It's been a long time coming, but Metro Vancouver is now home to two more locations of Gram Café & Pancakes, a Japanese import that set its sights on the region nearly three years ago.
Gram, which specializes in impossibly thick, creamy, wobbly soufflé pancakes, announced in 2019 plans to open four locations in Metro Vancouver. While the first one, at Richmond's Aberdeen Centre, got off the ground in early 2020, pre-pandemic.
Now there are two more Gram locations. The first is the Kensington Gardens location at 2218 Kingsway in Vancouver, which is situated in the ground floor retail space of a mixed-use townhome and condo tower development that also boasts a T&T Supermarket.
The Kingsway Gram wasn't on the pancake place's original plan for Vancouver; their first-announced location, which had been set to go in at 1284 Robson Street, has since disappeared from the location roster and the business property back on the market. Gram launched in Kensington Gardens in 2021.
Meanwhile, Gram has just started cooking up its signature fluffy stacks of pancakes in North Burnaby at the sprawling Amazing Brentwood development, at Unit 1227, 4580 Brentwood Blvd, and the location is in its "soft opening" phase.
Gram makes a limited number of orders of their signature soufflé pancakes - called "Premium Pancakes," - available each day, and since they are made to order, you may have to wait a bit if you're among the lucky few.
In addition to those "Premium Pancakes," Gram's extensive menu includes other pancake formats, like stuffed "Premium Smile" pancakes, classic pancakes, pancakes loaded with sweet or savoury toppings or stuffed with fillings, as well as bubble tea drinks, soufflé pancake ice cream sandwiches, French toast, soups, and coffee beverages.
As promised, their Premium Pancakes are a showstopper. They melt in your mouth and strike a nice balance of salty and sweet, and they are definitely a sight to behold when they land on your table, wiggling and jiggling and looking like they could topple at any moment.
Other offerings, like their traditional pancakes with toppings, make good use of fun flavour profiles, like baked apple with an Earl Grey tea cream and ice cream, or a more savoury set of pancakes with thick and juicy bacon strips and golden, creamy scrambled eggs.
While the Amazing Brentwood Gram has a robust menu with all the chain's staples and more, the Kensington Gardens outpost is offering a more limited menu. Both have online ordering available, and Kensington has delivery through third-party apps available.
A fourth Gram appears to be still in the works for the region; at 2145 W. 41st Ave in Kerrisdale, one of the original bundle of four Gram locations is still "coming soon."
