PHAT Deli & Catering

Meat was perfect. Bread was perfect. Fries were perfect. Pricing is not.
Go for: convenient place to eat with tons of seating
Don’t go for: value-​priced meals

Another in a series of Montréal-​themed smoked meat places downtown.
They make a nice if slightly overpriced beef dip and a poutine that’s a little bit on the oily side, but acceptable. I have a chronic longing for beef-​dip sandwiches that keeps me coming back to this place, but on the whole it’s just alright for the prices — nothing wows me here from what I’ve tried.

Not worth the money. The food is edible but for what they charge I would expect much better quality. I come from the east and have had real Montréal smoke meat! Honestly this is no where near what I have come to expect.

Went in to pick up a dozen and a half bagels for the office, asked for that and the «phat» man behind the counter rolled his eyes and muttered «f***» under his breath. I asked if I could choose the flavors, he responded with «of the bagels or the cream cheese?» I confusingly replied «both» and she shut my down by saying that he would give me an assortment. When I asked if I could choose which ones, he said «sure, sweetheart, you’re paying for it, you can do whatever you want». I guess he didn’t want business to succeed because I walked away, spent $ 60 somewhere else, and will never return.

I’ve had better montreal smoked meat sandwichs at a truck stop. Cold cut quality.
Paid 18 $ and felt like a fool afterwards. What did I get for that? A lame excuse for a sandwich with mustard and a pickle and pop.
Go anywhere else. If you can walk 10 minutes go to Dunns a few blocks over, for $ 18 you can get a pop, colesaw, fries, pickles and better meat for the same amount of money.
Absolutely shameful.
My guess the only reason these folks are in business is that they cater to the office towers in the area. That’s it.

It started with me getting charged $ 7 for the $ 5 Friday special. The menu board said «$ 5 perogies w smoked meat.» I got charged $ 2 extra for the meat. When I asked the cashier about it, he quickly gave me back $ 2 with no fuss. I was grateful there was no argument, but it left me wondering if other people were getting dinged extra.
As I waited for my order, the lone cook started a yelling match with another employee. He dropped the F-​bomb several times, with myself and other customers standing right in front of him, watching uncomfortably. While the cook was curteous to the customers, he was abusive to everyone on his side of the counter.
Then, from out of the back kitchen, two little boys in aprons appeared. At most they were 7 and 8 years old. They appeared to have finished whatever chore they were given, and were now poking around behind the angry cook, not knowing what to do with themselves. FYI, this is an incredibly dangerous environment for adults, let alone young children. Hot oven doors swinging open, deep fryers, and OMG if that cook turned around with a knife in his hand, one of those kids would be walking around in circles the rest of his life. The cook yelled at them to get out if the way, but they just kept hanging behind him, apparently looking for mom.
My order of perogies was ok. They appeared to have been deep fried earlier that morning (I watched the cook plate them from a bin full of them). The presentation was good, as was the other food that went out.
I would have liked to go back and try something else, but the offensive language and angry, abusive chaos, left a bad taste in my mouth.

Microwaves bagels with mediocre smoked meat, is not authentic as they suggest.
This place is bound to disappear, overpriced and not very good.
Bagels are kept in a fridge and then microwaved when you order, which is kind of disgusting.

$ 13 for a Reuben sandwich with no Russian dressing. That’s like Caspian without the ice cold. The ‘phat’ size was pretty phar phrom phat.
Y’all would get laughed outta Montréal or NYC servin that up there.

While visiting Vancouver I discovered this bustling deli in the office building/​mall across the street. They have a big display of bagels so the first thing I ordered was the lox and bagels and I went back three times in one week for the same meal. Terrific bagels, generous amounts of smoked salmon and served up on open faced bagels with cream cheese. On top they put thin slices of onion and a little pile of capers with a lemon wedge on the side which basically makes the whole thing come together perfectly. The service is super fast and friendly, coffee is excellent and they have a self serve water station next to the seating area. Next time I will try something else just to see how it compares but if this was the only dish they served, I’d still come back.

Me bad, thought I had written a review on this place, I’m usually prompt, ain’t I? ;)
Was here back last summer, as pic of my grilled cheese toast indicates, was pretty darn good or maybe just hungry.
For me, the bonus star is the location, layout and good customer service.
They open a lot earlier than other location, to service the business crowd @ Royal Centre and surrounding office towers, guessing 7am or so.
For Vancouver standards, it’s good tasty Montréal deli meat, and you get your money’s worth, lots of meat packed, it’ll be dripping.

