Odyssia's in Sidney

Odyssia's (Steak House)
Sidney : 9785 5th Street
250.656.5596


We don't make it out to Sidney too much, but when we do it is customary to make a trip to Odyssia's for Greek food. I was a little shocked to see that it was called Odyssia's Steak House because I have never seen anyone order steak here. The Greek food is by far the BEST I have ever had in Victoria.


Every time we go, we get three basic Greek food items: the Calamari, Houmous and Pita, and the Spanakopita. (The Greek Salad is also delish... but I have no picture.)


Let's start with the Calamari.

You know how Calamari always seems to be chewy in Victoria? Well, a small venture out to Sidney will have you eating the most tender calamari ever. After eating it, you will find it extremely hard to eat calamari anywhere else again, so beware! It is perfectly fried, drizzled with freshly chopped red onion and paired with a refreshing tzatziki.

Next up, the Houmous and Pita.

I am personally not a BIG fan of Odyssia's houmous and pita, mostly because I find the houmous a bit bland. I like a really flavourful, garlic-y houmous. The pita paired with it is quite delicious though, nice and thick, lightly buttered.


Next, and probably my favourite, is the Spanakopita.

After craving this, I have tried the Spanakopita in many downtown cafes and absolutely nothing compares. The flavours are perfectly mingled, and the crust perfectly crisp. The spinach and feta in this are so fresh, you can taste that it was made that day.


I mentioned the greek salad, but having no picture, I will try my best to explain. I guess greek salad generally looks the same. Cucumbers, red onion, green peppers and tomatoes (that are so fresh they have changed my opinion about them) combine deliciously with their vinaigrette.


I'm pretty hungry now, and all I want to do is drive out to Sidney for some Greek food. I highly recommend you do the same. Treat your stomach to the best!

Ayo Eat

Ayo Eat
Market Square
250.590.4231


This little gem has been around for a year and a half now, tucked away in a busy corner of Victoria's historic Market Square. I happen to work nearby, so I have been frequenting this little eatery ever since it opened. Eating my way through the menu I have become friends with the awesome owner of Ayo Eat, Ali Syahbana, best known as Bana, who is from the area of Medan, North Sumatra. He is a one-man wonder at the one and only Indonesian eatery in Victoria.


His menu is posted on the door to his one-room operation. Tucked away inside this door is everything Bana needs to prepare some delicious Indonesian food. I have tried the green curry dish with chicken many times, and while it is absolutely delicious (SM loves it) my favourite dish is a variation of the Nasi Goreng Ayam (chicken fried rice) and the Sate Ayam (chicken satay with peanut sauce). Bana is great and makes the 3 skewers of chicken satay over the chicken fried rice, topped off with his delicious peanut sauce, pickled veggies, and prawn crackers.

The peanut sauce and the pickled veggies give this dish the perfect amount of kick, which I love to cool down with the prawn crackers. The chicken skewers are so tender, and always perfectly cooked.

I recommend Ayo Eat to everyone I know that's looking for quick, delicious, healthy eats. It's like nothing else you've ever tried in Victoria.

Ayo Eat Bana! (Let's Eat Bana!)

Keep it up! Bana's optimism every day I see him is inspiring. Please visit him and try his delicious food. I guarantee you'll keep coming back for more!

*He recently added a vegetarian spring roll to his menu, so you vegetarians have no excuse not to try it out!

http://www.ayoeat.com/AyoEat/Welcome_to_Ayo_Eat.html

Dynasty Restaurant

546 Fisgard St.

250.388.6818

Dynasty is a Chinese food restaurant that doubles as an all-day dim sum restaurant! I can't remember how we came across it, possibly wanting dim sum at a non-dim-sum-time, but ever since the first time we've been hooked. This last visit was so satisfying that I knew I had to post about it, mostly because hardly anyone has voted for it on Urbanspoon. We also went on a Friday night and we were their only customers. We were a little thrown off by this because, while the restaurant hasn't ever been super busy when we've come by, there have at least been other customers.

