Wild Salmon is a pop up restaurant inside Vancouver Community College. It is entirely run by culinary students for the aboriginal cultural arts program. Students get hands on experience learning how to operate the front and back end of the house. They are only open from 11:30 – 12:15pm, so my coworkers and I were so lucky they still could serve us for lunch! 45 minutes for a seating is quite short, but they are quite kind and will keep on accepting guests till 12:30pm.
What really drew me into the restaurant are the low prices and the unique aboriginal cuisine! It’s not like everyday you get to eat aboriginal food.
The interior décor really reminded me of the Olympics at the aboriginal pavilion. All the art work is very interesting to look at.
Their menu is simple and short. Probably changes often as well.
As we sat down, we were served with Bannock Bread. This was the first time I have ever had this and I really liked it! It is a traditional simple bread that is fried.
We all got the Spicy Seafood Croquettes with smoked tomato jam ($4). It comes with 2 croquettes packed with seafood. All the flavors went really well together, but we noticed that it was not spicy at all. We really tried to see if it was a subtle spicy taste, but there wasn’t. It would have been good if it was a bit spicy to go with the sweet tomato jam.
Smoked trout with rhubarb, dandelion greens, and wild mushroom vinaigrette. ($4). It has 2 pieces of smoked trout and this was a refreshing appetizer.
Bora Bora virgin cocktail has pineapple juice, grenadine, lime, passion fruit juice and a few other ingredients. It comes with a plastic sword of pineapple and maraschino cherry. This drink was a bit on the sweet side, but it was all right. One thing I noticed was that the drink would separate after a bit of time, so you need to constantly stir it back together.
Traditional smoked salmon with parsnip dumplings and pumpkin sauce ($11). I really enjoyed this dish! It came with a sizable slab of smoked salmon. The skin was nicely crispy and had a nice smoky flavour. The parsnip dumplings aren’t exactly like the usual dumplings, but it was soft and chewy and went well with the pumpkin sauce. The fried vegetables were a plus as well and added more texture.
My coworker had the Crusted Sunflower seed halibut, watercress, and crispy sunchoke ($11). She enjoyed it and had a lot of fun identifying the unique flavours.
Venison meat loaf, sweet potato mash, with beat root tops ($11). The meat loaf was quite large and you can really get full off this dish.
Overall, it was a memorable lunch! It really isn’t everyday that you would get a chance to eat aboriginal food. Thinking about it, are there any aboriginal restaurants in Vancouver?
Words of Wisdom:
- Under $15
- Closes at the end of August
- Open for lunch only
- Call for reservations and to check hours
We Rate Wild Salmon: 
Address:
250 West Pender Street (2nd floor)
