Category Archives: Reviews

Read along as we seek out the best of what the British Columbia coast (and beyond) has to offer.

04.03.13
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A Skinny on a Hula Theme. Da Kine Coffee Shop


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.

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04.02.13
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Springing forth with Cold Comfort

If a brown sugar and vanilla flavoured ice cream sandwich doesn’t give my dentist the shivers, I honestly don’t know what will. While at the Root Cellar today, I debated if I should get some Avalon brand ice cream (my favourite) and as my glance strayed downwards, I saw that there’s an unobtrusively made package sporting the name: Cold Comfort.

Okay, Spring is here. Finding a new dessert to sample made my heart thump. To discover organically sourced handmade ice cream sold me in more ways than one. The price is more than what I would normally pay for (nearly $5 for an ice cream sandwich), but the taste: oh what a difference! The Scotch sugary mildness and accented flavour of the vanillas was very nice. I’m thinking that the sandwich itself was a sugar bread and oh boy—is that a drill I hear in the background?

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03.27.13
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Getting Splashed with Sockeye Sushi

Sockeye Sushi
726 Johnson St.
Victoria, BC
(250) 388-4338

E: I honestly should not leave the decision-making to James and his frugalness to suggest that we try out Stone’s Throw Restaurant. One look at their small buffet table and I was ready to high tail it out of there. It was not because of the food, but I don’t see three buffet warmers to be a shining example of what a buffet should be.

I’ve been to enough to know that a smorgasbord of visual delights be offered to entice diners in, not something out of an archaeological dig! And between the two of us, we’d most likely clean their taco offerings out in no time and be kicked out afterwards.

J: The buffet was much like the old Atlas ads in the comic books. Well this buffet could’ve had sand kick at it and not do a damn thing in return.

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03.21.13
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The Melt Serves Up Simplicity


Note: This place has closed permenantly.

The Melt
G2A – 1001 Douglas St
Sussex Place
Victoria, BC
(250) 590-4636

The Melt replaces the former pizzeria that once operated here. While I liked what the previous establishment made, square shaped pizzas, it did suffer from one problem: the lack of proper heaters to keep the pizza warm.

Ironically, the new establishment fulfills a certain need. The Melt properly grills its toast so that the cheeses are satisfyingly gooey at every bite.

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03.21.13
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L’Authentique Poutine & Burger Reawakens!

L’Authentique Poutine
& Burger
Langford, BC

Can this fact be true? Is “Zut alors” a cuss word? Well, that’s beside the point, but an exclamation must be used to let folks know that L’Authentique Poutine & Burger is back! And the best part of all is that their new truck is sporting the colours of the Quebec flag. One just has to excuse the wood panelling that’s added to the design too.

Although this food truck operation took longer to get going again, and I can certainly understand the Winter break. Although the Inuit do consume fatty meats to help them stay warm, the Victorians (let alone the folks in the Western Communities) do not need to.

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03.20.13
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Enter a World of Delights at Shanghai Noodles

2224 Quadra Street
Victoria, B.C. 
(250) 386-8802

J: Shanghai Noodles is located between two of my ol’ stomping grounds. Blanshard Community and George Jay Elementary. Between the two, one I liked and the other…well you know how it goes. It was to be a toss up for what direction this experience would take. I was hoping the coin didn’t fall over the George Jay line.

And once again Ed had to listen (or covertly tune me out) as I rambled on about the places I’d been, the people I knew and Heather, the girl I kissed.

E: Aw, isn’t young love grand? But we are not here to recount another version of “My Girl.”

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