My standards for Vietnamese food are pretty high.
My ex-partner was Vietnamese and cooked traditional food at a high level – and had even higher standards for restaurants.
So I’m pretty excited to find those same high standards are coming to Pho Den, which opens on March 1 at 6401 Kingsway on the Metrotown/Edmonds border.
“Located in Burnaby, Pho Den is the home of classic Vietnamese cuisine bringing vermicelli bowls, spring rolls, salad rolls, banh mi and more.”
I’ve been told that Pho Den has sourced out some incredible bread for the banh mi sandwiches. Bread, for me, is the most important part of a banh mi. I’ve had too many ruined by stale bread.
As for pho, it’s all about the broth, something that gets ruined by weird packaged flavourings.
Oh, and if you are one of the first 25 people on opening day, you’ll get a bowl of pho for free. Otherwise, it’s 15% off for the entire month of March.
This is just one of a plethora of new restaurants opening in Burnaby in the coming weeks.
The Peri Peri Shack’s flame-grilled chicken has three levels of heat, from hot, very hot to Peri Nero – the restaurant’s hottest flavour. They are bringing this spicy chicken – along with mild, citrus and herb, plus mango – to the corner of Hastings Street and Sperling Avenue to fill the space recently vacated by Cozmos Cafe, which closed after deciding to not renew its lease.
One of the world’s largest fried chicken restaurant companies is also making a big push into Burnaby with two locations. The company is called bb.q, but it doesn’t do barbecue chicken - it does Korean-style fried chicken in sweet, savoury and spicy varieties that include a number of different dipping sauces. The company has more than 3,500 locations in 57 countries. The first restaurant is coming to the old Chez Meme bistro spot in Burnaby Heights on Hastings Street, just west of Gilmore. The second will be coming to the Metrotown area on Beresford, which is located a block to the south of Metropolis at Metrotown.
There are so many new fried chicken restaurants opening up in Burnaby that it’s hard to keep up. The latest – and possibly the greatest – is new arrival K Chicken at 2701 Norland Ave. on the edge of an industrial park. It was previously known as the Norland Grill, a popular lunch spot for people who live and work in the area. K Chicken’s menu is loaded with different options, from marinated to regular to spicy fried chicken.
So there are just a few of the new places to open up now or soon in Burnaby.
Enjoy.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
