After listening to friends rave about the food here, we had to give it a shot. Rather than dine-in (the service reportedly varies from indifferent to rude -- and this from people who rave about the food) we opted to order our meals to go.
Located in a heritage building at the foot of Pandora and Wharf Streets, Swan's Brewpub may look out on a busy intersection but it feels like a retreat. We treated ourselves to breakfast here recently -- not a meal I generally associate with a brewpub, but one of Swan's best.
The Spinnaker's building on Catherine Street in Vic West is home to a Restaurant on the main floor, a Gastro Brewpub upstairs, an on-site brewery and Provisions, a retail store where you can purchase chocolates, baked goods, malt vinegars and more.
Nautical Nellie's is one of the few restaurants along "tourist row" (located at 1001 Wharf Street) that I recommend and regularly visit. As the name implies, they serve seafood -- most of which is also certified as Ocean Wise (sustainably sourced) -- but they also serve pasta, risotto, steak and more. Lunch fare is slightly lighter and a smaller menu.
Located in a strip mall just off the busy Veteran's Memorial Parkway in Langford, Smoken Bones Cookshack is pretty unassuming from the outside. Inside is a very comfortable family steakhouse, average but for the menu. Smoken Bones features not only ribs, as expected, but also pulled pork and beef brisket -- definitely carnivore friendly.
I discovered Cabin12 through Twitter, oddly enough, and on a day off I stopped in for lunch which turned out to be breakfast (I had eggs benedict). More recently, I went back with family and friends and after a second sampling decided it was time to add a review.
John's Noodle Village is set in the small strip of businesses at 823 Bay St. across the Blanshard in a small and unassuming; from the looks of it, it's a Mom & Pop operation. They serve Catonese and Szcheuan fare; and their emphasis is on doing in it well: classic dishes like chow meins, sweet and sour pork, etc.-- done as they're supposed to and not with some spin or re-visioning of the recipes. What's really impressive is that they make their noodles on site daily. Bar none, the best thing on their menu is the ginger fried beef.
I'm a sucker for good box of noodles. There's something about it that strikes a chord. After going to Noodle Box and getting attitude with a side of noodles, I thought I'd have to cook my noodles at home (hint: it's easy and cheap to do it at home), but then I saw a place called Boxo Noodles had opened up at 1011 Blanshard when Ali Baba had operated for years. It has nice ambiance (lots of bamboo and Asian influence).