One wonderful aspect of running a B&B in a world class travel destination like Vancouver is that most of our guests are avid travelers themselves, so we do get a lot of travel information from them and learn a lot about destinations that we may have not even considered. Namibia & Botswana were not on our radar at all until several of our guests mentioned it to us as one of their most amazing travel experiences. We had often talked about a trip to Africa, but it’s a huge continent and we had no idea how to narrow a trip down to one or two countries. We were intrigued with a number of the comments we heard about Namibia & Botswana, particularly that these countries are relatively safe and possible to travel on your own without the expense of an organized safari (though they are certainly available); the weather is usually good at the time of year when is most possible for us to travel (late Fall); they offer a variety of things to see and do – everything from game parks and amazing scenery to villages where time has stood still; they have a wide range of accommodation (camping to luxury lodges); and are readily accessible on reputable airlines operating via South Africa.

What began as an tantalizing idea soon morphed into a definite booking, flying Emirates Air from Seattle, via Dubai and South Africa, in October and November, 2012. We ended up traveling with my brother and sister in law, and the four of us all agree that it was one of the most amazing trips of our lives!   I came home with more than 4,000 photos and a jumble of memories of the numerous places that we visited, so it’s not possible to write a brief blog that would adequately describe the whole trip. When we were planning our trip, we found that there was so much conflicting information that it was almost overwhelming, even using the usual guide books which are invariably out of date, and laboriously searching the internet. We discovered that something as simple as what to expect for weather seemed to be impossible to figure out – some information suggested that it is the rainy season in October/November and that we could expect nothing but monsoon rain, whereas other sources that said it would be relatively hot and dry. We would have very much appreciated one book, blog or article that would give us a clear picture of how to plan a trip to this part of the world.  So it’s my hope to write a series of blog posts, starting with this one, that would be helpful to others who have experienced a similar difficulty.

First of all, the planning.  In order to avoid our usual mistake of trying to see too much in too short a time, we decided that we needed to focus primarily on Namibia, but with the hope of spending up to a week in Botswana including a possible day trip into Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls (mostly just so we could “tick it off of our list”). We definitely recommend that anyone planning a trip here would allow at least this much time. Three weeks in Namibia was barely enough, and it would be easy to spend more than that in Botswana, so it’s necessary to choose one as a main destination. We debated whether to schedule Botswana for the beginning or the end of our trip, but finally decided to leave it for last and not make any firm bookings (except for the air) so we could change our mind if we decided we didn’t have time.  We knew we had to go in and out of South Africa, since there were no direct flights into Namibia or Botswana from North America (but keep watching, as they are definitely emerging destinations). The main arrival city in Namibia is Windhoek, so the flight overview was: Vancouver via Seattle to Dubai, Dubai to South Africa (Cape Town, but Johannesburg would work too), Cape Town to Windhoek, Windhoek to Botswana (we didn’t book this leg of the trip in order to allow for flexibility).  We did also book Kasane to Johannesburg, choosing to leave Botswana from Kasane because it’s near Zimbabwe, in case we have time for that quick trip to see Victoria Falls, then back to Vancouver via Dubai and Seattle.  There are several European airlines that offer flights from Vancouver to South Africa through their European hubs, but our initial research quickly discovered that Emirates Airline had recently added flights from Seattle, Washington (1/2 hour flight or 3 hours driving from Vancouver) to South Africa, with an option for a free stop over in Dubai. While Dubai has never been high on our list of “must see” destinations, we like to start vacations with time to recover from a very busy season at our B&B, so Dubai seemed like an ideal stop over place for a few days of R&R before our adventure of traveling in Africa. Fortunately, we have a credit card points plan that allows us to book any airline within a certain price range, so we were able to book on points with Emirates all the way from Vancouver to Namibia, (code sharing for some parts of the trip, of course).  More or less free airfare was a bonus, since we knew that the rest of the trip would be pricey! We could have similarly used our points for a flight on another airline through Europe, but Emirates Air had some appeal – it was new to us so always fun to check out a different airline, but also the ratings were good and it offered the shortest overall flight time from Vancouver to South Africa. The free stop over in Dubai was also a nice perk. We were happy with the airline, though not all the ground staff in Dubai were helpful (we finally found one woman who was excellent – the problem we encountered is grist for another blog post).

One would think that in booking the flight for a major trip the biggest part of the planning would be over, but that was far from the case for us on this one. One of the problems is that we have very little time during our busy season to even think about other things, so we had difficulty finding time to read the guide books and search the internet. Finally we decided to divide up the tasks. I volunteered to find out as much as possible about accommodation in each destination & to look into short flights between each country (I follow many discount travel sites, so I was the obvious choice for this task), Michael would look into tours and safaris (in case they should turn out to be more economical than finding our own way, or in case there were areas where we couldn’t find our own way), my sister in law explored the mysteries of car/truck rentals, and my brother was to research the most important sights in each area and create a rough itinerary.

Lynn’s Challenge: Accommodation & Inter-Country Air Travel: I mentioned that we found a lot of conflicting information and one of the first challenges we encountered was trying to figure out if we had to book all of our accommodation, etc. in advance (as some information suggested) or if we could keep our itinerary a bit more open to allow for inspiration. We finally decided to create a framework by booking our flights from Cape Town to Windhoek, and from Kasane (in Botswana) to Johannesburg, as mentioned above, but not book travel from Namibia to Botswana until we knew if we had time to spend a few days in Botswana. As for hotels, we elected to pre-book in Cape Town, Windhoek and Johannesburg, but leave the rest open. We always feel that it’s important to arrange hotels in advance for the first night or two in any strange country in order to not have to scramble to find accommodation when you’re exhausted from a long trip. I confess, though that we made this decision with a fair amount of trepidation for Namibia since there are several travel sites that suggest you will be sleeping on the street (or in the bush) if you don’t book your hotels well in advance. Our experience – it was not generally a problem, though bear in mind that we were there in “shoulder” season. Using TripAdvisor & word of mouth mostly, we found excellent accommodation everywhere and sometimes (not always) for a better price than we would have obtained by pre-booking. The one exception is Etosha Park, which only has 3 lodge/camp sites, so we did pre-book 2 nights in Okaukaujo Camp and one night in Halali Camp (we wish we had stayed all 3 nights in Okaukaujo, but that’s a story for a future post).  While we did hear of people getting last minute space in the park, it would be a risk and you would definitely not have first choice of chalets, may not get a camp spot, or  may not get anything at all! During the busy season, we would be surprised if there would be any space at all in the park if it’s not pre-booked.  Our recommendations: pre-book first (or all) night(s) stay in each major destination (Cape Town, Jo Burg, Windhoek, Etosha Park). Then book each of the other lodge/campsite stops a day or so ahead of arrival once you know when you will be there.  Internal flights seemed to be pretty open at that time of year and we had no difficulty finding a flight from Windhoek, Namibia to Maun, Botswana once we figured out the date we wanted to travel (only booked it a few days ahead). One further thought about accommodation – the choice is between nice lodges (usually around $200 per night) and camping (around $40 per night per vehicle). There is very little in the way of mid range accommodation between these two options except in the bigger cities (Windhoek & Swakopmund in Namibia; Kasane & Maun in Botswana), so go prepared to pay well for accommodation if you are not excited about camping.

