Most people I know have heard of the reality television show Hell’s Kitchen, right? Who doesn’t love watching Chef Gordon Ramsey throw hissy fits if the beef wellington is under cooked? Well this season’s of Hell’s Kitchen, the winning chef will get their spot at the fine dinning restaurant Araxi up in Whistler, BC. Yes, the same Whistler that is home to the 2010 Winter Olympic games, also the same Whistler than Robyn and I enjoy going up to for some ski and snowboard action.

We recently got to attend the finale party up at Araxi with thanks to Robyn’s luck! She won Miss604’s contest which was a 1 + guest prize for the finale party, I of course being her guest! Robyn was totally excited as she never wins anything. A great early birthday present for her right? I booked our 1 night accommodation at the Mountainside Lodge and we set out for Whistler and the Araxi with thoughts of scallops and more!

When we got to Whistler we checked into the hotel and wandered around the village as we usually do. We noted that Araxi as being set up, what we didn’t know was what to expect once we were in side for the evening event.

When 7:00PM rolled around we headed out into the chilly evening towards Araxi. Spot lights flooded the village and a lineup was seen in front of Araxi.

The closer we got to the front, we realized why it was taking so long to get into the restaurant. Ariel, Dave, Kevin and Tenille were outside with people getting their photos taken as the guests filed into the building. We made note how much happier Kevin looked at this time than the other chefs. Though our vote was still for Dave, that one armed bandit!

Once we got into Araxi, it was filling up fast. We met up with Rebecca and John near one of the many large screen LCD TVs that were set up around the restaurant. There were no tables in sight, just a lot of people standing, drinking wine and socializing.

I guess Robyn and I were both expecting a sit-down type dinner. The Hell’s Kitchen event was more of a social gathering with various wines and hors d’oeuvres. Did I mention that there was an open bar?

The food itself was pretty good, but we were expecting to have menu items. I guess this means Robyn and I will have to come back up to Whistler and have dinner at Araxi. I know Robyn was looking over the Araxi Three Tier Seafood Tower, so we might have to hit that up too.

Out of all the photos I took, it looks like I missed getting Kevin’s photo as the 4 chefs moved around the restaurant during the final episode. Too bad, he’s a pretty cool guy too!

The moment Dave walked through the door, the crowd in the restaurant went pretty wild. There were some people who seemed to have been shocked at this but it seems like the majority wanted Dave to win. I also think he will fit right into the Whistler life too.

On a photography note, I am a tad disappointed with my photos from the evening. I opted to leave my flash behind and just use my 50mm f1.8 lens, but even at ISO1600, photos didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked them. Trial by Error right? Next time I go to an event indoors my flash is coming with me no matter how large it is!

Want to see more photos of the Araxi Hell’s Kitchen finale party? Check out John’s Flickr set for the event. Pretty impressive with his new Nikon D90!

Have you ever thought about being a tourist in your own backyard? That’s something a lady brought up during our cruise up the Indian Arm on Monday. She and her husband where visiting from Wales and mentioned how people rarely do tourist type activities in their own city. Her example was that she has lived near Cardiff Castle most of her life, but has never gone in. As for Robyn and I, we have never been up the Indian Arm, until now.

Vancouver Harbour Cruises

There are many pleasure and tour type cruise companies here in Vancouver but one prominent one that I always see is Harbour Cruises. It would probably have to be because I walk by their marina every few days in Coal Harbour. They are also the company that operates the paddle-wheel boat you might have seen going past English Bay into False Creek. The same paddle-wheel boat that Robyn and I took on our Sunset Dinner Cruise.

There is a bit of a story behind why Robyn and I were going on this Indian Arm Luncheon cruise, but you can check that out over at my Celebration of Light post. I don’t think I need to repeat myself again, after all the events worked out better in our favour. Did I also mention that Vancouver is having a heat-wave? It has been quite hot and humid these past days and the cruise should help keep us cool for a bit.

