Restaurants

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A Final Day in Victoria

Being less than 300km from ‘home’ and not having to start work until 2pm tomorrow meant that I could enjoy a third day in Victoria. I dropped Mrs. H off at her friend’s house and then drove downtown to do a few museums. This post will gloss over some of the details of today as some destinations merit their own posts.

I decided to park in Chinatown since the daily rates are cheaper than downtown and planned my day as a loop. My first stop was just a block away and was a store! It was recommended to me by a reader and is called Chintz and Co.

Chintz & Co.

This store comprises 20,000 square feet (!) and is just about a one stop home decorating stop. It was the first time I have walked into a store selling new furniture and found myself liking almost everything. Had I had $2,000 I would have walked out with a handsome wingback chair covered in dark orange leather (*swoons*).  The furniture style was mostly luxe shabby chic, with lots of rich colours abounding. I could have spent hours there, but focused mostly on the remnants section, which was much larger than I would have expected. I found some fabrics I thought would coordinate with ones I have already picked up, but I wasn’t sure enough to buy.

I ambled down Store street and turned into Bastion Square:

alley off of Bastion Square

Bastion Square’s giant tulips

My next stop was The Soda Shoppe, which I had discovered on my first night in Victoria. It is located on Government Street right in front of the Empress Hotel, kitty corner to the visitor’s centre.

The Soda Shoppe

I would normally balk at paying $4.19 for a small ice cream cone (even if it is of the waffle variety), but they have bear claw, a dark chocolately fudgy caramelly cashewy concoction I haven’t seen in about ten years since an Ottawa shop carrying it closed down. It was as good as I remembered!

From there, I walked the length of the Empress Hotel, crossed the street, and landed at the Royal British Columbia Museum:

Royal BC Museum

After a couple of hours, I headed across the street

street separating the RBC museum from the Legislature

and strolled along the length of the BC Legislature:

war memorial

close up showing the addition of the Korean ‘police action’; a nice touch since many forget that Canada was involved in this war

the BC Legislative Building is quite a handsome structure! It’s almost as impressive as Ottawa’s Parliament buildings!

this is all of the Sequoia I was able to get into one shot 🙂


then crossed the street in front of it to go visit the Undersea Gardens:

The Undersea Gardens

After that, I slowly began to stroll back towards the car with a stop for lunch:

Victoria Harbour

there was a whole row of dedication plaques

a magnific mosaic orca

a map of Vancouver Island

I was just going to get a slice of pizza for lunch, but was lured by the siren’s call of Cafe Mexico. I had an excellent meal there of a chicken burrito with ‘fries’ (more like chewy potato chips with a hint of crunch). The highlight of the mean was the ‘mojitea’:

mojitea

My drink of choice is the mojito, but I didn’t want to drink alcohol before a long drive home so I decided to try their virgin version even though virgin mojitos seem to be missing a little ‘something.’ Well, Cafe Mexico found what that little something is: sweet tea. The tea doesn’t have the same flavour as the rum, of course, but it’s the perfect non-alcoholic addition to turn the club soda and muddled mint into more than just minty soda. Yum! The burrito was fresh and light and the fries were served with a sauce that had me go ‘WHAT?!’ at first taste, but which grew on me with every bite. I asked the server what it was and she said it was a ‘chipolte aioli’ which I think means a smokey garlickly mayonnaise. It was the perfect complement to the fries. This wasn’t the best Mexican food I’ve had in my life, but definitely fits at the top of the list. It was reasonably priced to boot!

I grabbed an ice coffee for the road and returned to the car to plot a route to the Nanaimo Best Buy. My GPS is getting to be ridiculously outdated, so it didn’t have that store in its data base. It felt incredibly luxurious to boot up the laptop, sign on to my Telus connection, and get the necessary info. My life has definitely changed!

My destination mapped out, I headed out of Victoria at 3PM. I’ll write a separate post about the drive back to Campbell River.

Victoria left me with mixed feelings, some negative, most positive.

