Happy Day Café is a long-standing Hong Kong–style café with locations in Vancouver and Richmond, known for familiar comfort dishes served in a relaxed, everyday setting.
Happy Day Cafe (Kingsway) offers a classic Hong Kong style café menu built around Chinese wok dishes, baked Western comfort plates, noodles, rice, snacks, and café drinks.
The Chinese Set Menu centres on stir-fried noodles and rice such as XO Sauce Seafood E-Fu Noodle; Singapore Style Fried Vermicelli; Soy Sauce Fried Noodle; Minced Beef & Egg On Rice; Curry Chicken On Rice; Beef Brisket On Rice, and Young Chow Fried Rice.
The Western Set Menu focuses on baked rice and spaghetti including Baked Signature Pork Chop On Rice; Baked Portuguese Style Chicken or Beef; Tomato Beef With Spaghetti; Pan Fried Pork Chop, and more.
Chef Special highlights include Hainan Chicken On Rice; Enoki Mushroom With Egg Tofu; and String Beans & Beef With Black Bean Sauce to name a few.
Western Set Menu centres on baked rice and spaghetti, especially baked pork chop variations, Portuguese style baked chicken, beef, and seafood, plus tomato beef or ox tongue spaghetti, pan fried pork chop or chicken steak plates, and a larger sizzling steak combo.
Chef Specials include dishes like Hainan chicken on rice, enoki mushroom with egg tofu, string beans with beef in black bean sauce, fish fillet with cream corn, sweet and sour pork, and eggplant and fish fillet combinations.
For noodles, there is a dedicated Fish Soup Noodle, plus instant noodle combos built around luncheon meat, sausage, ham, satay beef, pork chop, steak, or chicken steak, each served with two eggs.
Buns, sandwiches, and light bites cover crispy top buns (BLT, pork chop, chicken fillet, satay beef, corned beef and egg); pineapple bun options; club sandwiches; French toast; and simple HK café sandwiches like ham and egg, tuna, and tomato and egg.
Soups include lobster bisque (including a puff pastry version); Russian borsch; seafood cream soup; plus Chinese soups such as hot and sour, cream corn styles, and double boiled soups.
The full Chinese dinner style section expands into beef, chicken, pork, seafood, tofu, vegetables, hot pot, fried noodle, rice, and congee, with common Cantonese café favourites like ginger and green onion stir-fries; black bean sauce dishes; oyster omelette; shrimp with scrambled egg; salt and pepper squid; and braised brisket hot pot options.
On this visit, we tried their BC crab combo, a dine-in offering built around a whole local crab with additional dinner dishes and set-course accompaniments.
The star of the show was the Salted Egg Yolk Crab. The crab was deep-fried until the shell turned crisp, then coated in a salted egg yolk glaze. The sauce had a savoury, slightly grainy texture that clung to the crab well, and the meat stayed moist inside the shell.
The combo also includes two dinner dishes. We went with Eggplant With Spicy Meat Sauce, served in a hot pot, and Fried String Beans With Minced Pork. The eggplant was soft and absorbed the sauce evenly, with a gentle heat that stayed consistent throughout. The string beans were cooked with minced pork that added savoury flavour without excess oil.
The set meal came with a House Soup made with green radish, carrot, pork bones, and chicken feet. It was light and comforting, served hot at the start of the meal.
For drinks, we had Milk Tea, Ovaltine, and Lemon Hot Water, all standard Hong Kong café choices that fit naturally alongside the food. Dessert was a Warm Red Bean Soup, served at the end as a simple, familiar finish.
We also ordered the Signature Baked Pork Chop on Rice. The breaded pork chop was served over baked rice with a tomato-based sauce, a classic Hong Kong café dish that is filling and straightforward, and one that many regulars come specifically to order.
The BC crab combo at Happy Day Café brings together local seafood and well-known Hong Kong café dishes in a casual setting that feels easy and approachable, making it a good option for a relaxed group meal.
Happy Day Café is located at 3312 Kingsway in Vancouver and 1450 – 4771 McClelland Road in Richmond.
