Sunny Spot Cafe

Dont let the simple décor fool you! Loved the food! Owners are kind and welcoming and I loved that they hand make and roll their buns and noodles. I live in NY and have tried the Xi’an Famous Foods chain several times and it doesn’t compare to Sunny Spot Café.
I would definitely recommend the buns, the noodle, and the soups that have mini buns inside. Remember they’re not open on Monday/​Tuesday and I would advise you to call them before you go to double check. For anyone complaining about the hours and giving bad reviews based on that, I just want to say that this restaurant is owned and operated solely by a nice older couple. Take the time to call in advance to check their hours as opposed to leaving a bad review just because you didn’t bother to.

Brightly lit little mom-​and-​pop outfit on Main Street. Would normally have given it a miss except my friend had been there before and recommended it.
Restaurant interior and layout is awful but they have some nice pieces if you look around, like a very long painting of horses frolicking.
TIP: Look around for a ceramic jar of chili paste swimming in what is possibly sesame seed oil and liberally sprinkled with sesame seeds. It’s fragrant and not that spicy-​hot. Highly recommend you give this a taste and think about whether to add it to your order. My flatbread-​in-​soup would have been way tastier with a liberal helping of it.
Pao-​mo (homemade flatbread) in soup ($ 8) beef, lamb, or tripe
–I got the lamb one on the owner’s recommendation. Surprisingly fragrant soup.
–The small chunks of torn-​up flatbread didn’t do much for me but it did make the soup heartier.
–Looks simple but pretty tasty.
–Portion size is like a small phở bowl.
–Felt a bit stingy on the meat but the broth and aroma was flavourful. Might have been because it was at the end of the day (?) and they were running low on lamb? Or they wanted you to pay $ 2 for «extra meat» — see the lower right corner of the menu.
Glass noodles in hot and sour soup ($ 6)
–It’s advertised as «soup» but you’re not getting a token amount of noodles. This is basically a light-​meal bowl of noodles.
–Didn’t feel it was hot or sour enough. Might be toned down for a Western clientele?
–Tasted OK.
Braised Pork Bun ($ 4), Marinated Beef Bun ($ 4)
–Price looks atrocious for what you get — a breakfast muffin-​sized toasted bun with some meat in it. But wait! — A burger nowadays will set you back about $ 12-​$ 16+, and it has only marginally more meat in its patty than a bun from Sunny Spot Café. So this may actually be par price.
–Pork bun didn’t do anything for me but the slightly curried but not spicy-​hot beef filling in the beef bun was tasty!
There is very much a «home-​cooked meal» feel to the food here that totally makes me feel confident everything is made in-​house.

Tried eating here 3 times at different days/​times, and all 3 times they were closed (even when they’re supposed to be open). Strange hours of operation. Sorry but if you make it difficult to eat here I’ll go somewhere else.

Although the interior is fairly shabby and the place doesn’t look the best, I love the food and service here. The restaurant is run by a family and the grandmother always makes delicious and fresh jiao zi. The food is pretty good too. Bonus points because they make authentic fare and the atmosphere is quite homey. My favourite dishes are liang pi (cold, spicy noodle salad type dish) and fei chang suan la fen (chitterlings? in hot and sour soup).

Solid 3.5 stars.
It’s a cozy little café-​style, a few blocks away from the only Noodle Box that delivers, but I digress as usual.
Ordered the cold noodles with no meat, some good kick to it, will reconsider ordering this again. Good texture for these flat noodles.
Their food is from the famous province where the Terra Cotta warriors were found.
Friendly service.

* Hole in the wall Shaanxi cuisine *
This little spot was a pleasant surprise. On the outside it looks like an old casual breakfast type place — in fact they apparently used to serve breakfast all day. But the only menu available now is a Shaanxi cuisine menu. Unexpected in this part of Main Street — but a nice surprise!
Biangbiangmian — check!
Paomo — check!
Liangpi — check!
Roujiamo — check!
What a pleasant surprise to find so many Shaanxi specialties in an unexpected spot.
I tried the biangbiangmian and the roujiamo.
To start off with the disappointment — the roujiamo ($ 4) didn’t wow me. The meat was a dry cold sliced variety and the bun was not at its freshest. I will skip this on return visits. And yes, there will be return visits because of the rest of the food! Photo:
The biangbiangmian ($ 8) was a real treat. The noodles were freshly made, and seemed to have a bit of whole wheat in them to give a rustic feel. They had a nice chew that bounced back just the right amount. The soup was filled with all sorts of goodies including stewed beef (incredibly tender and well seasoned), tofu (soft and silky), various mushrooms, and various Chinese pickles. The broth had a pleasant complexity highlighting the pickle flavours combined with the beef seasoning. Delicious! Photo:
On a return visit (yes, I said there were going to be returns!) I had the paomo ($ 8). Forgot to snap a picture, but the lamb was extremely tender, the lamb broth nicely seasoned, and the broken bread soaked up all of the flavours beautifully. A very nice dish as well!
Also tried the veggie dumplings ($ 8) which were freshly handmade and filled with a nice variety of veggies and herbs. They were rustic in preparation with slightly thicker skins, and served with a thick vinegar dipping sauce. The vinegar highlighted the flavours beautifully. These were very pleasant overall.
I’ll be back, and who knows, I may be brave and one day give the roujiamo another try — perhaps it was an off day for that! But next time I’m going to try out the liangpi!

