Free All-You-Can-Eat: No Strings Attached

So I posed a question the other day.

I was telling you all in this post saying that:

Anyway, Suanne and I had plans already for an AYCE (all you can eat) place for lunch today. It’s a place where it costs nothing and no, this is not an invited media event. They don’t know us and you can get the same deal as us. This is exciting for us and we can’t wait to break the news to you all! Any one smart enough to know where this place is?

I got a few answers … very good answers. Before I go ahead and tell you where we went, I like to ask you where is your best and most memorable AYCE (all you can eat) or Buffet place?

In Vancouver, I seriously can’t think of any place that is good. Perhaps the closest to a good place is Ninkazu Japanese restaurant (post here).

The other place I like is the Eagles Buffet inside the Tulalip Casino near the Seattle Premium Outlets.

Some of our other more memorable ones are the ones above. You can click on the pictures above and it will bring you to the post.

But the best buffets are the ones we had in Asia (picture above is clickable to the post). The buffets in Asia have a wider variety of choices by far.

So back home, Suanne and I decided to do a little experiment. We had been debating between us about this place we had been visiting a long time already. I am sure many of you had been there before. 

Announcing Winners of the Kooperz.com Giveaway

Here is the winners of the Kooperz.com giveaway as mentioned in this post here.

Kooperz.com had graciously donated 30 gelato coupons worth $6.00 each redeemable in Adria Gelato.

Here are the winners: 

Free Gelato from Kooperz.com, Vancouver’s Daily Deals

I don’t think many of you out there remembers but back in January I wrote briefly about a Vancouver Daily Deal site called Kooperz. At that time, I mentioned that I was doing it for a friend of a friend. I did not realize that the friend of a friend was actually a personal friend of ours!

It is just amazing to learn that our friends are so enterprising that they had been working on this site. The more we learned about them, the more impressed we were. I was curious and wanted to find out more. They are a new kid on the block … on a block of many new kids already. It was only in our discussions that I realize how many daily deal sites there are out there.

Kooperz focuses on putting together daily deals for Vancouver restaurants and other lifestyle pursuits in Vancouver. They do provide an unique differentiator from other similar sites. Kooperz allows their users to suggest and promote deals that they would like to see featured on their site. They will then go out and find those deals for you. So at Kooperz, they put the power of group buying back into the hands of their users — more like what good old traditional group buying is like.

We asked Kooperz for some freebies for chowtimes readers and they readily said yes. So, yeah, here is something for you all!

Kooperz had offer to give 30 free gelatos as a treat to chowtimes readers. The free gelatos are courtesy of Adria Gelato in Burnaby’s Highgate Village on Kingsways and Salisbury Ave. I had never tried Adria’s gelato before but here is something about their gelato:

• Gelato are made in small batches throughout the day with only good and fresh ingredients. No chemicals or fillers are used.
• The recipe follows a secret recipe in Italy. The owner paid through the nose to obtain it.
• The owner is European and is very persistent and determined to make good gelatos.
• Gelato batches are thrown away after a few hours when they are not consumed, to ensure the freshness.

If you would like to try it, all you have to do it simple. Just …

Winners of the FREE Alaskan King Crab Dinner

Sorry for the delay. I was supposed to randomize the draw earlier today but did not get the chance until now.

On Monday in this post, I announced that the Golden Great Wall Restaurant was willing to sponsor a table of ten for which we get to invite four lucky chowtimes couples to join us in an Alaskan King Crab dinner.

The Golden Great Wall Restaurant is thinking outside the box by creating a dinner that sound exciting. While the Alaskan King Crab are usually prepared steamed with garlic or deep fried with salt and pepper, the winners will be tasting a style with a herb consomme sauce. There will be a chocolate sculpture in contrast with Buddha Feast. The appetizer is a five find of cold plate with a freshly craved bird in the center. For desserts, it will be French pastry with a Chinese influence.

We received 203 valid entries from twitter and readers who left a comment on the blog post. We removed a handful of entries because we mentioned that only one comment is accepted per household. This is so that it is fair to everyone to stand an equal chance. We saw that people are getting more creative but I guess not creative enough. Some were entering twice, once using iPhone and another using a computer.

The entries are picked using the randomizer on random.org. Anyway, the chances are better this time. Out of 203 entries, four will be picked. So the odds are much better than the last $100 Lumiere Gift Card which was 1 out of 261 entries. We had also picked two additional winning entries in case we could not contact the winner.

So without further ado, here are the winners: 

Anyone Likes a FREE Alaskan King Crab Dinner?

Some of the best things in life is free … agree?

I know this is controversial but I had decided to proceed with the plan. If some of you recall in this post, I proposed a wild suggestion which I call a win-win-win proposal. Seeing so many restaurants put up ads in the papers announcing their Alaskan King Crab offering, I thought it they could instead take part of the advertising budget and use it for the benefit of chowtimes readers. I suggested that it go into treating chowtimes readers a dinner, a FREE Alaskan King Crab dinner.

