I'm Only Here for the Food!

Joe’s Grill
1031 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC

Teresa’s Cafe
1001 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

I will openly admit this: One thing I do not like about flying is the lag due to the time shift. When I went to Panama, oddly, I did not have any problems adjusting to the local time (Panama is -5GMT vs -8GMT but, due to daylight savings, right now the difference is +2 hours). However, on my flight back, I arrived in Vancouver at around 12:00 a.m., which gave me enough to take the cab home, sleep a couple of hours and go to work. That created a problem in the next couple of days (actually, daylight savings has been an almost “constant” problem): I was hungry way before noon. Usually, I just wait until something closer to noon but, alas, it was not an option this time…

Going for “lunch” before noon has issues of its own: a lot of places does not open until 12:00 m, so options are slightly limited. Two of these places is the topic of today’s post, Joe’s Grill and Teresa’s Cafe.

First, Joe’s Grill. I have walked in front of this place hundreds of times. For some odd reason, I have the feeling it has changed hands (i.e., it used to be something else) but memory fails me on this one. Anyway… They usually list their specials outside in a sandwich board. That day, one of the specials was a lentil soup plus a turkey bacon sandwich, which is what I ended up ordering.

The lentil soup was just OK, nothing worth mentioning about. The sandwich… This would be a sandwich I would make in a hurry with whatever I could find, not sure if this is something I would have expected from a restaurant, not even a diner. Overall, other than “cheap” ($7), I am not sure if there were other redeeming quality.

The following day, running into the same scenario, I went to Teresa’s Cafe, which happens to be just around the block.

Unlike Joe’s Grill, which was not packed before noon, Teresa’s Cafe had around a dozen or so customers, including a couple sitting in the “patio” outside (which can be considered a misnomer). The menu is made up of mostly breakfast fare so that’s what I ordered: a corn beef hash (sic), which comes with a toast of your choice and two eggs, again of your choice..

For the toast, I had rye; however, they ended up more on the lines of whole wheat. As for the hash, actually, that was a lot of potato. The corned beef provided enough saltiness, without it being overpowering. The eggs, sunny-side up, was still runny, which worked well with the buttery toast. It was a deal for just under $7.

Out of the two, I think I prefer Teresa’s Cafe. However, in both cases, by the afternoon, I was already starting to feel “hungry” again. In conclusion, they work as a light meal but, if I was really hungry, I think I would go for something else.