Four Mile House: Delightful Wings Wednesday!

Wandered onto the island for a mini-vacation with my parents just for this! (Well one of the main reasons) It wasn't very packed, but we seated ourselves and were provided with menus after a little wait.
Restaurant: Four Mile House Bar and Grill (visit their website here)

Location: 199 Island Highway, View Royal
Cuisine: Pub, American, Bar
Price range: $15-25



Date of visit: March 30, 2016
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

So Wings Wednesdays meant-- YES half-priced wings! Super stoked, we ordered five pounds of them. But first, here's Elephant's Virgin Caesar ($2.95). Pretty good price for a drink! He says he always enjoys his caesars here every time!

Onto the main event: WINGS ($12.95/pound, half price on Wednesdays). All of them were cooked well, juicy inside and crispy outside.We ordered the BBQ wings, which I felt packed a strong smokey flavor. A little on the salty side, but sauce was just the right amount.

I chose the Lemon Pepper, which were dry wings. I didn't taste much of the lemon, but with the lemon wedges we got with another dish spritzed on them-- mm! There was some sweetness to the peppery sprinkles and although they were dry wings, the insides were still very juicy.

The Blue Moon was quite special, I'd never tasted anything quite like it. It's blue cheese with buffalo hot sauce, felt it was too salty and a bit spicy for me. However I liked the pairing of flavors as they literally burst in my mouth.

Fourth pound was Teriyaki wings, these were quite salty. Not very memorable to me as I felt they were a bit too saucy.

Last pound! Honey garlic! So much honey, not a lot of garlic. Although I thought it would be too saucy, it wasn't overly sweet and I quite liked these wings.

On top of that we ordered Cod Fish and Chips with an extra piece of fish ($16.65). The cod was flakey and moist, crispy outside. Didn't touch the fries much, but they were your average pub fries. Salad on the side was light and tangy, helped cut the fat feeling of all the wings we were having!

Had to try a pasta, so we got an Ocean Liner Linguini ($16.65). This had mussels, clams, wild salmon, cod, and shrimp in a white wine cream sauce. The seafood was very plentiful and fresh, the pasta was al dente. Sauce was a bit on the sweet side.

Overall our meal was very enjoyable, although it did take quite some time for our wings and food to finally arrive (probably cuz we ordered 5 pounds). Our server was cheerful and friendly. One thing I wish they could improve upon would be drink refills, our water was empty for about half the meal, but our server was not around for us to ask or offer us refills. I realize now that there's also other specials on Wednesdays (and every day of the week) but WINGS.

**Sorry for the poor photos, just got a new camera and adjusting to it xD**

Pagliacci's: Adorkably punny dish names!

Day trip to Victoria, of course I'd have lunch on my little Elephant =D (thanks) Not sure where to go, I looked up somewhere relatively highly rated and we ended up here. Paid street parking, not bad.

Restaurant: Pagliacci's (visit their website here)

Location: 1011 Broad Street, Victoria
Cuisine: Italian, Breakfast
Price range: $15-20 per person




Date of visit:February 28, 2015
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

We were started with some complimentary bread as we worked through the menu.

I ordered the The Prawn Broker ($16.00) with Side Soup, such a cute name! It was a cashew curry based sauce with coconut milk, jumbo prawns, mango chutney, and cream on a spinach fettuccine. There is an option of half the pasta for $3 less. Greedy me got the full serving =P It was full of ingredients and the pasta was al dente. However, I not much curry flavor and the sauce was too sweet. I prefer savory pasta more.

Soup was tomato-based, fragrant and tangy. I liked it!

Elephant got The Big Easy ($17.00) with Caesar Salad. This had jumbo prawns, chicken, Italian sausage, bell peppers and mushrooms in a spicy Cajun marinara sauce over penne. So much meat in his, but delicious albeit a bit spicy for me.

Salad was fresh and your typical Caesar salad. We could've chosen a different sauce, but wanted to just get the full Caesar experience =P

It was also kind of early, Elephant ordered a Coffee ($3.00). They kept refilling it, and I guess it was ok. (Not a big fan of coffee). Overall the service was great and props to their creative names!

Point Ellice House: Frustratingly disappointing experience

Super stoked about going to Victoria for a mini-vacation, I looked at several high tea places to visit and this one stuck out to me.

