Bao Chau Spring Roll Specialty House on E Hastings and Slocan, Vancouver

On most Fridays when Suanne and I have our date night, she would take transit and meet me at my office in Burnaby. It works better for me that way because if I get home, I just can’t go out again. Moreover, from Burnaby as a staging point, getting to any part of Metro Vancouver is just a short drive.

I remember someone telling me that of all the cities in Metro Vancouver, Burnaby is the most central location. It sounded kind of right when he told me that Burnaby is at most just one bridge away from everywhere else. Yeah, sometimes people measure distances by the number of bridges you have to cross.

Since we started off from the Metrotown area, we decided to venture north. It is a part of the city that we don’t go to often because of the distance from home in Richmond.

East Hastings, there are a lot to discover along this street. We thought we go to where Luda is to take a couple of pictures to post on the blog. Remember we asked if anyone wanted to help us make up a table for dinner in this post? That’s me. Suanne thinks I am too much a perfectionist to drive all the way there to take a picture of the restaurant just so that I have pix for the blog post. *shrug*

So after taking the pictures, we decided to go have dinner in Bao Chau. We have heard a lot about this place before but have no expectations whatsoever about it. Some people likes it and what they like about here is their spring rolls more than anything else. And it sure seems to be the case because the words “Spring Roll Specialty House” is even more prominent that the words “Bao Chao” on the awning.

It is a big restaurant. I would say it is about double the size than most typical Vietnamese restaurants.

It is also popular from the number of customers they have. It was not full but most of the tables were taken. Looking around, their customers are mixed with a fair number of them non-Vietnamese. I am not surprised because Bao Chau is a well known restaurant who had established itself in the neighborhood over the years already.

There is a rare sight of a round table in Vietnamese restaurants. I don’t see many of these sort of tables in a Vietnamese restaurant for sure. They even have a lazy susan in the middle of the round tables … except that they use that for condiments, sauces and eating utensils, and not for dishes and food.

Service? I must point out that the waitress has a sour face which is really obvious. No, it did not bother us but I think some customers may take offence to that glum unhappy frown. I certainly don’t expect smiles and all but walking around with a sour face will not do any good to anyone.

The menu is nothing exceptionally exciting. The usual suspects are there along with a handful of dishes that we had never tried before.

Suanne pointed to me an interesting thing she saw on the menu. On the left menu above and right at the bottom where the front page/logo is, is the words that says “For Take Out, Add $0.50 Per Item”. Strange right? She thought this is directly opposite of what the other restaurants do … that they give discounts for take outs. Instead, in Bao Chau they charge extra for take outs. I was wondering what the justification is for the additional 50 cents.

My eyes were only scanning for those dishes that has spring rolls. So I decided on the Combo B ($10).

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this. This is a really large plate of meat and contained … More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Bao Chau Spring Roll Specialty House on E Hastings and Slocan, Vancouver (478 words)

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Post tags: Restaurant Review, Vancouver, Vietnamese