Food & Travel Diary

I am blessed to live in one of the world’s best cities for food, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I’ve known for years that we have some of the world’s best restaurants. Not necessarily the finest, nor the most expensive, nor the most elegant, but best by my own personal standards, that are admittedly quirky.

I love those little mom and pop ethnic places that some call “greasy chopsticks.” Except they’re not only Asian. My sister, who is a San Francisco based food writer, recalls nostalgically that her California city by the bay used to have these little eateries decades ago, but high rents forced most of them out of business.

Only yesterday I lunched on a divine bowl of barbecue pork and noodle soup that cost $4.20. That’s not a typo. The price, before a tip, was four dollars and twenty cents Canadian, or about US$4.30.

This post, however, is about what may be the best Chinese restaurant in the world outside of China. It’s one I’d never heard of before, although I’ve likely driven past it many times. According to a report in this morning’s Vancouver Sun newspaper, the Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Richmond, BC, has just received high accolades from a New York Times reporter. Jennifer 8 Lee, writing in “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food” called Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine “the world’s greatest Chinese restaurant outside China.”

What makes the story even more interesting is that the world has not exactly been beating a path to the Zen restaurant’s door. Diners seem to have been staying away in droves. Perhaps because Richmond BC, the Vancouver suburb with a very high Asian (mostly Chinese) population, as well as the Vancouver International Airport, has literally hundreds of great Chinese restaurants.

I have a friend who was born in Hong Kong, but has been a Vancouver resident for several decades. Harry has relatives who live in Los Angeles who are “foodies” and who make pilgrimages at least once a year to see what fabulous new Chinese restaurant has opened in Richmond. Harry told me that there are many restaurants in Richmond serving Chinese food that was at least as good if not better than he could get in Hong Kong.

But poor Sam Lau, the owner of the Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine restaurant has been crying in his tea that business has been so terrible, he has been contemplating bankruptcy. Until today, that is. I hope this positive publicity will bring more patrons his way. Although I’ve never eaten in his establishment yet, you can be sure it has just risen to the top of my short list for “must dine” restaurants in greater Vancouver.

The restaurant’s location is a bit hidden. It’s on the second floor of a strip mall. I hope there is a large parking lot. They’re going to need one.

Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine
8580 Alexandra Street, suite 2015
Richmond, BC