Fraser Street food guide: Filipino, Vietnamese and neighbourhood eats in East Vancouver

Fraser Street runs north to south through East Vancouver, and for much of its length it is a working street rather than a destination: laundromats, hardware stores, dentists and, between them, a long run of family-run places to eat. People who live nearby know it well. Visitors tend to head for Gastown or Main Street and miss it, which is part of the appeal.

The stretch locals call the Fraserhood centres on Fraser Street around Kingsway. It sits inside the larger Kensington-Cedar Cottage area. Further south the street continues through the Sunset neighbourhood, where the food keeps changing character block by block.

What makes Fraser Street different from Main Street?

Main Street is the polished one. It has the roasters, the brunch lines and the restaurants that get written about. Fraser is plainer and cheaper. Rents are lower, so you find owner-operators serving the dishes they grew up with, and the mix reflects who settled the area: Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian and Polish households, among others.

That means you can eat very well on a modest budget, and it also means the street rewards walking with no fixed plan. If a place has a handwritten sign, a full room at lunch and a menu mostly in two languages, it is probably doing something right.

Where do you find Filipino food on Fraser Street?

Fraser has become one of the better streets in Metro Vancouver for Filipino cooking. One restaurant here is known for the style of cooking from the Pampanga region and for a Filipino breakfast that draws a line on weekend mornings. Bulalohan restaurants serve bulalo, the beef shank and bone marrow soup that suits a wet Vancouver day.

If you have not eaten Filipino food before, a few dishes to look for:

Dish	What it is
Sisig	Chopped, sizzling pork, usually with onion and chilli, often served on a hot plate
Adobo	Chicken or pork braised in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic
Sinigang	A sour, tamarind-based soup with meat or seafood
Silog	A breakfast plate of garlic fried rice and egg with a meat such as longganisa or tapa
Halo-halo	A shaved ice dessert with beans, jelly, fruit and ice cream

Order a few dishes for the table and share them with rice. Portions are generous.

Is Fraser Street good for Vietnamese food?

Yes. Pho Hong on Fraser serves home-style Vietnamese food and is one of the street's long-standing names, and newer Vietnamese places have opened along the same blocks. The usual order is pho, rice noodle soup in a long-simmered beef or chicken broth, or bun bo Hue, a spicier lemongrass beef noodle soup from central Vietnam. Banh mi, the baguette sandwich with pickled carrot and herbs, makes a cheap and filling lunch.

A good habit with pho: taste the broth before you add anything. Then add basil, bean sprouts and lime as you like, and use the hoisin and chilli sauces sparingly so the broth stays the point.

What else is on Fraser Street?

The street also has Nepalese and Indo-Chinese food, Greek restaurants, Italian pizza places and bakeries. Restaurants on a street like this come and go quickly, so look at recent photos and opening hours before you travel, and ask whether a place is cash only.

When is the best time to go?

Weekday lunch is easiest: small rooms, quick service and lunch specials. Weekend breakfast and brunch at the popular Filipino places can mean a wait, so go early or go late. Dinner is calmer on weeknights.

How do you get to Fraser Street?

Buses run along Fraser Street and the Kingsway corridor. By car, side streets have free or time-limited parking, which is a real advantage over Gastown or Kitsilano. Cycling works well, since Fraser is gently graded and the nearby bikeways are good. Check TransLink for current routes.

What does a meal on Fraser Street cost?

A bowl of noodle soup or a rice plate lunch is usually modest. As everywhere in British Columbia, the tax is added at the till: 5 percent GST on food, and alcohol also carries PST. At a sit-down place with table service, 15 to 20 percent on the pre-tax amount is the normal tip. At a counter-service place a tip is optional.

A simple plan for an afternoon on Fraser

1. Start with a late breakfast or early lunch at a Filipino place, before the weekend rush.
2. Walk south, stopping at a bakery for something to take home.
3. Take a break at a café or tea shop on the way.
4. Finish with a bowl of pho or a banh mi, then take the bus back.

How do you keep track of what you ate on Fraser Street?

Fraser Street is a street for ordering by the dish: a plate of sisig at one table, a bowl of bun bo Hue a few blocks on. In the Mosey app you rate each dish rather than the whole restaurant, so the sisig and the halo-halo from the same kitchen get their own scores. Add a tag or two so the next person knows what to look for, save the places you want to try into a list, and send the invite link to the friends coming along for the afternoon. When you get home, rate the best dish you ate on Fraser Street in the app.

More guides to read next:

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• Best restaurants near me in Vancouver: a neighbourhood guide (2026)

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