Victoria

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we visited my sister who just moved there from Spain. The visit itself will no doubt be very well covered on Connie's blog. I will focus on the food and drink aspect of our little visit.

I have to admit I was very sceptical of going anywhere near Vancouver Island over a busy long weekend. I am highly allergic to lineups, crowds and other things that cause me to have to wait, stand in line or otherwise tolerate delays. I don't like taking the ferry for this very reason and was expecting complete chaos but with reservations it wasn't bad at all. So I stand corrected regarding ferries on long weekends. As long as you have a reservation and you arrive on time, things should be good.

After a bit of research I decided that I had to visit Discovery Coffee. This seemed to be the highest rated coffee shop in town and we headed straight there after coming off the ferry. The place didn't disappoint, it was small, cosy and served a mighty fine Cappuccino.

After coffee we headed downtown for some lunch at Zambri's. This place has garnered many accolades and I now know why. It is a Campagnolo style rustic Italian bistro with superbly crafted food, simple and delicious. This is the exactly type of casual gourmet place that I love and we were pampered with some lovely food there. Gnocchi in a chicken broth and ragout style sauce for me, a sumptuous meatball sandwich for Kai and a deconstructed antipasti style smoked tuna Nicoise for Connie. Add some Prosecco and you have the perfect lunch for a Saturday afternoon around town.

We went back to Discovery coffee on Sunday (a different location this time, there are two in Victoria) and visited Serious Coffee on Monday with the whole crew. This place is a bit bigger and since there were 14 of us, that was a good thing!

Victoria offered up some great coffee (love Discovery!) and the food at Zambri's was top notch. Impressed!