The other day I was doing some research about patisseries in Vancouver and it showed up on the list. But again it didn’t even really register on my radar as somewhere I’d want to go.

But as I was walking by it today it did register as I was kind of craving a nice tart or a good Tiramisu.

I picked two treats to try out today.

An Almond pear Danish.

Which was bloody brilliant.

Crispy, buttery layers with almonds, an almond paste in the middle, though it’s not quite marzipan. It had the consistency of an almond paste but not quite the full flavour. Delicious nonetheless. Then the pear on top. Canned for sure, of course fresh would be better. But that brings different challenges. Though it would be worth the effort to elevate this Danish to the next level. I will be coming back for more of these. It’s fantastic.

The other treat to catch my eye here was their lemon tart.

The meringue topping moved around during transport so it looks a little messy, but it was delicious.

A flaky tart crust with a tart lemon curd, topped with a sweet meringue swirl. The sweet and the tart lemon were perfectly balanced creating a very enjoyable eating experience.

While I didn’t see the selection here that I have in other Patisseries, the quality from these first two treats was excellent. I will be back to expand my sample selection.

8/10

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Piva has been a bit of an enigma to me over the last few years. My first couple of visits were rough — Eggs Benedict on focaccia? Come on, that’s just not cool. The duck pizza? Actually horrid.

But a few visits later, the food started getting better. The Gnocchi Cardinale was fantastic. The Spaghetti Bolognese — excellent.

And then there was tonight. A microcosm of the best and worst Piva has to offer.

Merilynn had the Sable fish, and it was fantastic — the orange beurre blanc on the fish was particularly delicious. The white beans were a nice touch too, something different from your average side, and the potatoes were decent. $48 is a little steep, but the quality was there.

I went with the Roman classic, Cacio e Pepe. What I love about this dish is its simplicity — pecorino, pepper, pasta, and a bit of pasta water. That’s it. But the technical skill required to pull it off is high, and the chef completely missed the mark tonight.

The trick is nailing the temperature, the amount of cheese, and just enough pasta water to build a sauce that coats every noodle perfectly. The plate in front of me looked dry — I’m legally blind and I could still tell. And if it looks dry, it’s going to taste dry.

Which is a shame, because the flavor was there — plenty of peppery kick, and the pecorino was rich and salty.

Piva, we love and hate you.

7/10

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They don’t do delivery.

They don’t have UberEats or DoorDash.

I don’t drive.

And getting to Steveston on the bus takes a long time. A really long time. Like one hour and 40 minutes long time.

So imagine my disappointment when I finally get my hands one one of their pizzas and it’s not great.

Not that it was terrible. It was still a good pizza.

But every time I’ve had this pizza in the past it was a “wow” moment. Not today unfortunately.

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Now in my experience, golf course restaurant food is one of those things that looks like it’s going to be great but often fails to live up to the expectations of a premium dining experience. The facility is usually posh, and the “Country Club” moniker gives it an air of exclusivity, but the food itself is often mediocre at best. Plus you often have to deal with drunk golfers at the 19th hole.

But like a lot of Country Clubs, the setting didn’t disappoint — we found a nice restaurant and bar with a beautiful view of the valley below. Let’s see if the food lives up to the setting.

It was very quiet when we got here, no one else was in the restaurant. That did change over the course of the next 2 hours, but other than the seven or eight drunk golfers that came in for half an hour, the restaurant was quiet and had a nice ambiance.

I’m not sure if it’s just because of a limited menu selection, or because we were all feeling like seafood. Either way, all but one of our party ordered halibut in one form or another. There was just one holdout who doesn’t like fish, so she ordered a chicken club.

I started with Wagyu Beef Gyoza before my halibut.

Steamed and fried dumplings with a miso mayo, pickled radish and sesame soy. Very tasty. Nice texture from the wrapper with a delicious filling. Couldn’t tell it was Wagyu, I doubt anyone could. Unless it’s an A5 steak, I don’t get too worked up about anything that says Wagyu. But what matters is the taste, which was great. The sauces complement the dumplings nicely. It was quite a large portion so anyone around the table that wanted to try one was able. And everyone around the table liked them.

