Hunnybee is a pretty busy little brunch place with rather limited seating. There's seating outside, but the tables are on the low side and given the neighbourhood I wouldn't really recommend the counter. Price for portion is good! And that's hard to find these days. It's diner style so you order at the counter and pay first, and the credit card machine prompts you to tip first, which is sort of weird as you end up with really not much service except they bring the stuff to your table. So if that irks you, look around the interface for how to skip it, especially as the first tip option is 15%. Shakshuka ($12) red pepper & tomato stew, two poached eggs, lentils, labneh, toast Tasty, and given the portion and price, it's a win. Spicing might be slightly on the tame side, however. Lacking in some of the more traditional aspects, chief of which is not being in a skillet. This means it can get cold really fast, so dig in right away. Based on the presentation my guess is they scoop it out of a huge vat like soup and add in the separately prepared too-perfectly-beautiful poached eggs. Veggies on top a bit too long to be convenient but not a big deal. read more

Hunnybee - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

See all

I came to the Hunnybee cafe to meet an old friend for a sandwich and a visit this morning. I was greeted with a very courteous staff and had a coffee while I waited for my friend. I ordered a simple Turkey sandwich which to my surprise was the best turkey sandwich I think I've ever had. I want to thank the Hunnybee for making my morning and giving me such a nice experience. I come from the restaurant and service industry, and it was a pleasure to see a little business with so much to offer doing it so well. Thanks Hunnybee C. W read more

Hunnybee Bruncheonette has the best breakfast sandwich in the far reaches of this planet. It took me awhile to knock the Bro-Nut from Rhino from #1, but this win is well deserved. Get it with both, get it with Hot Sauce. The people that work here are A1. There is one girl that always calls me hun and makes the oxytocin flow throughmst my body. Walking in makes you feel like your getting a warm tight hug with all the wood and cool light fixtures. AND THEN there are frozen pineapple mezcal margaritas, frozen aperol and natural wines. Like shut up. 11/10 read more

Hunnybee Bruncheonette is a relatively new place on Union street in Chinatown. It's been raved about by a few people I know so I wanted to try it out for myself. Union has become the new gentrified street in Chinatown bringing in a wave of new hipsters who are looking to find a new brunch joint. With high ceilings and nice large windows, the cafe is undoubtably a nice place to hang out at. The menu is relatively small but offers a variety of creative brunch offerings. I opted for the special that week, a lamb sandwich and a drink which I thought was good, but somewhat overpriced. Hunnybee accepts credit card via Square card payment where you're reminded to put a tip. Note however, that you pay first here so you actually don't get any service despite being asked to tip. It was barely possible to get a pitcher of water yourself so just a FYI if you think that tipping before gets you anything extra. They don't seem to care. Overall, 3.5 stars. Nice decor, slightly overpriced food but service was mediocre. It's not a bad place, and if it can improve it'll be decent. However, the difference between the stores and shops on Union vs E. Georgia really do represent two different directions the community is being taken in. read more

See all

Loved this place! A brightly lit interior of a cafe resemblance, with overarching plantation strung overhead across the room. Seating could be considered sparse but there's outdoor seating as well, and there wasn't ever really a huge line as I guess the hype is dying down. I went on a Saturday at 12:30 & it was fine. We ordered the miso farro bowl, which is a veggie grain bowl with a poached egg, mushrooms, spinach, baked crispy broccoli & pickled radish, with a type of curry, priced at $9. Although it was a bowl, the curry was very particular & made it have a delightful fresh taste to it. It was delicious and unlike any other bowl I have eaten. We also ordered the muesli with jam on it for $6. I am not one to order oatmeal or any sort of thing, as I believe you can make it at home, but the description for the muesli was too enticing for me to decline. There were pear slices on top, a perfect soft pairing. It was as yummy as I had expected, a light, creamy, bowl. We also ordered the avocado toast, a $7 option. It came on a thick sourdough bread with a poached egg & radish on it. The crust of the sourdough bread was hard to cut through, but the bread was toasted nicely. It was delicious as well. The drink that we ordered was a hibiscus lemonade. This one I was disappointed by, as it tasted too sweet & was an artificial pink; it seemed as if I could find this in any bottle in a convenience store and I wish I had not paid $3.50 for it. I tasted more lemonade than hibiscus. The tables are a little small, we had to do some occasional rearranging of plates to make sure everything fit on the table. Other than that, this is a decently priced brunch place; there are a lot of other places that will charge pricier options that aren't as tasty. Even so, I felt as if the menu was unique and innovative and thought it was worth. My meal was about $15 and I was full. Will definitely come back. read more

See all

I was really looking forward to checking out this new brunch addition from the same folks at Birds and the Beets. Unfortunately, things really just fell short for our group. I tried the Miso Farro Grain Bowl (greens, farro, pickled cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, soft boiled egg) for $10. The flavours were good for my taste (very pickly) but it wasn't a good value. The portion was tiny for the $10 price tag. My friends tried the Shakshuka (tomato stew) for $12 and had the same complaint. We ended up going somewhere else afterwards to top up because we didn't leave satisfied. read more

Hunnybee - Small portions, not good value - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Miso Farrow Bowl was way too acidic with vinegary taste to the sauce with the addition of extra sour pickles. It was boarder-line inedible. The poached egg was not really poached but rather boiled with zero runniness of the yolk. I also took off extra stars for what I can only describe as one of the most horrid customer services I have encountered in Vancouver. The counter staff clearly did not care for her job, as she conversed profusely for minutes with her friend who was sitting at the bar next to the counter, while five people stood in line. I was the fourth and the person behind me left after getting sick of waiting. When she did attend the customers she was absolutely indifferent and abrupt. No smiles, no greetings, no personability. I waited total of 20 minutes to finally receive my order to go, but it came in an eat-in bowl instead. When I pointed it out, she said "sorry" in a most emotionless way imaginable by a human being and proceeded to grab the bowl, stormed off to the side, took out a brown, rectangular paper container and just plopped the food right in without a care in the world. Good thing(?) that poached egg was actually hard boiled or it would have broken and the yolk would have pooled on the bottom of the container since the entire bowl was basically upside down in that take-out box. Of course when I oped the container at work it looked like someone just barfed out whole bunch of jumbled random stuff in that box. I remember enjoying this bowl and was treated with great service from their sister cafe, Birds & Beets. I wish they'd take more care in staffing like their original location. read more

The sandwich i ordered made me "go dumb" It was something out of a cartoon dude it was like an inch of meat , inch of cheese, another inch of meat, got me feeling like Tony Soprano definitely felt like i was gonna die in rome after that (no capicola ? how do i italicize salami) I couldn't finish the thing! Its these two crazy halves and then there is a very strong dill sauce or cream or something or other on the thing. I must say it was a daunting sandwich, i dont know what to think about it to this day its been like 3 days since Impact and i've been thinking of what to write Strong mimosa 5/5 I must say it looked like they put one of those like potassium fizzy tablets in there to offset any issues caused by wobby pops. Is my cousin working back there thats his "party trick" I felt kinda weird at the place i can't put my finger on it but i think they were open for like another two hours and i definitely got some we're closing vibes, i would like to go back and give it another go its a good acceptable brunch read more

I was very excited to try this place, but left more upset than anything Understanding that it would be busy, I knew we would have to wait. We lined up at the counter and put our name down. We were told there was about a 45 min wait. That was fine. Being a chef myself, I understand. We waited and 10-15 minutes later a group came in just as we were told we can line up and order. I overheard the group of 4 complain about having to wait in line just to put down a name and they seemed pretty upset with it. We all had to do it. So, I was okay with it. We ordered and got a seat. We found it weird that we had to tip before we got any service, but regardless, that's what we did. The 4 top that complained ended ordering and getting a seat maybe a few minutes after us since the rush was over. Service seemed good and we got our beverages as soon as we sat down. However, I started getting more and more upset the longer we sat because the 4 top got their food before we did. I ordered the ricotta pancake and my girlfriend got the mortadella bun. All 4 of the people from the other table got their food before us. And from experience I know that frying an egg is a lot faster than poaching 6 eggs. I saw them pick up our breakfast bun and put it back on the counter while they served the other table. The bun sat there getting cold. They even got their pancake before I did, knowing very well I ordered before them. The food was good. The pancake was slightly too sweet but that's fine, not something I would take stars off for. I would have loved to like a place like this but I felt insulted and unimportant as a customer. Maybe we will come back and try again in the future, because I would like to try and have a better experience since the food was decent. Note: Service was good but just because we tipped beforehand doesn't mean the good service can stop there. read more

My husband and I split the ricotta pancake and the mushroom breakfast bun. They were both delicious. The onion jam on the sandwich was great. The atmosphere is very chill and laid back. This is a great neighborhood spot for breakfast/brunch! read more

