The food scene in Steveston has been changing quite a bit over the past two years. The classic local diners are being replaced with some higher end shops with a some real focus. Charcuterie opened up and was a welcome change – but then a BBQ place popped up.  Now I don’t BBQ well, but what I do well is eat BBQ. With my almost constant travel for work I have had a chance to eat some amazing BBQ. From BBQs on the back of trucks in gas station parking lots in Florida, to world famous Texas BBQ pits (in Texas of course) so when I saw this place my first thought was horse shit.. it it has to be…

Was I wrong?

I sure was

1/2 Rack St.Louis Ribs: $17.00 (Befoer Tax) 8.34/10

So I had heard a few things that had kept me away from here for a few months. These ranged from people just not enjoying their food, to some service issues. Then came the day that we were walking around the village thinking about what to eat for lunch. I had eaten at most of the places around so often that I am getting board with their choices. This also got me thinking that the people that I have heard mixed reviews from don’t know shit about BBQ. It woud be sill for me to miss out based on trusting them.

First impressions of the place is that it smells great, and you are greeted by the outstanding craft beer list as soon as you walk in.

I went with the St.Louis ribs this time and I think it was a good call. The portions are great, and come with two sides. I went with slaw and fries and tacked on a side order of corn bread. They don’t skimp on any of these items, and each of them is outstanding. The only thing I would change on the ribs would be to go light on the sauce next time. Not that it was not good, but it just took away from the smoked flavor of the ribs for me.

The others ordered a share platter that had BBQ chicken, a few types of ribs, and some other goodies on there. I spend sometime digging on their platter and must say that the “dino ribs” big ass beef ribs were great. They were dry ribs and I think this is more of my style now.

Would I go back? I have gone back once again for lunch since this initial visit. The only downturn to going there for lunch is that I could not really spend my time going through their beer list. Time to hit them up for dinner!

Re-up is one of Vancouver’s new food carts. For those of you who may not be in the street meat scene, up until this summer our street food options were limited to hotdogs, nuts, and some other item I had never tired. That all changed when Vancouver decided to try to make up for the culture drain we felt at the end of the Winter Olympics by extending our street food offerings. We can now have everything from Dim Sum to Pizza all cooked up in some new fancy food carts.

Over the next month we here at TweetsOnEats are going to hit up all of the new food carts and provide you with a review in hopes that we can steer you in the right direction for your road-side eating.

Re-Up Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwich: $6.75 (Tax in) 8.34/10

Pulled Pork from Re-Up

I am convinced that deep within me (hold the jokes on that one) is a fat BBQ eating, checkered shirt wearing, soul. I can’t go past anywhere that sells BBQ and not have my mouth water. Today I was on my way back from the Apple store getting my Nano fixed when I walked past re-up. The smell alone got me going, and a quick peek at someone walking away eating a pulled pork sandwich with BBQ sauce dripping down their face, and I was inline with money in my hand before I knew what was going on.

They have done a good job at this cart of limiting their menu offering to only have one sandwich, do you really need more when the one is pulled pork? As wel as a few choices around what flavour iced-tea you would like. This helps keep the HUGE line here moving quickly.

On to the good sutff. The sandwich comes on a fresh, and very soft, white bun. It is then stuffed with slow-braised perfectly smoked pork. The meat is as tender as it gets. It is then topped off with a helping of fresh coleslaw. Oh I missed the big squirt of BBQ sauce that seals the deal.

This thing is great. Now, I am sure that if you go south you can find arguably a better tasting sandwich, but this is VANCOUVER folks. For where we are this is outstanding! I found myself licking the sauce that had dripped onto my hands and wishing for more.

The bad: Well if you are there right around noon you will be in a HUGE line. If you get there too late then he is sold out. I suggest eating early and then going back for seconds later in the lunch hour. If I was not running today  this is what I would be doing for sure.

Will I go back? If you really have to ask this I kindly request that you leave this site now.

I think today we here at TweetsOnEats have hit an all time low. So low in fact that this has spurred us out of our semi-retirement. A new all budget focused lunch regime has been put in place for us. This has introduced us all to the joy (sarcastic) of brown-bag lunches, and very budget food. While we have not yet gone as far as going to a soup kitchen yet, but lets not rule that out!

The Costco Appetizer

Marc’s Review: 1/4LB All Beef Hotdog, Chicken Strips and Fries (iced tea) $8.00 4/10

Costco: Chicken Strips and Fries

What can you really say about eating at Costco? How about this is not where you should head if you want to stay awake for the rest of the day. Today’s lunch idea came from Koko the Monkey. He not only provided the suggestions but also acted as our guide to Costco’s extensive lunch menu.

The three of us had the same lunch items. This consisted of the famous 1/4lb all beef kosher hot dog with all the fixings as an appetizer, followed by the main course of four chicken strips and fries. For a beverage I had a mix of Iced Tea and Frutopia.

Would I go back? Well when I am there for some shopping I may forget about this experience and try some of their food again, but if my memory does not fail me then NO.

Our concierge at work had asked if we had been to the Bellaggio cafe before and I responded “the what?”. She went as far as to explain to us exactly where it is located (773 Hornby Street), right beside Cafe Artigiano, I still had no idea where it was. So yesterday morning we were feeling a bit hungry so we decided to go check it out. I am GLAD we did.

Marc’s Review: Bacon and egg breakfast with toast and hash browns  $10.99 7/10

I must say that I was impressed as soon as I walked in the door. There is a great “away from here” atmosphere going on inside. From the unique art on the walls to the piles of hard-covered travel books around the cafe you feel like you are not in the city, or not in your own city for sure. The staff were quick to seat us and get some coffee to the table.