Like I said, it is a controversial plan and I will explain it at the bottom of this post. Right now, I want to get to the action part!

The plan is to be a win-win-win situation where:

• A win for the restaurant
• A win for the lucky chowtimes readers
• A win for chowtimes

A restaurant did actually respond. It turns out that it was a restaurant that Suanne and I know quite well too. So, with that the plan is a go!

This is how we are going to do it …

Announcing the Winner of the $100 Lumiere Gift Card

We had an astounding 261 entries for the draw to the $100 Lumiere Gift Card (which can also be used in db Bistro Moderne) which was announced in this post.

I did not anticipate so many entries because I thought that even with a $100 gift card, one would need to fork out quite a bit more for a decent meal in Lumiere. Well, I guess one could also use this in the cheaper db Bistro Moderne.

You know, I thought that a lot more people would enter more than one entry. It seems like the great majority of you made only one entry. There are only 19 people who had made more than one entry from the same computer. We allow that because we cannot second guess the legitimacy of the entry.

There is only one who seems to have a big family living in the same house. Either that or he/she is a professional lucky draw entrant. LOL!

Here is the winner … 

$100 Gift Gard to Lumiere — Anyone Wants It?

I mentioned this earlier and it was all over the news.

Lumiere and db Bistro Moderne is considered the premier dining establishment and a source of great pride to have in the culinary landscape in Vancouver.

The 16 year old restaurants Lumière and Feenie’s were founded by Iron Chef Rob Feenie and went on to win a number of culinary awards and accolades including the AAA Five Diamond Award and the prestigious Relais & Chateau designation, of which only 160 restaurants around the world have achieved.

Source: vancouverobserver.com

It is sad to learn that they are going to call it a day. Their last day will be March 13th. They are apparently going out in style:

All of this being said, the duo of restaurants are well aware that they want to leave their mark and legacy on Vancouver’s loyal foodies. Restaurant operations will continue as normal until closing and on Sunday March 6, one week before closing, DB Bistro Moderne will resonate their legacy when they will serve Champagne and caviar, lobster poutine, sablefish, and many other luxurious goodies all part of the Visa Infinite Dining Series.

For the brunch, although exclusively for Visa Infinite holders and in limited numbers, tickets are priced unbelievably at $75.00 for this Sunday March 6th at DB Bistro Moderne. Please visit www.foodconnect.com to purchase tickets and for more information.

Source: vancouverobserver.com

$75? You can have it for free!

A few months ago Carol gave Suanne and I a $100 gift certificate for Lumiere (which could also be used for db Bistro Moderne). Carol was the producer of the Fairchild documentary on chowtimes.

Suanne and I had been sitting on the gift card for months already just waiting for an occasion to splurge on a nice dinner. However, given the remaining time, unfortunately Suanne and I will not be able to make use of it. We tried to re-gift this back to Carol but Carol told us to re-gift it to someone else as she will also not be able to use it.

So anyone out there wants the gift card? It is worth $100 (we re-checked yesterday).

I’ll hold a draw on this for those who wants this. I’ll close the draw at 11:59PM on Thursday and will randomize the draw to pick the winner of the gift card.

All you have to do is to …

McDonald’s New Chipotle BBQ Bacon Angus Burger

Here is the McDonald’s newest and boldest addition to the Angus Burger line!

As in many previous new product launches, McDonalds had contacted us and asked if we would like some coupons. It was just last week, we gave away a bunch of coupons for the newly launched Buttermilk Biscuits. Those coupons came from McDonalds Canada. For those of you who got those coupons, I hope you used that and enjoyed it.

Even before we get to settle down, this time is was the McDonalds in the US who provided us even more coupons.

The Chipotle BBQ Bacon Angus is packed with 100% Angus beef, bacon, cheese, onions, pickles and a bold and spicy BBQ sauce, however, don’t be shy to run out and try one, because this sandwich, which is only available for a limited time (until March 31).

This will come in handy for those of you in Vancouver who have …

McDonalds New Buttermilk Biscuits — Have One On Us

Did anyone of you get one of the free Buttermilk Biscuits from McDonalds on Wednesday and Thursday?

If you missed that free giveaway, this is being extended but only on chowtimes. McDonalds Canada has so kindly given us a few dozen of Be Our Guest cards to be distributed to chowtimes readers. So you don’t have the fight the crowd and enjoy this at your own time.

Since we had so many, this is how we will be doing this. I will …

More Bo’s Laksa Coupon To Give Away

This is just a brief post to let you know that we have more free laksa coupons if you want it.

As you know Bo is opening his first restaurant called Bo Laksa King’s Bubble and Bits on Monday, July 26th. I blogged about it in this blog post where Bo gave us a few coupons to give away. They were all gone within a couple of hours the post going up.

Because of the good response, Bo had decided to give away more Laksa coupons. If you are interested, read on …