Sushi Garden (Brentwood Store)

One of my family favourite. We have been to both locations more than 50 times, it's definitely a go to sushi place for us. I was actually quite shocked when I saw so many negative reviews and comments about them on Urbanspoon. I agree that it's nothing fancy, and always busy. But the quality fits its category. If you want a convenient place to get sushi, sushi garden is worth a try.

We ordered a lot this time since my dad's university friend came to visit.

First, We had the regular salmon sashimi 9 pcs ($8.95 4.5/5) and spicy salmon sashimi ($8.95 5/5)

Loved their sashimi here with fresh and huge pieces. I especially like the spicy ones, I have never had this kind of spicy sauce before.

We ordered 5 rolls this time.

The ones that we always order is the Tropical Dynamite Roll ($4.95 4/5) 

What differs from a Regular Dynamite Roll is that they added pineapple, cream cheese and coated with pan fried egg) A very unique creation though. 

Next, We had the simple California Roll ($3.95 3.5/5) and Chopped Scallop Roll ($3.75 4/5)

Not a big fan of California so I only had one piece. 
Chopped Scallop roll was not bad, but the pieces got smaller over the years.

 Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Roll ($3.95 4.5/5) and the Hawaiian Beef Roll ($3.95 3.5/5)

I like anything cream cheese so I really liked this roll. Others might not, in fact, I've read so many reviews that dislike this roll. But I thought the cream cheese pieces were huge, and it fits well with the pepper and the smoked salmon. 

The Hawaiian Beef Roll was uncreative though, It was basically a teriyaki beef roll with pineapples, the beef was slightly over cooked. 

Yaki Udon ($6.95 4.5/5)

-Udon noodle stir fried with beef and veggies)

The udon noodles were cooked al dente, love the texture. The sauce paired up well with everything. An impressive dish overall. 

We also had the Takoyaki 6 pieces ($3.75 4/5), they were all gone before I could take a picture.

I'm not a big fan of octopus, so I was glad that they only had a small portion of it in each one. I mainly liked the surroundings and the sauce. 

Overall Experience:

A convenient place to get some quick sushi. Don't expect great service since both locations are always busy, servers really don't have the time to do anything else other than taking your order. They do occasionally add tea though. I categorize Sushi Garden and Sushi California as "Asian Fast Food Restaurants". So the quality is quite decent. If you want fancy Japanese food, Hit up Miku and Minami. 

Midam Cafe&Bistro

By being a Burquitlamer, I've heard about Midam Cafe many many times, but I never found the time and opportunity to go even though I pass by K town/North Road almost everyday. Today after lunch, my mom randomly wanted to visit since her friends were talking about it as well.

What a hidden gem. It is located between Hannam Korean Market and Bikram Yoga (First Floor), You would probably never find this place by its awkward location and dark exteriors. But yet It's still well known in the community so you think it must be phenomenal! ...But is it really?

The cafe has a basketball theme from all the mini models of bball players, It gives off a young vibe, but I spotted 3 floor seatings that are very traditional and cultural. I liked the clash of time periods, and I would love to sit in one of the floor seatings next time! (However, It'd be cute if the theme of this cafe is more girly, but I guess they already have enough customers to renovate the interiors.)

I knew that their shaved ice is super popular, with no doubt, I ordered the Green Tea Shaved Iced ($10.99 3.5/5). I expected the bowl to be twice the size, but when the server came with a medium-small bowl, I wasn't pleased... (They all looked huge on Instagram D: ).
Oh well, Let's see how it tastes then? The red bean paste and the green tea ice cream combined perfectly, but I noticed that their green tea mochi/rice cakes were too salty. Midam actually specializes in rice cakes, but I really didn't like how they were salty, I needed my sugar fix not a sodium rise! The bowl lacked ingredients, over 2/3 of the bowl were just plain shaved ice. :/
Overall I was pretty disappointed, I've had way better shaved ice at Dae-Ji. They have bigger sizes with more ingredients for only $9.99. (and Dae-Ji is just located on the second floor of the same court!)

