Cake & Dessert Archives - Page 4 of 11

The Secret Garden Tea in Kerrisdale, Vancouver

Post author:Suanne
Post published:November 22, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Vancouver
Post comments:5 Comments

Polly and I met again for our sweet treats. We went to the Secret Garden Tea in Kerrisdale, Vancouver.

The Secret Garden Tea Company is a family-owned business run by sisters-in-law Kathy and Erin Wyder. It was established in 1995, inspired by Kathy’s grandmother, Gammy Bentail.

We sat at the inner section which is more quiet. The front section was buzzing with customers. The Secret Garden Tea Company’s mission is to offer moments of comfort, beauty and joy in an elegant yet comfortable setting, beautiful eats, and a good cup of tea.

We were ecstatic when we saw the sweet treats on display. We almost wanted to order one of each of the miniature sweets to try. When we asked the server the price of the miniature sweets and our intention to get one of each, she suggested us to try one of the high tea menu instead. The miniature sweets is $1.95 each.

You may click on the menu to have a larger view.

The server was very helpful in explaining to us the difference between the high tea options.

We opted the Sharing High Tea for $11.95 per person. The Sharing High Tea comes with 3 miniature sweets of the server’s choice and a miniature scone served with raspberry jam, devon cream and one of Secret Garden Tea. We asked for the miniature sweets to be all different so that we can maximize our tasting. This Sharing High Tea is good for … (more…)

Murchie’s Tea & Coffee in Richmond Automall

Post author:Suanne
Post published:November 14, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Deli, Coffee & Soup Richmond
Post comments:3 Comments

Polly brought me to Murchie’s Tea & Coffee in the Richmond Automall for our ladies’ meet. I have no idea that such a place exist as I only go to the ring road in the automall.

Murchie’s Tea & Coffee is located in the Crestwood Commerce Center across the Lexus dealership. It is next to the Boston Pizza.

Murchie’s Tea & Coffee mainly caters for the surrounding business. It is not very big; just a few tables. It only opens for breakfast and lunch.

Tea seems to be the specialty here. So, Polly and I decided to have tea instead of coffee.

Polly ordered the Raspberry Temptation. It is raspberry tea with chocolate. She had the regular size which is $2.85. The raspberry flavour does accentuate the tea.

I had the (more…)

City Blends Coffee in Mission

Post author:Suanne
Post published:October 26, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Deli, Coffee & Soup
Post comments:1 Comment

Complete Disclosure: We knew the owner of this cafe and some of the food and drink were complimentary. But most of them were paid.

Polly and Vince had to pick up their kids from a music camp in Mission. They decided to visit a friend of ours who recently bought over the City Blends Coffee in Mission. I just tag along for a free music concert and visit this friend of ours.

The first sight which impressed me is the huge parking lot and the patio. You cannot find such space in Richmond or Vancouver.

I like the cozy corner where one can enjoy a cup of coffee and surf the internet with the free wifi or engross in a book.

Besides coffee and tea, City Blends serves light meals like wraps, soup, salad, sandwiches, cakes and baked goods.

The baked goods here are made onsite by the Pink Spatuala. Some of the baked goods includes biscotti, cookies, bars, brownies, cakes and miniature sweets.

We ordered the above drinks before our friend arrived. From left to right, Hot Chocolate ($2.85), Cappuccino ($2.90) and Caramel Machiato ($3.40). My Caramel Machito was good, with a mellow coffee flavour.

Later, the owner served us some sample of Chai Latte which is one of the cafe’s specialty. It is very creamy and rich in spice flavour which includes cinnamon, cloves, etc.

Polly bought some cup cakes for her twin daughters. They looked … (more…)

Chiffon Patisserie on West Broadway, Vancouver

Post author:Suanne
Post published:October 20, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Deli, Coffee & Soup Vancouver
Post comments:1 Comment

When I accompanied Ben to apply his Chinese visa, we came across this Chiffon Patisserie on West Broadway on our way back. It looks like a good candidate for my cake meet with Polly.

From the urbanspoon site. this patisserie opens for breakfast and lunch on week days only. Meter parking is available along West Broadway. Just be ware that the parking is strictly enforced as we saw the meter is being checked while we were there.

They have a good selection of pastries, salad, sandwiches and subs. The prices are quite reasonable.

Chiffon Patisserie seats about 20 inside the restaurant.

Polly ordered a small Mocha for drink while I ordered a … (more…)

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Cafe on W4th Ave, Vancouver

Post author:Suanne
Post published:October 12, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Deli, Coffee & Soup Vancouver
Post comments:4 Comments

With the kids back to school, Polly and I resumed our ladies meet. Polly suggested 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Cafe from a Chinese magazine that she came across.

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Cafe is located on 2152 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver. Polly likes this trendy neighbourhood.

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Cafe sources the world’s finest coffee beans and roast them in-house to bring out their best qualities. This place was buzzing with customers while we were there. According to the Chinese magazine, 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Cafe has been in business for 4 years. One of the owner was a partner of Caffe Artigiano who decided to further his research on how to roast coffee to bring out it’s best quality.

Polly and I decided to try the coffees of the day. Recommendations from the Chinese magazine are their latte and Soma Chocolate which we missed out to try. We only re-checked the magazine after the meal.

Polly had the Panama Don Pepe while I had the Decaf Colombia la Serrania. We enjoyed the coffee which has a strong flavour. The fresh brew coffee is $2.30 for a large cup.

We like that 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Cafe has some good pastries to go with our coffees.