We promptly arrived at the marina at 10:30am with our departure scheduled for 11:00am. We boarded the Harbour Princess and were taken to our assigned seating. Right off the bat, we knew that this cruise would have been much more romantic than the fireworks cruise we had initially booked.

When we departed the marina in Coal Harbour we passed various points of interest such as Stanley Park, Coal Harbour’s marinas, the new Vancouver Convention Centre and of course Canada Place. Yes, there was yet another Princess Cruise ship in port (the Coral Princess) but that one, did not have a whale attached to its bow.

We picked up a bit more speed and traveled past Vancouver’s mighty port, had glimpses of Playland the Colusseum. Traveled underneath the Second Narrows Bridge (aka Iron Worker’s Memorial) and headed further up the Burrard Islet.

By this time they had served us lunch. I unfortunately did not take photos as both Robyn and I were pretty hungry but the food was good. The food itself consisted of: Fillet Salmon, Roasted Chicken, 3 different types of salad, some pilaf rice and some buns. The desserts were also quite yummy.

After lunch we passed by one of my favorite highlights; the McBarge. It is one of the very fond memories I have of Expo 86, and even though the barge itself sits there being decrepit and unused, it will always be something cool for me to see. Yes, it was also used in various movies including the (not so great) Blade Trinity movie with Wesley Snipes.

After passing the McBarge we headed North up the Indian Arm. The Indian Arm separates North Vancouver and Port Moody. Some places people might recognized would be Cates Park, Deep Cove on the West side and Belcarra Park (with spots such as Admiralty Point, Cosy Cove, Jug Island) on the East side.

Heading up the Indian Arm we passed many people on various water craft; kayaks, ski-doos, pleasure boats and more. Being out on the bow of our boat and seeing other people on the water makes me day dream about one day having our own boat to do the same thing.

The further up the Indian Arm, the more remote it becomes, even though we’ve only been traveling for about 1.5hours you can see that the housing along the shore line can only be accessed by boats.

We even passed by BC Hydro’s Buntzen Lake powerhouses too. Buntzen Lake being a man-made lake that helps produce electricity for the area.

When we reached the end of where we were to go, we slowly turned around and headed towards the shore. Indian Arm is one of many fjords [wiki] in southwestern British Columbia and it can be pretty impressive to see first hand. I thought we would have gone further up the fjord, but our cruise is slotted to be 4 hours long whereas at this point we were at the 2 hour mark.

It was a bit odd to be headed towards the shore, but when we got there we were shown one of the waterfalls that are along the shores of the Indian Arm; Silver Falls. It was pretty cool how the boat itself got maneuvered into the small little area without running aground. It did give everyone on board a great view of this impressive waterfall though. It was a bit of a tricky shot because the waterfall is set back a little bit in the shade, and without a tripod and shooting at a relatively low shutter speed, it isn’t the sharpest either.  Now if I could only get a size reference, what I should have probably done was gone up to the top deck and shot down to show that the tip of the ship was actually in a small tiny cove.  Perhaps next time?

After we hung out at Silver Falls for a while the boat backed out and headed back down the Indian Arm towards Vancouver. Robyn and I decided to hang out at the rear (or stern) of the ship as the sun was high in the sky and much to hot to be at the front (or bow). The breeze at the back was also much nicer as I tend to over heat quite easily.

The crew aboard the Harbour Princess were great, friendly and quite helpful. They also had commentary on various points of interest along the way as well as answered any questions any of the guests might have had.

The entire 4 hour journey was great and a fun way for Robyn and myself to enjoy a very hot day. There was no over crowding, the food was good and the views were spectacular. The price for the Indian Arm Luncheon Cruise is $64.95 per person plus tax and tip, which is well worth the 4-hour experience up and down the Indian Arm. If you are visiting our beautiful city, or are a local and want to try something different, I do recommend booking this luncheon with Harbour Cruises, it was a lot of fun.

The question is now, where should Robyn and I head off to next?

