I write these words as I sit in the new food court at Park Royal South, a space dubbed Picnic by the creative forces in mall management.
Outside the sun shines brightly and the air tends towards mild with only the faintest bite of cold detectable at the tail end of a deep breath.
I imagine this must be a glorious day for skiing or ice skating, for a walk around the seawall or a stroll through a park somewhere. But it is busy here at Picnic and people of all ages carry their trays to the limited seats that remain unoccupied.
Shopping on a glorious day is anathema to my idea of purposeful time expenditure but I try not to be sanctimonious about it. Retail is, after all, a huge contributor to our economy and Park Royal boasts some of the best shops around now, amidst what feels like an interminable program of expansion. I don’t know everyone else’s story here and there may be good reasons for these people to be indoors right now. I’m here too, after all, and I have my reasons.
A few days ago I went to try Vina Vietnamese Cuisine in Dundarave with my son, The Boy. Vina has been around for nearly 30 years and is the progenitor of a series of food court offshoots scattered around the Lower Mainland.
Here, at Picnic at Park Royal, you will find the latest incarnation of Vina’s growing fast food empire. The restaurant offers a surprisingly extensive menu of popular Vietnamese fare including pho, banh mi, and a variety of entrée-style dishes based on a feature protein accompanied by a deep fried spring roll, simple salad and choice of rice or unseasoned vermicelli noodles.
I am polishing off a thin cut of grilled lemongrass-marinated pork. The meat is flavourful, with its barbecue and citrus notes, but is a touch salty for my taste, particularly if eaten with the optional side of peanut sauce.
A small bowl of Bun Bo Hue, a traditional central Vietnamese soup with a heavy lemongrass component and thick udon-style noodles, is generously portioned for $7 but has, in my estimation, been dialed down in flavour to appease a more pedestrian palate.
I’m fairly sure that I have eaten at one or more of these Vina satellite shops before; they appear in most of our major malls now, including Pacific Centre, Richmond Centre, Coquitlam Centre, and Metrotown. For some reason, however, it hadn’t occurred to me that they are the product of a mothership, in this case, a much more accomplished and respected institution. I mention this because having experienced both the offspring and its forbearer within the space of a few days, I must conclude that Vina food court restaurants are but pale shadows of their mentor.
When The Boy and I visited Vina proper in Dundarave, we found its many booths and four-top tables that surround a grand piano inexplicably situated in the middle of the room to be largely unoccupied.
Vina’s interior design is perhaps getting a touch long in the tooth and could use a refresh to better resemble the enduring institution that the restaurant is, but ultimately the room is still spacious and comfortable. Service was swift and attentive and The Boy and I were soon tucking into an appetizer course consisting of Cahn Chua, a traditional Mekong Delta sour soup and Green Papaya Salad with Prawns.
The Canh Chua was very tasty, revealing tart tamarind notes in the broth that paired nicely with small morsels of pineapple, chopped fresh tomato, celery, bean sprouts, scallion, and half a dozen medium, tail-on prawns. It’s a refreshing, palate-stimulating dish that makes an ideal appetizer and is a great value at $8.
The salad, with its thin slivers of crisp, deliberately under-ripened papaya, was fresh and light, though I found the dressing lacking in potency; I suspect they held back a bit too much on the Nuoc Mam, or Vietnamese fish sauce, a pungent, salty and lush ingredient with which I most commonly associate this salad.
For mains, The Boy and I shared a plate of Banh Cuon, steamed rice crepes filled with minced, lean and garlicky pork, and Curry Chicken with rice, pickled daikon radish and pickled carrots.
The Boy, a fanatical pho fan like his old man (he had to be reassured that our meal would indeed be complete despite the soup’s glaring absence) devoured more than half the Banh Cuon, of which there were a dozen, himself. The lean meat, heady with crushed garlic, thin, rice noodle wrappers, and crispy deep fried shallot garnish made them a hit.
For my taste, the curry was the star of the meal, a generously portioned, thick and fragrant blend of lean chicken with onions, potatoes, and thin ribbons of peppers in a Madras-style yellow curry sauce. Warm, inviting notes of cinnamon, turmeric and ginger prevailed. The dish, of which I took half a portion home, tasted even better the next day as the flavours became somehow bolder and better blended.
Our meal of two appetizers and two mains, washed down with an apple juice and a Heineken, was $61 before gratuity.
Vina Vietnamese Cuisine is located at 2508 Marine Dr. in Dundarave. 604-926-6001.
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
