I love 49th Parallel coffees, never acidic and smooth. If I’m not sitting at Milano’s this is my next favorite spot.
49th Parallel announced they will be opening up a bigger and better shop 9 doors down from their original location on 4th in Kitsilano . Similar to their sister location on Main, they will be serving Lucky’s donuts.
Unlike “American” styled donuts, these were lighter and less sweet.
Lucky’s Pistachio and Orange Donuts
A Must Patio List For This Summer in Vancouver.
What I love about Summer? Patio and beach hopping while sipping on my favourite summer drinks, mojito’s and sangria’s. To help you get into the swing of patio season, I’ve come up with a list of my favourite patio’s in Vancouver. They are my faves because of their fun vibe, view and of course the patio itself.
I love Kits in the Summer. Every time I am in Kits on a sunny day I wished I still live here. The vibe is so fun and vibrant.
Local Public Eatery patio, situated right across Kitsilano beach is a popular place for sun worshipers and locals. It’s fun and I believe they still have sangria’ specials.
Another Ktisilano patio is right on the beach, The Boathouse.
Speaking of beaches, Cactus Club English Bay is very popular for beach go-ers for a quick bite. Although, I would rather just sit in the sand.
Patio’s in Granville Island will give you an undisturbed view of Vancouver’s harbor. A very popular tourist destination.
Dockside
Bridges
Chill Winston, is still one of my go to patio’s. The vibe is fun and the patio is street level and, people watching is one of my favourite pastimes. The largest patio in Gastown
The Keefer with a pool in the middle of the rooftop lounge
The Keg in Yaletown rooftop patio and lounge is chic and full of Yaletown yuppies.
Another restaurant for good seafood and has a gorgeous rooftop garden patio is Joe Fortes
Hidden patio at Gotham’s Steakhouse
Reflections rooftop lounge patio on the 4th floor of Hotel Georgia is one of the more swank patio’s downtown. Reminds me of Las Vegas, you can check out my review. Reflections has corporate atmosphere that turns into a meat market for brokers later in the evening. Quickly becoming a hotspot
Market Shangri-La rooftop patio is another swank patio although not as big as Reflections.
Havana’s on Commercial drive has such a fun and vibrant atmosphere.
The Mill, situated on the Coal Harbour’s seawall is a very popular spot for tourists and locals. The only negative, I found was their limited drink menu . How can you not have mojito’s or sangria’s if you have a patio??? Although the vibe and view compensates their lack of drink selections.
Mahoney and Sons Coal Harbour has undisturbed and expansive views of the harbor. It is an irish bar, popular amongst tourists and the after work crowd. Check out my review of Mahoney and Sons.
Thierry not because it’s the nicest patio but because they serve dessert. As far as dessert places goes, Theirry has the nicest patio. Check out my review of Thierry
Beachside Forno, in North Vancouver. Overlooking the harbour.
Finally, Art Gallery garden patio
I know there are many others, if you have any other patio’s you want to suggest add it in the comment section and I will include it in this post.
On a Saturday afternoon we strolled over to La Petitie France. This was one of my go-to cafés back in the day, 2005?
Sachet– raspberry between layers – We really enjoyed this, it was very dense and creamy.
Choco Poire – pears between layers of chocolate cake. This was previously my favourite a few years back but, it had the taste of old refrigerator.
I was surprised of the limited selection, there was only 6 choices! Anytime there is condensation on the display windows is unappetizing. Overall, my walk down memory lane was a disappointment.
Food Persuasion Level : [rating=2]
Value: [rating=4]
Service : [rating=2]
Ambiance: [rating=1]
Price: $
Cuisine: Brunch, Pub
Location: Kisilano
So, the “Tasty” brunch cafe had a 35 minute wait and we were starving. We looked across to street at patrons sitting at a rather empty patio enjoying their brunch and said, “why not, let’s do it”.
Well, there’s a reason why it’s empty. Granted it’s a pub, I don’t have a 5 star expectation of their food but, I could get better at Wendy’s
Starting of with the filthy patio, I might as well be squatting in an alley. It looked like the morning after a debauchery frat house party.
Between the two of us we shared 3 heaping entrée’s
Buttermilk pancake $4.99 – soggy pancakes. The berry sides were okay but, couldn’t hide the quality of the pancake.
BYO (Build Your Own) omelet– mushroom, peppers & roasted garlic, bacon, pan fried potatoes, toast $6.99. This was decent, the omelet had a bit too much cheese but, that’s just my preference. This was the best dish out of our brunch.
Eggs Benny, eggs were poached well sauce béarnaise sauce, suppose to have tarragon but didn’t taste any. We don’t’ have much to say about this dish, it was a saucy mess.
As nice as our server was she was too slow. Perhaps, she partied too hard at the pub the night before and is slightly hung-over. When we had to get our own utensils and hunt her down inside the pub for our bill we were not too pleased.
Was I persuaded to come back? Not unless all the brunch restaurants closed down and Wendy’s remove their brunch menu.
Cafe Regalade, a neighborhood brunch hotspot. Serving delicious casual french brunch. Very busy during the weekends.
Food Persuasion Level : [rating=4]
Value: [rating=4]
Service : [rating=4]
Ambiance: [rating=4]
Price: $
Cuisine: French Cafe/ Brunch
Location: Kitsilano BC
Website:www.caferegalade.com
Brunch is THE favourite meal on the weekends and, everyone is in the hunt for a great brunch spot, where the food is delicious and the line-ups are a minimum. Cafe Regalade servers up an amazing brunch and is destined to be a popular local hotspot.