Merilynn, like 3 others in our party, decided on the pan-roasted halibut.

The halibut was good, made better by the lime crema. Best thing on the plate was the carrots of all things. Don’t know why they were so good, but they were fantastic. Merilynn loved the raspberry vinaigrette on the salad — it was creamier than most vinaigrettes I’m used to. I’ll have to work on recreating that one myself.

I chose the other version of the fish, halibut and chips.

The first problem with my meal was the size of my piece of fish versus Wayne’s piece. His was noticeably larger. Not a good sign from the kitchen. The second problem was it was overcooked. And not by a little bit. The third problem was the soggy chips. They clearly sat on the plate too long. The fourth problem was the pickles in the coleslaw. Just horrid.

So not the best fish dishes tonight. But the gyoza were excellent. You can’t win them all.

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I had some initial difficulty finding it as it’s new and is located in a spot recently occupied by another restaurant. I did find it though and I’m sure glad I did.

We popped in on Sunday for dinner and it was packed. With Latinos. A very good sign.

The atmosphere feels pretty authentic, not exactly like I’m sitting in a small cafe in Puerto Vallarta, but a pretty good effort. Mexican football on the telly, plastic stools to sit on, and plenty of Spanish being spoken by the staff and patrons alike.

Now when it comes to Mexican food, one thing I’d never consider authentic is a hamburger. They are on the menu here though.

Yes, you can pile all the classic Mexican meats onto said hamburger. Or hot dog for that matter.

One thing I do not do when I’m in Mexico is eat American food. I’m not going to start that here either.

Not really knowing what we were ordering, both Merilynn and I chose our preferred proteins in the Volcano format. I won’t do that again. It’s basically a quesadilla. But you can also get everything as a straight up taco, which Sophia did. Definitely the way to go.

My lengua was fantastic, tender and flavourful. I just felt like an 8-year-old eating it.

Merilynn’s Campechano, a mix of Asada and Chorizo, was just as tasty.

Sophia had Pastor and Birria tacos. While she offered me a taste for review purposes, I declined. She did, however, enthusiastically give two thumbs up to her food.

We washed all the great food down with a refreshing Horchata.

Good, authentic Mexican food is certainly available in Vancouver. La Taqueria comes to mind. We also have Bordertown Mexico and Grill just across the line in Blaine. But it sure is nice to see some really close to home.

I’m giving it a 7/10 this time, only because I wasn’t particularly fond of the volcano version. But I’m sure next time we get just the plain tacos it’s going to score much higher.

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Until tonight.

I noticed this spot while killing time waiting for the train the other morning and figured we should probably check it out.

I consulted with our resident Korea expert, Merilynn (she taught English there for two years) I settled on Bibimbap, which is a dish of rice, veggies, beef, egg and gogujang, a chili paste.

The idea here is to mix all the ingredients up, it’s how the dish gets its name. I really enjoyed it. It’s full of flavour and is very nutritious. The egg is a perfect touch. One actually isn’t enough, we could have used two.

And Merilynn approved as well. She said it reminded her of eating in Korea.

And like almost every other country on earth I’d imagine, Korea also has its own dumpling, Mandu.

Which were really brilliant. Probably pork, honestly we gobbled them up so quickly I didn’t pay any attention to the ingredients of the filling. 5 were not enough. 10 probably wouldn’t be either. Honestly I could have just these for dinner. And Merilynn agreed.

So color me surprised. Korean food I actually like. I’ll have to explore the cuisine a bit more.

8/10

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An appy and one main will do tonight.

Merilynn is a bit of a sucker for Crab Cakes whenever she sees them.

Crab and prawns with Jalapeno and red peppers In a light, though somewhat dry, but nicely fried cake. The jalapeno could definitely be more present, I did not get much heat on my palate.. The mustard aioli is a pleasant accompaniment, adding some creaminess and acidity tonhelp.cut through the richness.

