A new bánh mì (Vietnamese sub) place opened up on Victoria Drive and 38th Ave called Bánh Mì Saigon (Instagram). They bake their own bread! Now it’s not onlyTung Hing and Ba Le that bake their own bread. Tung Hing used to be a favourite but they’ve skimped on fillings over the past decade and I was ready for a new bánh mì go-to place. BMS are even closer to my place than TH, and also conveniently on my bus route home, so fingers crossed!
NOTE: these guys have been selling out before they close at 7pm, so be aware!
I was recommended by longtime local internet foodie LotusRapper from the Chowhound forum to check out Pizza Garden (PG), to compare with my experience with Straight Outta Brooklyn (SOB). So I picked the worst lunchtime out of the week to head out of the office to try them out! There were thunderstorms plus even a bit of hail, but that didn’t stop me from having a slice at PG then another slice immediately afterwards at SOB to compare…THEN an ice cream-in-a-fried-bun-thing at Japadog 😛
You know I go on and on and on and on and on about how good Longtail Kitchen in New West is. They just won a VanMag silver award for Best Thai! Anyways, they’re going to be featured on the Food Network Canada show “You Gotta Eat Here!” (Season 4 Episode 15 — airs May 8) and we were invited to the taping last November.
When I wasn’t being all nervous with sweaty pits, I snuck a few pics…
Disclaimer: We were invited to this taping as longtime (heh) customers of Longtail. We didn’t have to pay for any of our food, but then we didn’t get to choose what food we got. And I didn’t get to drink any beer cuz the kegerator wasn’t operating that day 🙁 We have no connection to Longtail other than being regulars and on friendly terms with the chef and staff. We were not paid for participating nor were we coached or told what to say. If this is the extent of me “selling out” as a food blogger, I’m happy with it.
Mere steps from Ramen Jinya is the new Straight Outta Brooklyn Pizza which opened April 8 (almost 2 weeks ago as of this post). I think there’s been huge latent demand in Vancouver for NY-style, thin crust, QUALITY pizza. Downtown is awash in cheap slice pizza, so how does SOB compare? Will you pay more for quality?
Heading towards the tail end of our trip. A couple of these places just sort of fell into place in our schedule and it was really rewarding to be able to fit some of these places in our visit, in particular Elysian and Smog City.
It was a day for family-type stuff and hanging back. We got some much-needed rest in our hotel room in the evening but still had some pretty good eats.
After learning how to navigate the city with a combination of Google Maps, transit, and Uber/Lyft, we decided to head to Chinatown and take a train towards the southeast.
