Sunshine Cafe (Crystal Mall): Japanese-Style Beef Curry

Most of the time, when I head out for lunch, I’ve got an inkling of an idea where I’ll wind up… but I tend to have horrendous luck when it comes to trying new (to me) places. Such was the case one day in late August… I had plans to try a different restaurant for lunch only to find out that they were closed for lunch service. So instead, I wound up driving aimlessly for a bit until I found myself in the Crystal Mall parking lot.

I figured, this would be a good time to try out a small restaurant in the mall that I’ve been meaning to stop by for quite some time. Unfortunately, it was well into the lunch hour and the place was too busy. Again, a bit aimless at this point (and hangry), I wandered a bit until I came across Sunshine Cafe which is a bit of a hole-in-the-wall located in the outside walkway on the ground floor of the mall.

Their menu had a mix of various asian cuisine which seemed to lean more towards Taiwanese items but I wound up ordering the Japanese-Style Curry Beef Combo ($13.50) which came with three side dishes (and choice of seaweed egg drop soup or green tea). The side dishes turned out to be veggies, soy egg with pickled radish, and marinated tofu.

The beef chunks (about 5-6 pieces) were on the thin side but turned out to be fork-tender with a pleasant yet simple curry sauce that went well with the large bowl of white rice.

While there’s nothing really fancy at this cash-only establishment, it gets the job done.

1003-4500 Kingsway (Crystal Mall)
Burnaby, BC