We spent the academic year 1997-98 at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. While there we took advantage of the large number of restaurants. Here are some of our favourites (not just restaurants, but prepared food sources in general), with date of last visit, and brief comments. Note our kids (ages 5 and 3) were with us for all of the dinners and most of the lunches described here. Your input is welcome.
(Note added January 2005: I am not maintaining this page, but people sometimes let me know of changes. Menu Setters has moved; Haru, Le Grec and Fujiya Coquitlam seem to have vanished; Grand King has changed name and probably management.)
Cute marketing concept. Charge twelve bucks for a plate of pasta but make it bigger than the customer's head, so they automatically get leftovers to take home. Double your volume, keep everyone happy. Only one thing missing: taste. Sauces puddle greasily in the bottom of the plate rather than clinging to the pasta. No flavour. Too bad.
It's nice (and rare) to find a Italian restaurant where pastas taste like they do in Italy (as opposed to austere upscale compositions or downmarket piles of slop). Brisk yet friendly service. On Commercial Drive.
Lush decor will appeal to those who want to recreate the Raj Quartet. Food isn't up to snuff - dry tandoori, small portions. Rubina is better. On Kingsway.
Chain pushing fake bagels. If you think of it as oddly shaped bread, it's okay when you're desperate for a snack or breakfast. But you can do much better.
The Parisian atmosphere evoked is that of one of the factory chains choking Paris, not the high-quality bakeries so hard to find even there. No spark to this bread. On Granville Island and at Lonsdale Quay.
The closest you'll get to real bagels this far from New York or Montreal, which is to say, close enough if you don't think about it too much. Lots of locations, including near UBC and on Cambie south.
The success of this chain is mystifying. Dull microwaved food served by incompetents (or maybe they just can't hear you over the din). The prices aren't even that good. You can cook better than this. Piles of locations, including Metrotown Hell.
Full-service Japanese restaurant in odd location. The bento didn't condescend to us: lots of Japanese pickles of various sorts, and a mashed-potato korokke in tonkatsu sauce. On a subsequent visit the bento was chock-full of great fish, from sashimi to snapper. Sushi and sashimi tastes really fresh; real crab in the California roll. Our choice for sit-down Japanese in Vancouver. First block of west Broadway, near Mountain Equipment Co-op.
Good stab at the atmosphere, down to the accent of the server, but bread is only so-so and pastries expensive. In Yaletown.
Nice False Creek location for this contemporary restaurant attempting a wildly eclectic approach to seafood. Not as pyrotechnic as, say, Eos in San Francisco, but perhaps that's an unfair comparison. Some items fall flat, but there are surprising notes: barbecued eel is overwhelmed by kimchee, but the kimchee itself is fresh and sweet rather than dull and sour. Good presentation, friendly and helpful service. An upscale destination of choice for the adventurous, but be prepared to shell out.
Spanish restaurant in Steveston. No excuse for charging $5.95 for six small shrimp fried with garlic, when you can get a pound of them for that price fresh off the boats docked just across the street. Paella has a decent flavour, but is also skimpy with both rice and shellfish for its $16.95 price. And it comes out in seven minutes, which means it's partially precooked. No, thanks.
Time-warp Chinese food: cheap big portions, lots of filler and recipes of dubious authenticity. Still, a decent alternative to cooking for yourself, if you're in the neighbourhood.
In an industrial section of East Vancouver (Venables at Glen), an ice-cream parlour stocks 120 selections at a time, including such oddities as ginger-garlic, wasabi, basil pernod, and durian, as well as a whole raft of more traditional chocolate- and nut-based flavours. In lesser hands this would be a joke, or 120 variations on vanilla. But the flavours are intense, the mouthfeel smooth without being cloying or overwhelming. It's rare to find an ice-cream place of this quality, so make it a priority to visit. Second location in the Parker Centre on heartless Number Three Road in Richmond, with many fewer selections.
Chain of breakfast eateries with cute plasticized menus and decor. Food can really add up here, considering that it's mostly starch. The basic pancakes are all right, but toppings are mostly artificial or out of a can. Skippable. At east end of East Hastings in Burnaby, scads of other locations.
Weekend "chaat" lunch offers both South and North Indian items, a rare mix, including items like uthappam and rava dosa that are really difficult to find in North America. Unfortunately, they're at best only competently done.
Very friendly service, and a nice patio (though there's not much to look at on this stretch of Marine Drive). The food is completely forgettable. In West Vancouver.
Great basic breads; specialty items vary. Nice sour-cherry chocolate bread, good selection of well-flavoured biscotti, interesting and nicely balanced desserts. Seasonal gubana was an expensive failure, and perennial dolce de mio's texture is all wrong. Still, the best bakery in town. The location on 5th in the industrial zone has sandwiches, including a stunning ahi tuna; the one on Broadway in Kits has an evening bistro Thursday through Saturday. This looked promising, but needs work. All of the plates at our table came with the same garnishes, except the potatoes promised on mine had been replaced with sauced pasta -- fine, but mine was calves' liver, and it was jarring.
