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A VISIT TO VANCITY
March 22, 2017 - March 24, 2017
Here are some interesting finds, recommendations and how we got around in Vancouver. Addresses of locations mentioned will be provided at the end.
I have been talking to my boyfriend, Kevin, about planning a trip up to Vancouver, BC from Seattle, Washington for the past few months. We finally decided to go during his Spring Break for two nights. Why Vancouver? Well, I’m originally from California and I visit Kevin in Seattle quite often. Every time I travel to Seattle, my friends and family would encourage me to visit Vancouver since it’s so close. We don’t travel abroad together much, so I wanted to take this opportunity for us to have a short adventure.
We decided to take the Amtrak train from King St. Station in Seattle to Pacific Central Station in Vancouver. Of course, we bought Starbucks coffee and breakfast on the way to the station. The train departed around 7:45AM. The nature scenery throughout the ride was beautiful. Usually it takes about a little over 4 hours to get to Vancouver from Seattle by train. The train was scheduled to arrive at 11:45, but there was a delay due to oncoming trains so we ended up arriving at the Pacific Central Station around 12:30PM.
We took a cab from the station to our Airbnb which is located in East Vancouver. I do recommend Airbnb over hotels because you can find yourself living in a nice bedroom with a kitchen, bathroom, and living room at half the price of a hotel room. You can sign up with my link (www.airbnb.com/c/jessicac30342) to get $40 in travel credit for your first reservation on Airbnb. We chose this location because it is relatively close to the bus stop which could take you straight to tourist attractions such as Downtown, Metrotown, UBC, and Stanley Park. Our hosts, Robert and Hien, were friendly and helpful. We stayed in their guesthouse which consisted of one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a cozy living room. The kitchen was stocked with silverware and complimentary water bottles, filtered mineral water, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
After we settled down, we looked at each other as our stomachs growled. We decided to try to look for something to eat near Metropolis, one of the largest malls in Canada. We ended up taking the bus to Metrotown after multiple failed attempts of hailing down a taxi. To get to Metrotown, we took the 19 bus eastbound from Nanaimo St. and Kingsway. Bus fare is $2.75CAD per person. We don’t take bus very often so we didn’t know they only took coins. The bus driver was nice enough to let us pay with the coins we had and printed out 2 tickets for us. It took around 30 minutes to get to Metrotown and the bus stopped right next to Metropolis so we didn’t have to walk.
After walking around the mall, we were craving hot pot so we decided to go to Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot across the street. This hot pot place is a chain where you can find in the U.S. We got the “All You Can Eat” option for price of about $23CAD per person, which is pretty cheap compared to Bay Area. One thing I noticed is that food in Vancouver is relatively cheaper than food in U.S. We ordered the half and half soup base. The soup base itself was quite flavorful and filled with herbs. There was a tiny sauce bar located on a small push cart. There was also quite a variety of food options. Out of everything on the menu, I would definitely recommend the fatty beef slices and the beef balls. The fatty beef was thinly sliced and nicely marbled. Our servers were friendly, although sometimes hard to flag down. But hey, we both left the restaurant with happy tummies!
Round 1 ^-^
The next day, Kevin told me about the one time he had Sushi Pizza in Vancouver with his friends and was craving it, so we looked up some restaurants that had Sushi Pizza on the menu. We ended up going to Sushiyama. We took the 19 bus westbound from Kingsway and Nanaimo St. and got off at Kingsway and East Broadway. It took about 20 minutes to get to the restaurant. We were quickly seated and we ordered Sushi Pizza, BC Roll, Agedashi Tofu, Spider Roll, Unagi Nigiri, Ikura Nigiri, and Monkey’s Tear Roll. My favorite dish would be the Unagi Nigiri because it didn’t have much bones than normal Unagi Nigiris. Kevin’s favorite, of course, was the Sushi Pizza. Sushi Pizza is basically raw fish and imitation crab on fried rice patty. I personally do not eat raw fish, however, the sushi pizza without the raw fish tasted pretty good itself. I don’t remember how much the bill was in CAD, but it was around $30USD including tip. As mentioned, we ordered quite a few dishes and had a few pieces of sushi left over for only around $30USD! Again, we left with full bellies.
