UBC Student launch Chowmenow for Vancouver Diners Looking for $5 Lunches

Vancouver C Eat O Aden Klein is on a life-long mission to find $5 lunches. As a big eater, he’s constantly on the look-out for lunch wherever he finds himself in the city’s various neighbourhoods. But Klein quickly discovered that the dollars in his wallet didn’t match his need to constantly refuel!

One day, standing on a street corner looking for his next lunch, Klein got an idea that started to bubble–and then came to a rolling boil–when he realized that all he could think of was, “I need chow now!” From that hunger pang, the recipe for chowmenow.com was ‘created, blended, and baked’ to provide those on a mission to eat on the cheap in Vancouver with a handy, fast, and fun resource.

Weekly chowmenow blog posts showcase various ‘top five’ $5 lunches each week. Chowmenow foodie followers love to try out the site’s recommended top five and even scout out and share their own great $5 finds. It’s like a scavenger hunt for great food! Restaurant owners can also highlight their businesses and upload pictures and menu features, as well as converse with their reviewers

With Vancouver’s high living costs, soaring gas and food prices, and a bursting real estate market, it has become one of the most expensive cities in North America to live—and eat! While Vancouver’s culinary scene has been fortunate to draw an influx of quality, high-end menus and celebrity chefs, there is also a community of foodies who are proving that you don’t have to drive a Rolls Royce to dine out on the delicious and diverse eats Vancouver has to offer. They’re making it known through chowmenow.com.

Chowmenow.com was founded by UBC student Aden Klein as a free, on-line community forum aimed to draw an assembly of foodies who share and rate their favorite dining spots—with the provision that their recommended meal costs five dollars or less. “There are many sites dedicated to finding restaurants, but not one on a mission to find decent lunches for five bucks,” says Klein, a third-year finance major. “Being a student in an expensive city like Vancouver can prove challenging, especially when it comes to food. I love to eat, so I wanted to create a site where people could easily source delicious food at affordable prices. When I tell people about chowmenow.com, they can’t believe that there are so many places that offer really good food for only a few dollars. In a city where finding a latte under five bucks can be difficult, it’s definitely an eye opener to start exploring small restaurants that we often bypass.”

The current chowmenow.com site focuses on Vancouver and its surroundings, but plans are in the works to expand to other cities in Canada and the U.S.

For more information, please visit: www.chowmenow.com

Photo: psychopooch