eatwith.ROBINLEUNG.com

Location: 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 4Y6 (Inside East Concourse of AQ)

Phone: (778) 782-4481

Hours: Mon-Fri 7:00AM – 8:00PM

Hints:

• Newly renovated / All new menu
• Healthy choices
• All Day Breakfast
• Multicultural cafe
• SFU roll @ Sushi Bar

I had the opportunity to take a tour of the newly renovated Mackenzie cafe a few weeks ago with @DixonTam, @Foodology, and a few other (courtesy of @SFU_Dining). A little background about Mackenzie cafe, it’s been around since the beginning of my university career (at least 6 years ago). And I’m sure it has been around longer than that, but never has it really appeal to me. Especially, their food offerings since I don’t remember much about it. What I did remember was that the cafeteria was dirty and worn down. I wish I had a picture of before and after, but sadly I don’t.

When I first stepped foot into the New Mackenzie, I was wow-ed by the cleanliness and the bright decors that lit the place.  It was very welcoming, food aside. The new Mackenzie cafe offers a wide selection of food offerings throughout the day. The New Mackenzie cafe offers an all-day breakfast station, a soup station, Asian; Mediterranean, and sushi station, a salad bar, deli bar, and a pastry station. It’s also got Subway built right inside.

The new dining area is comfortable and CLEAN! I’m not sure about you, but I’m a bit of a clean freak. I was impressed with the cleanliness of the place, however, there weren’t too many people when we did our tour.

So enough said, let me take you around each of the stations and their offerings.

The first thing you’ll hit is the deli and salad bar. The salad bar is served by weight at $1.69/100 grams.

It’s got a variety of vegetables for you to pick from.

The deli bar is standard pricing at $5.49 (+$1 for gluten free) and Artisan sandwiches are also available at $7.49. Now I gotta try it one of these days to see how they compare to Subway, which is situated adjacent to the deli bar. I wonder why they would have both in the same place?

Next is the pho station. You heard right, pho at SFU! Now don’t expect too much from a traditional Pho place all around Metro Van. The noodles are noticeably thicker and the broth, well I haven’t tried it myself. But from what I have heard, it’s lacking something that is in Pho places all around.

Then you will find a whole bunch of soup specials  for the day, which you can find here. They have sushi chefs that make fresh Sushi daily.

We tried one of their features, the SFU roll.

The SFU roll consisted of a spicy tuna and cucumber wrapped in white Sushi rice and topped with a yam tempura. Then drizzled with a light teriyaki sauce. It was fairly good, but I wished the tempura would have tasted a bit crispier.

Next is their made to order stir-fry station.

You pick the ingredients and they do the cooking. There is a wide variety of veggies, tofu, chicken, and beef. You also get to pick your choice of sauce.

Next is their South Asian cuisine section. A variety of meat entrees, veggie entrees, and curry entrees. We had a chance to sample their curry.

I won’t lie to you, the curry is good. I think it might be one of their best dishes there. The curry wasn’t spicy at all, very mild and coconutty.

The pizza were made fresh out of the new stone oven that was bought. You can either choose to have an already made pizza (by slice) or make your own 7″ pizza/flatbread.

And don’t forget the most important meal of the day, breakfast! At the New Mackenzie Cafe, they serve all-day breakfast. So if you are in need of comfort or breakfast food, this should be the place to go. I’ve heard that their breakfast poutine is phenomenal.

I remember that there used to be a rule that you can’t occupy the seats at Mackenzie during prime time unless you were a customer, that is not the case anymore. It’s opened to anyone who just wants to sit there and enjoy company. There are coffee tables, lounge coaches, booths, highchairs, and regular seating for your pleasure. They’ve really gone a long way to bring the best of a cafeteria.

So if you haven’t visited the NEW Mackenzie cafe, give it a try! And be sure to let me know what you think of the changes.