Pop Up Kitchen On Main

I saw this reviewed on the front page of Unilocal on May 24^th, therefore, decided to book mark it in spite of the recent negative reviews and the warning about salt. This is a few blocks away from the record store, therefore, location wise this was perfect.
This place used to be crave.
The ambiance is dark and casual. Dim.
We came here at 6:30 pm before the weekend rush, however, our enjoyment was partially ruined by some load idiots at the table across from us celebrating a party thinking that they were the only ones in the room annoying the other patrons (the other’s made passing comments). I mentioned this to our waitress whom moved us to bar side. Not as comfortable as the tables but still respectable.
We got the prix fix meal for $ 40 each.
CREAMY RISOTTO
With mushrooms and scallops. — Nicely prepared. Creamy.
TENDER SHORT RIB
Angus beef braised with my mashed potatoes. — Very tender and flavorful meat, fell off the fork tender.
CHOCOLAT FONDANT
With pistachio crème Anglaise. — Tasted no pistachio, however, it was a decent dessert.
They had crème brule and it was part of the prix fixed menu that was on the board, however, when, I inquired about it our waitress tried to correct us and said that there was no crème brule even though the menu said otherwise.
Before you pay the bill read it very carefully. They tried to charge us HST which they cannot do. They claimed it is ’cause the prix fix meal comes with a glass of wine which is not true as it is not listed on the board. Even if we did have drinks which we didn’t, you have to by law, put that as a separate line item on the bill and only charge HST on the drink alone, not the entire bill as they tried to do. As a book keeper/​accountant I was not impressed with this at all. The waiter did apologize and correct it, however, the more he tried to explain the cause of the error, the more odd the story sounded.
Meals came out in a decent timely manner.
Our waitress whom looked like Kesha (that is a compliment) was cute and friendly.

Amazing food! Amazing atmosphere! Honestly the best dining experience on Main Street!

Loving the new concept at Kitchen on Main St. Pop Up chefs with Sarah Kashani from Invitro hosting this month. An incredible menu at a great value. We shared an amazing pasta dish and a steak you could cut with fork. She’s brought her mixologist as well so great cocktail options. It’s a must try.

Great courtyard patio, service was great too. The food was good but not wonderful. I liked the meatballs but I think they could make things a little more exciting. My side salad only had lettuce and tomatoes but the dressing was yummy. I just think the salad could have had one or two more ingredience. The price point was solid but food could use a little more creativity.

Came here for brunch yesterday. I believe this place used to be called «Crave» before.
Anyway walked in and I was asked if I wanted to sit in the patio. I looked outside and noticed the patio was a long table for 8 people. I didn’t want to hog up a large table. Then they told me they have a back patio. Sold.
Walked in and discovered their back patio, which apparently is one of Vancouver’s best hidden patios. I will definitely have to agree on this one. The back patio feels like you’re dining in someone’s garden complete with a water fountain, heaters, and umbrellas. Well kept and clean as well. The staff was even nice enough to roll over a heater closer to my table for us to stay warm.
I ordered the benedict with lamb/​chorizo meatballs. It comes with «2 poached free run eggs, toasted focaccia, and the kitchens signature potato pancake». I also had their sangria special for $ 5.
My meal came and I was slightly disappointed with the size of the meatballs. There were only two meatballs. I wished the balls were bigger or was given a few more. But the balls did taste great. The eggs and sauce were not bad but the yolk didn’t ooze out, not that big of a deal for me. The potato pancake was delish, crunchy, and tastes great with the sour cream. Unfortunately I was still hungry after finishing the meal. Kinda wished for $ 13 I would have been more full.
All in all, I would still say I had a positive experience here. Staff are nice and friendly. Food is not bad, albeit it’s kinda lacking in the bang for my buck. Patio is gorgeous. 4 stars.