Very small menu but absolutely recommend the pork dumplings and the pork and beef buns. Noodles were handmade and whole-​wheat. Went there two days in a row — that’s usually a good sign.

Things I love:
— The pork dumplings
— The hot & sour clear noodle soup
— The cold noodle dish
Things I don’t really love:
— The really thick noodle dish (way too thick in my opinion)
Apparently they also serve Western breakfast items? I have not tried those and I don’t know if I would ever walk into this place craving for some sausages and sunny side up eggs. As the other Unilocaler’s have mentioned as well, I think their Asian Style menu is the only way to go.
This place DEFINITELY has a hole in the wall feel to it, but focus on the food… just focus on the food…

Cockroach in food. Do not eat here. Period. Very unpleasant thing to find when eating noodles. Staff were somewhat apologetic, protesting that they just made the food. I left, and won’t ever be back.
I’ll admit that their food was pretty tasty on a previous visit, but I should have been more cautious considering how unkempt and dirty the place seems. In hindsight I’m not surprised they have a roach problem.
To find one in my soup was the worst thing I have ever experienced while dining.

Unilocal doesn’t provide a mechanism for it, but some restaurants deserve a «re-​set» or «do-​over» on their ratings. The Sunny Spot Café should be at the head of that line.
To judge by the early bad reviews of this place, the Xi’an native who started this little café had the misguided idea to open a greasy spoon serving Western style eggs-​and-​bacon breakfasts. The consensus of those reviews is that the food was inept, and the few photos bear that out.
While in Vancouver, I read that, at the same time the owners’ bricks-​and-​mortar breakfast joint was failing badly, they were also running a Xi’an food stand at the Richmond Night Market that did a bang-​up job with their native food.
Obvious idea: the born-​again Sunny Spot Café, serving Xi’an food, even though it still feels like an old-​timey breakfast café.
I’m pretty old, but young enough – or is that just old enough? – to know that «mad old-​school» is dated slang. But that’s how the young guy at the table next to us, a native of Northwest China, described Sunny Spot as it exists now. He told his Caucasian companion that mom-​and-​pop joints like this line the streets of Chinese cities.
We ordered a couple of bowls of biang biang noodles, one with tofu and one with ground pork. (The better half of the owners was hand-​rolling the wide noodles on-​site as we ate, which we discovered is pretty common in Vancouver.) My wife, who had the tofu, agreed that the pork one was better: It came with mushrooms, onions, bok choy, spinach, and a suprisingly complex pepper sauce. Really good.
The star of the show at the Sunny Spot has got to be the rou jia mo, or «Xi’an hamburger.» It actually features a succulent stewed pork, sort of like al pastor, and a fair portion of cilantro, served on a house-​made bread that’s like a cross between an English muffin and a Deep-​South cracker-​style biscuit, and better than most examples of either.
«Just What Vancouver Need,» says the sign above the menu on the wall. Damn straight.
P. S. When we returned to Ohio, we read in the New York Times just a few days later that NYC actually has a CHAIN of Xi’an restaurants:
. So much for thinking we’d stumbled on something unusual. (Hell, we did, by Ohio standards.) Whatever, New York City. Sunny Spot is still very much worth your while.

The pork dumplings were good (but salty). I however didn’t like the fact that she handled my bill (gave me change) and went back to making noodles. Washing her hands before touching the dough again is expected.

Love their hamburgers and cold noodles. Their spicy sauce is delicious! Small mom and pop place. Lovely :)

I absolutely love trying hole in the wall/​mom and pop establishments and this was another fun place to visit. The food came quickly and was decent though I was expecting the hot noodles in soup to have a bit more of an al dente feel than to be so soft. The chilled noodles had a good texture on the other hand. I recommend the following combo: order the tripe hot and sour soup and the pork dumplings, then put the dumplings in the soup. The cucumber salad was also good for such a hot day like today.

