Dana Sullivan

This is a tiny little restaurant, but I was pretty impressed by the food! They have a choose-your-own-pasta-adventure menu where you select the type of pasta and your sauce, and can optionally add on extra veggies and/or parmesan cheese for a small additional cost. They have a board advertising which pasta shapes are fresh. The base prices are pretty reasonable, so the end price even with add-ons isn't exorbitant.
I ordered the gnocchi puttanesca. It was an excellent dish - the gnocchi had the perfect texture and the puttanesca sauce was delicious. I actually ordered it with spinach, but they forgot to add the spinach when they cooked the dish, so instead brought it out in a small side dish in some sauce, but after trying the gnocchi I thought it was perfect as it was, so I just ate the spinach on the side. It was one of the chefs/cooks who delivered my food to my table and he seemed really nice. The portion was just right for me.
They also had a few desserts available in the fridge. I got a slice of chocolate tuxedo cake. Good cake, very rich, and a pretty generous slice.
It kind of looks like a hole in the wall and it's a little tight inside, but I would highly recommend them if you want some restaurant-quality pasta fast or without the fuss of a fancy restaurant.

First visit to this Trees location, but I’ve been to many of the other locations. The space is clean and comfortable - it’s moderately-sized for downtown and wasn’t crowded around noon on a weekday while I was there. The barista was friendly. I had a veggie breakfast wrap, a slice of strawberry cheesecake (January special), and a cup of Chinese sencha. The breakfast wrap is your standard scrambled eggs wrap with a Southwest touch of black beans and peppers, with a side of spicy salsa. It was good. The strawberry cheesecake had a strong natural strawberry flavour. The texture was nice and light, this one was a bit more mousse-like than most of their cheesecakes. They use high quality tea leaves. My good impression here is consistent with the experiences I’ve had at other locations. Their food is standard cafe fare but notable for being fresh and filling. The cheesecake slices are a good size, not too dense, and all of the flavours I’ve tried so far (which is most of them) are memorable.

Exceeded expectations! Stanley Park Brewing is a pretty reliable local brand, but you never know at an airport. Fortunately my experience here was very good.
I arrived around 8 pm on a Thursday for a pre-flight dinner, it was busy but not full. There was a host at the front to seat me right away, and after a few minutes with the menu, someone came to take my order. I got a beer and a meal - the beer was brought out very quickly, and the food took a bit longer, I wasn’t timing, but it was about average service time for a sit-down restaurant, maybe around 15 minutes.
Out of their 6 beers on tap, I chose the Noble Pilsner. This was great, I liked the very slight floral note - it was just pronounced enough to give the beer some character. From my experience with Stanley Park beers in general (outside of this restaurant), I appreciate how they sound simple but always have a little special touch to make them memorable.
I got the Tofu Power Bowl to eat, which was an absolute treat. Great medley of tofu and veggies in a delicious tangy sauce. Pretty filling, but not oversized.
The service was great, both attentive and very friendly. They did a little bit of small talk, (asking how was my day, where I was flying) which for me is sometimes not fun, but I felt they were very genuine about it and it made the experience feel nice and personal.
Obligatory one star off for the airport prices. Entree + beer + tip was $40+. If you’re going to spend $40 at an airport though, this is the way to go.

This place looks like a little bit of a hole in the wall and it’s hidden in the corridor of Broadway between Cambie and Main that’s getting torn up by construction, but it’s such a great find and absolutely worth checking out. They serve Turkish brunch and snacks, specializing in Turkish bagels, “simit”, hence the name.
I was very curious about these special Turkish bagels and tried one in the “Aspendos” smoked salmon bagel sandwich. I loved the bagel! It reminded me of Montréal-style bagels, a little sweet, but with a unique texture because it’s so thin and twisted. The bagel and the rest of the ingredients were very fresh. I watched the person working (owner?) put together the sandwich and it was pretty impressive how careful he was arranging the slices of salmon and vegetables around the ring if
the bagel. Because the hole in the middle is so large, it’s a different experience to eat a sandwich made with this kind of bagel, interesting! I also tried their almond pudding (I think it’s called keshkul but I’m not sure, maybe that’s something else) and a Turkish tea. The almond pudding had a nice strong almond flavour and a unique texture - it was a little grainier than standard pudding but not in a bad way. The tea was also quite strong but not bitter.
The person who took and made my order was really friendly, and as mentioned above, put a lot of care into my sandwich. Because the items are made to order very precisely, it’s not the fastest.
Check them out for something different! I really want to go back and try one of their Turkish breakfast plates!

I loved the vibe here. The style of decoration is a little old-fashioned (not outdated, just an older aesthetic) with beautiful, interesting artwork covering the walls, a nice fireplace, and plants in the windows. It felt like my grandparents’ living room. The barista was very nice too, which made it a welcoming atmosphere.
I got a tofu sandwich, a brownie, and an iced matcha latte. The sandwich had slices of tofu, slaw, spinach, and soft cheese (I think it was melted cheese, maybe it was a spread) on fig sourdough. I liked that it was something a little different and healthful, and it was delicious (especially the bread), but it had been made in advance and the dressing had really soaked into the bread. The edges of the brownie were a little dry, but the middle was so good - it was fudgy but not overly rich. The matcha latte was very clumpy and the flavour was so-so, though the weak flavour is probably not because they used low-quality matcha but because it wasn’t fully incorporated. I would not get this again.
My total was $21 which is comparable to what I’d pay for a similar meal at chain coffee shops like Blenz or Artigiano. While there are certainly better coffee shops for food, this one was better than the competition at the price point. The food had that wholesome homemade quality that the big chains lack. But ultimately the atmosphere here is so comfortable that I’d choose it over a lot of places with objectively better food, which for me is saying a Iot.