Minimalist menu offers mostly slight variations on Japanese noodles in broth, which come close to perfection. Great for a cold, rainy day. Near the downtown library; another location at the other end of Robson.
So you crave dim sum but it's already noon and you'll never get in anywhere? No problem, this place seats a thousand. But the wait between carts can be considerable, and the food isn't that good. Next time, reserve, or go early. In Chinatown.
Designer pizza with decent crust, varied and unusual toppings. Three bucks a slice, but not bad for the price. In the airport, in the main downtown library, and several other locations.
Dim sum with no concessions to the outsider: overwhelmingly Asian clientele, a warren of rooms means carts get tantalizingly close before retreating, and almost no one speaks English. Some good and unusual items, but others are just so-so. Go with a Cantonese speaker and it might be worth it. In a shopping mall at Cambie and 41st.
Coquitlam strip-mall operation offers low prices, but slow production, incompetent service and ragged sushi. On North Road.
Japanese grocery with sizeable kitchen operation: really fresh sushi, decent tempura and donburi, and bento to go (a bargain for variety and quantity), all at reasonable prices. I could eat here every week (and came close to doing so). A few tables and chairs. On North Road.
More groceries than the Coquitlam location but fewer menu choices and more clientele. On Clark.
Menu-driven dim sum, oddly located in a Holiday Inn, but with a well-known chef presiding. Terrific sticky rice, good har gow and noodles, terrible eggplant. Menu changes periodically. Pleasant and professional service. Possibly the most consistently good dim sum we've had in the city. Dinner is imaginative Cantonese. This does not appeal to me as much as northern or southwestern Chinese cuisines, but within this framework Grand King does quite well, particularly with rock cod and sea bass.
Great concept. Small plates of high-quality Lebanese food (including some unusual items, like shinkleesh, a dynamite combo of dried marinated goat cheese and diced tomatoes), all for five dollars; attentive service in a pleasant casual space. Vegetarian, but you won't notice. Only the falafel is a disappointment; light, but not crisp enough.
When the New Japanese Deli on Powell (where my older child at the age of three had her first-ever full serving of tuna sashimi and exclaimed "This is my favourite food in the whole world!") closed, downtown was the winner. Haru is a full-service Japanese restaurant shoehorned into an old house. Cozy atmosphere, very friendly, and superb food. While the kids vacuumed up their sushi, we had the multicourse kaiseki meal. This varies according to the whim of the chef, but here's what we had: taro root cooked in dashi; eggplant with small shrimp; lemon prawns; clam soup; sashimi (toro, scallop, amaebi, tai, and with incredible freshly-grated wasabi); scallop and shellfish hotpot; tempura with green dipping salt; eel donburi in an unusual reddish sauce with lemon pepper; pear jelly and special after-dinner tea. This cost us $35; I can't imagine what the higher-priced kaiseki would be like. Recommended, needless to say.
Located for twenty years in Gastown, owners retired, didn't like sitting around, opened a place in Burnaby on Hastings. Vancouverites can't afford to be choosy about Mexican food. This is decently done, not just the usual dull Cal-Mex. Mole poblano, chile rellenos, tacos that are baked instead of fried, as well as enchiladas, burritos, and quesadillas, and a daily special or two. Homey, amateur service. A pleasant alternative to eating at home.
Why the raves for this place? I can make better potstickers at home. Greasy food, zero decor. In Chinatown, and various locations around the city.
High-class room in art-deco Marine Building, with two-story windows looking out onto Coal Harbour and the North Shore mountains. Dim sum is carried on trays by young women. Good variety, pretty tasty. The place to take someone you want to impress. At the foot of Burrard Street.
Airy room in older building on edge of seedy neighbourhood, best approached from the north. Decent wood-fired pizza, though some arrived soggy. Columbia at Powell.
Pleasant if undistinguished Coquitlam eatery offering a lengthy menu and weekday lunch specials. On North Road.
Run by the same people who run the "Earl's" chain of restaurants. Ordered wood-fired pizza. Watched a "chef" who looked about twelve put a lump of dough through a machine to flatten it, then take containers of toppings out of a fridge and sprinkle them on. The finished pizzas sat on the counter for five minutes until a server came by to deliver them. After this I decided to skip Earl's. Life's too short to eat corporate food. But if you must, it's on Lougheed Highway near North Road in Burnaby.
Another neighbourhood restaurant with good cheap lunch and dinner specials. On Hastings in Burnaby; second location out in Kits, on Broadway, and two on deathly Number Three Road in Richmond.
