Pekoe Tea Lounge

Every time I pass by Pekoe Tea Lounge on the corner of West Broadway and Laurel street, the words "home made gourmet pies" scream to me. Literally. Every. Single. Time. So after literally half a year of contemplating whether I should make the visit, I finally decided to make a move and juggled a few things around my schedule.

When I walked in, it was fairly awkward because the cashier and manager were standing behind the counter but no one greeted me. The staff were not even talking to each other, just literally staring at me. So after greeting the staff myself, I ordered a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of pie. When I finished ordering, the barista mumbled "it will take a while because I have to…", have to what?! 

I disregarded what she said and stood by the counter for around ten minutes until I realized I should take a seat instead. I wish the barista or manager welcomed me to take a seat, but I did not think the staff delivers food to the table. It was more awkward too because no one was preparing my food during the time I was standing, so I felt like an idiot standing there.

Bernard Noir

Bernard Noir is a fairly new chocolate boutique, located in Downtown Vancouver. The boutique offers three of the ten most popular chocolates in Europe which include French brands Michel Cluizel and Richart, along with German brand Lauestein. Moreover, Bernard Noir carries their own chocolate made by a certified chocolatier. 

Asides from chocolate, Bernard Noir offers housemade pastries and dessert by Chef Yutta. The selection changes daily from a variety of croissants, scones and brownies, along with Belgian waffles to cakes and cupcakes. In addition, the boutique offers gourmet baguette sandwiches.

I was invited to sample some goodies and met the owners behind Bernard Noir. Bernard handles the business aspect while his wife Chef Yutta, does the baking. The owners are a strong believer in "fat makes you fat" and only use real ingredients for their pastries such as butter, cane or coconut palm sugar. Furthermore, the owners also believe in using less fat because "fat makes you fat".

Belgium Place

RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED

Belgium Place is one of the newer cafes that serves authentic liege waffles; the ones with pearl crystals throughout the dough which caramelizes the exterior and results in a nice golden color. Walking in, one of the cashiers was having lunch and he immediately got up to greet us and take our order. We were very pleased with his friendliness along with his patience as we browsed through the four screen television menu.

The cafe is very spacious and there is a fair amount of seating arrangements along with a few patio seats. I like the spaciousness because during busier times, both the ordering and picking up line ups would not be cramped. There is nothing worse than bumping and nudging the next person beside you when in a long line up!

Other than waffles, Belgium Place offers croissants, quiches, panini and baguette sandwiches. About the waffles though, there are sweet as well as savoury choices and everything is housemade. There is also a choice of almond, chocolate, as well as chocolate and almond waffles for those who want to skip on the plain ones.

As for the accompaniments, there are fruit compotes which include apple, apricot, blueberry and strawberry. On top of that, gelato (vanilla or chocolate), sauce (chocolate, caramel, maple syrup) and caramelized nuts (almond or walnuts) are also available as toppings.

Allegro Coffee Bar

Whole Foods has a gelato bar? How come I never noticed? After receiving strict rules from a friend to not grab a snack before meeting her for dinner because my “snacks” are usually a meal, I decided to try out some gelato before grocery shopping. The gelato comes from the Salt Spring Island and is completely organic.

SMALL 3oz $2.99, MEDIUM 5ox $3.69, LARGE 11.5oz $4.69.

The available flavours are maple, hazelnut, vanilla bean, strawberry and cream, as well as chocolate bliss. Before ordering, I sampled the maple and found the gelato to be extremely sweet, to the point that I did not want to finish the sample. The cashier was not very surprised and mentioned all the flavours are pretty much sweet and pointed towards the trash for me to toss the sample out. So, feeling obligated to purchase something because I asked for a sample, I went for the hazelnut along with the vanilla bean.

Acme Cafe

Choosing to pass on dessert at Save On Meats, C’est la vie a Maggi and I were saving our bellies for Acme Cafe, specifically for their pies! When we walked in, our eyes were immediately drawn to the pastry bar and after taking a look at their selection, we were seated at a comfortable booth. As we were frantically looking for the dessert menu, a friendly waitress came by and mentioned Acme's desserts change daily and had the menu written on her notepad.

