Food Adventures in Vancouver

Snackshot
Address: 7980 Granville St Vancouver, BC V6P 4Z2
Phone: 604-559-7980

Our first meal in Vancouver was actually dessert at 10pm on a Saturday night.  We had pre-ordered a “mah-jong tile” set ($26.88) as we heard they only serve 15 per day. When we arrived, the staff did not seem to know anything about our order, but thankfully they still had one on hand, so we were able to have what we came for.  The mah-jong tile set is basically coconut jelly with a red bean dipping sauce on the side.  The jelly was made into a hand of 13 tiles which represent the best hand you can have when playing Cantonese style mah-jong.  The jelly was amazing and the sweetness level was perfect.  It was also accompanied by two dollar bills (one USD and one HKD) that seemed to be made from the same material that white rabbit candy paper is made from.  We were both super full from dinner but still managed to finish the entire set.

The décor of the restaurant was very nostalgic.  Along one wall was a huge mural of the streets of Hong Kong.  Along the other walls were faded old movie posters from the 80s and 90s, the golden era of Hong Kong entertainment. 

They also took great care in coming up with a cheeky way of letting their guests know what the wifi password is:       

Perhaps it is because it was a Saturday night, but this place was consistently busy, and there were even families there with younger kids that late at night.  This restaurant has also won awards for some of the more traditional Hong Kong style desserts and I can’t wait to go back to try them.

New Town Bakery & Restaurant
Address: 148 E Pender St Vancouver, BC V6A 1T3
Phone: 604-689-7835

We started the next morning by grabbing breakfast at New Town Bakery & Restaurant, a “must visit” place according to CNN.  The front of the store is the bakery and if you can maneuver your way through the crowds of people, you will end up at the back of the store where the restaurant is.  It looked like a very typical HK style café, with booths along the walls and tables in the middle.  The service was also very typical of HK style cafes, meaning there wasn’t much of it!

Granville Market

Everyone knows the market is full of delicious foods, so you should always come hungry.  And this is exactly what we did.  After a quick walk around the island and a chaotic meandering through the many food stalls, we decided to try some Polish food from Kaisereck Deli and a chowder from A La Mode.

Kaisereck Deli

We went with the Perogy Plate which came with a sausage, assorted perogies, sauerkraut and sautéed onions.  The perogies are very small bite sized ones and they had a potato perogy and a cheese perogy that day and both were delicious.  The sausage we went with was their signature bratwurst and it was phenomenal.  This was a perfectly filling meal.

A La Mode

We ordered the clam chowder with a pot pie topping and this came with a side salad with potato wedges.  The clam chowder was generously filled with tons of clams and the pie topping was perfectly flaky.  We enjoyed this very much even though it was about 30 degrees outside.

Phnom Penh Restaurant
Address: 244 E Georgia St Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z7
Phone: 604-734-8898

We made our way back to Chinatown for dinner on a busy Sunday night and thankfully we were able to make reservations (even though their website says they only take reservations for 8+, we were able to get one with just 6 people).  Phnom Penh is a super popular restaurant in Chinatown that I’ve heard about for many years and their website includes a very motivating story of how the owners immigrated to Canada and everything they went through to get to where they are today.   

The two items that they seem to be the most known for is the Butter Beef and their Chicken Wings.  Of course, we had to get both, along with a bunch of other items.

The Butter Beef was my favourite item by far.  I wasn’t sure how I would feel about all the herbs and such as I’m usually not a fan of cilantro other strong herbs, but surprisingly it worked really well with this dish.  The chicken wings were also very good, but I didn’t think they had as much of a wow factor as I was expecting.  Or maybe it’s because nowadays there are so many good Vietnamese chicken wing options everywhere, that it wasn’t quite as special as I expected.

One of the most surprising dishes for me was the Canh Chua.  It was my first time trying this dish and at first I wasn’t sure if I would like it because I’m not really used to that sour soup taste profile.  However, it was amazing and I would definitely order it again.  The sourness was complimented so well by a subtle sweetness and I left wondering how I had never tried this dish before this dinner.

I can definitely see why this place is so popular.  The food was delicious and I will definitely be back again.

Nemesis GNW
Address: 555 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC V5T 1E1

The reason I wanted to visit Nemesis GNW was because of the unique design of the building.  The coffee shop is located next to the Emily Carr University of Art & Design and is quite the sight.  The bold red colour of the exterior and the upside down heart icon reminded me a bit of Alice in Wonderland. However, as soon as you enter, you are greeted with an even more unique ceiling and completely different colour scheme. 

The lady who took our order suggested a cruffin as those are their best selling items.  We ordered the apricot cruffin along with a breakfast sandwich and 2 coffees.  The coffees were a bit of a disappointment for us but the food was extraordinary.  We started with the breakfast sandwich which was delicious and the cruffin is likely the best pastry I have ever had. it was flaky and buttery and the perfect amount of sweetness.  My friend had never had a cruffin before and this cruffin had her talking for days and we eventually ended up at another Nemesis location to get another cruffin before our trip home.

