Vancouver’s Nomo Nomo Restaurant Achieves Nostalgia in Its Newness

On a crisp, sunny evening, it’d be easy to walk right past Nomo Nomo. The narrow Commercial Drive restaurant has only a couple of windows, and the grey shades are drawn to keep out the blinding golden-hour glare. The only signage is a little glowy cube with “Nomo Nomo” in red (in English and Japanese). You’d barely know there’s a new restaurant there at all—that is, if it weren’t for the audible clinking of glasses, the rowdy laughter of patrons, and the small crowd of reservationless hopefuls blocking the doorway. Because once you step off The Drive, this Japanese snack bar-inspired eatery is buzzing—and the eclectic design, imaginative drinks, and nostalgia-fuelled menu prove that it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Most guests will notice the art and knick-knacks first. There’s a legendary floral Takashi Murakami print, an image of a sassy little girl by Yoshitomo Nara, and a charmingly off-putting Madsaki Mona Lisa with drippy painted eyes and mouth. There’s a Yayoi Kusama magazine cover and Japanese baseball action figures. Co-owner Benedict Lim says that most of the art came from his brother Bernard’s Ontario apartment. (You likely know of Benedict Lim from Lunch Lady, the iconic Vietnamese restaurant just a block north, and Ontarians will have heard of Bernard from Fat Rabbit, the Michelin-recommended restaurant/butcher/caterer in St. Catharines). “He pretty much stripped his walls,” Lim says with a laugh. Other members of the Nomo Nomo A-team are Wayne Chow, Heedong Choi, Lucas Szaraz, and Michael Tran (another Lunch Lady visionary).

A wall-mounted TV is meant to be part of the art, too. “Everybody has their own nostalgic classic Japanese show,” Lim notes, giving as examples Dragon Ball Z or Samurai Pizza Cats. “When you look around, and you can see all the little details—and then you go, ‘Oh, that reminds me of’ or ‘I remember when I watched this’—it’s a good feeling, and that ties in with the food and the beverage.”

For example, there’s the tamago sando, an iconic Japanese 7/11 snack. At Nomo Nomo, the casual item is served on sweet milk bread from Burnaby’s Maison Mori and gets a bit of an upscale kick, served as open-faced bites with red crab and black truffle. “It’s everyone’s go-to sandwich in Japan,” Lim says. The bigeye tuna tostada, inspired by a trip to Mexico City, is served on a tortilla from Commercial Drive neighbour Chancho. The fish has a delicious simple soy marinade, but the avocado salsa has a few surprises: Vietnamese flavours like sawtooth coriander, Thai basil, mint, and fish sauce make a punchy appearance. “Obviously, my influence at the Lunch Lady never goes away,” Lim says, “so there is fish sauce floating around in the kitchen.”

Another heavy hitter on the menu is the Iberico tomahawk—think your mom’s pork chops and applesauce but with a kickass makeover. “I don’t think at any point we said to ourselves we were going to make traditional food,” Lim explains. Iberico pigs eat only acorns (like Piglet from Winnie-the-Pooh, right?), and there’s a football field of grazing space for every two pigs (not quite a Hundred Acre Wood, but not bad). “It’s like the wagyu of pork,” Lim says. The tomahawk is served with apples two ways: diced and caramelized on top, and a quick apple kimchi on the side. The apple kimchi is stunning: bright, spicy, sweet, and a refreshing palate cleanser between bites.

And somehow, the cocktail menu outshines the food. The Suika, a watermelon-focused clarified cocktail, is the star—it’s a delightfully confusing drinking experience. Because the drink is clarified, it looks like water—a fancy globular ice cube and salty nori rim are the only visual hints that it’s something special. But inside, there’s Solmano mezcal, Junmai sake, and the strange and fabulous The Irony horseradish (yes, that’s a semi-dry horseradish aperitif—picture your favourite indulgent oyster topping but 36 per cent ABV). It’s weird and wonderful, as are its friends on the menu: the Ringo has plum liqueur and Fuji apple shrub, the Papurika has Haku vodka and kombu manzanilla (that’s a sherry-like drink made with kelp, and yes, we had to look it up).

There isn’t really another place like it in Vancouver, but even though visiting is a totally novel experience, it’s impossible not to feel some kind of sentimentality when old cartoons play on the periphery as you sip a honeydew-drenched cocktail and nibble dim sum-inspired prawn toast. “A couple of guests have said, ‘Wow, this really takes me back,’” says Lim, who thought to himself at the time: Good—we did it.

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