The negative feelings are towards the cost of museums and attractions: ridiculously high. There was nothing under $10 and most things were $15 and up. I would have loved to do the Maritime Museum, but with the RBC being $15 and the Undersea Gardens being $11, the additional $12 for the MM would have busted my budget. Having been to so many museums in both the Canada and the US I can say with a measure of authority that everything I saw in Victoria was way over priced. Whether or not I enjoyed myself is not relevant.

That said, Victoria is a beautiful and accessible city. If I have to stay in Canada next winter I will do so in the environs of Victoria, even if it means spending another $400 on ferry costs. I have nowhere had my fill of this city and feel that I barely got a taste of it. I’d like to spend more time exploring Beacon Hill Park and exploring the many hiking trails in the area.

Victoria is one of those Canadian cities that feels exquisitely ‘old world’ in its waterfront area, so much so that the cloppety clop of horse hooves is the most natural sound you could hear in the setting. The traditional architecture is Victorian with its emphasis on grand neo-gothic structures like the Empress Hotel. I didn’t get quite as much of a feel for the outlaying parts of town, but Mrs. H had me drive through many a neighbourhood that had streets lined with Victorian cottages, some simple, some dripping with gingerbread.

I had a lovely weekend and feel it is the perfect cap to my Vancouver Island winter.

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Chiba Sushi, Victoria

The restaurant Chiba Sushi is a block from the hotel, so I thought there would be no way it could be any good because that would be too convenient. Reviews told me otherwise, so I decided to try it out!

stock image from their site (the take out presentation was just as beautiful)

The food was fresh, flavourful, and a real bargain. $23 got me:

-one bowl miso soup;
-four gyoza (dumplings);
-six pieces yam tempura;
-six pieces salmon and avocado roll (like a California roll without the cucumber);
-one spicy tuna cone (which is equivalent to six pieces spicy tuna roll).

(Yes, I shared. 😀 )

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The White Heather Tea Room

Mrs. H wanted to round out the Butchart Garden excursion with an introduction to a traditional English high tea. Neil Z commented last night that he had an amazing high tea experience at the White Heather Tea Room. A quick check of other reviews convinced me to try it out. We ordered the ‘Big Muckle Giant Tea’ and were not disappointed!

I didn’t think to bring in my camera, so here is an idea of what our spread looked like, on three plates set on a tiered stand:

we didn’t have that huge plate of shortbread in the foreground 🙂

They have a large selection of teas, including Balmoral, their version of the Earl Grey and jasmine tea I discovered in Edmonton. Yuuuuum.

The homemade fare is worth describing in detail. Let’s see if I can remember it all. 🙂

Tier One (the bottom plate):

-scone (cranberry or apricot ginger) with Devonshire (sweet whipped) cream, raspberry preserves, and/or lemon curd;

-mini quiche with sundried tomatoes;

-a bite-sized cheese thing with roasted red peppers (yuuuuuuum);

-fruit slices (apple and orange).

Tier two (middle plate):

-a mini savory scone with the most amazing smoky sweet salmon I have ever had;

-rolled sandwiches (egg (which I didn’t eat); ham with relish; and cucumber with cream cheese on marbelized rye (yuuuuuuum)).

Tier three (top plate):

Dessert!

-an incredible cranberry brownie (that had a distinct coffee aftertaste);

-lemony blueberry pound cake with icing;

-a cheesy cracker thing with a bit of apple on top (one of my favourite things today);

-delicious crispy and buttery shortbread (I’ll admit to dipping it in Devonshire cream mixed with raspberry preserves!);

-a little tart filled with lemon curd and topped with Devonshire cream.

I wound up taking most of Mrs. H’s desserts home and will enjoy them with regular tea before bed. 🙂

It didn’t seem like much food until we started on it. The portions were small, but there were a lot of them.

High tea at the White Heather Tea Room is definitely an experience I will never forget. Thank you for the recommendation, Neil!

