7 - 4300 Kingsway, Burnaby
I had always wanted to make it to Moment Dessert House for their wide selection of elaborate, Asian inspired desserts, but definitely in a better circumstance! As it happened, I found myself right by Moment when my car broke down, and I needed a place to wait for my parents. So I went inside to pass the time and try to enjoy myself while I waited, and my mood improved drastically! At approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, Moment was surprisingly empty, except for two girls sitting at a back table on their laptops. Typically places like this are usually packed with people hanging out or studying, and I came to the conclusion that it was because it was such a beautiful day that no one wanted to be indoors, which totally makes sense. The interior was super cute, and reminded me of Fondway, Cafe Joie and Camellia - all of which are also in Burnaby. There were cute decorations and plenty of seating space, making it a super ideal study spot if you ever find yourself in the area. It is a way's away from Metrotown, so not entirely accessible unless you're ready to walk or bus from Metrotown. However, the selection of desserts and drinks were really good. I had the classic milk bubble tea (which was served in a cute mason jar!) and a matcha cake. The bubble tea was pretty good and was thankfully not too sweet but also not bitter either. I was slightly disappointed at the cake - all of the cakes/pastries were on the pricier end and were extremely small, and in particular this matcha cake was really small. I did appreciate the spacious interior, how good everything tasted, and how polite and friendly the girl behind the counter was. She really made a bad day much better!
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55 Kingsway Street, Vancouver (Mount Pleasant)
Self-dubbed as "Vancouver's newest high tea", La Petite Cuillere is located on Kingsway just off of Main Street in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. The space itself is very different on the outside, and quite unassuming if not for the telltale round sign with the drawing of a spoon on it (as 'la petite cuillere' means 'little spoon' in French). But once you walk in, it's almost as if every grandmother came together to design this space. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, though if you're afraid of floral print, this may not be the place for you. However, I found the whole space to be quite endearing. My sisters and I made a reservation and were seated right away at an old looking table in front of a very old looking cabinet that was filled with different floral-patterned china tea cup sets. This is probably one of my favourite parts of high tea - using the fine bone china! We each had the 'High Tea', which is $14.25 a person. This includes unlimited tea from their tea collection, two sandwiches, two sweets, and a scone complete with fruit preserves and Devonshire cream, all on the classic tiered tray. Our 'sandwiches' included a tuna salad tart and a salami, cheese and cucumber on foccacia bread, and the sweets was a miniature slice of cheesecake and a vanilla cake with lemon cream. Aside from the High Tea, we also got three macarons: an early grey, a black sesame, and a lemon flavoured one. The high tea items were not really spectacular though they all tasted great. My personal favourite was the cake: the lemon frosting was super light and not heavy like some cakes can be. The macarons were okay too, though I found them to be exceptionally chewy, which I am not used to. The entire high tea experience at La Petite Cuillere was great, and you can really tell that the family that owns it puts a lot of heart into what they do. Would recommend!
4216 Main Street, Vancouver (Mount Pleasant)
If you are a cake fanatic like I do, then look no further than Trafiq on Main Street. Just two days into the new year, I found myself on a bus going up Main Street with my new foodie adventurer, Brendan, to go and indulge in these gorgeous layer cakes. Upon getting to Trafiq, we saw that it was quite spacious with plenty of seating room, but at the time it was really packed. Thankfully we came just as a turnover was starting and we were able to secure two seats and went to go decide which cakes we wanted to try. Here's a tip: not all the cakes they have on display are available for sale by the slice, so be sure to ask so that you aren't disappointed! But then again, any cake you will get to try won't be disappointing, because they are all elegant and absolutely amazing! Brendan had the Earl Grey cake and I had the Salted Caramel, and as mentioned, they are both so good! But before we dug in, of course we took a couple pictures to capture how beautiful they were! Their drinks are also really good, so it is the perfect afternoon tea treat! Multiple locations
