Canada's largest annual dining celebration launches its 13th year with a staggering 263 restaurants on board. Produced by Tourism Vancouver and presented by American Express, for two weeks between January 17 and February 2 you can dive into excellent value set menus at across the city - but where to even start? Forget sifting through the hundreds of menus Amy Watkins has done that for you, to bring you her pick of Dine Out's various value offerings. May we present, in no particular order, the best of the $18 group. [Photo via Hapa Izakaya]
What will $18 get you nowadays? Three hours of The Hobbit movie? More cheap noodles than you can carry from Dollarama? At this year's Dine Out Festival your 18 bucks gets you a three, perhaps even four, course dinner. Perfect for cheapskates and potentially doomed first daters who want to eat out and still get change from their fifty.
This little lighthouse shines like a beacon of hope amongst the stores at Park Royal and its made-from-scratch pub grub makes the Village Taphouse a casual West Van favourite. Eighteen dollars gets you a heap of seasonal greens livened up with crumbly feta and spiced pecans, short rib pappardelle and a dessert to send you home full. One of the options, fish and chips, usually costs $13-16 alone. Take a seat by the fire, watch a game and get face-deep in some serious comfort food.
The original Hapa location has opted for, count ‘em, four courses for their $18 Dine Out menu and the options include all the favourites: chicken karaage, spicy tuna roll, dynamite roll and a selection of spicy pork or teriyaki chicken ishiyaki spicy pork are part of a solid and varied list of options from Hapa.
Both the Main and Kits outlets are taking part in Dine Out this year and with a typical flatbread alone starting at 10 bucks, the $18 menu is a doozy of a deal. Start off with a soup or salad (fig and goat cheese, basil and blackberry, herb) then build-your-own flatbread or fresh pasta to create your own Dine Out dinner. Pair with some BC wines and you’ve got yourself a deal.
Pushing the paradox of healthy Mexican food, Kits’ favourite cantina is offering a filling $18 menu that showcases their South Cali/Mexican dishes: start as you mean to go on with empanadas con chorizo y papas (stuffed with housemade chorizo), carry on with chile en nogada - a pepper stuffed with turkey and apple then smothered in walnut cream - but leave some room for not-so-saintly churros or pastel de tres leches.
Atithi's $18 menu is a good introduction for anyone new to eastern Indian food - appies include jackfruit biryani kathi roll and entrees such as sable fish with mango, mustard and curry leaves or lamb Bengali curry with green papaya show off the fragrant flavours of eastern India. Basic but ideal for family-style feasts - the lunch buffet is another good deal for the rest of the year.
Dosa dosa dosa - it’s the first choice appie on the $18 menu and the veggie-friendly South Indian cuisine of Chutney Villa reads like a fenugreek geek’s dream. Start with the dosa crispy rice and lentil crepes (save some to scoop up the lentil soup and coconut chutney) then stay on the vege-train to make a stop at the katrika pall eggplant coconut curry and mango ice-cream.
If you’ve been mainlining vitamin D but still need a splash of sunshine, the simple Caribbean food at The Reef will give your serotonin levels a boost. Get a house made ginger beer to kickstart your meal and then dig into plantain chips to get going, followed by Caribbean favourites such as snapper with rice and peas or the classic jerk chicken. Sweeten the deal with a pineapple coconut tart with caramelized sugar - all for $18. Happy now?
You only come here for the beer? Like other Heather hangouts, Bitter do a bang-on simple kale caesar salad, which handily is one of your options for the $18 Dine Out menu. They’ve gone the way of the taco for your entree choice with chicken, pig, seafood or veg options to keep you going and goat cheese cheesecake with Okanagan peach compote acting as the final stomach liner.
Half a pound of Caesar mussels, a mixed fish fry, filet-o-fish shack sandwich and a sticky toffee pudding are amongst the options on this cut-price three-course menu.
The Refinery can feel pretty pricey for the portion size so Dine Out is the ideal time to taste their Oceanwise offerings: make the most of the tuna tartare and pan-seared arctic char on the $18 special menu. The tartain crumble is a bonus - apple, salted caramel and shortbread crumble are nearly as good a mix as The Refinery’s cocktail list.
At upwards of $12 a burger, the $18 option is a thrifty way to get a carb and meat fix and smash all those resolutions in one go. Choose from pretty standard soup or salad appies, a selection of burgers (of course) from the keen-wa to the magic mushroom and finish off with drunken doughnuts. Shrimp tacos and noodles are on the menu for anyone who wants to go to a burger joint and not have a burger. Really?
