i originally found out about this pizza maker from Merilynn’s work. They order it in sometimes for their staff birthday lunches.

But unless you happen to go to Steveston or someone tells you about the place your unlikely to have ever heard of it.

They don’t do delivery.

They don’t do Uber Eats. Or Doordash. Or Skip.

They don’t have any tables to eat in at. Seriously none. Not even a stool at a bar.

in fact, good luck getting more than two people in the place to even order.

And it’s certainly not cheap.

They only do medium pizzas.

No large. No small. No personal size.

Just medium.

And they aren’t cheap. Our medium pizza was $33.

I found it hard to believe an establishment that has this type of business practice could survive in today’s world, with all the convenient delivery options out there. Especially in Steveston. I mean great little community. But as far as Vancouver goes it’s at the end of the world. How many people are going to drive that far just for a pizza?

As soon as I had my first slice I knew.

Lots of people will drive for this pizza.

It’s that good.

I may have to start rethinking about maybe moving to Richmond just o be closer.

Loaded with a ton of high quality toppings, this is an excellent pizza.

Lots of gooey cheese, ham and and extraordinary amount of pineapple. And yes, pineapple belongs on pizza.

You will be hard pressed to find a better pizza around I think.

And there is soemthing for everyone here, there’s a very broad menu. After a quick count of their online menu I see 37 options.

And should you have $850 to spare they even have the C6, a pizza with lobster, steelhead, prawns, truffles and caviar on it. Not sure if that is any good, and I’m not likely to find out.

If you have tried it please let me know how it was.

Franklv thought that $33 was just about perfect. Would another $815 be that much better?

Unlikely.

So next time you want excellent pizza and feel like going for a bit of a drive, head out to Steveston. Enjoy a nice walk on the wharf. Do a little browsing at all the quaint little shops. Pick up some local fresh seafood off the boat or at the fishmonger. And get yourself one of the best pizzas out there.

One bite, everyone knows the rules…

9.3

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We find ourselves in Richmond tonight needing a drink.

As we are near the south terminal at YVR The Flying Beaver came immediately to mind.

It’s a cool spot right on the river on Sea Island.

And it’s 2 for 1 appies tonight. How can you lose?

First off though a beer. Hoyne’s brewing Dark Matter.

Since they can’t even tell you what this beer is it’s hard for me to but I’ll give it a go.

It has the taste of a stout but it’s not heavy like a Guinness. Quite easy to drink actually with a

low alcohol content. Good beer!

And two appetizers for the price of one!

First Fish tacos.

And Thai chill chicken wings

Let’s start with the wings as they were better than the fish tacos.

As with the most pubs they are deep fried but they actually had a oven roasted feel to them. I think that’s because they weren’t heavily breaded. In fact there is no breading on them at all. And they were perfectly cooked. A nice sweet chili sauce finished them nicely.

The fish tacos were ok.

The addition of mango elevated it. Inside the taco was your typical non-descript white fish that was a bit overcooked. However the abundance of chipotle mayo covered up the dryness of the fish. There was a bit too much slaw as well. I prefer more fish. Cabbage is cheaper than fish though.

We also had a bit of entertainment. One of the severs dropped a full tray of glasses. Whoops!

The DJ was pumping out a mediocre selection of tunes as well. No one dancing though.

So should you find yourself in the area this isn’t a bad place to go.

Nice view, decent food with a good Appy special, and an ok vibe.

7/10

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I’m not usually a fan of food courts. But we didn’t have time to sit down at Cactus or White Spot. But here It’s not called a food court, it’s a dining terrace.

There is the usual selection here at the dining terrace, most of which I will not usually eat at. I’d rather go hungry.

However there is Dinesty Dumpling House. I assume that’s a play on words?

We decided on combo # 8.

Vegetable and pork wontons in a hot and sour sauce and pan fried pork pot stickers.

So neither us were counting on anything spicy so we did get a bit of a surprise when you bit into those dumplings. But once past the unexpected kick they were rather tasty. Very tender and flavourful.

And just look at those potstickers. They are double the size of a normal pot sticker. But apart from that they were like any other potsticker I’ve ever had. Good, but the same.

You know for food court, sorry dining terrace, food not too shabby though.

7/10

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This will be my second visit to Gordon Ramsay (henceforth referred to as GR) Steak, my first being many years ago at the Paris, Las Vegas location.

It was excellent then. Here’s hoping it will be excellent again.

