Vancouver always touts its multiculturalism proudly, and so does Japadog on Burrard and Smithe, where “east meets west deliciously” as tastethehappy puts it. Its fusion food in a bun. More precisely, they serve hot dogs with a Japanese makeover. I know, its hard to imagine if you haven’t seen it before, and I had trouble explaining it to my coworkers without visual aid.

Take their Misomayo for example. Turkey sausage with Japanese mayo, miso sauce, and radish.

Or Terimayo, their #1 export, beef hot dog with Japanese mayo, special teriyaki sauce, and seaweed toppings.

Its more than just a gimmick, as these dogs taste pretty good with the Japanese toppings, and almost makes you forget what your momma told you about eating too much fast food. They do have other types of sausages, leaving the choice of condiments up to you. I also noticed their stand is cleaner than some restaurants I’ve been to, which is always a plus.

These guys are pretty famous too, making the news on numerous occasions, and proudly displays mug shots of B-list celebrities that have visited them, such as Steven Segal.

As far as hot dogs, cheap lunches, creative cuisines, and fusion food goes, this ranks pretty high up there.

Food: 8/10
Likelihood of returning: very high

Just in case you weren’t following up on hot dog related news, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut recently defeated Kobayashi “Tsunami” Takeru in Nathan’s hot dog eating contest by slaughtering 59 dogs in 10 minutes. That’s almost 1 hot dog every 10 second, and nearly 20,000 calories in total.

Fortunately for those two, I only had enough cash that day to buy one.

Summer can’t come soon enough.  I drove up to Deep Cove on the easternmost tip of North Vancouver but, as you can see above, the weather wasn’t very good.  My first shot at kayaking will have to wait for a warmer, sunnier day.  Thankfully, the short trip was not entirely pointless as I had a nice lunch at Arms Reach Bistro, a charming little restaurant located a stone’s throw away from Deep Cove’s shore.

Inside, the restaurant is refined yet cozy. Despite the poor weather, the restaurant was packed for lunch. Wooden classroom school desks await patrons waiting for a table: cute.

My girlfriend and I shared 2 dishes: fresh fried calamari served with spicy marinara ($8) and oven-baked spaghetti ($12). Both were presented clean and simple. Both tasted great: fresh, delicate, and tasty. I especially enjoyed the melted handmade bocconcini atop our spaghetti.

The prices are very reasonable and the service was super friendly.

The tasty food complements the great view, and the two combine to create an incredibly relaxed dining experience.

I can’t wait to return and sample other dishes on their menu.
Assuming I don’t drown, the food is going to taste even better after a sunny day of kayaking.

Da Rae Oak’s interior is really bland and didn’t warrant a picture, but the food here is consistently good and well-priced, especially compared to other Korean restaurants in Vancouver.

One thing I love about Korean restaurants are the complementary appetizer-like dishes they serve up. These dishes are called Banchan (the most common type of Banchan is Kimchi of course). The waitress brought them out quickly so that we could snack on them before the main dishes arrived.

The first dish we ordered was a Seafood Pancake ($13.90). IHOP‘s got nothing on this. This gigantic pancake consists of various types of seafood, scallions, batter, and crispy potatoes. It’s very delicious and filling.

We also ordered beef short-ribs bulgogi, served with a bowl of rice ($12.90). Koreans really know how to marinate! The meat was sweet, tender, and tasty. It complemented the salty seafood pancake nicely.If you want the full Korean experience, Da Rae Oak might not be the best place to visit: the chopsticks here aren’t even made of metal. But if you just want some great, affordable Korean food, I would highly recommend it.

8.5 out of 10

Full from the tasty Korean lunch, I was ready to go back to slacking for the rest of the afternoon.