Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were described as “extremely friendly” during a “fun” double date with Michael Bublé and his wife, Luisana Lopilato, as reported by Chef Vikram Vij of Vij’s in Vancouver, Canada.
The restaurateur shared the details of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s visit to the restaurant with Bublé, 48, and Lopilato, 36, on Thursday — preceding the singer’s enjoyable day with the couple at the Invictus Games One Year to Go celebration the following day.
“They were extremely friendly and nice,” Chef Vij says, also disclosing that the group arrived around 7 p.m. local time and lingered for three hours.
“They came and spoke to the kitchen staff, they were very respectful to let me choose the meal as the chef,” he explains. “I said I was going to put something together for them. I asked them if there were any allergies or any things that she didn’t feel like having, and Meghan said, ‘I love spicy food.'”
The chef also elaborates that the group relished “three or four appetizers” he curated “using local produce … obviously with some Indian spices.”
“Michael Bublé loved the mushrooms, for example, and Harry loved the kebabs. I got them some market chard that [Meghan] loved.”
Along with the delicious appetizers, Chef Vij also prepared a variety of main dishes for the group, including “a lamb popsicle, which is like a rack of lamb and with marinated mustard and sweet white wine in a fenugreek cream curry,” which, he explains, he had previously cooked for Prince William and Kate Middleton during their visit to Vancouver in 2016.
“It was a very big deal for me to say, ‘Hey, this is what your brother loved, and I think you should try this dish,’ ” Chef Vij says, before revealing that Prince Harry, 39, “absolutely loved” the meal.
Meghan, 42, meanwhile, asked for extra chili to spice up her food and tried the goat meat, Chef Vij says.
The group also indulged in other dishes, including potato cream curry and little black chickpea cakes, served with rice and naan. “They even actually asked for more bread or naan bread,” the chef says.
Regarding beverages, Chef Vij mentions that Prince Harry sampled Vij’s gin in a gin and tonic, while Meghan enjoyed “a couple of cocktails.”
During the dinner, Chef Vij notes that the Duke and Duchess shared plenty of affection.
“They were extremely affectionate towards each other,” he explains. “[Meghan] always had her left hand on his back … and always said very politely ‘my husband or ‘Oh, he loves this dish,’ or ‘He loves this curry or this style.'”
He added saying,
“You could see the positivity in their relationship, the love, the affection that they have. The fun that they were having with Michael and Michael Bublé’s wife Lu.”
The chef recounts an “amazing” moment at the end of the night when, as the group was departing, Meghan noticed the kitchen staff watching and asked if she could express her gratitude to them. He said,
“My kitchen is all-female staff. They’re all my aunties and my sisters and people who have worked with me for over 30 years, so they were tickled pink because they were like, ‘Oh my God, here there’s somebody so big coming through the kitchen.”
As well as touring the kitchen, Vij notes a sweet moment took place between Prince Harry and the women working there.
“It was very respectful,” he says, explaining that Harry “went up and [playfully] asked the kitchen ladies, ‘Who cooked the lamb?’ ” to which he says the kitchen staff replied, “We all did.”
“It was so cute,” Chef Vij adds, noting that the couple also posed for photos in the kitchen with himself and his staff.
After their dinner, the chef says he gifted the Duke and Duchess special tokens to remind them of their time at the restaurant.
“I gave them our Vij’s cookbook at the end, signed to them, and I gave Harry a little bottle of the Vij’s gin ’cause he liked the gin and tonic a lot,” he says.
And despite being a group of incredibly well-known people, the chef highlights that the dinner was a delightfully low-key event.
“The most beautiful part was that even the diners knew that they were sitting there and having dinner, and nobody bothered them. It was just a beautiful, magical evening for all of us. I cannot thank them enough for coming,” he says, adding, “We loved it, and overall it was a beautiful evening.”
The fun group dinner came the night before Prince Harry and Meghan attended the third and final day of the Invictus Games One Year to Go celebration on Friday at the Hillcrest Community Centre in Vancouver, where they joined Canadian Armed Forces veteran families and Invictus alumni.
Throughout the day, the Duke of Sussex engaged in wheelchair curling with Bublé. Later, at the One Year to Go Dinner at the Vancouver Convention Center, part of the Invictus Games countdown celebrations, Bublé performed “My Way,” with updated lyrics paying tribute to Prince Harry as a “visionary.” He also extended “healing wishes” to King Charles, currently undergoing cancer treatment following his recent diagnosis announcement.
“Who knew, dreams can come true, when life tells you, you’re far from finished / Nothing tames, Invictus Games, you play them your way / One man, life-changing plan, he does all he can, he’s a visionary / Our healing wishes for your dad / You’ve earned each day, the right to say, I did it my way,” Bublé sang.
