Rainbow Cafe

Crispy hot egg waffles for $ 3.75 owned by the cutest old couple. Taste a bit too oily but still good!

I was actually recommended this place by a Unilocaler who bumped into me at the Chinese Night Market. It took me a while to get here due to location. The minute I looked up this place and walked in to the eyesore of a stand I thought, «This is what is the big deal.» I know that looks aren’t everything in a shop, however, there were so many menu items scattered all over the small kiosk with no organization that not only was it a sight for sore eyes but it was confusing on the senses. Sadly I didn’t get the flavored Dragon’s Beard candy that everyone was talking about as it had sold out, therefore, had to settle for the original. The original wasn’t bad and the price was fair, however, was looking forward to the flavored ones as was recommended. A warning that they’re cash only which is fine since everything was cheap enough. Be careful ’cause they almost pulled a fast one on me when giving my change back. They were supposed to give me a toonie but gave me a loonie and said something about the coin looking the same and apologized. Really? You deal with cash all day and you can’t tell a toonie from a loonie? Of course I was giving a handful of change so the guy was hoping that I wouldn’t recognize. He also sensed at the time that I was in a rush so that he figured that I wouldn’t count my change. To make matters worse that they looked as though they wanted to continue their conversation than actually serve customers. The only reason that they actually paid attention to serve me was ’cause I looked at my watch and walked away in frustration until they stopped me.

Came here on a Saturday afternoon and walked by the food court. I’m a big sucker for bubble waffles so as I walked by and that nice aroma hit my nose I had to have one. $ 3.75? sure why the heck not! Waffle maker looks pretty standard, batter looks normal, this should be good. It wasn’t. The waffle was crispy on the outside, but way way too gooey on the inside, almost to the point of not being cooked. On top of that it was really REALLY flavourless. Was disappointed after and now I want to find somewhere better

I come here every time I visit to get the dragon beard candy. IMO, it taste way better than the ones sold at the night market. The original is my favorite but they also have different flavors like ginger, coconut, mixed flavored pack (apple, orange, strawberry).

This review is for the egg rolls and the phoenix rolls only. They are sooooo good!!! The delicate crêpe rolled into a cigar roll are the egg rolls, and the phoenix rolls are folded bundles filled with shredded coconut and sesame seeds. Phoenix rolls come in 2 dozens a box and the egg rolls come in 2 dozens or 4 dozens a box. I’ve tried all the various brands in tin cans but none can compare to these. Thanks to Unilocaler Frank I tried these rolls 3 years ago and have been hooked ever since. If friends visit Vancouver or passing by, I always ask them to bring some of these back to me. Yes, I know I’m imposing since it’s not easy to hand-​carry these boxes home. But can you blame me for trying? …not if you’ve had these babies and know what I mean.
Cash only.
The Rainbow Café is located inside Parker Place.

Shouldn’t known better not to go to a place where they have a fan blowing constantly, the summer isn’t here yet haha. Imagine all those dust particles LOL.
Anyways, in the mood for egg waffles and the most bland ever, other than a weird after taste.
And weird paying — cash only, surprise surprise– at front when their friends are just hanging on either side of you. Got more of a kick from that.
Will not recommend, the night market booth looks phenomenonal now haha.

My friend recommended this place for Egg Waffles. Remind me never to listen to him again when it comes to egg waffle recommendations.
First impressions. Wow this place doesn’t look very sanitary, including the way they prepared their food. Previous Unilocalers stated in their reviews that their egg waffles were prepared ahead of time so they were cold and gross. Fortunately, (or maybe rather unfortunately) I had to wait a while for mine. When I got it, it was fairly hot and you could tell they didn’t really bother to cool it down either.
First bite, hey not bad it’s crunchy at least… but no taste at all. I felt like just eating crunchy batter. HOW CAN SOMETHING BE SO TASTELESS? No egg taste and no sweetness. I’m not a huge fan of sugar but at least the super sugary gross egg waffles I’ve had before had SOME kind of taste.
This place ain’t cheaper either and the service is less than the quality of their egg waffles. The Bubble Waffle place in Aberdeen Centre’s food court surpasses this place without a doubt in both quality and service. Avoid this place if you can.

Vwas super excited to find this place full of goodies that we don’t have here in L.A. I agreed with Nancy W that their egg waffles are cold. I saw them making a whole bunch and put them in front of the fan and by the time someone buys it, it’s crunchy and cold. :(. I also bought their pre-​boxed «fresh» egg rolls (the cookie kind)…damn were they expansive! One small box for $ 9! and by the way, after tasting it, it’s definitely not worth that much. I will not go back to this place the nect time I visit Vancouver. Not to mention that the grandpa (owner) was super rude too! Guess he makes too much to care what customers service is.

I tried their bubble waffles, and it was very stale and tasteless. I did not like that fact that the lady gave me a premade waffle, it was cold and hard. I cannot recommend this place. Expensive for what it is.

My most anticipated place to visit whenever I’m visiting Vancouver. Love the phoenix rolls so much, I carried four boxes of those on the plane to bring home and enjoy. The egg and phoenix roll batter is rolled by hand individually and are so light and crispy. So sad we don’t have anything close to this back home.

Since our usual to-​go stop in Aberdeen closed, we went over to Rainbow inside Parker Place food court. At any given hour you will find the old Chinese grandma chatting with other grandpas instead of serving customers or making a fresh batch…
We were craving some Chinese Egg Waffles after our terrible lunch at Shi-​Art Chinese Cuisine (click) we wanted something sweet to wash away the after taste.
Guess this wasn’t our day for being hungry lil pigs on crack (food). Rainbow gave us a batch of stale cold egg waffles! After claiming they were freshly made… We requested a new batch be made, but she assured us it was fresh… Normally, when they are fresh, they are warm, aromatic and soft centered. You should be able to fold /​curl the patty into the paper bag easily. Instead grandma had to chop it in half!
They were cold, hard and broken…
I brought them back challenging her and requesting fresh batch. She didn’t care that her customers were not satisfied. I asked for my money back… Even tho it is only $ 3.50, I certainly don’t like being sold sub-​par garbage. She put the waffle on top of the bin, hope she doesn’t resell this!
If you purchased a batch with one piece clipped off, I sincerely apologized (this was the batch we brought back). But I promised our hands were clean! Bön appetite!

Their phoenix rolls are very good, just like the way they make it in Macau, light, fresh and crispy! The long su (dragon’s beard) candies are excellent too, very delicate. I have not had these childhood favorites in a long time. I’m glad we stopped by this place while we visited Vancouver.

I guess I haven’t had a lot of experience with eating fresh egg rolls. I think I had some fresh ones when I visited Macau last year, but I’d have to say that this place has the best egg rolls. Now these aren’t the egg rolls that you find when you go out for dim sum. These are sweet egg rolls, kinda like a cookie type of sweets, but not quite.
Rainbow has really good eggettes. They also sell drinks and desserts. I think I tried their tofu dessert (dou fu fa) once and I remember that it was really good; soft and lightly sweetened. Whenever I visit Richmond, this is one of the places I’d come to load up on egg rolls.