Kingyo
Address: 871 Denman St Vancouver BC V6G 2L9
Phone: 604-608-1677

Kinyo makes 8 bento boxes for lunch every day so we made sure to pre-order one a week prior to eating there.  We had reservations but arrived at the restaurant around 11:50am and noticed a line had already started to form. (The restaurant opens at noon).  We decided to stand in line and shortly after, one of the staff members came out and started asking everyone in line for the number of people in each party and whether they intended to order a bento box.  Since we had reservations and a bento box reserved we weren’t too worried. 

Kinyo makes 8 bento boxes for lunch every day so we made sure to pre-order one a week prior to eating there.  We had reservations but arrived at the restaurant around 11:50am and noticed a line had already started to form. (The restaurant opens at noon).  We decided to stand in line and shortly after, one of the staff members came out and started asking everyone in line for the number of people in each party and whether they intended to order a bento box.  Since we had reservations and a bento box reserved we weren’t too worried. 

The bento box was so aesthetically pleasing. The “box” was filled with carefully crafted bites of food and of the 16 varieties, my favourites were the pork belly, cauliflower and croquette.  The one that I liked the least was the tomato salad. Overall, I think I loved about 13 of the 16 items.

Upon researching this place, the bento boxes were listed at $26, but when we arrived, we discovered that the price had gone up to $35. The bento boxes were an amazing experience but in speaking with some of the Japanese patrons that were also dining there, their regular menu is also just as good.  I hope to go back to try some other items one day.

Jingle Bao
Address: 74 Denman St Vancouver, BC V6G 1C9
Phone: 604-428-7722

After a relaxing bike ride around Stanley Park, we returned our rental bikes and made our way to Jingle Bao for an afternoon snack.  This place is known for having Instagram worthy colourful xiaolongbao and I’ve heard that they taste just as good as they look. 

We went with the Signature Magnificent 7 ($13) where each colour represented a different flavour.  We were pleasantly surprised at how strong and fragrant each of the flavours were:

White = original
Pink = spicy
Yellow = curry
Blue = garlic
Red = truffle
Orange = shrimp
Green = spinach and cheese

I wish we had had room to try their supersized xiaolongbao, but since this was just an afternoon snack, we decided not to go overboard and just stick with the xiaolongbaos.

Quan Ju De Beijing Duck House
Address: 2808 Cambie St Vancouver, BC V5Z 2V5
Phone: 236-477-7777

This is likely one of the fanciest Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been to.  As soon as you step through the doors, you are greeted with this apothecary like design, and it reminded me a lot of one of the oldest pharmacies I went to in Beijing (同仁堂). The stunning décor just takes your breath away. 

Quan Ju De has a long history in China and the chain has been around since 1864.  I’ve heard that the restaurant serves over 2 million ducks each year and the largest restaurant in China can accommodate up to 2000 guests at a time.  I had never had a Beijing style Peking Duck before so I was quite keen to try this, and what better place to do it than the original Peking Duck restaurant chain.

It is important to note that it takes an hour for the duck to roast and they do not start roasting it until you order it.  So an hour before we were to arrive at the restaurant, we called ahead to reserve a table and put in our order for the duck.  Once we arrived, we ordered a vegetable dish and our drinks while we waited for our duck.

The duck was carved meticulously at our table and we were first served the skin to try.  We were advised to dip it into a bit of sugar, which added a very delicate flavour.  When it was time to try the actual duck, I noticed the sauce was quite different from the Cantonese version that I was used to.  This sauce was much denser and stronger in flavour, which makes sense as I had heard the duck in the Peking version is not marinated prior to roasting, whereas the duck in the Cantonese version is. 

The restaurant was truly beautiful and the service was top notch.  At the end of the night, they packed up what we could not finish and then also gave us the rest of the duck that was not carved, to take with us.   Unfortunately, the duck did not taste the same the next day and I would have preferred to have the chef cut up the duck and put it into a stir fry or another dish. 

This is very much a “special occasions” type of dinner and would have been great with 4 or more people so that you could order more dishes to try.  We were a party of 2 and couldn’t even finish the duck itself so we weren’t able to fully experience the food here.  Overall, it is an amazing setting, and the food was good, but I think I still prefer the Cantonese style of Peking Duck more.

The Lunch Lady
Address: 1046 Commercial Dr Vancouver, BC V5L 3W9
Phone: 604-559-5938

This is another restaurant with an amazing back story.  We arrived in the early afternoon on a weekday and it was packed and there was a 20 minute wait.  We happily waited and was actually seated ahead of schedule. 

This restaurant has a different daily special and on the day we were there, it was the bún riêu, a noodle soup with a tomato broth and crab and pork.  Now, I have tried bún riêu before in the past and did not like it, but seeing as how it is such a popular dish, I was willing to give it a second chance. 

I’m sure glad I gave it a second chance as this bún riêu was nothing like the bún riêu I had before.  The flavours were subtle and the combination of the ingredients worked really well together.  However, my one complaint was that the soup was not served piping hot and was just lukewarm. 

I love the idea of the different daily soups.  It is such a great way to try some different Vietnamese soups that you can’t commonly find in Vietnamese restaurants.  The restaurant is a bit far from downtown but totally worth the detour.