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The New Oak Bay Beach Hotel’s Afternoon Tea

January 15, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Afternoon tea at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel

My friend Lynette and I are self-styled afternoon tea aficionados, and we like to keep tabs on the establishments that serve afternoon tea in Victoria – you know, for quality control. So when I discovered that the newly re-constructed Oak Bay Beach Hotel had such an offering… well, it was high time for a tea party with our friends Whittney and Katheryn. Pinkies up, ladies!

First, a little background on the location: the new Oak Bay Beach Hotel is actually the third incarnation of the hotel. The first hotel was built in 1927 and unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1930, when an exact replica of the hotel was rebuilt on the site. The hotel became immensely popular, and in the 1950’s Victoria’s first neighbourhood pub, The Snug, was opened on the premises, soon becoming a local landmark. Passing from owner to owner, the hotel and its popularity stood in it all its 1930s glory until 2006, when it became clear that the building needed such extensive renovations and updates that it would be necessary to re-build from scratch. So they did. They dismantled the old hotel, saving much of its architectural elements and furniture to be re-used in the new hotel, which opened in 2012. While I am unable to draw a comparison because I never visited the old hotel, the new one certainly is grand, and judging by how bustling it was with locals just hanging out in the lobby, pub, and coffee shop, I think it’s still got its old charm….

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Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews, Tea Parties Tagged With: afternoon tea, Oak Bay beach Hotel, tea party, Victoria

Breakfast at The Old Fork in Duncan, BC

March 24, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 9 Comments

Huevos Rancheros at The Old Fork

Since moving away from Victoria, Nate and I have bemoaned the fact that there were no great breakfast places in the area. “Going for breakfast” is a Big Deal in Victoria, which is home to many breakfast joints, all of which have lineups out the door by 9 am on weekends. We were pretty stoked when we saw an ad in the paper for a new restaurant in town that featured breakfast – and not just any breakfast, either: The Old Fork‘s Deep South inspired all-day breakfast menu boasts ridiculous biscuits and egg bennies, pulled pork combinations, and insane sounding French toast. They only opened at the beginning of March, but we heard great things about the food from Nate’s parents, so we decided to give them a try yesterday morning.

The restaurant is located in the Silverbridge Motor Inn but feels completely unlike any motel restaurant I’ve ever been in. The interior has been totally re-done and has a sort of barn/industrial feel, with rough planks on the walls and decorative metal pieces. This might not sound like the coziest decor, but it really works and is actually very inviting and funky. There were only a few other people there when we arrived at 9 am (no line up – just one perk of not living in the city!), so we were seated immediately. The staff was very friendly and attentive, the coffee was plentiful and delicious, and everything on the menu sounded so good, it was hard to choose. Nate finally settled on the Heuvos Rancheros (with homemade enchilada sauce) and I got the Praline Bacon French Toast.

Praline Bacon French Toast

Praline Bacon French Toast

The food arrived quickly and we dug in happily. Nate wished the Heuvos had more cheese and he missed the crispiness of the tortilla that he’s used to, but the ingredients were tasty and fresh. He said the shredded hash brown on the side was the best part – crispy and golden but not oily. My French toast was as decadent as I was expecting: thick French bread dipped in egg batter with praline’d pecans embedded in the sides, topped with bacon and melted cheddar. I was initially unsure of the cheddar, but it balanced out the sweetness of the dish and the whole thing was really good.

We were finished our meal within 30 minutes, and our bill was less than $30.00, which is a steal compared to the $40.00 we were used to spending on breakfast in Victoria! We will definitely be back to try out the rest of the menu, which includes some equally delicious-sounding lunch and dinner items (including house smoked focaccia bread. OMG!) 🙂
The Old Fork on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: breakfast, breakfast in Duncan BC, Duncan BC restaurant, The Old Fork restaurant

A Visit to Merridale Estate Cidery

November 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

Back in September, when the sun was still shining warmly and the leaves were just starting to turn yellow, Lynette and I went to check out Merridale Estate Cidery. It’s been on our to-do list for a few years, and by convenient coincidence, I now live literally about ten minutes away from the property. Merridale makes traditional hard cider from apples grown on the premises, and in addition to cider, they have started making other types of spirits such as vodka and fortified ciders (but more about that later). They also run a fantastic bistro (open year round) and outdoor kitchen (open in the summer) that feature their products in many of the dishes, as well as lots of other local ingredients. We showed up on a Sunday for brunch and enjoyed our meal in a sun-drenched, covered patio area. Lynette had a chicken pasty and potato-leek soup:

I had a breakfast pizza topped with local chorizo and bacon and a poached egg. It was fantastic.