The Kitchen on Main St took over Crave Spot, no change or any renovation at all. We wanted a light and causal dinner and picked Kitchen on Main to try. We went there at 6ish, they only had one table at small patio and empty at dinning room.
We started with mussels, it’s fishy and few were still raw! My hubby had classic beef balls spaghetti, the meat balls wasn’t moist but not dry either.
My halibut salad wasn’t flavourful. 3 pieces of thin slice halibut were so bland and salad on bottom of the plate had no sauce. Well… this dish was lacked of seasoning and presentation.
Sorry… this new spot not good enough to make me return soon.

Food was good. Quality ingredients and I liked that everything was not that heavy, just right. I think the prices were a bit higher for the area, but reasonable for the quality ingredients. It seems that they have regular specials too. So, why a 3 star?
I didn’t care for their staff. They say the right things, I suppose, but there is a distinct unwelcoming factor in the air. How they say things, ask for your order, twirl on their feet and rush off, fake smile and then immediately turn stone cold the next second. Very odd. There is also some slight sales pressure too, when ordering, which adds to the discomfort.
Fine, I’ll give them a 3.5 instead, since we were quite pleased with the food. What the owner is saying below about it being casual Italian is right (in a good way).
Not sure if I’ll be deliberately back, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it.

— Food: Goat cheese balls a bit too sweet with honey on top, gnocchi portion was large had to take some home.
— It was a bit of a slow day so staff was sitting around at the bar and talking quite loudly.
— Reasonable prices for food.
— Probably would not return given the many options near this restarant.

Can’t comment on the food or drink because we had neither. We saw the patio and it looked nice so we went in and waited at the door while a server stood punching something in at the computer. He turned with an exasperated look, we decided to fill the awkward silence by asking for a table for two and the response was something like «OK just a minute» in a rude tone and he was back to punching in the order. Sorry to inconvenience you!
We stood there in silence exchanging WTF glances until a nicer server greeted us and led us to the patio, where we waited. And waited. A good 10 minutes went by with no greeting, no waters, no «I’ll be right with you». My friend and I have both worked in restaurants, we understand if it’s busy and are by no means demanding. But this was ridiculous.
As we watched one server at another table picking up dirty glasses, while the other one fiddled with the patio heater, we said «If they both go back into the restaurant, let’s just go.»
In they both wandered, so we headed to the Locus, where we were — shocker — greeted by a friendly bartender who poured us wine and served us food for the rest of the night.

Awful. The service or lack there of was inexcusable. When we first walked in the server at the bar was extremely rude and gave us the look of being a complete inconvenience to him. He then ignored us standing at the front for the next few minutes while we stood and waited. We finally got seated by someone else, and that was the end of anyone acknowledging us. We sat patiently at our table for the next 10 – 15 minutes while the 2 servers ignored us while clearing dirty dishes, bringing drinks to other tables, tried to fix heaters on the patio, etc. Nobody could even be bothered to say «I’ll be right with you» or even to drop off waters. We ended up leaving as obviously nobody wanted to take our food or drink orders. There’s no way I’d ever come back here.

