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Restaurant brings culture, tradition and diversity to Richmond

In a community that is particularly rich in Asian and Western cultures, family-owned AnAr restaurant shares Persian culture and food that Vancouver may not be as familiar with.
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Saffron rice is a staple of Persian food. Richmond News photo

In a community that is particularly rich in Asian and Western cultures, family-owned AnAr restaurant shares Persian culture and food that Vancouver may not be as familiar with.

Hailing from northern Iran, Tila Akhavan and her brother David said that the dishes on their menu reflect their home country’s natural ingredients. Having only opened AnAr earlier this year, the restaurant is already bustling with customers. “People were hungry to see this kind of food on the market,” Tila said.

AnAr Restaurant brings recipes and dishes that one might find nestled away in the winding labyrinths of a bazaar or in a humble food stall serving up the tastiest kebabs on the street. Using natural spices like turmeric and saffron in cooking, with aromatics including lemon and lime, the restaurant serves up some seriously creative dishes most Vancouverites will have never tasted before. Looking back to her own heritage, Tila follows her heart, not a recipe. Free of steadfast rules, like meticulous measuring and quantities, AnAr’s kitchen is a place for taste and creativity.

AnAr’s mission, in addition to bringing restaurant variety to Richmond, is also to serve up extraordinarily scrumptious food while still maintaining its natural and nutritional values. AnAr strives to revert back to traditional Iranian cooking methods like steaming and barbequing lots of organic vegetables and Halal meats. Tila and her team share the same value of “cooking in the most nutritious ways”.

With reasonable prices, natural ingredients and generous portions, AnAr is based on being a family-oriented restaurant and designed for working class people. Being an inexplicably hard worker herself, Tila is making it more convenient for people to get a nutritious, tasty, and even exotic meal. “We try to do everything ourselves to make sure we know exactly what goes into our food,” she said.

To find out more about AnAr, visit www.anarfoods.com, email info@anarfoods.com, or call 778-834-1707. You can also find AnAr on Facebook