Dana Sullivan

This is a tiny little restaurant, but I was pretty impressed by the food! They have a choose-your-own-pasta-adventure menu where you select the type of pasta and your sauce, and can optionally add on extra veggies and/or parmesan cheese for a small additional cost. They have a board advertising which pasta shapes are fresh. The base prices are pretty reasonable, so the end price even with add-ons isn't exorbitant.
I ordered the gnocchi puttanesca. It was an excellent dish - the gnocchi had the perfect texture and the puttanesca sauce was delicious. I actually ordered it with spinach, but they forgot to add the spinach when they cooked the dish, so instead brought it out in a small side dish in some sauce, but after trying the gnocchi I thought it was perfect as it was, so I just ate the spinach on the side. It was one of the chefs/cooks who delivered my food to my table and he seemed really nice. The portion was just right for me.
They also had a few desserts available in the fridge. I got a slice of chocolate tuxedo cake. Good cake, very rich, and a pretty generous slice.
It kind of looks like a hole in the wall and it's a little tight inside, but I would highly recommend them if you want some restaurant-quality pasta fast or without the fuss of a fancy restaurant.

First visit to this Trees location, but I’ve been to many of the other locations. The space is clean and comfortable - it’s moderately-sized for downtown and wasn’t crowded around noon on a weekday while I was there. The barista was friendly. I had a veggie breakfast wrap, a slice of strawberry cheesecake (January special), and a cup of Chinese sencha. The breakfast wrap is your standard scrambled eggs wrap with a Southwest touch of black beans and peppers, with a side of spicy salsa. It was good. The strawberry cheesecake had a strong natural strawberry flavour. The texture was nice and light, this one was a bit more mousse-like than most of their cheesecakes. They use high quality tea leaves. My good impression here is consistent with the experiences I’ve had at other locations. Their food is standard cafe fare but notable for being fresh and filling. The cheesecake slices are a good size, not too dense, and all of the flavours I’ve tried so far (which is most of them) are memorable.

This place looks like a little bit of a hole in the wall and it’s hidden in the corridor of Broadway between Cambie and Main that’s getting torn up by construction, but it’s such a great find and absolutely worth checking out. They serve Turkish brunch and snacks, specializing in Turkish bagels, “simit”, hence the name.
I was very curious about these special Turkish bagels and tried one in the “Aspendos” smoked salmon bagel sandwich. I loved the bagel! It reminded me of Montréal-style bagels, a little sweet, but with a unique texture because it’s so thin and twisted. The bagel and the rest of the ingredients were very fresh. I watched the person working (owner?) put together the sandwich and it was pretty impressive how careful he was arranging the slices of salmon and vegetables around the ring if
the bagel. Because the hole in the middle is so large, it’s a different experience to eat a sandwich made with this kind of bagel, interesting! I also tried their almond pudding (I think it’s called keshkul but I’m not sure, maybe that’s something else) and a Turkish tea. The almond pudding had a nice strong almond flavour and a unique texture - it was a little grainier than standard pudding but not in a bad way. The tea was also quite strong but not bitter.
The person who took and made my order was really friendly, and as mentioned above, put a lot of care into my sandwich. Because the items are made to order very precisely, it’s not the fastest.
Check them out for something different! I really want to go back and try one of their Turkish breakfast plates!

One of my favourite coffee shops downtown! It's such a cute and cozy little place. The most notable thing here is the unique drinks, but all the food is really good as well. The tuna and veggie paninis are quality (the veg panini can be made vegan by replacing cheese and mayo with hummus, both versions are good). The paninis come with a little side salad of mixed greens - nothing special, but it rounds out the meal. I haven't tried much from the baked good selection but they have this top-tier strawberry pistachio croissant with a baked crunchy pistachio top layer and pistachio cream and strawberry filling that has to be one of best-conceived baked goods I've had the privilege of enjoying, and I'm not even much of a croissant person.
For drinks, they have the usual selection of coffee/tea and also specialty lattes like Okinawa tea latte, ube latte, strawberry matcha, hojicha, black sesame cream latte... some of these are seasonal, some are fixtures. The flavours are wonderful and as a bonus they're pretty too. I appreciate the staff always checking to see if I want my drink sweetened and listening to my customization requests!
Finally the baristas are always smiling and are so nice! As mentioned above, they pay attention to the details when taking my order. They bring your food and drinks to your table when dining in. It's rare to find such consistently pleasant service.

Very positive experience. The barista that took my order was so friendly and made sure to put me at a table where there would be room to store the big instrument I was carrying. They were pretty busy but the assigned seating system took the stress out of finding and choosing a place to sit. Nicely designed place, both in terms of aesthetic and the layout, which fits in lots of seating but isn’t cramped.
I got the Nordic salmon toast, a walnut chocolate chip cookie, and a rooibos tea. All great! Fresh toppings and tasty dill cream cheese on the toast. The cookie was really really good, soft, buttery, chewy, packed with big chunks of chocolate. The tea, although it was just a regular brewed tea, was particularly nice too. They removed the tea leaves before giving it to me and it was brewed perfectly strong with a deep flavour.
The prep time for the food was fast enough that I was in and out in about half an hour. Will probably make a lunch stop here again.