My sister ordered the Chocolate Fondue ($8.99 4/5) with fruits and rice cakes. I didn't taste any of her food due to her illness, but according to her, It was good. She said she would rate it 4/5. It is a great plate to order for kids, but also very easy to make at home.

Meanwhile, My mom didn't listen to my advice and insisted to order the Red Bean Fondue. ($6.99 2/5).  It looked sketchy on the menu. The Red Bean Fondue was sweet yet the rice cakes were really salty. This isn't salted caramel so personally I think the flavours of sweet red bean and salty sticky rice cakes definitely didn't go well together. We strongly disliked it, and their rice cakes. (But our opinions might differ! If you are curious, give it a try, It isn't very expensive.)

Due to the dissatisfaction of the desserts, my mom wanted to order another dish. We decided to get the spicy chicken with cheese. ($17 3.5/5) (Didn't I just say I want a sugar fix? ... and yeah I know it was very awkward to order a main dish after desserts.. Don't Judge! haha)
I eat spicy, but I know Koreans are crazy about their spices, thus I specified that I wanted the sauce to be MILDY spicy. Okay... either the server forgot or they just eat super spicy... The dish was actually very good but we couldn't bear the extreme spiciness, so we had to bring it home and think about another way to enjoy it!

Overall Experience:

Man, It sounded like a terrible experience with such high hopes in the beginning. Nonetheless, I will revisit at least 2 more times to see if it's worth it or not. I haven't tried its parfaits, waffles as well as beverages, maybe their other shaved ice if I'm in the mood.
The service was not bad, this place is generally for young crowds and couples. However I went in the afternoon, so it was pretty much empty and very quiet. Next time, I will deliberately go at night, some time after dinner,  and maybe I will enjoy my food more with a better vibe.

Insadong Korean Restaurant

I'm finally done with Artona and it's time to feast again! I decided to go with Insadong because I haven't been there in a long time, and I wonder if their food is still consistent or not.

The interior is normal like any Asian restaurants, so I didn't take a lot of pictures. The food is obviously more important than the atmosphere for this type of dining! I remembered that Insadong was usually crazy busy, but surprisingly, it was only half full when i went tonight.

My parents and I ordered the couple BBQ combination for 2-3 people ($59.99 4/5), It was more than enough for 3 people! (and my dad eats a lot lol). I think the price isn't too high at a rate of $20 per person. This combination includes beef salad, radish seaweed roll, a choice of seafood non-spicy soft tofu soup or soybean soup , a choice of seafood pancake or bulgogi japche. For BBQ: a piece of marinated beef ribs, marinated beef, spicy pork and chicken bulgogi and 3 pieces of marinated short ribs. For seafood BBQ: 3 mussels, 3 prawns and 2 oysters.

Beef salad and the radish seaweed roll were very refreshing, It's good for appetizers as well as "desserts" to clean up the heavy flavours. Seafood tofu soup was okay, It was too much for my taste since I don't like seafood that much. The pancake tasted bland, so I added some sauce. They gave us a lot of sauces and side dishes, I loved their kimchi, it's not super salty like other ones but sweet and crispy instead, I actually finished the dish by myself!

The BBQ meats were mostly tender, (It also depends on how good you are as a griller?!) The only exception was that some ribs were hard to chew because they had too many tendons attached. But overall the meats were well marinated and flavourful. and once again, I didn't eat any seafood BBQs.

Overal Experience:

The service was really good, they managed to change our grill FOUR times! The food is still consistent even after all these years in service. Side dishes gave me chills, especially their kimchi! I'm pretty sure a lot of people still prefer the salty ones, but I like it when it's slightly sweet. 

Parking wasn't too tough,  just park near Pho 99 and It takes 30 seconds to walk to Insadong.