Alternative to Crystal Mall in GVA?

[cat2007]

I will be traveling to Vancouver next week and was interested in checking out the Crystal Mall food courst but my free time in Vancouver will be cut short - I will only really have one day free to sight see. On that day, I wanted to go to Granville Island, the Museum of Anthropology and downtown Vancouver. I have read on the boards that it is best to go to Crystal Mall for lunch, but I don't think I would have time to get to Burnaby for lunch and do the other things I wanted to do. I will also miss the opening of the Richmond Night market because I will be heading back home on the 30th.

I would love to sample a variety of authentic asian food - Is there a similar food court in one of the malls that is open in the evening? If I arrived at Crystal Mall around 6 pm, would that be too late?

[fmed]

I think it will be too late after 3pm (eg, - that is approx when they stop serving the XLB's at Wang's AFAICR). Richmond will be too far out which nixes Aberdeen and Yaohan.

For a non-mall food court experience, the corner of Robson and Denman has a multitude of Japanese and Korean izakaya. That scene begins hopping around 7pm. I highly recommend it. Do a search on this board for my Google map posting on Vancouver Izakaya. I recommend Kingyo, Hapa, and the two Guus as a starter set.

http://www.chow.com/stories/10980

[im_hungry]

Crystal Mall closes at 7pm, so a lot of the vendors will be sold out (or have bottom of the barrel selection) at 6pm. If you're specifically looking for Chinese/XLBs, you can get these (and other stuff) at a lot of dim sum places (but the XLBs aren't as good as the ones you'd find at Wang's in Crystal). If you started off at the Museum of Anthropology, you could go to Golden Ocean in Kerrisdale, Kirin at City Square or Golden Great Wall (their XLBs are better than GO/Kirin and come 6 or 8 in a steamer) at Broadway btwn Cambie/Oak for an early dim sum lunch (I think these places start serving as early as 10am), before heading over to Granville Island and downtown. That way, you don't end up back tracking very much. If you are craving Chinese food, another alternative is to save your cravings for the evening and go for late night eats at a wonton noodle house. I like Congee Noodle House on Main and Broadway. I think they open til 1am or 2am most nights. The only caveat about going to these wonton noodle houses is that many are cash-only establishments.

[cat2007]

Thanks for the replies - the izakaya sounds interesting. I will be going to this place solo and I have read that izakaya tends to be a group experience. Can I get solo portions?

[fmed]

I've done a crawl solo and have sat at the bar of a number of places - Hapa, Kingyo, Guu, etc. The plates are small in an izakaya...they are also priced accordingly (think "tapas"). You can literally have one dish and one drink at a restaurant then move on to the next place. If you want to stay at one - Hapa and Kingyo are my top spots - Hapa for the 'loungey' atmostphere and Kingyo for the food.