From the monthly archives: February 2012
This morning Wes drove me all the way out to Coquitlam for some breakfast. We nearly gave up because we realized there was $9 all you can eat fish and chips that was way closer, but that will be reserved for another day!
Wes first encountered Cora in the Hamilton, Ontario location a few years ago. BC is one of the last provinces for a franchise to open with the Coquitlam one opening last year, and after today I can’t believe we’ve been missing out on this for so long! Here’s our take on this lovely breakfast and lunch joint.
Ambience
Cora reminded me of a restaurant in the States, with a large open space and diner-like features. Overall the staff was cheerful and inviting. Some of their menu items were displayed on the walls in colourful block letters and graphics, a tradition that has continued with every Cora restaurant.
Menu
I literally lit up when I saw the first few pages of the menu, with such a colourful display of the combination of fruits, cereal, omelettes, crepes, and other delicious breakfast items. If breakfast looked this good every morning, I’d actually make the effort to wake up on time :)
Here’s a sample of their menu:
Price Range
Most menu items were in the $10-$15 range.
Food Overview
Both of us ordered the Cora Breakfast Special that came with 2 eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, a crepe, roasted potatoes and toast (and cantaloupe, pineapple and strawberries). I liked that there were a lot of options for toast, and I picked the sourdough loaf. Servings were generous, minus the eggs which seemed more like one rather than two. One of my favourite parts of the plate: the roasted potatoes. They tasted a LOT better than the typical seasoned hash browns you can get at Denny’s, IHOP, and even White Spot.
Cora Breakfast Special
And just because I was determined to try one of their fruit dishes, we also got a Yogurt Harvest Crunch with assorted fruits (it’s also available with just fresh strawberries). I loved how everything was presented! With an array of granola, banana, melons, berries, grapes, strawberry puree, and yogurt, what’s not to love? If you happen to order this it may look a bit intimidating at first, but once everything’s mixed together it’s all good from there.
Yogurt Harvest Crunch with Assorted Fruits
Our tummies were happy and I was overall really impressed. For my fellow Richmond and Vancouver breakfast enthusiasts out there, you may be happy to know that a new Cora is now open on the Coppersmith Corner complex located along Steveston Highway :)
Cora is located at:
3025 Lougheed Highway
Coquitlam, BC
www.chezcora.com
Last Friday we had a late night frozen yogurt craving, so we looked up Menchie’s hours and realized we could make it right before they closed at 11pm. For those of you who haven’t heard of Menchie’s yet, it’s a self-serve frozen yogurt franchise that started in Los Angeles by the founding couple’s mutual love for frozen yogurt (awww!). To date they have 150 locations to boast and they’ve just opened one on Cambie in Vancouver. When we got there, we were taken away by how amazing the setup and atmosphere were! Colours were bright and inviting, and the seating area was laid out with simple pieces. The staff took the time to show us the ropes and encouraged us to sample the flavours. In my case, mine were WAY too big to be considered samples (of course).
Tina and I tried out the Cake Batter and Red Velvet Cake flavours and fell in love (: the best part was when we realized we could swirl the two together thanks to their middle levers. Freaking amazing. As for toppings, we had already gone through the list on their site to make sure they had mochi. They had a ton of stuff – an assortment of crushed candy and chocolate, chopped nuts, fresh fruit, syrups, and other yummy add-ons (full list here). Our personal favourites were the cheesecake bits and lychee boba! If you’ve never tried boba, take it from Wes: “Oh my god it’s exploding in my mouth” – yes a total TWSS moment.
The weekend must have been nuts for them because they were giving out free frozen yogurt between 12-5pm and other goodies throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. Menchie’s even has this rewards program called my smileage where you can accumulate smiles for every $1 you spend, and for 50 smiles you get a $5 credit to use. If you have an account, they automatically give you 25 smiles for signing up and $5 for your birthday (it’s good until 2 weeks after)!
Overall, Menchie’s has a refreshing take on the frozen yogurt world. Beats the others – ex. Qoola and Scoop – by a mile! We have yet to sample their other flavours but from what we experienced, everything tasted awesome and it will be a repeat food adventure in the future. But probably a bit earlier next time to lessen the late-night calorie intake.
Menchie’s is located at:
2315 Cambie St.
Vancouver, BC
www.menchies.com
If you aren’t Filipino, eating fried chicken with rice and gravy may be a foreign idea to you. This was definitely the case with our friend Kyle, who up until that point thought fried chicken only went with fries. But did that ever change ;)
Here’s the reason we set our calendars weeks ahead of time to prepare for this day:
Red Pocket was giving out a deal for $10 worth of Church’s for only $5. Five dolla! And seeing how we like to eat, we bought two of these. So yesterday the plan was for Kyle and Kat to head over to the Terra Nova location and slap our coupons on the counter, and for Pat to prep the rice. Obviously when the 3 piece combo came up to $8.90 there was nothing on the menu that would be the exact difference. But with Kyle’s great logic, he ended up buying GRAVY! This is a must for the ultimate Church’s experience.
So here’s the damage we did, mind you it was 11 am. Too much deliciousness :)
And the glorious plate of fried chicken, rice and gravy:
What was the verdict? According to Kyle, “The flavours of the rice and gravy harmonize with each other…the flavours of happiness.” With Kyle giving the okay, we definitely suggest giving this a try for when you are in the mood for comfort food!
And here are the two fwenz happy as ever:
High five! What a great morning with the WAYF buddies. As Pat had said, it was “bwekfast at its finest with fwenz.” It most definitely was.
WAYF meter: 4/5
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