BT Cafe

When you only need to pay $ 14 for breakfast for two people, you expect to make compromises, right?
We came here Saturday morning, around 10:30. It was already packed. The entire time, tables were never empty for more than a minute. And, there were often people waiting to be seated. Turnover rate was high, however, so I noticed people only had to wait about 5 minutes at most.
The breakfast deals consisted of combos for under $ 7. You’d be allowed to pick 1 item from an «A» column to pair with another item from the «B» column. Or, you could get something from the «C» column to go with something from the «D» column. Sounds like high school algebra, right? But, you can’t get an «A» with a «D» or order two «C’s». There are hundreds of permutations, though, so if you have a partner like I did, you can sample from different sets.
I ordered a chicken/​mushroom omelette with a side of toast and a beef satay noodle. My wife ordered a fish congee with pan-​fried rice noodles with bean sprouts. One of these two combos came included with a hot drink (i.e. coffee) but I forgot which one it was.
As you can see in the photos, the food is served with no regard to presentation. Think high school cafeteria or army mess hall.
The fish congee had quite a bit of large, unidentified fish fillet chunks. My guess is basa fish based on its taste. We had ordered the omelette with egg whites which was a $ 0.25 upgrade. It tasted a little bland. The beef noodle broth was completely watered down, offering no flavour at all. The pan-​fried rice noodles were solid, however, even though there were only sprouts and onions mixed in. The toast only came with butter; no jams were offered, and we didn’t bother asking.
Waitresses were constantly busy taking orders, seating people and handling transactions. Our complimentary teas were never refilled even once. We were in and out in under 25 minutes.
The biggest complaint we had was the incense that filled the room. This restaurant, being Chinese, had a small Buddhist shrine at the back with lit incense. My wife got a headache from the scent, and our clothes smelled of incense for a while after leaving.
PROS:
+ low cost combos
+ fast turnover
+ lots of choices
CONS:
— incense smell
— no presentation
— choices limited to specific sets
CONCLUSION: You get what you pay for.

Amazing! I am definitely coming back here.
Food is absolutely delicious, lots to choose from, and very cheap too!

I gave this restaurant 5 stars because of their awesome service but that all changed when the staff changed.
A month ago, there was an incident with a mix up of my takeaway order. They were nice to remake me another order of what I wanted if I gave them back the takeaway. I purposely drove down to BT Café to do that and the lady who happened to pack my takeaway was being defensive and yelling — trying to imply that she was right. In the end, I left the restaurant without resolving anything. What a waste of time and gas. Seriously.

I like this place ’cause it is cheap. It is HK style café with some Americana stuff. I wasn’t too impressed with the quality but really I was looking for a cheap eat vs. quality. Customer service was really nice. Place has some space but not a lot. I managed to work on some personal writing here. No pressure to rush.

Cozy easy-​to-​miss spot on Kingsway between Fraser and Knight. I passed by to pick up a baked Portuguese chicken on rice before work. It was fantastic! Coconut curry with a small amount of grated cheese, green pepper, and baked potato. I made two small meals out of it for $ 8, including a hot drink which, if you want the real experience, should be yin-​yang (coffee & tea mixed together). Definitely having takeout from here again. Cash only.

great inexpensive place for HK style breakfast combo — Western and Asian choices — small restaurant with limited seats, so arrive early or prepare for a wait. Next time to try the lunch menu … service good, food good, price good.
shared breakfast with my friend, for Asian menu — sliced fish/​parsley congee and soy chow mein; for Western menu, toast with chicken egg omelette ($ 0.50 more egg white only) and satay beef in rice noodle. for cold drink, add $ 0.50. My CBC friend liked all food; the ketchup was authentic Heinz :-)

Husband and I decided to try this place since we have a craving for HK style café food. We got in during the Saturday lunch rush but was immediately seated. We knew these places are likely cash only so we made sure we have cash beforehand.
Kitchen service: Ordered baked spaghetti bolognese ($ 7.95) and baked seafood rice ($ 8.25) at 12:08pm and the dishes arrived at 12:19pm.
Portion: larger than other HK cafes.
Customer Service: Our complimentary coffee/​tea with the meal arrived less than 5 mins of ordering. Server tried to accommodate us to sit more inward when we asked to close the front door (I was too cold), but because it is lunch rush we didn’t want to cause trouble we just let it go. Servers are surprisingly much nicer than other HK joints.
Taste: we got coffee/​tea mix (ying yeung) for our complimentary drink. The coffee portion is weak (can barely taste it). The baked seafood rice has a lot of seafood and the sauce is quite flavourful for HK cafes. The rice was cooked with eggs; lacked a bit of taste though. The baked spaghetti needs more sauce to cover all the pasta, but other than that it is pretty darn good. The pasta is not overcooked. Both dishes are not too salty.
Price: average
Overall: we will likely come back again.