So, deciding to use our eyes rather than ears, we headed back to the pastry bar. Here was a selection of red velvet cake, pies (banana cream, orange creamsicle, raspberry rhubarb, blueberry, sailor cherry rum, and individual sized pecan pies), chocolate chunk croissant bread pudding, chocolate brownie with chopped walnut, croissant, loafs and plenty of cookies along with bars. Being the indecisive person that I am, I was deliberating between the strawberry rhubarb and the blueberry pie.

Why the indecisiveness? I worried the strawberry rhubarb would be too sour and the blueberry may not even be that good. However, to help with my indecisiveness, the friendly cashier scrapped a bit of filling off of both pies for me to sample, and I went with the blueberry. In addition, she also recommended the croissant bread pudding since it is a favourite of hers, and provided us a sample to try as well. We found the bread pudding to have a soft croissant texture along with a nice sweetness from the chocolate, it was neither mushy nor too sweet.

Aphrodite's Organic Café and Pie Shop

After finishing our donairs and grabbing my freshly tuned up bicycle, we cycled to UBC and headed back to Kitsilano. About the tune up, I was pretty pissed and not happy. Denman Bike Shop has disappointed me more than once and with their rude customer service every single time, I am done with them. For my tune up, the shop did not even check my brakes and adjusted my seat four inches higher than what it was originally. Furthermore, when I mentioned my brakes still screeched, the owner/manager's response was "did you tell us?". Uhh… what is a bike tune up then? So they did not even check the brakes at all? My brakes were pretty bad and even with the slightest use of them, they caused a loud screech. 

When the bike shop did end up adjusting my brakes, they did a crap job. The brakes were crooked and pressed against the tire, which I was too dumb to realize until after an hour of riding. At a professional bike shop? From mentioning they will give me a call when my bike is ready (which they never did!), my seat changed and not adjusted back, and plain messing up my brakes, why support this business? This was not even during a busy time too! I am always more understanding if a business is busy, but when it is not? Seriously? Note - this is only for the location on Denman, I have never been to the shop on Main Street but I hope the staff are certainly friendlier and do not make careless mistakes. The brakes are a goddamn main component of a bike.

After having to cut our ride short because of my brakes, we cycled through Kitsilano and decided to try out Aphrodite's Organic Cafe and Pie Shop. The cafe has an organized, colourful and easy to read chalkboard  menu. There are generic cafe offerings such as drinks, sandwiches, pot pies, quiche and puddings. As for the highlight, there is a separate chalkboard menu for Aphrodite's organic pies and quiches!

Tre Galli Gelato Caffe

Tre Galli Gelato Caffe is located at the River Market in New Westminster Quay, and after an unpleasant meal at Re-Up, we headed across to the shop. I believe this is the only gelato shop in New West too. The prices include tax and are $3.50/child, $4.10/single, $5.15/double and $6.50/triple. Furthermore, there are take home containers available as well. Some of the flavours include amaretto, passion fruit, chocolate chip mint, blood orange, stracciatella, lemon, french vanilla, pear, kiwi lime, greek yogurt, blueberry, banana chocolate chip, pineapple, black sesame, panna cotta and tiramisu.

Before grabbing some gelato, we came here for a frappe while having a meal at Re-Up. Surprisingly, despite sitting right in front of the caffe with no line up (at the moment), the male cashier dropped our drink to the other side (presumably where the drink pick up area is) without mentioning it to us. Comparing the customer service to Re-Up, it was pretty… not welcoming or friendly. 

Mattu's Coffee & Tea : Willoughby Town Centre location

When heading back to the car after having dinner at Noma, I noticed a little cafe that serves ice cream from Island Farms. Mattu's Coffee & Tea is located in Willoughby Town Centre which is not to be confused with Willowbrook Centre (although they have a location there as well), and is the coffee shops' second location. 

The cafe not only offers coffee, but tea, frappes, milkshakes and alcoholic beverages as well such as beer, coolers, and martini. Asides from the drinks, the cafe offers generic goodies such as soup, pastries (lemon, cranberry, apple crumble, triple berry and date bars), quiche and biscotti. In addition, there is even a heart shaped Barbie cookie! Although I am not sure if the baked goodies are housemade.