Ethnic Eats – Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver

Prima Taste is a company that makes pre-packaged pastes and noodles and other types of ready to eat food. Sounds somewhat un-awesome, but somehow they are also behind the world-wide chain of concept restaurants serving up tasty Singaporean dishes. Interesting conundrum.

Walking into the sleek, polished bistro with large images of Singapore on the walls, there is nothing to remind you don’t think of the frozen food aisle. It’s all showcase and style and they pull it off well. Most patrons would never know about the larger portion of the business (or even the other locations, for that matter), unless they visited the company website.

Most recently I had the Mee Goreng (pictured above), which is various pieces of seafood and a couple of prawns cooked with noodles in a tangy sauce. A dab of chili paste sits on the side to be added for extra spice. The dish was alright, but doesn’t compare to the Laksa and Hainanese chicken rice. Singaporean specialties that are decently authentic here. The laksa, a fragrant, soupy noodle dish, is a good choice now that the weather has turned so cold.

My only wonder is whether they make the dishes in the restaurant with their line of pre-packaged food. I’m thinking that they must, and while I’ve clearly had no complaints so far, I’d like to do some comparing around town and see if there’s somewhere that serves the same restuarant with fresh ingredients.

UPDATED: Prima is now closed.
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Prima Taste Restaurant
570 Robson Street, Vancouver