Dock Lunch

I had a fantastic lunch here today. Chicken chile with a kale salad and a delicious biscuit. There was only one thing on the menu and that turned a couple of people off, who sought lunch elsewhere. I love the simplicity of making one dish amazingly well rather than doing a so-​so job with numerous dishes. Great spot for lunch.

Quaint, homey, friendly staff, and delicious food. If you are a fan old European cafes, grandma’s cooking, and fresh daily soul food menus you will love this place.
Elizabeth, the owner, was kind, generous, and a very accommodating host! I will definitely be back.

Form over substance.
Stressful dining experience.
Server didn’t know what she was doing. Room isn’t set up in a way that facilitates server’s job. Owner should be helping server rather than schmoozing. And server should be serving rather than sitting down with acquaintances or whatever. Server’s friends should have basic sense that it’s really rude to interrupt servers while they’re working. Observed a party leave upon finding that the chair server was sitting at was blocking the front door from opening! Disorganized, unprofessional, with okay food, but not exceptional enough to forget shortcomings.
Coffee had flavouring. Cinnamony. If that is the case, say so when people order and expect normal coffee. Food flavour was okay, but overpriced for the portion size and presentation.
Some suggestions:
1. Change your coffee carafe. It looked heavy and didn’t ever hold enough coffee or wouldn’t pour enough for a full cup. Despite the unwanted cinnamon, this was brunch, and we ordered and paid for coffee.
2. Don’t use tea cups for coffee that holds less liquid than a mooncup. Whimsy or whatever has its time and place. There’s also nothing wrong with mugs.
3. Have teaspoons, sugar, and cream at each table already set up. Implement french presses for coffee. If you want to do flavoured coffee put it on the menu and charge extra. This will save your guests and your sole server time and stress and maybe make you some extra change.
4. Have cutlery and other implements either already on the table or closer to the food station, again to save the server time.
5. If owner finds guests using forks to stir their coffee when she pops out to schmooze, owner shouldn’t take it away without apology and bring another fork for the meal. Bring a teaspoon. This was hilariously ridiculous. Incredibly rude.
6. Maybe add a little salad, or fruit on the side for spare looking dishes. You can fatten out the dish visually without too much added cost. Make portions consistent. Feeding your supplier is important. Without customers, you won’t need a supplier.
Overall appreciate the enterprise – clearly it takes guts and vision to start this sort of thing – but it felt like a space run by people who’ve never experienced restaurant work or service. The attention to décor without attention to service was glaring and annoying. Might be worthwhile to visit a place like the Bird’s Nest to see how home brunch/​supper clubs can/​should be. From what I recall the chef often flies solo – cooking, dishing, serving, all. It can be done.

This place is really cute. I love that it is tucked away; almost like a secret spot. The service is friendly.
They have one menu a day. It keeps it interesting. I had the cobbler with pepper biscuits and kale salad. The food was good but a little on the saltier side. I would still try again, as it might have been that dish in particular.
Four star overall because of the atmosphere and good service.

My experience here was more confusing than anything else, and it didn’t help that the food was bad. So hopefully my review can give newbies some context in case you want to try it out for yourself.
People have said it’s like eating at someone’s house, and that’s right. But it’s MORE right to say it’s like showing up at someone’s house uninvited and they have to scramble to figure out how to feed you.
You walk in and there are people sitting around tables and things, but no sign of anyone who looks like they work there. For a second I thought I had honestly walked into someone’s house by accident, but luckily there was a guy who walked in right ahead of me. He sat down at a long table against the right wall and I followed him, asked him if I could share the table, and he said sure.
Ok, so lesson one: Just walk in and sit down. Fair enough.
At this point I notice the person who seems to run the joint rushing around the room and serving folks. She brings out table settings but no menu. I know that this place posts menus on instagram (by the way, they didn’t that day), but I figured once you got there there would be a print out or something. Nope. I wait for a while, reading the paper, and she eventually comes back and tells me and my table-​mate what’s on the menu. Something mexican and then a po-​boy sandwich. He orders the mexican I order the po-​boy.
Lesson two: No menus, not even in store. Again, fair enough.
Then things get even more weird. She starts to wander around giving people juice and ice cream. But not everyone, just some people. Since there’s no menu, I didn’t even know this was an option. I would have loved to sip on something sweet. The guy next to me gets ice cream, but not me. I don’t really understand.
Lesson three: Some people get ice cream. Maybe it’ll be you, maybe not.
My table-mate’s meal arrives and it looks good. I ask him how it is, and he says it’s great. Ok! Things are looking up! My sandwich arrives a little while later and it looks great! A nice big bun, slices of bright red tomato, some sort of mayo based crunchy salad filling and cornmeal fried fish. But the second I picked it up, I knew I was screwed. So the thing about sandwiches is that you can’t have a bad bun/​filling ratio, and you can’t have a hard bun with sloppy ingredients. This bun was incredibly hard. Every bite I took not only tore my mouth open, but also squeezed all the fillings out. Brutal.
Lesson four: Don’t order the sandwich.
I guess it wouldn’t have mattered if the sandwich had tasked good, but it didn’t. The fish was under-​seasoned and the crunchy veggie filling thing was out of place. This wasn’t a poy-​bo in any way. I tried my best to finish because I was very hungry, but I gave up on the bread and just finished the filling and the salad.
Grand total was $ 10. Not a good value. But maybe I should have ordered the mexican dish instead.
The good news is that if you love playing russian roulette with your meals and/​or want to know what it feels like to show up to a stranger’s house uninvited for lunch, this place is for you!

