Vancouver’s Main Street has enough places to eat and drink that a person like me with a wife and family and job will totally never get to all of them. But the other night we got to Zakkushi and Sweet Revenge, in good company. With pix.
What happened was, Eve AKA XMLgrrl (or @xmlgrrl) came up to visit and so we decided to make an evening of it. But before I go on, I have to put a frame around something Eve said; don’t know if she invented it, but anyhow it needs to be featured:
What happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. Forever.
Zakkushi · The problem with The Main is that it’s trying to gentrify, but most of the buildings are fifty-plus-year-old low-rises that were cheap&nasty when they were built. Zakkushi’s storefront on Main which at the end of the day is in a cheesy strip mall nonetheless wears a brave front.
Inside, the ambiance is funky-Nippon which seems to mean lots of wood, hollering Irasshai with wild enthusiasm, and having some real eye-rollers on the menu. I liked it.
As for the food, the yakitori variations were wonderful even when trying a little too hard, the classics e.g. assorted sashimi were rendered beautifully, and the menu items that made you think “WTF?!?” when you read them mostly didn’t quite come off. A good place, we’ll be back.
Sweet Revenge · Really outstanding coffee, desserts mostly pretty boring (although Lauren says the trifle had real merit) and decor that was totally incoherently overdone but actually sort of fun to look at.
This post has exhausted approximately 0.5% of Main Street’s dining potential. Obviously there is Work To Do.
