Vancouver is home to a lot of restaurants and bars, but there are tons of hidden gems that the majority of Vancouverites aren't unearthing. To help guide us to these potential discoveries, we've enlisted some of our city's food players to share their recommendations for a feature dubbed Dining Confidential. Know a chef who wants to share some top dining spots? The tipline is open.
[Photo via Hawksworth Restaurant]
Award-winning chef David Hawksworth is one of Canada's leading culinary talents, here he shares his love of a downtown Vietnamese restaurant.
Where do you like to eat with your family?
We like to go down to the Joyeaux Cafe, it's one block down from Hawksworth on Howe, they do some amazing pho there and it's packed all the time.
What do you like to order?
Their lemongrass chicken is very good and it's always super fast. They do different versions of pho and they're really consistent; I've never been there and it's been any different, that's what I love about them - they are totally consistent. Their spring rolls are great, but I always have the pho; there are two versions, the beef stew or a braised meat which is more of a winter version. I also love that their menu never changes.
What is it that appeals to you about this kind of food?
It's completely different from what I do and you just need a different flavour every once in a while, you need to get away from being around food all the time and you need totally different tastes. So when I go out to eat, I tend to go out for spicier things, for instance, I like Sriracha and I'll add lots of lime juice to my pho to make it nice and zippy!
· Hawksworth Restaurant [Official Site]
· Joyeaux Cafe [Official Site]
· All Previous Dining Confidentials [EVAN]
· All Previous David Hawksworth Coverage [EVAN]