Editorial - My 20 Visits to Victoria
Readers Write : Suggestions from a regular visitor to our fair city.
I have been coming to Victoria with my family for over 20 years. Here are a few suggestions I have for visitors, based on my own experiences and interests:
When to come: Spring and Fall are best. In the Summer, there are so many tourists it is hard to walk down the street. Though I’ve never done this, I think Christmas in Victoria would be beautiful.
Where to stay: We’ve mostly stayed at Harbour Towers. The staff are superb: competent, polite, and courteous. They have everything from simple rooms to efficiency apartments. Many “snowbirds” come to stay there from the Midwest States during the winter. The things we disliked most related to the sorts of people who were staying at the hotel. For instance, junior hockey tournaments or when our trip coincided with Spring Break in Washington State or BC (think: adolescents pushing all the elevator buttons, hogging the swimming pool, etc). Other places we’ve stayed have been The Empress (small rooms, huge bathtubs), Laurel Point (small rooms, beautiful views) and Chateau Victoria (be prepared to be awakened by noisy drunks coming out of the bars right next door in the wee hours).
Things to do with kids: The Provincial Museum is a must, as is Miniature World. Undersea Gardens is good for one visit. Parents should use judgment about taking their kids to Mme. Tussaud’s, as some of the exhibits are gross and/or scary.
Fine dining: The Blue Crab (really superb artful food and a great wine list); Il Terrazzo (good food, good wine list, but ambience crowded and loud); Pescatore (great food and wine list; interesting aquariums and ceiling fans, great service); Hotel Grand Pacific (great food, good wine list, knowledgeable servers); Café Brio (great food, great wine list, very charming owner/chef and his wife); Fire and Water (has been great sometimes and disappointing at others); Da Tandoor (superb Indian food, virtually no wine list, a few beers).
Other eateries: For Dim Sum, Kwong Tung or Don Mee’s (We prefer the former: it has delicious seafood, it’s less expensive and a friendly staff who really do remember us from year to year). Barb’s Fish and Chips at Fisherman’s Wharf (mostly for take-out, really the best fish and chips we’ve had in Victoria). The Swan Pub, Spinnaker’s and the Carriage House: good pub food, good standard beer selections (I would rate Swan’s above the rest for food and interesting beer). The Canoe Club: for lunch, good pub food, small standard beer selection, great views. Irish Times: a stunning array of beers, and an impressive selection of Irish whiskies.
Places not to miss: Munro’s Book Store: for Canadiana and books not available in the States. Goodfellas: Victoria’s best selection of Cuban cigars, with a knowledgable staff and a friendly atmosphere (forget about That Other Place on Government Street). The BC Liquor Store in Oak Bay (at Foul Bay Road) has an incredible selection of BC wines and beers, and wines of the world. They also carry hard liquor: Cuban Rum, Cognac, Armagnac and hard-to-find Scotch and Irish Whiskies. Roger’s Chocolates on Government Street: a chocolate lover’s dream.
Coffee Places: there are just too many to list. Since we limit ourselves to places we can walk to, there are several Starbucks on Government St., Willie’s on Johnson St. and Artigiani on Government St. (great coffee and excellent scones). Murchie’s has been disappointing for coffees, but has lots of pastries, and for tea lovers, it’s the place to go.
Places people will tell you to go to but you might want to give a pass to: High Tea at the Empress (the less said the better: much too lah-di-dah for me); The Bengal Lounge at the Empress (they have good curries on the bar menu. Go once, have one of their girlie martinis and then decide if you want to go back); The Blethering Place (I suppose everyone has to go once, but you can get scones that are just as tasty, as well as clotted cream and Blackcurrant jam, more cheaply at Thrifty Foods in James Bay). Also, skip all those crappy tourist stores on Government St. with all their repulsive t-shirts.
Outdoor activities: great running/walking routes. Either run along Dallas Road out east as far as you can go, past the Ross Bay Cemetery, even to Oak Bay, then run along Rockland back to town. Or, run along the Inner Harbour, across the Johnson Street Bridge to Songhees and out as far as you can go (there’s a yacht club out at the end). There is also a route that goes north just on the west side of the Johnson St Bridge, going up to the Gorge. I’ve never gone on the whale-watching tours on Zodiacs, I prefer to leave the whales alone. Those little corks that serve as ferries around the Inner Harbour are OK as long as you have a scopolamine patch.
