KINGSWAY, METRO VANCOUVER’S longest street, starts at Main Street near Broadway in Vancouver and runs southeast all the way to the Burnaby/New Westminster border. Most of the retail outlets along this street are Asian restaurants and stores: from Indian dosa, Vietnamese pho’ and Korean barbecue restaurants to Taiwanese bubble tea cafés, Mandarin noodle houses and even Filipino restaurants! The grocery stores and markets are mostly Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.
Most of the restaurants occur in clusters. Within a few blocks between Fraser and Knight, for example, are Po Kong Vegetarian Restaurant, an eatery devoted to meat-free ingredients; Tung Hing Bakery, which is famous for its bánh mì sandwiches; and the equally well-known House of Dosas. Two Cantonese places—Ken’s Chinese Restaurant (for golden B.C. Dungeness crab) and Dai Tung (for five-cup spiced duck)—face each other on the same block.
East of Willingdon Avenue, near Metrotown, are modern Taiwanese café restaurants: Tea Works (the original is still on Victoria Drive), The One Restaurant and 508 Bistro are popular late-night joints. Hanwoori Korean Restaurant’s, famous barbecue and authentic homestyle fare is just blocks away.
For a hot-and-spicy challenge, go to Hotluck and order the red-hot Szechuan hot pot or to Curry King Café, which offers an extensive menu of curries and multi-course dinners. Farther down, near Imperial Street, is the unlikely Greek-turned-Vietnamese restaurant, Pho’ Hong, known for its soup, and on nearby side streets are two Hunan restaurants, one of which is the award-winning Alvin Garden. Be sure to try its marinated pork heart.
During the day, you’re likely to share these restaurants with large parties of girlfriends, homemakers and youngsters, or with moms and schoolkids having lunch. In the evening, many places—particularly the smaller family-style ones—are filled with locals from the newly built high-rise condos and townhouses all along this corridor.