1921 Quadra St
Victoria, B.C.
778-432-2229

E: After a short walk to find where Victoria’s newest street truck vendor is parked, James and I chanced upon Da Kine Coffee Shop, a relatively new operation. The building is a small house with a lot of personality.

Unfortunately, I could not say the same about its soup of the day, chicken and chickpea. For some odd reason, it tasted like one of my mom’s old country Chinese soup recipes. The taste was muddled with a lot of earthy plant like textures than that of chicken soup. Good or bad, the chicken and chickpea did live up to its name: the pea-soup taste was strong.

Mind you, as with any soup, it can be improved with a good smash of fresh bacon bits. The rye bread was decent, and it might have come from Wildfire Bakery that wasn’t too far up the road.

J: The cafe had a Hawaiian theme in its decor and that’d explain the design of the dessert I ordered, a turtle bar. The hard chocolate actually did look like a turtle’s shell if you used your imagination. The chocolate sweetness was very rich.

But frankly, the composition was too rich. At $3.00 each, I think it’s meant to be shared with a 2nd person. It’s just too big and too sweet for this man to handle. With that noted, it’s definitely tasty.

E: This place has potential once the kinks are worked out.

Maybe this particular soup of the day sat too long and just needed more than a few good stirs. The coffee shop has all the right types of food offerings and decor to make it a great hangout spot in the North Park community.

The big question is will Da Kine focus on some Hawaiian themed delights or something else? This place could make a killing with shaved ice products when the season is right. When that happens, I’ll be doing the hula.

3 Blokes out of 5