The Urban Buffet is on the corner of Nelson and Homer. It looks a little creepy on the outside. On the inside the huge old building is glowing with neon lights and the glare off of deep fried this and that. However, once we were quickly seated and we dove in for our first round of eating, the nervousness subsided.

Vancouver’s Urban Buffet offers a strange selection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and American cuisine. Basically it’s a lot of fried food, some sushi, and the required jello and roast beef. Granted, for $8.99 for a huge meal, I couldn’t have asked for more, and I left feeling perfectly disgusting.

Most of the food sort of tasted the same. Actually, it all tasted exactly the same. From the fried chicken balls to the cake to the soft serve ice cream, there was a distinct flavour running through it all. Hold on, I’m not saying it was bad. I only had one thing that I really couldn’t stomach (avoid the weird bready dessert ‘treats’). It’s actually kind of pleasant. The spring rolls and fatty noodles and broccoli were tasty, plentiful, and, best of all, the booze (not included in the price of admission) is dirt cheap!

Sure, for 8.99 you could go to Glowbal and have half a martini, but how fun is that? If you are in the mood for a disgusting all you can eat sort of experience, and have value in mind over taste, then head down to Yaletown’s finest (and only) buffet.

Address:

996 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC
604-630-1188

We found ourselves in the mood for some good, good Chinese food as opposed to the dirty, greasy stuff one usually associates with takeout and finds equally appealing.

Yes, this time around we felt like an authentic experience, and word of mouth as well as some basic internet research brought The Pink Pearl to our attention. So we ventured down East Hastings in the dark of night to seek it out.

The Pink Pearl is huge- a great rectangular expanse with white walls and traditional Chinese decor. It reminded me of a convention centre, actually. This was part of the experience. Our server here was very cordial, and food arrived course after course seamlessly. It seemed the serving staff were slightly telepathic.

While the Pink Pearl describes itself as a Chinese Seafood restaurant, there are still plenty of items on the expansive menu that feature poultry, beef, pork and vegetarian dishes. We were boggled at the selection and took a long time to order, passing up Peking duck (a little too hard on the wallet) for other classic fare such as wonton soup, ginger beef, lemon chicken and seafood. I would have dearly loved to eat the braised abalone, however the price and the scarcity held me back. The food lived up to and exceeded our expectations- we were very pleased. The Pink Pearl is deserving of its reputations as one of the best Chinese restaurants in Vancouver.

Address:

1132 E. Hastings St.
Vancouver, BC
604-253-4316