Rhinofish Noodle Bar

Rhinofish Noodle Bar is a 45 seat restaurant opened by chef David Wu in the centre of Vancouver’s Chinatown.

The menu is an extension of tradition Taiwanese street market style xiaochi centred around nui rou main with locally sourced fresh ingredients. The food is based on traditional recipes passed down from his family, combined with learned recipes derived from time spent working for a street vendor in Changhua, from his own stall at the Richmond Night Market, and through local Vancouver restaurants.

The restaurant is on the main floor of a building dating from the early 1900’s. Scott & Scott Architects designed the space with materials that are used primarily for their utility and left in their raw state or finished in a manner of basic construction standard. This approach balances the strength of utility borne materials, such as ubiquitous kitchen quarry tiles, with a desire for the public elements to wear-in with use taking on familiarity and comfort over time.  

Considered as a hall for quick informal lunch and dinner meals, the round and oblong communal tables vary in scale. These tables along with the plate steel kitchen viewing bar allow for variety of grouping and seating options. The restaurant was considered as an open room with where the construction and food production are visibly celebrated and a part of the experience.

The stools, tables, pendant lighting and hardware were produced by the architects’ studio for the project. They combine moulded harness leather, waxed steel and ash dowels turned in Quebec by a garden and construction tool manufacturer.  

Linen canvases were stretched with integrated absorption matting to tune the space’s acoustics and painted by artist Angie Wu.