Teresa’s Challenge : Vehicle Rental. The other thing we pre-booked was a rental truck and we would definitely recommend doing that. Things to think about when considering a rental vehicle: price of course (they vary greatly), quality of vehicle (we discovered there are classifications that help), type of vehicle(you will read a lot of recommendations that say you absolutely need a 4 wheel drive vehicle in Namibia), reputable rental company (we read of people arriving to find there was no vehicle), and whether you could rent the vehicle in one country (eg. Namibia) and drop it off in the other (eg. Botswana) – usually you can for a drop off fee, plus there is a fee for crossing the border. Insurance coverage is a serious issue because many of the rental agreements have some terrifying exclusions in the insurance clauses! Before booking anything, we definitely recommend getting a copy of the rental & insurance agreement and have an insurance broker review it!).  My sister in law did a fantastic job of sorting through all this confusion.  We ended up renting a 4 x 4 Toyota truck with 2 tents on the top from Advanced Car Hire, and were very happy with our choice. http://www.advancedcarhire.com/  They were very patient with us as we questioned every detail of their agreements & insurance clauses!   The rental company was professional and efficient, the vehicle was in good repair and less than 3 years old, tents were clean and in good order and camping gear provided was pretty much all we needed.  We did find that the truck canopy was not sealed well and we spent a lot of time beating dust off of our luggage!  Our recommendations:  definitely pre-book a vehicle; review contract & insurance; check reviews for the rental company; we liked having the vehicle with tents on top (they look very romantic too!) but we didn’t feel that 4 wheel drive was necessary for any of the main areas.However, a higher vehicle is nice for better viewing of wildlife and also for clearance when travelling to places like Epupa Falls, not because the roads are especially bad but some of the little gulleys have quite sharp dips at the bottom (and narrow bridges!), and on the Skeleton Coast. Coming from rural Canada, we are comfortable with gravel roads and did not find them especially challenging. This might change if there was a lot of rain, but we did not experience any rain in Namibia in October (Botswana a whole different story, however. Anyone planning to drive around Botswana would definitely need a 4 wheel drive vehicle and experience driving in loose sand, etc.). We calculated that camping only 5 or 6 times would offset the cost difference between a vehicle with or without camping gear, but the flexibility to choose between camping or lodges when we wanted to save some money and/or should we run into a problem finding lodge accommodation (which we didn’t, but nice to have a backup plan) seemed worth the difference in cost. We met a few travelers with self contained camper vehicles in Namibia and were a bit envious, but our truck was perfect for us (we only used 4 wheel drive time, and that was driving the last bit on the way to the dunes in Sossusvlei, but there is an option to take a shuttle instead of your own vehicle so not really a problem if you don’t have 4×4). We met people who were car camping with a tent, and were quite happy with that option. One question that came up during our planning was whether to rent a satellite phone with the vehicle. We didn’t need one at all. We simply brought along an unlocked phone and purchased a Namibia sim card (available everywhere, we got ours at the backpackers in Windhoek). It worked fine all over Namibia, though you do need to buy a different one for Botswana.

Michael’s Challenge: to take a tour or not to take a tour. Michael spent quite a bit of time reviewing tour company websites, suggested itineraries & prices, contacting various agencies for quotes, etc.  The itineraries were quite useful, however, in trying to figure out what points of interest were most important to see, what accommodation was used by the tour companies, etc.  The Cardboard Box website is very helpful: http://www.namibian.org/. We did notice that the very popular Chameleon Backpackers in Windhoek organizes tours (hopefully pretty well priced, though we didn’t compare them).  Many of the tours we reviewed looked excellent and were quite well priced but, in the end, we decided that we could do our own self guided tour for less money, and have more flexibility to choose what we wanted to do and how long we wanted to spend in each place.We did meet other travelers who were on various tours, and many of them were thrilled with their choice. There is everything available, from hiring a private vehicle with guide, to group tours of various sizes. One couple were even on a tour that provided a flight between each destination rather than spending time travelling by ground – they loved it. There is very little public transit available within rural Namibia/Botswana, so a tour would certainly be recommended for anyone traveling alone.  There are buses and mini buses that travel between the major centers, such as Windhoek and Kasane, but we didn’t really price these out and heard that they are not particularly comfortable, but definitely a consideration for the more adventurous traveler.  We did book a safari in Botswana due to lack of time, but we would recommend doing so even if you have lots of time – ours was one of the most amazing parts of our trip! We were lucky in that we found a fantastic guide on short notice, but another time would definitely pre-book it. Many of our guests who raved to us about going to Namibia/Botswana had done a fly-in safari to very remote lodges in Botswana. These were quite a bit above our budget at often $1,000 a night or more, but sound amazing!

