Vancouver Eats

I thought it would be fun to do a monster post to share with you the best things we've been eating around here! I made a custom google map of Vancouver when we arrived and plotted all the restaurants/bakeries I wanted to try while we're here...we haven't even made a dent in that list but we're having a good try! 

I had actually heard about Mink's S'mores Fondue when we were back in England, but I knew it was somewhere that I would definitely have to check out when we got here! It took me a few months but it was so worth it! We went on a cold December day and shared this delightful little platter of S'mores goodness!

You get your own individual little burner to toast the marshmallows on! I'm not going to lie, we set a few on fire! It took some getting used to! but it sort of added to the fun! 

After toasting the marshmallow, you dip it into a pot of warm melted chocolate...

and then sandwich it between your graham crackers! 

Smiles all round! and after we'd run out of graham crackers and marshmallows, we still had some of that chocolate left so I hopped up to the counter and grabbed some spoons and savoured every lost drop! It was probably the best chocolate we've had since we've been here!

Next up let me tell you about one of my very favourite places in Vancouver.  49th Parallel is a trendy little coffee house on Main St, where all the hipsters like to hang out! I was introduced to it during the first week we got here! I'm almost 99% sure most people don't go here just for the coffee, they go here for Lucky's Doughnuts.

I'd like to say they're the best doughnuts in Vancouver, although I've only tried one other doughnut place so that probably wouldn't be a fair claim...but their doughnuts are just SO good I can't bring myself to go to any of the other doughnut places! Their website describes them as 'authentic, hand crafted and genuinely delicious'.  Everything is made from scratch, including the jams, glazes and fillings and everything is sourced locally.  

The first doughnut I ever got there was this coconut cream pie beauty! It's filled with coconut cream and topped with swiss meringue and coconut shards! It was the best doughnut I've ever eaten, hands down.  A few weeks later I found myself in the area and so had to make a detour.  That time I tried the mango doughnut, filled with mango curd and finished with a mango glaze! It was amazingly delicious and I kept thinking it was the best doughnut I've ever eaten! 

A few weeks back I purposely landed up right on Main St again because I can't keep away from their doughnut deliciousness! Both of my fave flavours had sold out, so I ended up going for the lemon curd filled bismarck...and yet again it was the best doughnut!! I can't even believe how consistently tasty their doughnuts are and how much they wow me! Next time I want to try the peanut butter and jelly, and I've also heard people rave about the apple and bacon fritter! 

and don't even get me started on how cute their crockery is!

So I've told you where you can find the best doughnuts, how about the best pie? Aphrodite's Organic Cafe & Pie Shop had also been on my radar for a while.  It's in one of my favourite neighbourhoods, Kitsilano and I would frequently pass it on the bus between UBC and downtown thinking longingly of all the tasty pies that were inside! 

We finally headed there for dinner a few weeks ago.  We were planning to just get dessert, but all their savoury pies sounded so tasty we just had to get dinner too! but let me tell you about the star of the show...meet their chocolate raspberry cream pie! Have you ever seen a slice of pie so big in your entire life? I haven't! A buttery pie crust topped with silky chocolate cream, a double helping of fluffy raspberry mousse, finished off with generous amounts of cream, chocolate shavings and raspberry coulis! It took me 3 days to eat it, no jokes! but it was the best pie ever...$9.25 well spent! 

I also tried my first ever non brown root beer that night! Since everything they serve is organic it was an organic root beer originating from Santa Monica.  It was still as tasty as ever but it did confuse me a little when they dropped it off at our table! 

While we're on the subject of the best eats Vancouver has to offer...let me introduce you to my favourite bakery - Butter Baked Goods. It is situated in a cute little neighbourhood called Dunbar, it's an area we're never really near to which is probably a good thing because I have a feeling if this bakery was close by I would get very fat indeed! 

I'd been having a hard time with Vancouver bakeries.  Due to the huge Asian population here, most of them are bakeries that don't sell the kind of baked goods I'm into.  There's mostly just tons of pastries and things like that, a lot of things that have a lot of visual appeal but not much in the way of taste.  Even some of the solely cupcake bakeries I've tried have been a letdown.  I was beginning to give up hope...until we walked into Butter! and I basically wanted to eat everything in sight! It was exactly what I had been searching for, tons of cupcakes, brownies, cookies, layer cakes...

The cutest little lemon meringue tarts...

Ready packed s'mores in all kinds of crazy flavours like pumpkin spice and chocolate peppermint...homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers and lashings of chocolate! 

The Campfire bar - I'm so trying this next time! 

and their homemade marshmallows are pretty special too! I got a bag of the toasted coconut ones in my stocking this year, and they were crazy good! 

and everything in the shop is pastel, and floral and as pretty as can be! It's definitely the best bakery I've found in Vancouver so far! 

 

One night we went to Belgian Fries, to test out their famous fries.  Having had authentic Belgian fries from the 'frites museum' of all places we were keen to see how they measured up! They were pretty tasty, not quite as good as the real deal for us...but a meal of chilli dogs, fries and root beer can never be a bad thing! 

I spent quite a lot of my time googling where to find the best milkshakes in Van, so when a place popped up that was only a few blocks from where we live we just had to check it out! In general, there are no decent food places or shops anywhere near our house! So I was excited! 

Wally's Burgers is more of a take out establishment and not really the cute little booth style restaurant I was hoping for! but with a big sign promising hand spun milkshakes in a ton of fun flavours I was willing to give it a try.

Unfortunately hand spun did not equate to super thick and delicious, it was waaay to thin for my liking and whoever called it the best milkshake in Vancouver needs to get out more.

Luckily the burgers saved the day! and until we found Splitz when we were in Whistler they were our front runners for the best burger in Van...they're still up there though! but since the milkshakes at Splitz were so amazing, I'm thinking they're still number 1! 

We also headed to the new Chipotle, shortly after it opened because there's quite a hype about it and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about! 

We had a pretty good burrito, but I've defo had better in London and the best place for Mexican is still Las Margeritas for us...I just forgot my camera last time we were there! but I'm pretty sure with visitors coming soon it won't be long before we head back there.

So that's a little round up of some of my best Vancouver eats! You'll be pleased to know that despite the evidence above indicating otherwise, I haven't gained 100 pounds since I've been here! Probably thanks to all the skiing and hiking we've been doing! and next weekend we will be spending a whole 5 days at Whistler when Byron's dad and brothers arrive - we're so excited!