Three Jewels restaurant brings vegan Vietnamese food to Commercial Drive

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      There’s a new Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant in town.

      The food at Three Jewels (1179 Commercial Drive) in Vancouver is all vegan, though the eatery offers cow’s milk as an option alongside soy milk for bubble tea and Vietnamese iced coffee. Three Jewels held its grand opening on July 29.

      On the menu are pho and other noodle soups ($5.99 to $6.99), rice plates ($6.99), noodle dishes ($6.99), and spring and salad rolls ($3.25 to $4.99). In addition to bubble tea ($3.95) and iced coffee ($3.50), the drinks on offer include soft drinks and beer.

      I’ve tried the bun cha gio chay (vegetarian spring roll vermicelli), bun bi chay (vegetarian shredded pork vermicelli), bun hue chay (spicy sate vermicelli noodle in soup), and bi cuon chay (vegetarian salad rolls with shredded tofu). None of these dishes disappointed.

      The bubble tea—available in flavours such as mango, watermelon, taro, and milky strawberry—is made with fresh fruit, so it’s thicker than the powder-mix product you get at a lot of bubble-tea joints.

      Three Jewels took over the location of a sushi joint, and the no-frills interior resembles your neighbourhood greasy spoon. But the pleasant service and delicious food more than make up for this. The bottle of veggie fish sauce at each table is also a nice touch.

      The restaurant is open 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. It joins Burnaby’s fully vegan Paradise Vegetarian Noodle House (8681 10th Avenue) in offering a menu of exclusively plant-based Vietnamese food.

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      Comments

      3 Comments

      Eliot

      Sep 18, 2012 at 5:53pm

      Three Jewels is a welcome addition to The Drive. I just ate there (seriously, 20 minutes ago!) and was impressed with the variety of tasty dishes they offer.

      toots mcguire

      Sep 21, 2012 at 8:45pm

      Went there yesterday and it was great food. The only concern I have is there is definitely hidden dairy in some of the food. Within 5 minutes of leaving my dairy allergy was in full bloom. Plus I would suspect, but cannot confirm, the use of msg because of the throbbing headache I had.

      Mike helmer

      Oct 7, 2012 at 12:51pm

      Huh..that seems strange since the owner said the food is MSG free ..i will do more investigation regarding msg..but im so addicted to the ginger sauce come with bamboo noodle soup. It was to die for.