The Elbow Room Cafe

• Author: WantsToTravelMore
• Accommodation: Vancouver Accommodations

The Elbow Room Cafe is a Vancouver landmark that I’ve wanted to go to but never found the time to be on Davie Street at breakfast or lunch time.

The restaurant follows the diner format and style with all-day breakfast and quite the array of sandwiches and burgers.

The shtick for the place is mild abuse toward patrons. The first two rules are if you want more coffee or water, go get it yourself. Which is kind of innovative in a way — how many times have you wanted the server to come with more coffee and you could never catch their eye? They also nag you to eat all the food you order or you have to donate to a local charity. This is unfair in a way as the 12 inch pancake (pictured) is a serious challenge. (I did eat it all but was not hungry again until the late news was on.)

From a decor perspective, expect rustic, but enjoy all the photos of famous and semi-famous (Miss Nude World 2003 caught my eye) that are on the wall.

For the vegetarians there’s a substantial sandwich on the menu that doesn’t wimp out like so many other veggie offerings I’ve seen.

They are good with kids and have a child friendly sized pancake and they are willing to make it look funny (see photo).

They are open from 8 AM until they feel like closing. By 3 PM on the Saturday we visited they were wrapping it up for the day.

I want to return and try other things — that pancake really left me with no extra room.

For more information www.theelbowroomcafe.com