…

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Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: apples, cider tasting, Cowichan Valley, hard apple cider, Merridale Estate Cidery, self-guided tour

Afternoon Tea at the Gatsby Mansion – Take II

July 30, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Last year, Lynette and I had a memorable afternoon tea experience at the Gatsby Mansion – unfortunately, memorable only in how bad it was. However, after seeing several very positive reviews about their new menu and new chef, we decided to give the Gatsby another chance. I am very happy to report that the difference between this visit and our last was like night and day, and that the afternoon tea at the Gatsby is now quite lovely and totally worth checking out….

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Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews, Tea Parties Tagged With: afternoon tea, Gatsby Mansion, restaurant review, Victoria BC, Victoria BC restaurant

Insane Burgers and Poutine at La Belle Patate

November 23, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Typical winter in Victoria BC: dark at 4 pm, constantly windy, rains all the time. ALL THE TIME. Seriously nasty. Yesterday it was too nasty to make dinner, so Nate, Sam and I trekked across town in the dark, stormy evening to sample the burgers and poutine at La Belle Patate in Esquimalt.

La Balle Patate is the very definition of a hole-in-the-wall burger joint, but what makes it unique is the Québécois menu, consisting of several versions of poutine (fries, fresh cheese curds, and gravy), Montréal smoked meat, burgers, steamed hot dogs, and other diner food. Definitely not a restaurant for the faint of heart, or those with high cholesterol.

Nate and I split an order of the Boe Special (poutine with fried onions) and each had a La Belle Burger – a double patty, double cheese, double bacon monster loaded with fried onions and mushrooms and smothered in La Belle sauce. Oh, and a slice of tomato. When I ordered my burger, the guy behind the counter gave me an approving look and said I was a “brave lady”. Heh.

La Belle Burger, a heart attack on a paper plate

The burger was massive (I only got through three-quarters of it) and it tasted pretty much as ridiculous as it sounds: beefy, bacony, juicy, burgerlicious. This is a roll up your sleeves, tie back your hair, grab a stack of napkins, and unhinge your jaw kind of burger (Guy Fieri, eat your heart out!). And then you’ll need to have salad for the rest of the week to make up for it (but so worth it!).

The poutine was good too – squeaky cheese curds (which means they’re fresh) mixed with slightly sweet spuds and rich gravy, plus grilled onions… you can’t really go wrong here.

Sam ordered poutine and a “steamie”, which is a steamed hotdog covered in sauerkraut. He ate in about four bites, so I guess it was good! I didn’t get a picture because my hands were covered in burger juice. Mmmm.

We arrived just before 6 pm and the place was empty, but in the time it took for our food to be ready (about 20 minutes – it’s all made fresh to order), it filled right up. The staff seemed to know almost every one of their customers, so obviously they have a pretty loyal following. There are a few chairs and tables where patrons can devour their poutine immediately instead of as take-out, but La Belle Patate is not exactly a sit down restaurant. If it were on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, it would definitely fit into the “dive” category: the “decor” includes chipped paint, old QuĂ©bec license plates, and a chest freezer, and the food is served on paper plates and foil pans. This wouldn’t discourage me from returning, but is something to be aware of in case you’re expecting something else.

But if you like burgers, fries, gravy, and cheese curds, you should check this place out. It’s perfect for a stormy November evening, because licking burger juice off your elbows will help you forget all about the nasty weather ;).

La Belle Patate on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: burger, poutine, Quebecois, take-out, Victoria BC restaurant

Breakfast at Dish Cookhouse & Diner

September 24, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Farmer’s Skillet with House Smoked Sausage and Ham

There are more breakfast places in Victoria that you can count, but because going out for breakfast on the weekend is such a popular sport among the locals, most restaurants have a huge line-up by 9:30 am. We have our regular favorite breakfast spot in town, but sometimes you have to break out of your routine. This morning we drove out to Sidney (about 20-30 minutes away) to have breakfast at Dish Cookhouse & Diner. We first heard about this place about a year ago from my parents, and we’ve been going back ever since, whenever we aren’t feeling too lazy/starving to survive the drive out there in the morning. Aside from serving up awesome food, the place is never busy (which is surprising because the food is so good), and we have never had to wait for a table. It’s located in the industrial area of Sidney, which probably explains why it’s not super busy on a weekend morning – but that’s just fine with me!