Hunnybee - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

New spot. Currently birds and the beats pop up. Food is simple and good. Ambience is lovely and cozy. It's an intimate new spot with brunch and cocktail pop up at night. I got vegan bah mi and my bf got ricotta pancakes. I am excited to go back and try more things on the menu. Bahmi needs work still but the pancakes seemed super fluffy. I'm excited to go back for the cocktail nights! read more

We're visiting from Boston and stumbled on this place while walking from our home base in Strathcona towards Science World. Hubby and I were blown away by our breakfasts (miso farro bowl with tofu subbed for the poached egg for me, lox and labneh toast for him). Even the raisin bran-like muffin ordered for our 4.75 year-old was awesome - crunchy exterior, moist interior. We didn't have any drinks since we had caffeinated at our place. Friendly service and we loved that we could immediately compliment the smiley chef. Hearty portions - we were still full when lunchtime rolled around (but in a good way - our meals were quite healthy). We're contemplating another visit before heading to Vancouver Island. read more

Hunnybee - Lox labneh toast - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

See all

Updated review! Went back to Hunnybee a few months after my first visit and they mostly turned it around since. Woohoo! I had the ricotta pancake with sausage this time and man was it good! Highly recommend if you like a sweet and savoury breakfast. They lost a star this time only for lack of detail as a substantial part my partner's meal was burnt. A little disappointing but she still enjoyed it nonetheless and we're glad that we have a brunch place in the neighbourhood to look forward to visiting again, after the demise of Roost at this same spot, which we sorely missed. read more

Super cute place for coffee and brunch!!! Got the hibiscus lemonade which was super yummy and refreshing and the avocado toast with fried egg. I took one star away just because I didn't like how the egg was runny but that's my personal preference. Overall this place is great and totally recommend it if you're looking for a cool place for breakfast. They also have a tables outside read more

Hunnybee - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Hunnybee has all the fine design and looks to promise a good atmosphere but little else. A couple incidents leave this impression: after going upon hearing recommendations from a trustworthy friend, I went for weekend brunch. Ended up ordering a farro miso bowl- a fairly balanced vegetarian affair. I thought ordering a vanilla vegetarian dish would do wonders for my GI system. Well, I ended up with an acute bout of food poisoning in the afternoon. Stomach sickness unto death, susmariajosef! Somehow I overcame my stomach-churling fears of the place... Don't know why though, because last night I tried just doing the safe thing and keeping a liquid diet there. I intended grabbing one drink with a friend from London. I tried ordering a sauvignon blanc, only to have a white male waiter deny me a drink after offering two pieces of ID (as requested). He requested for only one from my friend and offered my friend a drink. Discriminatory? Probably 10-15 years my junior, the waiter claimed I was wasted, denying me white wine- go figure! I hadn't drunken much that night. I asked him what was up, how I offended his perception of respectability. White fragility on display, the waiter was oblivious to the history of segregation coursing through Strathcona & Chinatown as well as the use of liquor laws to police Asian and indigenous communities in Vancouver. Having so many better options in Chinatown- some ran by people of color- we went elsewhere. Soap basically caters to folks who want a sanitized version of the DTES/Chinatown w/o poor people of color and indigenous peoples... What a waste of time and space going to the cursed corner harbinger of gentrification! read more

new cute little cafe that opened downtown that is spacious and has a lot of personality. I came here to work on my zine and comics while meeting a friend. I had a basic single shot latte that was made to order. Staff were super friendly and chill. I did get there at a time that wasn't peak, therefore, I wasn't rushed, however, I can see how others may have been frustrated at the wait. I had a soft scramble that was okay, nothing outside the box but was on the spot. read more

My friend and I had breakfast here on a weekday and it was lovely, no waiting - arrived at 930am. Both had black tea mistos with almond milk and honey, and the grain bowls with avocado, little slices of roasted squash and egg, lots of greens- fresh ingredients and perfectly filling. Friendly service and sunlit atmosphere. Love the cute merch too. :) Will definitely return. read more

The food was overpriced and the service was lacking. I wanted to like the place because the design of the place was good. There are better places to go to in Chinatown. Wouldn't go again. read more

Food is good and fresh. Have been twice already and have had the breakfast bun (super tasty), the shakshuka (good, but not super memorable) and the farro bowl (would have this again). Overall it's a great place to have breakfast or brunch. My only complaint would be that the portions are pretty small compared to other places that charge just about the same prices. Was still hungry after both times we visited. $12 for a small bowl of shakshuka or (I think it was $13) for the farro bowl is a bit steep. Great decor and vibes, though! read more

The sunniest corner in Chinatown They have yummy all day breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Some good veggie options. And good coffee. Go get some Vitamin D read more