Chuck's Burger Bar, Sidney, BC

Post 1 of the 2017 challenge, and it's a nomination by Rayna of Quench Wines. Chuck's Burger Bar in Sidney. It claims to have the best burgers on the island, using local, fresh ingredients. So well worth a try. Especially as I was at the airport to pick up Andrea from the airport. Now I look at the map, I know it's just around the corner from the airport terminal. But I didn't do that. I set off on a grand tour of Deep Cove, Lands End Road and Swartz Bay instead.

It was nice to see some of the countryside. We passed the church used in 'Graceppoint', the terrible remake of the British show 'Broadchurch'. I pointed this out to Andrea. She wasn't impressed. I think my 'turn right out of the airport' plan was not the right one.

We did get back to somewhere I recognized. The highway by the ferry terminal. We headed south and called up a map. This quickly found us Chuck's in the middle of the small industrial estate next to the airport. Nestled next to a Boyd's Auto Body, opposite Slegg's Lumber is Chuck's Burger Bar.

It was still a little early in the evening, so we were the only two people in there at first. Our server, David, was super warm and friendly, and got us settled in with the menu and fresh water. The inside of the place is what I call 'West coast wood'. This means lots of varnished lumber, big cuts of wood for the tables, stained dark brown chairs and exposed bricks. Clean, tidy but not feeling over-dressed. It also had a huge picture of a cow along one wall.

Showing pictures of the animals you are about to eat is a thing.

A cow. Painted.

The menu is large... as long as you want burgers. There are nine different patties to choose from. These include ground bacon, Angus beef and lamb. To go with this is are around 50 different toppings, so you can build your own perfect burger. This goes along with a host of different cheeses; and the option to add a 1/4lb of lobster as well.

Or if you can't be thinking of your own recipe, there's twenty or so pre-made burger recipes. For example, the Hawaiian is a bacon burger with pineapple and a zesty tequila BBQ sauce.

The Pescetarian caught my eye. A veggie burger topped with jack cheese and lobster, with black pepper mayo. I checked in with our server on how the veggie burger was made. I was told it was made with fresh vegetables. Not the fake veggie mince or some weird quinoa and mushroom mix. So I decided to go for it. It was either this most unusual offering, or the standard cheese burger.
I fear I need to go back and try the cheese burger.

This was a disappointing mess of a burger. A breaded veggie burger that is super crispy on the outside, but with a muddy mess of vegetables inside. There's no real flavour to it, but a odd combination of textures. The lobster meat was tepid or even cold. That doesn't work for me on a burger, and as I expect it was from the fridge it was slight rubbery as well. That made for a unpleasant mouthful. None of the flavours or textures were working together. It was a sad choice, as it looked pleasant, and apart from the choice to have cold lobster, all put together well.
But it just didn't work for me.

The mound of fresh cut fries served with it were crisp, fluffy and great fries. The coleslaw was good, the pickle spear crunchy, the service great. Everything but the burger. Which makes me a little sad to write about it, as I wanted to say they're were all awesome.

I do have to report Andrea thought her poutine was good to great (needed the cheese to be a bit more melty). She ordered the Fire Grilled Chicken and Chorizo burger. The report I asked for said it had some great spicy kick to it, and was still warm and tasty when she finished it up later.
So, you should -probably- go to Chuck's and try it out. I know next time I'm doing an airport run and want food, I'll go there instead of White Spot. Now I know it exists.

And I will report back in.

Free Birthday Food - Denny's and Red Robin, Mayfair, Victoria

This past Monday I turn another year older.  I went in search of free stuff you might get for your birthday.  Plenty of offers for 2 for 1 deals, or 25% off.  But the two good offers I found (and used) were:

a) Free Denny's Grand Slam
b) Free Red Robin Gourmet Burger.

So as part of my birthday fun day, I went off on my bike to try out these two (and get in a 25km bike ride as well to burn of some of the calories).