Trees Organic is known in Vancouver for having the best cheesecake in town, and I have to say that they have every right to brag about that. Aside from their wide and delicious cheesecake selection, they also roast their own coffee beans, making for a wonderful combo to treat yourself to. Serving the downtown/Gastown/Yaletown area with 5 fabulous location, each Trees Organic has a cozy interior that still has plenty of space to allow you to get any work done. My friend Jamie and I went to the location on Granville Street (450 Granville) to enjoy a lovely slice of their white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, which is the perfect combination of tartness from the raspberries and the sweetness of the white chocolate, all tied up together in the creaminess of the cream cheese. They also clearly know their coffee, and I highly recommend their mochas. If you're looking for a great slice of cheesecake, check out any one of Trees Organics' five locations - make sure you save room for dessert! 1505 Robson Street, Vancouver (West End)
A popular Malaysian cafe franchise, PappaRoti opened its first North American store right here in Vancouver in the West End. Known for their famous coffee bun, this cute and spacious cafe is the perfect place for a sweet treat, whether with friends, with a date, or while studying on your own. I came here with Mateo and we both decided to go for their coffee buns, which are all $6.50 with the exception of "The Works" which is $8.50. I had the Maple Eh? bun with a Chai Latte and Mateo had the Strawberry Fields. Served on really cute wooden boards, the buns are technically perfect in every way, and they are remarkable: the light coffee fragance when you cut your fork through the soft pillowy texture and the presentation is really great. The Maple Eh? is the coffee bun topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce and maple syrup. I thought that iwas going to be a sugar heart attack but surprisingly, it was just the right aount of sweetness and not to sickly sweet. The coffee bun itself was amazing and I was really sad when it was finished! The Strawberry Fields is the coffee bun dusted with powdered sugar and served with strawberries and a massive pile of whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. The picture above shows off my Maple Eh? bun - delicious, but unfortunately melted really quick resulting in a bit of a mess. While these coffee buns were amazing, I didn't care too much for the Chai Latte. It was ultimately flavourless, but topped with an obscene amount of cinnamon - so much so that I felt like I was taking part in the cinnamon challenge from a few years ago. I'm not sure if this was intentional or to compensate for the fact that the latte was tasteless, but overall there was too much cinnamon to the point where I choked a vew times because some powder flew down my throat a little too quickly. Latte art was neither expected or necessary, but a really poor job was done probably because of the amount of cinnamon that was on the latte itself. If only PappaRoti wasn't so out of the way, I would go there everyday to study. They offer free WiFi and the place, despite its popularity, is very quiet. I know that I would probably gain a lot of weight going there all the time and having a coffee bun every time, so it's probably for the best. However, great coffee buns - but stay away from the Chai latte. Of course this is not reflective of their wide selection of drinks - I have no doubt that their other drinks are a little better. Finally, if you are stopping by and aren't feeling a coffee bun, PappaRoti has a few pre-packed savoury options for you to choose from, as well as other gluten free treats like brownies and Nanaimo bars. They also serve the famous Vancouver based The Lemon Square in house. 611 Gore Avenue, Vancouver (Chinatown)
Chinatown has a new ice cream store that brings an extra level of cute to the neighbourhood. Fluffy Kittens. Chinatown hasn't had any ice cream stores of its own until Fluffy Kittens came to town. Located on Gore Avenue, the small ice cream store brings a healthy dose of colour into Vancouver's historic Chinatown. Featuring clean white walls and an adorable pink chalkboard with all of the ice cream offerings, the entire store was cuter than kittens. While it is an ice cream store, Fluffy Kittens doesn't serve up its own ice cream; rather it serves up ice cream from Vancouver ice cream stores such as nearby Earnest Ice Cream and Salty Lick, ice cream sandwiches from Brown Paper Packages, popsicles from Johnny Pops and freezies from Tubify. Aside from ice cream cones, and the various ice cream products, they also have sundaes, affogato, and waffles. I had Salty Lick's Bourbon Peach on a waffle cone, which was incredibly bourbon-y. It was also super tasty. However, at the end of it all, it was just ice cream. As well, Fluffy Kittens charge their ice cream at $4.75 for one scoop in a cup. A cone is an extra $1, and other things like a sundae are about $7.00. Go for the aesthetic, go for the cuteness, but the ice cream can be lived without. At least, go to Earnest Ice Cream which is nearby in False Creek. 3066 West Broadway, Vancouver (Kitsilano)
