I recently spent a week test driving the Honda Civic Sedan 2024 car around Vancouver while trying some dishes at some restaurants.

I headed over to North Vancouver for another Persian dinner at Akbar Joojeh (1604 Lonsdale Avenue), and this time we tried several different dishes and more as my friend and I learned more about the restaurant and the origin of its dishes.

We started off with their Dalal Yogurt Drink (made of yogurt, water and some spices) along with some of their appetizers, my favourites were the Mixed olives, and Spinach Yogurt; we also had the Shallot yogurt and Dalal yogurt with their complementary house-made Nun bread.

The speciality of the restaurant is their fried baby chickens which are called Akbarjoojeh, they are actually Cornish’s, they have a special cooking method where they are fried with butter. We then had an order of this which comes with pomegranate sauce and saffron rice.

The Chicken with Plum stew is another speciality and it was delicious, I had tried some of the plum stew on a previous visit, this time I had the whole dish which I loved.

The Sour Fish Kebab was another standout with marinated salmon with pomegranate sauce, rice and grilled tomato. We also had the Dill & Fava Bean Rice which goes very well with this salmon dish.

We were so full by the end of the meal that we had to skip dessert, would love to try that on another visit. The Persian restaurant offers traditional Persian-style chicken dishes and more in a casual environment that are affordable and serves large portion

The next day I drove to Stanley Park to have lunch at Stanley’s Bar & Grill where they were participating in our Vancouver Chowder Challenge.

This was the tasty Chicken’s Nest Chowder with a creative presentation, the chowder is composed of a popcorn infused sunset chicken chowder, potato nest, quail egg, smoked salt and a perched garlic knot bird. While there I also had their 1st place winning Double duck poutine, Farmers harvest salad with salmon and a Ginger beer.

Staying in the city for the afternoon, I drove to the Riley Park neighbourhood for a visit to Talavera (4363 Main Street) that is owned by 3 sisters who moved here from Mexico City, the café serves a mix of Italian and Mexican fusion dishes. On this visit, I had one of their tasty Iced Horchata Latte’s and a Vanilla Concha bun that is made in house.

The car has plenty of room for the driver as well as the rear passengers.

Touchscreen infotainment with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is standard across the lineup, and Honda equips every Civic with a generous list of driver-assistance features too.

Some of the nice features include blind-spot monitoring, a power sunroof, dual-zone automatic climate control, heated exterior mirrors, and heated front seats. It also comes standard with the more powerful 180-hp turbocharged four-cylinder engine. 

The next day I drove to Surrey to visit recently opened Bahubali Biryani House restaurant (8653 120 St) in the Delta area that specializes in Southern Indian cuisine.  Here I had a chance to try a wide selection of unique dishes from the Hyderabad region.

The Crispy Corn was one of my favourites (corn kernels marinated and deep fried) as was the Chicken Chatapata Dry (marinated Chicken fingers battered and deep fried garnished with gun powder Masala) appetizers.

The Mixed Tandoori Platter came sizzling to the table (assorted selection that featured Tandoori prawns, Pudina Chicken Tikka, Murgh Malai Tikka) and was followed by the delicious Cilantro Chicken (marinated Chicken cubes tossed with Cilantro sauce and spices), Guthi Vankay Curry/Baby Eggplant (baby Eggplant cooked in salan gravy consists of peanuts and cashew nuts), and the Chana Masala (chickpeas cooked with fresh onions, ginger and spices), Goat Black Pepper Fry (goat cooked with fresh grounded black pepper and sauces), Vijayawada Fry Piece Chicken Biryani, Rumali Roti, Spinach Paratha, Zeera Rice, and Raita.

The Mango Lassi (yoghurt stirred with mango pulp) was the perfect finish with the Double Ka Meetha (bread crumbs dipped in honey syrup) for dessert.

The next day I drove to Steveston to take a walk and then had lunch at Moncton Pizza (3680 Moncton St), a popular new spot for slices and whole pies.

From there I headed out to Coquitlam and visited Doughnut Love (1655 Como Lake Ave #107) for a Carrot Cake donut and an Iced Latte.

These days with high gas prices this car makes it easy to drive around the city without worrying how much it was costing to go from one end to the other as it is very fuel efficient.

The Honda Civic Honda Sedan 2024 was enjoyable to drive around Vancouver to try some great eateries.

By: Richard Wolak

Disclosure: Honda Canada provided me with the 2024 Honda Civic Sedan for a week to test drive, and photograph.