I decided on something different tonight, not the usual pasta that I have when I come here.

Gnocchi Cardinale

Made in house, the gnocchi were light and pillowy and came smothered in a delicious Vodka Rose sauce. There was a generous portion of grilled chicken along with tomatoes and peas coming together to make one of Piva’s better choices. Definitely a must try next time your here.

Oncw again Piva did not disappoint.

8/10

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I probably should take her places more often. When you can’t see well, you miss things like the sitting area they have in a shop right next door to where you get your pizza

As it was a completely separate unit in the building, I can’t be faulted for not necessarily putting two and two together and realizing it was meant to be the seating area for Steveston Pizza. But her 26-year-old eyes managed to see other people with pizza boxes sitting in there.

It was too nice a day, though, so we sat on the boardwalk overlooking the harbor, enjoying an incredible pizza that only confirms this is, in my opinion, the best pizza in Vancouver.

I think what makes it so good is not only the quality of the ingredients but the amount of them.

Yeah, okay, the pizza is $35. It’s not cheap, and I’m not sure driving to Steveston regularly to pick up this pizza is worth it.

But certainly once in a while it is. I took a bus ride out here for almost 2 hours just to get one, once. And if you’re ever in the area, you definitely should pick one up. They do pretty well heated up as leftovers.

One bite, you know the rules…

9.5

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Well typically I do not. You won’t find me eating it very often.

Yes I know. What about all the gelato you ate in Italy?

Well you know the saying, when in Rome…

Besides, that was for science

But throw some of that ice cream, milk, and flavours into a blender? I’ll have a milkshake every day of my life.

So when I heard Holy Shakes was opening up a location in North Delta I knew I had to go.

We actually came here last week at 7:00 p.m. on a weeknight. It was lined up out the door. Literally. Like 20 people in line. I don’t care how good your milkshake is, I’m not waiting 40 minutes for one. Though a good omen the lineup is.

On this Sunday afternoon, however, we arrive to find nary a soul in the place.

Holy Shakes is a Canadian company that started in Toronto as pop-up spots. It now has multiple locations across the country, including three in the greater Vancouver area.

They have lots of flavours when it comes to milkshakes and some good looking food and dessert options as well.

But we are only here for the shakes.

I’m going to give the Red Velvet Rihanna a try.

I don’t know the exact breakdown, but it tastes like ice cream, chocolate cake, and cream cheese blended into one scrumptious shake.

But is it worth $14?

Honestly, no. Yeah, it’s good. But $14?

The flavour was great. I just wasn’t a big fan of the texture. It was almost gritty from the small chocolate cake pieces.

Amanda had the Strawberry Samba, a little more basic but it had a more reasonable price of $9.99. It was wonderful, the fresh strawberries giving it a really great flavour.

They also have extreme milkshakes that are in the $19 range. If I’m struggling with the $14.99 price tag, I’m not sure how I feel about $19.

With at least 37 shakes on the menu to choose from, I’m certain I’ll eventually find an awesome Holy Shake. The question is, will I go broke first?

Amanda’s score: 8.5
Greg’s score: 7.5

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I’m at the new Burnaby location on Hastings Street today.

I had actually popped in a few weeks ago but it was two in the afternoon and they had very little selection. So I decided to wait for another day.

I’m a bit earlier today and the selection is greatly improved.

I’m not going to break down each donut that I had, I tried six. Here’s photos of the ones that I picked though.

Chocolate on chocolate

Lemon Cream

The Homer, their signature doughnut.

Boston Cream

The Mint

Chocolate Sprinkles

For the most part Vegas Donuts won’t let you down.

However they aren’t exactly going to “wow” you either.

They are good quality and they are always fresh as they fry multiple times a day.

They do however lack polish. I’ve noticed this at both locations I’ve been to. A little more attention to detail would elevate their donuts to the next level.

But if you like fresh donuts you will enjoy Vegas Donuts.

7/10

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