The end of January usually means that Vancouverites get to sample some fine dining in and around the Metro Vancouver area. Usually what this means is that higher-end restaurants create some lower priced menus so that people who would normally not pay $50 per entree get to sample their creations on a beer budget. This is great for Robyn and I as we are following our budget a bit better this season in hopes of pond hopping for our vacation.

This year Robyn and I choose to look for a Thai restaurant since we have not experienced Thai food before. There were about 10 restaurants to choose from that were Thai based and we decided on The Thai House which is located on Robson street. I phoned them and made reservations for 2 at 6:00 PM.

The menu for the Dine Out portion of the Thai Restaurant consists of a 3-course menu which allows for a good range of Thai dishes. From the selection of dishes we choose the following:

Appetizers:

Robyn’s Thai Beef Salad (Yum Neua)

My Tiger Prawns In a Blanket

Entrees:

Robyn’s Chicken Dish

My Tiger Prawns and Green Beans (Goong Pad Prig Khing)

Dessert:

Deep Fried Banana with Mango Ice Cream

Overall all we both really enjoyed our first Thai experience. Robyn pointed out to me that Thai food is a mix between Indian and Chinese cuisine. The food had enough heat to it to make it entertaining but we definitely did not have to drown our throats with water to cool down. We both really liked the Tiger Prawns and Green Bean dish and noticed they were quite generous with the amount of Tiger Prawns too. The deep-fried banana with Mango ice cream was also extremely delicious and we definitely could have eaten more of it.

The service was great and I am glad our waitress recommended I go with the Tiger Prawn entree instead of the Vegetables and Green Curry dish I was looking at.

We understand that this may not be a higher-end restaurant and many couples go here at least once a week for their Thai food but we thought it would be fun to try it out and sample their Dine Out menu. Since the Thai House is a $18 (per person) Dine Out participant our total bill came out to be about $44 after tip. Pretty good considering we were looking at some of the French restaurants and they were at the $38 per person price point.

If you’re looking for some great Thai food and decent decor then we both recommend checking out The Thai House on Robson street in Vancouver.

One of the  more popular events in the new year here in Vancouver is Dine Out Vancouver. Dine Out Vancouver offers more than 190 restaurants around the Metro Vancouver area with a specialty menu which allows you to sample what these fine-dinning venues have to offer. The prices are not bad either, I mean for $18, $28 or $38 per person for a three-course dinning experience is pretty good value.

Have you been eying that fancy restaurant but haven’t been able to afford their high prices? Between January 14th (today) to February 1st you now can choose as many places you want to dine out at and try their delicious creations without breaking your bank. Be sure to check out their list of participating restaurants, they also have hotel specials in case you are coming from further out.

Robyn and I plan on making reservations within the next day, hopefully we haven’t missed out this year. We’re looking forward on dining at places we normally wouldn’t go. Looking forward to some Thai and French cuisine.

What about you?

One thing I have noticed about Vancouver is how healthy a lot of people try to be the closer you get to the downtown core. I guess it is trendy to be healthy these days right? Anyway, eating healthy isn’t horrible and I should try to eat healthier too. Though becoming a vegetarian probably would not happen because I enjoy beef too much to not have it. Don’t get me wrong, you can eat healthy and not be a vegetarian, but it seems people believe it is healthier to not eat meat. I am sure people can tell me why I should not eat beef or pork we as humans are designed to eat meat!

Okay well perhaps I don’t know a lot about being a vegetarian but from what I gather vegetarians do not eat meats such as beef or pork, but they do eat products from animals such as dairy foods. Please correct me if I am wrong though.

I am also not the best food critic and perhaps one day I can review a restaurant as well as Raul of Hummingbird604.com as well! His food establishment reviews are well done and make me want to check out the other various restaurants in Vancouver!

The Naam Restaurant

One of Robyn’s best girl friends is a vegetarian and has been so for many many years and we though it would be great to get out and have dinner with her and her boyfriend. We headed over to Kitsilano (a district of Vancouver) to a popular vegetarian restaurant called The Naam.

