Joyeaux Cafe & Restaurant
551 Howe St.
Vancouver, BC
(604) 681-9168
(604) 341-8882

I’m surprised that not many trendy diners in Vancouver are open Sunday for the early riser. I rarely find the restaurants that are joined at the hip with a hotel the perfect place to eat. But when I needed a quick meal before checking out, I was hoping that the Sciué Italian Bakery Caffé would be open. When I looked at their menu online, I was drooling. When I saw their hours of operation, I was sad.

I had to go to the fThe Joyeux Cafe & Restaurant was nearby and I thought I’d give this place a try. This diner must be feeling schizophrenic because its French inspired name is hiding the fact it serves Vietnamese food as its mainstay. The cooks here are decent at imitating western style cooking, but the level of service was severely lacking. No one greeted me with a good morning and the servers didn’t seem all that friendly.

I wondered where the waitress was. She might have said take a seat and she’ll be with me shortly. Instead, I walked to the payment counter to make my order. That’s to be expected when going to Tim Horton’s, McDonald’s or Subway, but at a diner? Shouldn’t that be the other way around? Yes, this diner had many problems. It even arrived on the plate of food I was served with. I had a basic mushroom and cheese omelette, with three small slices of fruit and a handful of taters.

Add a bit of decently made bacon and a freshly squeezed juice, the total of the bill came to less than $13. And there was no bonus to the meal. What they cooked here can easily be made at home, if I was at home. I thought the eggs could’ve used some improvement. I thought about squeezing the bottle of Sriracha hot chili sauce over my eggs, but I didn’t.

At least I had a variety of dry snacks in my backpack. It sustained me well past lunch as I wandered around Fan Expo Vancouver on its last day. I found a few rare items, early sketch books of Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods) from one particular vendor and that made my day!

2 Blokes out of 5