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Tofino Evening

I returned home, sopping wet, mid-afternoon changed into dry clothes, and had a late lunch as I uploaded my pictures. That done, it was still too early for dinner, but I was very sleepy, so I decided to head out and see if there were any shops open

Tofino is incredibly compact, so everything is within walking distance. ‘Downtown’ comprises about four square blocks. There is a street called ‘Main’ but the real main street is Campbell Street. I strolled down it until I came to the Mermaid Tales bookshop which had lights blazing. I spent about a half hour browsing the small selection of quality books. I really don’t like to spend full price on books, but having worked in the book business I know how tough it is for independents to compete against the big chains. So, I bought a reasonably priced novel before heading back out; the cashier (possibly the owner?) thanked me for supporting the shop.

I’d been told that the Dockside Pub, on the edge of town, as good nightly specials. I wish I’d known about them last night since they had an all you can eat salmon buffet for only $16. Tonight’s special was $6 burgers (veggie or beef) and $3.50 sleeves. A veggie burger sounded good and would have been a nice frugal dinner, but it sounded so mundane. I decided that I could afford one nice meal on this trip and splurged on the ‘caramelized bourbon salmon’, served with a basmati/wild rice mixture and a nice serving of grilled veggies for a very reasonable $17. Add the sleeve (which turned out to be a wonderful Okanagan pale ale) and a 20% tip and the meal came to an acceptable $27. The salmon was sooooo delicious. 🙂 After seeing the outrageously priced offerings of the other more visible restaurants I was especially grateful to find this place.

Coming home, I stopped at the Co-Op to get lunch fixings for tomorrow and a pint of ice cream for dessert (Ben & Jerry’s half-baked, for those curious about such things 😀 ).

I got in around 7 and planned to spend a couple of hours updating the blog, but I was interrupted by a German gal who had noticed my licence plate and wanted to know if I could tell her anything about Dawson. Much gabbing with her and another gal (the one who greeted me last night) ensued. 🙂

It’s now past eleven and quiet hour has started. Just about everyone has gone to bed but one of my roomies and me who are sitting in the atrium updating folks about our lives. I’m just about ready for a shower and then I’ll read a bit before retiring (all the bunks have a nightlight that doesn’t really illuminate the room).

Since I’ve exhausted my list of affordable things to do in winter in Tofino if you don’t surf, I will not be spending tomorrow in Tofino….

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A Tofino Morning

Quiet hour at Whaler’s on the Point starts at 11, so that’s when I shut off the computer and went up to have a shower. The showers here are very roomy and clean with good pressure. By the time I got back to the room, my two roomies were sound asleep, so I decided to turn in also. I can’t remember the last time I went to bed before midnight!

I had a pretty good night, even with one roomie snoring and there being a bright orange streetlight illuminating the room. I got up around quarter to nine and hiked down to the ‘Uncommon Bakery’ to get coffee since I hadn’t thought to bring my French press and own coffee supplies. A cup of joe was $1.75, and this with my bringing my own mug. Were my stay longer than a couple of days, I would have turned around and gone to the supermarket to get my own supplies.

virew from dorm room \’N\’, which is very similiar to the view from the atrium, directly below

Coffee in hand, I returned to the hostel to make breakfast and plan my day. There are numerous hiking options near Tofino, so I decided to spend my day exploring the trails. There weren’t really any other frugal options for today, with museums and shops being shut tight for the winter. I would have loved to take a cruise to Hot Springs Cove, but that’s something that my budget this week just can’t absorb. I’m just grateful to be in Tofino and getting a taste of the area.

Since all the hiking trails and beaches are located in Pacific Rim National Park, visitors require a day pass to use the facilities. At least, unlike Banff, you don’t need a pass to just drive through the park. A day pass is almost eight dollars, but the hostel rents them for just five dollars, so that was one more reduced expense.

There’s a small full-service ‘Co-Op’ grocery store in Tofino, so I stopped there to get snack materials, intending to return to the hostel for a late pasta lunch before going out for dinner at a restaurant on the edge of town offering good Monday night specials.

The sky was misting as I pulled out of Tofino and I knew that rain was forthcoming. I had brought my full rain gear, so I had no excuse not to get out into the rain forest and the beach even if spending the day by a hot fire with a good book sounded pretty appealing.

First stop, the Bog Trail…