ren0312

I just saw this, http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living...ayCurrency=PHP, and I think I need some BP medication already. So where to buy things for relatively inexpensive in downtown Vancouver, without having to go to the dodgier places, also anybody know any restaurants, both budget and midrange ones? Any good Chinese or Japanese restaurants? Where I come from the meal in the midrange restaurant is already above what you will pay for a buffet in a 5 star hotel.

JY1024

Welcome to FlyerTalk, ren0312!

As your query is specific to one city/country, we'll move this thread over to the more appropriate Canada forum for further discussion. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

roastpuff

What things are you looking to buy? You have to be more specific! Though to be honest Vancouver is not great for shopping - most people tend to go over the border to the Seattle Premium Outlets for that.

For good Chinese/Japanese restaurants, the prices aren't that crazy and there's still a lot of good deals to be had. Do you need the restaurants to be in downtown? Those tend to be more expensive (though not quite as expensive as other cities, i.e. NY/Toronto/LA etc.).

Miku, Minami, are great Japanese restaurants. Guu has several branches downtown and is an interesting chain of izakaya. Zakkushi is also quite nice for yakitori/oden. Suika is fun and trendy, on Broadway and Oak. Tojo's is very well rated but quite expensive. One of my favorite Japanese restaurants is Sushi by Yuji - it's in Burnaby, a little hole in the wall, but great fresh sushi with a Japanese chef at a VERY reasonable price.

Chinese food tends to be best in Richmond, as it's the new Chinese enclave. Sun Sui Wah is always a good bet - either the Main St location or the one in Richmond. Golden Swan in Vancouver, on Victoria St is good for dim sum as well. Kalvin's Szechuan Restaurant is great if you like spicy Szechuan food.

Give us more details about your visit and we will recommend places!

gglave

http://tinyurl.com/m9l3dv7

Taiwaned

Without further information, this is not a fair question.

gglave's suggestion of looking at the yelp pages maybe the best option however just walking around downtown, there are lots of cheap eats that are available that wouldn't be even on any online review sites. Heck, you really want to go cheap, go get a slice of bad pizza for under 2 bucks.

If you want good Chinese, as roastpuff mentioned, go to Chinatown or Richmond Chinatown. Many won't be on any online review sites but if you want cheap, you can just walk around - if there are lots of people milling around eating, it's probably very inexpensive.

Your last option is go to go a supermarket, lots of quick bites that are affordable.

You need to explain to us what budget and mid-range means to you. For me, Sun Sui Wah is kind of expensive for what you get. Tojo's is stupid expensive but I try to go every year.

Jalinth

I'll echo the comment on understanding what budget is to you. We just had some workmates from Alberta. They went to Miku for dinner and apparently the prices are "mid range" for them and much better in the quality/price ratio. For me, Miku is an expensive treat. Best when someone else pays

roastpuff

The OP hasn't logged on since Jul 28... I wonder if he/she is coming back?

aster

Surprisingly I found Chinese restaurants hard to come by in downtown Vancouver. I wouldn't recommend Chinatown for newbies as that is right next to zombietown which will leave a lasting dent on anyone's memories of Vancouver if they wander in there unexpectedly.

I recall a good Chinese foodcourt-type place if you go West towards the park, cannot recall the street though.

And for sushi the locals recommended Kadoya which proved to be a very nice place for lunch.

Letitride3c

OP started another thread elsewhere with a vague question without specifics.

On the comment on Chinese restaurants in downtown, we stopped visiting there years ago when in town and most definitely, not at night - just not a safe feeling & our resident local FT's can comment on it.

For decent Chinese food in various price ranges & options, etc. just drive along Kingsway south & you will come across them, or south on Cambie Street. Of course, they are most highly concentrated in the new Chinatown in Richmond, close to the airport. Around there, many are inside the shopping malls like Aberdeen along No. 3 Road.

