Exploring the restaurants that bring Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods to life.

Stepping out of Steveston Pizza, Mey Saechao lifts the cover off a pizza box designed to accommodate the height of five grilled Canadian lobster tails perched upright across the centre and piles of shrimp, prawns and smoked salmon tucked behind.

It’s called the Serpent Pizza, costs $125 and can be taken to go or eaten in a spare room next to the kitchen where there is no table service.

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“I think a lot of people don’t realize that, yes, it’s $125, but it’s a good deal,” says her husband Chan Saechao, who along with Mey is visiting Vancouver from Sacramento, Calif.

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He raves about the amount of seafood on the pizza they’ll take to the park to share with his parents. They’ve had it before on a previous visit.

“Some people just think about the concept — that it’s just a pizza — and not what’s actually on it,” he says.

They’re standing at a corner right across from the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, along Fishers Walk, which connects Fisherman’s Wharf and Garry Point Park.

There are over 65 restaurants and eating options across Steveston Village and more than 25 sit in this area on Bayview and Moncton streets between Third Avenue and No. 1 Road. It’s a spot that is four-blocks wide with two pedestrian-friendly streets, one with patios perched by the water with views of fishing boats and another that is set behind.

Richmond residents Linda Barnes and Diane Gronlund also know of the handcrafted, gourmet pizzas at Steveston Pizza just as they know of the $5-a-slice ones made in a wood-fired oven and presented in an open-air setting down the street at Moncton Pizzeria.

Over a simple and satisfying lunch of one-piece cod fish and chips with coleslaw and homemade New England clam chowder at Dave’s Fish and Chips, Barnes and Gronlund talk about how Dave’s was one of the very first restaurants in Steveston when it was started by Dave Scott in 1978.

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“It was initially a takeout place on Chatham and then later, Dave moved it (here) to Moncton,” says Barnes, who is co-chair of the Steveston Historical Society.

We flip through a new recipe book, Fish Tales: Cannery Community Cooking, Past and Present, which is a collection of stories, recipes and memories of the individuals and communities of Steveston.

It came after an exhibit at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society that was on display from 2023 to 2025 and incorporated a student-led, story sharing project in partnership with the University of B.C.’s INSTRCC or Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies.

The recipes and stories in the book include salmon croquettes from Japanese Canadian fishing families, Norwegian herring salad, what Chinese workers at the cannery ate and how Indigenous workers travelled there for the fishing season. There are recipes for boiled fish with pickled cabbage and chilies that were served in the bunkhouses where cannery workers stayed, or congee with leftover oysters or cod that hungry line cooks at fine-dining restaurants ate on their quick breaks.

There is also a mention in Fish Tales of Dave’s Fish and Chips and how it was a regular meeting place where Steveston Historical Society committee members were part of saving the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and turning it into a national historical site.

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They would “gather over a warm, filling meal and continue with their plans to keep fishing and canning history alive in Steveston,” it reads.

Barnes and Gronlund point out the original post office wickets inside Dave’s Fish and Chips. The two of them have known each other for years and are keepers of all kinds of details about the restaurants here, the decades-old family places, the husband-and-wife or brother-and-sister ventures, who is renovating, moving or redeveloping.

The Steveston Seafood House was one of the first fine-dining restaurants and still is wonderful, they say.

Lavash Seaside Grill, with its sunny patio in a prime location right on the boardwalk, has merged with Anar Persian Cuisine, which for years was on Third Avenue in the old Steveston courthouse dating to the 1920s. That charming building now sits empty and will be moved to the end of the block as a new property will be constructed on that site, says Barnes.

“Steveston has always been at the end of the road. You’re at the end of Steveston Highway. You’re at the end of the bus loop. It’s still considered a fair way’s out,” says Barnes, adding that it was the Steveston Salmon Festival, which started in 1944 and celebrates its 79th year this July, that put the village on the map, drawing large crowds.

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From just a few restaurants, says Gronlund, there is now a wide selection for every taste and budget.

“It depends on what you want to eat here. You can have everything you want,” says Gronlund.

Back on Moncton Street, Amy Tsui is standing in front of the former Mr. Gold Gelato building that is now home to a new restaurant drawing lineups for its handmade Chaoshan meatballs from the Shantou region of Guangdong province in southern China.

The full menu at Uncle is posted on the window and consists of four rice-noodle bowl options labelled A to D, with the choice of pork tripe, beef, fish or pork meatballs in broth, and prices ranging from $15 to $18.

“Three people can share two bowls. They are that big,” says Tsui.

Her family lives within walking distance and she often strolls over to eat, carrying a walking stick that converts into a handy three-legged chair so she can rest when she tires.

Unfortunately, her original plans are foiled today because Uncle is closed. The popular spot, which opened in May, is closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so we peer in the front windows to admire the interior with its square, wooden tables, benches and walls painted with traditional Chinese blossoms and bamboo.

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Tsui pauses to scroll through her phone to share other meals she likes in the area and shows a photograph of a pizza topped with an entire crab. It’s another Steveston Pizza creation and is the Mermaid Pizza that comes with a whole crab, shrimp, tiger prawns and smoked salmon for $89.

“It’s definitely a little more expensive, but it was my son-in-law’s birthday and we all got together, and it tasted so good,” says Tsui.

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Location: In Steveston, along the Fishers Walk, connecting Fisherman’s Wharf and Garry Point Park, between the Steveston Tram and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery.

Number of restaurants and food options: Over 65 in total in Steveston with over 25 on Bayview and Moncton streets in the few blocks between Third Avenue and No. 1 Road.

What are the options for parking? Hundreds of free, three-hour parking spots near Moncton and Chatham streets.

What are Metro Vancouver’s Eat Streets?

This article is part one of a series highlighting Metro Vancouver’s must-visit Eat Streets. With the goal of celebrating — and maybe even introducing you to — stretches of community around the region that have a notable concentration of local food businesses. Know of a great Eat Street in your community? Let us know where. Email us at artslife@vancouversun.com.

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Read about more of Metro Vancouver’s Eat Streets:

• Eat Streets: A United Nations of cuisine on Vancouver’s Victoria Drive
• Eat Streets: Langley City’s one-way a hub of local food
• Eat Streets: Delta and Surrey unite over food on this stretch of Scott Road
• Eat Streets: Comfort food served Hong Kong-style at Richmond’s Empire Centre
• Eat Streets: There’s now a world of flavours on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive
• Eat Streets: North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale reinvented as a foodie destination
• Eat Streets: Where hippies used to gather on West 4th Avenue, foodies now flock for the old and the new
• Eat Streets: New Westminster gets fresh life on Columbia Street (and in a SkyTrain station)
• Eat Streets: Vancouver’s Yaletown a place to eat, drink, and ‘to see and be seen’
• Eat Streets: The ever-evolving waterfront food scene on White Rock’s Marine Drive
• Eat Streets: The hidden gem of Burnaby Heights
• Eat Streets: Kerrisdale transforms from typical British fare to a world of delicious new flavours
• Eat Streets: Abbotsford’s old town an epicentre of quirky cafés
• Eat Streets: Vancouver’s Main Street remains valiantly local, international and eclectic
• Eat Streets: The unexpected culinary delights of Vancouver’s Joyce Collingwood
• Eat Streets: Forget trendy — Vancouver’s South Fraser is ‘where you come for authentic’
• Eat Streets: 90+ food spots in North Vancouver’s Central Lonsdale district
• Eat Streets: Everything is on the menu in Steveston but seafood is still the specialty

Bookmark THIS PAGE to read the latest instalment every Wednesday.

jlee-young@postmedia.com

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