A++ for effort, B– for execution. Worth trying if you want something new. Go for the food, don’t go for the experience. You also need to be patient with them. They are a little overwhelmed with their new found fame.
I was very excited to try this place. I grew up in northern China with these food. When I went to Xi’An last spring, I had an amazing food experience. While I didn’t expect them to replicate that experience, I was happy if they were hit 50% most of the time. But alas! It was not so.
Liang Pi (thin cold noodle): 2.5÷5
Some elements of a good bow of Liang Fen are there, like the noodle itself, sauce, the spongey tofu, and cucumber. But there are a few issues that plague the dish: this is suppose to be cold, not room temperature; the noodles is lacking elasticity and bite in texture; and there are too little fixings and sauce.
Chinese Burger: ⁵⁄₅
BANG ON. Taste exactly like the flavor from my childhood. Rich, juicy, and adequately spiced. I’d give them ⁶⁄₅ if there is more meat and/​or they used sesame buns.
Lamb soup: 2.5÷5
Flavour is decent. But lack substance. The ones i had in Xi’An had more meat and vermicelli than soup.
Noodle in hot and sour soup: 1.75÷5
This is perhaps the biggest let down. Not only was it lacking in substance (should be more noodle than soup), there was all sorts of wrong: this dish is not supposed to be served hot, it should be room temperature at most; the noodle was overcooked and the soup was flavourless despite of the layer of red chili oil that floated on top.
Biang Biang noodle: ²⁄₅
Despite of being a local favourite, this noodle didn’t make a much of an impression on me during my Xi’An trip. It was just wide handmade noodle in clear broth with a little bit of beef stew floating on top. All the problems of the above dish plagued this one.
(I didn’t order any of their famous dumplings because I’m convinced no one can make better dumpling than my mother)
The only things i’d go back would be the Chinewe Burger, and a lamb soup on the side. Despite of my somewhat disappointing experience, I’m still glad that they brought these foods to Vancouver.

I’ve been a fan for quite some time now but I waited until I had a chance to dine in so that I could talk about the full experience. Normally, I just grab an item to-​go but yesterday evening, I invited a friend who also lives in Mt. Pleasant to try dinner here.
I think they still serve breakfast but the real deal is the northwestern Chinese menu.
The homemade boiled pork dumplings served as a good starter. You can see that they were made by hand. We then shared a small lamb soup and the handmade noodles with minced beef. The lamb broth is light but with deep flavours… we had beef in it. The meat is not the star… rather the broth stands out and you get a generous helping of vegetables and tofu. Some might see this as cheaping out but honestly, you’ll feel more satisfied eating this than if it had been covered in meat.
The handmade noodles (biang biang) are thick ribbons of dough-​y goodness. The noodles are thick in width but thin still (what?) and one time, I called in an order for takeout and saw the work that goes into making these noodles.
It’s worth mentioning that this is a family run business and they are so friendly. It’s like going to your uncle’s place for dinner. In the past, I’ve interacted directly with the owners but yesterday, we had a sweet and soft spoken waitress. She brought small plates and bowls before we even asked as she realized that we would be sharing all of the dishes. This place is genuine, up and down.
Okay, yes it’s a hole in the wall type place but it’s clean and you’ll be glad that you tried it while it is not so busy yet. Of all the spots I’ve tried in recent months, there is no restaurant that I wish more would stick around. The food is really tasty and truly made with care.

First off, the place is a dive. Seriously.
The moment that I walked in, I got a whiff of the place, looked at the décor and I thought to myself, «Yuck, this place smells of stinky Chinese food». I only spoke English to them since my Mandarin is pretty much nonexistent. They thought I wanted the Western menu, but I declined. I want the Xi’an stuff.
It’s a mom and pop shop and I think it was the daughter who served us, but I could be wrong.
I end up ordering a bunch of things. Dumplings, Terracotta noodles, Chinese hamburger, and beef vermicelli noodles in a lamb broth. The terracotta noodles, when I first looked at the menu, said that it was «cold» in Chinese. When I saw that I almost did not order it. Luckily, I persevered. This was very nice. It was not «cold» but rather room temperature. Served with a slightly pickled tasting dressing with tofu, sliced cucumbers, shredded carrots, and possibly some tripe. I enjoyed this one very much. It was very refreshing.
The only real disappointment was the Chinese Hamburger. It was OK, but I know I’ve had better. The dumplings were kinda confusing to me. While the flavours didn’t wow me, I kept eating them. So maybe there really is something about them that I’m missing? They were definitely home made judging from the irregular shapes.
My daughter loved the beef soup with the lamb broth. I didn’t get a chance to taste it so no real comment.
Overall, I’d say the restaurant and food would average probably a 3 or 3.5, but I really enjoyed the terracotta noodles, and am basing my rating on that. I would come back for this alone.

