and soup are all 1/2 price. What a deal!

I’ve blogged a couple times about the offerings at the Delly such as $1.50 Hot Baked Items – The Delly (UBC) and $2 Large Chicken Curry Soup – The Delly (UBC Sub)

So I was working at UBC on a Friday, and I finished my work around 2:45pm. Perfect timing! I headed over the Delly for some cheap eats.  I got the Turkey Breast Sandwich for $2.75 (including tax!) and it was great! The sandwich had a good amount of sliced turkey in it, and there were lots of vegetables- tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce and pickles. It also had mayo and mustard.

PPST: I recommend you go to the Delly at 2:55pm. You just want to hit that perfect time, when the Delly starts advertising the 1/2 special. The line-up gets really long pretty fast and people stock up on these items too! I saw one person buy  15 wraps.

$12.95 All You Can Eat Sushi at Toyama Japanese Restaurant

Hi

Stephanie here,

This is another post I’m pretty excited to write about.  Since I’m going to be working downtown this summer, I thought it might be good to pre-build a list of eating destinations in downtown. One of those restaurants on that list happened to be Toyama Japanese Restaurant on Seymour St.  I always notice it on my way walking to the Central Library, where I usually study with GP.

However, it was the last day of classes for the winter term and one of my friends suggested Toyama Sushi to eat and celebrate. (Yes .. if you haven’t noticed, we celebrate a lot. I think we’ve gone out the eat for almost every midterm, final exam and last day of classes)

Toyama Sushi offers all you can eat sushi for $12.95 for lunch. For dinner, it’s $19.95. As a poor starving student, here’s a tip: Only go for late night or lunch AYCE sushi, cause dinner is quite expensive.

For $12.95, AYCE Lunch is average – I think the cheapest I’ve seen is $9.95 for lunch, but that is quite rare nowadays. I previously posted about Tomokazu (See $10.95 Late Night All You Can Eat Sushi at Tomokazu)which offered $10.95 AYCE Late Night but since then it’s risen to $12.95.

Anyway, back to the food! Overall, I thought that the items we had were very good. In my opinion, this place ranks just as high as Tomokazu and I would go back here again. The cooked items were very good – my favourite were the beef short-ribs, (a bit greasy though) and the rolls were quite decent as well. The sushi rice as a bit gummy but it worked. My favourite was the BC Roll.  The salmon sushi was fresh, and I think they used sockeye salmon (b/c of the colour), which I liked. The average items that I thought were only so-so was the Agedashi Tofu and Ebi Sunomono. The ebi sunomono was not that great actually- the noodles were too hard and it wasn’t really vinegary. The chicken karaage was pretty good as well.  One thing I like about Toyama is their variety – they had some unusual items such as yam fries (good, but very oily) and croquette.

The only thing that was a bit disappointing was that sashimi was extra charge. Though it wasn’t too bad, but we compensated by ordering lots of salmon sushi. 😀

Overall, the AYCE lunch items at Toyama is pretty good! And the price of $12.45 is reasonable .. we paid about $15 each with tax & tip. Would highly recommend going there again for AYCE.

 

Inside the restaurant

$7.95 House Special Baked Pork Chop on Rice at Copa Cafe

His Stephanie here,

$7.95 House Special Baked Pork Chop on Rice

Ok, so this is a post from a while back! Sometimes I forget my camera equipment (aka my ipod touch .. and yes, I use an ipod touch for pictures), so I used my friend’s iPhone to take pictures (Thanks Glenda!) when we visited Copa Cafe on Cambie and King Edward.  She reminded me that I still had these pictures on her iPhone, so here’s my post!

I’ve been to Copa Cafe a couple of times in the past, and I have to say that it’s one of my favourite Hong Kong Style Cafes.  The food is solid, the portions are quite large (even from the late-night menu) and it’s in a very nice

What my friends ordered

place. Unlike Honolulu Cafe, Copa Cafe is far from greasy. Maybe because it’s on the West Side …

I went there with a bunch of my Sauder friends and we actually arrived there around 8:45pm, 15 mins before we could order from the cheaper late night menu. But …being poor starving students we informed the waitress that we would wait to order until it was 9pm. Longest 15 minutes of my life …

Finally at 9pm, I ordered the House Special Baked Pork Chop on Rice. As most of you know from my previous visits to other HK Style Cafes, this is one of my staples. When it came, it was no disappointment. YAY.  It was bubbling hot and the portion was quite large.  The pork chop was nicely breaded and cooked and the tomato sauce and cheese when nicely together. All in all, it was

Portuguese Chicken ... I think

a gook-ju-pah fan (that’s Baked Pork Chop on Rice in Cantonese).

