What’s Cooking Around Victoria

We’re excited to see the brand-new Rabbit Rabbit Wine Bar open in the former Saveur location on Herald Street. Owner and sommelier Sydney Cooper is inviting guests to follow her down the rabbit hole to a welcoming wonderland of terroir-inspired wine and approachable cuisine. A stylish but unpretentious wine bar? We’re in.

When beloved brunch hot spot Bear & Joey closed last year, Victorians mourned. But now we have cause to rejoice. In its place, The Breakfast Shop has opened, combining forces from The Ruby, Jones Bar-B-Que, Discovery Coffee and Yonni’s Doughnuts. The look is cozy but modern, with great tunes to wake you up and the promise of quick service so you don’t have to wait for that cup of joe. Mostly, though, it’s all about the food here: homemade brioche buns for the breakfast sandwiches, in-house ground meat for the signature breakfast sausage and clever ideas like the “avocado croast” (poached eggs and smashed avocado on a pressed croissant). Plus there are special treats for the littlest members of the family, as well as the furriest ones.

At last, Victoria has the kind of omakase-style sushi bar that tends to be showered in Michelin stars in other cities. The tiny, eight-seat Chobap Sushi Bar recently opened kitty-corner to The Courtney Room and offers three different tasting menu options. Omakase means  “I’ll leave it up to you,” and we’re happy to leave this menu up to sushi chef Clark Park. He is something of a legend, a chef who honed his skills at omakase restaurants in Osaka and has worked at Miku in Vancouver and Yua Bistro and Marilena in Victoria. You’re in good hands here.

Roast Meat & Sandwich Shop, long one of our favourite spots in the Victoria Public Market, has opened a second location in Victoria.  It’s now dishing up its brisket, roast beef, meatball and rotisserie chicken sandwiches from one of the kiosks near Crust Bakery at Uptown.

The folks behind Be Love and other local favourites have opened a new pizza joint and, in the process, revitalized a corner of Colwood. In 2017, they bought the Country Rose  Pub (now The Rose) and fixed it up; now they’ve completely renovated and refurbished the rundown building next door and transformed it into Colwood Pizza Co., where  chef Sheena Lind makes Sicilian-style sheet-pan pizzas. A two-day fermentation and glugs of olive oil result in crusts with a crispy, golden base and an airy, flavourful chew. There are dozens of flavourful toppings, too, and these pizzas are perfectly sized to feed a crowd.

It’s something of a good-news, bad-news, who-knows-what’s-next situation for the talented team at Café Malabar. Last fall, the prestigious awards named the Keralan food stand in the Victoria Public Market Canada’s No. 5 best new restaurant. Just a few weeks later, chefs Karma Tenpa and Kiran Kolathodan learned that Coho Commissary, which provided their kitchen facilities, was ending its lease with the market. That has left them without a space to operate; at the end of December, they were heading off on a planned break with no new location confirmed. However, they promise to reopen soon, either in the market or elsewhere. All we know is, wherever they go, we’ll follow.

Pizzeria Prima Strada has been named 100th best pizza on the planet, one of only two Canadian pie joints to make the prestigious 50 Top Pizza List. (The other was Calgary’s Pizza Culture at No. 96.) The 50 Top Pizza Awards is an Italy-based network that has highlighted the world’s best pizzerias since 2017. Italy, not surprisingly, led the rankings with 41 entries.

Now, this is nice (and so are we). Victorians, it seems, are Canada’s most generous tippers — in fact, the whole Island is happy to support the hardworking folks in the restaurant biz. That’s according to the recent Uber Eats Cravings Report, which placed four Island cities among the top 10 most generous tippers in Canada, with Victoria at No. 1, followed by Campbell River (No. 4), Nanaimo (No. 6) and Courtenay (No. 7).

January 31, 2025 | 0 comments