It has been a while since I first visited Club Kitchen when they opened a year ago. Back then they only had 3 restaurants working out of the communal space, and now we have 8 today. Each of the 8, its own personality and menu allowing customers to mix and match their perfect meal with a variety of cuisines and desserts.
Today we would do just that, ordering one item from each restaurant and their menu. I focused on iconic dishes and easy crowd pleasers for today’s cohort meet up. We originally planned to dine in and play board games at a friend’s house, but last minute changes had us being flexible with this improvised picnic.
The incentive in ordering through them is that you can have all this variety delivered to you from the Club Kitchen website. The only hiccup is the temperature of having to amalgamate and deliver such a large order. Here is what we had, in no particular order.
The Mexican option is El Compadre with an authentic menu that includes tacos, burritos, and platters. Seeing as we would be sharing between three, one of their three taco orders felt like an easy pick. Their Pastor Tacos are the most popular with double tortilla, pork, green salsa on side, pineapple, a cilantro and onion mix, and lime. Each order is instantly a full meal with a canned soda pop. The tacos were great, the meat was just the right mix between tender and chewy with a hardened char. The smokiness of the barbecue accented with the collection of fresh herbs and citrus heavy salsas.
I wanted the beef noodle from Pearl Castle, but thought noodles in soup might be a tad challenging to share, so went with their Tomato Beef Brisket HotPot instead. I thought I knew what I would be getting with this one, however I would be surprised. Not bad, it was just not what I wanted. I was expecting a savoury and rich beef gravy to have with the bowl of rice that was included. Instead this was a sweeter stew, heavily influenced by the tomatoes. At least the cubes of fatty beef and soften carrot were as I wanted, so the rest of the dish did grow on me. I would order this again, now that I have had it once.
Hello Nori is a fan favourite. Who doesn’t like sushi at a potluck? And Hello Nori has some of the finest luxury hand rolls in the game. However if not dining in, their regular sushi is the way to go. We got their Aburi Duo with 3 pieces of Salmon and 3 pieces of Ebi (prawn) for easy sharing, once again. All this torched to perfection and presented in their bento box along side the popular sushi accoutrements of ginger, soy, wasabi, and their trademark double pointed end chopsticks. The box was too large for the order, making it look insignificant. There were no complaints from anyone with their one. Refreshing and light, it offered a breath in between heavier dishes like the stew above and the curry below.
Club Kitchen’s Indian option is Indi Co. and if you are going to play it safe for any potluck or group eating adventure it has to be the Butter Chicken. Easy to scoop and enjoy with a side of Basmati Rice to take up all that creamy orange sauce with. Large chunks of white meat chicken and a saucier gravy, this was as expected.
From Thai Away Home I made it another classic with their Shrimp Pad Thai. Thai fried rice stick noodles with tofu, bean sprouts, and fluffy eggs. All thoroughly tossed with their zesty “Sun-Kissed” Tomato Pad Thai Sauce, before being garnished with peanuts. Sadly, by the time we got to it the noodle were stuck together, thankfully the texture and taste didn’t wane. Tangy with tamarind and sweet with tomato.
This being the first time trying Betty’s Burger, I had to get their namesake burger: “Betty’s Burger”. This is a 6oz Canadian Beef Patty on a Potato Bun with Bacon, Smokey BBQ, Havarti Cheese, Betty’s Burger Sauce, Pickles, Onion, Tomato, and Arugula. Classically done, this was a fully cooked through patty with crispy edges and melted cheeses. Nothing new to report, just plenty of flavour and ingredients, making this a lovely addition to our international collection.
And for dessert we had cheesecake from Trees Organic, which also serves as the shared space’s coffee house. Their selection of cheesecakes are on rotation. Today we had their Raspberry white chocolate cheesecake with fruit syrup that you pour over yourself, separately. This was familiar and nostalgic. The blueberry cheesecake had real fruit pieces giving it a lovely tart finish. And the most decadent was the tiramisu cheesecake with chocolate and coffee throughout.
Our lighter dessert was from Hui Lau Shan, they are known for their mango drinks and sweet soups. We shared the Jumbo Mango & pomelo with sago. In had large chunks of mango and shreds of pomelo intermingled with sago pearls, allover a layer of mango pudding that you scoop up and in to. A juicy and refreshing way to end our adventure in international dining.
It was incredibly enjoyable to have such a wide selection of cuisine types, so easily accessible, and just as easily assembled for your consumption. I highly recommend doing this for your next potluck, picnic, or delivery night in. No where offers such a service.
Club Kitchen
988 Expo Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6Z OG2
clubkitchen.ca
