Smokin' Bones, Downtown

I like meat. Piles of protein, slow cooked in a rich sauce, or quick grilled on an open flame, or baked in a meat pie, or sautéed with some garlic. BBQ'd meat, rich, savoury taste, the crispy, blackened edges, and moist tender meat inside, is a favourite. I love a good piece of chicken, introduced to some smoke, and some herbs, marinated then chucked around some flames for a while. Well-cooked pork ribs are also good, with a thick sauce, if done well I'm in hog heaven (pun intended).

Smoken' Bones moved out of Langford a while ago, and have now moved into the bottom of the Hudson building. I'd be to the Langford location a few years back, and enjoyed the food, so when a Groupon came up, it was a good excuse to try out the new location. The room is style on industrial chic. Concrete floors, big windows onto the street (Douglas is not that great a view around this block, though) and functional rows of tables catering from 2 to 20. They seem to be ideal for catering to a large group, who want to enjoy a communal, loud meal. This isn't a quiet little bistro for a intimate date.

Anyway, the noise swims around the room, but doesn't swallow up everything, so while there's atmosphere, the acoustics mean you can talk to the person opposite. Many places could do with following this example. It's good to talk. It's not good to shout and scream to be heard.

We had hardly been seated when the waitress asked us for our order. We needed a few minutes, and it was a bit jarring to feel rushed. But she came back again in good time, got us drinks and took the food order. I went for the Smoked and roasted chicken with a half rack of ribs and a side of dirty mexican rice cakes. Obviously to try out all the food. My friend ordered the burger and hand-cut fries.

The fries were huge, solid chunks of potato. Crispy outside, soft on the inside. Top notch. Fries don't make a meal (whatever New York Fries tries to tell me). The burger was a good size, and plenty good enough, I was told. Good sized servings on both plates, which was good, as some people had told me the portions were a little small. The ribs were just okay. The meat was a bit dry, and the BBQ flavour was not that prominent. The meat didn't have that fall of bone quality that you'd expect. The chicken, I thought, was excellent though. Tender on the inside, moist, smoky flavour, just crisped on the outside, with a just enough sauce.

The biggest disappointment was the dirty rice cakes. I was expecting a pile of rice shaped into a disc and maybe just slightly fried to keep its shape. These were over fried, greasy and lacking in any flavour. Dirty rice should have some flavour from the vegetables and the stock. This was just fried, coloured rice. Not good at all. Was the special for the night, and I should have gone for the corn bread, which many people seem to recommend.

But really, actually, for BBQ in Victoria, I should have gone to Pig (on Blanshard). Smoken' Bones doesn't seem to offer anything over Pig, except for a larger space and more variety in the menu. The food isn't as good. Table service is nice, and I had no problems with it apart from the initial rush to take out order. The price was okay. I was well fed for my dollars, though value was improved by the Groupon I used. But unless there's a big group of us, won't be rushing for a second try.

Final Bill
Half Rib and quarter chicken plate - $21
Cheese Burger - $14
2 Cokes - $5
Total :  $52 with taxes and tip
Phone : 250-391-6328
Address : 7-1701 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC V8T4K6
Website : Smoken' Bones

Argyle Attic, Downtown

Above Smiths, attached to the Quality Inn in downtown Victoria lies the Argyle Attic. The website gives few details, requiring me to search out exactly where it was before we visited - a bit of a hint in there would be nice without looking for the address on the contact us page, and then working out which block it is on Courtney and then realizing. But its getting some love for the range of whisky it serves, and being a quieter alternative to the more boisterous Smiths. But we were heading for breakfast, so I'll have to leave the drinking review for another time.

The attic itself is a bright room, with plenty of space, with wood chairs and tables, along with a couple of comfy armchairs in front of a fire. Probably the prime spot for an evening, after a day on the moors, hunting grouse, sitting with a wee dram of single malt, regaling your friend with stories of shooting, and the troubles of being a laird. The stag's head above the fireplace made me think of an old Scottish baronial lodge. The walls are more contemporary, with painted quotes from various famous Canadians or about Canada. On top of some Victorian style wall paper and wood panels. Slightly cheesy, but also just works to the place's advantage.

The food, it's all about the food for brunch. Everything on the menu is $12, with tea and coffee included. Nice and simple. Menu ranges from standard bacon and eggs, to a couple of breakfast poutine choices (curry gravy or normal). Pretty short menu, but who needs that many choices early on a Sunday morning? Sadly they were out of normal poutine sauce, but the folks eating the curry breakfast poutine left stuffed to gunwales. Bowl of cottage potatoes, covered with eggs and meat and curry sauce.

I went for the 3 pancakes and sausage. I must have been feeling sensible. Three pancakes the size of a side plate, two-three sausages, syrup and butter. They have Galloping Goose sausages. Some breakfast sausages are bland, greasy tubes. No flavour, no texture, no protein. These are not them. Juicy, but not fatty. These breakfast sausages are herbed just enough to add some flavour to the meat, but not overdone to overpower the meat or the rest of the meal. The pancakes were fluffy, cooked well, and they absorbed as much maple syrup as I could throw at them.

The waitress only had 4 or so tables to cover, but seemed a little distracted. But that's a minor point, everything was served together, and coffee came about as quick as it could be brewed. The place also had no functioning toilet, so we either had to wander the halls of the hotel, or hold it in. The waitress let us in to the downstairs washrooms as we left though, so everyone was relieved.

Good meal, nice surroundings, will be on the list to visit again.

Final Bill
3 Pancakes with Sausage - $12
1 Pot of Tea - Included in breakfast
Total :  $16 with taxes and tip
Phone : 250-360-2544
Address : 777 Courtney Street, Victoria BC, Canada, V8W 1G3
Website : The Argyle Attic

Oaks Restaurant and Grill, Oak Bay

I've always been amused when a place is called a 'grill'. Commonly you don't have the 'bar and stove', or the 'cocktail lounge and oven'. Why is having a metal grid for heating food over flame so commonly advertised, such that it gets top billing on a restaurant's name? Well, I can't solve every question I have, but here's a review of the Oaks Restaurant and Grill. Which I assume had a grill in the kitchen. I didn't check. It does not have an apostrophe in the name.

Oaks replaces the Oak Bay Bistro (or OBB) which in turn replaces The Blethering Place Teahouse. The former was okay, and had a hot waiter. The latter was widely reviewed as a horrible pastiche of a British tea shop for those with no taste buds, standards or will to live. I'll go to questionable places at times, but never summoned up the courage to rub shoulders with Oak Bay's older clientèle for a bad cup of tea and hardened scone. The Oaks has been open a while now, but this was my first time in. A quick look around and it looked much like the OBB, with the same dark wood, open feel and solid, contemporary chairs and tables.

My friends were already there, and I joined them on one of the two tables of four we had. Slightly the staff didn't offer to push them together, so we slightly isolated as two groups, rather than one bigger set. The menu is short, and too the point. Four different omelettes, 3 different eggs benedict, and your standard set of eggs, protein and starch. There was also a choice of French cinnamon toast with fresh fruit. More on that later. Nothing is particularly different, but it covers the bases.

I went for the Tex-Mex omelette. Ground chorizo, peppers, beans and salsa. Sounded like a good mix to me, spicy beef mixes being a favourite of mine since I moved to North America. I ordered a big pot of tea to go with it, and chatted. The Oaks does have several big flat screen TVs above the bar and in the corners. Instead of your more typical sports and rolling news, they were showing pastoral scenes of Britain and Canada. I assume they use from TV at some point, otherwise seemed a strange touch, and an expensive way of having digital photographs.

My tea arrived. I can tell when I'm not in the UK... tea was served as a do-it-yourself kit of tea bag, hot water and milk. Plus one mark for bringing milk out with it (and not cream). Minus two for not making me an actual pot of tea. Tea is far better when the boiling water is introduced directly to the tea bag, and not a minute or two later. I don't expect to grind my own beans when I order a coffee, but only a few places seem to serve me a pot of tea. Charging me $2.25 for a (cheap) tea bag and pot of hot water is annoying. I should just order coffee to keep my annoyance level down.

The meal arrived, from a very friendly server, who seemed pretty keen to help us out. I did have to ask for pepper, kethcup and hot sauce for the table. These should be offered or provided automatically at breakfast, but there was no trouble getting them. I just hate waiting to eat while I get the condiments, and like some hot sauce to go with my eggs. I think I might getting into the picky territory now, but there is several great breakfast joints in Victoria, so just being good is not enough to stand out for me. The food was also just good-to-okay. The omelette itself was cooked perfectly, solid, yet fluffy. The ground chorizo though just tasted almost gritty, and didn't really help the dish out like I'd imagined it would. Not terrible, just vaguely disappointing, like the season finale of a popular television comedy.