We ordered some pastries to try. The above is the Almond Croissant from … (more…)

Sciue in Yaletown, Vancouver

Post author:Suanne
Post published:August 8, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Italian Vancouver
Post comments:4 Comments

Polly suggested to go to Sciue in Yaletown for our cake meet. She past by this Italian bakery when she and her son came downtown for her son’s provincial exam. We took the Canada Line to downtown. Sciue is just a short walk from the Yaletown Roundhouse station. There is another Sciue located at West Pender, Vancouver.

It was a beautiful summer day. The patio of Sciue is full. Sciue opens early on weekday, from 6:30AM and closes at 7:30PM.

Sciue is pronounced as “shoe-eh”. Sciue in Italian means good and fast. This particular location is warmly decorated. Booth seats lined the wall. Sciue’s breakfast includes daily baked goods, donuts (Ciambella), and their famous ‘”Pane Romano” creations.

For drinks, I had the Caffe au Lait (picture on the left). A medium cup costs $2.50. I was hoping that it’s going to be like the Cafe Con Leche that I had in Spain. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s just not thick and strong enough. Polly had a medium Chai Latte for $3.80.

We started our breakfast with Pezzetta which is Sciue Flat Pane Romano Filled with Prosciutto Cotto and Fontina Cheese. The above is … (more…)

Take 5 Cafe in Richmond Centre Mall

Post author:Suanne
Post published:July 18, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Richmond
Post comments:1 Comment

Polly and I had our cake meet in Richmond Centre Mall. There is a new coffee place located near the Apple Store. It is in an open area.

The new coffee place is Take 5 Cafe. This is a franchise coffee place. This location has opened for 3 months as the server told me. Take 5 Cafe offers smoothies, sandwiches, soup, wraps, salad, baked pasta and baked goods.

Polly and I had a small Zebra Hot Chocolate and Zebra Mocha each. They are $3.55 and $3.05 respectively. We were told that zebra means they are half dark chocolate and half white chocolate. You have the option to have the whip cream or not. For food, we had … (more…)

Steveston Coffee Co. on Moncton St, Richmond

Post author:Suanne
Post published:July 15, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Deli, Coffee & Soup Richmond
Post comments:8 Comments

Jean, my ex-neighbour called me out for coffee. We had not meet since she moved away last October. Time really flies. It’s great to get together again.

I decided to go Steveston Coffee Co. in Richmond since I have not been to this place before but heard that they have good coffee. There are many cafes and coffee shops in the Steveston Village, like Waves Coffee, Blenz Coffee, Starbucks, Alegria Cafe & Giftware, Steveston Cannery Cafe, Rocanini, to name a few.

Steveston Coffee came up as number 1 in the Best Coffee (Independent) category in the Best of Richmond Review’s Readers’ poll 2011, follow by Bean and Beyond and La Cuisson.

The aroma of coffee permeated the coffee shop the moment we step inside it. Steveston Coffee Co. also sells house roasted organic coffee beans, in the range of $14 per pound. Like many self service cafe, … (more…)

Cafe de lÓrangerie on Granville St. and W 70 Ave

Post author:Suanne
Post published:July 11, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Deli, Coffee & Soup
Post comments:9 Comments

Polly and I had been to this location before when it was Italia Deli & Cafe. Italia Deli & Cafe was closed down and replaced by Chloe Cafe which is a Vietnamese Cafe. Now, it is taken over by Cafe de l’Orangeri. The name sounds like French but it is a Japanese Fusion Cafe. Upon entrance, there were magazines on a rack which are mostly in Japanese.

The server told us that they had opened for 10 months. The server speaks Japanese. We also noticed a couple of customers who speak Japanese.

The Cafe de lÓrangerie serves typical cafe food like sandwich, panini, salad, soup, etc.

Of course, Polly and I came here for their coffee, desserts and cakes. There is not a lot of choices for desserts and cakes though.

It is clean and the decor is more modern now, compare to Italia Deli & Cafe. It was quiet on a Monday morning. We were there early, about 9:30 AM. It seats about 20 with 3 sofas and 4 counter seats.

They have pictured menu which are homemade and new addition items are … (more…)

Faubourg on W 41st Ave, Kerrisdale, Vancouver

Post author:Suanne
Post published:May 19, 2011
Post category:Cake & Dessert Vancouver
Post comments:12 Comments

It’s been a while since Polly and I had a real cake meet. I meant cake and dessert. We had been exploring other options lately like ramen lunch at Ramen Sanpachi on Broadway and English breakfast at The Diner at West Point Grey.

For this cake meet, we decided to go to Faubourg, a French bistro. We attempted to visit Faubourg some time ago without the proper address and ended up at Simply French. This time we make sure we have the address. Faubourg is located on West 41st, west of West Bvld. Meter parking is available along W 41st.

The front of Faubourg has a display of some of their cakes, pastries and Viennoiserie. Viennoiserie is sweet pastries like croisssant, pain au chocolat, brioche, small roll, etc. The name Viennoiserie evolved from the long-held myth that they originated in Vienna rather than France. I had an eye on the chocolate cake but unfortunately, it’s not available at the time we were there.

Faubourg is divided into 2 sections, the coffee shop and the bistro. We sat at the coffee shop area. From where I sat, I had a direct view of the bistro area. The bistro is a segregated area with high-ceilinged space, bedecked in hardwood floors, marble-topped tables and fanciful chairs imported from France. I guess if we were seated at the bistro area, we’ll have to pay for the table service with a big tip. I’m very impressed at the way they prep the bistro area because I saw them actually wiping down the legs of chairs and tables.

The coffee shop area is self service i.e. you order your drink and pastries and pay at the counter and bring your food to a table. The coffee shop area seats about 25.

When we were to place our orders at the counter, the waiter asked us if we want … (more…)