Restaurant: Point Ellice House (visit their website here)

Location: 2616 Pleasant Street, Victoria
Cuisine: Coffee/Tea, High Tea
Price range: $10-$30+





Date of visit: August 9, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 3/5
Food variety: 1/5
Food quality: 2/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

To be very fair, they were super patient with me changing my reservation many times and answered all my questions via email promptly. When we arrived, it was quite sketchy as it was in an industrial area and the road was in terrible condition. I find there was lack of direction as we entered and overall we didn't feel welcomed. Had to look for seats ourselves and we weren't noticed until standing up and waving our hands at the waitress who was standing right next to me. WOW. Anyhow, since we only ordered two high tea sets, she made us order another two teas because sharing of tea wasn't allowed. So we paid for admission ($6.00) and tea and high tea. =.=

Either way, we eventually found a spot with some shade from the blistering sun and sat down to enjoy our four teas. The individual Tea ($4.00) was from the same list as high tea, meaning we chose 4 out of their approximately 10 teas. Not very happy. Nothing exceptional about the teas, besides the cute cups. My tea smelled a lot better than the taste, which made me a bit sad =(

First came a Carrot and Squash soup which the other waitress kindly help us split into four cups. It was decent, didn't taste like canned stuff and I could feel the carrot. However, nothing special about the flavors.

Here's our two High Tea Sets ($27.00 each) placed on the same tray. Sigh. No wonder it was so "cheap" compared to the other high tea places. The best part of it all was the slice of watermelon. The sandwiches were dry (like, the bread had been left out too long). The quiches were the ones you can get in a 48 pack from Costco. The brownie and banana bread were probably from a supermarket. The jam was good. Scone was also likely to be store-brought. Meh.

Overall I was super disappointed with what we had paid for. The website definitely dresses it up a lot more than what is actually presented. We had to tour the house ourselves, and the lack of directives to navigate our experience really irked me. Mind you there were friendly staff, just not helpful. I would definitely recommend going to other places for high tea in Victoria.

Shanghai City Chinese Restaurant, Victoria: Sketchy much?

As you may have noticed, I've started to change the post title, since I've been mainly doing food posts, I thought having a descriptive title was more fun =) Anyhow, adventures in Victoria continue!

Restaurant: Shanghai City Chinese Restaurant (visit their website here)

Location: 548 Fisgard Street, Victoria (upstairs)
Cuisine: Chinese, Seafood, Shanghai
Price range: $10-20




Date of visit: June 30, 2013
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 3/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

Gotta say, worst decision so far. We saw this place was upstairs and decided to try it, since I wanted some Shanghai dumplings. Boy, was that a big bad mistake. Walked upstairs, and the place was almost empty. Scary. Oh well.

Ordered two of the Steamed Shanghai Dumplings ($5.95) that I wanted, and they weren't anything special. By far too sweet for the taste and a few of them were over-steamed, hence lost the juice inside. for around $1 each, these were definitely not a good deal.

Next was another disappointment, Minced Garlic with Pork Belly ($8.95) because the pork slices were too thick. The garlic was not finely minced and the sauce was so salty. Although I still have yet to find a place that does this dish justice, they by far, have murdered this dish.

Their Spareribs with Honey Garlic ($14.95) was decent. A bit overfried, but taste-wise it was much better in comparison to the other two dishes. Honestly, how much does pork cost?? Totally overpriced for this tiny dish =(

Finally, our Pan-fried Shanghai Thick Noodles ($11.95) showed up. This was the best dish all meal. They used authentic thick noodles, but again, too salty. Not much other ingredients either, just a lot of noodles.

Won't be back for sure. Whole restaurant looked super sketchy! I was worried I might not survive! Thank goodness we made it out alive!!

Munchie Adventure: Ocean Garden Restaurant, Victoria

Back to Chinatown again for dinner, we just stopped here since it looked quite busy =)

Restaurant: Ocean Garden Restaurant
Location: 568 Fisgard Street, Victoria
Cuisine: Chinese
Price range: $15 per person




Date of visit: June 3, 2013
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 3.75/5

For such a busy restaurant, I'd have to say that having one waitress is a bit stretching the workload. However, she did manage, so service was a bit slow until someone else showed up (or we speculated, returned from a delivery). Nothing that stands out from the menu, everything was very normal and typical.

To be safe, we ordered conservatively. Their Scrambled Eggs with Prawns ($14.95) was nicely done, egg was creamy and eggy (some places put a lot of flour and other stuff in it, but this was quite pure egg). Prawns were a bit tiny, but plentiful. Dish was a bit watery on the bottom, not sure what caused it, but didn't bother me too much.

I forgot what this menu item was really called, but it's like a House Special Chow Mein ($12.95). A bit oily, but they used plentiful ingredients and the noodles were cooked crispily. A little burnt and too much squid.

Sweet Sour Pork with Pineapples ($11.95) was very lean indeed. Only one piece was half fat =D Crispy and fresh, this was a highlight for the meal. Ok, maybe the pork was a little bit overfried and a few pieces were harder than I'd like, but overall good job!