Keith’s Challenge: to figure out where to go and roughly how much time to allot to each place. Whew! In reading the guide books, it seemed at first to be mind boggling.  Namibia is not Canada, but is still a relatively large country and all of the points of interest are scattered about the country.  There is basically something important to see in every corner and many places in between.  Keith & Teresa had initially hoped to drive from Cape Town to Windhoek, which would have allowed us to start our exploration of Namibia at the bottom corner, working our way up to Windhoek without any backtracking but, in looking closer at the distances and our time allowed, we soon realized that it was important to save that travel time and spend it in Namibia. We all agreed we wanted to see Etosha Park (arguably the MOST important destination in Namibia), but also Opuwo, Damaraland/Twyfelfontein, the Skeleton Coast, Swakopmund (not so much to see it, as because we needed a stop along the way), and Sossusvlei. We had a lot of discussion about whether we could manage to include Waterberg, Epupa Falls, Kalahari Desert and Fish River Canyon/Luderitz into our whirlwind itinerary, and initially did not plan to go to these places. However, once we were in Namibia, we heard such great things about Epupa Falls that we did decide to squeeze it in. We all agreed to skip Fish River Canyon due to the long distances required to drive there and back, and because we have all been to the Grand Canyon so we felt of all the things we really must see, this one could perhaps be eliminated (regretfully, as we never like to miss anything!). We did make the right choice, though, as we barely managed to stop for one or two nights in each place anyway, so adding in the extra driving distance to/from Fish River Canyon would have made our trip exhausting.  Our final itinerary, including adjustments as we went along, was:  Windhoek, Etosha Park, Opuwo, Epupa Falls, Opuwo again (just a layover), Kamanjab layover near Khoraxis, Twyfelfontein, Cape Cross via the Skeleton Coast road, Swakopmund, Solitaire stop over, Sossusvlei, Mariental stop over, then back to Windhoek (total 3 weeks in Namibia).   We then flew to Maun, stayed two nights in order to do a Mokoro boat trip, then travelled with our “safari” (just us) from Maun through Moremi Park, Savuti, and then through Chobe Park to Kasane (we were supposed to do one more night in Chobe Park before arriving in Kasane, but the weather turned to a steady downpour so camping looked much less attractive!).  We did a day trip into the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls, then flew to Johannesburg and started our journey back home.  An amazing trip, but they all have to end….sad to leave Africa!

Not that we needed any encouragement to visit this little restaurant, but the reviews that we keep seeing definitely continued to pique our interest, so we were happy to finally find an afternoon recently when we could stop in for lunch again.  We were quickly greeted by a hostess and shown into a cozy booth. A fragrant pot of tea appeared almost immediately, along with their rather extensive menus.

As always, one of our goals is to sample a variety of dishes, so Michael ordered 3 crispy spring rolls ($5.50), along with a bowl of steaming hot Chicken Pho ($7.95), including the “fixings”.

I am trying my best to include more veggies in my diet, so I opted for a Vegetable Stir Fry with Chicken ($8.95), plus a Salad Roll for an appetizer ($2.95).  The food was well cooked and in ample portions (I had to bring half of the salad roll home as I couldn’t eat it all).

As mentioned previously, the Red Pagoda receives accolades on all of the review websites.  UrbanSpoon gives it 4 1/2 stars, with 89% of their reviewers liking it; 4 stars from Yelpers with 41 reviews; 3 stars on TripAdvisor. (I was amused reading some of the comments regarding such adventurous ingredients as beef tendon and tripe which apparently appear in some of the dishes.)  As for us, we once stumbled into an authentic noodle shop in Ho Chi Minh City frequented only by locals, and had the most amazing Pho ever. This may have developed an unrealistic expectation for Pho that we’ve never quite been able to meet in a restaurant in Vancouver (but we’re quite willing to keep looking!). However, the Pho at the Red Pagoda is good and perhaps as good as any we’ve had here – we like it. My salad roll was fine, though it was perhaps a bit heavy on rice for me as I’m not a big rice fan, but the dipping sauce was tasty.  I was a bit disappointed in the stir fry, but perhaps that’s my fault for not ordering something more adventurous.  I’m not sure we would give this restaurant 4 stars, but an opinion is difficult based on a small sample of dishes when the menu is extensive and offers many other dishes which may be amazing. So many people love the food here, so we would recommend that anyone liking Vietnamese food give the Red Pagoda a try and let us know which dishes we should try next time.

Vancouver Foodie Tours ($69 per person) – Central Downtown Vancouver area:  Michelle from Vancouver Foodie Tours invited my daughter and me to join her on one of her “Guilty Pleasures” tours, I’m embarrassed to say almost a year ago (after that we got crazy busy at the B&B and I just didn’t have time to experience other tours and do this blog until now.) But we definitely have not forgotten what a great experience it was, though I believe one of the destinations on the tour may have changed. We started with Kirin Chinese Restaurant, winner of many awards (unfortunately, I was so enjoying the wonderful dim sum & tea that I forgot to take any photos here). Everything we tasted was wonderful, but the Pork & Prawn Dumplings were especially tasty! After Kirin, we enjoyed a brief wine sampling at a nearby wine shop, then onward to ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro, an award winning Japanese Izakayu, and definitely one of our favorites!  I was pretty skeptical that I would enjoy Wild Sockeye Salmon Tartar, but it was beautiful to look at and absolutely delicious! We also sampled an agedashi tofu canape (who knew tofu could be gourmet?) and it was all served with an artisan saki brewed right here in Vancouver.

Vancouver Foodie Tours also offers a “World’s Best Street Eats Tour”, so we got a sneak peek sample as we wandered up Granville Street past some of the food carts toward the next stop on the tour, a bar/restaurant owned by one of Canada’s Top Chefs, where we sampled a local beer and the pulled pork sandwich which creation won the top chef award. Sadly, this restaurant has since closed.  But don’t despair if your favorite food in the world is pulled pork (and whose isn’t!?) – the Vancouver Foodie Tours website advises that they have a new destination called “Hubbub”, which offers (guess what?) pulled pork sandwich with a beer pairing! We definitely had full tummies by this point, but of course we soldiered bravely on!                                                                                                                                                                    

No food tour would be complete without dessert, or at least not one called “Guilty Pleasures”, so of course the last stop on our tour was dessert. What better choice than Vancouver’s award winning Bella Gelateria – taste buds are saying “yippee!” The photo at the top of this blog post was taken during the little private snoop that we got of their back room where the amazing gelato is created.  After a very informative glimpse into the secrets of creating award winning gelato, we were invited into the shop itself where we were invited to choose from an amazing array of flavors. My choice? Salted caramel, of course!  Delicious!

Vancouver Foodie Tours is ranked #2 on TripAdvisor’s Food & Drink “Activities” list and have 8 five star reviews on Yelp. We concur! Michelle was a gracious and informative hostess & tour guide, skillful at initiating lively conversation among her guests, and appears to have an excellent rapport with her restaurant partners.  She is also a wonderful source for the inside scoop on the Vancouver food scene so I love following her on facebook and keeping up on the latest news.  Check out their website at: http://foodietours.ca/.