The Sunny Spot Café is a hidden gem that I’d definitely recommend. They serve both western and Shaanxi cuisine from Xi’an, China. I can only comment on the Shaanxi food. The chef is from Xi’an. I have also visited Xi’an before and this food tastes authentic. Shaanxi cuisine is known for its use of chili oils and vinegar. You can ask for less of each if you would prefer something less spicy or sour.
Chinese/Xi’an Burger: lamb meat on a toasted bun. Simple and delicious.
Terracotta Noodle: made fresh daily and is a nice noodle with cucumbers and chili oil.
Lamb soup: a little on the sour side, but good.
The owners are also really friendly. Maybe because I spoke mandarin to them.
They recently changed their hours to close at 6PM.

I absolutely HATE the décor. I can’t think of a restaurant that I’ve been in North America that gave so bad of a vibe. Even the shadiest place I ate in Flushing Meadows, New York is better. The 70’s vintage striped rose colored wall paper is old, discolored, and flaky. It’s like pieces of dry chapped lip skin you just want to peel off but you couldn’t because it’s not your lips, it’s someone else’s. The yellow fluorescent light makes me believe there is a Gollum hiding in some dark corners waiting to attack. The chairs, urgh… the chairs. They look like they’ve been infested with three generations of bed bugs, grey and soggy looking. The cutlery look chipped and crusty. The menu, even though laminated, feels like they’ve been passed around amongst a bunch of fat kids who just finished their toilet business without washing they sausage hands.
If you feel adventurous, you can surely order off from the «white food menu», which many reviews previous to this have strongly stated, KEEP AWAY. The Asian menu, on the other hand, is as legit as it can be. My significant other and I first had a taste of their food at the Richmond Night Market by Bridgeport. We ordered Terracotta Noodles and fell in love. We took their business card and found their store front, hoping to indulge in more of Terracotta Noodles but unfortunately they weren’t available on the day we visited. You lose some, you gain some. The wife, co-​owner, suggested some pork chive dumplings which were hand made in house, were still fresh, not in the freezer yet. Took up on her suggestion, we got a plate of 15 dumplings, a small bowl of lamb soup, and a xian burger.
I love fresh dumplings. That’s the only time you can get the «crunch» of chopped up cabbage in dumplings. The freshly made skin looked ugly but its bouncy texture made my chopsticks going for more. The stuffing in the dumplings was fresh, seasoned beautifully, and the amount was in good proportion to the skin. Well made indeed. The lamb soup was the highlight. It was deep flavorful lamb broth with traces of tomatoes, green bean noodles, lamb bits, tofu puffs, and some cilantro. It’s the perfect food for Vancouver’s ugly damp weather. The xian burger was meh… mediocre. I was expecting lamb but they use pork. It’s Asianized pulled pork bun in a nut shell. The pork was over salty and the bun was hard, even though it was served warm.
I left happy and happier to find I didn’t get any bed bug bites from sitting on the cushioned grey chair. I did however, went home and did the laundry, every piece of clothing I wore that day was washed in the machine. Better be safe than sorry.

