Two Parrots Perch & Grill

Restaurant: Two Parrots Perch & Grill
Cuisine: American/Canadian/International/Breakfast/Brunch/Burgers
Last visited: September 2, 2010
Location: Vancouver, BC (Downtown)
Address: 1202 Granville St
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5 (cased on few items I tried)
Service: 5
Ambiance: 3.5
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Since May 1997
• Great for brunch/breakfast
• Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
• Classic diner/pub food with International flare
• One of Granville Street’s oldest restaurant
• Diner/Bar/Pub
• Big portions
• Popular for Juke box
• Famous for “The 2 pounder burger”
• Karaoke night every Tuesday
• 35 cent wings every Thursday
• Good for watching sports
• Very casual/Fun/Hang out place
• Popular to locals/tourists
• Budget-friendly/cheap eats
• Open daily 7am-2am
• Accepts Visa/MC/Debit/Amex

**Recommendations: n/a haven’t tried enough, but Thai sweet chili chicken wings are good! The poutine is MASSIVE!

(Excuse the photos, I was using my phone camera)

Two Parrots Perch & Grill is located on “The Granville Strip,” one of the most popular streets in downtown Vancouver, BC. It’s one of the oldest restaurants and it’s known for hearty diner/pub food, big portions, and good times especially during the late hours. There’s always something going on whether it’s their popular karaoke nights on Tuesdays, 35 cent wings on Thursdays, or just the UFC/sports games throughout the year. It attracts locals and tourists alike, and it’s super casual atmosphere makes it approachable for people of all ages. However, it reminds me of a college pub and it’s usually a 20-30’s crowd I witness.

From the outside it looks rough around the edges, and from the inside… you realize it is also rough around the edges. I actually didn’t notice the restaurant until 3 years ago and it was never anything I paid attention to. It looks old, shady and grungy and I always thought it was only a pub/bar. I had researched it online and realized that it was famous for “The 2 Pounder Burger” and since then I’ve been meaning to try it.

I was looking for a dessert place with some girlfriends and we were working our way down the Granville strip. We stopped at 4 places, but nothing seemed to catch our interest and Two Parrots Perch & Grill was one of the last places I thought we would end up. However with the server said “deep fried ice cream” was on the menu, we decided to settle. I was very tempted to order “The 2 Pounder Burger” for I think $25, but the server advised me not too (you can make your own assumptions). To be honest, it’s not my kind of scene, and I felt like a tourist myself, but I can see how people would appreciate it. The service and customers are outgoing, the food portions are huge and the prices are all around $10.

On the table:

**Chicken Wings – 4/6

• $0.35/wings Thursday.
• They offer around 8 flavours and it just happened to be Thursday! There a good size, sauteed with lots of sauce, and the meat was tender and juicy.
• Sweet Thai Chili Chicken Wings – 4/6
  • I know this flavour may sound generic, but the sweet Thai chili sauce is really good here! They actually make their own version of it. Sure, it may be the bottled stuff with some added ingredients, but there’s still effort. There’s real pieces of fresh garlic sauteed into the sticky home made sauce and it’s sweet and slightly spicy.

• Pineapple Curry Chicken Wings – 3.5/6
  • This was like chicken wings smothered with pineapple chutney. It tastes like sweet and sour chicken, but with a smoky curry flavour. It’s home made sauce with real pineapple pieces throughout, although they were probably canned, but I’m not sure.

Deep Fried Ice Cream – 4/6

• $4.95
• Not the best deep fried ice cream I’ve had, but the portion was good and it was gone in 30 seconds, so it was obviously still delicious… but then again when it comes to desserts and my girls, we’re vultures. Actually any food with any of my friends we’re vultures.
• It was a softball size of vanilla ice cream in a flour batter and deep fried and served with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. The batter was almost bread/dough like and I would have liked it’s crispy. The best deep fried ice cream I’ve had to date is from Luna Loca Mexican Cantina.

Apple Taquitos – 2.5/6

• Deep fried apple stuffed taquitos with strawberry sauce, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream $4.95
• I was surprised to see that both dessert options were Mexican.

• It was 2 taquitos stuffed with a chunky apple filling with real bits of apple throughout. The ratio of tortilla shell to filling was fair, but the wrapping was a bit thick so it wasn’t as crunchy or crispy as I would have liked. It was almost like eating an apple pie, but I would have preferred an apple pie.
• The strawberry sauce was actually home made with fresh strawberries and it wasn’t too sweet or too tart and matched the taquitos well. Serve any hot dessert, or any dessert for that matter, with ice cream and it’s always good though.

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