Taste Vancouver Food Tours ($39.00 per person) – Gastown: Jewel, owner and creator of the Taste Vancouver Food Tours, generously invited us to participate in one of her tours, and we enjoyed every moment! Our daughter again joined Michael & me for the tour, accompanied by several tourists and our guide “Gassy Jack”. I admit that we were all a little nervous that the tour would be a bit too theatrical and not so much about food, in view of a guide dressed up like a river pilot turned saloon keeper who settled in Vancouver in 1867!  However, we were pleasantly surprised – actor Tom Daley struck a nice balance between a little bit of theatre and an informative tour of food, “bloody” alleys and historic Gastown.

We met at Starbucks near the Pan Pacific Hotel, where we were treated to a little coffee drink and a cranberry bliss bar while we waited. Once everyone arrived and equipment was distributed, we were off to our first stop – Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar in Waterfront Station, with Gassy Jack providing a running commentary about the waterfront and area along the way. I must say that, even though I’ve lived in Vancouver for more than 20 years, I learned a lot about Vancouver that I didn’t know. Rogue treated us to the ultimate comfort food,  lobster mac & cheese, while we chatted and experienced this lovely historic building.  This definitely seems like a restaurant/pub that I would like to revisit and linger over food and a cold drink some time!

The tour moved along quickly and we were soon off to a nearby pub called Steamworks Brewing Company.  Steamworks has been a fixture in Vancouver for many years, but it was a reminder to us to again experience old favorites and we enjoyed the atmosphere which was totally buzzing with people, waiters, great looking food rushing by on platters, lots of laughter and great ambiance.  We sampled a craft beer at the bar downstairs with a view of interesting vats and the real workings of a modern brewery. I’m guessing Gassy Jack didn’t have anything like this in his 12′ x 24′ board & batten saloon way back in 1867 (the Globe Saloon was apparently built by eager mill workers in just 24 hours!)!

Again, the stop was brief and we were soon off for quick stops at Rogers Chocolates and Canadian Maple Delights, where we sampled a couple of sweet treats before heading over to Brioche, a charming little Italian restaurant tucked away in Gastown.  The service was great and we loved the cozy back room where we enjoyed the sample of Three Cheese Tortellini in a Sicilian Sauce and in-house baked bread. One fun thing about this tour is that you pop into little places along the way, such as a little tea shop for a quick little “cuppa”, Fluevog Shoes for a browse,a heritage building with a fantastic stamped tin ceiling,  Blood Alley (how scary is that!), a yummy taste of Cheesecake and Gaoler’s Mews, another macabre memento of Vancouver’s more swashbuckling past.  These little stops don’t slow the tour down much, though, as it keeps moving right along.  Next stop was one of Vancouver’s most well known restaurants, the Water Street Cafe, where we sampled their famous crab cakes (not a huge sample, but tasty). Last, but definitely not least as it was our favorite restaurant on the tour, we came to Peckinpah’s – a small restaurant/bar that produces big flavors in their Carolina style pulled pork (which we loved) and specialty bourbons (which we didn’t get to sample). I don’t see any mention of Peckinpah’s on Taste Vancouver Food Tours website, so I’m not sure if this stop is still included in their tour. Again, I’m afraid we took this tour some months ago and just didn’t get around to writing this blog because we wanted to include one more tour company in the review, so the tour may no longer be exactly as described here, but I’m sure it’s still excellent.

In looking at the reviews for this tour, it was a little difficult to compare their reviews to the others that we participated in because Taste Vancouver is listed in TripAdvisor as being in North Vancouver instead of Vancouver, so there isn’t a direct comparison. However, they have a good number of reviews, with an average of 4 1/2 stars, so it’s quite apparent that their guests have enjoyed their experience. We definitely had a great time and thought the venues were all excellent, plus the amount of Vancouver history & interesting tidbits provided along the way was the best of any of the food tours we attended.  And a special note – I see on their Facebook page that they now sell gift cards through Safeway that offer two tours for $59.00 – what a great deal!

Vancouver Food Tours (Craft Beer ‘n Bites Tour – $69.00 per person) – Gastown, and our most recent experience: It was a long process, but finally in February we managed to find time in our busy schedule at the Bee & Thistle to sneak away for a few hours and enjoy the one additional food tour that I was really keen to include in my blog post on this subject. The main reason being that it is currently #1 on TripAdvisor under their “Things to Do in Vancouver”/”Food & Drink” category, plus we’ve had guests tell us how much they enjoyed this tour.  I suspect I know one reason this tour is so popular – it’s all about the BEER! What’s not to like? Plus there are some yummy snacks included and the venues are all excellent.

It was initially a wee bit disappointing that this tour also started at Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar in the Waterfront Station, but only because we were hoping to experience all new venues and this one had been included in one of our previous tours. However, our disappointment (if you can even call it that) ended when we joined our guide, Carlos, at the table where we were quickly served a flight of three craft beers and not only the lobster mac & cheese we had tasted before, but also their own special chili. One of our party is vegetarian, which I had neglected to advise in advance, but our guide handled it beautifully and our friend was very quickly served a very creative sushi dish that included a little ampule of spicy sauce/dressing (how they get the sauce in the little ampule is a mystery!).  We did have an hour from the time we arrived at Rogue until we were expected at our next venue, so that was quite a bit of time to kill,. However, this was probably due to us having requested a 4:00 tour instead of the usual 5:00 start time, so they had to do some quick arrangements to work it out.  I’m not even going to try to remember which craft beers we tasted at each place (blame it on the beer!), but Carlos kindly summarized them for me in an email and I will attach the list at the end of this section.

Our next stop was the Pourhouse Restaurant on Water Street, which we all agreed we would like to explore further at another time. The inspiration for this restaurant/bar was apparently the wonderfully historic 1910 building and all things turn of the century, including the drinks which have a classic twist. Even the bartender made us feel like we had stepped back to a time when bartending was an honored craft – he was excellent! I enjoyed reading the “about” the restaurant on their website when researching this post: http://pourhousevancouver.com/about/.

Of course this stop was also focused on special craft beer varieties (well, it IS billed as a BEER and bites tour, which was particularly appreciated by the male participants of our party), but the food was also very interesting at Pourhouse and had lovely homey flavors that went well with the main event (beer).  Michael usually detests boiled eggs, but he even really liked the Scotch egg (which I loved!). Our vegetarian was treated to a lovely little salad and soup.