The restaurant isn’t particularly busy tonight as it is a Tuesday, and right after a snowfall. That of course means traffic mayhem in Vancouver. Weather aside, we discovered they are slowly ramping up operations as they head towards the Grand opening in a couple weeks.

First impressions? It’s a nice space, even though it technically is a section of the lobby of the hotel.

One thing we noticed, being in a direct line from the front door of the hotel, was the occasional draft of very cold air. It is unusually cold in Vancouver today, this wouldn’t be an issue on a warmer day.

One note that’s not as positive, the chairs are not the most comfortable. The angle of the seat feels almost sloped down a bit. As the meal went on though it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. They are also extremely heavy whick makes them a bit difficult to move should you need to get up.

Overall the space is well appointed and  a pleasant place to relax and enjoy.

But we are here for the food, not the chairs.

Staring with a Notes from Gordon cocktail.

It comes with a quote from Mr Ramsay. Mine read “if that lamb was any more undercooked it would follow you home.”

The drink is a fancy Gin and Tonic. London dry gin, lime, green tea, Mastika and elderflower tonic.

It was very nice. The Mastika enhances the juniper flavours and the lime adds the citrus I like in a gin. Which is complemented by the subtle sweetness of the elderflower tonic. Overall a well balanced cocktail.

Merilynn went with The Obligatory Vodka Drink, which I guess says something about how GR feels about that particular libation.

It had various notes of citrus, but the balance that my drink had wasn’t in hers. Too much on one end of the flavour spectrum for me.

Thinly sliced tuna served raw with crispy rice pearls, Aji Amarillo, crispy Nori and Creme Fraiche.

Really wonderful textures and flavours going on here. Very tender tuna with crunch from the crispy rice and seaweed, complmented by a little heat and tang from the Creme Fraiche. Spoiler alert, this was the best dish of the night.

Merilynn went with the Crab cake, a favourite of hers.

Apparently it’s better than mine, though I guess that’s not surprising. GR does have 17 Michelin stars more than I.

The biggest thing I noticed was the amount of crab versus mine. Yet still being very moist. I add corn and peppers and this just seemed to be straight crab. It really was a delicious crab cake. One of the best I’ve tasted.

John had the Shrimp Cocktail.

The photo does not do justice to those shrimp.

Some of the largest shrimp I’ve ever seen. I didn’t try one but both Merilynn and John said they were a bit chewy.

As Merilynn has never had it we decided to have the Beef Wellington for our main. It is one of his signature dishes after all.

At Gordon Ramsay Steak Vancouver it is a portion for two and it’s bloody huge. Better be for $150.

It’s a lot of food, twice as much as we need.. But look at how well that’s cooked. And other than maybe the Japanese A5 Wagyu I’ve had that is one of the most tender cuts of beef I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat.

I even enjoyed the Duxelles, and I normally hate mushrooms. A red wine demi on the side, which was very beefy, added a beautiful touch.

We paired a Burrowing Owl Syrah with dinner, full bodied with notes of vanilla and berries.

Let’s finish things off with dessert.

And in a GR restaurant you know what we are having.

Apparently it’s the only dish that’s served in every one of his 91 restaurants.

If you have never tried it, it’s a must. Fair warning. It’s very sweet. But unlike some sticky toffee puddings it very light. The caramel is delicious and goes oh so well with the ice cream

But let’s not stop there. They have a chocolate torte.

I’m a sucker for chocolate. Especially really good chocolate. Which I would expect here.

And it did not disappoint.

First off that’s a lovely presentation.

GR’s version of a chocolate torte is pudding like in consistency. It’s very rich. Almost too rich. It’s actually too big in my opinion. Quite difficult for me to finish.

Which was left to me as the other two aren’t fans of dessert.

But I persevered. I powered through. I ate every last bite.

Did I suffer later that evening?

I sure did.

But it was worth it.

In fact, the whole evening was worth it. Yes on the pricey side. When it come to food though, when has that ever stopped me?

The ambiance is pleasant. The cocktails are very good. The food was excellent. The service was very attentive.

As for the highlight of the night, the Hamachi stole the show for me. Everything I look for in a dish in a high end restaurant.

Gordon Ramsay Steak is definitely worth considering for your next evening out.

9/10

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Now I have had them some before but it’s always been in an a la carte style restaurant.

Today we are going for the trolley service style and this will be my first time experiencing that.

The first thing to note about this place is the sheer size of it.

There’s got to be 100 tables in here.

The second thing to note is the diversity of the people eating here. Or should I say lack of diversity of people eating here.