I have a problem with this place. I can't imagine going without ordering the roast lamb shoulder, which is fork-tender and aromatic with garlic. Sides of rice, potatoes, and salad were superior to the usual indifferent approach of most Greek restaurants. Calamari was well-spiced, tender, and crisp. Recommended. On Broadway at Cambie.
The power failure the day of our visit put them to the test, but they came through with an excellent (if slow) dim sum lunch. Revisits proved it wasn't a fluke. Nice airy room, tables well spaced, not overly crowded on weekends. Service can be downright aggressive, only drawback. Downtown.
Run by the same people as Kirin Mandarin, but a completely different experience. Small room, lots of tables, view, a madhouse on weekends, and dim sum is not as good -- steamed items were soggy, deep-fried ones were oily. In City Square on 12th, centre town.
A major disappointment. Downscale Japanese is a good idea, but the tempura was far too greasy, and the sashimi expensive. Fried noodles lack flavour; yosenabe is competent, but only due to the mix of items, not to any skill on the chef's part. Too close to Robson, perhaps, but the Granville location is no better. We've had food like this in Hilo, and it was both cheap and delicious, so there's no excuse. (Note: the owner e-mailed me in 2002 to say he had come back from Japan in 2001 to take over the operation and had made a lot of changes. New reports needed.)
An air of faded glory, the coldest service we've had in the city, and ragged chirashi heavy on roe. No miso soup included, either. On East Hastings. Rumoured closed.
Friendly neighbourhood Italian; food a bit sloppy, but service and atmosphere is comforting. For a night when you don't want to cook. On Hastings in Burnaby.
Pseudo Tex-Mex for those who've never been south of the border (the Canada-US border). Missable. On 4th in Kits.
Commercial Drive operation relocated in '97 to 4th in Kitsilano. New room is airy and pleasant. Greek small plates and grilled foods with an up-to-date flair. Currently running a special where twenty menu items cost only $3.75 from 2:30 to 5:30, definitely worthwhile.
Supposedly one of the best pizzas in town; crust was crisp but greasy, toppings only so-so. Too bad. On Commercial Drive, in the only mall around.
Convivial atmosphere, good pasta, credible pizza. Right across from Mountain Equipment Co-op on Broadway.
Now this is a find. A successful mother-and-daughter catering service runs a cheese operation on the side, a labour of love. I noticed they had raw-milk Cantal and mentioned I had the artisanal version, Salers, in France. On my next visit two months later, they remembered me and pointed out they now offered Salers. They're generous with samples and advice, and the prices are stunningly reasonable, especially compared with clip shops with attitude like Forster's Fine Foods in Kerrisdale. In a strip mall on Alma near 10th. Go now.
Lougheed Highway location amid car dealerships does not bode well, and in fact the bento lunch special is pretty generic. In Burnaby.
In the tony Pan Pacific hotel, but tucked away on the second floor. I had the most expensive lunch item, "exotic sushi" at 24.50. Ten pieces of nigiri, half a roll, and tamago. Some upscale pieces, like toro, uni, and amaebi, but you're paying a lot for the location; the food is not as good as you'd expect given the number of Japanese businessmen who must eat here. Okay, I confess, I paid half-price using my Entertainment card, but otherwise I would have been the only one in the place (which was full) footing the whole cost of my meal. On Canada Place, near "the sails".
Thai food that is so full of flavour, it makes you realize how much other Thai restaurants are coasting on the basic appeal of coconut milk. Pleasant room, cool but efficient service. Some nightly specials. Highly recommended. On Broadway near Alma, in west Kitsilano.
Like eating in the living room of nice strangers. Unfortunately, the food (South Indian with a kitchen sink of variations) is pretty pedestrian. On Fraser, south of the city.
Fish and chips from a small fish retailer just off Robson on Thurlow: cod, halibut, and an exotic special (marlin the day we visited). Good fries, nice batter on fish fried properly. A few stools on which to perch. My choice for eating in this overtouristed area.
Mezes, little Greek plates, and some mains. Nice casual atmosphere, inexpensive wines, and a bit of an outdoor patio. Food was authentic and quite tasty. There's not much choice this far west, so it's nice to know this place exists. 3100 block of West Broadway.
Arty decor, big banquettes, Mediterranean menu with influences from all over. Food is competent but lacks spark. Watching the other patrons, it seemed they were more interested in a Casual yet Stylish Night Out or what was in their glass than what was on their plate. On 3000-ish Broadway in Kits. Now turned into Sansi's Cantina and Grill, same chef/owner, and from the reviews, much the same flaws.
Suburbanite-friendly dim sum. Large room, mega-lineups. Coverage is spotty, though, and what you do get is undistinguished. On East Hastings.
Competent whole-wheat pizza out in Maillardville. Sports TVs a bit distracting. In Coquitlam.
Indian food adapted for an over-the-counter trade: rather a jumble, but really tasty and very cheap. Good concept. Service can be slow. On Cornwall near Kits Beach.