Our guide was very enthusiastic about the pre-prohibition cocktails created and served at Pourhouse, so was keen that we try one of them. We thought we were sharing one drink as a sample, so were a bit surprised when the bartender brought us a full cocktail each – but somehow we didn’t protest and the drinks did disappear before we left the restaurant – and it was delicious! One caution – this extra drink did come with approximately a $40 price tag for the four of us, so we do recommend that you are clear about whether you want a sample only or a full cocktail each if you decide to try one of them.  Anyway, Pourhouse is also on our list of places we would like to return to with a group of friends on another day.

Well, I do have to say that we were quite mellow by the time we left Pourhouse and headed over to our last stop, the Portside Pub on Alexander Street, which apparently has 24 craft beer on tap. Whew!  Not sure I needed any more beer, but luckily the guys were quite happy to help us girls out – our heroes!   

Portside feels like a truly nautical pub that you might find along the waterfront in any seaside city, with heavy timbers, a long bar & sturdy long tables, model ships and an overall feeling of earthy comfort.  Patrons sit along the bar or companionably elbow to elbow at the tables, enjoying their brew and watching the various sports channels on the big screens.

Once we were comfortably set up with yet another 3 craft beers to taste and our basket of food, our guide Carlos bid us good evening as his part in our adventure was finished. We said goodbye truly feeling like we had spent an evening in the company of a good friend who had shared with us some of his special places in Vancouver.  As mentioned earlier, this is the tour that is currently # one in Vancouver on TripAdvisor in the category ”Things to Do in Vancouver”/”Food & Drink”. We can definitely see why it would be appreciated by all participants, but especially those who have a special interest in craft beers and pub style food.  Our guide, Carlos, perhaps didn’t share as much Vancouver tourist information with us as he would have done otherwise, since all of us were local. But he was personable and knowledgeable about the venues and the food & beers sampled. He very kindly sent us a list of the beers on the tour, which is as follows (no wonder we were mellow!):

• Phillips Brewery – Phoenix Sun Gold Lager
• Driftwood Brewery – Fat Tug IPA
• Pyramid Brewery – Audacious Apricot
• Red Racer IPA
• Parallel 49 – Vow of Silence & Gypsy Tears
• Deschutes Brewery – Chainbreaker White IPA

I usually end my foodie blog posts with a comment about our own experience at the particular restaurant or tour and recommendations for our guests, but I’m having a difficult time doing that in this case. I think that all of these tours were excellent and that each of them would appeal to a slightly different demographic, though many people may like them all, as we did. The “Guilty Pleasures” tour from Vancouver Foodie Tours might appeal particularly to those who would describe themselves as “foodies” and who like to sample world class food in very culturally diverse restaurants in the business/downtown district of Vancouver  (note that this tour company does also offer food truck tours for a completely different look at the Vancouver food scene).  Taste Vancouver Food Tours focuses on Gastown and might be of particular interest to anyone interested in getting some fun insight into Vancouver’s history, particularly in the Gastown area, while experiencing excellent restaurants, delectable delights such as chocolates & Canadian maple products, and even glimpsing some interesting Gastown shops. This tour is fast paced and light hearted.  The “Craft Beer & Bites” tour offered by Vancouver Food Tours is much more in depth, spending a substantial amount of time at each of 3 venues, where the guests have an opportunity to sample and discuss some of the best craft beers available in this very foodie/drinkie (is that a word?) city, while at the same time tasting some yummy “gourmet” pub style food. Our recommendation?  Try them all!  (And there are others that we haven’t yet tried, but look forward to doing so soon!)

In reading the various review sites while preparing to write this blog, I was amused to note that many people suggest that Sake Maki looks like a Greek Restaurant turned Japanese, which I have to admit it kind of does. The interior colour and arches are also slightly reminiscent of a Greek island eatery, but the cozy restaurant appears clean and comfy. It definitely felt good to come in out of the Vancouver Spring rain!  We are not totally adventurous sushi eaters, even though we live in a city that seems to have more Japanese restaurants than Tokyo (well, maybe not, but definitely lots of Japanese restaurants), and due to the chilly, damp weather we were definitely feeling more inclined toward something warm (which may be why we were originally focused on Vietnamese Pho!). But as soon as we were seated we were greeted with a hot mug of steaming tea – most welcome and it did keep coming through out our meal! The menu was quite expansive, with so many options to choose from including some interesting sounding rolls with mango and other unusual ingredients. You can check out their menu and/or order on line at: http://www.just-eat.ca/restaurants-sake-maki/menu (they deliver for orders over $25.00).

Michael & I couldn’t decide what to have so, in the end, we both opted for a lunch “platter” @ $7.50 each in order to sample a variety of dishes.  The combo platters included a little side salad, 8 pieces of California roll and 2 gyoza, plus a main dish. I chose Wonton Soup for my main, Michael went for Chicken Teriyaki (he’s never afraid of a few calories!). The food came relatively quickly, beginning with a small salad which we unfortunately found to be uninspiring – but we weren’t really expecting a lot at this price. It basically consisted of a few pieces of iceberg lettuce and a couple of slices of carrot, topped with a sweet ginger/soy dressing. My wonton soup, however, was satisfying, with enough veggies to feel healthy and a generous number of wonton dumplings, all floating in a nicely flavored broth. Just what I needed on a rainy day! I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t get the California rolls without mayonnaise, but they do offer real crab rolls which are made fresh and can be done without mayo for an extra $2.00.  For the purposes of this review, I wanted to try the basic California rolls, but would perhaps go for the real crab rolls another time. The basic ones were fine, but the gyoza were my favorite part of the meal – nicely flavored and served with the usual dipping sauce (well, I just like gyoza!).  Michael enjoyed the chicken teriyaki which was apparently nicely cooked and served with a flavorful sauce on top of a small bed of rice (see photo to the right). All in all, it was quite a lot of food for me, and a generous amount for the price! I couldn’t eat it all but Michael happily polished off his, plus some of mine, so that probably speaks pretty clearly about his opinion of the food!  In summary, I would say that it was very acceptable food for such an affordable meal, and we had an altogether good experience having lunch at this unpretentious little restaurant.

