508 Bistro

I think this place is one of the best authentic Taiwanese restaurant in Burnaby that has a slight bigger selection of food instead of all the deep fried dishes on most of the Taiwanese Restaurant menus.
I especially like their Marinated Platter and Deep Fried Rice Cake. Both of these are tradition Taiwanese dishes that you can’t find in all the Taiwanese restaurants.

For your health concern please don’t go there, ordered 5 dishes 2 comes with hair and one comes with a metal piece (what they use to wash the wok) seriously? So gross, will not recommend anyone to go there.

It’s your typical bubble tea joint. Assortment of drinks, open late night and the service is spotty. It can get busy, but it’s good for big groups.
Also, the food doesn’t disappoint. My favourites? Beef roll (good for one person), Hawaiian Fried Rice (share-​able) and popcorn chicken. Get all of these, and you’re good to split between 2 – 3 people. Decent serving sizes and cheap prices keeps me coming back.

I went to 508 a couple of times, and those few times never disappoint.
We ordered the Lamb with Cumin spice, sweet and sour chicken, and a «spicy pork» dish. They were all delicious, and were not too expensive. On a weekday evening, the place is pretty quiet, and there is usually no line-​ups.
My friend ordered the Oreo Milky slush and it was also good!

These «hip» Taiwanese restaurants seem to be popping up everywhere. They started out as small and intimate… but now they’re getting bigger, and moving to the suburbs!
Food is decent. Your typical taiwanese fare.
Who would have thought that scrambled eggs would be considered a main dinner dish?
Issue: they don’t serve tea?! We asked for tea and they said they didn’t have it. What kind of Chinese restaurant doesn’t have tea?

Exploring new food options and had a fantastic experience here. Service was great and food was awesome! Love that almost everything had ginger! My fav is the clams in sesame oil! $$$$ is so reasonable!

great place to get a taiwanese fix for street food.
don’t take the food home, otherwise you’ll see all the oils started to drip. what you expect its taiwanese fried food.
can’t go wrong if you want to try taiwanese food. tried most of their items and still coming back for more.

TOO OILY and SALTY. The layout of the restaurant is nice; however, I like The One better.

i came on two separate occasions (within a month’s time). and these were my conclusions from both:
1. service was consistently poor. it was extremely hard to flag someone down. it could be because we were sitting in the booth during both of my visits, but surely since it is along the way to the kitchen, there is no shortage of servers walking back and forth.
2. the food had either a lot of salt or a lot of msg. everyone was thirsty after dinner for the rest of the night.
3. don’t order the clams. the first time they were good. the second time they were not fresh, despite all the ginger and basil that was added to the dish.
4. you have to ask for water or tea. they did not provide us with any drinks until we asked.
6. their satay stir fries were great (with or without noodles).
this would not be a regular restaurant for me. even if i was in the area, the one café is just a little ways further from metrotown with much larger portions for the same price.

I came here with my family and we ordered a variety of things to try including the salty peppery fried chicken, a fried noodle dish, and a few noodle in soup dishes.
The portions were average but its overpriced. Its true that their décor is really nice and the ambiance is cool. Compared to the many, many taiwanese restaurants in the Metrotown area, this is a really trendy, clean place, but it doesnt make up for their food and their pricing.
You can go elsewhere like No.1 or even BubbleWorld for better food at cheaper prices.

Excellent value. Huge portions for the prices (everything we ordered was $ 5.99 or less). Massive plate of crispy popcorn chicken for $ 4.95. Aromatic, juicy cumin lamb stir fry piled high and steaming fresh on the plate, another steal at $ 5.99 (eat your heart out Legendary Noodle, who charged twice as much for a quarter of the lamb!). Deep fried broccoli was a great way to transform an otherwise blah veg into a tasty and decadent dish, and the sweet and sour fish was a delightful marriage of crunchy batter and thick juicy bites, also excellent. Service is a little indifferent from the younger servers, but overall quite efficient.

very flavorful dishes with decent portions. not sure why reviews aren’t as great as it deserves. the food’s excellent, not to mention well-​priced. …free peanut appetizer had amazing herbs/​spices to add flavor. chicken nuggets came with fried basil which was to die for. oyster pancake was fantastic. bamboo shoot with meat was really good too, so was the ginger clam soup. had a variety of other awesome dishes: soup, stir fry, snacks, desserts…

Came here to try out their Taiwanese-​style lunch. You know it’s authentic when there’s a huge «TAIWANESE CUISINE» banner out front.
Parking is available in the parking lot out back. It wasn’t too bad today (afternoon) but at night the place does fill up.
The restaurant used to be called Chill, and it looks like the new owners took over without doing too much work on the inside. Not saying it wasn’t nice inside (which it was), but it looked virtually identical to the previous place. I had a chuckle when I realized a couple of the decorative panels (with the word CHILL embossed) were still there. Guess the new owners never noticed.
As appies they serve peanuts and chili peppers. This is a rather unique (and tasty) mix, though the fact they served it on a regular plate was really ghetto. Not sure why they didn’t simply use a smaller dish (like ones for soy sauce).
The «3 cup» (san-​bei) chicken was quite tasty. Not too greasy, and the spices were just right. Not too salty either (common problem with other places). Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the stir-​fried beef. It was quite bland (unless you count the taste of table salt).
Our final beill came to $ 16 after tax and tip. The value is here, but unfortunately, the taste wasn’t. One redeeming factor is that I noticed the adjacent tables ordered these huge (and tasty-​looking) hot pots. Maybe that would be a better choice if you do give this place a try. You’ll need 4 people (or 2 fat ones) though.

