Bel Café || Eatz

This post is long overdue! I think this visit was all the way back in late March. Woops! My friend Mahal and I have wanted to meet up to catch up but with out busy work schedules, we never got the chance to do it until then. We are both foodies and love to try new things. Now, I’ve passed by Bel Café many many times while I am in Downtown but I never actually ventured in. I asked Mahal was she wanted to eat and she was game for anything, so I suggested this joint. Let me say this, Bel Café did not let our hopes down.

Bel Café is right next to David Hawksworth’s main restaurant Hawksworth; Bel Café is actually owned by David Hawksworth! This I did not know that until we saw the sign and I was super excited! Bel Café is small café tucked in the corner of the Rosewood Hotel Georgia; it serves as an eat-in restaurant but it also has a take out counter for the quick pickups. If you are looking for simple food, look no further because this is the place to be at. After much deliberation, Mahal and I decided to share two dishes – the ­­­­­spicy chicken salad and their seared albacore tuna sandwich – and both dishes were excellent!

Their chicken salad was right up my alley and I would have it everyday if I could. There was a lot of julienned daikon and carrots, vermicelli rice noodles, perfectly done chicken and topped off with black sesame seeds. It comes with a lemongrass ginger dressing and we asked for it on the side. And it’s a good thing that we did; a little bit of dress went a long ways and it was nice that we had the control of how much we wanted. A perfect lunch; proportion size was just right, not to heavy, has all the nutritional elements needed, and the presentation was simple.

I’ve had many albacore tuna sandwiches and it takes skill to make it perfect. It needs to have a nice sear on the outside but majority of the fish much be pink in the middle.  Bel Café’s version was decent; it was good but not the greatest. Good thing Mahal and I shared that salad and sandwich because this sandwich was tiny! But if I have to put that aside, the sandwich tasted very good. Their homemade bun was really soft and buttery; it just melted in my mouth! Inside the sandwich was simple the albacore tune, lettuce, tomato, red onions,, daikon and a few pickles. Some highlights they had on the menu for the sandwich was their bonito mayo and yuzu pickles. Unfortunately, I couldn’t taste a major difference and, honestly, was very pedestrian when it came to the taste of both elements. It comes with a small serving of spinach and radish and some sweet pickles to snack on. Overall, it’s not the worst dish I’ve had but I wouldn’t order it again.

Bel Café also does French pastries, macarons, and coffees but we were too full to ingest anything else (plus Mahal had given up sweets for lent and, I, coffee). If you are a workaholic working in downtown core and wanting a quick pick up or you want to sit down and savor some simple eats, drop into Bel Café for a bite to eat!

Bel Café and Bel Café to go

801 W Georgia St. Vancouver, BC

Price: $$

★★★✩✩

Good eatz everyone!

- V