Around Metro Vancouver in the Acura ZDX 2025

I recently spent a week test driving the Acura ZDX EV 2025 around Metro Vancouver while visiting some restaurants. This was a great car with many attributes including being an EV offering up a comfortable ride. All leather seats provides comfortability for the driver and the heated seats and heated steering wheel takes care of the cold weather on the outside by being warm on the inside.

I drove out to the East Village neighbourhood with friends to Seline Aegean Bistro (360 Penticton Street) which had a great vibe. The new hot spot restaurant serves up modern Greek Aegean cuisine and we all shared some dishes as it’s all about sharing at this spot.

We started off with the tasty Koulouri (bread) with wildflour honey and kalamata butter; and then had the delicious Hummus topped with soujouk keema, pine nuts with house-made pita.

Spanako-pizza was a standout for all of us, topped with winter greens, leeks, barrel aged feta.

I loved the Patatas triple-cooked, sumac, ladolemono, feta mayo. We also had the Harissa fried chicken with hot peppers, ezme, tzatziki; Horiatiki – fresh and marinated cherry tomatoes, pickled onion, red wine feta; and the Oyster Mushroom Souvlaki with pickles, tarragon vinegar, walnut skordalia.

The next day I headed out to the Burnaby Heights neighbourhood to Chao Mami (4088 Hastings Street, Burnaby).

I had the refreshing Coconut Thai Iced Tea – made with coconut milk; along with Mami’s Lollipop Wings an addictive spice rub on the outside made with lime, garlic, and pepper, with an incredibly tasty dipping sauce, these were outstanding.

Mami’s House Vermicelli – The whole works in Mami’s house: sugarcane shrimp, famous spring roll, chicken and pork skewers, all so good.

Sizzling Saigon crepe – Coconut cream, turmeric & rice flour crepe filled with shrimp, pork, sprouts, onion; with a side of lettuce and fresh herbs for wrapping; and sweet fish sauce for dipping. The Mango Salad features Julienned green mango, shrimp, carrot, daikon, jicama, herbs, caramelized onions, crushed peanuts, house vinaigrette; loved this.

Coconut shrimp cakes -Crispy with soft coconut & rice flour filling, topped with minced shrimp, pork, & green onion. Served with side of fish sauce; and this was also outstanding.

With your dinner you now received a mini complimentary ice cream cone to finish your meal.

Acura’s ZDX five-passenger SUV EV uses a GM Ultium platform as its basis. Output ranges from 358 to 499 hp, with rear-wheel drive standard and all-wheel drive available on the base A-Spec trim; all Type S models get standard all-wheel drive. All ZDX models come with two rows of seating and room for five riders. Leather upholstery is standard, and the A-Spec models come with 12-way power-adjustable front seats with heat and ventilation; Type S models get 16-way power-adjustable chairs with thigh extensions and heavier side bolsters.

The next morning I headed to the South Granville neighbourhood for a visit to Fable Café (2871 Granville Street) which is now part of the Fable lifestyle store. I had a tasty Cortado here.

Later that night Lawrence joined me at Piping Hot (8111 Ackroyd Rd, unit 160, Richmond) for a dinner experience at this new hot pot eatery.

It’s all about self-service, pay by weight for your individual hot pot and fry bar experience in Richmond.

This type of hot pot experience controls the amount you eat as you are paying by weight ($3.99 per 100 grams). You have a couple of choices here, you can get the Hot Pot with broth where you choose the broth from 13 or so choices and you then fill the pot with whatever items you prefer from the selection of around 100 items in the refrigerated area (they cook it for you and then serve to your table); and/or the Fry Bar where you choose from the selection of Fry Bar items and then you choose whether you want spicy or no-spicy, they had basil to eat and fry it to serve to your table.

We both loved this experience as we had both the hot pot with broth and the fry bar. I had the Japanese Miso broth and Lawrence who joined me had the Black Pepper broth; we got 1 Fry bowl to share with regular non-spicy.

A complimentary sauce bar is included and you get to make up your own sauces from the choices offered. I made my go to dipping sauce mix for the hot pot broth; for the Fry Bar I found that the Curry, BBQ sauce and Ketchup were great choices for dipping.

You can also get a bowl of rice for an extra $1 charge per bowl and this is a great idea if you like to have rice with your meal.

Drinks are extra and I had the Lychee aloe fruit tea while Lawrence had the Strawberry aloe fruit tea.

At the end of the meal you get a free soft serve Ice cream Taiyaki that is freshly made and it is delicious.

You can get on their waitlist from Google and they also have a happy hour starting at 10pm (One FREE drink with the purchase of any meal). The restaurant is open until 1 am everyday and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.

An 11.3-inch infotainment display stands tall and proud on the center of the ZDX’s dashboard while an 11.0-inch gauge-cluster display is nestled in the binnacle in front of the steering wheel. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, but the infotainment interface is built on Google’s Android Automotive in-vehicle software and features Google Maps as the default navigation system. All ZDX models come with a Bang & Olufsen stereo system featuring 14 speakers, some of which are hidden behind handsome, brushed aluminum grilles.

The next day I headed back out to Burnaby Heights to Peaked Pies (4114 Hastings Street, Burnaby) for a Pie-Fect Meal consisting of Peaked Butter Chicken Pie with mashed potatoes, mushy peas and gravy, a can of soft drink and a minington (mini lamington cake).

The fast charger (CCS) is the way to go and I found a new spot with fast chargers in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in the building where Steamworks is located and this is where I charged the car the week I had the car.

I had heard about a new café in downtown Langley and headed out there for a visit to Projekt Blend (20436 Fraser Hwy #104, Langley).

We visited and I had the tasty Biscoff Avocado smoothie and one of their Matcha Crookies which is a mix of croissant and a very tasty matcha cookie. Lawrence had an Americano with their Mango Croffle.