In looking at the reviews on line, I see that many people have been very pleased with Sake Maki, though of course there are always those who didn’t like it at all.  Yelp reviewers give it an average of 3 1/2 stars, with some individual reviewers giving it as much as 5 stars and others only one or two (restaurants definitely can’t please everyone!). Both DineHere and TripAdvisor show an average of 3 stars, and an impressive 86% of UrbanSpoon reviewers “like” this little restaurant.  The biggest problem with Japanese restaurants on Commercial Drive (and what a terrible problem it is!), is that there are so many to choose from!  It’s difficult for us to recommend that our guests go to this one in particular because, truthfully, there are others we like better, but there are also others that we don’t like as much (and we’re only half way up this side of the “Drive”!).  But if you happen to be wandering up the street and looking for an inexpensive and tasty lunch or dinner, then sure – give it a try!

We popped into the pizzeria on a Thursday evening, right after they opened at 5:00, and were fortunate to get there before the lineup had started, so that would be our first recommendation – go early and preferably on a week night.  The restaurant was almost full but we managed to find a table and were happy to be inside the warm and welcoming little restaurant with the wonderful smells of pizza cooking and the sounds of happy chatter. We are still trying to get back into our pre-Christmas jeans, so we were not very extravagant in our food choices, finally settling for one Capricciosa pizza between us – the most expensive pizza on the menu at $19.00. While waiting for our food and drinks, we chatted with our neighbors at nearby tables and ogled their food. The appetizer call “frittura napolitana” looked particularly appealing – we will definitely have to try those yummy looking fritters next time! One couple with a small child told us that they frequently find themselves dropping by at Via Tevere, as it’s become their “go to” eatery in the neighborhood.

Via Tevere’s website tells the charming story of how this little pizzeria came to be.  Apparently, the family originated in a small palazzo on a street in the heart of Naples called Via Tevere. Lucky them, they spent many summers on Via Tevere and learned the secrets of the traditional wood-fire cooking method and Neopolitan ingredients. Lucky us, we get to experience a little bit of their summers in Italy by popping into our neighborhood pizzeria!

Our pizza arrived and was definitely not a disappointment. Very thin with crispy crust and loaded with generous amounts of proscutto, salami, artichokes, mushrooms and olives – delicious!  Our only regret was that we didn’t toss those pre-Christmas jeans in the trash and order two pizzas!  However, in the end we agreed that we were really quite satisfied with half a pizza each and any more would only have been because we didn’t want to stop eating!

One of the marvelous things about a neighborhood like Commercial Drive is that your neighbors at the next table are also your neighbors who live only a few streets away from your house, so each dining experience where you are able to chat with the family at the next table is also an experience in building community.  We feel so blessed to living in the small community called “the Drive”, even as we live in a relatively big, worldly city. We can choose to remain near our neighborhood and feel like we live in a small town, or we can be downtown in 5 or 10 minutes and at the heart of the hussle and bustle of the shopping and business community!  The second benefit of owning a B&B in a small neighborhood like the Drive is that many of our guests are here to visit their children and/or grand children in the neighborhood so we get to know more and more of our neighbors as we are host and hostess to their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters.

But, back to our comments regarding Via Tevere Pizzeria.  One of the things we particularly appreciated about Via Tevere, besides the food and the very pleasant wait staff, is their efforts to retain the heritage character of their building.  If you approach the restaurant from the south, you will be delighted by the wonderful, faded mural on the exterior wall that is a legacy of an earlier era.  Since we chose to open our B&B in a heritage house, it’s pretty easy to guess that we like historic buildings, and this one tells a wonderful little story of Commercial Drive history.

As usual, we couldn’t finish a review without checking out the standard review sites, 83% of Urban Spoon reviewers like Via Tevere, and Yelpers rate it four stars. As for us, we definitely liked it a lot – the food was delicious and the lively, friendly atmosphere was fun. We will be going back at our very first opportunity, as well as recommending it to our guests.   We also notice on their website that there are some intriguing little tweets about the t.v. show “You Gotta Eat Here”.  Could it be that we will see some of Via Tevere’s inside secrets on an upcoming show of this Canadian t.v. series?

A Vegan Valentine Treat!

With so many people looking for healthy, wholesome food these days, we are finding more and more guests are asking for vegan options. But that’s not to say that they don’t still love wonderful flavors and home baked pastries, fresh out of the oven! In fact, we find that they are often extremely appreciative of the effort we go to in finding vegan options that work really well and produce excellent baked goods.  Of course, this is a good excuse for one of my favorite activities – pouring over recipe books & blogs, and testing out our own creations on willing guests or my family!

This recipe is one that we adapted from a conventional lemon scone recipe that didn’t require any eggs. We found the vegan version to be absolutely delicious! In fact, you could easily serve these scones to your non-vegan friends – I promise you, they won’t even notice any difference!

Fun Heart Cookie Cutters

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we thought it would be would be  fun to prepare them in heart shapes and serve them with pink raspberry butter and a lovely pink rose!

One of our favorite kitchen shops is the Gourmet Warehouse, located very near us on Hastings Street, and they have a wonderful selection of cookie cutters (among other things!). You can find them on line at http://www.gourmetwarehouse.ca/.  Even if you don’t need cookie cutters but are a foodie at all, you will love this shop!

So back to the recipe, here goes:

Vegan Lemon Scones

3 cups flour, unbleached

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter substitute (I used Earth Balance)

Zest of 2 lemons

1 cup soy milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice stirred into it

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. Rub in the lemon zest with your fingers (even better flavor if you first rub it into the sugar).
3. Cut butter substitute into chunks then cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter until it is approximately the size of peas.
4. Stir the lemon juice into the soy milk to “clabber” it, toss with the flour mixture, then turn out onto a floured board and knead just until the dough comes together (4 or 5 times). Pat or roll into a 6″ diameter, approximately 1″ thick. Cut into 6 wedges or whatever shape you wish with a biscuit or cookie cutter.

• Bake at 400 F. for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
• Allow to cool the drizzle with lemon glaze. Serve with raspberry butter or home made jam.

Glaze

1 cup icing sugar

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

1. Measure icing sugar into a small bowl. Stir in lemon juice until smooth. It should be thick but soft enough to drizzle. I like to pop it into a baggie, cut the corner off the baggie and use it like a piping bag to squeeze the glaze onto the scones in a pretty cross hatch pattern or whatever pattern you like.