Their dim sum menu is pretty thorough except it is missing vegetables! I like that we can order off a dim sum menu rather than it coming around on carts like at Don Mee's. Because of the lack of vegetables we ordered the green beans in black bean sauce off the regular menu. The male owner came out and told us that they unfortunately did not have enough green beans for the full order and asked if it was ok to add snap peas, which it more than definitely was! The veggies were absolutely delicious!! Crisp, fresh and yummy yummy sauce!!

Next up were our dim sum orders. We ordered the pot stickers (not pictured because they were gobbled up before I remembered to take a picture!!), pork dumplings and the chinese sausage sticky rice.

The pot stickers came with a weird pink sauce that SM said tasted like a wine reduction, so we stuck our pot stickers in the green beans for the black bean sauce! Yum! They were very crisp on the outside and deliciously seasoned on the inside.

The pork dumplings were.. like any other dumpling I think. If you try to explain a dumpling to yourself you'll understand the complexity of putting it into words!

The sticky rice is probably my favourite item of the dinner. Pan fried with chinese sausage, green onions and egg, it is full of flavour and satisfies different taste levels with the slight sweetness of the sausage and the punch of the green onion.

We were glad to see that the food was still delicious despite the quiet Friday night for them. The owners are sweethearts and were consistently checking in on us, clearing plates and topping up our waters. Even with other customers in the restaurant previous times they have been attentive.

I highly recommend checking out Dynasty if you're craving dim sum, or even check out their full Chinese/Cantonese menu.

Shine Cafe

1548 Fort St.

250.595.2133

shinecafe.ca

I mentioned Shine Cafe in my review of Avalon because I have yet to find a breakfast place that is better than Shine!

It is BY FAR our favourite place to go for breakfast. YUM YUM YUM!

Having made my way through the menu over the last 3 years I have been going, I always go for the Nemo Benny. Smoked salmon, avocado, red onion and their house hollandaise sauce. It is super delicious. Bennies elsewhere have not compared because of the hollandaise mostly. I find their hollandaise nicely balanced, not too salty, lemony or buttery.

Shine gives you options as a side: roasted hashbrowns, grilled tomato, or Scottish potato scones. I have tried the hashbrowns, which were the cubed variety often found in breakfast places now but I find them a bit too heavily seasoned with rosemary. But whatever floats your boat! I have also tried the Scottish potato scones and I found those to be very plain, and too heavy to have alongside a benny. You can upgrade to fruit salad for $1.50, but I usually just ask for toast on the side.

The coffee is also EXTREMELY delicious at Shine.

The wait to get in, depending on time and day, can be a bit much but usually never more than 25 minutes. They give you a cup of coffee while you wait though, so we never really feel extremely anxious to get in!

The staff at Shine is the topper for us. They are so helpful and friendly. Always checking in and you can really see that they enjoy working there.

I will be going to Shine for many more years :)

Pluto's

1150 Cook St.

250.385.4747

We stopped by Pluto's one morning/afternoon looking for somewhere to eat brunch. We were pleased to see that they serve breakfast until 2!

Given the time of day, we both felt like having breakfast, but also felt like having lunch. So, we ordered one breakfast item and one lunch item!

For breakfast, we ordered the chorizo scramble. Eggs scrambled with chorizo, topped with cheese, with a side of sour cream and salsa, served with toast and hashbrowns. It was delicious! The eggs were perfectly done, nice and fluffy but not anywhere near dry. The chorizo was spicy! Such a good kick to it! The toast options were sour dough or multi-grain. We asked for multi but unfortunately got sour dough, was fine though. The hashbrowns were cubed potatoes, nicely pan-fried so they were soft inside but crunchy outside!

For lunch, we both thought the shrimp and avocado sandwich sounded interesting. It was not. Served on multi-grain (we thought that was where the mishap with the toast might have come in), with baby shrimp and fairly fresh avocado, it was seriously lacking in flavour. We were pretty disappointed with it, but it came with yummy onion rings.