Came here twice with my friends and once with my brother. Service was good, food was good. I order the 2 item on rice and i had left overs to bring home too. I love their milk tea !

Approximately 100 meters away from my building a small Hong Kongers restaurant formerly sun fat café, foods are really good, i always go with the sizzling plate where i can get 3 items plus soup, rice or noodles and a pop for only lessthan $ 14, noise level moderate, place is infront a bus stop… cash only, street parking, wash room needs improvement, tv and music only plays chinese. average service.takes delivery… not bad to eat and satisfy your hunger

This place is good. From the outside, it doesn’t look too pleasing but inside, it is actually nice and clean. There isn’t a lot of parking in front as there is a bus stop there but there are spots on the side streets. When I went for lunch around 1pm, it was full, which surprised me as I didn’t think it would be that busy. However it is a good sign when it is busy. It means that people like the place.
The prices are decent and the portions are a little bigger than other HK restaurants. They did raise the price for the ‘make you own noodle’ soup dish but still a good price. The food is good and is about the same as other HK restaurants.
It is cash only so make sure to bring some. The service is quick and the servers are pleasant. Haven’t had any issues with them and they kept our tea full.

Great place for HK style breakfast. Always busy so be sure to get there a little earlier if you want to catch the breakfast. Food is decent and worth the price for sure. I always get the French toast with my meal along with the milk tea. Filling and satisfying for under $ 8.50 taxes in. Service is fast considering there are only two waitresses and they’re always willing to help you. Beats going to Richmond for HK café if you live around here!

BT Café is a nice hk style restaurant along a Vietnamese neighborhood on Kingsway. The price is decent, the food is as good as any other similar style of good, and the service is neither amazing or bad to an extent where I feel obligated to leave a comment about it. What I would like to mention is that the chef here enjoys his job and he likes to cook. On the odd day you come in here and the owner is working in the kitchen, you would be surprised with different styles of the same dish or lunch specials that you’ve never seen before. This is because the owner likes to play around with new recipes and plating techniques to keep the same dishes fresh.
At the end of the day, eating at a place where the chef enjoys his job is a lot better than a place where they only want to make your money.

It’s really a 3 star but with just the dessert– the steamed egg custard it adds a full star to it! The portions is really Hugh for a visitor from California, not sure what really the portion standard is here. They have a mini and regular size, but the mini is a regular size to me.
Ordered the stir fried beef flat noodle and baked half and half baked rice. They are decent but not extraordinary good. Service is attentive and servers are nice, but seems a bit under staff. Food does take a bit of time to be served since they do have a consistent full house. But the dessert is great! It’s close to the authentic dessert you can get in HK. At least not that I could find in southern Cali, and especially heaven in the cold weather. I think I can have 2 in one meal.

Decent place for a decent price. The portions are pretty good and you can easily score a meal for less than ten. This little whole in the wall (seriously, bathroom out of soap? Use the one in the kitchen) serves up a variety of dishes.
I ordered the singapore fried vermicelli, but sampled a bunch of dishes from our large group of friends. They were all well made (except the gravy for one of the meat dishes tasted a bit off, so we just left it alone). Most meals come with a drink and service is totally fast. They don’t try to rush you out, but I’m sure during busy times you already feel bad enough when there’s a cluster by the door waiting for a table.
Cleanliness is a bit questionable, which is why I can only give it a 3. Would I come here again? Only if I’m in the area.

Its a HK style café– so bring cash.
Giant kids meal of chicken wings, fries, spaghetti and meat sauce, plus drink for $ 6.50. (Usually have some spaghetti to take home) Hungry hippo adults can chow down on a meal with 3 meat items, gravy, rice or spaghetti, soup, HK style hot tea or coffee for about $ 13.50. (1 meat item is 9.50, 2 item is 11.50)
Is it the best HK stye café? I don’t know. (I am not an expert) What I know is: BT Café is not usually that busy, overcrowded, or fast and furious turnover. The food has been consistent– Generally good with mild fluctuations in quality but never poor quality. If you don’t feel like being in a rush, waiting in line, but feel like eating good value priced meals, this place is perfect.
I’m a fan now, so is my daughter. We can be found there being hungry hippos about once a month or so.