Raspberry Butter

1/3 cup fresh raspberries

1/3 cup butter substitute at room temperature (eg. Earth Balance)

1 1/2 tablespoons of icing sugar

Pinch of salt

1. Place the butter substitute in a bowl & whip with hand mixer. Add raspberries, icing sugar and salt. Continue to beat until smooth. Serve with warm scones.

]]> http://www.beeandthistle.ca/2013/01/vegan-lemon-scones-with-raspberry-butter-delicious/feed/ 0 http://www.beeandthistle.ca/2013/01/apple-walnut-crunch-muffins/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=apple-walnut-crunch-muffins http://www.beeandthistle.ca/2013/01/apple-walnut-crunch-muffins/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:43:24 +0000 admin http://www.beeandthistle.ca/?p=1520 At the Bee & Thistle Guest House in Vancouver we love to surprise our guests with a different freshly baked pastry every morning, even when they stay with us for two or three weeks at a time. This means we need a pretty big repertoire of muffin & scone recipes, and we are always looking for wonderful new flavors and ideas. But we do find that we fall back on our favorites whenever possible, and this Apple Walnut Crunch Muffin recipe is definitely one of the best – moist and dense, with a satisfying hint of spice and a crunchy topping.  Great for winter, too, when berries & other typical muffin additions are not at their prime.  This muffin recipe does take a bit more time than some, due to the apple preparation time and the crunchy topping, but they are not at all difficult and use very common ingredients that one would find in most kitchens.  We do always recommend good quality, wholesome ingredients, of course, such as organic unbleached white or whole wheat flour and free range organic eggs (we get ours from our daughter’s Bowen Island hobby farm whenever possible, although these particular chickens, unfortunately, are currently on strike and seem to be holding out for Spring!).  If you want to whip these up very quickly in the morning, it’s quite okay to mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in another, pop the thinly sliced apples & the topping in separate baggies, all the evening before, refrigerate the whole lot, then toss them together in the morning.   We like those big, tantalizing muffins that one would find in a high quality coffee shop, so we use a commercial pan with tiered sides to produce wonderful gigantic muffins with crunchy toppings. However this means that we only get 6 – 8 muffins from this recipe (double the recipe if you have more guests or use a pan with smaller muffin cups in order to stretch the recipe to 10 or 12 smaller muffins).  Note: don’t panic when you stir in the apples and discover that the batter looks like it has way-y-y-y too many apples – they truly do melt into the other ingredients and produce a very moist but light muffin.

Bee & Thistle Apple Walnut Crunch Muffins

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 cups apples, peeled, cored and very thinly sliced (we use a mandolin on the thinnest setting)

Cinnamon Crumble Topping:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp. white flour, unbleached
• 2 tbsp. cold butter, cut in small pieces or pop in the freezer for a few minutes, then grate on a coarse grater

Preparation: 

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Spray pans or grease with butter. Line with paper muffin cups to make them easy to remove.
• Prepare the apples by peeling & coring them and slicing as thin as possible. 2 cups usually equals two apples. Set aside.
• Prepare topping: in small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon & 3 tbsp. flour. Rub the butter in with  your hands until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.
• In large bowl, cream the 1/2 cup butter, then beat in 1 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then milk (if you put it in the fridge at this stage, the butter does go a bit lumpy, but don’t worry – it melts into the batter just fine when baking).
• In another bowl, stir together the 1 3/4 cup of flour, baking powder, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and the walnuts. When ready to bake, stir the flour mixture into the liquid ingredients, just until almost blended. Toss in the sliced apples and stir again until the apples are well distributed but don’t over stir.
• Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans. Top with the cinnamon crumble.
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
• Allow to sit for 5 minutes before attempting to remove them from the pans. Cool on a wire rack. 
• We serve these with butter cut into pretty shapes and home made Roasted Apple Butter.

A great way to do this is to take advantage of the wonderful “deals” offered during the Dine Out Vancouver Festival, which takes place all over the city from January 18 to February 3, 2013. If you’re planning to come to Vancouver during this period, it’s important to make your restaurant selection and bookings early as the favorites always sell out well ahead of time. Check out the menus at the following link link: http://www.dineoutvancouver.com/. Search for your favorite restaurant by name, by price ($18, $28 or $38 for a set menu usually 3 course dinner), by cuisine type, or by area of the city (“East Vancouver” covers most of the area near the Bee & Thistle, but we are also a quick drive or cab ride from those restaurants located in the Downtown, Yaletown, Coal Harbour and other central areas).

An exciting addition to Dine Out Vancouver in the last couple of years is “Street Food City II” event, which is an opportunity to try out our fabulous food trucks! This free event will take place at the Vancouver Art Gallery January 23rd – 27th, 2013. Check out the Dine Out Vancouver website for a list of participating trucks and times. I’m also very interested in the Railtown Culinary Walking Tour on January 25th & February 1st ($35 per person), which explores “some of the great establishments that are setting up in this gritty historic area” – an adventure!

If you’re staying with us at the Bee & Thistle on January 31, 2013, the I, Malvolio performance of the The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is only a block away, and is combined with dinner at one of the newest restaurants on Commercial Drive – Merchant’s Oyster Bar, for $65 per person. The very popular Secret Supper Soiree is unfortunately already sold out, but Edible Canada at the Market is also offering some great events and wine enthusiasts may want to check out the Grape Debate at the Vancouver library on February 1st (find more information on all events on the Dine Out Vancouver website).

We must admit to having fallen into a bit of a routine with our visits to Marcello’s.  Michael & I almost always order a chef’s salad ($9.95), which is so satisfying you almost forget you’re eating salad!  The ingredients are not unusual – Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, ham, artichokes, black olives, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese, but it’s the dressing that is yummy.  I try to figure out the recipe every time I go there!  We usually team it up with a Capricciosa pizza ($14.95 for medium, which is lots for 2 people sharing/$28.95 for large) – tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, salami, artichokes, black olives and mushrooms (basically, the chef’s salad turned into a pizza!).  We’ve gone there for staff dinners more than once, so between us and our staff have probably tried most of their pasta & gnocchi dishes as well. All were well received and whenever we plan a get together, many of our staff vote to go to Marcello’s. The restaurant is fun and relaxed and the food is good.  Just one word of caution – if you’re looking for a posh or elegant Italian restaurant, this is not it. We once made the mistake of recommending it to a guest who wanted to take some co-workers out for dinner. We didn’t realize he wanted to treat them to a  big splash, i.e. impressive, dinner and he was, unfortunately, quite disappointed in our recommendation. So, yes – if you’re looking for that kind of experience, go downtown to somewhere like Cin Cin.