Denny's, 3100 Douglas Street

Denny's offer a free Grand Slam breakfast for you on your birthday.  You can mix and match four items from their list, so I decided on pancakes, bacon, hash browns and sunny-side up eggs.  Coffee is extra, but a three bucks for bottomless coffee, that's not so bad.

It was a very wet and raining Monday morning, so I had the place pretty much to myself.  This didn't stop my table having a good speckling of toast crumbs for whoever was their last.  The staff were pretty fast attentive all throughout, and the coffee was kept well topped up.  Two of my friends joined me, including a big Denny's Breakfast fan ("I love me some Denny's" - true quote).  We all got slams.

Mine was fair to good.  The pancakes were the size of large side plates, fresh, and cooked beyond the point they taste like paste and before the point they taste like cardboard.  There was a whipped scoop of butter on top.  Don't think this is a tiny ice cream scoop. It's not.

The hash-browns are the real deal, grated potatoes, fried up and still slightly greasy, yet crispy on the outside.  The eggs were done okay...  I could have tested them further with scrambled eggs, but as I had a long day ahead of me, bad eggs would have put a damper on things.  But based on what I got, I'd try it next time.   The bacon was probably mostly water when it was put on the grill.. as it came out as two shriveled rashers, crisped to nothing much at all.  Sad loss of a pig to the world.

Everyone seems to have a Denny's horror story, about how there local one is the worst in the city/province/country.  I've heard it about Victoria, but it's been there so long, in a town with lots of breakfast joints, it can't be the WORST.   It was just breakfast done the way it's done in 2,000 other places.  No flair, but the same meal every time, more or less.

Still, it did what it said, it wasn't bad, it filled me up too.  It was free. Same time, same place next year?

Red Robin, 800 Tolmie Avenue

I went off from Denny's, avoiding a rainstorm, and headed out toe Cecelia Creek Gorge park.  I went down the mountain bike trials course there a couple of times (easy route, I've got a road bike, and bad balance).  That was fun.  Then I head over to The Pedaler to start a loop of Victoria they've designed and I'm writing a puzzle hunt for.  More to come on that, hopefully.

18km later, I was outside the Red Robin, which sits proud above the triple-lane highway into downtown core.  It has no bike parking outside, so I strapped my bicycle to one of the concrete posts that hold up the signage.

The building is under renovations, so half the place is torn up, and a lot of the walls and floors are bare, or tarped over.  It's not so bad that it's dusty and dirty, just a bit battered while they work on it.  I got a seat in the bar area (it might have been called the club lounge, which is a five dollar description of a twenty-five cent place).  Found out the free burger deal, which had just gone to an online club I had to join. They have about twenty burgers on the gourmet list, which is the birthday freebie, plus another set of premium sandwiches.  And the normal hodge podge of starters.

But I wanted free, but nothing super heavy, so went with the turkey burger.  Topped with lettuce, tomato, cheese and bacon, it's a super with extra cheese and turkey.  I wasn't expecting much, and had the broccoli option as my side.  You know, for healthy reasons.

The burger was actually damn fine.  Moist, flavourful and the veggies were all crisp.  The ciabatta bun soaked up some of the juices, which made it extra tasty.  The bacon was far better cooked than the rubbish at Denny's.  All over, a good burger.

The broccoli was cooked to the bright green (or a little beyond), not soggy.  Covered in butter, I think, so maybe not that healthy, but still, felt better than a bunch of supersized fries. The sides are meant to be bottomless. I would have got more broccoli, but didn't see a server again until checking out to leave, and I really didn't need it.  I did quite like the Red Robin special flavouring salt, which has a bunch celery salt, dried tomatoes, garlic and onions in it.  This tasted good on the greens.

I would have paid $10.49 for this burger normally.  That's a pretty good price.  On the flip side, the beer isn't.  I paid $8 for a 'jumbo size' Sam Adams. It looked like a normal sized beer to me.  And no where did I see the price quoted at such a rip off price.  I drank better beers for less at Churchill later on in the evening.

Would go back again for the food.  Was very pleasantly surprised by the quality for the price.  Would not drink there. Was unpleasantly surprised by the quality for the price.

