Bite before bedtime?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/11/2006 (7082 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE city that never sleeps? Hardly. And when asked to list a number of places for late-night noshing I was sure I wouldn’t find many, and that the vast majority of those I did find would be Chinese.

But I surprised myself.

Yes, of course, many of them are Chinese, but I also discovered several that weren’t. There are many more late-night places than are listed here, but, although I can’t vouch for any kitchen’s performance in the wee hours, the following are where I’ve had good food — before midnight — in the not too distant past.

* EAST OCEAN / 350 Hargrave St., open until 2 a.m. weekdays, 4 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Well prepared interesting specialties include a hot pot of chili-spiked eggplant with minced meat or fried rice noodles with pickled vegetables and duck.

* LOGAN CORNER, 247 Logan Ave., open until 3 a.m. all week, serving authentic and delicious Chinese food. Some standouts are hot sour soup, dumplings, Shanghai noodles, gingery scallops with gailan and chili-spiked, stir-fried unshelled shrimp.

* NEW GOLDEN INN, 1084 Pembina Hwy., open until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Good Chinese food, much of it non-routine, notably golden inn cakes, five spice chicken and shredded pork with Szechuan vegetables.

* SUMHAY, 225 Logan Ave., open until 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. A bare bones Chinese restaurant that does a nice job on shrimp (particularly almond-crusted shrimp).

* WASABI, 121 Osborne St., open until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. If your Asian tastes run more to the Japanese, you’ll find some of the city’s better sushi in this little Osborne Village place.

For more occidental flavours the following kitchens also stay open past midnight.

* BILLABONG,121 Osborne St., open until 2 a.m. all week, and serves such Down-Under dishes as fish and chips, sausage rolls, crab cakes and seafood pasta.

* EARL’S, 1455 Portage Ave., 191 Main St., open until 1 a.m. weekdays, 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Two big, noisy units of a chain operation serving superior.

* THE PALM ROOM, Fort Garry Hotel, 222 Broadway, open until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Arguably the most gorgeous room in the city, offering everything from sandwiches to a well-aged steak.

* JOEY’S, 635 St. James St., open until 1 a.m. weeknights, 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Another superior chain operation (related to Earl’s).

* VERNA’Z, 710 Pembina Hwy., open until 2 a.m. all week. A quirky Caribbean place for curried shrimp roti, barbecued ribs, braised oxtails and (if there’s any left after midnight don’t miss it) pepperpot soup.

Some others (not reviewed recently) include BAILEY’S, 185 Lombard Ave., open until 2 a.m.; CONFUSION CORNER, 500 Corydon Ave., 1 a.m. weeknights, 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays; THE KEG, 115 Garry St., 1 a.m.; PAPA GEORGE’S, 93 Osborne St., 4 a.m.; and, for Chinese food, KEN’S, 333 Ellice Ave., open until 3 or 4 a.m.

AND FOR THAT QUINTESSENTIAL LATE-NIGHT WINNIPEG EXPERIENCE — i.e. a nip and chips and a restorative cup of coffee — the SALISBURY HOUSES at 759 Pembina Hwy. and 19 Marion St. are open 24 hours.