I’ve never had lemongrass chicken before. Yes, it’s hard to believe, especially considering how many Vietamese restaurants there are in Vancouver, but I’ve never actually gotten around to visiting them. My narrow-minded parents generally scoff at the food from other Asian countries because they’re all cheap knockoffs of Chinese cuisine (with Japanese being the only exception), and growing up, I haven’t gotten much exposure to food from other countries. Wanting to rectify this situation, I decided to visit Pure Delight Cafe today. They are a restaurant located on West Broadway in Kits that was apparently formerly called Golden Train Express, but has since undergone renovations and has now been renamed Pure Delight Cafe. They have a quite a large menu of Vietnamese dishes. Of course, I had to get their lemongrass chicken, and ordered their Lemongrass Chicken Fried Rice.
Lemongrass Chicken Fried Rice ($11.95):
4/5
This came with a generous portion of fried rice that’s topped with a large piece of lemongrass chicken and was accompanied by a side of pickled radishes and carrots. The rice contained dried shrimp and some other ingredients that I couldn’t honestly recognize, and had a nice fragrance as well as savoury flavour. The chicken was tender, juicy and flavourful with a nice char. I couldn’t detect any lemongrass flavour (although to be fair I actually don’t know what lemongrass flavour is like; I’m assuming that it’s, well, lemony), but that didn’t really bother me too much. The portion was good and quite filling.
Wanting to try some pho, which is probably the most popular Vietnamese dish around here, I returned the following day and had their Beef Ball Satay Noodle Soup. You have the option of getting a small, medium or large. Of course, I had the large.
Beef Ball Satay Noodle Soup (Large, $10.95/$11.95):
3.5/5
This consisted of a bowl of broth blended with chili paste and filled with rice noodles and beef meat balls. The broth was light, with a savoury and mildly spicy flavour. The noodles had a nice bouncy texture. The beef balls were just the standard type that you get from Asian places like T&T, but were still tasty and had an enjoyable bouncy texture. The large was seriously a real big portion and I actually had trouble finishing it (I did succeed in the end, but I was seriously STUFFED).
Now I do have a bit of a confusion regarding the price: on the menu, I think that it was $11.95 for the large version, when I got the bill however, I was charged $10.95. Hey, I’m certainly not going to complain about being charged less than I thought, I just don’t know if it was a typo on the menu or a mistake by the server.
Fortune Cookies (comes with bill):
So I’ve finally tried lemongrass chicken, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. My visit to Pure Delight Cafe has certainly made me gain an appreciation for Vietnamese food, and I’ll certainly be exploring more of it in the future. The prices at this restaurant are quite reasonable, especially taking in account their generous, hearty portions. Service-wise, the food comes very quickly (I got my noodle within probably 5 minutes of ordering); the server I had was very quiet and reserved, but quite attentive. This is definitely a good place for a tasty and affordable meal in Kits.
Summary:
Food: 4/5
Price: 4.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Overall: 4/5
Recommendations: Lemongrass Chicken Fried Rice