Submitted January 17, 2010
by: Dr. E. Goranson is a psychiatrist from Portland Oregon and is looking forward to his visit this spring.
Update
I recently returned to Victoria for my family's annual visit. Our stay at Harbour Towers was, as usual, top-notch. However, our experiences at several of Victoria's restaurants resulted in such poor service and/or food that I felt that I needed to provide updates on my previous comments:
Blue Crab: we have had world-class dinners at Blue Crab, but this time, our experience was so bad that I felt the need to report on it. The ambience hadn't changed, but the quality of the meals certainly had. Blue Crab is rightfully famous for their crabcakes, and that still applies. However, the entrees were delayed by more than 35 minutes. The halibut wrapped in prosciutto was overdone to the point that the prosciutto was so overcooked that it was more like a carapace. Halibut cheeks, which we have prepared on our own and need to be carefully prepared, were teriyaki-soaked and leathery. The wine list was overpriced (while in BC, I only drink BC wines, which I feel are world class), and the desserts were pedestrian. We asked if there was a new chef in the kitchen, but got no reply. All in all, pretty disappointing, when you're dropping over $300 on a meal, despite the view.
Pescatore: The appetizers and entrees were passable. What I didn't appreciate was, after asking the waiter about two wines I'd picked out, he recommended the more expensive one ($90), and then proceeded to vigorously shake up the wine when he brought it to the table. I should have stopped him right there and asked for another bottle. I felt "pimped" by his selection of the more expensive wine, which did not merit the confiscatory price. Also, the dessert could have been bought frozen from Safeway...it was inedible.
Il Terazzo: as usual, too crowded and too noisy. Food overly rich. An "Italian meatball" entree came to the table looking like a couple of Rocky Mountain Oysters...2 huge testicles sitting in tomato sauce on a bed of spaghetti....not very imaginative and not even close to what we do at home. The wines were too expensive. Even their tapenade, which I usually love, seemed tepid.
Canoe Club: perhaps the worst experience we had in Victoria, we had here. We entered the restaurant a little after 11am, hoping for the usual good lunch and servicable beers. When we walked in, the girl at the front was chatting with another girl and completely ignored us. We stood there for a while, until a waiter finally asked us what we wanted (what did he think we wanted? It was a restaurant). He showed us upstairs where I tried to sit a comfortable looking table, which he told me was "reserved" (no signs on the table). Then he seated us at a table that wobbled and was beneath a loudspeaker blaring hideous hip-hop music. I moved to another table. He slapped menus down. I asked for a "taster" of the typical servicable beers but was told that everything was closed until 11:30am...this was just a few minutes away, but...oh, no, no beer would be brought. We looked at the menu, which had changed significantly from the year previously. I couldn't hear myself think with the hideous hiphop crap blaring everywhere. The complete lack of any attention to their most important asset, their customers, was absolutely appalling. We left, without wasting any money at this hole. I have had very pleasant experiences there in the past, but I'm not sure if I'll go there again, and I certainly won't be recommending it to anyone.
The Swan: this pub continued to provide its usual decent pub fare and good beers. Because of the disaster at Canoe Club, we went there twice and had no regrets.
Kwong Tung: this is where one ought to go for Dim Sum in Victoria. The food was as good as I remember it (we hadn't been there for years) and the hostess actually remembered us from the past, mentioning details about our family that convinced me that she wasn't blowing smoke.
We did have two new pleasant discoveries: Spinnaker's wine store in James Bay, and Villages Pizza also in James Bay. We were so fed up with spending a fortune for substandard food, that we decided to have pizza at Harbour Towers. We bought a lovely rose from Spinnaker's as well as a Young & Wyse Shiraz. The young man at Villages wasn't even open when we first came by, but was very helpful in providing a menu for us to look at. As opposed to the treatment we received at Canoe Club. The pizza was absolutely fantastic. And I couldn't believe the selection of BC wines at Spinnaker's...brought several bottles back to the US for future enjoyment.
As far as coffee places were concerned: Artigiano remains top-notch. Their scones are excellent. The Starbucks down the street is also good, although one of the baristas started arguing with me about what my drink was called (ie, "macchiato"). She was completely wrong. I let it go, but who needs this kind of aggravation?
Eric E. Goranson, MD
Submitted April 21 , 2010
by: Dr. E. Goranson is a psychiatrist from Portland Oregon and is looking forward to his visit this spring.
