Fraser Park Restaurant
4663 Byrne Road
Burnaby, BC
A lot of times, accessibility to a restaurant is an issue. If it is near main roads or near transit, chances are people will go there rather than a place located in the middle of nowhere – literally. One day, I was running some errands in Market Crossing, a mall in South Burnaby, almost New Westminster when hunger stroke. Sure, there is White Spot and some other restaurants but they weren’t that inspiring. That’s when I remember a post from Karl (of The Friday Lunch) of a cafe nearby: Fraser Park Restaurant.
Now nearby might be a somewhat wacky description: It was ~1Km away from Market Crossing in a sort of industrial area, basically middle of nowhere. That brings the question: what the hell is a restaurant doing there? I guess if there is a need, there will be business. The oddity was that, on the day I went, most of the patrons could easily be one those you could find in any restaurant in Metro Vancouver. Interesting…
After queueing up to make my order, I encounter one issue. All the tables were taken, including several sits in a semi-communal table.Oh, well, that means sitting outside which have the advantage of having natural light (with the caveat it might be cold). Fortunately, one sit opened and decided to stay inside. Although lightning would be an issue, at least, there was music inside; that lunch in the form of a live band (amateur band?). And now that brings the food…
The restaurant has a mix of breakfast items (pancakes? french toast?) and some sandwiches. However, knowing the German background of this restaurant, I went for something on that side of the world: schnitzels. OK, this is not 100% German but close enough for me. And the one item that had schnitzel is their sandwich which includes an option of salad or soup.
The soup ended up being beans, corn and tomato. Wacky combination but it worked! It was savoury had a savoury start but then the sweetness of the corn kicked in. The beans served as a filler and, at the same time, thickened the soup. The tomato provided a slight hint of acidity that rounded up the soup. To a certain extent, I finished to soup first and almost forgot I was there for the schnitzel! And that brings…
The sandwich itself. There were two pieces of breaded pork cutlet and some lettuce and tomato to go along. The cutlet was crispy, though slightly dry. Now, it wasn’t necessarily bad because it is a thin piece of meat, cooked well, after all. What matters is that it kept some of that pork goodness taste.
While the cutlet was good, the other parts could have been better. The lettuce was barely noticeable, almost a token for greens. Something similar with the tomato. The bread was soft and generic; the fact it was oily outside was, well, unnecessary. Still, these faults did not hamper the main part of the sandwich.
During the meal, the chef walked out and started to play with the band, something I thought was funny in its own way. More importantly was the customers. As mentioned above, they could be from almost anywhere from town but is the fact they take this trip just to have some breakfast and lunch (Fraser Park is only open until 2:00 p.m.) means something. And, from that perspective, I am good with it. Would I come back? If it wasn’t because it is in the middle of nowhere, I would for breakfast… 
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been meaning to try to place out too. Strange location definitely. But sometimes gems can be found this way. As you’ve said before, the known restaurants have all been done many times over. We need to find the hidden, less known ones.
Sherman, yup, I guess that is part of our “job”! Burger Burger, anybody?
I’m always up for a burger
Kate… You MUST try Burger Burger!
Thanks for the shout-out, Kim! It doesn’t look to be in the middle of nowhere for much longer, what with all the stores creeping closer. That schnitzel burger is a gut-buster for me…the last one I had he snuck a THIRD cutlet in! You all must try the German lunch on Wednesday’s. All home-cured meats with homemade sauerkraut. It’ll be a nice warm-up for the festplatte!!
Karl, since there are no buses going there and, even then, if there were, you have to walk ~1.5Km, it is not really enticing to go so still “in the middle of nowhere”! Sorry, no festplatte for me because I work in Downtown and there is no way for me to get there on time for lunch and back to work. One of these days… >_<
i used to work in the neighborhood. Anton, the chef is a german butcher, there’s a certificate on the wall. Kim, you must have went on a saturday, hence, the band. items that i found good were the beef or pork dip (but this must be eaten immediately, and ask for extra side of mayo. he breakfast sandwich with egg is good too. Anton makes his own sausages, bacon, mayo and soup. the chowders are good. if anyone hits the day when he has his coq au vin, he uses white wine, but it’s really yummy. i never bothered with the burgers there, but overall, this is a hole in the wall, but a pretty decent one at that.
@KimHo
I meant if you get to try the German lunch it would warm you up for the festplatte at the Alpenclub!
Koji, yes, I was there on a Saturday. Do you know if he makes the coq au vin on a specific day of the day or it could be any time?
Karl, oh, boy, does that mean I have to take a day off in the middle of the week to do that? XD
Yes, it’s me Anton, the owner of Fraser Park Restaurant.
…just yesterday we had Coq au Vin again. If you want to to subscribe to my weekly “DELI NEWS” to be informed about the daily specials/Soups – just drop me a line under aheggen@shaw.ca.
O yes, and thank you for this great comments about us! I am already working on getting the Schnitzel juiciness improved….
Auf Wiedersehn
Chef Heggen, welcome! Thanks for letting us know about the contact details and, more importantly, the fact you listen to customer’s feedback!
Hello Anton,
I would like to subscribe for your weekly “Deli News”
Gruß
Kurt