late night with La Belle Patate

Name: La Belle Patate
Address: 1215 Davie Street
Cuisine: fast food, fries, poutine, beer, montreal smoked meat
Price point: budget, combos <$15
Hours: Monday-Sunday 11:00am - late
My experience:
This is probably one of those meal reviews that my parents will just hate that I consumed. Oh well, too late now...If you know me at all, there are a handful of things that I love...
Edamame
sashimi - mainly sockeye
rice
salt
miso soup
trail mix
grilled cheese
mum's soups
mum's cooked apples (essentially apple pie filling)
renee's blue pear dressing and...
fries!
Yep, I have very random tastes but I like what I like. Anyway, this week I signed up last minute to do my tennis instructors course in North Van. Shoulda done this years ago, but oh well, better late than never. I felt the recent desire to connect with my tennis roots again, and network with a community that I once thrived off of...How does this pertain to food?? Well, I have about 6 hours of homework to complete in one day.....that is my last minute punishment. So at about 11pm last night, I needed something to keep me up. I thought about what I was craving, and that cheesey an salty dish of poutine just called my name!
So I dashed up to belle patate for a smoked meat poutine and a coke zero. What I love about this place is the in our face Quebecness....the staff are french, the food is quebec inspired an there is montreal jerseys and memorabilia. So how was my snack??
Oh dear it was worth it!!! I've never had the smoked meat in it before but lord that was fantastic!!! Those salty pieces of meat with the cheese and the gravy, what more could I ask for (I still need to try the breakfast one)?!?!?!?!?
It was a medium, and on special for something like $8.50, but it lasted me through the entire night, and most of the morning as I typed away!
For fries, i usually enjoy Fritz with a Garlic Lovers mayo but I can never park around there, so this was a quicker option.



Reasons to visit: Close to home, tasty, warm, comforting, very friendly service, meme si vous parlez francais!
Reasons not to visit: Not diet friendly, kinda pricey, parking my be hard
Extras: J'aime beaucoup!

Benkei on Robson - Yummy Ramen!!!

Name: Benkei Ramen
Address: 1741 Robson St, Vancouver BC (robson and denman ish visited, other locations also)
Cuisine: ramen, some appys (gyoza, onigiri, etc)
Price point: budget, combos <$10
Website: none but it's coming
Hours: Monday-Sunday 11:00am - 8:00pm ish (closed in the middle)
My experience:
What more do you want? Unless you are on the Atkins/South Beach/Dr. Bernstein diet, this is a place for yummy noodles, warm broth and salty love! This triforce of ramen that is Robson and Denman rocks!! And Benkei does it very well.
My order usually includes an order of gyoza, shrimp mostly, sometimes pork....very good! It's about $3.50, and they are just right, nothing groundbreaking but better than the ones at Robson Sushi..ugh....
My ramen of choice is most often the Shio plus an egg and menma (crunchy low calorie bamboo) or corn (depends on my mood). I love the saltiness, warm soup and the aldente but chewy noodles! The taste of pork comes through very well and the comforting salty broth makes one forget about the likely rainy day outside. The miso ramen is just as pleasing, rich and salty as well but it really depends on what you want. Since spicy food makes me sweat and feel really uncomfortable, I usually avoid this, but many love this dish nonetheless.
They also provide the usual complementary green tea and water as well as garlic and chili to season your soup accordingly. Trust me, I garlic it up in a major way....

They also have punch cards, and for frequent diners, this is a good thing! Again, Japanese servers and cooks yelling greetings and thank yous, typical of the west end, make you feel like you are downtown Tokyo and not Vancouver!
This is about $7.00, and I usually add an egg and something else, about 50 cents each. Definitely affordable carbs and comfort! It can get busy, but nothing like Kintaro, and it's cheaper! The pork is yummy, nothing like the fatty Kintaro servings, but I may live a smidgen longer!!
Servers are more than friendly, and the Japanese girls remind me of what my mummy was like once-upon-a-time!


Reasons to visit: Good value, comfort noodles, friendly service, free green tea, quick in-and-out dining, , close to my home ;), clean, simple, great for solo dining.
Reasons not to visit: Low carb diet you are on (Yoda speak) and they don't much accomodate that, if you are scared of young Japanese yelling friendly hello's(you should avoid the west end ASAP), it's hot out, and warm noodles will overwhelm you, you don't like salty, savory pork and broth and finally, you suck with chopsticks!
Extras: cute place, love it a lot and frequent it weekly!!