Recently opened casual french restaurant, sister restaurant of La Regalade is now open for business. If you ever been to La Regalade you’ll see some familar faces in the kitchen. La Regalade’s owners Alain and Brigitte were on hand for their first full service day. All the dishes are under $20 that includes the dinner menu.
Had the opportunity to try out Cafe Regalade’s amazing brunch service with two former industry cooks.
Up at the pastry counter there was an assortment of mouth watering goodies, for the sweet tooth they offer muffins to meringue. For savory goods they offer a selection of loaves to terrine.
The selection of terrine was creative and tasty. Terrine’s include duck hazelnut, rabbit, veal appricot and champagne (pork). We ordered the duck hazelnut and the champagne terrine.
I am a big fan of duck, dishes with duck fat mmmmm… This was our fave of the two, it was moist and the hazelnut taste added an extra intense layer of flavour. The champagne terrine was a bit dry, probably because pork meat is a lot tougher.
Brunch….
Basque Breakfast – $13.25, 2 sunny side up eggs, piperade (onions and peppers), chorizo, aioli sauce, potatoes, salad and two pieces of the obsessively delicious aioli and saffron toast. They loved it, the portions was huge, potatoes flavourful and perfectly cooked. The piperade and chorizo went so well together.
The Aioli and Saffron toast was so amazing we ordered a side plate of it.
Expert Tip: from my chef friends, quality saffron is very expensive and usually when you ordered it is diluted. To know the difference, saffron usually has a distinctive coppery, metal taste. In this particular dish the distinctive safron taste lingers in the end.
Lyon Breakfast-$12.75, 2 poached eggs, mushrooms, bacon, pearl onions, spinach,potatoes, and red wine sauce, salad. Red wine sauce made with veal bone and bacon. The smell was so rich and the taste perfect.
La Buca Restaurant – Affordable and Casual Italian Fare in Kitsilano. It’s become a neighborhood staple.
Food Persuasion Level: [rating=3]
Value: [rating=3]
Service : [rating=4]
Ambiance: [rating=3]
Price: $$
Cuisine: Italian Restaurant
Location: Kitsilano Vancouver
La Buca Restaurant Menu
On a Friday night admist a packed room of hungry patrons, I sat sipping on wine while my friend refreshed me on his colorful and let’s say “pg-13” update of his past affairs. While he continued to ramble I took a closer look at the space, cozy and unpretentious and, judging by the wait at the door was a hit with the locals.
One nagging issue stood out immediately when we sat down, the tables are so close together that whenever a server comes around and squeezed between the tables the distance from your face to their ass was too close for comfort. You are forced to sit-up and lean back or it’ll look like you are whispering an intimate perverted secret to his butt while stuffing food in your mouth. Not a pretty picture.
Appies
Started out with the Porcini Mushroom Risotto, this was amazing. The stock they used was so flavourful and rich, an absolute recommend. I apologize for the poor picture quality, I took it with my iphone.
Entrees
The tuna although was fresh and cooked perfectly was overdosed in salt. The steak was tender but, was swimming in salty sauce.
I would go back not for the entrees but, the amazing rissoto.
Food Persuasion level : [rating=5]
Value: [rating=3]
Service : [rating=3]
Ambiance: [rating=5]
Price: $$$
Cuisine: West Coast Restaurant
Location: Kitsilano, Vancouver BC
Kitsilano Daily Kitchen Menu
Local celebrity chef Brian Fowke, previous chef at Rare Restaurant, delivers gastronomically stunning dishes at his new restaurant Kitsilano Daily Kitchen. He takes the revolution of “fresh and local produce” to the next level, visiting farms throughout BC and individually purchasing ingredients that will be cooked up in the next few days.
The menu is different every day, depending on what his fresh purchases of the day are, the menu gets posed on the website at around 4PM everyday.
Now the Food..
Starting off with the welcome dish aka amuse-bouche , fanny bay oysters in a light wine broth top with beans, pine nuts and cilantro. It was a nice starter, very lightly salted and with a hint of sweetness, that’s what you get when they are fresh!
Our Appetizer, which was divided into two plates, so portion size in the picture is halved. Sweetbread Veal Spaghetti – $12, Sweetbread, not bread, the pancreas or thymus of in this case a calf, cooked in roma tomatoes sauce and basil. The sweetbread was crispy on the outside and very creamy inside.
We ordered to share the Tri daily- $45, the best value and perfect way to explore the menu, with 3 entrees.
We happily dug into the Dry Aged Steak & Spot Prawns, over a bed of beets and potatoes, topped with rosemary butter sauce. The earthiness of the beet mixed nicely with the potatoes combined with a hint of tarragon.
The Mixed Seafood Grill, Prawns, sockeye, sable fish, king crab in lemon butter, although very satisfying but, not quite up to par as the other dishes. The coleslaw like salad, fennel with a hint of orange, was refreshing.
The Star Dishes…
Our runner up the Tenderloin of Pemberton, freshly purchased in a farm you guessed it, in Pemberton over truffle mash and duck gravy. Lordy, the tenderloin was perfection, I kept on thinking, so this is what fresh meat tastes like?!? With TRUFFLE and Duck Gravy , I thought I was in heaven but alas, this Is only the prequel.
This gastronomically brilliant, rustic Pork & Beans dish stole the show. Pork Belly in a maple-tomato sauce with white Canadian beans gave me a delicious high. I am not only persuaded but, in love.
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Suggestions or comments: email: caroline@foodpersuasin.com
Food Persuasion 