I’ve visited Dock Lunch twice now. I totally love the décor and the ethos of the place: everything is as precious as can be. Meals are simple and to the point. Probably for the same reason, they seem to have drunk the kool-​aid a bit so my experience has been pretty uneven.
The first time was for lunch. We had an amazingly large chicken banh mi. The service was cheery and I came away pretty damn happy.
The second time was for brunch. The server was nice, but there seemed to be some difficulty in the kitchen — too much wine the night before? Our rostis came out cold and fairly tasteless. The pork belly/​kale combo seemed like it might have been leftover from the previous night
Not sure if brunch just isn’t their jam, but I was a tad sad afterwards, especially since the price is pretty high and I could’ve thrown something similar together at home. I’ll still go back, but it’s probably a good rule of thumb to double-​check what they’re serving on instagram before you go.

This place offers delish southern comfort food with a very homey atmosphere. I had a delicious bowl of soup filled with stewed pork, potatoes and spicy elements. Yum!

Went to Dock for lunch today. Sadly I can’t rave about my experience like the other reviewers.
We had the savoury corn masa and scallion cakes with sausage and lime crema, which came with a poached egg and salad. The food was well made, with fresh ingredients, but a bit pricey at $ 14 considering the portion size.
The waiter who was helping out today was very personable and seemed to ‘belong’ in that cozy dining area. The owner on the other hand completely ignored us while stopping at every other table. She seemed to expressly avoid all eye contact with my wife and me. I am not too picky about the type of service in a restaurant — it can be friendly or impersonal. However, it’s always nice to eat in a place where everyone is treated the same and feels equally welcome.
In summary, good food, but not a place I will Check In at again.

Such a sweet place. Wonderful owner/​waitron and I felt like a true hipster eating there. Just one tiny problem: do not go if you are hungry. Part of the charm is the single person serving and she does stop to chat with many regulars, so by the time you get the item you requested you will be dead. Coffee is served in darling little cups, which take about a minute and a half to drink but are delish. Once you finally are fed all is forgiven and you could almost go again… if you didn’t have an appetite, that is. Worth the experience.

I love this place! It was recommended by a friend of mine. Elizabeth has a kind soul and is incredibly friendly in trying to get to know her guests. The food is great, and the décor is inviting. It’s almost as if you are walking into a friend’s living room for dinner… Oh wait, you kind of are ;)
Check this place out!!! It’s worth a visit!

Someone wanted to impress-the-pants-off-their-guests-in-their-living-room-apartment-and-then-opened-a-restaurant-when-health-authorities-said-you-can’t-have-a-resto-&-live-on-top-of-the-kitchen concept.
Love.
Homemade, hearty, comfort food.
Lovely woman who runs the place.
Share tables with strangers will make you smile.
Worth going to on a regular basis.

Have gone there a number of times for lunch. Each day they serve one sandwich. Always outstanding. Elizabeth, the owner, said that she does brunch on Saturday and recently started doing dinner on Friday. Great food, great atmosphere, super friendly service.

Today we found a little treasure on 11^th. Elizabeth is a breath of fresh air. The southern food was fantastic and I will be back for sure.

Vancouver has a few «experiential» dinner places but this is the only lunch place that stands out in that way.
It is just plain different. It feels as if someone with an old apartment opened the door and let you into their living room that is temporarily set up with a few small tables. In fact WHERE it is is fantastic,. a block near Main I never walk but it is a true hidden gem in a city that tends to tear down anything of interest.
The menu here varies daily so I won’t bother suggesting certain dishes,. in fact, all you get is what they chose to make (maybe 1 soup and 1 sandwich and 1 dessert), but I generally like that. The service, for us,. was a bit amateurish but super personal,. again, like your friend’s boyfriend trying to act as waiter for a party or something (and totally not bad). The music, carefully curated for what this place is: a hipster’s fantasy.
Unfortunately, like many hipster type places, the portions are small and made of precious ingredients (and prices reflect that but not too bad). In fact one thing that actually took away from the experience was another customer wanting to show how sophisticated she was by having a near peak experience with every bite and commenting on how the ham was grown etc. like an episode of Portlandia. The chef and waiter at Dock Lunch, fortunately, are not nearly so pretentious,. they just like good ingredients.
I suggest, when you are not pressed for time, checking it out as both an exercise in eating something nice for lunch,. and for checking out a nice stretch of neighbourhood I bet you’ve never been to,. and soak in that cool building while you are at it, and while it still stands.

I walk down Main Street a million times, however, never think to walk either left or right on either side of the streets to check out what is hiding in the corners. The only reason I knew of this place is ’cause they had a large sign (sandwich board) that had the word «Tacos» written on it. Of course I instantly had to make a detour for the better. It was quiet inside. The atmosphere looks nothing like an eatery at all, however, more like your hipster friend’s apartment. It was like your hipster friend invited you over for lunch and is serving you what she made in her kitchen complete with water in a mason jar. Nothing about it implies eatery. Very chill with limited seating. There is no set menu as it changes daily. She does have an Instagram account and will post pictures every morning. Prices are very reasonable and is cash only. There are books and antique knicks knacks all around. Each item is different, however, as a collective it works well together. The owner of the place was super chill and friendly. The pulled pork tacos were AMAZING. My mouth sang a song.