They smoke their own ham, sausage, and bacon, and make their own jam. The ham is amazing – I’m not sure which cut of pork they use, but it reminds me almost of Chinese bbq pork with the ratio of meat to fat and the slightly spiced, sweet, smokey flavour. Seriously, some of the best breakfast ham I’ve ever had. This morning I had the ham benny and it was delicious – yummy hollandaise sauce, too.

House Smoked Ham Benny

The portions are large, but not in that oh-my-god-I’m-going-to-die-if-I-eat-this kind of way – it’s not your average deep-fried, grease-laden, heavy diner breakfast. The ingredients are fresh, tasty, and very well-prepared. Their regular breakfast menu (they also have a lunch menu, but we’ve only ever been for breakfast) includes the traditional eggs with bacon/ham/sausage with hash browns and toast, as well as omeletes, skillets (corned beef hash, turkey sausage and bacon hash, veggie hash), french toast, and eggs bennies. They also have monthly and daily/weekly breakfast specials. The last time we were there, Nate and I both ordered the specials: Nate had a bacon cheddar burger benny, and I had the special french toast with bananas in rum caramel sauce. Both were insanely delicious (although I’ll admit I was in a bit of a carb-coma after!).

Special French Toast with Bananas in Rum Caramel Sauce, with awesome grilled ham on the side

I don’t know why this place isn’t more popular. I guess it’s because it’s a bit far from downtown, but it’s definitely a better alternative to waiting in line for a mediocre breakfast in a crowded restaurant. The service is great, the coffee is good, and the prices are comparable to any other breakfast place – for the food you’re getting, it’s a steal. If you live in Victoria, Dish should be your next breakfast destination!

Dish Cookhouse & Diner on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: breakfast, Dish Cookhouse & Diner, food, restaurant, Victoria BC

The Cachagua Store Restaurant

September 3, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Towards the end of my visit to California, my aunt, uncle and I made an epic journey to have dinner at the Cachagua Store. This is a restaurant run out of a general store in the boonies of Cachagua, Carmel Valley. The restaurant is only open on Mondays, and the rest of the time the chef runs a catering company (A Moveable Feast) out of the kitchen. The restaurant receives mixed reviews from people who, after driving for an hour into the sticks on perilously twisty back-country roads, are expecting a fine dining experience, because it is certainly not that – no white table cloths, no white-shirted servers, no sterling silver flatware. But the food was awesome – locally sourced, regional specialties, interesting preparation methods, with a different menu every week – and just being in the restaurant was an experience in itself.

And so was the hour-long journey into the back of beyond to get there. We started the drive with rolling hills and large fields on either side of a wide, straight road, and as we drove further, the hills got closer together, the fields disappeared, the trees got closer and closer, and the road got narrower and windier. Then abruptly we took a right hand turn up the side of one of the hills onto another road full of twists and hairpin turns and bounded on either side by Spanish-moss covered trees. As we reached the top of the hill, the road stayed just as twisty and narrow, and we could see the spines and valleys and tops of other hills – some green with trees, some golden yellow with grass. It was incredibly beautiful.

This picture from the car window doesn’t even come close to doing the view justice.

Eventually the road plunged downward again – still with the death-defying blind corners and 180-degree turns – and finally we found ourselves in a gravel “parking lot” full of pick-up trucks in front of a red painted wooden building with the Cachagua Store sign out front. I half expected to see an old guy with no teeth, wearing overalls, playing a banjo on the front stoop.The restaurant entrance was just a door at one end of the building with a flourescent “Open” sign, and we entered gingerly, not sure what to expect.What we saw was a room full of tables with checkered tablecloths and folding chairs, exposed beams, a moose I mean elk head on the wall (decorated with Christmas lights) at one end, an open kitchen at the other, and paper curtains on the windows.A band consisting of a guitar player and a percussionist were setting up in one corner. A wait staff of mostly young local girls was hanging out around the kitchen entrance. We arrived at 6 pm, and were told that the menu hadn’t even been printed yet – the chef was still finalizing some things. When it did arrive, it was an impressive two pages long – one whole page of starters and another of main courses.At this point the sun started to set, and the candle on our table wasn’t doing very much to help out the dim lighting in the room, so these photos are pretty low quality (I was using my iPhone). For starters, my uncle had beef tartare with tarragon ice cream and the most delicious tomato gazpacho I’ve ever tasted – it was deeply tomato flavoured, with a herby-infused oil drizzled on top. I don’t even like raw tomatoes but this was fantastic. Definitely one of the highlights of the meal.My aunt had a poached egg on top of sauteed greens and trumpet mushrooms that was also surprisingly delicious – she said it wasn’t at all what she expected, but she was really disappointed when it was all gone!I had a starter-size pizza with homemade mascarpone, ham, and caramelized onions.It was good, but not quite what I wanted. This whole meal, actually, was an instance where I did not do a very good job of ordering food for myself, which happens sometimes when there is just too much choice in a menu. It all tasted good and was prepared beautifully, but I felt like I would have enjoyed different dishes more. Oh well, a good excuse to go there again!

