Gordy's Cafe - North Delta/Surrey

I really wish I could provide some background info on this place. Last time I remember driving by Scott Road and 96th ave. This store was called Jelly D's, a doughnut and coffee shop. It seems Gordy's just sprung up, new owners I guess!?

The $3 Breakfast Combo piqued my interest, I think that is the poor starving student in me coming out.

There was an array of booths, tables and stools to chose from. We grabbed a booth and it took us a few moments to realize that you were supposed to place your order at the counter but when reason took over we both went up and got x2 $3. Breakfast Combos.

What does $3 get, you may be wondering? Two eggs, Two pieces of toast, Choice of bacon, ham, or sausage, and a handful of fried taters (which are hiding under the bacon).

It was a really a pretty good deal for the price. If I were to splurge and go to somewhere 'fancy' like Denny's or IHOP I would be paying $10 minimum and I'm all for saving coin :)

Nothing to criticize here, they delivered exactly what I expected.

I am curious about their burgers, they seemed like they were a good deal, and they offered a variety of milkshakes so maybe just maybe if I find myself hungry on another rainy Sunday I will try Gordy's out one more time.

Quick Stop Cafe - Long Beach

It was Sunday morning in Long Beach and boarding for our cruise did not start until noon.

Our hotel had a nice looking restaurant but the price for their breakfast could not be justified.
With savings in mind we ventured out into the Down town in search for some eats.

We spotted a cafe that was open and figured why not, everywhere else we had been 

walking by did not open for another hour so this was our choice.

They had a variety of breakfast items with reasonable prices too. It was all made to order right there 

and the store/all of long beach was pretty dead that early in the morning.

I grabbed a breakfast burrito, and in typical Peter fashion, I knife and forked that bad boy.

Inside there was, egg, chorizo, onions, potatoes and cheese. Man...this was tasty. As I sit here eating rice and chickpeas I am really craving one of these.

This was a nice change from the McDonald's breakfast burritos I quite often find myself getting.

I doubt I will be back in Long Beach any time soon but I know if it is breakfast time, I will be coming here.

Salt & Pepper Cafe - Starlight Casino

Salt & Pepper Cafe – Starlight Casino

350 Gifford Street,  New Westminster BC

Tel:  604-777-2946

I don't normally frequent Casinos, however on this particular Saturday my brother and I decided to win some money before we went to the beach. Long story short, we didn't win any money...we did however eat at the Salt & Pepper Cafe inside the Casino.

Philly Cheese Steak

Monday-Friday they offer a pretty sweet Pasta Deal but we were there on the weekend so we both opted for the daily special, which was a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich. At $8.50 I thought the price was good for what you got.

I am a sucker for fries and these ones were great, nice and crisp. As for the sandwich, I think it could have used a little something more to add some flavour. There was plenty of meat, but I would have like more onions and other toppings on it to give it a kick. It was enjoyable I actually got full and got to have leftovers at the beach...score!!

This is a pretty short post, not really sure what else I can say, I want to try their pasta if I am ever there on a weekday..they also had some very tasty looking won ton soup.

Cheers!

Secret Garden Tea Company - Afternoon Tea in Kerrisdale

What had I gotten myself into? I made a promise to my girlfriend that I didn't actually think I would have to fulfill.

Since she spent quite a lot of money for my birthday, I told her that one day I would take her for afternoon/high tea.

Well apparently she remembered me saying this quite clearly..it was all a little fuzzy in my mind.

Well it was time for me to make good on my promise so we got in the car and started driving for Kerrisdale. Her favorite tea store is Secret Garden so it seemed only natural that this would be the site of our afternoon tea adventure.

I had been here once before, last year when we were house sitting for a friend nearby. I liked their lunch so I wasn't too worried about what I was getting myself into.

I left my testosterone at the door as we entered this nice little tea shop.

We were seated right by the window, which was great for me since the natural light helped with the picture taking. It was a private spot so I didn't feel to bad snapping away with my camera.

We first off had to decide what kind of tea we would be drinking, Jessica chose to have the Vanilla Almond tea. Myself, not being a big tea drinker went with a Wild Strawberry Green tea.

Along came the tea...

tea pot

my wild strawberry green tea (more strawberry than wild)

The green tea was quite good, it smelled great and was tasty.

Anyways...enough tea, let's get on to the good stuff.

By good stuff I'm not referring to the person behind the food, I am speaking about the wonderful 3 tiers of deliciousness.

Tier 1 - Sandwiches/Savory

#1 Lemon Chicken, thyme mayo, avocado and asparagus on a mini croissant.

#2 Egg Salad Pinwheels.

#3 Goat cheese, kalamto olives, on a butter cracker.

My favorite out of these was the Goat cheese on the cracker. My opinion my be a bit biased because I love goat cheese. Second favorite was the egg salad, and lastly the lemon chicken. But honestly they were all excellent

Tier 2 Scones/Blueberry Bread

The second tier consisted of cranberry scones and slices of blueberry bread accompanied by devonshire cream and jam.

I of course enjoyed the first tier more, but my girlfriend goes crazy over scones and devonshire cream. She ranks Secret Garden's #1 in the world.
I have been dragged to a few tea houses in Europe and Canada by her..she take this very seriously.

Tier 3 Dessert

Famous Lemon Tart

Coconut cream pie

Chocolate Mousse

It took me a while to eat the desserts because they were very sweet. I ate one, then took a 5 minute break and sipped on tea to prepare myself for more sugar. The Coconut cream pie was  my favorite.. partly because of the butterfly.

I will stop boring everyone now with words and add the last of the pictures .

That's it!

With tax it costs roughly $30 a person..a little steep in my opinion but I think it's

something fun you can splurge on every once in a while. Secret Garden has a great location and is a really nice looking Tea Shop. They do have breakfast and lunch menu that is separate from afternoon tea.
If you're interested in checking out the Lunch I recommend the Macaroni and Cheese.

Subeez Cafe Restaurant Bar (Yaletown)

The day began at Eat Vancouver, It was my first time going because last year due to circumstances I couldn't go. I thought for a $16 ticket ($14 online) it was a very good deal and I got to try a lot of good samples (llama jerky was a first for me).

My girlfriend had an appointment at a spa in Yaletown late afternoon which left me wandering about. I was soaking up some sun on Marinaside but I knew that I would have to eat again soon. We were going to go to Moxie's because it was on the way to Stadium sky train station but while we were walking Homer St. I saw a cafe and looked at the menu.

I had never heard of the Subeez Cafe but the menu looked good and I liked the name so we decided to stop in for a quick bite.

chicken & brie sandwich -
chicken breast, brie, baguette, demi‑glaçe, garlic mayo, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle. $13

I didn't really get a good look at the interior because I wanted to eat outside so we grabbed a table outdoors and ordered.

My girlfriend didn't end up ordering anything because she wasn't very hungry..she wasn't very hungry until she started eating my french fries (I think she was lying). I can honestly say that the fries that came with the sandwhich were the best I've ever had...ever. If I had known how good they were I would have ordered a side dish of them, so perfectly crisp and delicious, my stomach is rumbling just thinking about them.

 I'm not sure if there was a special seasoning on them but they were fantastic.


chicken & brie sandwich

 The sandwich itself contained a nice plump and juicy chicken breast which I was happy about, I like my meat (please don't take that in the wrong way). I found it hard to taste the brie, but brie doesn't really have a strong flavor to begin with I guess. I really enjoyed my meal here and wish I had heard about this place sooner, I guess we just got lucky walking to the sky train a certain way to stumble across this place. The inside looked quite big and I am sure it is a pretty popular local spot. The other sandwiches on the menu looked delicious as well and I would love to try them.

Final Thoughts:  Best fries hands down, I didn't have anything else on the menu but I really enjoyed my dish. Prices aren't that bad, I feel like for the quality the price was well worth it. The space is fairly large and it looks like it could be a fun place at night, I beleive it is a cafe/restaurant/bar.

Juliet's Cafe (Kitsilano)

1905 Cornwall Ave

Vancouver, BC V6J

(604) 732-8212

www.julietscafe.com/

I love eating breakfast, I also love lunch and dinner, but for the purpose of this post I'll stick with breakfast. I had been to Juliet's Cafe last summer for brunch and I remember being pleased with it, so before venturing over to Vanier Park my girlfriend and I stopped in for something to eat.

The interior was nice with wooden floors and an open spacious dining area. A fire place kept the place nice and toasty. At this restaurant you order first and then go find a place to sit down. I like this better because you don't have to worry about splitting up the bill with other people, you can just pay for your own meal and sit and enjoy it.

My girlfriend got some English Breakfast tea to sip on while we waited for our food. I don't drink tea unless it's iced so I refrained from the hot beverage. To eat I ordered the classic Eggs Benedict and my girlfriend ordered the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict.

The meal consisted of two poached eggs with ham on sourdough with Parmesan sauce and roasted potatoes. It was incredibly tasty, I can never seem to poach eggs well at home but these ones were perfectly cooked.  I really liked the Parmesan sauce that topped the dish, it was very tasty.

I wasn't impressed with the portion of food, for over $10 there wasn't really a whole lot there. Some fresh fruit would have been a nice addition. I remember going to provence marinaside for brunch and also being disappointed with the amount of food...I'm 20 years old ok I need big portions!

I almost considered getting one of their sandwich's that I saw posted up on the menu, there was a roasted lamb sandwich which sounded fantastic.

I like that this place is family owned, they have a variety of family pictures posted up on the walls which almost makes you feel as if you are eating in a kitchen at someone elses home.

Final Thoughts:-Food was very tasty and well prepared

-Portions were not big enough for my liking

- Would be a great place to stop before walking to Granville Island or relaxing at Kits Beach.

Chez Meme Baguette Bistro- North Burnaby on Hastings

I was fortunate enough to spend some of my summer last year in Europe. I spent some time in Paris and was

able to take in the culture and sample Parisian cuisine. Great as the food is in Paris, the attitude of servers leaves something to be desire, I am aware that I am an ignorant tourist with limited french and a terrible accent but the common courtesy was just not there.