We were planning to visit Stanley Park and Gastown the same day, but we got tired and just went home and ordered pizza for dinner.
There was a coffee shop (a.k.a. King’s Cafe) we kept passing by and on the last day, I told Kevin we should wake up earlier to try it out. It was a couple blocks down Kingsway street so we walked to the cafe. I really liked the hipster-ish interior and exterior design. The natural lighting helps with photo taking. The cool thing about this cafe is that they have alcoholic coffee! Kevin ordered the Kings Garlic Butter Grilled Cheese and Espresso with Baileys. I ordered the Soup of the Day and Caramel Latte. The grilled cheese sandwich tasted pretty healthy, it came with side of chips. The soup of the day was a vegetable curry with side of some bread which tasted really good when dipped in the soup. Kevin poured the whole shot of baileys into his espresso, so the alcohol taste was a bit strong but still unique.
After the cafe, we went back to our Airbnb and packed all our stuff. Our host was kind enough to help us call a cab to take us to Gastown. Unfortunately, it started to rain when we arrived at Gastown. We quickly walked toward the Steam Clock to watch steam come out of the clock. I saw many beautiful pictures of Gastown at night, so it wasn’t all that grand during the day time. If you decide to go to Gastown, I would recommend going at night to look at the town glow up.
Then, we took a cab to Stanley Park. Let me tell you, Stanley Park is absolutely stunning! You could walk, run, bike, or even ride on horse carriages on designated trails. The nature scene is breathtaking, especially the lake-side view. You could see the perfect view of the city across the lake. You can also walk to the Totem Poles and Aquarium.
We took a cab back to Chinatown area to get some grub before going to the train station. We went to this stylish hole in the wall noodle restaurant, Fat Mao Noodles, in Chinatown, which is about a 10 minute walk from the station. You could see the chef making noodles from the window outside and at your seat. It's quite entertaining! I ordered the Koh Soi, Changmai Curry Noodles and Kevin ordered the Braised Duck Noodles. For some of the entrees, you could choose the type of noodles you want. I was craving laksa at the time so the Changmai Curry sounded similar. I was right! My noodles came with a marinated soft boiled egg, a chicken thigh, and crispy noodles. I loved the flavor of the soup; it had a hint of lime and some coconut flavor. I think the broth of the Braised Duck Noodle dish tasted like regular wonton noodle soup without the wontons, but it was decent.
After eating, we walked to the Pacific Central Station. We actually arrived almost an hour early so we decided to get some root beer floats from A&W in the station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 5:35PM, so we decided to wait until 5:20 to board. Guess what? We missed boarding time because we had no idea that we had to board before a certain time since there wasn't any boarding time for the train coming to Vancouver. We tried to talk to security, but they just wouldn't let us in, even though the train was literally right in front of us. And so, we went to the help desk and they told us we could take a Bolt Bus that was scheduled to leave arrive in about 15-20 minutes. We quickly got our Bolt Bus tickets online and our Amtrak tickets refunded. Thank goodness! When the bus arrived, we got all our bags and left the station! Now that was an adventure! As promised, I've left the addresses below. Happy travels!
Metropolis, Metrotown
4700 Kingsway #604
Burnaby, BC V5H 4N2, Canada
Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot
4755 Kingsway #200
Burnaby, BC V5H 4W2, Canada
Sushiyama
371 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5T 3M1, Canada
King’s Cafe
2223 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC V5N 2T6, Canada
Steam Clock
305 Water St.
Vancouver, BC V6B 1B9, Canada
Stanley Park
Vancouver, BC V6G 1Z4, Canada
Fat Mao Noodles
217 E Georgia St.
Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6, Canada
A&W
1150 Station St,
Vancouver, BC V6A 4C7, Canada
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