Banana Leaf
(604) 731-6333 – West Broadway
(604) 734-3005 – Wester Broadway
(604) 683-3333 – Denman
Address: See Maps
Homepage

Bananarama
a Quick Bite

By D. Fishman
Eat Vancouver writer

Thanks to an especially sunny, beautiful spring Vancouver day, Pam and I decided to venture down to Denman St. to have a look around and try to find a good restaurant. Among the myriad choices, I noticed a Banana Leaf outlet, a place I have been meaning to try for a long time, and a six-course tasting menu at $25 per person was too intriguing to pass up. Unfortunately I have been swamped lately and haven’t had a chance to write this up, so you will have to forgive me if my memory is a bit fuzzy on the details.

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The Next ‘down?

by Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver Writer
Thursday, May 29th, 2007

Following the success of phodown, where we named Pho Thai Hoa as the best pho in Vancouver, we are looking to ‘down another food group. Choosing this group, however, is not as easy as we thought it was going to be - so much time and effort goes into a ‘down so we want to make sure we aren’t just spinning our wheels.

With that in mind, there is a conversation going on over in the Mess Hall about what to ‘down next. So far people have mentioned things like tacos, brunches, and dim sums, but nothing is close to decided yet. So why not come over and suggest something, and once we get enough ideas we will run a poll. I look forward to your input!

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The Mess Hall

Introducing: The Mess Hall
a news item

by Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver Writer
Thursday, May 24th, 2007

The secret is out. In an attempt to facilitate discussion of Vancouver’s dining and cooking scene, we at Eat Vancouver are extremely proud to introduce a a new forum to engage in this type of conversation: The Mess Hall.

Finding useful information about where to shop and dine, about various cooking techniques, or even just finding an interesting conversation to take part in can be a daunting task. I sincerely believe that The Mess Hall will make that search a whole lot less taxing. A few brief notes about The Mess Hall:

The Mess Hall is open to anyone - even if you are not a member (but why not join?) you can still follow the majority of forum. The Mess Hall will not be moderated as heavily as some other forums, or in other words, you can say what you want to say and not expect it to get deleted. Participating in an internet message board should be fun, and a respite from real life, so why cut discussions off as soon as they get interesting?

Anyhow, with well over 20 members, the Mess Hall is already becoming a thriving community. Come on over and sound off about a dining experience you’ve had, share a great deal you’ve just found, or even complain about rush hour traffic in Vancouver - The Mess Hall is open.

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The Eat Vancouver Map

Hurrah, Hurrah, The Eat Vancouver Map is here!
a news item

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver writer
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

The second most hotly anticipated new Eat Vancouver feature has finally arrived. Using Google’s new my maps feature, I recently started working on a map of Vancouver restaurants based on Eat Vancouver reviews, quick bites and phodowns. Users can use this map to browse Vancouver restaurants geographically; locations on the map even contain a link to the relevant Eat Vancouver page so viewers can easily obtain more information about the restaurant. This is still a work in progress as I will continue to update it throughout the next few days, but there are already over 20 restaurants listed. So please help yourself to The Eat Vancouver Map!

What is the number one most hotly anticipated new Eat Vancouver feature? I’m not telling…yet. Check back later this week to find out.

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Abigail’s Party
(604) 739-4677
Address: 1685 Yew St, Kitsilano (map)
Homepage

Dear Abi,
a restaurant review

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver writer
Sunday, May 20th, 2007

½ (of four stars)

With a wealth of new Kitsilano restaurants (Bistrot Bistro, Gastropod, Fuel et al) soaking up our collective attentional resources, it is easy to overlook the several Kits standards that have already made a name for themselves. One such joint is Abigail’s Party, which opened over a year ago to much critical praise and considerable success. But has this Cinderella maintained her charm, or is she late for the ball, her coach nothing but a dirty old gourd and her hand servants mere field mice? Recent evidence suggests she is showing her age, but with some serious tweaking, this soiree can regain its former splendor.

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Ding, Dong, the witch is dead
A News Feature

By Daniel Fishman
Eat Vancouver Writer

Thursday May 17th, 2007

Although news of this story first broke last week, we held off on reporting about it here because we didn’t want to influence subsequent events. But now it appears that things have been finalized, public outcry has been silenced, and victory is at hand: Vera’s Burger Shack’s flagship West Vancouver concession stand has been shut down by the heroes on West Vancouver city council (link to article)

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Kirin Seafood Restaurant
(604) 303-8833 – Richmond
(604) 879-8038 – Cambie Street
(604) 944-8833 – Coquitlam
(604) 682-8833 – Downtown Vancouver
Address: See Maps
Homepage

Back to Basics: Upscale Cantonese
a Quick Bite

By Y. Zhang
a special to Eat Vancouver

As is common knowledge, Vancouver has tons of Chinese restaurants representing several regional Chinese cuisines. So with all of the focus on Shanghai, Sichuan and Hunan these days, where does one go for that old stalwart of Chinese cuisine, or in other words, some excellent Cantonese food? Well, that is where I can step in and help. Of course there are lots of great restaurants out there, but the one that I would personally recommend is Kirin. After trying practically all of the big Chinese restaurants in the Lower Mainland, Kirin is still constantly on my mind (since there are four of them, I’ll mainly focus on the Richmond one). Kirin is loveable for many reason, including, great service, atmosphere and of course, the consistently great food.

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Just wanted to say that I saw an extremely relevant Ziggy Cartoon today, one that really sums up my feelings about the Vancouver Courier right now.

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Gyoza King
(604) 669-8278
Address: 1508 Robson St (map)

Simple Rules
a Quick Bite

By Jason
Eat Vancouver writer

To be perfectly candid, I don’t have a lot of experience with izakaya (Japanese tapas) dining, but I’m hoping that will be an advantage in reviewing Gyoza King. Izakaya is pretty much unknown in the Washington DC area, and for some reason I never really got into it when I first came to Vancouver. So, it’s with few preconceived notions about izakaya and no allegiances to various izakaya spots that I tackled one that I had heard much about for its popularity and late hours, Gyoza King on Robson.

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