Vancouver, BC
After the warm blue days on Vancouver Island, and at Sea-to-Sky, our lucky streak in the weather continued to our stay in Vancouver. For a change of scenery from the usual built up cities, we decided to stay in the suburbs, near Lougheed Town Centre. The Skytrain is convenient and provided access to a number of areas, such as Downtown, Airport, Richmond and, Port Moody. Plus accommodation is expensive downtown.
Downtown
Vancouver mostly follows a grid system, and I was surprised at just how temperate the climate was. I was expecting a colder appearance more reminiscent of snowy cities such as New York or Sapporo. Popular areas here are Robson St, Davie St, Granville St, Denman St, Gastown and, Yaletown. Gastown was named after “Gassy” Jack Deighton who arrived in 1867 and opened a saloon. In 1976 the area was declared a historical site. He earnt his nickname because he was very talkative. While in Gastown be sure to checkout the steam clock and the Gassy Jack statue and miniature flatiron building at Powell St and Alexander St.
There’s no shortage of bars, cafes and restaurants in this area, we chose to eat at The Flying Pig, and we’d recommend it. Jetlag allowed us to arrive early which was fortuitous as this is a popular spot and we didn’t have a reservation. We managed to snag the table upstairs on the corner which gave a commanding view of a busy intersection in Gastown to people watch. We thoroughly enjoyed the Blackened Steelhead Trout and the Salt Spring Island Mussels and Frites. There is also a good range of local beers available.
Robson Street
This is a bustling shopping strip running from the Downtown area to Stanley Park. There’s no shortage of stores along here ranging from Muji to Wholefoods, but the most popular are the restaurants and cafes. While here we went to Sura Korean, Forage, PappaRoti. Sura Korean, unsurprisingly is a Korean restaurant, but what doesn’t stand out is that they do Korean BBQ. We enjoyed our meal here. Next stop, on a different day, was Forage.
Forage is modern dining, excellent atmosphere and décor, and is priced accordingly. Here we had the Canadian Bison from the ‘Land’ section, the Slow cooked Salmon from the ‘Sea’ section, and for ‘Sweets’ the Elderflower and, the Baker’s Garden. A decent selection of craft beers on tap round out a delicious meal.
One day we were still so full from Lunch that we skipped dinner and went straight for dessert at PappaRoti. They are renowned for their Coffee Buns. Being a dessert shop slash café, be prepared for sweets. They also do salad and sandwiches, but like I said this is a dessert shop.
Stanley Park
Vancouver’s answer to New York’s Central Park, except it’s not central. On a nice day this park is a great escape from the city. We didn’t really have a route in mind when we arrived so just winged it. Be mindful there aren’t many chances to cross Route 99, there’s the Lake Trail, Avison Trail and the perimeter walk Stanley Park Seawall Path. So choose your route wisely. No matter which trail or path you choose, be sure to include the area Google Maps marks as the Stanley Park Seawall, here there are excellent views of Lions Gate Bridge.
Other
While exploring the city we also stopped at other locations. They may not be grouped to a particular area, but they were still notable. Cartems, a doughnut shop, I’d recommend getting here earlier in the day than later. Small Victory, a café and pastry shop, come and visit just because it’s so cool inside. It is also possible to do coffee bean roasting and coffee brewing courses here too. We even found an Australian dive bar at Mooses Down Under. We found this place to be as expected for a dive bar, but if you’re missing Australia, or want to try out some Australian foods, this is the place.
While not in the Downtown area, well not even in Vancouver City, but over in Burnaby in an Industrial estate is Dageraad Brewing. Tucked away in the back corner is this awesome little gem of a place. The nearest Sky Train station is Production Way-University Station, followed by a short walk. Sampling a number of their beers, such as the Blonde, Amber, Burnabarian and, Brune. Many are avaialbe only as bottles, while there’s a decent range available on tap.
Richmond
Every city has a Chinatown, but every city also has an Asian Neighbourhood, and for Vancouver this neighbourhood is Richmond. Located near the airport the easiest access is via the Skytrain. We were looking for Cantonese food and weren’t disappointed, in fact the complete opposite, we were blown away. Lido Restaurant is a a short walk from Aberdeen station and is an ideal spot for Hong Kong breakfast. This place is popular, and fast, and lingering is not something you do here, if you want a relaxing breakfast/brunch catchup look elsewhere. That said, this place is awesome!
For Yum Cha we went to Empire Seafood Restaurant. Located between Lansdowne and Richmond-Brighthouse Sky Rail stations you even get a view of the passing trains while you eat. We missed the Yum Cha rush, so could take our time. The food is very fresh and tastes great. Would recommend.
Port Moody/Rocky Point
This spot was recommended to us by a local, and I’m glad we followed through with coming here. Dinner was at Pizzeria Spacca Napoli, followed by a short walk around the small park at Rocky Point to look at the baby geese, and dessert at Rocky Point Icecream. Pizzeria Spacca Napoli is more of a upscale neighbourhood pizza shop, I wouldn’t go this far out of my way to visit, but if you are in the area definitely check it out.
Murray Street is known for its Ale Trail, with four within a short three block stretch. These are Moody Ales, Parkside Brewery, Yellow Dog and Twin Sails. I managed to only visit three with Parkside missing out as I had too much at Moody Ales. Starting at Twin Sails I grabbed the Con Leche and Dat Juice and headed to the deck. At Yellow Dog I went for the Retriever Golden Ale.
And at Moody, well they have a lot of choices, and judging by the number of people here it’s definitely the most popular. Here I sampled the Sociable Pale Ale, Vienna Amber Lager, Black IPA, Bakery Brett Stout, Cask Engine Dry Irish Stout, Hardy Brown Ale, Huge Citrus Hazy Pale, Lusty Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, Black IPA, Flamingose. As you can see I had no more roomfor a stop at Parkside once it was time to head home. Moody Ales was definitely my favourite as they had a large range of styles, whereas the others two had mostly IPAs. Be sure to visit the Ale Trail as it’s easily reached on the Sky Train with a station right at Port Moody.
May, 2018