beef carpaccio, thin sliced of beef tenderloin, capers, fresh basil, shaved parmesan, croutons $ 13 3.5÷5 — way too much kosher salt on the beef. All I could taste was salt. It was a little too much to a point where the salt burned our tongues. Don’t forget the capers were salty too.
goat cheese balls with herb infused honey $ 9 3÷5− one of the few dishes that didn’t actually tasted salty. The goat cheese itself was neutral and matched quite well with the caramelized onion. I personally don’t like onion but it was definitely a good combo. The owner said they made their own bread. It wasn’t outstanding, maybe better if it was toasted?! A hint of truffle oil would make it even more attractive.
potato crusted wings $ 9 3.25÷5 — The owner recommended the wings. He was nice enough to extend the happy hour and offered them to us at half price. They were coated with potato starch. It gave a hint of crunchiness to the outer later. They were pipping hot out from the deep fryer. Flavours were missing other than texture. Lime and pepper would be good!
chicken ball, mushroom cream sauce, tossed with rigatoni $ 16 2.5÷5 — I’ve asked our server if I could replace the lamb chorizo meatballs with chicken meatballs. Our server was nice enough to do it for us but not sure if it was a great idea. Salty was all I could say for this: salty meatballs + salty mushrooms + salty cream sauce + (a tiny) undercooked rigatoni = SALTY. Mushrooms were canned not fresh.
Meatball + sauce 3.5÷5 — Much better than the other pasta, the meatball were not salty with a hint of tanginess from the tomato sauce. The spaghetti was not undercooked neither!
tuxedo chocolate cake $ 5 3.25÷5 — The owner was nice enough to offer us free dessert. Sorry but I have to say it was my favourite dish of the night. (At least it wasn’t salty). The cake was not overly moist but still not dry yet. There were 2 pieces of strawberries on top.
Service ³⁄₅ — friendly but needs improvement. We were there in a large group so it might a little harder to gauge. The owner was friendly enough to extend their happy hour special while our server allowed us to substitute. However, our food came at different times. Someone who only ordered appetizers had her food before the others. Some of us were still waiting for our food when the other side of the table had finished. Someone forgot to pack one of our leftovers and thrown it out instead.
PS: same owner as Tapa 23. They changed their name just to include brunch. The owner claimed that their regular chef Uli was away so that was why the food was a little off.

Kitchen On Main is a restaurant with a hidden garden patio that took over the space from Crave on Main. Gone are the days of fried chicken and waffles. Now it is all about all sorts of balls — meatballs that is. Kitchen On Main is within walking distance to neighbor restaurants Nomad, The Acorn, and Sushi Mania Japanese Restaurant.
Chef Uli Schnur and Herschel Miedzygorski focus on presenting metro Vancouver with unique meatballs: beef, chicken, lamb, poke, ruben and kale with quinoa. There is something for everyone. There is even meatballs egg benedict.
We were invited to sample some of their heavy hitters during a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver. We took a seat in the hidden garden patio, away from the busyness of Main Street. If you are driving by you probably wouldn’t even know it exists. Perhaps you would think the tiny counter of «heated seats» was what they offered. There are around 10 tables in the garden patio filled with umbrellas, flowers, etc.
Goat Cheese Balls 9: with herb infused honey.
Sliders 9: choice of classic beef, lamb and chorizo, chicken or veggie balls with a choice of sauces like fire roasted tomato, mushroom cream, parmesan cheese or pesto.
Salsiccia 18: this was our favorite of all the dishes. Served with apple in a creamy tomato sauce tossed with gnocchi.
Chicken Balls 16: served in a creamy pesto sauce. The presto sauce was pretty tasty.
Homemade Ice Cream Sandwich 7: not too sweet with a chewy chocolate cookie
Homemade Cheesecake 7: today’s special was a chocolate mixed berry base. An interesting take on chocolate cake.

Hersch and Uli are da best!
(They know what they’re doing.)
Love to drop in every time I am in town.
Great vibe, food and patio.
What else do you need?

Kitchen On Main St is a #Vancouver gem. Nestled into the heart of the Main Street culture, this restaurant was a perfect «date night» pick.
The owners Uli and Hersh are long time restauranteurs with big hearts — they are more than that though — they’re true entertainers who welcome all into their restaurant as if you were visiting longtime family friends for dinner.
The food was superb! You have to try the assortment of meatballs — they’ll soon be known as YVR’s Meatball Mecca… One visit and you’ll know why.
All in all, @Christie Kennedy and I had an incredible evening of good food, great conversation and made some new friends while we were at it.
Let us know what you think of Kitchen on Main Street when you find yourself in the hood for your next date night.

The Kitchen On Main has definitely joined the top of my list of restaurants, whether out for dinner with friends, or stopping by for a nightcap to indulge in some tasty late-​night cravings.

Came on a Wednesday night. Vibrant crowd. Great food. New menu. New concept from Tapas 23. Recommend the meatballs.