This place is all right.
They no longer have the $ 6.50 combo that people were raving about back in the day but I get it, there’s this pesky little thing called inflation.
Looks a bit sketch outside but once you’re indoors, its actually super clean. Food quality though, I would rank it at par with a lot of the other cafes that we have around the city.
We had the condensed milk toast (not as big as I would have imagined) and rice in hot stone pot.
Would I be back? Maybe if I was in the area.

This place was OK, not stellar, but I got what I came for. I came by myself on a Tuesday morning looking for a chinese breakfast of luncheon meat and instant noodles. This was served with a cup of HK style tea. Both came fast and hot. Service was very good, but the place was pretty empty. Not the cheapest chinese breakfast I’ve ever had in a HK style café, but it hit the spot.
There are others to try, so I will be venturing other places rather than coming back. But if I’m in the hood, I may swing by again.

I tried to find a HK style café nearby my friend’s house n searched on Unilocal to try BT Café on Sat afternoon.
There aren’t not many parking space in front of the restaurant, so we had to seeking the spot on the side street. While we’re looking for parking spot and passed by, we were doubt about it that small place for lunch. When we walked in, we surprised by how modern/​clean the place looked which was definitely a big contrast to the outside. The décor is pretty simple and nice. The food portion is pretty generous.
We had fixed mushroom with shredded pork efu noodle
and HK style ham, egg and pork chop rice. It tasted good at least NOT much MSG.
Btw, what is BT stand for? BT is not bubble tea here, it means Big Thumbs. Confusing?

Yummy! I mean, you can easily find a HK style café in Vancouver, but this is a good spot! Cheap, and comes with a drink of your choice. Fast service and friendly staff.
Find street parking and it’s kind of hard to find… so watch out!

BT Café… BitTorrent Café? Bravo Tango? WTF does BT stand for? Maybe they are hip with the kids that used to hang out at «GA»? Whatever it is, the logo is a fat Chinese chef — the source of all things good (yours truly included). Smart branding.
[Update: BT stands for ‘Big Thumb’ — this is what I get for being illiterate.]
I’ve never been here before but yes, the small place clearly newly and slickly renovated. Surprisingly, it was pretty busy despite being on a weekday afternoon. My buddy noticed everyone was middle-​aged or older. I did a scan of the room and it looked like a mahjong bender had let out — a good sign? At least you know it’s going to be cheap.
As you may know, I have sick addiction for Baked Pork Chop on Rice (BPCOR) and HK Milk Tea/​Coffee (Yuen-​yeung) — it’s my standard litmus test for any HK café (a.k.a. HKCAT — Hong Kong Café Aptitude Test). ‘BPCOR’ to ‘Yuen-​yeung’ is like ‘Fuck’ is to ‘Yea!’.
Okay — my BPCOR was damned tasty — a good layer of baked cheese over a solid tomato sauce with a sprinkling of onions and mushrooms. The fried rice cloud at the bottom had a good chewy/​charred texture with good «wok hay» — it’s a bit difficult to translate from Cantonese but it’s that je-​nais-​sais-​quoi best described as ‘breath/​life of the wok’. As Marc D. noticed, the rice in baked rice dishes is often neglected. The rice isn’t filler or a vehicle of delivery — it’s the dish itself. Few things anger me more than when a ‘chef’ makes fried rice with fresh rice. It’s a crime against nature. +1 for not screwing this up.
On to the pork chop, a fresh and thick cut leaving it juicy under the good battering — the sauce sufficiently baked in but not to the point of making it soggy. And the Yuen-​yeung was solid — not oversweetened and neither the coffee or the milk tea overpowering each other. Another common faux pas.
Service was prompt and friendly and there were constant refills as my friends and I engaged in our favourite sport, «Shooting The Shit». Finally, the pricing — my near faultless BPCOR and iced Yuen-​yeung came to a whopping $ 6.50 — no extra charge for ice. I’ve launched into Gaddafi-​esque tirades on this matter, so I won’t re-​beat it to death.
However, word of caution — my buddy thought his staple (curry beef brisket on rice) was pretty ‘meh’ and he thought the portions were pretty small. But I though the portions were good for the price point and I really enjoyed my meal.
So, I was floating between 4 or 5-​star for BT. Decided to go with a hard 4 as it may have a fluke and the addition of some peas and carrots would have made one of the finest BPCORs I’ve had.
Sure it’s not so much good as it simply avoided the common BPCOR/​HK Café pitfalls — but as the old Cantonese adage goes, «The easiest dishes are the hardest to prepare.» [cue gong hit] Your mind. Is now blown.