508’s & Heartbreak.
Alcoholic bubble tea. I’m a lush and I like alcohol. I’m not a sweet tooth and I don’t like bubble tea (not usually anyways). So — realizing I can’t always go to a bar, combine something I’m lukewarm on with the Dionysus’ elixir — the enhancer of all things — it’s a instant winner, right?
Allow me to welcome you to heartbreak. Maybe I should have kept my love locked down… but I was disappointed.
Service is goddamned slow and cold (… like in the coldest winter). I know most people sip bubble tea slow and I’m not expecting Robocop level service — but I was seriously considering calling the restaurant from within the restaurant to get waitress to come back. «The call is coming… from inside the restaurant!» [annotation: Don’t actually do this — I’ve done this once with disastrous consequences].
Bottled beer is around $ 5. And they have a selection of alcoholic bubble tea ‘cocktails’. But the cocktails are extremely weak — I know it’s probably poor form to get soused in a BBT bar but if I’m paying a premium for cocktails — don’t shortpour me, bro. Honestly, maybe I’m paranoid, but I sampled a few of the ‘cocktails’ and didn’t taste any alcohol… I should have watched the ‘bartender’ prepare the drink.
And there’s various Taiwanese snack food. The chicken nuggets were decent, but nothing amazing. The deep-​fried pork intestines were not sufficiently cleaned. Seriously, 508… uncleaned intestines? How could you be so heartless? Oh, how could you be so heartless?
But seriously, if I was sufficiently tipsy — your food would probably have been good… or ‘soooo amazzzzing’ depending on how many drinks deep I’m in. Your food is like bad singing… you need to throw some alcoholic Auto-​Tune on that shit.
I’m not sure how you screw up something as genius as alcoholic bubble tea, 508. Here’s my guide to success:
1) Make bubble tea.
2) Pour copious amounts of vodka in.
3) Serve.
4) Profit!
That one is free — if you want my banana cognac recipe, you’ll have to pay my reasonable consulting fee.
Like Yeezy’s experimental album, you’ve left me bewildered, cold and isolated — but ultimately disappointed.
[PS #1: This is my third review with a Robocop reference… do I get an award or something now?]
[PS #2: Thumbs up to you if ‘you see what I did there’]

We got some traditional taiwanese dishes and an alcoholic bbt. I have to say that they are not as good as other taiwanese restaurants I have been to even though my taiwanese friend said this is the most authentic taste he ever had.
Compared to other places. This place is not too bad, but not too good either. Hence, A-​OK rating was given.

Went to this bubble tea place on Saturday night. It looks dark on the outside, but it was nice and quiet with ample of seats inside. Great for sitting together with friends to enjoy taiwanese food and alcoholic bubble tea! Yes! you read that right! Alchohoic bubble tea! Must try, come in 3 flavors (hawaiian cocktail, irish cream and baileys). They also have a good selection of cheap beers starting $ 3.50. Polite and fast service, lots of street parking available. Recommend!

Visited Bistro 508 just twice in a week under the new ownership. Enjoyed the food, service and décor. The place has modern décor, good lighting, friendly waitresses and spacious setting which allows for big groups of even 10 or more.
Pleased with their new menu options and enjoyed the added variety. Also glad that they still had a liquor license and kept the alcoholic bubble tea on the menu. I don’t think they have local artists playing on Wednesdays anymore though.
Haven’t tried everything but here is a list of the Taiwanese eats I enjoyed:
— They serve different versions of stinky tofu. I like the one that is served in a hot pot.
— Traditional Taiwanese soups. I enjoyed the taiwanese fish belly soup.
— Squid dishes were good
— The «3 cup» dishes, i.e. the famous «three cup chicken» from Taiwan… the 3 cup essentially is a blend of soy sauce, sesame oil, and wine and not every place does a good job with the proportion. I found it interesting the menu serves the seasoning for a variety of meats, other than chicken.
— Spicy dishes — all the ones I tried were quite spicy and was simulating for my palate.
One thing that was missing when I went in early December was dessert options. I added that on my comment card for the owner. They only had ice cream and I think it would be great if they could satisfy my sweet tooth with some authentic Taiwanese sweet soups or traditional desserts.
This place is great for friends to meet up, have drinks and hang out. I recommend it for folks who have Taiwanese foods cravings to try it out when they are in Burnaby.