Downtown Victoria Food Tour
As an early celebration for my 27th birthday, my mother and I took a 3-day trip to the beautiful coastal city of Victoria, Canada.
Victoria is home to many fun activities, such as the floral-filled Butchart Gardens, the water taxis, and many great restaurants and food shops that serve up delicious food for both locals and visitors to enjoy.
Since we were only in Victoria for 3 days, there’s no way we could visit all of the best-known restaurants in the city…or is there?
I am here to present the Victoria Downtown Food & City Tour!
Presented by Off the Eaten Track, a company that has a variety of food/drink tours throughout the city, the Downtown Food & City tour gave us a wonderful experience by having us visit 7 different restaurants and food/drink vendors and sample a bite that put their name on the map while also learning a bit about the history of the city.
I was delighted with my taste, so I am happy to share it with you, my caring readers.
Pre-Stop 1
Our tour started out near Victoria’s gorgeous harbor, located next to a local seafood restaurant, Steamship Grill & Bar.
While Steamship was not actually part of our tour, our kind tour guide, Michaela, gave us a little snack of Jenny Marie’s pepper and sea salt crackers as we took the 10-minute walk to our first stop.
The crackers were lovely, they had a classic salty crunch that you expect plus a slight peppery kick, and it was a nice way to awaken my palate for the other dishes to come.
Stop #1: Artisan Wine Shop
Our first stop of the tour was at a somewhat hidden wine shop on Broughton Street that has been filling Victoria’s wine glasses with locally made wine since January 2022.
While there were hundreds of unique bottles to choose from, the two wines, one white and one red, we got to sample were a brand called Road 13 from one of the dozens of vineyards in the Oliver region, located about 300 miles East of Victoria.
I’m not that picky when it comes to wine, I tend to look at the price more than the flavor, but both wines that I tasted were nice, the white had a light, buttery flavor with subtle fruity notes while the red wasn’t super tannic like I feel like many red wines are and had a delightful cherry aftertaste.
Stop #2: Smile Chicken
Moving away from the wine world, the next stop of the tour was at a Korean fried chicken restaurant that happened to be only a block away from the hotel where my mother and I were staying, Smile Chicken.
Smile Chicken might seem like a small chicken restaurant on the outside, but on the inside is a hotspot for some of the best fried chicken that the city of Victoria has to offer.
As great as their chicken is, what we got to experience on the food tour was something that wasn’t chicken but a unique Korean spin on an American state fair classic, the corndog.
What makes this corndog unique from just about any dog that you can find in the States is the fact that, rather than being rolled in a cornmeal batter before being fried, this dog was coated in a yeasted batter which gives the shell a bread-like texture and wonderful crunch that encased the juicy hot dog perfectly. Topped with ketchup and their honey-mustard sauce, and you can forget about those cheap state fair dogs for good.
Now, one could argue that, since the dog wasn’t coated in the corn batter then it’s not technically a corndog. Well, to quote just about every teenage girl, this is what I have to say to that: Whatever.
Stop #3: Crust Bakery
You might be thinking, how can anything possibly top that amazing corndog, well, buckle up because I’m about to share some real serious eats.
The next stop on the tour happened to be at a local bakery on Fort Street called Crust which has been serving up delicious hand-made pastries since 2013.
With dozens of different baked goods such as cakes, bread, and tarts to choose from, Crust Bakery, it’s nearly impossible to know which are considered to be the best, but fortunately, the Downtown Food & City Tour did that for us.
We were treated to two delectable pastries that showed a lot of both technical skill and flavor, one was a tomato and feta pastel, and the other a Creme Brulee tart.
I don’t think I can possibly say enough about either of these pastries. The puff pastry on the pastel was incredibly crispy and flaky, something that even the best bakers in the world struggle with perfecting, and the tomato filling had a sweet and tangy flavor similar to bruschetta or Margherita pizza.
But that tart…oh my sweet goodness. The crust was golden and crispy, the custard filling was creamy, had that classic vanilla flavor, and became over-the-top with that layer of crispy crème brulee sugar on top that made it like a handheld version of my favorite French dessert.
Needless to say, if I find myself in Victoria again, I will definitely head back to Crust Bakery for even more of those edible masterpieces.
Stop #4: La Taquisa
Moving away from those incredible pastries, our next stop on the tour was a local Mexican restaurant that has been serving up authentic Mexican food since 2010, La Taquisa.