Visitors planning to shop, add 12% to the tagged prices - "Effective April 1, 2013, most BC purchases will be subject to a 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST) and 5% Goods and Services Tax (GST), with the exception of liquor (10% GST)"

YVR Cockroach

You really have to define what kind of Chinese restaurant you want. You have high-end Cantonese and H.K. Cantonese (almost everything is Cantonese due to the origins of Chinese immigrants to B.C. until the last 10-20 years), H.K.-style cafes, Shanghai-via-H.K. and now many more authentic Shanghai restaurants now and even Cantonese Cantonese due to more-recent immigration from the Mainland. I think the Szechuan places were really Cantonese in disguise (until the past 15 years, all the Chinese food in Vancouver had a Cantonese flavour). There was even a halal Chinese restaurant.

Downtown is fine. I think you mean the old "Chinatown" in the east end.

There are Chinese restaurants all over East Van (broadly defined as east of Main Street) where by plurarity the single largest ethnicity is Chinese. Victoria Drive between 33rd and 43rd Aves is one particular concentration (my old 'hood). Same thing that can be said for East Van can be said for Richmond.

Driving along Kingsway not recommended. Traffic is particularly horrible. Cambie really only has very few Chinese restaurants in a very few spots.

FWIW, the 12% is nothing new. It is more or less the re-introduction of the split federal/provincial tax that was in place until a "harmonised sales tax" was introduced which was also 12% but extended coverage to many items that were previously exempted from the PST. Massive shift from business to consumers. It was overturned in a referendum.

aster

Really? I was there for a week and didn't feel unsafe at all, albeit a bit annoyed when beggars follow you into a store to nag.

Of course I would not recommend going to "zombievilla" next to Gastown even during the day as it is one messed up place. But overall downtown Vancouver seemed quite ok in terms of personal safety. How would it compare in your opinion to Toronto?

mkjr

the area around main and e. hastings (and several blocks in and around...) is unlike any other area in Canada. there is NO place that is even remotely equivalent here in YYZ...

that said, there are other areas that are unsafe for other reasons - drug dealing gang bangers....jane an finch come to mind. although i don't get too north of queen street.

YYZ also will have very nice areas directly adjacent to grubby areas. so you do not see that much in YVR.

example, st. james town on the soutside of bloor and then rosedale on the north side...

YVR seems to have one nasty concentrated crap hole. YYZ has a few more moderate crap holes but i guess that is to be expected given YVR is a pretty small place versus YYZ in terms of population.

msp3

>Vancouver
>cheap shopping
why.png

The closest you can get is looking through the forums for what the scumbags on redflagdeals (the Canadian equivalent of slickdeals) post.

Keep in mind a lot of the Chinese resturants are semi-disgusting unless it's a classy place like Kirin (the one next to city hall is my favorite), and most of the Japanese resturants aren't actually run by Japanese people but Chinese and Koreans instead. Downtown has the most real Japanese places.

evergrn

- Can anyone recommend a good cha chaan teng type HK cafe in Richmond that's good and clean?
- Is there a place in Richmond that serves dim sum all day?
- Any good reasonably-priced Jpn restaurant in downtown Vancouver that has good environment for little kids? Used to enjoy Guu, but now can't go due to kids. Some good-looking ramen joints along Robson and Denman, but I don't see any little kids in those places. For the past few years, we've been stuck going to Oysi Oysi every time... only decent place that appears family-friendly, but they're unfortunately not great.

10-15yrs ago, I used to stay around Main St & Hastings when we'd go up to Vancouver for a night or two. Used to walk to/from there at night over to Gastown and beyond. Thought nothing of it back then. Safety issues didn't even occur to us. Now you couldn't pay me enough to stay around there.

gglave

Odd comment - With the gentrification underway and the focus on housing the homeless the downtown east side is actually much better than it was a decade ago.

Still wouldn't send out-of-towners there, and it's still a blight, but much less of a blight today than it was when you were staying down there?