Aurora Bistro
2420 Main Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-873-9944
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Hours:
Tue-Sun from 5:30pm dinner
Sun 10:00am - 2:00pm brunch

Main Attraction

By Lorna Yee
Eat Vancouver Columnist
Monday, January 16th 2006

*** and 1/2 (of four stars)

Chosen as one of enRoute Magazine’s annual “Canada’s Top 10 New Restaurants” in 2004, Aurora Bistro has continued to offer excellent, locally-sourced food since its inception. With its modern, neon-blue sign and sleek blond interior, the décor suggests an innovative approach to West Coast cuisine. Chef Jeff Van Geest honed his skills in the kitchen with local luminaries, such as Bernard Cassavant and John Bishop, and his philosophy of using the freshest ingredients in simple preparations are evident in many of his dishes. Kurtis Kolt manages the room with grace and enthusiasm, and the service is likewise attentive.

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Hu Nan Chinese Restaurant (Xiang cai wang) [Now Closed]
Address: 8166 Main Street (just off Marine Drive, on the banks of the North Arm of the Fraser River)
Tel: 604-323-8093

Hours:
Mon-Sun 11:30am-10:30pm

South of the Lake, North of the River

By Desmond Cheung
Eat Vancouver Columnist
Friday, January 6th, 2006

** (of four stars)

Enter Hu Nan Chinese Restaurant and you’ll feel as if you’ve walked through a hole-in-the-wall into someone’s house or into a typical restaurant in China. Or both. Despite the bright red-and-yellow awning of the exterior, the inside is shabbily familiar. Some ten tables, conveniently multi-layered with disposable table covers, fill the near-square dining area. Japanese fortune-beckoning cats mix with woven strings of chilli peppers, adding colour to the room. Several non-descript flower pots mask the sterility of the closed blinds, and traditional Chinese painting reprints (the kind you find marking the year on a freebie wall calendar) cover part of the faded-paint wall panels disturbed by heavyweight, tired-looking air conditioners. But through the pig-patterned door drape you might glimpse the chef (and head of this family-style operation) at work in the kitchen. It’s not the décor that most concerns us after all.

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