Restaurants
Vancouver's Best Cheap Eats
published Oct 1, 2007
Additional Images click to enlarge
From high end to hole in the wall, we scoured the city for great food at bargain prices. Here are the winners.
By Murray Bancroft, Chris Gonzalez, Fiona Morrow, Rosel Kim, and Masaji Takei
Some folks can drop hundreds on dinner every night of the week without breaking the bank. If you're one of those lucky ones, stop reading right now and head on down to your favourite glitzy, award-winning restaurant. For the rest of us, finding comfortable spots that offer excellent food at bargain prices is fun and fulfilling. We asked our team of culinary experts to scout for the best dining deals in town. Some of their choices turned out to be right under our noses; others were well off the beaten track. Here's what they agreed on:
So.Cial Custom Butcher Shop
It's all too easy to get your hands on a lame sandwich. No such danger lurks at Sean Cousins' laid-back addendum to his upscale (and excessively punctuated) restaurant So.Cial. Sliced-to-order, house-cured charcuterie and roasts are piled high on soft focaccia rolls, while marinated and roasted peppers, dripping in their sweet juices, add a seductive bite. Sizing is generous-small $4.50; medium $6.50; large $9-with the top of the scale able to feed a family of four. A bag of house-made potato chips are thrown in for good measure. Takeaway, eat at the counter, or head for the bar for a glass of rosé.
332 Water St., 604-669-4488
Café Presto Panini
Red-checkered tablecloths? Check. Cheap chianti? Git it. Mustachioed owner? Sure. This downtown eatery delivers authentic Italian home cooking, despite the clichéd (but somewhat winsome) setting. Over 15 pasta-and-sauce combinations ring in at under $10, but the real show stoppers are the signature panini ($8.95): go for the classic, loaded with capicollo and salami, the chicken pesto, or the veggie-friendly Sicilian (grilled eggplant, tomato and mozzarella), all available to go. The dessert menu is only one item long (tiramisu, $4.95), but it's a doozy-save room. Closed Sundays.
859 Hornby St., 604-684-4445
Legendary Noodle
Frank Zappa once said that you can't be a Real Country unless you have a beer and an airline. He might have added that Real Asian Countries also require a noodle and a dumpling. Hop on a flight to Beijing if you like, but you can enjoy three of the four things that make China "real" right here on Denman at Legendary Noodle. Savour one of the fabulous "hand-pulled noodle 'n' soups, tang-mian"-fresh shredded pork and preserved vegetable with thick noodles in chicken broth ($7.25), or the "hand-made dumplings, grandma mixed fillings, jiao zi"-a dozen steamed pork-and-chive dumplings ($6.99). Then wash it all down with a cold bottle of Zhu Jiang ($4.50). Real Asian Countries rock!
1074 Denman St., 604-669-8551; 4191 Main St., 604-879-8758; 1300-4540 No. 3 Road, 604-207-9226