At the darkest den of the Donnelly clan the Dine Out menu is following the colour scheme of the cocktails - there are some lighter options but you might as well stick with the dark spirits and opt for the house-made pork terrine, braised lamb shank and Bailey’s chocolate mousse cake with dark chocolate espresso fondue.
This little lighthouse shines like a beacon of hope amongst the stores at Park Royal and its made-from-scratch pub grub makes the Village Taphouse a casual West Van favourite. Eighteen dollars gets you a heap of seasonal greens livened up with crumbly feta and spiced pecans, short rib pappardelle and a dessert to send you home full. One of the options, fish and chips, usually costs $13-16 alone. Take a seat by the fire, watch a game and get face-deep in some serious comfort food.
The original Hapa location has opted for, count ‘em, four courses for their $18 Dine Out menu and the options include all the favourites: chicken karaage, spicy tuna roll, dynamite roll and a selection of spicy pork or teriyaki chicken ishiyaki spicy pork are part of a solid and varied list of options from Hapa.
Both the Main and Kits outlets are taking part in Dine Out this year and with a typical flatbread alone starting at 10 bucks, the $18 menu is a doozy of a deal. Start off with a soup or salad (fig and goat cheese, basil and blackberry, herb) then build-your-own flatbread or fresh pasta to create your own Dine Out dinner. Pair with some BC wines and you’ve got yourself a deal.
Pushing the paradox of healthy Mexican food, Kits’ favourite cantina is offering a filling $18 menu that showcases their South Cali/Mexican dishes: start as you mean to go on with empanadas con chorizo y papas (stuffed with housemade chorizo), carry on with chile en nogada - a pepper stuffed with turkey and apple then smothered in walnut cream - but leave some room for not-so-saintly churros or pastel de tres leches.
Atithi's $18 menu is a good introduction for anyone new to eastern Indian food - appies include jackfruit biryani kathi roll and entrees such as sable fish with mango, mustard and curry leaves or lamb Bengali curry with green papaya show off the fragrant flavours of eastern India. Basic but ideal for family-style feasts - the lunch buffet is another good deal for the rest of the year.
Dosa dosa dosa - it’s the first choice appie on the $18 menu and the veggie-friendly South Indian cuisine of Chutney Villa reads like a fenugreek geek’s dream. Start with the dosa crispy rice and lentil crepes (save some to scoop up the lentil soup and coconut chutney) then stay on the vege-train to make a stop at the katrika pall eggplant coconut curry and mango ice-cream.
If you’ve been mainlining vitamin D but still need a splash of sunshine, the simple Caribbean food at The Reef will give your serotonin levels a boost. Get a house made ginger beer to kickstart your meal and then dig into plantain chips to get going, followed by Caribbean favourites such as snapper with rice and peas or the classic jerk chicken. Sweeten the deal with a pineapple coconut tart with caramelized sugar - all for $18. Happy now?
You only come here for the beer? Like other Heather hangouts, Bitter do a bang-on simple kale caesar salad, which handily is one of your options for the $18 Dine Out menu. They’ve gone the way of the taco for your entree choice with chicken, pig, seafood or veg options to keep you going and goat cheese cheesecake with Okanagan peach compote acting as the final stomach liner.
Half a pound of Caesar mussels, a mixed fish fry, filet-o-fish shack sandwich and a sticky toffee pudding are amongst the options on this cut-price three-course menu.
The Refinery can feel pretty pricey for the portion size so Dine Out is the ideal time to taste their Oceanwise offerings: make the most of the tuna tartare and pan-seared arctic char on the $18 special menu. The tartain crumble is a bonus - apple, salted caramel and shortbread crumble are nearly as good a mix as The Refinery’s cocktail list.
At upwards of $12 a burger, the $18 option is a thrifty way to get a carb and meat fix and smash all those resolutions in one go. Choose from pretty standard soup or salad appies, a selection of burgers (of course) from the keen-wa to the magic mushroom and finish off with drunken doughnuts. Shrimp tacos and noodles are on the menu for anyone who wants to go to a burger joint and not have a burger. Really?
At the darkest den of the Donnelly clan the Dine Out menu is following the colour scheme of the cocktails - there are some lighter options but you might as well stick with the dark spirits and opt for the house-made pork terrine, braised lamb shank and Bailey’s chocolate mousse cake with dark chocolate espresso fondue.
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