Kinara serves delicious Indian food in a pleasant atmosphere with good service and an excellent menu. I particularly enjoy an Indian thali for lunch.
I selected the butter chicken, and it was wonderful. It came with Daal Makhni, Chana Masala, Vegetarian pakora, Rice and Naan. Spice level was perfect without having to specify. The Masala Chai was also excellent.
This place has a great atmosphere. There is a long bar with terrific artwork and fanciful trees above it, plus high top and booth seating, and an expansive outdoor patio.
I went at lunch, which has a fairly short menu but hits a lot of favorites. There’s a Mexican slant to many of the dishes, but it is definitely not an entirely Mexican restaurant.
I had the nachos, fully loaded, which was very much like ones that I would make at home. I also tried the chicken wings in two different styles: one tossed in salt and pepper and the other tossed in a habanero mustard sauce. The habanero mustard sauce was particularly interesting.
The margaritas are good, and the service was friendly.
It’s hard to find authentic Mexican food in Vancouver, so I was delighted to come upon this place on Davie. I’d walked past it quite a few times, but somehow or other it just didn’t draw my eye. I tried the one down on Denman, and it was pretty good, but it was more of a counter-service place. When I realized this was a full sit-down restaurant with a bar, I decided to check it out. I’m glad I did.
The space is nicely decorated. I guess it could be pretty loud and noisy when it gets crowded, but I was there at a quiet lunchtime.
The menu is short but has lots of authentic dishes on it. I was torn between the molcajete, mole, or the enchiladas, but I decided to go with the enchiladas because pastor was offered as one of the fillings, and that’s not all that common to find in enchiladas. They were really terrific. The pastor had more of a ground meat consistency to it, but was the right flavor, and the green sauce was the best that I’ve had in Vancouver, with just the right amount of bite from the peppers. The refried beans and rice were also decent.
I really liked the complimentary chips.
The margarita was a standout, hand-shaken and at a reasonable price. Probably the best margarita I’ve had in town.
Service was friendly and attentive since I was alone.
If you’re not sure what Himalayan food is, just think about Northern India. While there are definitely some Tibetan items on the menu, if you’re familiar with Indian restaurants you will feel right at home here, with items like papads, naan bread, and raita.
We purposely tried to order items we wouldn’t find at most Indian restaurants, and we were very impressed.
I had the Nepali Bhojan (Traditional Plate) with chicken at spice level 4 of 6, and it was perfect. The chicken was interestingly spiced and sauced, and the plate came with a delicious potato and spinach dish, rice, soup, raita, yogurt, naan, and papad.
The star, though was my companion’s Creamy Chicken Curry, a rich, tomato-based generous helping at spice level 3. It came with rice and soup. This will be my go-to next time.
Service was friendly, and the atmosphere of the intimate space is nice.
Put this review through the “Mexcian food in Vancouver” filter, because it’s a different scale than, say, Mexican food in Los Angeles.
I like the fun ambiance here, with bright colors and neon. The chairs are more comfortable than they look. It’s nice that they have table service, not just counter service.
The BTO (better than okay) margarita was quite good.
Nachos were also good, factoring in that the cheese is movie theater nacho squirt cheese, not actually melted cheese. But the pickled jalapenos were real, and the addition of pickled red onions was a tasty innovation.
Those pickled onions came on the Wilbur pork butt taco, too, although I would have liked more cilantro, too. That taco was probably the most authentic Mexican food I’ve had in Vancouver. It was served on two traditional small corn tortillas.
Service was friendly and prep was very quick, due to the fact that we were alone on a Friday at lunchtime.