Jane’s for Breakfast

Jane’s is small diner serving Canadian and Chinese food.  It is located in North Burnaby on 4217 Hastings St. 

 

This place is popular for it’s $3.95 breakfast.  You get the choice of meats, 2 eggs, potatoes and toast.  There aren’t a lot of these local diners anymore in the lower mainland.  Entering this diner is like going back in time to the 70’s or 80’s as there appears to be no updates done to the place.  In fact, my family used to run a similar diner back when I was a kid so as soon as I entered the place, the smell, colors and food immediately brought back memories.

We got there late on Saturday morning expecting it to be packed with people waiting for tables.  Luckily there were a few tables available.  I think most of the people just eat and run so the table turnover is quick.  Even our party of seven managed to get a big table to fit all of us.  Each of us ordered a a $3.95 breakfast.

I ordered ham, scrambled eggs and brown toast which looked like this:

My sister ordered sausage, sunny side up and brown toast which looked like this:

As you may agree from the pictures, for $4 this was a great deal.  It was certainly a decent sized breakfast to fill a hungry stomach in the morning.  It comes with home cut pan fried potatoes which can fill you up more than regular hash browns.  If you ordered a coffee, it comes with one free refill too. 

Even though the decor was outdated, things were very clean and service was quick and efficient.  It looks to be a family run business.  The menu had Chinese food as well. 

Aside from the $4 breakfast, everything else seemed to be standard priced.  For example, the fish and chips was $7.75 which I thought was a bit pricey for this type of diner.  We ordered the fish and chips just to try but I was a bit disappointed as it didn’t taste that great as the batter was thick and overcooked. I wasn’t able to get a picture in time as the hungry kiddy hands took the pieces of fish and fries off the plate as soon as it arrived.  It did come with a small bowl of Jane’s soup of the day which was beef barley.

The big advantage seems to be that Jane’s is not as busy as Bon’s off Broadway so you get quicker service. We’ll certainly be coming back again just for the delicious breakfast (nothing else).

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights (mostly for good value on the breakfast)

Bao Chau

We had another craving for some Vietnamese Pho so we decided to try a new place which has been blogged quite a bit in east Vancouver.  Bao Chau is located at 2717 East Hastings Street just between Nanaimo and Renfrew.

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I drove past this place hundreds of times and never thought about trying it before.  Based on reviews on several blogs, I learned that this place was popular for its spring rolls. The business name on the menu is also known as “The Spring Roll Special House Inc.”

The dish I ordered was a dry vermicelli which came with a spring roll, tiger prawn wrap with ham grilled pork hash (bun ba mau). Seems to be the special of the buns since the photo on the menu featured this dish.  I like to order the dry dish because I’m usually not fond of hot soup and I like to use this dish as a comparison with other places I’ve tried.

The prawn was new to me. It was like a giant pork ball with a small prawn inside. I think it is comparable to the prawn balls you get at Chinese wedding dinners. The pork patty was also a first for me. I didn’t like the pork patty at all because it was very similar to spam.

The vermicelli came hot as opposed to cold at some other places i tried. It tasted good as long as you used all of the fish sauce.  I liked their vermicelli because it was relatively al Dante.  The spring roll was fried well and had good texture.  It seemed to have more meat filling.  However, the filling made it soggy inside if you did not eat it right away.

San had the #2 rare beef pho.  She was too hungry and already started digging in before I could get a picture.  But overall San said the soup was not hot enough.  This was evidenced by the beef staying pink in color even half way through the meal.  She said the taste was just like other pho’s places so it was nothing unique.

Well, this place is just OK.  Not worth making a special trip.  If I were to crave for bun or spring rolls, I think the ones at Pho Tan are actually a bit better.  I also think that this place needs a few brighter light bulbs.  The tables were also very cramped as your chair is literally back to back to the chairs belonging to the table behind you.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights