Dining in Vancouver at Cats Social House

Granville Island by Bike
Whenever we have visitors from Winnipeg come to stay with us we always try to spend a day biking through our favorite parts of downtown. This is a great way to show someone the city and for us to show them why we love it. Our bike trip usually takes at least 5 or 6 hours and includes a few stops along the way on the Stanley Park part of the Seawall for photos, on the False Creek part of the Seawall for ‘beverages’ and of course lunch and shopping (for that evenings dinner) in Granville Island. Now that the Burrard Bridge has a separated bike lane we are much more comfortable taking our Prairie-dwelling family members on a bike trip that goes over the bridge.

Cats Social House
We usually have lunch at Bridges Restaurant to take in the great views and all of the action but on this day we had already stopped for one snack and were feeling the need for appies and a pitcher of beer. Cats Social House does plenty of both. Cats is a member of the Browns Social House chain of restaurants but calls itself the ‘test kitchen’ for the rest of the group with new ideas on the weekly menu. With The Public Market steps away they strive to use local and sustainable products. They have also introduced $4 drinks (their Social Lager and red & white wines) and have reasonably priced local beers on tap. Great for a day of biking.

Menu
Since we were in the mood for snacks for sharing between the three of us we did not look at the rest of the menu which included a long list of burgers, bowls, pans and grills. We stuck to the starters and pizza menu and ordered a BBQ Chicken Pizza, Ball Park Nachos and Dynamite Rolls. The pizza was actually better than expected served on a thin crust with a smoky BBQ sauce. The dynamite rolls were quite large and very spicy; no need to add any wasabi here. The nachos with beef (I was out-voted two to one) were served with separate sides of salsa, guacamole and sour cream. We all agreed that we really liked this presentation and it was good for those who do not like all of the toppings (yes Jeff) piled on a typical nacho platter. The food was good and just what we were looking for. The service on the other hand was slow and difficult to actually track down a server. At least we were on a ‘Slow Cycle’ day and not in a hurry.