I went with a standard bacon and egg breakfast, eggs over medium, hash browns and whole grain toast. When the food arrived I was very happy with the presentation and the portion size. Now with breakfast it is hard to be great but it is very easy to be rotten. This breakfast sits at a 7/10 which means that I was quite happy with it and will be back for sure, but it was not mind blowing. If the breakfast was $2.00 cheaper I would have no problem say this is where I will have breakfast every day.

Will I go back? You better believe it Jerry!

Marc 5.3/10 (service 9.5/10) Cost $14.99

Today we wanted meat. We were thinking about either a beef dip or a pulled pork sandwich. The decision then was really down to where around the office can you get either of these that a) are decent or b) will not be packed out the door at 11:55am. Joeys has always had what I consider to be a great beef dip so we quickly settled on the Robson and Burrard location. This location is the preferred one downtown for us as they have more seating and less bankers.

We were seated right away and were told about their new menu. What we also learned was that this location is the test kitchen for Joey’s so there were some items here that could not yet be had at the other locations. Our waitress Kristen (spelling) was quite knowledgeable on the new items and when she told us about the Brisket Sandwich that has replaced the original beef dip we were both sold.

I did not manage to get a full description written down on the sandwich but it was something about beef brisket that had been roasted for 7 hours, in-house made horse radish, onions, and arugula. As you must understand to me this all adds up to one hell of a sandwich. Well it did not quite live up to the description. I found the beef a touch dry, and the horse radish and arugula were bunched up against the inside of the cut on the bread. In my mind if the assembly of the sandwich had been done differently it would have be a much better experience. By no means is this not a good menu item it is just that it could be so much more. The fact that it was also priced at $14.99, which is $3.00 more than the beef dip that it is replacing also set the bar pretty high.

Now on to how the service more that made up for this. Our waitress was switched on. She knew the menu very well and was able to answer all of our questions about each dish that seemed interesting. When we gave her our feedback on the sandwich she really seemed to care about what we had to say. The manager came over to talk with us to also get our feedback on the dish, and to explain how the test kitchen menu works. That feedback from guests is what drives the final menu for the other Joey’s. I felt that this was not just lip service, but he was actually looking for feedback.

On a side note we found that if you dip the sandwich in their chipotle mayo it becomes something great.

Overall we will of course be back, and hope to see how this item evolves.

I met an old colleague for lunch today and we decided to “kick it old school” and hit up a joint we ate at quite a bit when we worked together. This turned out to be the Deli in Royal Centre. Well times have changed, and this place is falling off my list of preferred places for a quick lunch.

Marc’s Review: 5.0/10 Chicken Breast Sandwich on Baguette, and Serbian Sausage Soup $10.87!

So what happened that made this place go from a great place to a place I am not sure if I want to go back? Well to be honest it was that they changed me $.70 for cheese today. I even called them on this to make sure it was not a mistake.  $.70 for a slice of cheese on my $5.89 sandwich just seems expensive. Now looking at how much I spend on lunches you should notice that I am not really cheap. I just don’t like the add-ons. Charge me $6.50 for the sandwich and it comes with cheese is ok, but you start adding on costs for core sandwich items and I start to get unhappy.

Over all the sandwich was good, but I did not get $.70 worth of joy from the cheese. I am not feeling well now and I am going to blame my lunch. This might not be the real cause, but who cares? This is my review site and I can type what I like.

Will I go back? I don’t think I will. And this is all about the cheese tax. I once had a favourite greek place we would go for dinner at all the time. On my last visit there was no bread with my order. When I asked about it they said due to costs they sell it now. Again, just charge me more and make the entire meal one price and keep me happy. I have not been back since that event. Over those six months we would have spent hundreds of dollars there. HEAR ME DELI?

We had a guest coming to meet us for lunch today (Tuesday) and it was up to the TweetsOnEats team to decided where to go. We had time working against us so we made a quick call to hit Cafe Presto Panni. Could this place really be as good as I recall? Part of me was sure that my reconstructive memory was working against me here, and this place was just OK.

Well let’s see how they did .. more after the fold

Marc’s Review: 8.1/10 Classic Panini, & Iced Water $13.00 (tip in)

As much as I wanted something new, this was so good I had to have it.

Well I was pretty sure that I wanted to try something new. Seated across from us was a fellow who was having what looked to be some penne with italian sausage, in a tomato sauce. I think I creeped him out with my leering at his meal, I hope he knew it was his meal I was drooling over.

I have a high level of confidence that everything that leaves this kitchen will be quite good. I based this mostly on the Chef in the open kitchen that looks exactly the part one would like, and expect, to see in an Italian kitchen. That said there was a big part of me that was saying that the Classic was so good why would you try something else? What if it was not as good as the classic and then I spend the rest of the day feeling like I made a bad choice. Really this is how I think about lunch. I spend way too many mental cycles on stuff like this. I am sure that if I was in the states they would have some great new pill that would help me with this issue….

Well I went with the classic in the end. Come on it has capocollo but salami, tomatoes, and mozzarella all nestled in between the perfect panini. What am I to do. I did have a bite of Barb, our guest’s pasta and it was great. I think on the next visit I will give it a go.

So to keep this short. I loved this place once again. Everything from the pictures on the walls to the table cloths work to make this place.

Would I go back? Again, how else will I have their pasta if I don’t. Of course I will be going back.
The others also seemed to really enjoy their meals, but failed to provide reviews.

This contest just did not seem to get the legs that we had expected. So for this month there is on winner. We will go back to our random fan contest for September.

I caved today. I went into a meeting and one of the attendees was having the bacon breakfast pizza. It looked and smelled so good I was having a hard time not running out the door for one. What really set me off was that they did not directly apply the sourcream this time. There was no way I could not do this for breakfast.

What can I say other than for $3.00 (or even double that price) there is no better breakfast to go in the city. In fact if you can find one please let me know. This could win you a prize.