My uncle had pork done six ways for his main course: a pork chop, pork chili verde, pork belly, roast pork loin, trotters, and something else – maybe a pork sausage? I can’t remember. It was a lot of pork, to say the least, and he barely got through a third of it.My aunt had the duck – a seared breast and confit leg, which must have been really good because she was not very interested in sharing ;).I had Mesquite grilled skirt steak with a mushroom sauce. The flavours were good but I was really full from my pizza starter and I spent a lot of the meal being a little jealous of my aunt’s duck.My uncle opted out of dessert, but my aunt and I perused the page-long menu and finally decided on a dark chocolate mousse (her) and a white chocolate-berry parfait (me). The mousse came served with a crouton, olive oil drizzle, and two kinds of sea salt around the edge of the plate. Sounds weird, but the flavours of the oil and the salt played off the dark chocolate in an amazing way.Once again I had food envy – my parfait was  okay, but mostly just sweet (but it didn’t stop me from eating all of it!).Throughout the meal, the band played bluegrassy, countrified versions of popular songs with moderate success – they got considerably better after their first beverage break, so I guess they just needed to loosen up.The service was friendly, but slow and intermittent (the various wait staff went back and forth by our table almost non-stop, but paid us very little attention and we had to flag someone down each time we wanted to order). However it meant that there was ample opportunity for people-watching and you could tell everyone was having a good time, appreciating the food and slightly eccentric atmosphere.

So if you ever have the opportunity to drive into the middle-of-nowhere Carmel Valley, I recommend you do it on a Monday night so you can check out the Cachagua Store. If you’re open to an interesting food experience, you’ll enjoy yourself.

Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: Cachagua General Store, California, Carmel Valley, food, local food, restaurant

Eating Out in San Francisco, Part II: Dinner at Millennium

August 9, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

Read Part 1: Lunch at the Zuni Café

After stuffing ourselves full of delicious Zuni CafĂ© roast chicken at lunch, we spent the rest of our San Francisco afternoon shopping in Union Square and Chinatown (I bought a dress, some shoes, a ring, a scarf, and a comforter – because that’s a really easy thing to bring home in a suitcase, right?!), and then finally ended up at Millennium for dinner. Millennium is a vegetarian restaurant that specializes in healthy, sustainable, environmentally-friendly foods, served in a very up-scale manner. In fact, their entire menu is actually vegan – completely free of animal products – but they stick with the vegetarian label because it is more approachable. Nonetheless, the phrase “vegetarian restaurant” can conjure up images of aging hippies eating bean sprouts, brown rice, and tofu by the forkful, not ladies sporting Fendi Spy handbags, enjoying sophisticated food in an elegant, white-linen’d dining room. But that’s exactly what Millennium delivered. Plus they had these really cool light fixture things:

Apparently the “fishnet” is made of recycled paper bags, and the curtains behind are made from recycled plastic bags. Talk about sustainable!

