Belgard Kitchen – Good Eats in Historic Japantown/Gentrified Railtown

If you’re looking for good eats in an interesting locale, you only have to take a detour to Japantown (or Railtown if you’re going for the newer, gentrified moniker) to find Belgard Kitchen on the corner of Dunlevy Avenue and Alexander Street. It’s interesting to note that, at one time – before Japanese restaurants really took off in Vancouver during the 80’s, the only Japanese restaurants in the city were located along nearby Powell Street. After the Japanese internment during WW II, Japantown never really recovered.

Belgard Kitchen is located in The Settlement Building and shares the locale with Vancouver Urban Winery and Postmark Brewery – hence, the dramatic view of the large wooden casks and industrial brewery gives this place a lot of character. If you look up… way up, you’ll notice the exposed beams and the industrial metal fan that looks like it was reclaimed from a fan that was originally made for giants.

My dining companion mentioned that the burger here was pretty good so I ordered The Belgard Burger ($12) and added a fried egg ($1.50). The patty is made from Pemberton Meadows beef and the cheddar cheese is from Village Cheese Works. On top of this, they add caramelized onions, house relish, iceberg lettuce, and tomato on a brioche bun. When my burger arrived open-faced with the gorgeous fried egg on top, I began to seriously rethink my order… how was I going to eat this?

Sure enough, when I assembled my burger, the bright orange yolk burst and spread a golden hue over the flavourful beef patty. I loved the sweet taste of the caramelized onions (reminded me of the burger I had at IT Char Burger in New West)  and the house-made relish really pushed it over the top.

Our meals came with a bag of popcorn but I hear that this changes from time-to-time. If you’re looking for an interesting place to dine with really good food, you should really drop by here. If I haven’t convinced you yet… they also have wine sampling on tap here.

55 Dunlevy Avenue
Vancouver, BC

belgardkitchen.com

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