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Wow! Thanks, everyone for all enthusiasm and the great responses… Please keep them coming!!! I was really hoping to come up with something sort of along the lines of Pag’s or Gladys’ (looks like I got the name right). Basically something a little off-beat, great food, not too high end, but not too greasy spoon. There are a time and place for both of those kinds of breakfasts, but for me weekend mornings are about both really experiencing the meal and then kicking back for a bit afterwards. I’ve been to Provence, and remember it being really good, but just ever so slightly pretentious, and kinda antiseptic feeling. I was a little surprised, too, Kurtis, that you didn’t mention Aurora in your first post. How does it compare for breakfast? Thanks, fud, for the Main recommends. Slick’s (Slickety Jim’s) on main off broadway seems to me to have a slipped a few notches since they moved from Powell (thanks, DameD for correcting me on the street, ever so diplomatically). The food is good, and I’d still recommend checking it out if you haven’t been in before, and doubly so if you dig veggie sausage (theirs is quite nifty, and doesn’t taste at all like meat… and this from a committed carnivore). I haven’t been to the Whip for breakfast, but have found it hit-and-miss for non-breaky visits. Is the breakfast better? What’s the Hatch like? They seem to have no Website. Are they all vegetarian? Helen’s grill sounds good, and I’ll definitely check it out. Don’t know if my Tasty Companion is much of a big honkin’ breakfast person, but hopefully I can convince her. I went to Paul’s on a weekend a while back. Funny, had no idea at the time that the guy was a Gladys’ alumnus. As I think back on it, the service was lousy. Just unforgivable. 35 minutes after we’d ordered, it turned out that one of our orders had been completely overlooked, to the point where they had to come back and ask us what it was again. All told it took AN HOUR from the time we placed out order til the food arrived. Once it got there, the various accompaniments (potatoes toast, fruit, whichever meat it was) were actually pretty good (great accompaniments were a trademark of Gladys’ ), but my omlette itself was vastly underwhelming. You just can’t get away with an average omlette if you call yourself an omlettery. Still Cayenne, I appreciate the recommendation. From a menu and approach standpoint, Paul’s is very close to what I am looking for. Never had breakfast at Wazubee or Subeez, although I got food poisoning from the French fry dip one time in about 1995. That kinda put me off those places. Too bad, cause Benny (owner) is a really cool guy. I’ll put Locus on my list too, if they’re good for breakfast. I had no idea. They’re dinners, in my experience have been patchy… ranging from very much excellent to really sub-par. When they hit, they really hit though. Good tip on the Slylight. I lived of commercial for years and years, and I have no idea where the skylight is. Will definitely have to check that out. A good Ukranian sausage is a beautiful thing! I’m in for a visit to fud’s neighbour’s place. And Ling’s. Sounds like a good iron chef episode to me. Anyone try Barney’s on Granville ( I think that’s the place that DameD called “Benny’s”). I’ve heard some good things, and am thinking that might be a good next place to try. Lastly, it seems like there’s a loyal Seb’s constituency in the house. I have to admit, in many ways it’s close to what I was looking for. The only problem was my omlette was uninspiring (I had the spinach, onions, and goat cheese one) and kinda balnd. Maybe I should go back and try something else there. Anyway, you guys are awesome. Thanks for all of the great thoughts. I’ll post whatever I try next, and what it’s like… -Eleven

Hi back, and thanks, Anchoress! Nope, I'm pretty sure the place I went to was called Gladys'. It was on the south side of 4th, west of Arbutus a little ways, and then moved to the north side of 4th. Funny though, because the Sunshine used to be on the south side of broadway, and then recently (at least I think it was recently, but I have been away, so) moved to the south side of broadway. The sunshine has been around forever (I think it opened in the early 80s?), and I've eaten there a bunch. I agree that they do all the basics well and do have decent benny list. Seems to me the food is better since they moved too, but YMMV. Still, I find them good, and will keep them on my list, but for me they don't make it to that top tier. Could be just me, though.

