The financial district’s Thai options just picked up a name that appears in the Michelin Guide, and it is in a food court.
That counter is Zab Bite Thai Express, which soft opened on September 9 in the Burrard Food Court at Bentall Centre, 505 Burrard Street.
It is the fast-casual arm of Zab Bite, the Fraser Street restaurant that has carried a Michelin Guide recommendation since 2024.
Ordering runs through a self-serve touchscreen at the counter, with stanchions already set up for a lunch line.
The menu is short and built for people carrying food back to a desk or for a quick lunch break.
Zab Bite’s popular Pad see ew is brought here as the main attraction and comes wok-fried with chicken, tofu or shrimp.
Thai fried chicken holds the middle of the board, served over rice on its own, with a cup of green curry, or tossed wing zab style.
Holy basil comes as ground beef or fried chicken over rice, and the rest of the list is a dry-mixed chicken noodle, a veggie stir-fry and a green curry tofu.
The fried chicken and rice bowl is $16, the cheapest rice bowl on the board, and the add-ons run from a fried egg to a deep-fried pork cake and a daily mushroom soup.
The tagline on the menu screen reads “Hot wok. Bold bite. Thai flavour.”
The Fraser Street original is the reason to pay attention.
Zab Bite opened at 4197 Fraser Street in the fall of 2023 as a northeastern Thai, or E-Sarn, restaurant, and received a Michelin Recommended award in 2024.
Co-owner Gift Laohongvichit, handles the marketing, and chef and co-owner Percy Tanwattanaku, runs the kitchen.
The pair added a second sit-down room, Charm Thai Eatery, on West 4th Avenue earlier this year.
The food court is the other half of the story.
Hudson Pacific Properties rebuilt the Burrard Food Court this year and announced five chef-driven counters for it in February.
Indish, and Tori and Little Seoul from the team behind The Frying Pan all opened ahead of Zab Bite.
Our photos from the visit show what the renovation bought: long communal tables with high stools, wall-mounted screens and a full lunch crowd next to the Pharmasave.
Elsewhere in the same concourse, Dante brought their Italian sandwich counter in February and Buttercrumbs added its cookies and tea bar in July, with Prado Coffee holding a suite nearby.
For office workers in the towers around Burrard and Dunsmuir, Thai has been thin on the ground for years, so this fills a gap rather than adding to a pile.
Zab Bite Express joins the list of recently opened food spots in Vancouver like Honest to Pete Downtown, Duchess Cafe, and Hen.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Address: 505 Burrard Street, Vancouver (Bentall Centre, Burrard Food Court, lower concourse beneath Bentall One)
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