TOP PICK: Peaceful Restaurant

http://www.peacefulrestaurant.com/

The next in my series of favorite Vancouver restaurants is one I've been to more often in the last few years than any other restaurant: Peaceful on Broadway near the intersection with Cambie. Access is even easier now with the Canada line right there.

Why do I keep coming back to this place? Let me count the reasons:

◊ The food, first and foremost, obviously. It's good and interesting without being weird. The selection is big. (Peruse their menu here.) Their prices are reasonable. I've tried a lot of items on the menu and I haven't been let down by almost anything.

◊ The service is consistently good. The staff are friendly and helpful every time I go there. They recognize your face when you're a regular there, without necessarily smothering you with attention. The restaurant is laid out in a long shape with the kitchen right behind the seating area, so the waiters are literally right there if you need anything. You never have to wait for a waiter to come around or try to get their attention. They're attentive and professional without being cold and distant, quite a refreshing change from so many Chinese restaurants where the servers literally don't verbally acknowledge that they understood what you just said or even look at you.

◊ The food always comes out extremely quickly. Tonight we went there and ordered five dishes, naively expecting that that would keep them busy and we'd have time to go through each dish before the next came out. No such luck. The first dish came out not even ten minutes after ordering, and at an interval of one a minute, each of the remaining dishes arrived at our small table. I much prefer this to the alternative: waiting forever for each dish.

◊ They provide free tea. The first thing they do when you sit down is bring a big pot of tea. And it's pu-erh tea, not just ordinary jasmine. I'm sure other restaurants serve pu-erh, but most do not, and it helps distinguish them. When the tea runs out, they're very quick to replace it with a new pot. The tea goes very well with the food.

◊ They have a wide variety of uncommon ethnic dishes from regions that are not typical Chinese restaurant fare: Tianjin, Shanghai, Beijing, Yunnan, Xi-an, Xinjiang, Gansu and Shanxi in addition to the usual suspects like Szechuan. They specialize in northwestern cuisine, which is one of the less well-represented of China's many regional cuisines from restaurant to restaurant. You wouldn't know this if you didn't understand Chinese, because it doesn't say it in English on the restaurant's window, but it does say it in Chinese. Hence they have a number of lamb items on the menu.

◊ They make their own noodles in-house. It's one of the restaurant's big selling points and gimmicks. They can be justly proud of their noodles. You can see the cook spinning the noodles by hand in the kitchen behind the seating area. I took some shots of him at work while I was there tonight. Their noodles are flat out the freshest and best I've had at any Chinese restaurant. I've been to so many Cantonese restaurants where the noodles are literally inedible. I used to think Chinese noodles just weren't for me. But I hadn't tasted what real quality noodles are supposed to taste like. They prepare the noodles a variety of different ways - in the typical thin shape made by stretching the dough out, as well as the blade-sheared style and the gnocci-like "cat's ear" style.

We almost always discover some good new dish whenever we go back. This time around we got four of our favorite dishes and tried out one new dish we've never had before.

Xiao-Long Bao Steamed Buns ($6.50, filled with minced pork, ginger and a savoury sauce - 8pcs)

I get these almost every time I go. You can find these savory so-called "buns" at a variety of Chinese restaurants, but I really like the ones here. Some people have said they didn't like Peaceful's XLB, but I never had XLB before Peaceful, so they form my basis for assessing the dish, and so far I prefer them to any other XLB I've tasted at other restaurants in Metro Vancouver. I'm sure Richmond must have some killer XLB. Other XLB I've tasted either have a flimsy skin that breaks apart as soon as you touch it, releasing the precious cargo of liquid encased therein, or the skin is too thick and pasty tasting, or there's too little liquid inside, or they're dry... None of which have ever happened to me at Peaceful.

Peaceful Beef Rolls ($6.50, five-spiced beef rolled in a crispy green onion flat-bread & sweet hoisin sauce)

Another one I get often. Succulent, juicy and plump - Peaceful's beef roll is almost erotic it's so good. It can be a little bit greasy, but I don't mind. The frying makes the skin really crispy. Long's Noodle House has a nice beef roll that is drier and more wrap-like.

