Local CHAU Veggiexpress

Saw this place today while walking along Victoria Drive. Previous owners of Kim Chau Deli (I think) and same owners as CHAU Kitchen Bar & Grill.

5052 Victoria Drive (between 34th and 35th Ave)
http://www.chowatchau.ca/veggie/about.html
10 am to 8pm daily
604-565-4146

Edit: Okay, here's my update. It was their soft opening today, they have 10% off for the first few weeks.

The food is pretty damn good and the prices are reasonable IMO. Often with vegetarian soup broths, the flavour is one dimensional and lacking but the ones here are tasty with some subtle complexity. Good variety of toppings, though it'd be cool if they had some that mimicked the appearance of meat like they have in Vietnam.

Salad roll was yummy, but I was most impressed with the imitation fish sauce . Splendid job there. Their fresh soymilk is indeed very fresh, but a little small on the portion size when price is considered. I would love to see fresh sugar cane juice on the menu too, that stuff is awesome.

I'm glad that I finally have a place to pass on to vegetarians that want to try pho. It's also a very clean/modern place, in case you are adverse to the sticky floors and dirty kitchens commonly found in "traditional" Viet places.

Their decor/menu styling makes me think that they're targeting a younger demographic and possibly people who are new to Vietnamese food. If that's the case, they really need to move beyond CASH ONLY and start accepting debit & credit cards . I'm not sure if they picked the best location to open, but I do hope they do well.

Just a note if you happen to follow Buddhist vegetarianism: while the dishes are vegetarian in the western sense, it looks like they use leeks, garlic, onions, scallions and shallots as ingredients so it might not be compatible with stricter Buddhist definitions of vegetarian. I think if they brought in some dishes that met this criteria, it would fill a sparsely occupied niche among the older generation.







#21: Shredded Bean Curd Salad Roll (I ate a piece before taking a picture)


#15 Pho Hue


#14 Pho Hanoi

 

Did a couple of revisits, the soups seem to be a bit blander now. The ingredients in the Pho Hanoi were different too, in particular, they replaced the main "topping" with tofu .

 

I'd like for you to re-try us as a lot has changed since december 2011. We have also extended our hours on fridays and saturdays from 11am - 10pm due to customer requests. I hope that you are able to reconsider your thoughts about us! We are also now serving up beer and wine. We are also working on expanding our menu as well. Hope to see you back!

 

Chau is pretty good but there's a competitor nearby called Veggiebowl that looks promising . http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/14/1752741/restaurant/Kensington/Veggiebowl-Vancouver

I also like Paradise in Burnaby for vegetarian-vegan pho. They've been around longest. http://www.paradisevegetarian.com/

Yummy Vietnamese food!

 

Check out Three Jewels on Commercial! They have a bigger menu.

https://www.facebook.com/ThreeJewelsVancouver

 

i think chau veggiexpress uses onion and garlic which buddhist are not supposed to eat. they are vegetarian for white people and westerners. veggiebowl and dharma garden veggie deli (phap uyen veggie deli) do not use onion or garlic so they are true buddhist vegetarian.

 

That is ignorant bullshit.

 

It's not actually. You just won't find it in white-washed buddhism. It's common in Asian interpretations of buddhism but adherence to the practice varies and there is debate about the rationale. I'm not sure why you are so quick to be vocal about something you clearly don't know much about?

PS: not buddhist, just know many people who are.