Given the location, I'm sure we will go back to Pluto's for breakfast and to try some of the many other menu items!

Shima Sushi

250.590.7370

1218 Wharf St.

http://www.shimasushivictoria.ca/

After MUCH persistence from NL, my family and I finally made it to Shima Sushi! There were a few of us so I will focus mostly on my food, and note on whatever else I nibbled on from others' plates!

As always, started with green tea and goma-ae!! Green tea was nice, a sencha. Goma-ae was similar to Kaz Sushi on Store St. with a sweeter sesame sauce than I prefer. Very beautifully prepared though!

I was also able to sample the tuna sashimi which was heavenly! From the one piece I tried, it was very .. I don't even have the words. It tops my views on Ebizo's tuna sashimi, so that's saying a lot. It deliciously melted in my mouth.

I also ordered the teriyaki beef a la carte, which was served with a miso soup (nothing special) and a side of steak sauce (yum!). It also came with some veggies: broccoli, carrots and bok choy. The veggies looked very plain, and I hesitantly ate a small piece of broccoli and it was absolutely delicious! They had some very delicate seasoning on them and I ate every piece of broccoli I could find on my hotplate! (I love broccoli)

Finally, I had a roll. Mostly because I couldn't resist. I absolutely love sushi, but I was really feeling something warm and comforting, hence the beef teriyaki. I ordered the Victoria roll: smoked salmon, crab, cream cheese, red onion, lettuce and cucumber. With those ingredients I was expecting this roll to be a flavour melting pot! I was sadly disappointed. It really didn't have a lot of flavour to it, but was obviously VERY fresh.

I was also able to try:

tempura prawns (crispy and fresh),

edamame (perfect temperature and salty),

rice with steak sauce (yum. similar to previous versions of azuma's. more similar to Japanese village)

I would definitely go back to Shima to try more things, and I would definitely give their rolls another try.

I definitely think you should try it out!!

Avalon Restaurant

250.385.2129

1075 Fort St.

On Saturday morning I was playing around with my Urbanspoon app and it always comes up with places nearby on the home screen of the app. Avalon always comes up because it is really close to our home, and I walk by it all the time on my way home from work, but it has never stood out as a place to go. It wasn't until that morning that I actually looked into it and saw it was a breakfast place, highly recommended to go to when Blue Fox is packed to the brim. (I hate Blue Fox). We decided to go for it!

My first impression walking in was overwhelming. The place is really quite small and was pretty busy at the time. It was also very stuffy, they had their fans going but it was a bit too cold out to have the door open unfortunately.

I do have to mention that the coffee was not terrible as some reviews had mentioned on Urbanspoon. It was not the best coffee, but it was good enough that I had 2 cups. The menu had lots of options, but I settled on a personal favourite of mine, a lox benny on an english muffin. SM had the basic breakfast with 2 eggs, 2 sausages and hashbrowns with a side of their oaten bread.

The above picture is what my lox benny looked like on their oaten bread which it unfortunately came out on. I asked for the english muffin and sadly it came close to 15 minutes later. SM had already finished his breakfast.

The benny was good though. The hollandaise was just how I like, not too lemony/tangy.

The hashbrowns were probably my favourite part. They were deliciously pan-fried, nice and crispy. They tasted delicious with their ketchup!

SM liked his breakfast as well. The reviews of the sausages were smack on, they are very processed.. think Denny's. Sometimes, there is something satisfying about those junky sausages though!

The service was alright. Our waitress seemed to have a bit of an attitude, but seemed genuinely apologetic for the mixup with my english muffin (not how long it took though). She seemed like a manager-type, very bossy with the other staff.

I would walk by to see what their lunch menu is like before committing to going there again.

I like the proximity of it, but would much rather go to Shine Cafe if I want a yummy breakfast.

Sen Zushi

250.385.4320

940 Fort St.

www.senzushi.com

Sen Zushi is our other favourite sushi restaurant. It's handy for us because it's only a couple blocks from our home and we've never had a bad experience.