Bin 4, Downtown Victoria

Bin 4 just celebrated its fourth anniversary by offering it's "Heritage Burger" for just $4 on November the 5th.  The delightful Brunette of my acquaintance, her daughter and I took advantage of this offer.  The venue was busy, with a short line-up and every table in use inside.  As expected when you make an offer this good: the normal price is $12.

Bin 4 is in the small Harris Green strip mall on Yates Street. It's a small space, that they've crammed in a lot of tables, but without making it feel cramped.  There's also a small patio space, that was well in use to deal with the demand, despite it being an autumnal day.  They've got one long bar for some seating, a half dozen booths and a few high tables along one wall.  It's a bit dark inside, lit with moody lights bouncing off the brown walls.  All very modern lounge.

The Heritage Burger (Bin 4... no idea why they name their burgers after wine storage areas) is their base burger: 4oz (I think) of BC beef from 63 Acres, bacon aioli, lettuce, tomato served on a Brioche Bun.  Now before we get too excited about '63 Acres' being a small farm, it's not.  It's a meat supplier, who specializes in hormone free, BC cows.  Well cow carcasses from particular partner farms.  So it's pretty good meat.  Just not a single source, 'we know the burger came from Daisy-Dandelion, daughter of Buttercup-Tulip the Fourth' meat.  We all went for the added cheddar to make it a cheeseburger.

The meal came out relatively fast... after we got the wrong order the first time, and the wrong sides the second time.  Both corrected quickly, and we have to give some allowance for the sheer volume of people in the venue that day.  The staff were still super pleasant, despite (as they told us) being busy and non-stop for their entire shifts.

The brioche makes a denser, rich carrier for the patty.  The patty is a thick, fresh cooked hunk of meat.  The meat was flavourful and dense.  They were slightly on the dry side, maybe due to the high volume in the kitchen that day, but certainly not ruined.  Just one side of great... a little more juice would not have gone amiss, that's all.

The fries were good, fresh cooked and hot, with sufficient crunch to go with the warm and earthy centers.  We tried three different aoili's with the fries: a bacon, a truffle and a basil.  All were a dense thick paste to dip into. The truffle version was subtle. It had a light trace of the deep intense savouriness I associate with truffle oil.  The bacon was more of the same from the burger, a nice salt accent.  The basil version was really good, with the full flavour of the herbs coming through. I think we all voted that it was the best of the dips.

Overall, for $5.50 for a burger, we didn't go wrong.  I'd said I would pay full price, thinking it was a $15 burger, but at $12.00 sans cheese, I might go for it again.  It's tasty, well made and good ingredients.

White Spot, Victoria Airport

Apparently, if I've had a beer, I write better.  This seems unlikely, but lets see if I have hit my Ballmer peak.  Just watched the the NFL conference games with a beer or two at the Garrick's head, and I think the Disruption IPA from Category 12 has hit the spot very nicely indeed.

Or I'm about to phone it in.  I am reviewing White Spot after all.  

A chain of BC restaurants, which you can find pretty much in every town in the province.  They push the comfort food angle, with specials evoking Tuscany, top-end chefs, local ingredients and fresh produce.  But to me, they are a sit-down burger joint.  The rest is window dressing.

I've tried the pasta, and while I am sure their Red Seal chefs take some pride in their work, I could have passed the ribbons through a sieve with very little effort.  It was a gloopy, starchy mess.  Since then, I've avoided anything there that isn't between two slices of bread.

Victoria airport is small and modern, and houses two coffee kiosks and a White Spot ground side.  So, when dropping of my friend for a trip out east, we grabbed an evening meal before they took of on the last flight out of the city. Air side you do now have the option of a Spinnaker's franchise bar, which I have used and can recommend.

Seated in a large, padded booth, in an open plan restaurant, we had a view of the departure board and the TVs, tuned to the sports highlights on a never ending loop.  Our server bounced over and brought out two fresh glasses of iced water with asking, present two menu's... the standard thick tome and the two page Comfort Food special.  I read through, thinking about go off plan, but recalling the pasta, I went for the burger. My friend ordered the same, wanting half-salad and half fries, which they don't do.  But they do bottomless fries, so I ordered them.