Hi folks. I'm new around here and in need of some help. In the last 6 months I have returned to Vancouver after several years away in the San Francisco Bay area. One of the many many things I missed that I missed about home was breakfast on the weekend. It's something that we in BC have a particular fondness for, and something we do particularly well here (maybe because we enjoy it so much). I think I first got really serious about weekend breakfasts when I was going to school at UVic many years ago. Every Sunday morning was brunch at pagliacci's. We'd spend hours after our meals drinking coffee, reading the paper, and catching up with friends (everyone showed up there, sooner or later, on Sunday mornings. It was just what people did). But the food was the real attraction... Bagels from Mount Royal bagel factory with home made jam, a stellar menu of breakfast classics and eclectic creations. Great coffee, fried potatoes to die for, welcoming personal service, and a fun room to hang out in. When I finished school and moved back to Vancouver, I struggled to find something that compared to Sundays at Pag's. Sophie's was always the fan favourite, and I gave it my best effort, standing in line week after week, It was always fine but never outstanding. The service hit and miss, and about 30% of the time they'd be out of something or other I wanted. I tried other places (the Zen, Cafe Deux Soleils, The original Slick's down on cordova, and a host of others) but nothing quite made the cut. Nothing, that is, until I found a neat little place on 4th (which had apparently been there forever), on the south side of the street, which I think was called Gladys'. This place was killer. They had a terrific menu that, like pag's spanned from the basics to some way out-there experimental things (particularly in the omelette and benny departments, if my memory serves). I ate there every single week (which makes it all the more embarrassing that I don't remember the name of the place) and tried pretty much everything on the breakfast menu, and it was all excellent. The service was great too. All really good people, fairly eccentric with wry senses of humour, all willing to expound at length on whatever was on their mind if you prodded a little. I couldn't believe my good luck, and celebrated every week that I spent there. And then I moved to California. I'd go back there whenever I was in town on a weekend, and it was always the same, never disappointing. I'm not sure what happened exactly. I know they moved across the street to, I believe, the location that eventually became Pastis. And I guess they over-extended themselves with the costs of the move and the reno on the new space. Anyway, they weren’t in the new spot very long before they closed. So the spot was gone, and I was gone, and breakfast in california just isn't in the same league as here. I didn't think much about the whole problem any more, except to reflect fondly as I cursed the breakfast scene in the bay area where you have to drive 45 minutes to get to somewhere that's half as good as you can find on just about any corner here. But now I'm back, and more determined than ever to pick up my weekend mornings from where I left off years ago. So I thought I'd appeal to you good people for help. I've been looking high and low. And I've even read as much of the breakfast discussions as I could find here in the forum. I've tried a lot of the recommendations that I've found here, and stuff I've heard from other folks, but all to no avail. Most recently I tried Seb's over on east Broadway. It was good, but it just wasn't quite up to the extremely high quality benchmark set by two old favourites. Any ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions? Nostalgia to help tide me over until I find something new? Think I’m delusional? Anything? I leave myself in your collective capable hands... -Eleven

Aw, thanks you guys! I ended up at churroliscious the night it opened (or maybe it was even a few nights before). I was actually at the bar next door (the name of which escapes me right now), noticed the new churro place, and went in to chat with the nice lady who seemed to be running the it. She offered me some free churro, I guess as a PR move. I think I need to go back to re-sample so as to provide an honest assessment. But as I recall, they were very fresh and appropriately crispy without being dry and bland. Oh, and they had a nice moist center (a trait they shared with the freezer ones at La Casita). I guess if I had one complaint it would be this: In my view a churro needs to have a certain amount of character. It needs to taste like it came from a dirty little churro stand, or fell on the floor of your Mexican grandma's kitchen. I dunno if it's the grease component, or the actual ingredients, or the way a churro needs to be prepared or what, but IMHO a churro (like a good matzoh ball soup, or macaroni and cheese, or any other comfort food) only tastes right if you can taste the love that's gone into it. The churro I had at churrolicious was technically perfect, but it just didn't seem to me that the love was there. That was the main difference. The La Casita churro wasn't as good technically, and tasted a teensy bit like freezer, but it did have more love. Maybe it was just me. Or maybe they didn't quite have all the kinks out yet at churrolicious . Or maybe it was because the whole experience was soured by the cranky people at the bar next door, who wouldn't let me bring my churro in with me. I seemed to have touched quite a nerve with them. I guess since the churro place had arrived they'd been somewhat inundated by churro samplers. Anyone know if they have since softened their stance?) In any event, that's my recollection. I'll probably have to go back and try it again now though. Heh. Pretty smooth, huh? I actually wasn't so much trying to hack the industry. More being open about my own ignorance. I'm sure there are good wines produced here, I just haven't found them yet. My bigger issue is that I'm having a hard time finding truly great reds in the 20$ range here. Whereas, down there, great 10-20$ cabs are everywhere. So now I'm trying to learn more about the Italian and Australian options. I'll stop now though, because we're here to talk about mexican food. But private tips are much appreciated Anyway, thanks again for the warm welcome, you guys. It's good to be here.

