Campagnolo- Valentine's Edition

Big M and I celebrate Valentine's Day, but we never make a huge deal out of it. Normally we have a nice dinner at home. I figured that since this was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, we should do something special. This plan also gave me the opportunity to have some fun with Big M as I know that he wouldn't have remembered it was VD nor would he have made any plans.

Me: So, Valentine's Day is on Monday
Big M: I guess so...
Me: Have you made us dinner reservations yet?
Big M: Um, no. I'll get right on that.

Awesome. I normally make the plans so I was excited to see what he would come up with. We came close to crashing Luke Meat's dinner at Me & Eds, but then Big M hit it out of the park. We were going to Campagnolo.


(picture from the back of the restaurant. I like the East Van-ness of this photo)

Vancouver Community College Cafeteria and Seiffert Market

Vancouver Community College has become my "go to" place downtown. A coworker has a birthday and I forgot to make a cake? To the Seiffert Market! Fancy lunch- It's JJ's Fine Dining! Need a quick lunch that is sure to be interesting? The Cafeteria!



Cafeterias fascinate me. I went to school in a small town in Central Alberta that did not have a cafeteria, unless you count the submarines that the band would sell out of the Home EC room. If you were cool, you went to the Dairy Queen (the only fast food chain in town) for lunch. If you were cooler, you went to the Yellow- the local arcade- to smoke and get high score on Tetris (guess who!) The closest I got to the cafeteria experience was from 80s movies and TV.

Cafe Medina

Warning: this post is shockingly free of waffles!

Cafe Medina is a local hot spot that is known for it's waffles and huge brunch lineups. Medina has been on my lunch list for a long time but I was always worried about fitting it into my one hour lunch break. I jumped at the chance to go when Meredith, Cristina and Adele offered.

The Edge Cafe

Time for another lunch date with the lovely Stoli Von Stingray- hooray for me! She always meets me downtown so, to be fair, it was time to cross the bridge to the Cambie area. Since it was her hood, she had to choose the restaurant. She chose The Edge Cafe on Yukon and 7th. Great! I like to eat lunch on the Edge(ba da bum). I bet they have never heard that joke.



This area is terrible for parking so I was super pleased when I got a rock star parking spot just across the street. Perfect.

Sushi Garden (Lougheed Hwy)

Big M and will be be leaving the suburbs of NoBu soon to return to my people on the Drive. In the time that we have left we are trying to make it to all the restaurants in our area that we said we would go to but haven't yet. The top of that list, Sushi Garden.

Sushi Garden opened up beside the Staples down the street from us about a year ago and it has had a line up since then. Always. It has been a running joke with Big M and me to check out the line every time we go to the store. There is always a line. Is that because it is the most awesome sushi ever, or because it is the cheapest sushi ever? There is another sushi joint half a block away so it is not like this is the only place for the tower people to go.

Mamak Malaysian Cafe- In Pub 340!

The Mamak Malaysian Cafe is a lunchtime adventure because it is located inside Pub 340. Pub 340 is an old dive bar in what is now a super hip area. You will find it right beside Meat & Bread.



You will find the cafe in the old smoking room of the bar.



See the sign? I have to give thanks to Anonymous Reader for this tip. I would never have known that there was an awesome Malaysian cafe inside of Pub 340 were it not for you. There is no signage outside of the bar to let you know that it is there. It made our lunch outing feel like a covert mission.

Lully's Sandwich Cart

The existence of Lully's Sandwich Cart makes me very happy yet so very sad at the same time. I am happy because they are a new street food cart located outside of the Granville Skytrain station that offers "Montreal Old Fashioned Smoked Meat" and I love smoked meat sandwiches.



This cart makes me sad because this is the new endeavor of my favorites PanDa Fresh Bakery. They have put away the bus for now to open up the sandwich cart. They have promised me that they have not taken away my mac and cheese croissant forever. Hopefully this is true and not just an answer they gave to me to calm down the carb-crazed look I had in my eyes.