My parents took me to my favourite restaurant in all of Vancouver tonight, an Indian place on 11th and Granville called Vij's. Several neat things about the place that I really like: (1) they come around while you wait with hot deep-fried carbohydratey Indian snacks and freshly-made chai; (2) no reservations - the place opens at 5:30, and people are lined up outside before-hand... this is actually quite a good method of doing things, I think, as it assures that the restaurant is always full and there never has to be an empty table. However, it does make for some long waits (>1 hour) if you go in peak hours...; (3) Vij, the main man, is super friendly and goes around and talks to his customers all evening.. he scolded my dad for not cleaning his plate; (4) attractive silverware and decor in general; (5) what else... ah yes, the food is most, most delicious! creative but not pretentious, and not just (boring) Indian standards... tonight I had "cauliflower, spinach and onion fritters in coconut-coriander curry" for the appetizer, and "garnet yam and green chilli dumplings in pureed onion and tomato curry" - both divine.