A new restaurant has popped up on the Downtown East Side called Fat Dragon BBQ. The location is quite remote and nothing very pretty is around this place.Even though it is a Chinese restaurant, its more of Chinese x Southern US fusion. You won’t be able to find any fried rice here or anything traditional. You’re going to the wrong place if you want Chinese food.
Ange of FoodPunk and I headed to try out Fat Dragon BBQ since I heard from my sister they have an amazing pig head. Pig head on a menu isn’t regular and I’ve never heard of people eating pig head.
Once you walk inside, you’ll enter a pink tunnel and you will be transported into the restaurant where you will find a very rustic interior.
The interior is quite cool since there are lots of small dim light around. It kinda reminds me of lanterns and fireflies. Also, there are huge scales running across to the back of the restaurant like a dragon’s tail.
You get chopsticks for your meal and the best part is the bad grammar on the packaging! Clearly it is a product of China.
Yanjing Beer ($5) is a light beer and does not have a strong hop taste to it. Its refreshing especially with BBQ.
Junmai Sour ($8.50) has fruit tea sake, gin, lemon, orange blossom and egg white.
Crunchy Squid Bao Buns ($2.50) is a unique twist on the steamed buns. It has calamari, scallions, coriander, chili salt and hot sauce. The batter of the squid was light and well seasoned. I enjoyed it.
Slow-Smoked Beef Deckie Bao Buns ($2.50) has minced meat, cabbage and candied peanuts. The filling inside would easily fall out, so be a bit careful when eating. I thought the beef was a bit on the dry side, but there was hints of a smokey flavour. The texture of the cabbage and the meat contrasted nicely.
Smoked and Roasted Half Pigs Head ($45) it is served with lemon, bacon bits, herb sauce as well as bean sprout kimchi and lettuce. This is meant to serve 4 -6 people. It does take a while to prepare, so it is best to get a few drinks or appies to not get bored waiting.
The cheeks were quite fatty, but it was so delicious and tender. It was like pork belly but on its face. Ange and I both devoured this without trouble! While we were eating it, several people did have to come to our table to check out 2 small Asian girls eating a pig’s head. It’s really not that big, but we were able to survive through it.
Don’t spend too long eating this because when it gets cold, the fat does solidify. We didn’t run into any issues since it stayed warm for a long time.
We took a little bit of everything and put it into the lettuce. I found that the lettuce and the bean sprout kimchi is needed to enjoy the meat! It gives it a refreshing crunch, plus the taste of fat will not overwhelm your tastebuds.
Jasmine Hot Tea ($2.75 per pot) was definitely needed after the pig head to aid digestion. I always have a habit of drinking tea after fatty meals. Ange ordered the Vanilla Oolong tea ($2.75 per pot) and it did smell very fragrant and sweet, but it did not taste sweet.
Fat Dragon Chocolate Bars ($7.50 each) was a bit disappointing when it arrived at the table. We did not expect it would actually be just chocolate bars. It seemed ordinary, but the 2 kinds do have interesting flavours.
Milk chocolate with crispy rice, toasted coconut and ceylon cinnamon.
Dark Chocolate with smoked peanuts, candied ginger and sea salt.
Overall, nothing too Chinese here, but the BBQ is pretty good. I saw lots of people ordering ribs. We didn’t ordering too many variety of items, but the pig head was fun to devour.
Words of Wisdom:
- Free parking on the street after 6pm
- Some items can be expensive
- Good for BBQ
We Rate Fat Dragon BBQ: 
Address:
566 Powell Street
Vancouver, BC
Website: http://fatdragonbbq.com/