Finally, Mushrooms with Egg Tofu ($12.95) arrived =) Glad it wasn't just one piece of mushroom like the experience we had in Kelowna, so already happy there! Also they were fried pieces of egg tofu, so like like like! The sauce wasn't overwhelming the dish, but the side pieces of tofu didn't have sauce unless you swirled the dish around a bit and got some sauce from the middle ones. Should've ordered other kinds of mushrooms, or asked what selection we could have since one mushroom type on top is so boring  xD

I think I may revisit this place if I end up here again, they gave me a good impression although the service was a bit lacking due to possible understaffing. Otherwise, food suits our tastes and it isn't overly pricey =)

Munchie Adventure: Vietnam Garden Restaurant, Esqimalt (Victoria)

WORST. Experience. Ever. I wonder why it's even rated so highly on Urbanspoon. Or maybe it's just not suitable for my tastes. One could say they're very. . . different than the majority of Vietnamese restaurants-- not in a good way. They have a LOT of room for improvement =)

Restaurant: Vietnam Garden Restaurant
Location: 524 Admirals Road, Esquimalt
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Vegetarian
Price range: $10-15




Date of visit: June 3, 2013
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

We came here because it was nearby the place we're staying at, and when we walked in, it wasn't very full. People started trickling in afterwards. Saw the lunch specials and decided to try their lunch special A: Red Curry Chicken with Rice, Spring Roll, and Vegetables ($8.95). I was excited about the spring roll... and I guess it's the least disappointing thing we had (I was still quite disappointed). It was not very crispy, made with rice flour wrap instead of the traditional spring roll wrap. Ingredients weren't flavored right either. It was bland and chewy in a bad way. Rice was cooked badly too. The curry wasn't even real red curry. Chicken was a few slices of bland chicken. Utterly horrid.

On the side we could order Wontons ($2.50), and I gotta say they're pretty expensive wontons. . . And not good either. Way too overcooked the wrapping was so soggy and mushy. The meat inside didn't taste fresh either-- actually quite bland once again. There were 3 wontons in the bowl.

Glad we only ordered three things. I didn't want to put anything else in me. This was the Rare Beef Noodles in Soup ($9.50) and let's say, I was sad they didn't have limes. NO LIMES. I was so very sad. As well, the soup wasn't very hot, the bean sprouts were mixed in with the noodles already, onions were undercooked. And noodles weren't very chewy. I'm pretty sure the times I've made it at home were better. No offense.

They even charged us for their tea. $0.65 per person! Not that it's a large amount, but not worth that money because that tea was bad quality. Sheesh. Will not be back for sure.

Munchie Adventure: Don Mee, Victoria

Since seeing it yesterday, parents were curious and just wandered here today! Upon entry, gave me a very authentic old-fashioned Chinese feel. That being said, they were quite sneaky and were about to give us old tea, luckily we asked and they gave us a new pot of tea.

Restaurant: Don Mee (visit their website here)
Location: 538 Fisgard Street, Victoria
Cuisine: Chinese, Dim Sum
Price range: approx $15 per person








Date of visit: June 2, 2013
Atmosphere: 4.5/5
Staff/service: 3.5/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 3.5/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

They even teach people how to order dim sum! ^-^ There were actual dim sum carts being carted around, with the giant steamers full of food!

Like traditional ways, we had a card to mark down what dim sum we ate, so I didn't notice what the prices were for the dishes.

Already at the table was a deep fried dumpling with rissoles. It wasn't what I was used to seeing, but crispy on the outside and moist and hot on the inside. Nicely done.

Then was pan fried sticky rice, it was very full and pretty good. Bit on the oily side, but that's rather normal at dim sum places.

Saw the big steamer and just had to order some! It was a steamed shrimp dumpling with veggies.

Wrapping was perfect. I loved how chewy it was but the carrot didn't work so well with the whole dumpling.

Seeing this cart, I knew I had to order something from it. It's a portable pan frier (as I like to call it). Although the server wasn't very friendly, the food looked fun! =D It would've been cooler if she cooked it when we ordered instead of it being pre-cooked ><"

Anyways, ordered pan fried stuffed green peppers, and they were your average stuffed green peppers. Shrimp puree was springy and good. My green pepper was a bit burnt though =(

Also, ordered a serving of potstickers. These were sub-par because the meat wasn't fresh and it was burnt. The wrapping was too thick as well. Not juicy at all. Loads of room for improvement.

Saw these come along and they looked good! Deep fried stuffed crab claws. Now I remember how much they cost $6.99!! For only two =( It's not terribly expensive, but for that price I could've got a lot more other food =P They were good though! Same shrimp puree as the stuffed green peppers, and the outside spring roll strips were very crispy. Oily though.

Finally, dessert rolled around. I remember having these deep fried egg puffs with sugar when I was a kid, sure brings back memories!

Sadly there were NOT fresh =( And a bit undercooked. *disappointed*

Glad we asked about the tea because they charged quite a hefty sum for it ($0.90 per person). Overall I was pleased with my experience, but they feel a bit "evil" in the sense that they aren't a very honest operating restaurant. I worry about the integrity of the food quality and cleanliness. Might be back if I'm really craving dim sum, but there's more along Chinatown yet to be tried! ^-^