Former owner of Star Anise tries recession cooking: staff of recent culinary-school graduates, single-page menu with all mains for ten bucks. I hope he can make it work. Lamb shank vindaloo was great, seafood medley so-so (overcooked), and basmati paella just did not work. Nice chilled mango soup to start, and my five-year-old wouldn't let anyone else eat a bite of pears poached in red wine with vanilla gelato. Worth patronizing in the hopes they get the bugs ironed out.
See Paradiso.
Neighbourhood hangout bakery/cafe with pleasant atmosphere, good place to take out scones for the walk on the West Vancouver seawall. Muffins are so-so, bread is mushy, coffee is swill. Haven't tried the pies. On Marine Drive.
This Burnaby neighbourhood restaurant offers a little more than the usual set of Greek dishes, though we weren't feeling that adventurous. The horiatiki was made without lettuce, the mixed seafood platter was generous, the tzatziki was really garlicky, and the atmosphere was most pleasant. On Hastings in the Heights.
A noodle house: noodles stretched in front of you, or cut into boiling water from a mass of dough. Noodles themselves are great, but the broth and garnishes are merely okay. Ezogiku has the edge over this place. On Broadway, 500 block.
I want to like this funky place, but the food is for the most part awful, the kind of stuff you get when ideology takes precedence over taste. Good organic house white could make you forgive that. Lineups on weekends; clearly, I'm in the minority. On 4th.
Upscale Cantonese. Braised e-fu noodles were simply okay and prawns with vegetables generic, but fried Alaskan black cod in soy was stunning, so much so we were tempted to eat all the bones. Expensive at dinner, so order carefully. Dim sum was quite good, probably the best if you insist on watching carts roll by. Parking is a hassle, get there early. On soulless Number Three Road in Richmond.
Basic breads forgettable, specialty items (like seasonal pumpkin bread or perennial fig/anise) are good. Terrific pane al'uva. Stall in Granville Island Market, some stools in larger location on 4th in Kits.
Really bad Thai out in Coquitlam. Starters were all deep-fried straight from the freezer, green curry was pale yellow and tasteless, and the same diluted plum sauce was served with everything. Pictures of the Thai king on the wall, but the second language on the menu was Chinese. Hmmm. I would say the burbs can't do ethnic, but just down the street is the fabulous Fujiya. On NOrth Road.
We were fortunate to eat at Tojo's soon after it opened; walking the street during a visit to town, I noticed a posted review that mentioned the previous restaurant at which Tojo Hidekazu worked, which we'd found closed. We have returned many times since. But little things started to nag me on our last return. The service in the tatami room was erratic. Specials were described in two-word broken English, no prices given. The house specialty rainbow roll was ragged (though it tasted fine). My guess is that if you sit at the sushi bar or order chef's choice, carte blanche, this really is "Vancouver's best Japanese restaurant". But for those of us with less than six-figure incomes, who tend to order off the regular menu and worry about the bill adding up, it may be time to start looking around for a new contender. (See Bon, Haru.)
Noodle factory opens a narrow front room. Results are mixed, but the noodles are damn fresh. Near False Creek.
Funky atmosphere, big portions of hearty food, retro-ish (milkshakes, turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce) without being a throwback. A bit expensive, but you feel good about paying. On Cambie, south of the city.
Cool room, colourful & descriptive menu. Clearly authentic (Chinese-Malaysian, that is; I have no idea if there's indigenous Malay cuisine) and catering at least partly to a home crowd. Some of the dishes tasted too much of the same sambal, but it's still a nice change. On 3000-ish Broadway in Kits.
Menu-driven dim sum with some unusual offerings (e.g., ostrich dumplings). Professional but very friendly service. Fall menu was better than the winter one, but spring sprung back. Good choice for a large party; booking ahead helps only slightly. Seems quite popular with the Asian community. Downtown.
Stunningly good food, using Indian cuisine as a point of departure. Friendly service (especially by the congenial and chatty Vij himself), ethereal atmosphere. Possibly my favourite Vancouver restaurant experience, and I say that as someone who grew up with Indian food and consequently can stand about three other Indian restaurants in all of North America. Just off south Granville.
In Vancouver's Best Places and Where to Eat in Canada, but... This strikes me as nothing more than generic Chinese food offered up for undemanding suburbanites, and I am at a loss to understand why these sources laud this place. Unthreatening, I guess. On Fraser, south of the city.
Great post-punk atmosphere, but the food is really awful. Go and hang out over a beer or something, just don't eat anything. On Commercial Drive.
Interesting to compare this to Capitol Hill Szechwan. The neighbourhood is a bit more upscale here, so prices are higher, there's a bit less filler in the food, and it's slightly less sweet. But the clientele looks the same, and I have the same doubts as to the purity of the approach. On 4th in Kits.