Ethnic Food for us Dumb White Guys...
 

I love dining out and love all types of food (especially Indian and Japanese). However there are so many restaurants in The Lower Mainland I find it tough to find those places that offer good food at good prices. And like many people, I've been burned often enough by sub-par food. When I find a place I like I go often, but where's the fun in that?

Everyone knows all the top-rated restaurants, but who can afford to eat their regularly? What I want to find are the smaller places that offer good food when you don't want to spend a fortune.

Not to sound racist or stereotypical, but if I want to find a good Indian restaurant I'm going to ask someone who's Indian as I would trust their opinion. So that's what this thread is for - to explain to us dumb white guys where all the good Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and other restaurants are.

Sweet Chili Cafe - Vancouver's Most Authentic Indonesian Restaurant - indonesian

Nooru Mahal on Fraser

with japanese food its pretty simple, if its owned by japanese people there is a very high likeliness it will be good. dont go to any place with chinese, vietnamese, or korean chefs (except maybe hanako in surrey)

This is what I posted in another thread. Im Indian and probably have a better idea of whats considered good and whats bad when it comes to Indian food.

Hands down the best Indian restaurant in Surrey is Tasty Indian Bistro. Compared to other Indian restaurants, its considered to be high end. Apparently it was designed by the same ppl that are designing Keg restaurants. The food is unbelievable.

Dhoom restaurant is also really good. Im having my wedding and reception catered by them.

Recommended:
Appetizers: tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, fish pakora, shehs kabobs, cheese pakoras

Meat entres: butter chicken, lamb curry, curry chicken
Veg entres: muttar paneer, shahi paneer, mixed veg

banzai sushi in richmond on westminister is runned by Vietnamese ppl :lawl: whats worse was that they were speaking viet out loud when making your food

think Samurai sushi is affiliated with them also

http://www.saffroncuisine.ca/

Wonderful place to try different types of curry. They have been known to have some pretty damn good butter chicken. I believe their lunch special everyday is $13 for an all you can eat buffet, which isn't absurdly expensive for a pretty decent meal! At any other given time, the curry on its own is $15 a dish.

+1 to sweet chili cafe.

Singaporean/Malaysian
Hawker's - get anything on the menu the soto with pressed rice is a favorite

Chinese BBQ
HK BBQ Master (underneath superstore on No.3)

Japanese
Kimura Sushi, the combos are a really good deal.

Viet Sub
Tung Hing Bakery, get the house special

"Dirty" Greasy Chinese Food
Kent's Kitchen in chinatown. It's a pick 2 things with rice kind of place.
But the food is legit, albeit a touch greasy.

Shanghai Dumplings
The place in the crystal mall food court, don't know what it's called.
Long's Noodle House, main street.



And yes, all of these places have english menus.
Hope that helps.


Would like your suggestions for French Bistros...
Les Faux Bourgeois just doesn't seem to have to old magic anymore.

Chinese - Manchu wok

Jap-koya

Indian- curry express

Greek- opa

Vietnamese- pho hoa

^ lol u jerk

:troll:

i thought you were chinese dangonay

Chinese Dangonay and Brown hypa know good ethnic food.
It's their anglo-saxon counterparts who need advice.

:alone:

I went for African at Simbas a couple weeks ago and it was great food. The way to learn is get out there and if something looks good try it. It might be a hit or a miss but you won't know unless you go and the experience is everything you want.

The long penis looking thing is Lamb and it was some of the best tasting I have ever had, below is goat in a curry which is just as good and coconut prawns. The owner is super friendly and they even have beer imported from Africa. I went to the one on Denman and was very impressed. They have different homemade hot sauces and if you want an appie get wings they are killer.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/630...6352845741.jpg

^

I can vouch for Simbas as well... and if you can get your hands on an entertainment book, there's usually a coupon for them in there too!

The appy wings + the 2 spicy homemade sauce I had :sweetjesus:

Mahek and Diamond Sweets are both awesome, me and my brown boy buddy always go there. He says Mahek is like the Keg for brown people. Hahaha
Ki Sushi in new west is my favorite sushi place. Great food and good prices.

For Dim Sum my favorite one around is the Golden Swan on Victoria drive. But what do I know I'm one of those dumb white guys :alone:

So Mr. White guy, what do you recommend for white food?:hotbaby:

Northern Chinese food: Ningtu in East Van (Kingsway) or Shanghai..Happy?? in Richmond. Shanghai Happy is the same owner as the Shanghai take out place at the Crystal Mall food court. They opened up not too long ago!

Japanese: Kimura, and for more izakayas: Guu, Gyoza King, Suika

HK Style Cafe: Gold Stone in Chinatown

HK BBQ: BBQ Master in Richmond, Kam Gok Yuen in Chinatown

Thai: Chada Thai in Poco (surprising!)

Vietnamese:
Song Huong (Nanaimo + 1st Avenue) Vancouver

Pho Thai Son (West Broadway + Main (Across from kingsgate mall)

Make asian friends. :)

I think ive almost eatten at every place and food court/resteraunt in richmond. The one thing I have yet to try is indian food, but honestly I feel so disconnected when I try to eat at an east indian place.

I like golden stone, the food blows but I like the borlabao and coffee. Plus its cheap and it reminds me of the 80's.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4499398_n.jpg

nommers.

+1 for Mahek, love that place.

Indian: All Indian Sweets on Main and 49th has a veg. buffet ($10)
Don't mind Baba Sweets either for lunch or something!

Dim Sum: South Ocean Seafood Restaurant in Richmond

Filipino: Pinpin on Fraser street, Cucina Manila, Kumare in Richmond. Josephine's on Main is alright if you're a first timer. There's a new place on Kingsway called Max's Restaurant, first one in Vancouver and all the Filipinos are crazy excited about it. Tried going on Thursday but the wait was over an hour!!
.. If you have Filipino friends, just eat at their houses!! My family always tries to feed my friends and get them drunk after, hahaha.

Filipino desserts/baked goods: Goldilocks/Aling Mary's (for Pandesal/Filipino buns)

Chinese: Ho Do, Hon's or Mr. Ho on Kingsway

Noodles/Ramen/Soup: Golden Pair Fusion Cafe on West Broadway (Peanut chilli soup, FTW!)

I always see recommendations for restaurants but not a lot of people mention specifically what dish to order. I need some help with that.

For Persian..

Cazba Restaurant in North Van

Very simple, meat and rice dishes. I personally like the bakhtiari, which is one joojeh (chicken) and one barg (beef kabob, basmati rice, grilled tomato. The pureed pomegranate and walnuts with chicken (fesenjoon) is really good as well as I didn't think I'd like it.

Afghan Horsemen - Granville Is.
Go with one of the platters - can consist of lamb, beef, chicken kabob, hummus, salad, pita, lamb shoulder, batter fried potato, yogurt, cabbage rolls, baked eggplant

^ cazba was good but its gone downhill imo.....service is absolute garbage, i swear i get better service at mcdonalds in east van and food was awesome when it first opened but then they got cocky and it all went down the drain. I went a endless amount of times but the last 3 times i went was the exact same garbage service and food i pledge never to go back. The people at the tables around us seemed frustrated too. When we sat down the table next to us asked for the bill, the server didnt bring them the bill until half are food was done lol the guy kept asking every server that walked by. The only good thing about cazba is the prices but even then its not worth the wait.

My personal favorite for persian right now is Kandoo in POCO, cheap prices and food is pretty bomb and not bad looking servers last time i checked.

Greek definetly stephos no doubt THE BEST, especially the Kalamaria.