Glo Restaurant & Lounge

Glo Restaurant & Lounge outdoor seating is visible in the photo above on the upper right. I had lunch there today - absolutely delicious. Great vegetarian fare and my carnivorous companions both were happy with their non-vegetarian meals. I recommend it highly. Everything about this place is good - the location, the service and the food. It's built on the edge of the Selkirk Waters, near the Selkirk Trestle that crosses the Gorge. Across the water you can see the Railyards condominium development in Vic West.

Breakwater Cafe

This is the Breakwater Cafe, perched at the junction of the Ogden Point Breakwater and Dallas Road. It's a busy place year round with good food at reasonable prices, and, (below) a great view of Holland Point.

Frankie's Modern Diner

I had the good fortune earlier this week to sample the fare at one of Victoria's newer restaurants, Frankie's Modern Diner. It's right on Government Street a block's walk up from the Inner Harbour Causeway. The menu is extensive and varied and the food and service both were very GOOD. The restaurant is on the second floor and overlooks Government Street and many of its heritage buildings.

The Fireside Grill

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of dining at The Fireside Grill in Saanich. This lovely old Tudor revival style cottage houses an excellent restaurant managing not to look like one from the outside. It was built in 1939 as a tea and dancing establishment and while researching it I learned that those curvy things over the upper windows are appropriately called "eyebrow dormers".

Gourmet Garden

I've posted about the Abkhazi Garden and its romantic past before but I revisited it the other day for a wonderful surprise. Not only is it a spectacular garden with hundreds of rare and beautiful plants, but it offers outstanding food. After wandering in the garden for an hour or so we decided to try the lunch menu. It's hard to find superlatives adequate to describe how good their food is. That's tomato soup on the right there, but what a soup! Garnished with spicy little (chive?) flowers, fresh goat cheese and a drizzle of basil oil...splendid is an understatement. The pasta was also superb.

Visit this place - for the flowers and other plants and for the magnificent garden in which they grow, but make sure you arrive in time for lunch. It's beyond delicious. You can read a little about the Abkhazi Garden on The Land Conservancy website, by clicking here. Other information is available here.

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The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed the bottled sparkling water above with the cute name "O de Vie." I had originally ordered Perrier but decided to try this since it was local. It's drawn from an aquifer in Vic West. Great water! Yay Vic West!

Mmmm 3 - Persian Food

Continuing our culinary tour around the world via Victoria eateries, I dined Middle Eastern style last evening in the Side Dish Restaurant, Persian Food specialists. Above is the vegetable stew I had, which came with saffron flavored Basmati rice and salad. The stew had all sorts of good things in it like eggplant, zucchini, and yellow split peas and was garnished with crispy potato sticks - and it was a very tasty meal. The Side Dish Restaurant is located in the heart of downtown at 1008 Langley Street.

Mmmm 2 - The Noodle Box

Yesterday's post was Central American food at Hernandez. Today's delicious item is a recent lunch I had at The Noodle Box on Fisgard Street in Victoria's Chinatown. It seemed a bit pricier than Hernandez but there was a lot of tasty stuff in that bowl, called Cambodian Jungle Curry ($10.75). That fresh lime and those slices of fresh mango garnish were the perfect complements to the creamy, spicy sauce covering the noodles and tofu. There's lots of other good South-East Asian street food on the menu, too.

Hernandez - Mmmm!

Anyone who eats out in Victoria probably already knows about Hernandez so this post is for other people like me who are about two years behind the trends. Pictured above are the five soft, fresh corn tacos with beans, salsa, sour cream and fresh cilantro that I had for lunch yesterday. $5 for 5 of these babies, a great bargain. I'm not a great fan of restaurant food but you won't get food like this anywhere else in Victoria unless your mother or wife is from Central America. Absolutely delicious! It's right downtown, 735 Yates Street, inside an office building arcade.

Green Cuisine

There are only two genuinely vegetarian restaurants in Victoria, Green Cuisine and The Lotus Pond. I eat at both from time to time though I generally prefer Green Cuisine. I'll do a post on The Lotus Pond some day so today I'll just write a little about Green Cuisine. It's located in Market Square, in the heart of the oldest part of Victoria. (Market Square also deserves a post of its own - but later!) Green Cuisine serves a delicious cafeteria style selection of soups, salads and entrees. One selects what one wants and pays by weight. The food is what I would call eclectic fusion - vegetarian recipes from around the world, and some from out of this world - especially the desserts. It's hard to find good vegan desserts and the tofu mousses and cheesecakes here are simply beyond compare. I had lunch here today - a bowl of yam and garbanzo soup, a chunk of focaccia bread and a chocolate cheesecake. $5.90

Chips

I mentioned the other day that I enjoyed the chips at Red Fish Blue Fish on the wharf below Bastion Square. They were so good (and cheap - $2.50) that I had to return for a second helping. Crispy on the outside, not greasy, soft and fluffy within. I always call them chips, but others prefer fries or French fries although the correctness of the last name is disputed by the Belgians, who claim to have invented this superb method of preparing potatoes. I refer you to the Belgian Fries website for more information on this important controversy. Whatever the name, I am very fond of them and these "Kennebec Chips," as they are called on the menu, are some of the best I've ever had. Bon appétit!