The burgers came out fast and hot, and immediately delivered with a second plate of fries. I am sure that had something to do with the place being due to close not long after we sat down, but nice touch.  The burger was good... they char up the bottoms of the patties good, adding in lots of flavours from the crispy meat bits, without losing too much of the juice from the beef.   I am also quite partial to the special sauce... slightly tangy, slightly creamy (mayo and tomato ketchup probably figure highly in the mix).  While not the greatest burger, it's a good one.

The fries were fries.  A little soft, but not soggy.  Sort of just a little... wilted?  Or perhaps out too long?  Still, I polished of my serving and some of the second plate.  So that worked out.

It's burger.  It's a chain restaurant.  What they do as a main stock in trade they do competently well.  What more can I say?

Ferris' Oyster Bar and Grill, Downtown Victoria

My old foodie friend was in town, and after some discussion, we settled on a visit to Ferris's to catch up. Her new beau and her old friend were also in attendance, and we got ourselves settled into an outside booth.

The booth has big high backed benches, which make it look private from the passing walk through, but all open to the rest of the diners along that wall.  Feels like walking into a super small dining room too eat with strangers.  That will suit some people, but those wanting their own booth area are best to go inside, where there's a couple of booths that are nicely hidden away for whatever secret schemes you have planned.

Ferris' have oysters, as you'd expect from the name, and though I didn't try the raw ones this time around, in the past I've always found them quivery fresh. That combination of sea flavour, the mouth feel of the raw slithering mass, and tones of cucumber and fish and something else.  I understand many people find the idea of eating that slimy flesh akin to swallowing a huge mouthful of snot, going green at the idea.  I find them something that sparks the appetite and semi solid flesh going down the throat stimulates the nerves there in a way other food just doesn't.

What I have never liked is the baked oyster.  This seems to turns the freshness into something like mushy leather, and the anatomy gets more exposed and more alien looking.  The flavours in the sauces over power the taste I like oysters, and overall it is the opposite experience from a fresh shucked bi-valve.  And, of course, other will disagree with me, and tell me the cooked oyster is a wonderful beast, and how on earth can I eat them raw.  Two of my companions elected for a cooked oyster... one baked texas style with Tequila and Tabasco, and the other breaded in the Ferris Burger. The baked one got the thumbs up from my foodie friend.

The oyster burger went down well, I was told. Everything on the burgers came out as I expect from them. Ferris does fine burgers, big flavour and big toppings.  Fresh patties in a good bun, and more fries than one human should safely consume. The heaping of yam fries didn't get finished, and they did look a bit over cooked and dry. Tasted okay, though.  There was also a bottle of red wine shared that probably took up some room.

The fries with my Chicken Burrito were also a bit dry, and while I ate them, they did seem better with a dipping sauce.  The curry dipping sauce was combination of subtle Indian spicing and cilantro. I'd guess at Garam Masala as the main spice blend.  The burrito itself was moist and full of tender meat and beans that complimented each other very well. This was a big portion of food, too, but not at the expense of being cheap on the quality.  The salsa had a bit of bite, balanced by the sour cream to smooth things out.  I'd probably get this over the cheese burger in future, which is praise, as the cheese burger is one of the finest in town (Pink Bicycle probably edge it out now as the best I've had).

Conversation flowed between us, and despite being in between two other groups, there's was little overflow of hearing what the groups near us were talking about.  So we could cover mayoral elections writing books and trips to Tofino. My friends' friend is helping Lisa Helps run for Mayor of Victoria. This is my contribution to a campaign I can't vote on for the double reasons of not living in the city itself and not being eligible to vote in this country.

We left with full bellies (in my case very full) and took a walk around the downtown core in search of desert. ReBar closes at 9 on a Sunday, Pags was playing Jazz and Pescatores was uninspiring, so we ended up with ice cream from Soda Shoppe on Government, and walk around the gardens at the Legislature.  Well, my friends did.  I drank iced tea lest I exploded.

