Author: osforrylo1975

So we decided on one Saturday night to explore The Drive (aka Commercial Drive) in east side Vancouver. This street contains a huge variety of eateries, many of which I have never visited or heard of before. During the course of our food exploration, our...3rd stop for food was at Ugly Dumpling...a new resto we never heard of before, but was pleasantly surprised by what was in store for our tummies! Our order... House made umeshu (aka plum wine) drinks Pork curry steamed dumplings Homemade cold soba noodles Coffee jelly with coconut cream Umeshu - this tasty Japanese plum wine had a hint of whiskey base with a smooth sweetness. Not as sweet as other umeshu's we've experienced, but a nice change from some of the cloyingly sweet ones. Pork curry dumplings - can't be called Ugly Dumpling without serving dumplings. I honestly expected more varieties, but only one to choose from on their menu. Dumpling were plump & juicy & quite yummy! I only wish they had a bit more variety considering their name. Homemade cold soba noodle - this was the highlight of our entire evening's food tour (we visited 5 restos over the course of 5 hours for food & drinks)! We used to dine at a small Japanese bistro on W Broadway called Kinome. They were famous for their daily made-by-hand soba noodles. Unfortunately due to development, Kinome closed & we lost our favourite soba noodle place. Then we tried the cold soba noodle here & were blown away! When we spoke with the server, we were happy to discover the chef & owner of Kinome was now here at Ugly Dumpling creating his amazing handmade soba noodles again. The texture of the noodles are amazing and the blend of flour used has a unique flavour you can't find in bagged soba noodles or at any other resto. The light soy broth accompanied well. It's a very simple dish, but the taste & texture are just above & beyond any other soba noodle dish you'll every find in Vancouver. And to finish off your dish, when you've eaten all the noodles, they offer you a small teapot of the noodle water used to cook the noodles, to pour into the leftover broth to drink as a soup. A nice way to savour every last drop. Coffee Jelly - finally we capped off this food stop with a coffee jelly dessert, topped off with coconut cream, toasted coconut & cocoa nibs. A very light & not overly sweet dessert that had a lot of good texture to each bite. Very refreshing way to end our meal. We will definitely be back for the soba noodles. While the price point of the noodles seem high ($18 a bowl), this soba noodle dish will transport you to a street side bistro in Japan for sure.