Looking at Marcello’s website was interesting. It seems that owner and chef, Marcello Lombardo is originally from Palermo, Italy and he owned a restaurant on the Adriatic Riviera before moving to Vancouver more than 25 years ago. The website also mentions that all of the pasta and gnocchi are made daily in house. Rich Italian heritage and home cooking – two excellent ingredients of great food!

After writing of our own experience up to this point, I took at look at the reviews. Hmmm – interesting. UrbanSpoon 3 1/2 stars, Yelp 3 stars, DineHere only 2 1/2 stars – yikes! We obviously are missing something!  Many of the negative reviews appear to be about service, but some also didn’t like the food. We have experienced slow service at Marcello’s but I can’t say that’s been the norm and I don’t recall ever having an unfriendly waiter. They can be really busy, often there’s a lineup, so wait & kitchen staff no doubt have to hustle to keep up and that could definitely lead to some service issues. Perhaps living in the neighborhood makes a difference for us as we rarely go there when it’s really busy, more often dropping in for lunch or an early dinner. If we do go at peak time, we know we will be packed in a little closer than we might like, that service may require a little patience (and a bottle of wine) and that it definitely will be noisy (energetic?).  Yet we keep going back and, other than the one fellow looking for a special night out, have not had any guests less than pleased with their experience at Marcello’s.  I only recently started checking out Zagat reviews and they are showing 93% of their reviewers “like it”, so there you go – one can often find an opinion that agrees with yours if you keep looking!

Our initial impression was one of stylish & attractive decor and polished, professional, yet warm and friendly wait staff. And you do meet several of their staff because of their unique ordering system. Immediately upon being seated someone appeared at our table to explain their ordering process. There are order cards & pencils on the tables and you are to fill out your order and take it up to the service counter to order. After that, you are served at your table. Hmm..more about that later.

The pizza that caught my attention was the Funghi Tartufo, with roasted white mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, white truffle oil and reggiano parmesan cheese – there are never too many mushrooms or too much garlic in any dish for my taste! It comes as a personal size pizza for $14.50, or as a “pizzetta” for $9.50, but my choice was a “pizzetta combo” with blackberry arugula salad for $11.00 (blackberries & arugula – two of my favorite foods!). Michael had to try something different so he opted for the Conforto Pizza (Italian sausage, roasted mushrooms & roasted red peppers) in a pizzetta combo with tomato bisque for the same price.

While waiting for our pizzettas, we had time to do a little reading – you know, the menu, the back of the menu, posters on the wall…all those very intellectual pursuits we enter into while waiting for food in restaurants. I learned some interesting stuff – Famoso’s pizzas are made with Caputo low gluten flour, “fior de latte” (fresh whole milk) mozzarella, Campania tomatoes imported from Italy. How delicious does that sound?!

We were really glad that we had ordered the combos. They were the perfect amount of food and the arugula blackberry salad and the tomato bisque were both delicious! The pizza is the super thin crust type which, according to Famoso’s website, is cooked at 900 F for no more than 60 to 90 seconds. The concept sounds very intriguing but, unfortunately, the result (for us, this time) was a pizza that was burnt on the edges and little more than cold sauce on top of raw dough in the middle. Perhaps this is how Neopolitan pizza is supposed to be and we just haven’t learned to fully appreciate it (?).  We admit to being of the generation that grew up with basic thick crust chain store style pizza. (Being very accommodating sorts of people, we are quite willing to spend a few months in Naples for full immersion pizza appreciation training!)  And, of course, great restaurants and excellent chefs must have off moments – perhaps there was a new chef on the line, or the oven not working well, or any number of other reasons why our pizza came out both over & under cooked. The flavors of both pizzas were good and, with some selective nibbling between the crust and the doughy bits in the middle, we did manage to find some pizza that was quite enjoyable.  For our taste, we would like a bit more seasoning in the sauce, but that could definitely just be personal taste.  But I should also comment about dessert, especially since not many pizza restaurants offer a lot in the way of dessert.  We read that their nutella pizza is amazing, but that seemed a bit over the top after already having a pizza main course. So we settled for a sample of gelato, which seems to be a fairly major component of their menu. We opted for burnt sugar banana cioccolato since two of Michael’s favorite flavors are banana and chocolate, and we knew who would end up eating it (the same guy who keeps the cookies in our cookie jar rotating regularly!). We must admit to a bias toward the Drive’s well known gelato shop a couple of blocks away, but we genuinely didn’t feel that this particular gelato lived up to its’ very enticing sounding name. Maybe we need to try another flavor next time (and we are always most willing to try any gelato, any time, any where!).

Summarizing our feelings about this restaurant is a bit difficult. We wanted so much to love it and indeed we did like many things about it, including the lovely staff, the ambiance, and the wonderful smells that are so tantalizing as you walk past it on the Drive. But a pizza place is all about the pizza and ours was, sadly, definitely underwhelming. However, it’s very possible that our experience was an anomaly and not at all the norm. The salad and soup were delicious, so we know they can and do prepare great food. We do agree with comments from many other reviewers that the ordering system is not at all appealing and we don’t see that it makes ordering any smoother or better. It certainly did not enhance our experience of the restaurant and detracts from the nice, upscale Italian eatery vibe. The waiter could easily have taken our order in the amount of time it took to explain the self order system to us!

So, would we recommend Famoso to our guests? We would be a little nervous to endorse it wholeheartedly but we don’t want to base our opinion of the restaurant, or influence that of other people, on pizzas that were not cooked correctly one time. We would probably point them to the reviews on Yelp (3 1/2 stars) and UrbanSpoon (4 stars), tell them about the various pizza restaurant options available nearby (numerous), and ask them to let us know what their experience is like if they do choose to go to Famoso.

As a postscript, I had a fun time reading Famoso’s website as I was preparing to write this review. It’s extremely informative about the history of Neopolitan style pizza, where & when it was invented, etc. If you are interested in food, and Italian food in particular, it’s well worth a read. http://www.famoso.ca/history.php