17 Mile House, Sooke

It's vacation time for me, as my mother is in town.  That means lots of sight seeing and lots of eating out.  Which means plenty of blog entries coming up.  If I can remember all the good and bad things about places I have been.

One place is easy.  The 17 Mile House, on Sooke Road.  My mum, the Brunette of my acquaintance and I retired there for a repast after doing a few odd chores in the Brunette's vegetable patch. Mum and I had earlier having circumnavigated the lower end of the island via Duncan, Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew.  The road between Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew is fun sort of drive, quiet and narrow, with sweeping turns, narrow bridges and lots of logging trucks.  Makes it interesting to zip down in a fun to drive car.  Which I have.  There's also a big old spruce tree (the Harris Creek Spruce) and the Harris Creek Gorge that are nice places to stop and get in some nature.

But on to the pub.  The 17 Mile House has existed for over 120 years.  Which in Canada is a very long time for a place to be around.  The building was a stopping off point for hunters and sportsmen heading out to the wild west coast of the island.  Now it serves drivers from Sooke and Langford in search of a pub rather than a glittering new music bar.

The furnishings and fittings include an original tiled floor, a large square bar in the middle of the building, and lots of little snugs and nooks to hide away in.  And conspire on how to catch the giant salmon that you just KNOW is out there.

Or you can go into the garden, and grab some sun.  Which we did, in full view of the horseshoes pitch and the volley ball court.  No-one playing either on our visit.  Instead it was a quite backyard with about two other groups in there minding their own business.  So the Brunette and my mother got to chatting over a beer (a Shock Top Belgian White and Guinness) as they'd never met before.

I drank a diet coke, and got to the ordering.  A west coast club with fries, promising smoked salmon and prawns and some lemon pepper cream cheese.  The Brunette ordered the same, while mum indulged her love of fresh Pacific Halibut.

The sandwich was grand, a piled high triple stacked affair with well smoked salmon with plenty of flavour and the sea-touched saltiness of the shrimp going great with the cheese.  The fries were thin cut, and crispy.  Not the grandest in the world, but the sort of fry that you don't notice until they've all been eaten.  You'll not send these fries back for retraining.  But they won't be making the valedictory speech at potato school.

The Halibut was adjudged to be full of flavour, being cooked in a Cajun spice mix.  British Halibut seems to be mushy and bland, while the good stuff out here has a firmness to the flesh that makes it a joy to eat.

So success all around.  Cold beer, hot food, good service, old-style pub.  Go there if on your way out to Sooke, or beyond.

Fluid Bar and Grill, Courtenay

Driving South again from a trip to the North End of the Island, food was needed by occupants of my car. Not least the driver who was starting to see hot-dogs and not trees at the side of the road.  And there's a lot of trees up that end of the island.  So that's many hot-dogs, and that's just a bit weird.  So, my passengers looked up places to eat in Courtenay and we pulled off the highway into Fluid, just outside the centre of town, hoping for easy, fast diner-style food.

You've been inside Fluid, probably.  Not this one, but in a bar and grill just like it.  Maybe it was Earl's in down-town Victoria, or the Rugby Club in Vancouver, or a Cactus Club somewhere else.  The decor is brown stained wood, glass and stone work walls.  There's high definition flat screen TVs showing the sport channels.  The bar area is wide and open and full of backlit liquor bottles.  The servers are young, pretty and wearing black dresses that they might wear out on a girls night out.  It's that sort of place.

It sells Caesars as a special.  This one came with a half a pepperoni stick, an olive, a pepper, a Kinder egg, a small bracelet, a hammock and a life time subscription to the Reader's Digest. Among other things.  It was a big glass of spicy tomato-based booze.  And went down well with the drinker, which was not me. I was driving and stuck to diet coke to keep focused and water to keep hydrated.

Food choices were many, but simple variations on a theme : salad, sandwiches and pizza.  The baked Mac and Cheese with bacon also falls into the theme of comfort food, I guess.  And was cheesey, bacony and hot.  It would have been much improved with a little bit of spicy sausage to pep it up, but it worked.

