Tru’ dat.
Jase, if you’re speaking of the esteemed grayelf, you can’t ask for a better guide/companion/local food authority, but I’m sure you know that!!!
@Jase How did it all turn out?
I’m going to be in Vancouver in a week or so for a couple days, so any highlights from your list would be grand.
Are you staying downtown? That’s where I spent the bulk of my time. If so, I can list out some places later this weekend,
Believe so, yeah. Gracias!
In downtown, I’d go back for:
Zakkushi - I really liked the various skewers. Ended going there twice
Kingyo - Another good izakaya
Miko - Loved the sushi here.
Saj&Co - the flat bread sandwiches and various hummus was tasty
Bella Gelateria - lived up to their rep
Meat&Bread - The porchetta sandwich was good
If you can make it to Granville Island,
Oyama Sausage - loved all the pate’s and meats
Terra Bread - grab a demi loaf to go with some Oyama items and have a picnic
There’s a sake vendor in one of the side streets, get a flight for tasting
That’s probably the short hit list if I only had a couple of days in town.
Saj&Co sandwich
Meat&Bread Porchetta and the sandwich
Oyama Sausage selection of Pate’s
Have fun!
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Oh, dang. You’re too kind. Really appreciate all of the suggestions and pictures.
I’ll do my best to make you proud.
Hola!
Back from the Great White North. Since it was a work trip, I wasn’t able to have as many chances to roam and had to stay downtown, but I think I did pretty well. Would love to try some of the Cantonese outside of the city that I’ve heard so much about, but alas. Oh, also saw on the taxi to the airport that they have Nando’s! Really wish I could have stopped by. Next time.
Thanks again for the recommendations - really appreciate it.
- Kingyo - Went right after landing. The Bento box was 86’d, so I got the lunch sashimi special. Overall, it was good, but I went right at the close of lunch, so I felt a bit rushed.
- Blue Water Cafe - Had a great dinner here. The seafood tower was really good. The miso-glazed sable fish is such a good dish. Almost too sweet at the beginning but it tempers out and is very rich. Fish was cooked perfectly.
- Prohibition Bar - The environment is enh to me, but I had an Inception Negroni, which is a negroni inside of a negroni!
- L’Abattoir - Had a great dinner here, as well. Started with the sweet bread, which I thought was really, really good. I haven’t had much to compare it to, but every element of it was so tasty. Almost mesquite? The duck was solid too. Had a super thin layer of fat that made the dish really flavorful.
- Troll’s Restaurant - Loved this place. It’s in a small bay town that is very picturesque. Had the halibut fish’n’chips and thought they were pretty perfect.
- Hawksworth - Was in the hotel and had heard they had a good sable fish, so I gave it a go. Service was not great, and to me, the dish was bland. I was still hungry, so I ventured out to…
- Miko - Yes! Loved the sushi here. Really reasonably priced, too, I’d say.
- Bella Gelateria - Oh man their gelato was so freaking good. I don’t normally even like salted caramel, but their version was crazy. I was in awe of how good it was.
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If I may revive this thread. We’re going back to Seattle soon and are thinking about doing four or say days in Vancouver. Likely to do AirBnB and am wondering, from a food standpoint, where would you recommend we stay. We won’t be doing any big $$$ dining. Oh, and we do have a car. All cuisines are great. TIA.
Finally something I can contribute to!!!
I’ve been in Vancouver for about 6 mos now. While I’m certainly am no expert, I can give it a try…
Like everything on the west coast, the ramen craze has hit Vancouver full force. There’s a ‘ramen district’ located off of Robson and Denham in the West End which has a number of good choices My personal current favorite is Marutama Ramen. It’s part of a japanese chain (ala’ Jinya). Noodles are made in house. The broth is a lighter chicken-based affair rather than pork, and it’s delicious and comforting without being heavy like tonkotsu can be.
I won’t even attempt to make a solid rec for Chinese, as you are utterly spoiled for choice and I don’t have even half the background necessary to make informed statements. I can say that I really liked the dan dan noodles at Peaceful Noodle (several locations). For beef noodle soup (brisket, green onions, chewey thick handmade noodles) try Lao Shan Dong over in Burnaby. These were amazing. They really took the time to braise the meat and get a whole lot of flavor. yummy.
