My oh my, do I have a treat for you today. I took a trip to Vancouver a little under a month ago and other than the fact that I was primarily going to visit my best friend, Ali, I was also going there to try all the delicious foods that YVR has to offer. (Am I hip saying YVR? #Vancity). The fours days that I spent there were probably the happiest four days my stomach has ever experienced. I tried to take as many pictures of the food everyday but I’m no food blogger so I did miss out on capturing a few meals (like Temaki that Ali took me to that was THE BOMB and Chipotle because it’s Chipotle). But without further adieu, I present to you, the best food I’ve ever tried.
Jam Café
This restaurant is known to have the longest wait for brunch (we’re talking three hours), but it was fully worth it. We got off the plane in Vancouver at 7am, booked it downtown to Beatty Street and there was still around a 45 minute wait that early in the morning. But it was delicious to say the least.
I got the Fried Chicken Benedict with two poached eggs, a fried chicken breast, classic hollandaise topped with (slightly spicy) roasted corn salsa over a toasted english muffin. It was a type of Eggs Benedict I’ve never tried and I loved it! My friends got the Blackstone Benedict (not pictured) and the Pulled Pork Pancakes (that made my mouth water).
Soft Peaks
Why does Vancouver have all the best ice cream places?! We need some here in Edmonton ASAP. My friends were talking about Soft Peaks all day so, naturally, we had ice cream for lunch that day. That’s the best kind of meal, y’all. I had the Green Forest with Organic Milk and Dark Chocolate ice cream with Matcha powder, sweet red beans, and condensed milk on top. It was everything i could ever want in an ice cream. The ice cream was so creamy and subtly flavoured with chocolate and the match and red bean topping was delicious with the sweetness from the condensed milk.
My friend got theHoneycomb Peak which is their signature flavour witha piece of local honeycomb on top. The honeycomb was absolutely delicious however it was impossible to bite through it so for that reason, I definitely recommend getting the Green Forest while you’re there!
Chambar
This was by far the best breakfast I’ve ever had in my whole life. That ain’t even an exaggeration. I’m pretty sure there were real tears falling from my eyes as I ate these waffles. I got the single waffles that are $3.50 each and then added different dipping sauces that were $1 each! (Very affordable, Chambar, good on ya).
Now, these aren’t just any normal sauces like maple syrup or jam. They have a wide variety of yummy and unique toppings including bacon caramel and fig orange marmalade. I chose to get the milk chocolate lavender, the raspberry caramel and the white chocolate pistachio rosewater. How good do those sound? I was literally drinking these sauces so I got every last drop. I’m not even exaggerating. Best waffles I’ve ever had. Period.
Cacao 70
We had a pop-up shop of Cacao 70 here, in Edmonton, a couple months ago (which I was invited to the opening as a blogger) but they just had the dipped ice cream cones so when I heard that a full Cacao 70 had opened up in Vancouver, I knew I had to try it while I was there. (Apparently, they have one in Calgary now too, so roadtrip anyone?!)
After the Chambar waffles, I was craving waffles 24/7 so I decided to get one at Cacao 70 as well. At Cacao 70, you can get dipped waffles in a chocolate flavour of your choice. Um, yum. They have flavored chocolates like maple, matcha, black sesame, and several more I can’t remember. But what I do remember is the flavour I got on my waffle which was chai chocolate. It was sensational. And warmed me up on that unusually cold day in Vancouver.
Purebread
My bestie (the one I was staying with in Vancouver) and her boyfriend told me to check out this bakery and my oh my, am I glad I did. You walk in and the most delicious baked goods are on display. I was in heaven. I wanted to reach over the glass and take one of everything. I almost did. But I stopped myself at the last second. And the smell in there. Oh man. I just want to breathe in bakery fumes for the rest of my life.
After a good fifteen minutes of trying to decide what I wanted to eat, I finally chose the Chili Cheddar Cornbread. Now, this is a very interesting choice for me for a couple of reasons. One, It’s savoury. I have the biggest sweet tooth. Why would I not pick a sweet pastry? Two, It’s spicy. Everyone knows I can’t handle spice.
However, I did ask the lady what the most popular items were at Purebread and she said the cornbread so I had to have it. Plus, I’m am a sucker for cornbread. You can’t find it everywhere, y’know? So you gotta try it when you can find it. And it didn’t disappoint at all. It was so yummy and moist with incredible flavour from the chilis, which I was able to handle the spice after-all (with a dozen glasses of water by my side).
Minami
Every-time I think of Minami, I lose my breath and gasp for air. This is where all my sushi dreams came true. Before I left to Vancouver, everyone told me to eat at Minami and warned me that although it was expensive and would hurt my wallet, it would be well worth it. They weren’t lying. This has stolen first place for my favorite sushi ever.
I got the Aburi Chirashi Tart that was everything I love combined into one thing. It’s layers of rice, spicy tuna, avocado, sockeye salmon, and Miku sauce that is flame seared topped with prawn, scallop, maguro, tobiko and ikura. Every single bit I had of this dish just exploded in my mouth and the flavours were unlike anything I’ve ever tried before. So fresh. So good. So mouth watery. I miss it.
My friends got the Traditional (not pictured) and Premium sushi which was a sampler of oshi, rolls and nigiri. They did not offer me bites (WTF) so I can’t comment on those dishes but they looked amazing (but not as good as my dish, obvs).
Okay how much is your mouth watering after seeing those pictures and reading all this?! I’m starving and I’m tempted to book tickets back to Vancouver ASAP just so I can try all these foods (and more) again. See y’all there!
Also I need to travel more so I can do more food posts like this because this was hella fun. I’m basically a professional food blogger now. And if you want more proof of that, I did a What I Ate in New York post as well a while back:https://when-im-older.com/post/123377506920.