I was a bit reluctant to go because I love to eat meat (chicken, beef, pork, venison etc) and was a bit worried there would be nothing on the menu that I might like. Though I did not complain because I am sure there is something there I would like as my mum has previously made various vegetarian and vegan dishes I have always stuffed my face with.

Looking over the menu I found that they did happen to have Enchiladas and that is something I have been craving for that day. I was looking over some photos from our Dominican Republic trip and we had dinner one night at a Mexican themed restaurant where I ordered some yummy Enchiladas.

Another aspect of The Naam that Robyn always wanted to try was that they serve sesame fries with a Miso gravy and it sounded interesting enough to try as well.

Santa Fe Enchilada Platter

My choice for the evening was the Santa Fe Enchilada platter.  Their Enchiladas are made with organic corn tortillas, salsa, yogurt and cheese. The Santa Fe consists of organic Tofu (which to me tasted like grilled chicken), grilled veggies, a delicious black bean chili and lightly spiced with chipotle peppers. The platter includes the sesame fries (with miso gravy), and their Naam salad. I couldn’t finish my food which means that the Enchilada filled me up quite well. I left he salad and eat a couple of the fries but found that I stuffed myself eating the Enchilada.

Teriyaki Stir-Fry served over organic brown rice

Robyn’s choice was their Teriyaki Stir-Fry which sounded good and Robyn assured me it tasted great. The Teriyaki Stir-Fry had onions, garlic, ginger, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green & red peppers, organic tofu (is tofu already organic??), cashews, teriyaki sauce and served over organic brown rice.

The other couple ordered the Gold Dragon bowl and a Veggie Burrito with the Soup de Jour (which I think was a vegetable barley creation) and they both really enjoyed their meals as well.

I have read other reviews for The Naam and I do not agree with people saying the service lacked. I could understand on the weekend when it is jammed pack full of people and the lineup goes down the street but what do you expect? The food is all hand made (or at least seems to be) and the waitstaff was quite cheerful and pleasant when we were there.

If you like vegetarian cuisine and are ever in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver I would recommend heading over to The Naam for a delicious creation that will fill you up! They also have live music, and an outside eating area. I know we will be heading back there for some more food, even if they do not serve meat!

The Naam Restaurant – 2724 West 4th, Vancouver (between Stephens Street and MacDonald Street)

The above photos were taken with the Apple 3G iPhone hence while the photo quality is lacking.

In Vancouver a bunch of us DotCom’ers try and get together for some good ol’ Vietnamese Pho and we quest to find the perfect Pho restaurant especially one that is close to local transportation such as Bus Stops or SkyTrain Stations in order to entice more people to come out and join in on the fun.

Now according to some people there are rumours that DotComPho is dead, but it is not. Just because one person does not want to leave his neighbourhood for Pho does not mean that we no longer do it. Sure John has a 5 minutes drive to Pho Lan in Richmond, but none of us actually live in or near enough Richmond to make the journey. It takes me almost an hour to get out to Richmond and with today’s gas prices it just isn’t economical for me to do so.

This edition of DotComPho was at Cuu Long Restaurant in Vancouver which was just a couple blocks away from the last DotComPho I attended (Pho Thai Hoa) so finding it was not too difficult. At the recommendation of Greg Morgan, who did not show up because he was at PemFest, it was not as great as it was hyped up to be, but it was not as bad as it could have been either.

In attendance this week were Stephen Fung, Michael Kwan, Leo Chiang and Michael “FATAL1TY” Yurechko (supposedly Michael resembles the professional gamer known as FATAL1TY). Various topics were discussed such as Apple products (like overheating of a Macbook Air to 90+ degrees Celsius), an upcoming movie about the Mayan calendar to be shot in Vancouver (at a hefty starting budget of $250M) and various other topics of interest.

Ok so what did I eat?

