Reviews Tai One By Bubbleworld

Food is awesome

Really delicious food. The service was good and the ambience is nice and quiet. The menu has a wide variety of options and everything we tried was quite tasty.

I first discovered Tai One a few months ago when I spotted them across the street from by window-side table inside Maenam.  I was really surprised because there aren’t that many Chinese Restaurants on West 4th except Peaceful Restaurant which is several blocks down.  Craving some bubble tea after my meal at Maenam, I decided to try them out.  It was then that I discovered it was a full-sit down restaurant owned by Bubble World, which was the Diner’s Choice winner for Top Bubble Tea shop in Vancouver by the 2016 Chinese Restaurant Awards.

I have a tendency to say stupid shit when I’m really drunk, but that shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. Flash back to just over 8 months ago, the night I first met Little Bunny while completely belligerent after a night of drinking with Beavis. A bit of background, Little Bunny is from the UK and has only been in Canada for a few years now so at some point in the evening the topic of the Vancouver Aquarium came up and how she’d always wanted to go. Cue the alcohol, I blurt out “I f$#%ing love the aquarium, I’ll take you for our first date!”. Well, spoiler alert, I did not take her to the aquarium for our first date. In fact, it wasn’t until months of reminding me of my failure that I decided to buy her a pair of gift certificates for Christmas as a stocking stuffer to finally make good on my promise. So on the first weekend of the new year we decided to hop on our bikes and ride the seawall all the way to Stanley Park so that I could finally take her and end the nagging. Good times were had, but then our tummies rumbled. We still had our bikes and it was getting dark and was quite cold out, so we decided to ride back to our hood in Kits to find something close to home. Seeing as how LB used to live across the street from Tai One, it was one of her go-to spots for convenience and suggested we check them out . I was freezing and starving so I was just happy to get into a heated restaurant and didn’t care where we went, so the decision was made. We parked our bikes on the rack literally outside the door and walked in to an empty restaurant.

I had an appointment with my financial advisor yesterday and we ended up talking about FOOD (and my not so promising job prospects) for 2 hours. 

"So what are you studying?"

 "Sociology. I switched majors. Before I was studying Poli Sci."

"You know that Sociology is nothing....right?".   

"Thanks for reminding me."

"Well, do you have a job? You're not 15 anymore."

  "Not reallyy. I have a blog though."

  "What kind of blog?"

  "A food blog! I review restaurants and stuff."

  "Ah, so you're foodie!! What are your stats? How many followers do you have? "

  "I don't know... how do you keep track of followers on a blog?"

   He basically tried to convince me to start using my blog to make money. Harhar NICE TRY DUNCAN. Not going to happen ;) I don't blog for money, I blog for the LOVE OF FOOD!!

   Duncan was raving about a sashimi salad he had near Killarney and really recommended that I try it out. He described it as some "chinese run ramen place" on Victoria Drive, and Aji Kura immediately crossed my mind. 

 and he was like "That's it!!" :D He was raving about how the salad was loaded with sashimi - and it only cost him $8!!

  Back to Tai One --> 

  On one of lunch breaks, I went to Tai One on West 4th for lunch (I was craving Taiwanese food and didn't want to make a repeat visit to Strike.) I took 14 Powell and the trip alone took almost 30 mins... I ended up being late to my second class!

  I actually like this place a lot better than Bubble World!! Their menu is a lot more diverse and the portions are a lot larger. And like always, I asked for 2 bowls of rice hehe. Yay for getting full on $10!! 

  I remember this location use to be an AYCE sushi place ~ I vividly recall coming here for AYCE with my parents 3 years ago. We drove all the way from Burnaby after seeing their advertisement in a chinese newspaper. I remember really liking it (I actually wanted to go back the next day!!) Obviously my palette wasn't very refined back then ;)

I love it here. This is the go to place for my girlfriend and I. The boba in the bubble tea is the best we've had in Vancouver. 

The coconut dessert is ridiculously delicious and you need to get it if you like coconuts. The beef noodle is also very good.

Definitely highly recommended!!!

At the Richmond Night Market (the official one with the cartoony ducks, near the River Rock Casino), Thai One Asian Fusion is booth F19, calling themselves "Thai High", with a small selection of their menu. Moon Prawn Cake ($6). They use the restaurant picture, which is sort of misleading. The actual size of  the "cake" is about six inches in diameter and maybe a bit more than a quarter inch thick.

Fabulous!. We were pleasantly surprised: a great new restaurant with a lovely atmosphere. Tasteful modern decor. But most imporantly: the dishes were so delicious. Menu had lots of options. Decent size portions and really good value. We'll be back!

Real fusion, real heat. This restaurant is a significant upgrade from the last couple of sketchy spots that were previously at this location. We've now been here twice for dinner, once during a soft opening and again post opening. The first time, I was immediately struck by the clean and modern stylings of the interior. They were also playing some kind of new age music that was pretty annoying; the second time they were playing some trance-like dubstep album that wasn't much better. On the other hand, the staff were actually very friendly and attentive.

The food is surprisingly good. The green curry is a nice balance of tart and sweet with a genuine heat. The pad thai has nice tones of tamarind and fish sauce without the cloying sweetness of Westernized versions of this dish (where I think there is liberal use of ketchup). I was particularly surprised with the eggplant lasagna. You rarely see cheddar cited as an ingredient in an Asian menu. This dish is a piping-hot casserole of Chinese eggplant, cheddar, plenty of red chili, Korean-style rice cake (I think), Thai basil and chunks of tomato. It was excellent, but more like a moussaka than a lasagna. It's the first time I can remember a dish that was convincingly Asian fusion and memorable, not bland.

I was quite skeptical when I see this restaurant opening, partly because I am not so keen on the idea of Asian Fusion (after seeing too many failed attempts). However, the pronunciation of the restaurant did caught my eye a little, so I decided to give this restaurant a try anyways. I really like their interior; clean and simple. I especially like how they just write a big "Thai One" on the wall.