In today’s day and age a lack of diversity would usually be considered a bad thing but when it comes to finding good ethnic foods I’m looking for a distinct lack of diversity.

We didn’t see very many white faces in here. Which indicates to me we’re in for some excellent food.

The only thing I’m going to skip for sure today is the chicken’s feet. I’ll eat a lot of different stuff but for me that’s one food that just doesn’t grab me.

So if you don’t know what trolley service dim sum is…. Servers walk around the restaurant with trolleys piled high with different types of dumplings, noodles, rice dishes, spring rolls, etc.

You can take what’s there or wait for the next trolley. Every few minutes another trolley comes by with different food and you just keep eating till you’re full.

And we did.

I didn’t take pictures, these are off their menu.

Spring rolls, steamed pork buns, pork and shrimp dumplins, egg tarts, chow mein and sticky rice in lotus leaves.

Everything was excellent.

But the experience is what makes it really great.

And it was a great experience.

8/10

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There certainly some hype about this place.

Merilynn gets it at work once a month or so and she says it’s very good.  I’ve also heard from a couple other people how fantastic it is.

Before you go and decide to get a pie from here there’s a couple things you need to know first.

Firstly, they don’t do delivery. That includes Uber and Skip. Pickup only. That means you are driving all the way out to Steveston.

Second, there’s an $800 pizza on the menu.

Now I’ve spent some decent money on food in my life. But no way in hell am I spending $800 on a pizza. 

I did manage to convince her to drive over there after work one day and pick one up to bring home.

And here it is.

So the question is:

Is this pie worth all the effort?

Nope it’s not.

If you happen to live near there or are in the area it certainly would be worth your while to go and give it a try. Maybe even drop the $800.

But am I driving from New West to Steveston to get a bloody pizza?

No way.

Yeah it’s good pizza. But I would drive by two or three places that I’d rather have pizza from…than drive halfway across the lower Mainland.

One bite review

7.4

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It’s a great atmosphere with very good service and very good food.

The duck confit hash.

The duck was so tender. The potatoes were awesome. That’s aot coming from me, one who isn’t the biggest fan of spuds. And that egg was a nice touch. The blackberry sauce cranked it up a notch.

Eggs Benedict

Again a really nice Benny

Eggs poached soft and those great crispy potatoes.

French toast.

This is something I would never get in a restaurant I would just do it myself. However it was very nice.perhaps a bit too much icing sugar, but still tasted very good.

Lobster scramble crepes.

Beautiful flavor here but as usual this type of dish it was very rich. I always find it hard to finish and you like this to be honest.

And they had the car out from under the cover this time.

What a great looking ride.

Everything about The Story Cafe so far has been excellent. If you’re in Richmond or don’t mind a little bit of a drive go check it out

9/10

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So here’s the sitch.

You’re in a part of town you don’t know well and are on the need of sustenance after running a few errands.

Yelp roulette can be dicey. Sometimes your number hits. Sometimes you get double zero.

The ball landed on The Story Cafe today. We got lucky and hit a winner.

Normally I don’t like using Yelp. Like the Roulette wheel, there’s  too many options and there are too many mediocre restaurants out there.

Glad we took the chance today though. Without Yelp or someone telling you about this place you would never know it exists.

In actuality it’s not very far from one of the main routes to YVR but it’s extremely unlikely you’d ever come upon it by happenstance.

I’m guessing there’s a classic car under that tarp but I didn’t want to touch it to find out.

Inside you’ll find a welcoming spot. There’s a movie playing on the wall and antiques spread around the space. A funky chandelier and this cool sign.

And as for brunch, it was great.

I had The Beatles English breakfast.

Those beans were awesome. The molasses flavour really came through. I could pass on the bratwurst, not my favorite sausage but the chorizo was excellent. The maple bacon was crispy. The potatoes crunchy and salty. (Good salty) As usual I passed on the fungi. Overall my breaky was awesome. IMO better than any English Breakfast I ever had in England.

Merilynn had the Breakfast bowl. I tried to get her to go with the Lobster crepes but no go. Maybe next time.

It too was excellent. Poached eggs, poached prawns, avocado, Pico de Gallo  and the same great potatoes. Hollandaise on the side as well.

I have perused the entire menu and there are many things we would like to try so a return visit is all but guaranteed.

This is one Story that had a happy ending.

Food 9/10

Ambiance 9/10

Value 8/10

Overall 9/10

I highly recommend going to The Story Cafe.

Visit The Story Café

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