La Taquisa might be on the other side of the continent from it’s home country, but they certainly know how to deliver classic Mexican fare, honing in on the basics such as handmade tortillas and making as much from scratch as possible.
For tasting on the tour, we were treated to a signature classic, chicken mole tacos. Mole is a complex Mexican sauce made with chilies, nuts, dried fruit, spices, and, in some recipes, dark chocolate.
The mole was very flavorful, even if it was a bit messy, the chicken was perfectly tender, the cabbage on the tacos provided a nice crunch and freshness, and the salsa verde on top had a bit of a spicy kick to it, but it was nowhere near overpowering.
But for me, the real hero for those tacos was that handmade corn tortilla! It was soft but had the right amount of structural integrity, it had a fresh corn flavor that you really don’t get with pre-made tortillas, not that there’s anything wrong with using them, and it made the whole experience that much more enjoyable.
Stop #5: L’Apero
Going from Mexico all the way to France, our next stop on the tour was at a local French cheese/cured meat shop that also does lunch and dinner on selected days, L’Apero.
Short for Apertiff, Apero takes place about an hour before dinner, where you can relax and have a glass of wine or a cocktail to sip on and a few snacks while you wait for dinner to be ready.
At L’Apero, we were served a quartet of different cheeses and cured meat, starting with a very classic Pecorino Toscano Fresco, a salty, crumbly cheese very similar to parmesan, but the main difference being that pecorino is made with sheep’s milk vs cow’s milk. The pecorino had a nice salty/nuttiness and almost fell apart as I ate it.
(Actually, a woman I was sitting with happened to save some of those crackers from earlier, so I got to try the pecorino with that, it was outstanding!)
The other side of the cheese wheel was a type of goat’s cheese called Bucheron, which was almost two different cheeses in one. Towards the center was a crumbly goat’s cheese, while the edges had a velvety creaminess, much like mascarpone. It was very good.
Moving into the cured meat side of things, up first was a cooked pork product known as prosciutto cotto, which has a light pink color and a much lighter flavor than the prosciutto di parma that I’m used to, not that there was anything wrong with it.
The last item for tasting was another prosciutto-like product from Spain called lomo, which is made from pork loin vs the hind leg that prosciutto is made from. This lomo had a firm texture and a wonderful salty flavor that lifted the natural flavor of the pork nicely.
I would certainly return to that shop to try some more of those cheeses.
Stop #6: Chocolat & Co.
Going back into the sweet world, the second to last stop on the food tour took us to a local chocolate shop owned by a man who apparently has over 130 bowties, Chocolat & Co.
Chocolat & Co. is home to three of the finest chocolatiers in the city who stride to present fresh bean-to-table chocolate that is unlike any other, and has dozens of unique truffles and chocolates to choose from.
For sampling, we were given their chocolate-hazelnut truffle, made from locally-sourced hazelnuts that were like biting into a ball of Nutella and were full of natural cocoa flavor.
To wash down that hazelnutty delight, Chocolat & Co.’s owner blended up a real treat for us, chilled drinkable chocolate, which only contained heavy cream, pure chocolate, and milk.
When I say drinkable chocolate, I truly mean this. That frozen drink was like drinking the purest form of chocolate with no added sugars or other strange stuff that name-brand chocolate/candy producers use. I honestly don’t know if I can have chocolate any other way after that fantastic experience.
Stop #7: Bon Macaron
Our last stop of the tour took us to a local macaron shop that was an alleyway away from the chocolate shop, Bon Macaron.
With over 2 dozen different macaron flavors to choose from, Bon Macaron has perfected this tricky but difficult French cookie since 2012, they do so by utilizing the Italian method for macaron production, where egg whites and sugar are whipped to stiff peaks before powdered sugar and almond flour are folded in to create that signature texture.
What was unique about this final stop was that we got to select 2 of the several amazing flavors that Bon Macaron had to offer that ranging from classics like vanilla, chocolate, and salted caramel, to adventurous flavors like lemon licorice and passionfruit margarita.
For my selection, I chose their pomegranate-hazelnut, sweet and crunchy, and even went into the savory world with goat’s cheese and fig, which had a charcuterie board feel to it, and it was the perfect way to end this perfect food tour.
The Victoria Downtown Food & City Tour is something that I would recommend to any food lover or sightseer out there, and it is something worth traveling all the way to Victoria, Canada.