This was my very fist time having high tea, and I went to Neverland Tea Salon with my friend Emma to give it a try. The short verdict? I love high tea. Located on West Broadway, stepping into Neverland Tea Salon is like walking into neverland itself. The interior decor is very magical, with fine bone china hanging from delicate branches on the ceiling. There were soft plush couches, long white tables and cabinets with gorgeous patterned china that looks better than your grandmother's. High tea usually is a very pricey affair, and Neverland makes it more accessible than other places in the city. We had the Neverland Grande High Tea, which definitely gives you the best bang for your buck. For $32 a person, you get unlimited pots of tea, a choice of a sweet or savoury scone, 5 savoury courses and 4 sweet courses. Each of the courses are delicate miniatures, but don't be fooled: $32 leaves you incredibly satisfied and full. Let's start with the tea: David's Tea is no match for the wide variety of teas that are offered at Neverland. The greatest thing about the grande tea beyond the unlimited pots of tea is the fact that you aren't restricted to one tea: you get to try as many different types of teas as you'd like. I got to try three different kinds of black tea: lavender earl grey, Mumbai chai, and the vanilla ice cream. By far my favourite tea was the lavender earl grey - two of my favourite flavour profiles all brought together in a full and flavourful tea. While I loved all the teas that I tried (the Mumbai chai was also flavourful and full of spice, and the vanilla ice cream is like an ice cream cone), the lavender earl grey went really well with all of the courses. The sweet scone was a lemon and sugar flavour served with Devonshire cream and a raspberry jam. I personally have never been a fan of scones, but this changed my mind forever. Scones are usually very dry and crumbly, but this scone was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the Devonshire cream and raspberry jam went beautifully with this lemon zest scone. The savoury courses were upscale versions of every day sandwiches in miniature form. In no particular order:
2950 Glen Drive, Coquitlam
An impromptu dessert stop after our dinner in Port Coquitlam, we went to Miracle Belgian Waffle Bar to satisfy our sweet tooth. We were greeted with a cute storefront and I was excited to go inside and have some delicious waffles. We were seated in a dim corner. The entry into the restaurant showed cute furniture and dim lighting, but a we walked further into the restaurant the decor quality diminished. The wall was exposed and it was quite dusty. As a group, we shared a matcha frappe, a Green Light waffle (matcha ice cream, red bean topping, and almonds on a Belgian waffle) and a B&W Waffle (vanilla ice cream, Oreo cookie crumbs, chocolate and whipped cream on a Belgian waffle). The waffles were absolutely delicious and incredibly pretty looking, and needless to say we cleared them out pretty fast! The matcha frappe was also delicious, just enough matcha flavour without being too overbearing and too sweet. However, I was disappointed to find that as we drank more of the frappe, we hit a lot of ice chunks, and the drink was not blended enough. However, the biggest turn off for me at Miracle were the plates that we were offered to share our waffles on. As I began to hand out the plates to my family members, the ones at the bottom of the stack were incredibly dirty - filled with unknown crumbs and what looked to be hair - and it made my stomach turn. I had to put them on the table next to us so that I could actually eat the waffles. It's a shame, because the food was delicious, but the service on this end was atrocious. 3382 Cambie Street, Vancouver (Cambie Village)
In Vancouver especially, regardless of weather, ice cream is always a good idea. Rain or Shine Ice Cream, with locations in Cambie Village and Kitsilano, is a neighbourhood shop that serves up homemade ice cream in various delicious flavours. The brightly lit shop with cute ice cream wallpaper and decals is aesthetically pleasing and perfect for your Instagram feed (if you're into that, like me)! I went with my sisters to compare how Rain or Shine measured up against Earnest ice Cream, another ice cream heavyweight in the city. We had London Fog, Honey Lavender, and a summer seasonal flavour Passionfruit Ale, which is a beer flavour from Bomber Brewing. For my Passionfruit Ale flavour, it was something different and very refreshing for a hot summer day. It was very fruity with not much taste of alcohol, which I am torn on. On the one hand, I feel like there should be a little taste of alcohol, but at the same time I feel like I can live without it. Regardless, it was delicious and a flavour that epitomizes summer in Vancouver. As for the other two flavours (London Fog and Honey Lavender), they were also good but a little on the sweet side. The Honey Lavender was especially on the sweet side, which was a little too much for me. I will say that their waffle cones (which you can watch them make in the back) are amazing - they aren't overly sweet, which I guess balances out their sweet ice cream, and has jut the right amount of crunch. Rain or Shine is a nice switch up from my usual run to Earnest, boasting some different and unique flavours. They also have milkshakes, multiple sundae combinations, and Taco Tuesdays, where their waffle cones turn into taco shaped cones, which look amazing. More on the lowdown on Rain or Shine vs. Earnest Ice Cream here! |
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