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This time last year, we at the Straight were celebrating Lunch Lady taking first place in the Commercial Drive category of the 2025 Golden Plates. The restaurant was hot off a win from the Vancouver magazine Restaurant Awards (another Best Commercial Drive plaudit) in May and still riding high from the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand designation in the previous fall.
In a way, nothing has really changed. The Vietnamese restaurant again earned that Vancouver magazine award, kept its Michelin Bib Gourmand status, and (most importantly, of course) was voted Best Casual, Best Vietnamese, and Best Commercial Drive restaurant in 2026 by our Golden Plates voters. But, in another way, everything has changed. In late May 2025, the eponymous and original “lunch lady” Nguyễn Thị Thanh died at only 58 years old.
“It was a very tragic turn of events,” says chef Benedict Lim, who opened the Commercial Drive restaurant in 2020 alongside co-owner Michael Tran with Thanh’s partnership—and her blessing.
Thanh passed just before Lim and Tran launched Canada’s second Lunch Lady in Toronto, and her absence was felt deeply.
Lim remembers her as “jovial to the max”, always smiling, laughing, and (in true auntie fashion) concerned that he hadn’t had enough to eat that day.
The chef credits the Vancouver restaurant’s success to both Thanh’s cooking and the culture she created. Tweaks to her recipes (for example, mixing coconut with clams instead of snails, or swapping out prawns for soft-shell crab in a fritter and pairing it with a green chili aioli) were done only with her approval. As the restaurant’s menu evolved, Lim felt both excited and nervous whenever Thanh checked in from Vietnam. But she looked to the customers to judge, and their reviews were always glowing.
“She’d come in and say, ‘The people seem happy. That’s all I care about,’ ” Lim says with a laugh.
The sudden loss of Thanh was shocking to all who knew her, and for Lim and Tran, it also put the Toronto opening in sharp perspective. Lim remembers thinking, “Well, I guess it’s on us now to continue telling the story.”
In summer 2026, we can confidently say that Lunch Lady’s legacy has continued with the service, honour, and soul that Thanh fostered—and when it comes to expansion, more people than ever are getting enough to eat.
The one-year-old Toronto sister restaurant, The Lunch Lady of Saigon, has been an instant local favourite. Lim and Tran opened Nomo Nomo, a Japanese snack bar, last September, building the team with the Lunch Lady’s culture (and geography—it’s just a block south) in mind. The much-anticipated Time Out Market at Oakridge Park opened at the end of May, with Lunch Lady included in the all-star food court vendors.
“We’re alongside some of the city’s most talented chefs and restaurateurs… it’s like the Avengers,” says Lim. “They collected these people, and we need to fight one battle together.”
And with all that and more on the horizon, Lunch Lady on Commercial continues to be booked, busy, and beloved.
At dinnertime, you’ll see very few tables without a plate of Mì Xào Tỏi (garlic noodles) with parmigiano cheese and soft-boiled egg, or the steak lúc lắc—a stir-fry transformed with caramelized beef that’s blow-torched to mimic a wok’s sear. Lunch’s rotating daily noodle soup specials vary from crab tomato to lemongrass beef to five-spiced duck, each one complex, layered, and hearty to the point of food coma.
Tables laden with food are part of the Lunch Lady tradition.
“Vancouver will always be the OG—it’s the one where we learned our identity,” Lim says. “It’s the only reason why Toronto was possible, and the only reason why we’re even here today.”
Lunch lady Thanh’s original Saigon food stall was a favourite of Anthony Bourdain’s, and was featured on his TV show No Reservations in 2005. In Vancouver years later, Thanh made a promise to Lim that he’ll never forget.
“She said, ‘I’m going to help you the way Anthony helped me,’” he recalls.
The Commercial Drive restaurant’s packed tables, long list of award wins, and creative, delicious, and comforting dishes show that she made good on her words.
It’s going to be tough to have a year more monumental than this one, but the Lunch Lady team will try.
In September, Lim and Tran’s restaurant family will go international with the opening of Lunch Lady Manila. The menu will feature around half of Vancouver’s favourite dishes, with the rest reflecting the seasonal ingredients of the region.
Lim and Tran have a business partner in Manila but make sure to note that they will remain owners.
“Michael and I refuse to ever franchise the brand because we are too attached to it,” Lim shares.
The restaurant is embracing every opportunity to grow, in Canada and beyond. But on the corner of Commercial and Napier, past the line of eager walk-ins waiting to be welcomed, the food quality, service, and spirit remain just as excellent as it always has. And no matter how much they have on their plates, the Lunch Lady team ensures that guests in Vancouver—the OG—are happy.
Lunch Lady is located at 1046 Commercial Drive.