Our meal at sushi restaurants always starts with green tea, we've become a bit of green tea snobs I must admit. The tea at Sen is quite good, a gen maicha, in a bag rather than loose.

I always start with the goma-ae at Sen because it is the best I have come across. It has the full flavour of a sesame marinade without the sauciness. Covered in sesame seeds and nicely chilled, it is delicious.

Our order fluctuates at Sen, but it usually consists of

• Dynamite Roll - really yummy. Crisp tempura prawn with a light, sweet soy sauce drizzled on it, with imitation crab, avocado, cucumber and lettuce. This roll has a lot of flavour to it, but I feel they could make it slightly longer and, therefore, the cuts thicker as it is quite flimsy.
• Kobei Maki - baby shrimp with mayo, avocado and roe. This roll is usually quite yummy and satisfies multiple needs: flavour, softness and crunch. I was slightly unsatisfied with this roll because it wasn't tightly wrapped and it was opening. The seaweed was a little chewy as well, so I found it difficult to bite into.

Other notable items on the menu: Gyoza appetizer, Victoria roll, Mango Lemonade drink.

Items we wished we hadn't tried: Goma Miso Udon, Ginger Pork.

We would love to try the sashimi sometime but unfortunately it is associated with our least favourite thing about the restaurant. The prices. The sashimi is priced at 5 pieces or 10, and the price for 5 pieces is the same price as many other restaurants who give you 8-10 pieces.

The downfalls: The price. The price. And, umm.. the price. For the prices, the quality is not quite there. The food is delicious but need not be at the escalated prices they are.

For the two of us, our meal came to $25, each.. and it wasn't a large amount of food by any means.

Ebizo Sushi

250.383.3234

604 Broughton St.

So, Ebizo Sushi made the top of my list!

It is our favourite sushi restaurant in Victoria. The service, however, could be better.. much better.

It always starts off as a driveby to see how busy it is. The night we went it didn't look too bad from the outside. We ended up waiting for approx. 25 minutes once we found parking and got inside. There were lots of empty tables that the waitstaff (only 2 people) were seemingly ignoring and not cleaning up. There were 2 groups of people behind us as well that hadn't even been checked in with.

With our hunger growing and patience dwindling, we were finally seated. We really liked our table location actually. We hadn't sat at this particular table before, a four-person table closest to the window against the wall, but we appreciated that it felt more secluded and quiet.

The first thing to be ordered, green tea. The green tea at Ebizo is the best gen maicha I have ever had. It even trumps the one I make at home. Lifting the lid of the teapot, you are overwhelmed by the smell of toasted rice. YUM!

Our ordering generally consists of the same thing every time.

• Tuna Sashimi - the absolute best in the city. Cold. Melts in your mouth, yet firm. No fishy smell or taste. Perfection.
• 2 Dynamite Rolls - every time I bite into a piece of this roll, I am amazed that something can taste so good. Crisp tempura prawn with exceptionally fresh avocado and cucumbers, finished with their homemade mayo.
• Yam Tempura Roll w/ Cream Cheese - yum. Crisp tempura yam, almost like yam fries stuffed in a roll. We add the cream cheese, and they do charge us 50 cents but it's worth it.

This time, we also started with tempura vegetables which are fresh and crisp. Veggies include: carrots, yam, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, green beans. I know, green beans!? They are delish.

We also tried the spicy tuna and avocado roll for the first time. SM was a fan but I was not. It was lacking in flavour, but still very fresh. Pleasant enough to eat but I gave most of my share to him.

My recommendation? Make reservations!!! Try to plan ahead to visit this wonderful restaurant. Also, have patience with the low number of waitstaff. Once you're seated, you don't really notice the lack of staff, it's when you're waiting at the door that you feel ignored. Make a reso and I'm sure you won't notice at all!

*there is also a parking lot right beside the restaurant if you don't mind paying evening parking fees.

First Post?!

Not too sure which restaurant is worthy of the first food blog post!
Will have to be one of my ultimate favourites.
Stay tuned to see what tops my list!

:) - nikki