The big fail was the cinnamon toast. It, according to my friend, tasted faintly of meat. As she eats vegetarian, tasting of meat isn't quite what you expect cinnamon toast to have a whiff of. I guess they used the same segment of grill. The fresh fruit was a handful of blueberries (I'm not entirely convinced they were fresh either). Pretty poor showing. No complaint was sent to the kitchen, cause we don't like to make too much of fuss. But this kind of put my off going back. Lack of care in the food preparation is a black mark for me.

So, an average place to get breakfast, with reasonable service and food that didn't shine. No-one seems to want to go back again.

Final Bill
Pot of tea - $2.25
Tex-Mex Omelette - $11.65
Total :  $Total : $18 with Taxes and tip
Phone : 250-590-3155
Address : 206- 2250 Oak Bay Ave, Victoria, BC V8R1G4
Website : Oaks on Facebook

Brief Visits and Re-visits

It's dine around Victoria at the moment, so I took the opportunity to hit up at least one place to see how it was looking. The Reef I wrote about 3 and a half years ago. I've been back since, and really enjoyed their jerked food. The dine around menu offered a $20 and $30 version, and I went for the $30 meal. I shouldn't have. The soft, pork tacos were excellent. Spicy, crisp pickled cabbage, delight to eat. The Thyme Chicken was lifeless, and the mashed potatoes were slightly watery, and mushy rather than either creamy or rustic. The profiteroles were dry, really spoiling the not-to-bad pineapple cream filling. Meh. My friends had a some excellent sliders, and a crispy-sweet banana in their $20 meal.

I knew I should have gone for the jerk chicken. Still, the johnny cakes were still tasty, the house made hot sauce has a -just- bearable heat. Lesson learned : always go with the actually Carribbean food. The Ginger Beer shandy was also a welcome addition to the standards to order there.

This wasn't the first place I've been to on dine around that felt like they were phoning it during Dine Around. Maybe I was unlucky, or maybe the places are trying to turn around customers quickly or keeping costs down. But as a showcase, some places aren't doing that too well.

There's also some places I've been to that I want to do a full review of in the future or go back to for a fuller experience:

Green Wasabi - spreading from Sidney to have a downtown branch on the 1600 block of Douglas, this is a Sushi Cafe. No frills, clean and tidy, high backed chairs, glass over the table clothes. It looks nothing special. What I had is among the best rolls I've had in town. I always order BC rolls, loving the crisp flavour of the cooked salmon skins inside a rice roll. These were perfectly done. Fresh, clean tasting, flavours mingled perfectly. I also had the Chicken Teriyaki Don as well. The chicken was tender, had soaked in the flavours of the sauce. Rice done perfectly. One to go back to again.

The Pink Bicycle - My number one go to place for a gourmet burger. I normally go for either the veggie burger or the beef burger. It's hard to choose, as both are wonderful examples of their craft. The beef burger, juicy, satisfying. The veggie bean patty has this rough, texture with a wonderful combination of flavours from the chick peas and dates. So last time, I went with the Chicken Burger. Not as good as the other two, but the Guyere cheese, and herbs made it a good meal. The side salad seems to be a small cup, but there's enough going on in the bun you don't really need to care about the sides. Small store, sometimes hard to get into. Great food, good service.

Oak Bay Beach Hotel - The allegedly had a brunch menu for the weekend. Turns out that the advertising and the web presence is ahead of the kitchen. The six of us trooped down their at end of February, and got a great seat in the Snug, looking out of the large windows across the sea. There was much apologizing for the lack of brunch, as the chef just didn't feel he had the staff to run the menu yet. We weren't the only ones disappointed by the lack of Eggs and Protein. But we ordered. The service is excellent. The view is worth going back for some beers in the summer looking out across the sea. The food was pub food, trying to be a step above, but just not there. I had the ploughmans. Could have done with more salad than the pickled carrot. The 'cheese' was supposed to be a quality cheddar, but I'm sure it's a normal cheddar sold by slice from the Thrifty's deli. Or I can't tell the difference. Scotch egg was good, mind. But it's a lot to pay for a good scotch egg(*). I'll go back for the staff and the environment and give the kitchen a second chance. Or just drink... I can always do that.

Little Thai Place - Oh so variable. One week I'll have this beautifully cooked soup, or rice dish with chicken so tender and spicy, I swear I'll never order Thai anywhere else again. The next time, a soup with half the herbaceous border in it, that I spend my time picking out the wood parts, and rushed food that where the rice is already drying out. And over-fried spring rolls, that I'm sure we could drill into and supply the oil for heating parts of Saanich during the winter. Inconsistent.

(*) A Scotch Egg is a boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, breaded and cooked. It's not a egg which has had its yolk replaced with single malt whisky. And if you want to try that at home, use a cheap blend.