On the burger/sandwich list there was a Quinoa burger (aka the Birkenstock burger) with added black beans and cumin.  I love a veggie burger that isn't made from fake meat.  I also love one with added bacon.  So I ordered it. And though my friends laugh at this choice often, this waitress understood me.  I liked our waitress, she seemed a little more competent at food service than most servers at these sorts of places.  Or may I just liked she understood that sometimes you want the flavour and goodness of vegetables with the added power of bacon grease.

The burger was served in a Pretzel bun with a good pile of salad and chipotle mayo.  And no skimping on the bacon.  A decent, wholesome veggie burger, with a rough cut, earthy taste and the soft, slightly mushy texture of cooked black beans.  The mouth feel of beans is something I like about pulses.  The slight grain in the flesh of the bean, wrapped with the light resistance of the bean skin.  It just feels right.  And if it feels right, it might just be good for you.

The fries on the side were just so-so.  I wouldn't write much more about them.  I also forget what the owner of the Caesar had to eat.  I think he was too busy reading the newspaper that came with the cocktail and playing with the small kitten they lend you when you order it.  He'd have kept it, but I have a strict no pets policy in my car, so it was regretfully returned to the smiling server.

We headed back south, with food in our bellies, and the stop had served it's purpose.  The roadside scenery looked much more like the Pacific North-west again.

The Local Kitchen, Victoria

It was Times Colonist 10k weekend, and that meant I was doing my best wheezing pig impression at 8.45am, running along Dallas Road in a cloud burst, wondering why in the hell I got up at 6am for this.  But as usual when I am Dallas Road, I saw the sea, the cargo ships, the mountains of the Olympics and stopped caring about the wind whipping through my bones and started to enjoy myself again.  And I came home in a record time (for me, and that's all that I am running against), damp but uplifted.  I love my endorphins...

TC10K weekend also means not being able to get a breakfast reservation anywhere between 9 and 11.  But's that is just fine, as the Local Kitchen didn't open till 11.30 for Brunch, and we were first in line to get our table. Four of us, two of us on post run highs and two of us on post watching runner what-ever-you-call-its.  Only to discover brunch was off, and it was the normal lunch/dinner menu.  No steak and eggs for me.

Instead, I got a cheeseburger and bacon (no veggie burger either... my two post race staples, gone), along with hot, dark coffee and an eyeful of the European Rugby match.  The burger was great.  Juicy inside, with a chargrilled outside, lots of crispy flavourful bits around the tender meat.  There was just the right amount of salad, crispy bacon and a lovely soft chewy kaiser bun.  The cheese was a little light and probably could have been done away with, without making any changes to the meal.  This is no gourmet burger.  Just Canadian pub food done well.

The rest of the menu is the same sort of staples. Chicken burgers, tandoori wraps, huge salads and plates of poutine.  No truffle oils or goats cheese shavings with reductions of raspberry.  Big servings, minimum of fuss, decent price.  The same cannot be said for some of it's neighbours...

The location has had many changes in the years I have lived here, and I'd never been in before, never hearing anything good about the food, the service or the beer.  They seemed to cater for an after work drinking crowd when I worked downtown, and went through a couple of iterations as that, but the Local seems set in, and popular with some of the IT crowd.  The 'KixEye' wings being a sure sign that someone around there goes very regularly. With it's sunny patio, I may suggest it for an evening beverage sometime.

Two things to note, though. First, the men's toilet is a trap. There's a small step up to the porcelain throne, that almost led me to turning an ankle.  I suspect after a couple of beers more than one person has ended up flat out with new bruises.

Secondly, all the servers that day looked the same, except for the lady in the purple dress. I suspect the pod people are taking over, as I swear I saw the same server at Bubby's Cafe later.  Just be warned, the Victoria restaurant scene may be about to be taken over by 20-something brunettes with pony tails, nice smiles and pleasant demeanour.

Though, that doesn't seem like such a bad thing, really.