I had a fantastic meal just last night out with friends at a spot only blocks from my apartment. PinPin on Fraser just south of 45th is a great Filipino place. Their pork tocino, sisig, and bicol (spicy pork in a coconut cream sauce) are outstanding. The whole tilapia in banana leaf was really good, too. A big group with lots of dishes is def. the way to go here. The only thing I’ve tried there I haven’t been totally crazy about is the chicken adobo, which seems kinda bland and shrug-worthy, especially compared to the rest of the menu. But then, it’s a ‘chicken and soy sauce’ dish, so how exciting could it be? They do give you little hardboiled quail eggs with it, though, so that’s fun.
Finally, a place I haven’t gone, but really want to try: Salmon and Bannock which deals with salmon (obv) and bannock, which is an indigenous people’s bread, like fry bread or tortillas. It’s a little more upscale than the other places I’ve listed, and I haven’t been myself but I’m really aching to try it out, if only for the fact it seems the most British-Columbia-centric place I’ve seen. You can get chinese and filipino and italian etc etc in almost any major city around the world. Salmon and Bannock is a local sort of thing. I don’t imagine on will be opening in the Americana any time soon.
Almost anyplace you stay will have yummy stuff within a stone’s throw. Downtown can get you all the hoity toity places in Yaletown and Gastown as well as the super grungy backpacker places. As @chandavkl will tell you far better than I could, the hot spot for Chinese food seems to have migrated from Chinatown to down along Commercial Drive. Richmond as a suburb is sorta like the SGV. As far as a car, yes it will help but parking downtown is near impossible without paying for a lot, and many neighborhoods are parking unfriendly (side street parking limited to permit holders, 1 hour meter restrictions). The transit system is excellent, though.
bonus rec: La Belle Patate a poutine joint in the West End. Get yourself a combo. steamy dog, small poutine and a coke. Friendly spot. Cute neighborhood.
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Over-night me that poutine, man.
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Could you recommend an area near downtown but more residential perhaps? With neighborhood kinda bars and restaurants. We’ll be driving up from Seattle so parking will be an issue and I’m not paying a fortune to park downtown.
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Kitsalano is the very residential west side neighborhood JUST south of downtown. There’s a pretty good chance your AirB&B will be here or nearby neighborhoods. roughly speaking, west = nicer/bougie, east = sketchy/funky. The city is very safe, esp. from an Angeleno point of view. Even the worst areas (East Hastings) are very safe during the day, and only sketchy at night if you’re up for causing trouble to start with. Kits certainly has its neighborhood stuff, though I’m not terribly familiar with it. Getting downtown on transit is super easy (get a compass card at any train station or drugstore)
Make sure your AirBnB has parking included (driveway, reserved spot in building). Bring an umbrella. If it snows, just stay away. The city doesn’t have the equipment to cope and loses its mind for 36 hours any time there’s more than a couple of centimeters.
The West End is on the downtown peninsula and is centered around Davie Villiage, the gay neighborhood. Small but cute bars, restaurants, etc…
I wish I could be more help but I’m only just getting my bearings here myself. There’s a large number of craft breweries and pubs here, so you won’t be hurting for good beer. They also do a lot of vodka and gin distilling. For complicated reasons, there’s almost no ‘canadian’ whiskey (or whisky). I was surprised, too.
If some cannuck friend of yours tries to get you to eat ketchup or all dressed chips, run. run far, run fast. They are vile and that person is not your friend.
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We’re staying in Yaletown which looks like it the southern part of downtown. $77/nt with free parking! Looking forward to it and now I need to get serious about the food 
Thanks for all your help.
Is there a particular dim sum spot that you enjoy?
It’s been a while, but Kirin was great. Kirin is a chain with 4 locations. We went to the Richmond location.
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Their website doesn’t seem to show dim sum. And, boy, is it expensive!
(Can’t believe I’m saying this, but…) Yelp Kirin for the dim sum photos.
Here is another food website that supplies the goods…
Cantonese restaurants often showcase the (more expensive) dinnertime banquet fare on their official websites.
The (less expensive) dim sum is offered in the mornings to draw the masses in…
Prices are in Canadian dollars.
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Thanks for that, J_L. If we get a late start one day maybe we’ll check it out. We’ve eaten dim sum as early as 730AM
Thanks for information!!