The Pho Special – Rare Beef, Beef Balls and perhaps Tripe? Not sure what one of the items was in it but it was textured like a tongue. At bit on the salty side.

Spring Rolls, a bit crunchy and I also had troubles picking it up, I’m not great at using chopsticks.

This is the first time I tried the Iced Coffee and I quite liked it even if we had to ask for more hot water. It’s pretty cool since the coffee drips there while you eat your food.

Again I enjoyed eating Pho and talking about whatever internet geek type people talk about. Though perhaps we can mix it up and try something different with a bigger place to hold more people? I would like to see more people out to these DotComPho and make it a weekly or bi-weekly event.

If you want to check out the video and the Gadget of the Week head on over to Stephen’s blog!

With my cousin from Nova Scotia living in Vancouver we thought it would be best to set up sort of a triple-date Robyn and I, my cousin Steven and his girlfriend Theresa, my brother Connor and his girlfriend Kristin with some dinner and comedy. Robyn made reservations for Stepho’s Greek Restaurant on Davie Street in Vancouver. Some people say you cannot make reservations, but you can for 6 people or more. We were all pretty glad we had reservations for Stepho’s because they always have a really long line up; I have heard people wait up to 3 hours to just get in for dinner.

When we got to Stepho’s just a bit before our reservation time of 8:00pm we found out that somehow the Hostess did not have an entry for our reservation, Robyn mentioned she called in a week before and was told there was no problem making a reservation for 6 people. The Hostess talked to the manager and he said that they had no record of Robyn calling in with a reservation and told the Hostess to have us wait in line. Wait in line? The line up was at least 50 people long! The Hostess was pleasant, apologetic about the loss of our reservation and tried to seat us but said we would have to wait 25 minutes at least because another group had been waiting for over an hour. Perhaps it was time to look elsewhere for food.

We looked across the street and saw a restaurant on the corner of Thurlow and Davie called Characters Taverna. Characters Taverna offers a mix of Greek, Indian and Italian food and luckily they had an outdoor patio which was a great bonus over Stepho’s and they had available seatting.

I looked over the menu and even the prices were a bit more than Stepho’s and I had troubles making up my mind with all the choices they had to offer. With not wanting to wait all evening Robyn and I decided to share two entrees. I picked Butter Chicken (yes it’s not a true Indian dish) and Robyn went with the Calamari dinner.

My Butter Chicken was quite tasty though it was a bit odd being served with Greek Salad and rice Pilaf. It had enough taste and spice to keep me happy.

Robyn’s Calamari was typical of other Calamari I have tried and unfortunately I forgot to take photos of it. It was cooked without being too rubbery or too greasy and I find that Tzatziki is never bad. My brother Connor had Chicken Souvlaki, my cousin Steven had Chicken Vindaloo (which he was impressed with), Theresa had the mild Butter Chicken and I am not quite sure what Kirstin had. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food without complaint and being out on the patio added to the experience. The staff and manager were quite friendly and helpful and wanted us to be happy. Robyn even got extra Tzatziki without paying for it.

After the food and a couple drinks we headed off to YukYuks for some laughs.

If you are looking for some good selection of different types of food while looking for some good patio action I suggest heading over to Characters Taverna over on the corner of Davie and Thurlow in Vancouver. Where else can you go where you have a choice of Greek, Indian and Italian and sit outdoors?

Are you in the Vancouver area, perhaps even visiting our beautiful city and looking for something unique yet romantic to do? Have you dined at the many restaurants in the City of Vancouver’s downtown core and looking for something a bit more unique or perhaps you want to try something a little bit different and experience the City of Vancouver form a point of perspective that most people do not get to see? Then you need to check out a Sunset Dinner cruise offered by the helpful and friendly people at Harbour Cruises and Events.

For our six month anniversary, Robyn and I thought it would be fun to go and have dinner on one of the sunset cruises that we see advertised about from time to time. If you have been a visitor of English Bay you might have noticed one or more larger vessels with a bunch of people on them sailing past. Yes, these could be your typical boat tours but chances are in the summer evening they are one of many Sunset Dinner Cruises that travel from Coal Harbour around Stanley Park, past English Bay, into False Creek and back.