The menu was quite extensive, but after some serious perusing, we settled on appetizers. My uncle had the Crusted Oyster Mushrooms, breaded in rice and sesame flour and deep fried, which looked like calamari and were deliciously crunchy. He was a little disappointed because they didn’t taste very mushroom-y, so maybe breading and deep-frying wasn’t the best treatment for something as subtle as an oyster mushroom.My aunt had a black bean and caramelized plantain torte.I had the Chickpea Panisse: a chickpea purĂ©e with a firm, almost custard-like texture that was panfried like polenta and served with sautĂ©ed mushrooms, onions, raisins, and spiced almonds on top and a roasted garlic-cashew cream sauce underneath. I love chickpeas so this was an easy choice for me. Yummy.Next up were the entrĂ©es. My uncle continued with the mushroom theme and got the Huitlacoche Tamale, but again found that the mushroom flavour wasn’t as prominent as he was hoping for.My aunt had a coconut curry dish that she said was full of very interesting flavours.I had the Brick Pastry, which turned out to be a strudel-like construction of very thin pastry rolled around a filling of seitan, sautĂ©ed chard, potatoes, and mushrooms, served over black lentils, green beans, and mushrooms, with a red currant sauce. It was delicious. I’d never had seitan before, and the flavour was quite strong, but still tasty, and the whole thing was balanced really nicely by the acidity of the red currant sauce. And the lentils were awesome – they were almost my favorite part (I never thought I’d say that about lentils!).Then my aunt and I shared a dessert. This one was seriously mind-blowing: you would never guess that it wasn’t packed full of dairy and eggs. We had the Chocolate Midnight, which was white chocolate and dark chocolate-mocha mousse on a chocolate nut crust with raspberry sauce. Absolutely to die for.Their dessert menu was perhaps the most impressive, because it was all egg- and dairy-free but they still managed to make several kinds of ice cream. Our server told us they use different bases of coconut, almond, rice, and soy milks, and somehow they can even make a dairy-free, vegan “buttermilk” ice cream! I want to go back just to try all their desserts.

This was a really impressive meal and a great example of amazing food – vegetarian, vegan, or otherwise. I didn’t even notice that there wasn’t any meat in my meal, and I certainly didn’t miss it! If you are in San Francisco, definitely give Millennium a visit – try the ice cream and report back to me!

Millennium on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: dinner, eating, food, Millennium restaurant, restaurant, San Francisco, vegan, vegetarian

Eating Out in San Francisco, Part I: Lunch at the Zuni Café

July 29, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

My recent trip to Pacific Grove/Monterey, California, to visit my aunt and uncle contained horrific travel (delayed flights resulting in missed connections in both directions, leading to one miserable overnight in the San Francisco airport on the trip down and another 8 hour “layover” in the same airport on the way home. Plus the airline lost my luggage. A word of advice: don’t fly United!) and amazing restaurants. The day after I arrived, we drove up to San Francisco for a day of shopping (I needed a dress for the wedding I’m making the cake for ;)) and eating: we had lunch reservations at the Zuni CafĂ©, and dinner reservations at Millenium Restaurant. Both were highly anticipated, and I was pretty excited.The Zuni CafĂ© is an award winning restaurant that has been around since the late 1970s (in a slightly different incarnation than it is now, involving a Weber grill and espresso machine that also doubled as an element to scramble eggs on?!) and as such is pretty well-known (at least in the San Francisco food scene, of which I am not a part!). In addition to their focus on seasonal ingredients from sustainable sources, and one of the things the restaurant is known for is their wood-burning brick oven, which is smack-dab in the middle of their open kitchen. They bake their own bread in that oven, and they also do a whole roast chicken, served on top of a bread salad, which has a reputation for being awesome, which is why we ordered it. But I’m getting ahead of myself….

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Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews Tagged With: bread, chicken, eating, food, lunch, restaurant, San Francisco, Zuni Cafe

Afternoon Tea at the Gatsby Mansion

June 2, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

July 2012 update: The Gatsby Mansion has recently come under new ownership and has a new chef, and their afternoon tea is now very good. Read my new review here!

Once again, Lynette and I had a hankering for afternoon tea, and as the White Heather Tea Room was closed, we figured this would be a great time to try out one of the other establishments in Victoria that serves tea (there are a lot of them). We decided on the Gatsby Mansion, and brought our friend Candice with us. Frankly I’m sorry that this was her first afternoon tea experience, because it was definitely sub-par. Hopefully that means it can only get better from here!

As you can see above, the Gatsby Mansion restaurant is beautiful on the outside, and the restaurant inside has definite potential from a decor point of view, but it felt like it was trying to be grand without really making the full effort to BE grand. The ceiling of the room we were in was very ornately painted, and I couldn’t decide whether it was pretty, or pretty awful. The fake crystal chandelier was definitely leaning towards pretty awful, however.…

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Filed Under: Eating Out, Restaurant Reviews, Tea Parties Tagged With: afternoon tea, Gatsby Mansion, restaurant, Victoria BC

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I'm Korena: cook, baker, dirty-dishes-maker. My favourite things include flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate. Read More…

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