Tony's Fish & Oyster Cafe - Vancouver, BC

Ms. Porker and I saw it was a beautiful Vancouver day and decided that an outing to enjoy the sun was in order.  As a local food truck tweeted they would be on Granville Island at the False Creek Community Center, we hightailed it over to try their food (food trucks tend to be only open Mon-Fri and only during the lunch hours making it hard for us schmoes working regular 8-4 hours outside downtown to visit).  As we searched the area high and low, there was no food truck to be found!  WTH???  Hm, some cute geeselings (I have no idea what they're called) but no food truck.  On the verge of dying of starvation, we spotted this little cafe on the road that seemed to be packed.  Guess we'll check it out!

We walk in and see a flurry of activity in this tiny space - is this a ladies only service kind of place?  Ladies are behind the kitchen and front of house - is it just coincidence?  After a 20 min wait, we're seated at one of the tables and we quickly order before I pass out from the lack of nutrients...

1 pc Cod with Fries, Coleslaw and Clam Chowder - $10.99 (Lunch special)

Available only until 2 pm, this seems to be the more popular choice as every table seems to have one of these orders on it.  The fish is crispy but the the coating seems to fall right when you eyeball it, let alone try to fork it up and dip it in the tartar sauce.  The fish itself tastes quite fresh and the fries are piping hot and crispy as well.  The clam chower had visible pieces of clam and was super thick and rich - good overall.  The only real downfall of this order is the coleslaw - it looks store-bought and the sauce is more sweet and runny than anything.  I'd pass on the coleslaw next time but everything was pretty good.

Calamari Platter with Caesar Salad - $12.99

Listed as one of the more popular dishes on the menu, I actually ordered this simply for variety.  The very friendly Moroccan server (I can't remember her name) suggested I get something other than fries as the other meal only came with fries so I got the salad.  The salad was not good - store-bought dressing that tasted as though it had been watered down with store-bought generic parmesan cheese on top.  I'd pass on the caesar salad next time and suggest others to do so as well.  On the other hand, the pieces of calamari were wonderful - the batter stuck right on with no flaking of any kind, it stuck to the squid like no tomorrow and all of the pieces were super crunchy.  Probably one of the better calamari dishes I've had in a while.  This would have been a perfect dish had they served it with tzatziki sauce.  It came with cocktail sauce.  Meh.  Oh, and I thought it was tad on the pricier side for what you got. 


Overall, the whole experience was quite positive.  The service was very friendly, the food didn't take that long to come out and the food was good.  You could absolutely get the same comparable meal cheaper elsewhere but if you compare it to the options available on Granville Island, it's about par.  Would we recommend it?  Sure, if you're in the area.  Would I come back?  Maybe but I don't think I would come to Granville Island to specifically come here.  


Oh, and that food truck we were looking for...  they tweeted the incorrect location and decided not to correct the error to their followers.  They were actually at the Creekside Community Center.  Lame. 


Pros:

• Great location with a lot of free parking around
• Friendly and efficient service
• Food was good

Cons:

• Parking is VERY difficult to find on nice days and on weekends
• A bit on the expensive side for what you get