Harbour Cruises and Events is a company based in Coal Harbour (City of Vancouver) that offers various boat type tours of the local surrounding waters. They offer a narrated tour of the Inner-Harbour, the popular Sunset Dinner Cruise and operate the only luncheon cruise that takes you up along the magnificent coastal mountain fjords that surround Metro Vancouver.

Upon arriving at the marina in Coal Harbour we noticed one thing right off the bat, we were over dressed. I was wearing a suit and Robyn was wearing a nice dress whereas other people were wearing shorts or jeans with t-shirts and the occasional hoodie. I found this a bit odd and it bugged me a little bit because we paid $70 per person for this dinner cruise, at least it could have been semi-formal. I shrugged it off and we played it as if we were important people (because we are, right?).

At 6:30pm we boarded the Constitution (a paddlewheel boat) and were seated at our table for two. Robyn made note that the boat had a ‘rustic/historic’ feel dressed nicely in white linens for the tables.

She said the chairs were 1970’s banquet style but she was comfortable, I on the other hand had to sit at a funny angle because our table was sort of squished between another table and a booth.

The service and staff were helpful and friendly. The boat had a full-service bar and Robyn was ecstatic they had stock of Smirnoff Ice for her; I just sipped on my tall Crown and Seven. Drinks are separate and paid for at the end of the cruise.

The boat pulled out away from the dock and we headed out of Coal Harbour into the Burrard inlet where the Captain narrated some of the history of Vancouver. He also pointed out the current construction of the new convention centre being built next to the current convention centre, Canada Place. Since Robyn and I were out on deck taking in the magnificent views from the water I didn’t hear any more of the narration the Captain gave.

We sailed around Stanley Park, underneath the Lions Gate Bridge and into the open waters, where they started to ask tables to the buffet one by one. We gave up our spot so that we could watch the Lions Gate Bridge go overhead.

Dinner was buffet style and offered a nice selection of food choices ranging from fresh garden salad with freshly made dressings to the slow roasted, sirloin beef and fresh BC Salmon. The food was good and we both enjoyed every bite. I for some reason thought it was going to be the 3-Course variety of service but after Robyn pointed out the website did say buffet.

Now I’m not great at describing food but the freshly made dressing I choose was similar to an Italian and quite flavourful on my garden salad. The Penne pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil was tasty as well. I have never been one for Salmon but that could have been a childhood issue but I tried the fresh BC Salmon with the creamy white wine and fresh dill sauce and it was quite lovely and almost melted in my mouth.

Robyn agreed with me about the Penne pasta, the baby new potatoes tasting quite good. She liked the sirloin beef as it was prepared medium rare and quite delicious. I wonder where the Salmon came from as I have heard that more and more local restaurants are not carrying BC Salmon due to depleting stock and going with imported Russian Salmon. Nonetheless I really enjoyed the Salmon.

The dessert bar was, as Robyn put it, ‘slightly limited’ as they only offered a few choices; fruit platter, chocolate cake, cheese cake of sorts and what looked to be the crumbs of a fruit pie. I tried the chocolate cake and it was nothing spectacular but it wasn’t dry and tasteless either.

Throughout the evening they also had live music performed by a man and woman who did acoustic cover songs from about 1960 and onwards. Robyn and I both thought the music was well done, though Robyn was a bit disappointed there was little to no dancing during the course of our cruise. Robyn would have also liked to see a full band setup with a formal dance floor. I am sure that more people would have gotten up and danced if they also had this done, I know Robyn would have liked to dance.

They also had a photographer onboard who would take you photo (she took a couples shot and an individual shot of Robyn). After she printed them out she went around asking people if they would like to purchase them.

