I had a bad experience going to the Tropika on Cambie St on Friday, July 2nd, 2010. They weren't that packed or super busy either. The food & drinks were ok. The bill came to about $99 something. I paid for the whole bill as it was my treat to my friend, I tipped them less than 10%, the waiter came back and asked for more tip. He showed me the bill and said people usually tip atleast 10% here. I was embarassed since my friend is right there and I wanted to treat her. I usually tip atleast 10% anyways but for some reason I didn't feel like tipping that much on that day since I was leaving Vancouver to go back to Toronto. I didn't care since its my last day and I wouldn't go back there for a long time anyways since I am a tourist and don't live there.

I have never experienced this before where a waiter in a restaurant denies my tip and asks for more upfront. I think this place's attitude stinks and would never go back. I believe tipping is optional and not mandatory. You can tip whatever amount you want depending on how you feel or think...Everyone is different but there's no set rules on their website saying that all customers must tip 10% or else??? There was only 3 of us so its not a big group or anything!

By far this is has been the worst Vancouver dining experience I have had and I am going to complain to the manager about this. By reading all the reviews at this restaurant, they seem to have poor management and staff so not sure if they actually do care??

The food overall was decent, over priced for what you get, small portions and I truly think that you can get way better food, better price and better service in elsewhere. I know atleast in Toronto we have a ton of better Thai food places...The food here is just unique & different but not the best or good!

I even tried the Roti Canai & Samble Clams. Roti Canai was good but Samble clam was not that great. Don't waste your $$ going this place. Look for better Thai food places & better service too :)

Considered on the exotic end for some of the asian food spectrum, I thought Tropika was nothing really worth writing home about. They had a solid Cran entree, the rest of my food was standard Malay fare.

We ordered 5 entrees, I found most dishes a little oily.... some reminding me of cheaper asain takeout. If it wasn't for one of the best crab dishes in the city I would have dumped on this place.

Ok Service, Ok food, Ok ambience. Try the crab.

First off, service at this location is way better than the one in Robson. I have been patronizing Tropika on Cambie for over 10 years. I grew up eating southeast asian cuisine, and although the food here is not uber authentic that does not mean it is not tasty cuz they do a great job with many dishes like their rendang beef which is my personal fav. Many of these asian restaurants canadianized their food so that it suits the mass palette. When I needed my dishes kicked up a notch, I ask for their sambal which is basically a chilli paste made with shrimp, with that condiment, I feel at home. The prices are also reasonable as the decor is nice, not greasy spoon but clean and pleasant, the servers are friendly and professional. I also do like how they have the 2 for 1 coupons in the entertainment book and when you use them, the service is equally good. They are also one of the few places that serve my childhood fav of fried radish cake, I can eat that stuff for breakfast everyday. For Singapore and Malaysian cuisine, they do a good job and has a huge menu. Tropika ranks up there for me when I feel like something spicy and flavourful.

Servers were a little rushed but overall was prompt with service and refilling glasses.

Food is not AMAZING for the price they charge but I thought it was still quite good overall. There meat dishes and noodles are probably their most consistent Sizes are not up to par with other Chinese restaurants though.

Dimly lit and nice renovations make the place a good, modern Asian atmosphere...a little more Western then anything else. Would recommend if you don't mind paying a little more. I think it was like 7 dollars for a goreng pisang (friend banana)....a little much. But it is usually packed which is why there maybe so many bad reviews regarding the service.

Also, it is tasty but not exactly authentic Southeast Asian Food.

We used to like coming to this restaurant but in the last couple of years each visit has been worst than the one before. The staff try to rush you to order, eat and get out as fast as humanly possible. They will give you dirty looks and comment on tips less than 20%. Yeah right, as if I'm going to tip you well after the poor service. The management and staff of this restaurant have gone downhill and you can see it with the looks of disdain they give you when you ask questions about the dishes - they really are not interested in helping you try new foods. The food quality is extremely inconsistent and the portion sizes grow smaller with each visit. I will definitely never eat at Tropika again and will tell everyone I know. They are no longer the only player in the area of Malaysian Chinese cuisine. There's a reason why they've been cited by the City of Vancouver for hygiene violations repeatedly.

We used to LOVE this place for it's consistency in tasty dishes but tonight it was all bad in terms of food and customer service. From the moment we sat down for a nice early Mother's day dinner we were rushed to order and get out even though there were only 3 tables with customers at that time. We ordered 5 dishes and the usual appies of roti bread and skewers. The appies were good but the dishes were all off. In the dishes that had green beans, the green beans tasted rotten and freezer burned :(. As I mentioned before, the restaurant was quite empty for most of our time there but still the waiters felt the need to give us the "HK style service of rush you out so that we can get the next table in" ROTFL if this is a scene from a HK comedy but not if you are the customers trying to enjoy a nice family dinner. We mentioned politely to our waiter that one of our mango desserts was too sour to eat and he refused to do anything about it and walked off. Had to flag down another waiter who also echoed that some people in Thailand like it sour so too bad so sad. Imagine what they would have done had we given them feedback that the food was not good...wait, wait, oh yeah they would have done NOTHING and that is why we will not go back to this Cambie location. These people at Cambie Tropika don't value customers or making good food anymore. Avoid disappointment, avoid Tropika on Cambie.

