Tropika on Robson (web site, map, 1128 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone 604-737-6002) is a popular Malaysian and Thai restaurant located on the second floor overlooking Vancouver’s trendy Robson Street shopping district (downtown), between Bute and Thurlow streets.
The restaurant has won numerous awards for their innovative and unique decor, and more importantly for their food. Their menu, which is full of wonderful mouth-watering photos, makes choosing dishes a snap – even if you’re not so familiar with Malaysian or Thai cuisine. Simply look at the photos in the menu and let your eyes decide what to eat!
On a previous visit (over two years ago) I enjoyed the satay skewers and the Hainanese chicken.
This time we tried the following dishes (all pictured below): Indonesian spring rolls filled with chicken ($2.50 each), some delightfully puffy roti canai bread served with a special sauce ($2.95), the marvellous sambal clams ($13.95), an hot and sour eggplant hot pot with minced pork ($11.95), and the pineapple fried rice with ham and chicken ($12.95).
An interesting drink that we tried was the Coconut Juice served in a real coconut (also pictured below). This was a huge coconut filled with some refreshing and slightly sweet coconut juice, that we could enjoy with a straw.
In addition to Tropika’s Robson Street location, the restaurant also has a couple of other locations: Tropika Cambie Street (map, 2975 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-879-6002), and Tropika at Aberdeen (map, unit 1830, Aberdeen Centre, 4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, BC, Canada, phone: 604-233-7002). More info is on their web site.
Indonesian Spring Rolls from Tropika on Robson Street ($2.50 each)
Roti Canai bread from Tropika on Robson ($2.95)
Sambal Clams ($13.95) from Tropika on Robson
Hot & Sour Eggplant Hot Pot with Minced Pork ($11.95) from Tropika on Robson
Pineapple Fried Rice with Ham and Chicken ($12.95) from Tropika Restaurant on Robson Street.
Coconut Juice served in a fresh real coconut (around $4.00) from Tropika Malaysian and Thai restaurant in Vancouver BC Canada.
H-Mart (wikipedia, website, map, 200 – 550 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada) is a Korean-American grocery store chain with many locations throughout North America. In Vancouver they are on the second floor at the corner of Robson and Seymour – a prime spot in the downtown shopping district.
As you enter the store, your eyes are greeted with a foyer full of small electrics, including rice steamers and griddles. From there, you enter a world of household necessities including ‘Joy Gloves.’ Which brings up a point. Some product names just don’t come through translation to have the same impact in English as they did in their native country’s language.
[…] The prepared foods are tasty as well. The kim-chee from the refrigerator case is top notch, as are the fried beef and sesame chicken. In the freezers are everything from squid and octopus to red bean ice cream. Try some of the gyoza or steamed dumplings for a treat. There are also frozen ducks in the case labeled ‘duck, parts missing.’ It’s best to not think too hard about which parts are absent.
I really like their gyoza and kim-chee, as well as their prepackaged sushi which becomes discounted near the end of the day.
But a little-known feature of this grocery store is the food court that is at the north side facing Robson street. Here you can get a variety of popular Korean dishes such as the spicy tofu soup, spicy beef broth, seafood pancake, and many more (menu shown below).
I tried the Item #5 which is described as “Mixed Vegetables and Rice in a Stone Hot Pot” ($8.50, pictured below) – it is called Bibimbap in Korean.
The ingredients are arranged artfully on rice in a super-hot stone bowl, and it’s up to you to mix them up and wait a couple minutes for everything to cook.
In the photos below I’ve shown what the dish looks like before and after mixing the ingredients. It tasted fabulous – the combination of rice, egg, vegetables, and meat was quite filling and satisfying but also was non-greasy and seemed healthy.
The stone bowl remains piping hot for a long time; after resting my chopsticks on it for a minute the wood became almost too hot to touch. The dish is served with some kim-chee (spicy Korean pickled cabbage) and a warm soup broth with green onions.
After enjoying Item #5 for a second time, I’ve decided to make the H-Mart Korean Supermarket one of my regular dining spots. Visiting the food fair is like taking a mini vacation to Korea – most of the other patrons seem to be talking in Korean, and many of the signs are in both Korean and English.
Bibimbap Korean food ($8.50) from H-Mart Market in Vancouver BC Canada - before mixing the ingredients.
Korean Bibimbap dish after mixing the ingredients in the hot stone bowl.
H-Mart Korean Food Fair Menu, located on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver.
An Ikea Restaurant is located in both Ikea stores in the Vancouver area: Richmond (map, 3200 Sweden Way, Richmond, British Columbia, phone: 604-273-2051) and Coquitlam (map, 1000 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam, British Columbia, phone: 604-636-1000).
IKEA is famous for the clean and modern design of their reasonably priced home furnishings and accessories. Their stores are “family friendly” which means there is a room filled with balls for kids to play in (one of my favorite places to go when I was a kid), and a bunch of kid-friendly items such as hotdogs and meatballs on the menu at their restaurant.
I went on a visit to Ikea on a Sunday afternoon, mainly to try their restaurant. The food at the restaurant is fairly inexpensive, because they know if people feel comforted by good food, they might be more inclined to spend hundreds of dollars on that new couch, table, or desk. It sure worked for me – I really only intended to visit the restaurant and then have a quick look around the store, and I ended up spending over $300 on various items. Yikes!
Being a Swedish company, Ikea features some Swedish items on their menu including the meatballs (pictured below) which cost around $7 for 15 meatballs with potatoes or fries (or $6.49 for 10 meatballs, potatoes, fries, and a soft drink). They also have some really tasty cold smoked salmon dishes such as the Gravlax with mustard and dill (also pictured below, around $5.00). For dessert they offer some nice pastries and cakes, such as the one pictured below (around $2.00).
If you like pasta, you can get a plate of Organic Pasta for $1.99. Their menu describes this dish as, “organic pasta with organic vegetarian tomato sauce” and says the pasta is available after 11am. But if you go before 11am you can get a $1.00 (yes, that’s one dollar) breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, and home fries. Their hope is that you’ll spend much more on the home furnishings and accessories. After all, you are already there, so why not pick up a TV stand, lamp, and chaise lounge or two?
Ikea Swedish Meatballs from Ikea in Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver BC Canada). Around $7.00.
Ikea Swedish Gravlax with Mustard and Dill (smoked salmon, delicious!). Around $5.00. From Ikea in Coquitlam BC Canada, a suburb of Vancouver.
Swedish Dessert pastry from Ikea restaurant in Coquitlam BC Canada (a suburb of Vancouver). Around $2.00.
