Tropika On Robson

Strange as it may sound, I've never had good Singaporean food in the Bay Area. I just don't know any good restaurants so I was never too interested in SG food even though people rave about it.

This place absolutely changed my mind about SG food though. Everything was sooooo good!!

We had the following:
- Beef & chicken satay - meat was super tender, comes with pineapples!
- Roti Canai ( Malay Bread ) - loved the spicy sauce that came with it.
- Assorted Assam Seafood Hot Pot - this was my FAVORITE dish. The sauce in this dish was spicy and tangy. What was absolutely amazing was the fish in the dish. It basically soaked up all the sauce and had so much flavor!
- Sambal Kang-Kong ( Tung Choi ) - this is the regular tung choi stir fried with peppers. Yums!
- Singapore Style Seafood Fried Rice Vermicelli - meh... i'm not big on super thin rice vermicelli. it was good but not my fav.

One star off for running out of dessert. We picked 3 different things off of the dessert menu and was rejected all 3x. Don't offer it if you don't have it!

Just thinking about the food at this place while writing this review is making my tummy rumble. I'll definitely be back here next time I'm in Vancouver!

Out of the three locations I know (Cambie and Richmond the others) this would be my favorite one of the bunch, maybe it is the seating arangement, or just the decor as it looks more upscale than the other two. Being here many times, I find that this one tends to your needs, always refilling water, and also going that small step to answer questions on the level of spice you can take, or any food allergies that the table has.

If you have a window seat, it overlooks the hear of the shopping district of Robson, a nice view whatever time of day you are in here. The food is very consistant here, as in good everytime I have visited. I really do enjoy their lunch menu, as it is a fairly resonable price for the amount of food your getting. One of the dishes I occasionally order is the curry beef served on rice (rice choices, chicken flavour, coconut, ginger, plain), and they also give you a sambal egg, and the egg roll, which usually makes me walk like a penguin back to the office if I am working in downtown!

If your looking for this type of food, and need a place that is more on the "impress" side, this may be your place. Nice decor, great service, and solid on the food. And when your done eating you can spend more money on Robson!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G food! OMG, dee-licious food. You have to try the fried crab cake, the seafood coconut rice and the sambal prawns. To die for... Tip: if you're going on a weekend night, call ahead and make reservations. The place is not that big and is usually packed.

Definitely going back again, AND recommending it to all of my friends!

Food: The food is great, very tasty and a lot of selection, seems like authentic Malaysian food. However, a little on the oily side I find.

Service: It's great, the staff is very friendly although the service is a little slow on the weekends

Value: Good value

Ambiance: Semi-upscale, lots of young people here. Good for big groups.

Despite the great location and prompt service, Tropika remains 3 stars in my books because of the food. I remember visiting years ago and not being too impressed by the Malaysian food.

Today for lunch, I had the chicken green curry which was very oily: not the creamy-with-coconut-milk type of oil, but greasy-because-it's-diluted-with-too-much-canola-oil type. I could barely taste the curry, though the spicy kick was there. The chicken was tender and came in decent quantities along with green beans, but I was really hoping for some sliced bell peppers and other veggies, like they do in authentic Thai restaurants. The coconut rice was delish, and my friend liked her chicken & rice dish.

Since the restaurant is managed by Cantonese/Chinese people, I imagine some of their other dishes may be more authentic.

All in all, can't beat the location, but there're better Asian restaurants in the area.

Tropika provides a trio of Asian cuisines that actually works. Malaysian, Singaporean & Thai.

Typically a restaurant that attempts to do more than one kind of food fails quite miserably, however they do it just right here.

Being on Robson this particular location I find is far more decorated and lively, with staff behaving much more hospitable and attentive.

I was absolutely delighted with my lunch at the restaurant yesterday. There are over 30 items to choose from from the 2-sided lunch menu and most of the dishes are around $7.95.

I ordered water convolvulus (aka water morning glory, or on-choy as labelled in many Chinese grocery stores in town) with shrimp paste and squid. The flavour and the "wok gas" of the dish were appropriately powerful and it was no less authentic than the same dish called kang-kong that you can order from most hawker stands off the streets in Penang and Singapore.

My dish also came with a bowl of rice with choices among plain steamed, coconut, ginger and Hainanese chicken rice. My pick, of course, was my favourite - Hainanese chicken rice. It was rich and greasy (i.e. not tainted by any health food movement) - just perfect for what it should be!

It's definitely on my list to return to try out their dinner menu.

The Chinese name for Tropika literally translates into "Singapore Malaysia Indonesia". That is exactly what you get here.

Having been to the other locations, I must say that this one is one of the better locations. I've had everything from Hainanese chicken rice to the vegetables to the pad thai to the skewers. You really can't go wrong with any dishes here.

The must-have dish here is the Turnip Cake (not sure of the exact English name but it's an Appetizer). This is not the bland squishy white square you get at dim sum places. No sir. This is a done of.. crack. It's that good. It's basically a seasoned and modified version of the traditional dish. I know of no other place that makes a turnip cake that comes anywhere close to Tropika's.

My gripes for this location is a) crappy street parking (what else is new), and the price. It is admittedly a bit expensive, which stops me from coming more often. But as a 1st date, this place is awesome. It's classy, the food is fantastic, and if you get a window seat, you can enjoy watching the bustling Robson Street life.

One last strange observation: unlike most other establishments, Tropika's serving staff are ALL male. This seems to be true to all of their locations for some reason. My friend suspects it's to satisfy the "cougar" demographic, but who knows. (thanks RP)

Recommended.

I had a good meal here with a group of friends. We had dishes that included the roti, pineapple fried rice, mi goreng, and lamb curry.

The lamb curry and the pinapple fried rice were wins for me. I love lamb curry and their's was quite flavorful. The pineapple fried rice was also done nicely where there was enough salty to balance the sweet of the pineapple. The mi goreng was a fail though. I was very disappointed with this dish, it tasted like something I'd get at an Americanized fast food stand in a mall full of people who didn't know better. Roti was alright, I liked the samba sauce.

Service was pretty good.

One of my favorite places when in Vancouver.....

Their fried crab is sooo good...but since we ate so much crab in Anacortes, we had other dishes...

Spare ribs, clams and the ong choy....all so tasty! Service was great. Our server was right on with the recommendations...wish we had more people so we could have ordered more dishes!