This would be a solid four stars if the prices were about 60% of what they currently are. Maybe it’s an issue with the price of meat in Canada, but $ 13 is way too much to pay for a Reuben and a pickle. It’s also not the most flavourful – I could get the same result with a couple packages of deli meat and a microwave.
The ambiance is somewhere between a deli, an airport restaurant, and a mall food court – you’re not going to want to stay and chat over your meal.
On the plus side, they have a nice selection of root beer for sale and a bunch of different bottles of mustard and hot sauce to put on your sandwich.

This place is awesome! At least once a week I come here to get the $ 3 for a bagel and coffee — this deal can’t get any better! $ 3 for a delish forty ninth parallel brewed coffee and the softest, most delicious fresh bagel with dill cream cheese (there are a couple flavours but I love the dill!). My co-​workers and I actually refer to this as a ‘crack bagel’ just cuz it’s so damn good you keep going back for more! What makes this place even better is that they recognize and appreciate their customers! Today I walked up to the counter only to realize that I forgot my purse at home — just as I was explaining that to the lovely staff member she said ‘Don’t worry about it!’ and I got a FREE crack bagel and coffee! Incredible! Thank you PHAT for your delicious crack bagels and impeccable service :)

I’ve never eaten at the place in Yale town but I had another great meal at the Royal Center and the staff was very nice. the place was clean and spotless. I met the owner and he was very nice, he knows all about great food, especially Jewish food, he knew everyone i know in the food business and everything about good Jewish Deli food and was fun to chat with. When i first saw him it reminded me of a photo I saw of Al Capone and his brothers. This guy is built like a bull, has a grip like Iron and looks like one of the guys from Murder Incorporated, old school. All he needs is a straw hat and a baseball bat and he’s a dead ringer for Ralph Capone only jewish. Great guy and the best guy i’ve seen doing jewish food in Vancouver yet.
When Kaplan’s delicatessen closed I thought that’s it, no more decent Jewish food in this town. Duns is a dump. I asked all my friends where else i could eat, both my Jewish and Gentile friends and nobody knew of any place. to get a decent Jewish deli food in Vancouver. The other day I was in the Royal Center and saw this place Phat and decided to check it out and to my surprise it turned out to be terrific. I am a 58 year old Jewish lawyer from New York City who grew up eating at Katz’s and the Carnegie Deli and I also live in Miami Beach home of the former world famous Rascal House which is now closed thanks to Donald Dump and the guys from Jerry’s Deli and Diarrhea in Los Angeles. My wife is from Montréal home of the great Swartz’s.
I ordered the double size smoke meat on rye bread and it was terrific and I was surprised to find out that the smoke meat is shipped in directly from Schwartz’s in Montréal. The meat was great, the rye bread was great, the pickle was great, the black cherry soda was Boylans. Excellent excellent excellent! So excellent we went back again today and I had the doublewide kosher «Lesters» salami on rye, the potato pancakes (latkes) and a Nathan’s hot dog special. Again everything was terrific and why not I saw the owners picture on the wall he is a Russian Jew and he does it right. Now I love salami and when we had the meat embargo up here a few years ago because of the Mad Cow scare I used to bring back my own Salami’s from the States and Marshall from Kaplan’s and I would slice it up and make sandwiches. Lester’s is my favorite! It comes from Isaac Gellis who named his Salami’s after his sons Aaron, Lester and Reuben. Aaron became a rabbi so that is the Premium salami but I prefer Lester’s.
Now I always ask my dumbass Vancouver friends for restaurant recommendations and this place is been open for 10 years and not one of them ever heard of it or knew anything about it even though they all ate at Kaplans and they were all upset and had no place to go when it closed. I watch the news every night, I read both local newspapers including the food and restaurant reviews and I never heard of it either which means the owner needs to publicize Phat better because I would have been eating here 2 or 3 times a week for the last 10 years had I known anything about it or that it was open. Why doesn’t somebody call Guy Fieri or at least advertise because wherever you are advertising I ain’t seeing it. You also can t ask anybody from Vancouver anything, they are the stupidest white people on the face of the earth sometimes. I love standing right in front of Nats New York Pizza on Broadway in Kits and asking somebody who was born and raised and lived their whole lives in Kits and if they know where I can get good New York pizza and they no or they say pizza hut or flying wedge. I asked what about Nat’s and they never heard it so I say turn around stupid you’re standing in front of it.
I would highly recommend this place, I would highly recommend everything on the menu, the sandwich’s are terrific, the pickles are great the bagels and lox are wonderful, the matzo ball soup, the potato pancakes are all excellent. Just good good food all the way around and very reasonable prices. I have not been to the one in Yaletown but the one in the Royal Center is three blocks from my house and I will be eating there regularly and the service was excellent and the guys they have working there were very nice.
I also like to send my regards to my favorite schmuck Howard English the moron who took over Kaplans and turned it into crap and went broke and ran it into the ground in one year. I only wish I knew about this place here at that time it would have saved me the grief. But hooray we found Phat, thank you for having terrific food and you’ve earned yourself to new regular customers with your great service and fantastic menu. And excellent food. Mazel Tov!