Chez Meme Baguette Bistro made me feel like I was in France again except one thing..the waitress was actually genuinely nice..shocking I know.

My girlfriend and I went here for lunch and grabbed a seat near the window.We were greeted with a "bonjour" and I was confused to whether I should say hello or bonjour, como sa va? back. The list of baguettes sounded fantastic and I was torn between two, the Bourguignon (boneless Beef short ribs, Carmelized Onions and Horseradish) $10.25 and the Jarret (Lamb shanks, roasted Garlic Jam and Grainy Dijon) $10.25.  I asked the waitress what was more popular and she convinced me to get the Bourguignon, next time I will get the Jarret.

This sandwich was absolutely fantastic. The beef was so tender and there was lots of it. No skimping on this baguette. The horseradish was homemade and had a great kick to it. You had a choice of fries, soup of the day, or a salad with your meal. I opted for the soup which was  vegetable curry. It was good, but the baguette stole the show with this meal.

My girlfriend (the part time vegetarian) ordered the Nordique (Smoked Salmon, Red Onions, Cucumbers and Lemon Dill Cream Cheese $9.25.

She let me have a bite and I must say this was another fantastic sandwich, I want to be critical when I go out and eat but I couldn't find anything wrong. All the flavors in this baguette went together to create a very refreshing tasting sandwich. Lemon, dill, and cucumber = very refreshing in my books.

My girlfriend thinks she is funny and likes to photo or foodbomb my pictures as she likes to call it. You can see her hand holding a fry in the second picture (i'm so proud of her).

I didn't realize that there were so many great restaurants along Hastings, on the plus side my girlfriend lives pretty close by so I will definitely be checking out some more spots around here.

The Verdict: Food tasted great, good portions for the price, friendly french speaking staff.

The only negative thing I can say is that the view out the window is Hastings street, so if you like watching traffic it's great but I like a more serene environment.

Babington's Tea Rooms High Tea- Rome, Italy

Babington's Tea Rooms
 Piazza di Spagna, 23-0018 -Rome (Spanish Steps)
P: +39 06 6786027

Babington's was featured in the classic movie Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn.
I won't lie, I am only 20 years old and have not seen Roman Holiday and don't know who Audrey Hepburn is.

My girlfriend is a big Audrey Hepburn fan and apparently in her movie Roman Holiday she goes for high tea at Babington's..you know what that means? We were going for high tea at Babington's.

How did we find ourselves in Rome I don't really know, I kind of just woke up one day in June and we were there, pretty cool huh.

My girlfriend was really keen on going here, I guess it meant more to her as I just saw it as a place for food. At this time I wasn't writing a blog or anything so I wasn't super focused on taking pictures of food, I did however snap a couple of our meal.

We decided that since we were here we might as well go big and go for the high tea, it was 31 euros per person, not sure how much that is in Canadian $$'s (oh well, when in Rome right? Very lame).

My girlfriend couldn't resist the opportunity to be photographed so I humoured here and I took a couple pictures of her looking at the menu longingly. If you look at the paper in her hand in the second picture you can see that it has a picture from Roman Holiday on it.
This was my first time going for high tea and to be honest I would have rather just gotten a lemonade or something..it was so hot out that day.
For being over a century old this place was in good shape, yes I am aware that work can be done in 100 years.

Here is a little shot of the interior, there was another area but this was where we were sitting. The High Tea cam with the following:  Small assorted sandwiches, hot buttered crumpets with strawberry jam or Canadian maple syrup, assorted home-made cakes and pastries, and Babington's Special Blend of tea.  

The food wasn't served on a tiered platter or anything they just served the items individually, first came the sandwiches. If I recall correctly there was the basic cucumber sandwich, a smoked salmon sandwich, and I am thinking an egg salad sandwich. These were all very good, I love bite sized sandwiches..too bad there wasn't twice as many.

Here dear readers you can see the author of this blog awkwardly trying to drink tea. In the bottom corner you can make out some of the home made cakes and pastries. I have mentioned before that I am not very big on sweets, I am a little bit of a health nut when it comes to sugary treats so I wasn't too keen on eating them. Since I don't like sweets I don't feel I can give a good opinion on how they were.
I would alternate different ways of drinking my tea. I would first have it without any sugar or cream and add a lemon to it, then the next glass put the cream and sugar in. I liked it better with just the lemon, more refreshing imo.

Lastly we had the crumpets. At this point for me I was on a sugar overload and could not eat them. I hate wasting food but I have always been a savory kind of guy.
I liked knowing that we were eating at a place that had a lot of history behind it. I am not a tea drinker (beer please) but my girlfriend really enjoyed herself and sometimes I can show a little emotion and be happy that she really enjoyed herself.
I don't know how many of you will be in Rome in the next little while but if you are into tea definitely check out Babington's, they serve other food here and you don't have to just get high tea. Be prepared to spend some $$ though.

Some parting words, we managed to have high tea, go to the CColosseum, go into the Vatican, and make wishes at the Trevi Fountain in under 3.5 hours, busy busy day learn to use the metro system and you will greatly benefit!