At $15 a photo it was not a bad deal but if she offered to take a photo of us outside on deck with English Bay as a backdrop we would have been more inclined to purchase our couples shot, instead we just took a photo of it. Robyn later informed me she wished we did purchase it though as it was a nice shot of us. At least it was not the same price they charge at 5-Star resorts like they did when we were in the Dominican Republic, they wanted a higher price for a photo!

After dinner we cruised past English Bay and passed under the Burrard Street Bridge into False Creek.

We paddled onwards further into False Creek and under the Granville Street Bridge passing by Granville Island itself as well as some really nice looking houseboats.

We circled around just before the Cambie Street Bridge which gave us a glimpse at Science World as well as BC Place stadium and headed back out to English Bay where the sun began to set over the North Shore Mountains.

Luckily the rains stayed away and there was enough space between clouds that evening that we were finally presented with a beautiful sunset to end our awesome and magically sunset dinner cruise. Overall we both really enjoyed our dinner cruise. The food was good, the atmosphere was good and Mother Nature decided to hold back and give us good weather as well. Even though we were the most dressed up people it did not deter us from having a most excellent sixth month anniversary and enjoying ourselves during the 2.5 hour cruise around Vancouver.

Most people who visit our city (as well as those who live in it) seldom get the opportunity to experience the views of Vancouver from the water. If you are looking for some good food, beautiful scenery and the potential for a great sunset I highly recommend getting out onto one of the Sunset Dinner Cruises, especially with the great weather we have been having here recently.

One experience I would love to try out would be to book an evening on one of their Celebration of Light dinner cruises. The Celebration of Light is a yearly event in Vancouver in which a spectacular display of Music and Fireworks in a worldly competition is done 4 days a year. Harbour Cruises and Events offers dinner cruises which would allow you to experience this grand event and offer you a great view for watching the fireworks display. You would also not have to deal with the hundreds of thousands of people who flock to English Bay during the event and get to enjoy a great dinner too!

I have not been to a Tapas bar before and didn’t really know what it was either. Robyn explained to me that Tapas bars are pretty much appetizers so I thought since we both weren’t totally hungry it would be a good spot to go to get something small but tasty.

Now if you have never been to Victoria, the downtown core offers many small restaurants for the many tourists that walk the streets each day. Just off of Government Street there is a small alley called Trounce Alley (620 Trounce Alley, Victoria BC: 1-250-383-0013) and that is where The Tapa Bar resides.

Though the Tapa Bar was full of people and we didn’t feel like waiting 30+ minutes to be seated we opted to be seated outside. Some people might think we were crazy with the cold temperatures (roughly hovering around 2 degrees Celsius) but they supplied us with warm blankets and turned on the over head heating units to keep us nice and warm.

After a bit looking over the menu of various foods they offered and drinking our Sangria we decided on the eggplant dish. Grilled Eggplant served in a tomato basil sauce with fresh goat cheese. Robyn liked it more than I did, but I found the texture of the goat cheese a bit odd. Even though I did not get to try other of the fine foods they had to offer on the menu, I would definitely go back and try the others when I go back to Victoria.

This brings up the California Burger joint called In-N-Out. The colour scheme reminds me of McDonald’s but the food reminds me of a local pub. When you enter the establishment (there are many dotted throughout the state as Nevada and Arizona) you will that their menu isn’t particular plentiful and the employees are wearing paper hats.

 Their menu consists of Hamburgers and milkshakes. If you’re looking for something else you won’t find it here. They offer the Double-Double, cheeseburger, regular hamburger, fries and delicious milkshakes. Even though their menu is limited the flavor of these hamburgers are not.

You place your order and then have to wait for your number to be called. Why you might ask? They don’t start cooking your hamburger until you’ve placed your order, whereas those other fast-food restaurants pre-cook and then reheat their burgers.  Their french fries are also freshly made, directly from the potatoes that they wash, peel, and cut.

If you’re ever in the south western states of the US, I suggest you drop by In-N-Out and have a burger and tell me if they taste better than those other fast-food restaurants.