Mustard-Seed Vegetable Salad ($6.95, blanched carrots, celery & vermicelli tossed in mustard-seed oil dressing)

This is Peaceful's signature dish (according to me). I get this almost every time I go there. It's a great light appetizer that's like no other veggie dish I've ever had. The mustard-seed oil is what makes this one. It's crazy spicy and can nuke your nasal cavity if you're not careful, the way a big chunk of wasabi can, but that's part of the fun - inhaling frantically through each bite. It's different from the spice of jalapeno or red pepper, which it complements wonderfully.

This is a great side-dish to order no matter what main you decide to get because it's a good palate cleanser and cooler to have between bites of tangy or spicy mains. This time around I was a little disappointed by the dish because they didn't put enough mustard-seed oil, and it didn't scald your nose good the way it's supposed to.

Xin-Jiang Noodles ($9.95, a traditional blend of chicken, potato & hot peppers in a reduced star-anise spice sauce, served with thick hand-dragged noodles)

Peaceful has a lot of great noodle dishes, but this is one of my favorites. Look at those noodles, all uneven and thick. They're beautiful. This is supposedly a classic Xin-Jiang dish, although I've never been there. I did manage to find this dish in a restaurant when I visited China, but that was in Xi-an. And the amazing thing was that I actually preferred Peaceful's. The chicken was more meaty and tender and the sauce tastier.

What makes this dish is the big chunks of jalapeno and the well cooked pieces of potato. And the smoky, savory sauce. And the soft, delicate, unevenly shaped, freshly hand-stretched noodles. And the big chunks of lightly braised garlic. And of course, lots of big pieces of well-cooked chicken, bone-in, the way it's supposed to be.

They ask you how spicy you want it. I usually say not spicy because I seem to recall this one can be a bit much to manage if you ask for spicy. In the photo on the web site it looks like they've left the seeds in the jalapenos. That will make a big difference indeed. The jalapenos in our dish tonight had no seeds, and were quite delicious, just spicy enough without going overboard.

Xi'an White Lamb Stew ($7.95, a traditional lamb dish with napa cabbage, cilantro & bean vermicelli, in a light broth)

This was our first time trying this dish. It was the only adventure we took during our latest visit. It's again a regional staple, this time of Xi-an. (Ironic that I never tried it while there, instead trying a Xin-Jiang specialty.) For some reason they don't list the main ingredient of the stew - the big chunks of bread that dominate the dish. The lamb is quite soft and good, as is the bread and the broth. It's a delicate and interesting dish. The lamb taste is maybe a bit too much for me, though. Not the best thing I've had at Peaceful, but very interesting and good nonetheless.

These are some of the other dishes we've tried in the past:

◊ Yunnan noodles - Kweepo and I visited Yunnan, so we know what Yunnan noodles are supposed to taste like. They typically have either thin or thick rice noodles served separately, and lots of bowls of various things you put in the noodles. This was actually the first thing I ever tried at Peaceful. I was walking down Broadway looking for lunch one day when the word "Yunnan" caught my eye on their placard. I entered the restaurant specifically to try this item, to see if it was anything like what I'd experienced in Yunnan. It's a little different. When I tried it that day, they brought all the little bowls to the table but then they proceeded to mix everything together, which wasn't how I recalled eating noodles over there.

◊ Szechuan Dan Dan Noodles - Quite good and hearty and among the better dan dan noodles I've had.

◊ Szechuan Thousand Chili Chicken - Lives up to its name. There were more chilis than chicken chunks in this dish the one time I tried it, but I recall it being quite good.

◊ Szechuan Broth Braised Fish - I got this together with the Szechuan Hot Chili Wonton once and the waiter thought I was crazy. The heat of the peppers combined with the heat of the soup makes this one quite challenging. Not the best version of this dish I've ever had. There's a restaurant in Crystal Mall near Metrotown that serves a more authentic and tasty version of this, except nobody there seems to speak English, so it's hard for a white boy like me to go there. Well, not really. Their menu has photos, so you can point your way through.

◊ Szechuan Cucumbers - A great, simple appetizer. The big chunks of crunchy sweet cucumbers and go great with the hint of spiciness from the red pepper flakes and the bite of the peppercorn dressing.

◊ Beijing Zha-Jiang Mien - Quite good and less oily than the Dan Dan Noodles, and a good deal at only $6.95. They put a lot of noodles in there. When I order a noodle dish for lunch at Peaceful, I don't need to order anything else and I have a bit left over for another meal.

We've tried lots of other dishes, and we still haven't even tried half of the items on the menu, so we'll definitely be going back to do some more discovering for a good while to come.