I have visited Saan Saan twice in the span of a 3 weeks. The first time was to try their limited edition, summer collaboration with Passione Gelato, in celebration of Saan Saan’s two year anniversary.
These are their gelato sandwiches in either HK Milk Tea or Yuen Yueng. For those unfamiliar with the latter, this is a mix of the above milk tea with coffee. Admittedly, both my guest and I did not know this, so asked our server. He seemed annoyed with the question saying that “yuen yueng” means coffee (with a tone). My guest then asked why it was “coffee coffee”. There was definitely miscommunication here, and we felt belittled and were made to feel dumb for asking.
He also didn’t make us feel welcome when we first walked in. We initially approached the cafe’s shelf of giftables, as our first time ever visiting, and being lured in by the shiny bobbles. We got no greeting, just a high volumed demand to know if we were dining in or taking out. We hadn’t decided yet, we only knew we wanted to try both sandwiches.
Eventually we decided to dine in, but not to order ant other items on the menu that caught our attention. We were put off with the interaction and did not want to stay longer than we had to.
I digress, back to the featured gelato sandwiches. There were 2 different flavours, each with Passione’s award winning gelato in a Hong Kong milk tea, sandwiched by a couple of slices of Saan Saan’s baked cakes. The gelato is the same in both options and came with bits of short bread that had a nought-y chew, even when chilled and surrounded by creamy gelato.
Where they differ was with the sandwich’s “bread”. Once again, both maintaining a nice chew despite its chilling temperature and wrapped all together in their stylish branded wax paper. The tea option had a caramel cake in a soft yellow, and the tea and coffee mix blend had a brown coffee cake. This is what determined the flavour of each sandwich. I honestly liked both as they delivered on their profiles. Both weren’t too sweet and it was liking having the inspirational drink in a fun, chewable format. I would definitely recommend these for a lovely treat.
What brought us back a second time was the food menu. We decided to give Saan Saan another try, two weeks later. Enough time to feel comfortable in the space again, and with our curiosity being our guide.
They are better known as the community’s ethnic coffee shop offering beverages and pastries with a Chinese-Asian twist. Like Ice Hong Kong milk tea, which we started today’s meal with.
For something more substantial they also have savoury snacks, salads, rice dishes, and chicken features. We would explore more of this below.
Fun fact: the owners are a sibling trio and one of the brothers is allergic to sesame oil, therefore is unable to enjoy most Asian food. But seeing as they don’t use it here at Saan Saan, he can enjoy the Chinese food that they make, freely.
We would order dishes we wanted to eat like the Ginger Scallion Chicken Wings. Fried fresh, these were crispy and hot throughout. Although they were a little bland as is and could have used some seasoning, salt and pepper at minimum. Thankfully, the side of pickled cucumber and daikon, plus greens did help to add some interested. Like everything else to come, this was familiar, yet different. It reminded us of Vietnamese style wings, but incomplete without the tangy and brightening fish sauce.
The Soy Sauce Chicken came as a bowl with a wok ginger scallion sauce, mixed green salad, crispy shallots, tea egg, pickles, and white rice. Here, I was expediting Chinatown flavours and comparing it to that version. This wasn’t silky chicken, it didn’t have a strong soy flavour; neither did the promised tea egg. Once again the pickles became a necessity to help brighten up the dish and inject flavour. I also wished they used dark meat instead, the chicken breast felt tough and a little overcooked. This made me think that they were trying to make the healthy version of soy chicken because it did feel lean and a more health conscious choice.
I quickly learned that we had to see this as something all its own, to not compare this and any of their dishes to any specific Asian dish we were familiar with; in order to best appreciate it. But to see this as a modern take on the food that they grew up with, and now wanted to eat regularly.
I liked the Satay Beef Noodle Soup the most with braised beef rib, house made satay beef soup, rice noodles, chinese bok choy, and cilantro. It was a generous portion with plenty of noodles and 5 larger pieces of tender beef to have it all with. There was so much body and bold flavour to go around here. This we finished down to the last drop of broth.
For our rice course we had the Saan Saan XO Prawn fried rice with their house made dried scallop and shrimp xo sauce, tiger prawns, egg, green onion, fried shallots, and cilantro. There was good flavour in the rice. I could hear the wok hei from the back and now we could taste it in the food. It was on the salty and peppery side, but in all the best of ways. I just didn’t like the large chunks of onions used as filler, but that was due to my own textural preferences.
And for dessert we reserved a couple of their baked goods, kept visually tempting behind their plexiglass showcase. We got a square of their Milk Tea Mochi Brownie and a circle of their Coconut Pineapple Cookie. The former was extra chewy, combing two terrific bites for an amazing mouthfeel. The combined gumminess of mochi and a brownie with the light flavour of milk tea instead of a double chocolate. I loved this take on two classics. The texture of the mochi comes through and blends well with the softness of a brownie. I don’t immediate get the milk tea, but it is also definitely not as chocolaty as it looks.
The Pineapple Cookie was exactly like the sweet and crumbly cookie topping of a pineapple bun, with actual pineapple at the centre; making this a combination of a Taiwanese pineapple cake and a bolo bao. This too wasn’t that sweet and a great way to end our meal and leave our palates on a less garlicky and more pleasant note.
Once again, this wasn’t traditional Chinese food, and I don’t think they claim to be. This is their modernized and contemporary take on history and custom, remade to appeal to a larger general public. However it did feel like traditional Chinese food enough, in that it left me craving for Chinese style tea to help cleanse.
Saan Saan Cafe and Restaurant
227 Main St, Vancouver, BC V6A 2S7
saansaan.ca
