Underground Restaurants of Vancouver
 

Has anyone eaten at an Underground restaurant in Vancouver? if so, how was it? I'd like to hear about your experiences, as I am intrigued with this idea.

I only know of this one in Van, are there others?

Also, if you're gonna openly criticize about this business model and its legality, please save it for another thread. Thanks!

I've only ever attended on of these so this may be a bias opinion based off of my experience. Both myself and the GF personally really did not enjoy it. The venue ended up being at the hosts apartment and was way to small to be hosting a group of 10 so it was very stuffy and was not a nice environment as all the smoke from the kitchen had to pass through the living room in order to vent out the windows. I had to leave several times that evening to go out for a walk to cool off. We found the food was way over salted and things we nothing special. Nothing we could not have made at home, most likely even better. We didn't end up finished most of our food due to it being too salty. I love salty foods but it was just way too much for us. Felt worse that drinking a whole bowl of MSG Pho soup after a heavy night of drinking. We did enjoy the mingling of strangers and meeting new people, hearing stories and what not. There was great hype but we were extremely disappointed.

Others found it amazing. Guess it comes down to personal taste, culinary knowledge or what you are looking food

can the resident chef's do this and invite the RS folk.

The only "underground" place i've been to was unappealing.
It was literally an unfinished basement with cats in the kitchen and what looks to be a junk fire in the backyard. The hood fan wasn't working so everything was smoky and stuffy until we opened all the windows. The food didn't even come out until it was past 11pm...

i could go on..

nice thread idea! I've only heard about a couple of these chef-at-home type places, however I think there is merit to discussing this -- it's like asking about "underground TV's for sale" or "underground dentistry" ... means it's probably not the most legal thing.

btw from the link that you posted, the food at that place doesn't look very good at all. And from the previous posters experiences ... sure seems like the general consensus is that it's not that good at whatever place they went as well ...

wow, that link does look like crap.
1) the menu doesn't look appealing at all.
1-2 word description of each dish. Menu sounds so so so dull.
2) the food.... damn.... doesn't look appealing at all. Plating itself needs a lot of work,
3) i do like how "homey" it feels so props for that.

Van is a very tough crowd, good luck with bird's nest.

nothing about this appeals to me. are there so few restaurants that we have to eat in some dudes house. i mean wtf hipster foodies. wtf.

all these amazing chefs who can't/won't get a job or start their own shit like everyone else? would you buy food from the trunk of some guy's car? because that's pretty much what you're doing.

i just don't get this at all. i mean fuck what about sanitary concerns? mofos bitch about hole in the wall places but you'll eat in an unlicensed illegal establishment?

i just feel like you're a pretentious douche if your culinary experience needs to go to a strangers illegal "underground" restaurant. you can get food poisoning at an actual restaurant. i mean do we really have to go through the nightmare that could occur at some dudes house. i'm completely baffled right now. this is fucking stupid.

i dont mind trying out at this guy place, that pork, its mouth watering.

Only place I would eat at is Culverin's