Peaceful Restaurant – Update – 26th October

#110-532 W. Broadway (at Cambie)
Vancouver, BC
V5Z 1E9

T: 604 879 9878
www.peacefulrestaurant.com

Brief Description: A small and simple restaurant specializing in tantalizing Mandarin cuisine and hand-made noodles. Extremely affordable yet does not compromise on taste nor service.

If you walk past Peaceful Restaurant at lunch time on any given weekend, there is a good chance that B and I will be inside, feasting on our favourite dishes. Once we find somewhere that we are consistently impressed with it is difficult for us to venture away. At Peaceful, we are prone to routine and continue to order our favourite dishes time and time again. In all the times that we’ve been there, we have only managed to try one other dish: General Tsao’s Chicken and it is delicious. So delicious, in fact, that we have added it to our “favourites” list. Perhaps, some day, we will end up being able to try the whole menu but I have a feeling that that will be a very slow process.

Service is still as efficient and quick as ever yet the food, obviously, still remains the draw card. And now that the Canada Line has opened up the Cambie/Broadway area, Peaceful has never been easier to get to.

Peaceful Restaurant

#110-532 W. Broadway (at Cambie)
Vancouver, BC
V5Z 1E9

T: 604 879 9878
www.peacefulrestaurant.com

Brief Description: A small and simple restaurant specializing in tantalizing Mandarin cuisine and hand-made noodles. Extremely affordable yet does not compromise on taste nor service.

I must say that I am sometimes too quick to judge a book by its cover. Had it not been for a foodie friend of mine, I would probably never have stepped foot into Peaceful Restaurant. Sitting amongst a number of non-descript restaurants in a stretch of West Broadway, just off Cambie Street, Peaceful Restaurant doesn’t really draw attention to itself. From the front, it isn’t that inviting – there is a board out the front advertising the lunch special, there is a neon sign in the window and the name, well, it’s a tad tacky. But thankfully, it all appears just to be a decoy to keep people like me out!

The interior of the restaurant is as simple and no-frills as the exterior. The furniture is interesting – the fabric chairs have plastic covers on them (hee hee!) but it does seem as though they are slowly upgrading. On my last visit, the decor seemed a little fresher and they have replaced some of the fabric chairs with long seating along one of the walls. The service is fast and polite but don’t expect small talk. The food is delivered to the table within mere minutes of ordering, a feat that I am still unsure of how they do it.

None of this really matters though as it is the food that is the attraction, not the decor nor the service. I have ordered numerous and varied dishes and every dish that I’ve had has been great. The sauces are flavourful and are dispensed on the dishes with perfect precision – not too much, not too little. Menu items range from dim sum selections, noodle dishes, soups and many (many!) selections of meat, seafood or chicken dishes. And for the vegetarians; there are also quite a lot of delicious vegetarian dishes to choose from.

All of their noodles are hand-crafted on site. Evident when your conversation is occasionally interrupted by the sound of them whacking the noodles against the counter! The soft, chewy noodles are well worth the interruption.

My favourite dish, and one that you must try if you visit the restaurant, is the Peaceful Beef Rolls – oh my god! For only $6.50 you can snack on warm layers of thinly sliced beef and hoisin sauce wrapped in flaky green onion flat-bread. Yum! It’s killing me to describe them!! I’ve tried the Peaceful Potato Roll, which is similar but made with potatoes instead of beef and although delicious, it just can’t compare to the Beef Roll.

The menu is very large so it can be very difficult to make your selection. That is generally why I order far too much and get the rest packed up – my eyes are far larger than my stomach! My suggestion is to order a few dishes and share them, that way you don’t have to limit yourself too much. The great thing is that the prices are so reasonable that you can order a lot and not wince in pain when the bill arrives. In fact, the last time B and I went there we ordered 4 dishes (I told you I order too much!) and spent only $36.

Final Thoughts: I can’t rave about Peaceful Restaurant enough. The food is incredible and the prices are more than fair. I even like the simplicity of the decor as it feels so unpretentious. I guess the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” really rings true in this case. Lesson learnt!