Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant

Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant, from the outside, looks like one of those places that serves everything but doesn't seem to focus on anything. Going from what you can read when you pass the outside you can get: breakfast, lunch, snacks, salad bar, dinner, all day breakfast and authentic Vietnamese. I am a bit wary of the serve everything under the sun places as but, I heard this was the closest soup restaurant and I was looking for some pho.

Peaceful Restaurant (Davie)

I am going to be upfront and say I really wanted to like this restaurant. I love handmade noodle shops. I love meals in soup. I really thought that Peaceful Restaurant on Davie was going to be an awesome meal. Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives went to the Broadway location when they came to town. I will also admit that I may have made a menu mistake and maybe something else would have made me come away with a better experience. That being said, I was sadly let down by this lunch.

Legendary Noodle

I know that I have previously mentioned my love of street festivals.  Walking down the middle of streets that are normally teeming with traffic gives me no end of joy.  Italian Days on the Drive was beautiful and sunny;  car free days were not.  It was so cold!  I walked right past the Commercial Drive car free days (how many booths of sarongs does one place need? In my opinion, nine is too many.) and on to Main St.  By the time I walked up the street I was so cold that I felt it was a perfect opportunity to partake in my second favorite thing, dumpling.  Legendary Noodle House was calling my name.

Pho Thuy Dong- Red Deer

My love of pho has no borders. It even follows me to Red Deer. After spending the day at Bower Mall, which is a good mall now but I miss MMMMmmmmMuffin and San Fransisco, we decided it was time for lunch. And for Big M and I, this brought on a craving for pho. Mom had taken me to a Vietnamese plade behind the Superstore (where I worked in the early 90s) before, so we went again.

Pho Thuy Dong Vietnamese Restaurant is much bigger and fancier since we were there last. They must be doing well as they have taken over the place next door and now run one of the biggest pho places, with the nicest decor, that I have been in. I said it before with the Momo sushi review, but wow. My favorite pho place in Burnaby is a hole in the wall with some pictures of Vietnam taped to the wall along with menu photos. Nothing like this:

Red Pagoda

It was a rare sunny day that brought me out for a walk down Commercial Drive. A trip to Home Depot, some new pants at Spank and lunch at Red Pagoda were on the agenda.

Red Pagoda is one of the restaurants that appeared during my absence from living on Commercial. This spot used to be an Indian restaurant that I enjoyed, but I am happy to have a pho restaurant on the Drive! And even happier that it was good pho.

Cafe Des Arts

This post is more of an amalgam of meals rather than a description of one meal. Cafe Des Arts is the restaurant that is directly across from my office so I have enjoyed many breakfasts/lunches/snacks there.

There is a good chance that you would not have noticed a restaurant here.  It is located beside the old Dix building.   People in the area do know about it as there is always a line up, especially at lunch time. I am going to coin a phrase here and call it a "hidden gem". I hope that catches on.

Le Do Vietnamese

Big M and I are so excited to be back on the Drive! Our old place was on the Broadway side of the drive so living down on the Hastings side has opened up so many new restaurants within walking distance. Our first project, find some Pho.

Our first weekend in the new house we hit up The Red Wagon for some breakfast (the same time that Sherman was there. It was very exciting. Big M stopped me from going up and babbling that "I am a blogger too!". Probably a good idea as I get pretty excited...) Next door is the Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant. I figured that since the Red Wagon is right next door and I love them, this place must have great food. Not the most rational reasoning but happily, it worked out well!