Dinneri cafe
[rating:3]
i Cafe is a Hong Kong style cafe located on the corner of Broadway and Heather. It used to be located just north of Broadway (prior to the fire / condo development / Canada line construction debacle that hit that Fairview neighborhood). They are now relocated on the second floor of one of those leased spaces that housed a revolving door of failed restaurant ventures. So far, i Cafe appears to be hanging on.
One thing i Cafe has going for it, is its charmingly eclectic menu. Dishes and combinations of dishes that appear to have no business being on the same menu end up being surprisingly tasty. We’ve been pleased by dishes like curry pasta and the prime rib dinner (which came with a drink that you could upgrade to a glass of house wine for a mere $2 — but sadly no longer appears to be available).
Today, i Cafe is beginning to show its age — the walls and floor looked a little bit haggard, the banquettes and table a little grimy. Case and I shared a couple of dishes: prawn and fruit salad for starters, and a minced beef over rice for our main dish.
The prawn and fruit salad is one of those classic weirdo HK style dishes that screams potential disaster: fresh prawns tossed with melons and berries in mayonnaise. It works — well, at least for us it does, but we’ve had better executions of this dish. The minced beef over rice was also mediocre. It was cooked differently than it normally was, replacing the more conventionally seasoned minced beef sauce with a neo bolognese-like creation over a bed of white rice. This time, weird was definitely delivered. Not that it was bad — it was actually ok — but the flavour combination left a bit to be desired.
Our meal set us back just over $20 including tax and tip, so it wasn’t extravagant. i Cafe used to be on of those places you could be guaranteed a solid meal that was just a little different but now suffers from a lack of consistency. We’ve had fond memories of i Cafe, so we’ll likely come back. Hopefully they just had an off day.
Perfect for:
Something that’s just a little different.
The Details
2525 Heather St, Vancouver
604.630.0238
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