Hmmmm… Well disappointed is what I feel about PHAT… I went here for lunch with a girlfriend and the food was good! So a few days later I went and did take out hoping it would be delicious. I was incredibly disappointed with their take out! I ordered a grilled cheese and when I got back to my office, it was completely stale and hard! I could barely eat it the sandwich was so disgusting…
So I thought i’d give em a try again a few weeks later! Everyone is allowed to have an off day! And the same thing happened! Stale bread and not very much cheese this time! To top it off, it’s not like it’s cheap for their grilled cheese! It’s around $ 7 – 8! If you add fries that’s another $ 4! Not cheap at all…
My advice to those looking to go to PHAT — don’t order takeout!
So PHAT… Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me! I’m not letting you fool me again!

Me and my 2 friends had a reuben and the montreal smoked meat sandwich. I was very impressed with the service, the cook and cashier were both very friendly. The food was great aswell! Definitley a great lunch spot!

I loved the phat skinny smoked meat sandwich. Absolutely delicious! But for the price I’m a little iffy about going there often. Never should a sandwich come to more than 10 dollars unless it comes with something… Anything!!! So ya though the food was yum yum the price was not.

Had breakfast at Phat twice as it is beside the Hayatt. They do have Montréal style smoked meat and some great bagels. Very nice distraction as there are few breakfast places close to the hotel. Give it a try you may just be surprised.

I honestly did a double take when I saw THIS place in Royal Centre. I’m a huge fan of PHAT in Yaletown and this location doesn’t disappoint. They have awesome to go options and quite a few healthy choices (gluten free breakfast sandwich with egg whites, yum). They of course serve 49^th parallel and the barista really knows what she’s doing. Great crema on my Americano and pretty latte art on my afternoon latte.
They have daily specials, today’s was tomato soup and grilled cheese. I can’t wait for their beef dip Thursday. Now regular spot in my lunch rotation.

Well, I may as well get the best part over with.
I feel like phat.
The rest of this review isn’t so pretty.
Sorry Phat, but I doubt you’ll ever make me phat.
The sandwich was not very good. While it wasn’t «bad», but for $ 10.99, you get a smoked meat sandwich and a pickle. The smoked meat to me was a misnomer. It tasted like deli pastrami from a package. Seriously. The other stuff that they offer may be good, but I cannot say I liked the smoked meat sandwich for the price paid. The marble rye bread that it came on was very fresh. That was really the only highlight.
The 49^th Parallel dark roast coffee was exactly as I was expecting. Sour. I’m not basing any part of this review on the coffee. It is what it is.
I haven’t had too much experience with Montréal smoked meat in all honesty so maybe my judgement is off. If this is what it’s supposed to taste like, I think I’ll take a pass. It looked and tasted like processed meat, not smoked meat.

Last Friday I was excited to try the new PHAT location at Royal Center.
Boy was I ever disappointed.
$ 10.99 bought me a child’s size Montréal smoked meat sandwich. I would compare the soggy meat to that of Oscar Mayer packaged bologna that I used to eat as a kid.
I think this restaurant owner needs to take a walk to Costco and try their similar sandwich for $ 5.99 and make the necessary adjustments and remember that the customer is usually right.
I wouldn’t recommend this mini sandwich to my worst enemy.