Nuba (Gastown): Underground Lebanese

I’ve been to Nuba in Mount Pleasant before and fondly recall the food that I had for lunch. There are actually 4 Nuba locations in Vancouver… and while the menus are generally the same, they are each run by independent management teams. This means there’s actually quite a bit of differences in terms of the experience you receive at each.

For example, unlike the Nuba in Mount Pleasant which seems very bright and airy, the Nuba in Gastown is quite dark. I guess that’s to be expected since it’s located in the basement of the old Dominion Building, across the street from Victory Square.

We decided to order Le Grand Feast ($63) which is a two course sampler that includes the same items in Le Petit Feast as well as fattoush salad, Najib’s Special crispy cauliflower tossed with lemon and sea salt, roasted potatoes, lamb lollipops, prawns with chermoula sauce, and chicken skewers. The plate of hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj and housemade pickled cabbage that makes up Le Petit Feast is actually one of the best parts of the meal.The problem is that these dips can make you super full after pairing them with the generous servings of pita bread.

While the chicken skewers were a bit dry and fairly meh (as well as the fattoush salad), the lamb lollipops were heavenly. They were so tender and juicy and practically melted in your mouth.

I know their crispy cauliflower is one of their signature dishes (and it was fairly good), I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the best cauliflower dishes I’ve had before.

Overall, I was fairly pleased with the food here… especially the lamb lollipops and the various spreads. This is a fairly busy location in the evening and it gets a bit stuffy during the hot summer nights. Things might be brighter if you visit during the day.

207 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

www.nuba.ca