Just looking at this place I would have never, ever, stepped foot into, as it looks like one of those Chinese smorgasboard restaurants in the early 80’s, something my mom would have worked in. One of those places, if they even served Chinese food it was to trick the whites (oh. ok. politically correct. Caucasian!) and there was no freaking way this Chinese mouth would even touch, less accept anything that was being cooked here. When you come in, this place is a flash back, of something you may find in a rural town, and an older Chinese couple working here to make you happy with the bacon and eggs, and what other stuff they serve here. The menu, or maybe the business they originally bought, serves mainly breakfast food here, from your normal bacon and eggs, to eggs benedict, the normal breakfast junk with some phantom unknown black coffee, yeah… I mean you could come here and get it, but as I’ve said above… there is no way this food or this place would intice me to enter, no no… and no… so how did I end up in here then?
In the summer me and my partner ended up at the Richmond Night Market, and there was a booth that served ‘Terracotta Noodles’ (believe me… this name is over the top… it’s not called this in Chinese!) and they have, what they call, Chinese bun on the menu, Lam soup (yes… gotta have some errors on the menu to make this fully authentic!), and something not on the menu… fresh hand made dumplings, right to the wrapping. We came on a wet, soggy day, one that would definitely need some warm, homey food to make things right. We came in right away and the old lady there spoke to us in Mandarin, quickly identifying that we weren’t here for bacon and eggs. We were sat quickly at a big round table near the front facing glass refrigerator showing all the colorful soda’s like coke, 7-​up, and orange Crush and given their regular menu (that breakfast thing) and another sheet, with pictures of their ‘ethnic’ menu.
My dear wanted to order the ‘Terracotta Noodles’ but the lady said that they had none today, but what they did have, that wasn’t on the menu, was the homemade dumplings, a no-​brainer on ordering a plate of that, their Chinese bun (which we thought was lamb… but it really is pork) and a bowl of the lam (yes. without the b) soup. While sitting there I noticed many things that brought me back into the past. The peeling wall paper, with greens and pinks going up and down, the old lighting, the cassette player stereo system, a paper day-​by-​day Chinese calender, it’s not one of your new age style restaurants, that is for sure.
The first thing that came was our soup, filled with meat, tofu, tomatos, and small greens, and some clear noodles, this was a surprise, it was hearty, but very clean, something that warmed you up while walking in the rain to get here, something that your grandma in a Chinese family would cook up, recommended, yes!
The next thing that came was the Chinese bun, as I said prior to this, it’s not lamb, it’s pork, and it looked right, but on this day the bun portion was a little hard and too dry, the meat filling, a little spicy, but a little over on the sodium side, so nothing really overly special to cry home about.
The last dish was the homemade dumplings, she brought over some ginger, in a little dipping bowl, and a bottle of dark vinegar for our dumplings that were coming next. The plate was filled, as my dear counted, 15 unproportionate dumplings, all looking kinda different, all handmade. Each one had a distinct shape to them, at the same time… fresh. How fresh, like just made fresh. The skins were a thicker than what you would buy from a supermarket, at the same time, from the texture, bounce in your mouth, it just made the meal, keeping the contents inside safe before digging your teeth into each bite. Also each bite into the meat had crunch, not from the meat, but from the vegetables inside. If your looking for what real homemade dumplings taste like, come here, they may not have it always though… be warned.
While I was sitting there, I noticed some more patrons coming in, and yes, looking at their ethnic background, and listening to how, and what, they ordered, people know about this place, and see through the smorgasboard style place this looks like to the rest of the world. My dear spoke to the man that we met that was making the Terracotta noodles at the Night Market, told us to give him a call and ask, as he just got back from a month off in China… so you can call to find out on that day if they have any particular dish, the couple is very friendly.
On a side note, I heard one person who was walking in for takeout wanting a burger and fries… it’s a strange place, but if you eat the right things off the menu, you will leave with a smile!

My wife deserves the credit for finding this place, spotting the Chinese on the awning proclaiming Xian food from our rental car as we hurtled down Main Street at 35 mph (er, 56 kph).
Sunny Spot Café’s schizophrenic menu (standard Western-​style breakfast items, plus Xian-​style Chinese food) seems emblematic to me of Vancouver — a city with old-​school Canadian eateries chock-​to-​block against restaurants that appeared as if they were dropped in whole from their former location in Hong Kong.
Needless to say, we were there for the Xian food, which didn’t disappoint. The options were limited — the so-​called Xianburger (肉夹馍 rou jia mo), terracotta noodles (凉皮 liang pi), and lamb & beef soup with bun (牛羊肉泡馍 niu yang rou pao mo).
The Xian burger consisted of shredded pork stewed in various spices (predominantly cumin) in a dense wheat sesame bun. The terracotta noodles (Xian is where the terracotta soldiers are from, get it?) are wheat noodles, served room temperature, in a light dressing of chili oil, with slivers of cucumber and cilantro. Both were solid renditions of the type, and all the better for being in Vancouver, Canada.
The lamb & beef soup with bun (that’s their translation, not mine) was really the star, maybe because of that famous cold grey Pacific Northwest weather. A classic Xian dish, it’s a hearty soup of chopped-​up steamed bread with shreds of beef, lamb, and cilantro. The broth was nice and deep, as it should be.
Why anyone would come here for bacon and eggs is beyond me. The Xian food, on the other hand, is definitely worth the trip.