My family and friends used to dine at Tropika on Cambie on several occassions in the past. On Sunday evening we decided on something different, other than Chinese food. In my opening statement, let me just say that Tropika isn't worth the price for the meal we ate.

The service has "tanked" and although we had reservations and it was fairly quiet for the first half hour, we felt rushed to end our evening so that management could begin a bidding war on our table!

The fragrance of the rice is no more; the vegetable dish tasted bland; the fish was mainly bones and curry strewn all over it; I'd have to say that I'm better off going to the local Chinese restaurant in my neighbourhood and order a bowl of wor wonton soup and call it an evening.

This is definitely the last time we encounter what they deem as a taste of the difference. The prices are too high for the amount of food you receive. I understand that restaurants are vying for business, perhaps Tropika needs to scale down on the items on their menu and concentrate on the few that show some promise.

Thanks, but no thanks!

i have been to several of the Tropika chains and i only go because there arent too many malaysian restaurants around and i want that fix.overall, the food is nice.. of course it tastes nothing like how it would if you were in singapore or malaysian but they do a great job of matching the style and flavours to its country of origin.
service is better than you would expect in most oriental restaurants, the servers are better mannered and friendlier to their customers.
the prices are around $15-20 which is not expensive (and it should never be with any restaurant that serves this genre of food) but there are reasonable place for thai food.

I perceive myself as a fair person when I compare other cultural cuisine to their own. However, my visit with Tropika was sorely disappointing. I was eager to taste the different flavors they were specializing in Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean cuisine as they have noted, yet the dishes I've tried just came out as "chinese influenced". I was politely informed by an aquaintance that this restaurant was opened by Hong Kong owners, so maybe there would be tentative chinese flavoring in the cooking. Ahhh, my taste buds haven't proven me wrong. Also being senstive to msg........

My group of friend ordered 5 dishes to share, the pineapple fried rice, the indonesian pork ribs, singapore noodle, the rendang lembu and hainese chicken.
Nothing to note, as I said, just chinese food using other cultural identity. I don't judge people for liking it, they just probably haven't the chance to taste the real mckoy yet.
Also, the portions of the dishes didn't justify the price.

I will stick to my favorites Sawadee for Thai, Seri Malaysia for Malay and Sate Satu for Indonesian as I know for sure they don't compromise their cooking.

Tonight My boyfriend and I were deciding which restaurant to spend a Friday night at, having the "Dine Out Vancouver" experience.
Unfortunately, we had chosen Tropika on Cambie.
The cost per person to dine out was $28 dollars....I must stress this is definately NOT WORTH IT! They start you out with appetizers which end up being more expensive then ordering them separately. The portions are smaller, and the Roti is not even comparable to the roti Banana Leaf serves. The dipping sauce was very bland, and very stingy.
The entrees were the typical Pad Thai, which was gloppy, sloppy, and salty, in addition to the vegetable dish which was deep fried grease filled eggplant. The only flavour which was absolutely unquestionable in the eggplant was the over- usage of Shrimp paste and dried shrimp, leaving my mouth dehydrated and unsatisfied. We thought we had something to look forward to in the Lobster dish but, like all previous courses, ended up being a disaster. They served the lobster head, no tail, lumpy sauce and ended up being a very messy meal. We had to leave half on the plate due to the awkwardness of the Lobster topped on thin vermicelli noodles, bits of noodles falling here and there. Again, a sloppy and unnecessary course. Suggestion is that they should have replaced the lobster dish with a curry dish, and charging only $18.00.
When the time came for dessert, we had no choice (literally) then to go for the "mixed fruit with ice cream". This dish was not even on the regular menu. I had asked the waited if we could replace both of our desserts with 1 pisang goreng (deep fried banana with ice cream) and he said " no, there is an additional charge". I replied that we will stick with the set menu. Looking very unhapppy, the pisang goreng came to our table...along with ONE of the set menu desserts.
I was happy as I thought they had made an exception..I was wrong. When my bill came an extra $7.00!!! was added for the dessert. I told the waiter we had a miscommunication and he rolled his eyes at me and grudgingly snarled, rolled his eyes and walked back to the till. I have never felt SO UNCOMFORTABLE in a restaurant!
No tip was left. My recommendation; do not visit this place. An utter waste and rip off.
Hope this helps!