Lining Up for Bad Food (Vancouver)

[fmed]

Another thread inspired me to start this one...

Let me start by pre-declaring my "Tin Plate 2008" Award to (drum roll please) - Sophie's Cosmic Cafe...why why why?!

Runners Up:

-Bon's on Broadway
-Anton's
-Starbucks - any location
-Stepho's - controversial choice, I know...but life's to short to line up at Stepho's where the food is certainly better than merely edible
-Hon's

Anyone else have a "recommendation"?

[vandan]

as far as the naam goes a new thread could be lining up for mediocre food and even worse service

[jwnff]

the naam of course

good "home" cooked vegetarian but not worth a wait at all. especially because once you've waited in line the wait for food is excruciating. good to hit after a night out though

[fmed]

Good call on the Naam!

A friend says of the Naam -- "Do you know why it's open 24 hours?.....'Cause it will take that long for you to get your food!"

I'm not a fan of the food there. Everything seems to taste like a one-note mush.

[vandan]

tim horton's and bread garden for the food or the coffee

[kwailan4]

Paul's Place Omelettery.
Waited once for 45 min. That was one time too many.

[grayelf]

Long lines for coffee, even really good coffee (hello, 49th Parallel) can be a serious drag. But as OP notes, Starbuck's lineups are completely baffling to me.

[peter.v]

As a barista for a shop that makes pretty good coffee (if I may say so myself), I apologize for those lines. There's only so much we can do back there to speed things up (and I assure you, I'm doing all of that when we get rushed on Saturday mornings!). Just blame the largest sizes and all the modifiers on drinks some people insist on. ;)

[fmed]

I'm willing to wait out a reasonable lineup for great coffee. I do that each morning on my way to work...at Prado and/or JJBean on Commercial...JJBean has a pretty long lineup sometimes....so I go to Prado more often now - daily actually (Prado: 49th Parallel beans and their sexy white custom La Marzocco).

[grayelf]

I know just enough about how good coffee is made that I should have known better. Peter.v, lease accept MY apologies, and keep up the good work!

What I should have said is that there is no excuse for lining up for inferior coffee products when we have such stellar local breweries. We must use our lining up powers for good, not evil :-).

[peter.v]

Oh! I took no offense at all! I feel bad when folks have to wait a long time for a drink.

[grayelf]

Okay, that does it, you are way too nice:-). Time to patronize peter.v's coffee establishment. Hints as to the location surely don't count as promotion, do they?

[fmed]

I've been thinking of checking out Wicked. What's in your cup these days peter.v?

[peter.v]

Well, just a couple of hours ago I had a couple of cups of the Kenya Kangocho (an Intelligentsia offering) made with a chemex (for those who don't know, it's really just an upgraded Melitta filter drip with lab grade paper filters). Very balanced, sweet and enough fruit to make it interesting.

Earlier this morning was straight up Black Cat espresso. It gets me through the early shifts!

[grayelf]

I guess we are getting off topic here since I've never actually been in a long line up at Wicked, and I would consider it worth the wait if there was one but I forgot the linky...

-----
Wicked Cafe
1399 W 7th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6H, CA

[grayelf]

Oh is it Wicked? Excellent, love that spot, great coffee, cozy room and fabbo copper counter. Owner is super nice, staff is convivial, all good.

[twinkienic]

Are we making a distinction between lining up for _bad_ food, versus food that isn't worth the wait?

Toshi's has not yet convinced me that they are worth the wait... but I am willing to give them another try... maybe I ordered the wrong items.

[fmed]

Hmm...let's remove that distinction. Bad Food and Food Not Worth the Wait are fair game.

I'm with you on Toshi's. The sushi isn't particularly good...a cut above the corner sushi places, but definitely not worth the wait. It could very well be the Sophie's of the Vancouver sushi world. I'm willing to wait at Octopus' Garden, Shiro, and a few others, though.

[aburitoro]

The two times I went to Stepho's, I waited less than 10 minutes. I thought the food was good, the prices right, but there wasn't anything special enough about it to make me want to wait in a long-ass line.

I thought Kintaro ramen kinda sucked.

[pants]

sophie's was always a mystery to me too! a couple times i was forced into it and not impressed, couldn't figure out the draw - the layer of greasy dust on everything in there...yuck!!
I never waited at Stepho's, just went to Taki's up the street, it's better anyway.

i did line up for coffee at artigianno though

[waver]

I hardly ever line up for food - SO is not pleasant when made to wait. Also, I'm always hungry RIGHT NOW. Possible exceptions are a slow night at Vij's where I can sit in the lounge beer in hand or a fast moving line for noodles or dimsum. Alas, Bins are infrequent for us and Izakaya has yet to be explored (although thanks to a few posts here I now know who takes resers).

So perhaps the question for me is: which places are truly worth the wait or who makes the wait a good experience (a la Vij's)?

[fmed]

Vij's is an exception, for sure. (I have to admit it is not a favourite...but it is quite good). I've waited at Phnom Penh for about 15 mins a a couple of times. I waited at Octopus' Garden and it was definitely worth the time.

edit: let me add to the ones worth the wait: The three great ramen places at Robson and Denman; a number of dim sum places in Richmond (Shiang Garden, Chen's, Fisherman's Terrace, etc.).

[grayelf]

Fun thread, fmed! I am hugely wait-averse, so am continually aggro'd by breakfast and brunch lines in our fair city (topped only, in my experience, by same in San Francisco). You've already zeroed in on the bad food with big line ups so I'm going to pick on two places that have I think pretty decent grub but suffer from crazy long line-itis. We've pretty much given up on Slickety Jim's because of the lines, although I've enjoyed it every time. But so often we check the line up and head elsewhere. Seb's seems to have a similar problem (not that it's really a problem for the owners I guess). I would go more often if I didn't have to make it a military op to avoid a line!

[janetofreno]

When I went to Vij's last year I tried to time it so that we would arrive right at opening and avoid the wait. Unfortunately, nature called rather suddenly and I asked my group if they would wait three minutes while I ducked into a nearby McDonald's to do my thing. That three minutes did make a difference...we got there right at opening to find a line. (and more than one group joined it a minute before us...if we had been there three minutes earlier we would have been three or four groups further up the line....) And the line started to move....and guess which party was the first one to be told "I'm sorry, but all our table are now filled, you'll have to wait in the bar..." Of course, I was upset, and my guests a little irritated at me. I almost suggested we go elsewhere, but we knew we might not be together in Vancouver for a long time...so we settled in the bar. It turned out to be a wonderful evening; we met some very nice and interesting people there and very much enjoyed the snacks that were passed around to those waiting. And our dinner was well worth the wait....

[peter.v]

I can't say I've ever eaten there (other than doughnuts) but the lineups for the UBC Tim Hortons are always insane. I don't know why!! Also at UBC, the lineups for the Honour Roll, a take out sushi spot run by the student union is always lined up. The sushi is really just mediocre. But I'm still guilty of going there once in awhile.

[fmed]

They have a captive audience out there. (I used to be a student many moons ago).

I have another - Flying Wedge (I don't even know if people still line up for a slice there...but back in the day - there used to be a huge line up.

Gone now (so it's not really on the list) is Fresgo's....for post dance-clubbing grease lining.

[fmed]

>>I can't say I've ever eaten there (other than doughnuts) but the lineups for the UBC Tim Hortons are always insane. I don't know why!!

Class project...take a poll...determine the percentage of Eastern Canadians and Ontarians in that line up.