Copa Cafe is a solid HK Style Cafe. Prices, portion and quality and taste are all very reasonable. Attached are pictures from my friend’s dishes!

$7.95 House Special Baked Pork Chop on Rice

What my friends ordered

Baked Seafood on Rice

 

3.99 Calzones at Save-On Foods Deli

Hey everyone, GP here.

On Wednesday, Steph and I were studying at UBC with a few of our other friends at the LSC  for finals. As to be expected, it came to the point where we weren’t being very productive, and we were getting pretty hungry. Steph suggested we take a walk to the Save-On foods on campus (sorta) to buy a rotisserie chicken; just for the sake of saying we did.

Steph, Jeff and I decided to walk to Save-On, which we thought was pretty close to where we were studying… but we were wrong. It took us a good twenty minutes (which felt like longer) to get to the grocery store, after which we just decided to eat there (it was freezing outside!). We also decided that a rotisserie chicken would be too messy to eat, but then we saw a bunch of calzones for 3.99 at the deli section! They looked pretty good, and we were getting to the point of starvation, so we decided to go for them.

There were three different types: Pepperoni, Chipotle Artichoke, and 5-Cheese Vegetable. Jeff got the Pepperoni, while Steph and I both ordered the Chipotle Artichoke.

GP's calzone and chocolate milk (bad idea...)

Steph's calzone and drink. (equally a bad idea...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, Steph and I both thought the calzones were decent. The dough was soft and chewy, and the filling was pretty tasty (not too salty like most deli pizzas). We couldn’t taste a lot of the chipotle though… it was mostly artichoke and cheese. Overall, not bad for around 4 dollars, and we left decently filled! The deli also grilled them for us, so they were nice, warm, and crunchy.

However, our mistake came when we decided to get milk to go along with our cheap meal… we only went with that option because it was the cheapest thing there. It did not sit well in our stomachs after a long, bumpy bus ride to our friend’s house. I handled it okay, but Steph looked like she was in a lot of pain. Chewing gum mildly helped.

Overall, despite our bad choice of drinks, the food was pretty good and the (slightly painful) experience was definitely worth a fun Wednesday night. It felt good to save a little money too; our bills came to just over 5 bucks.

$8.50 Lentil Soup with Roti and Salad at East is East

Hi Stephanie here,

Sorry for the blurred photo!

So once again, this was another after-church Sunday lunch. Yes … another one lunch. Thank goodness I had worked a bit during the term, so I am not completely going into debt by eating out every week.

For a couple of minutes we were wondering of a place to go. You would think that writing a food blog, I would have tons of suggestions but sometimes I am just stumped for places like everyone else.  Thankfully, My friend suggested Hawker’s Delight on Main St and King Ed. I had read about this place before and it sounded really good! Really cheap too.  Unfortunately when we got there, the place was closed! Apparently Hawker’s Delight is closed on Sundays. No worries though, there are a lot of places to eat near Main St. & King Ed. Like Beefy Beef Noodle House for example.

Walking a couple a blocks, we decided on East is East. It’s a restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern cuisine  I’d been here once and quite liked it.  The ambiance is really unique. Walking in, it’s almost like stepping into Aladdin’s palace! It’s pretty dark, but there are candles and the place is almost wall to wall with carpets.  Everybody is seated on really low benches, so it’s really a relaxed ambiance. When we sat, down we were also

$7.50 Vegetarian Rice Bowl

presented with complimentary chai tea. It’s was delicious! It was quite spicy and thick. I thought it was great, although, I think chai tea is an acquired taste.

My brother worked at the Nester’s Market across the street and he was always raving about the Lentil Soup at Nester’s market. So that’s what I decided to order. The portion that I got was pretty large! The soup was really flavourful and bursting full of depth and flavour. It was pretty filling too, as there were a lot of chickpeas in it. It was a great, hearty soup.

