Comments on: Bon’s Off Broadway

By: Cafe Medina | I'm Only Here for the Food!

Cafe Medina | I'm Only Here for the Food! — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:03:34 +0000

[...] my Bon’s Off Broadway post, I mentioned what I usually have for breakfast. I am sure writing about cereals is not too [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:04:51 +0000

A 3 dollar breakfast… I don’t think you’ll ever find that here where I live.

By: fmed

fmed — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:11:26 +0000

I live very close to Bon’s and have had breakfast there a number of times over the last decade…I have to admit that I’m not a fan (my wife calls it “Mal’s”).

I have an iron stomach and I love dives…but Bon’s is in a different league. Everything tastes the same – the eggs, bacon, ham, pancakes, even the coffee has a murky “dirty rusty griddle” note. And I have to agree with Mrs Loquacious…the place is filthy and the owners don’t seem to have enough pride in the place to clean it.

Frankly, I would much rather eat at Golden Phoenix next door….I might have to spend $10 to eat well there, though.

Sorry to be so negative…the only other place that inspires this kind of negativity in me is the Naam.

By: KimHo

KimHo — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:53:11 +0000

Raidar, next time you are in Vancouver, drop me an email! ^_^

By: raidar

raidar — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:38:01 +0000

$3 breakfast + star wars + creatures from mars + kill bill…where do I sign up Kim. That is my kind of dive breakfast adventure.

By: KimHo

KimHo — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:41:46 +0000

Mrs Loquacious, out of curiosity, would you go to Save-on-Meats burger shop (assuming it is still open) or Burger Burger? Any comparison between HK dives with North American dives would be extremely unfair, given the type of food that would be served, not to mention it will be difficult for me to make judgment (as I have my own bias for Chinese food).

By: Mrs Loquacious

Mrs Loquacious — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:21:46 +0000

Thanks KimHo, and true – a cheap bad experience is always better than an expensive bad one.

To each their own, but I guess that for me, there’s a lower threshold for dives. I am only willing to overlook nasty conditions if the food is great (e.g. the congee/rice roll place on Fu Ning St. in Kowloon, HK) but not if it’s only mediocre or it is stale (like my Ukrainian sausages were). I would love to find a super cheap and tasty place in Van to dine at, but so far, my “cheap” experiences have been less than stellar.

I do have a weak stomach, Kevin – IBS too! That said, I am happy to scarf down a hotdog from the vendor on the corner (that’s the ultimate mystery meat) and enjoy the whole experience of devouring it, so I’m not a complete culinary wimp

By: KimHo

KimHo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:15:04 +0000

Mrs Loquacious, welcome! Most probably our expectations were completely different - Noticed I mentioned "compromise" a lot of times in the post? ^_^ From afar, I had a hunch this place was a dive, something fellow blogger Sherman confirmed. As a result, there would be no way I would be expecting anything less (well, when you are rock bottom...). Given this scenario, there is no point for me to compare it with restaurants that will charges me 3 times (or more) than what Bon's Off would charge. But, if you want one, take my visit to DeDutch (here). Was it better? Nope... As for the characters you will run into, again, that is part of life. To badly misquote Anthony Bourdain (on, out of all dives in the world, Save-on-Meats in Hastings): "Strangely enough, I've found that mystery meat only gets better the dodgier the neighborhood is. I mean what's mystery meat without the mystery". Notice that I never made reference to quantity and, while a cheap meal might not necessarily be a good meal, an expensive meal does not necessarily mean a good meal either. At least, if I have a bad experience with a cheap meal, I won't feel cheated the same way I would be if I had that bad experience with an expensive one! In the end, it is what you make out of it. In my case, it was an interesting option.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:08:25 +0000

Bon’s is greasy..and some of my friends cant stand it. I personally am okay with it, and will occasionally go for breakfast, especially if we were up all night.

Weak stomaches is what I say to them!

By: Mrs Loquacious

Mrs Loquacious — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:05:05 +0000

I’m surprised you enjoyed it at Bon’s. We were there the same day (but I went at about 11:00) and I *HATED* it. You can see my review on my blog, but basically the food was horrible and service was understandably lacking; location was filthy and general feel of the place was grimy and not in a good, kitschy way. I honestly don’t think quantity = quality nor do I think a cheap meal is always a good meal. In this case, it was at best mediocre food in an undesirable environment, which amounts to a generally distasteful dining experience.