East Is East-"Do you want a cup of chai?"

Few weeks ago when I was planning for dinner, EU suggested to have something else apart from Japanese cuisine. Hmm, something special maybe? So I went to Urbanspoon, randomly clicked "Middle Eastern", and then "East is East" caught my sight right away.
East Is East
3243 W Broadway, Vancouver BC

Ratings
1:Yucks! 2:Improvement needed 3:So-So~ 4:Good 5:Very good 6:Heavenly

Food: 5
Price: 4.5
Service: 5.5
Ambiance: 6
Overall: 5.5

• Authentic Middle Eastern cuisine
• Popular to locals; busy at night (It will be better for you to make reservation!)
• Have two locations: one on W Broadway, the other is on Main St.
• Silk n' Spice next door is also part of them

• Traditional ambiance (carpets on the wall, wooden chairs and benches, etc.)
• Limited seatings

The owner was very friendly. When I told her "Table for two please", she answered me with a big smile on her face, saying "Do you want to try a cup of chai?" :)
I didn't take picture of the sampler, but it was served in an espresso cup. It was really nice with a strong ginger and spice flavour. I enjoyed it a lot!

Tibetan Mantu-5/6

• $12-13~
• Steamed dumplings stuffed with chives, leeks, and spinach topped with chickpeas and dehydrated yoghurt mint sauce
• It looked like a hearty dish but actually it was lighter than I imagined.
• The sauce did not taste cheesy or thick.
• It was fun eating all these ingredients mixed together. While it tasted alright to me, some people may wish there's more flavour to this dish.
• The dumplings were a bit soft of course, but with the interesting combination with the yoghurt mint sauce, I kind of ignored the texture and focused on the flavour.

Eastern Roti Rolls-Ghandara Blues

• $11.50/single roll ($14.50/double roll)
• Each roll comes with baby green salad, lentil soup, yoghurt-mint sauce and your choice of lentil rice or Afghan rice (with raisins & carrots)
• I didn't take a picture of the lentil soup. It was loaded with lentils (which is good because I love bean stuff), and it actually tasted like tomato soup.

Ghandara Blues-4.5/6

• Baked eggplant, tomatoes, and fresh herbs
• The roti was average. I thought the roti would be the ones in the Malaysian cuisine, but it turned out to be the thinner version.
• Sorry for the bad photo. It was stuffed with eggplant but I just wish they can give us more filling :P

• The salad was average. It was fresh and certainly went well with the lentil soup.

I would surely come back and try more food. East is East is a fun place to dine at, and I suggest to arrive there earlier because they can get pretty busy at night.
Maybe next time I will go to the one next door, Silk n' Spice, and see whether the menu is the same or not ;D