$8.95 Mentaiko Yakiudon at Tomoya Japanese Restaurant

Hi,

$8.95 Mentaiko Yakiudon

Stephanie here,

About a week ago, my friends (GP was there!) and I decided to visit Tomoya Japanese Restaurant for a meeting about going on a missions trip with our fellowship. I’ve been to Tomoya a couple times before and I quite liked it. It has reasonably affoadable prices and the portions are quite large (See $8.50 Nabeyaki Udon at Tomoya Japanese Restaurant).

Tomoya also has a special menu (from 5pm onwards) where you can pick 3 items for $10.95.  Three of my friends ordered from the menu (including GP) and for $10.95 it was quite a lot of food! The portions (eg. the chicken teriyaki and chicken udon) are smaller from the normal menu portions but they are quite sizeable! I think even 1 item from the special menu would be a small meal in itself.

For myself, I ordered the Mentaiko Yakiudon for $8.95. It wasn’t on the menu, but I saw it on the chalkboard as one of the specials.  For those of you who don’t know, Mentaiko(according to Wikipedia) is the marinated roe of a polluck.  If you don’t know what roe is, it’s fish eggs!

I forget what roll this is...

When I ate it, I couldn’t really taste the Mentaiko but I could definitely see it in the dish. It was really flavourful and had the nice charring of “wok hay”, but it was a bit oily as well.  The best part of the Mentaiko Udon was, surprisingly the addition of the cabbage. It added a nice crunch to the yakiudon, and it was also a nice contrast in flavour.  But overall, I thought this dish was really good! I even had enough left to take home which I ate for lunch the next day. Mmm .. so good.

Overall, it was a productive meeting and great conversation with friends. The food at Tomoya is well- executed and it’s really reasonable in price and portion.  Go check it out!

$8.95 Mentaiko Yakiudon

I forget what roll this is

$6.95 Mediocre Beef Broth Soup at H-Mart Food Court

Hi

Stephanie here,

H-Mart Food Court

So it was another Saturday of studying with GP. If you haven’t noticed, GP and I usually have hard-core study parties almost every Saturday at the Central Library Downtown.  It’s where we discovered our favourite Viet Subs (See $3.75 of $4.25 Viet Subs at Viet Sub).

This is usually what our Saturdays usually look like:

10-11isham:
Arrive at Central Library at  and settle in our usual study spot on the 4th floor (Usually GP will arrive first – I like to sleep in a bit)

11ish-6pm:
Hard-core study until the library closes at 6pm.  Sometimes we go for coffee breaks in between.

6pm: Go eat a cheap dinner somewhere in downtown.

7pm-late: Either go home or study at the Waves next to the library, which is open until midnight everyday.

So this was another typical Saturday, and we were wondering where to go at 5:30pm. I suggested H-Mart, because the food court up there has pretty cheap food and it was raining so I felt like something soupy to eat. Oh, and we hadn’t

This was not good....

blogged about it yet. For those of you who don’t know, H-Mart is a Korean supermarket (like T&T, but smaller) and it also has a small food court. There’s not much selection of vendors at this food court (only about three), but the prices a OK cheap. They range from about $6 to $10.  Walking in and looking at what other people were eating, the portions looked huge! We were pretty excited.

From Wang Ga Ma,  I ordered the Beef Broth Soupfor $6.95.  After I paid, it literally took two seconds for my order to be ready. I guess they had pre-cooked everything (including the noodles). Just by looking at it, I knew that there was very little beef brisket in the soup. And I was right. Not only was there very little meat, I found it to be rather stringy and not tender at all. The soup wasn’t that good either. I thought it tasted a lot like the soup from the instant noodle packets. I’m sure it was laced with MSG too. The noodles were the worst part. It looked like your regular pho vermicelli rice noodles, but it was horribly overcooked. And my bowl was overladen with too much noodles as well. Ratio of noodles to meat was like 20:1. I was very disappointed. The Kim Chi, on the other hand was pretty good. I wish they had given me more.

This wasn't that good either ...

GP ordered the Spicy Beef Soup for $7.50 and he agreed that his wasn’t that great either. He had the same beef as mine, and the soup was really really spicy. I tried some, and it was pretty good. I gave him some of my noodles.

Overall, the food we had a H-Mart was pretty bad. But … I’m still willing to give this place another chance since I’ve heard good reviews about this place, but I’ll order a rice dish or dry noodles or the korean pancake that I saw some people having.  I just won’t order the noodle soups ever again.