Hello all. I have been a long-time reader/lurker, but have just received my stripes, and am very excited about starting to give back. Yours is an intelligent, insightful, and courteous community, and I'm honoured to be a part of it. I'm Vancouver born and bred, but have been living for many years in Northern California until last summer. So it has been with great interest that I have been following this thread. Before I went away, Topanga cafe on 4th was fairly unanimously considered Vancouver's gold standard for mexican. I've been back since I've been back, and its not the same. Or maybe it is and it's me that's not. Either way, I was sad, because between that and the red wine, there were now two things Californian with which my homeland could not compete. So having read about it on here, my Tasty Companion and I rolled over to La Casita to check it out. Well, first they brought us some hand made chips and salsa. The chips were fine but not exceptional, and the salsa was disappointing. Still, the service was warm and attentive, and the margaritas (made with house tequila "olmeca"), which Tasty had ordered up even before she sat down, were top-notch. Seriously. I've had one or two in my day, and these were great. We tried a couple of tacos (the chicken swissa ones) as appys, and they were lovely. Very authentic mexican, like the kind you expect to order in some dingy little place with a smiley and kind yet mischievous looking mexican matron running the kitchen. They were that yummy. Good quality chicken, lovely salsa, cheese and sauce. Then came the mains. Again, I was ready to be disappointed... It seems so often these days that places serve great appys and sides, but the mains just don't hold up. Not this time. My Tasty Companion had the blackened cod, which came with hand made tortillas (the real deal, like on the street in san miguel alliende), black beans, rice, and the standard salad. She says the rice was good but not exceptional. The salad was a really nice kind of a marinated cole-slaw situation with tomatoes and avocado. The beans were perfect black beans, served in a little bowl which kept them warm for the duration of the meal. The cod itself was lovely. Tender, and very flavourful. Wrapped in the tortillas with some beans and the whole thing was perfect. But not as good as what I had. I ordered the Burrito de Alambre special. poblana peppers, bacon, onion, fajita steak, and cheese. I got the add-on where they wrap the whole deal up and bake some sour cream and cheese on top, and give you a really nifty salsa verde to go with it (I highly recommed this option). It came with what they call Texas rice: A little bowl of rice topped with a red enchillada type sauce with cheese baked over it. My whole meal was fantastic. The burrito was amazing, the salsa delectable, and the rice perfect as well. I can't say enough good things about our dinner. We'll definitely go back, and if they are consistently as good as tonight, this place is a definite candidate for a Vancouver institution. After dinner, the very sweet server person suggested that we have a churro for dessert. It wasn't amazing (maybe I was biased by the fact that I had seen her pull it out of the freezer section of the fridge that sits randomly in one corner of the restaurant) but it was hard to complain too much about it for a buck and a half. Plus Tasty had ordered us a couple more of those dandy margaritas, so we thought we might as well. All and all a very nice dinner indeed. So go, good people. Check it out. And thanks for having me as part of your community. Oh, and if you know of a good-value bottle of big chewy complex red at the LDB that will help assuage my california cab addiction, let me know. (Privately of course. I don't want to get called out for derailing this thread with my very first post)