Bistro 101 at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

Was there to dine in to try the specialty hot chocolate from the hot chocolate festival. It was delish. The flavours of the berry and dark chocolate went well together. The drink was hot, rich and a decent size. I also had the sticky toffee pastry as well, which was great.

Brought the kids here for the berry chocolate special during the hot chocolate festival. $9.95 for a hot chocolate. Seemed a little steep, but ok. When I asked if I can skip the black pepper, the cashier seemed annoyed to answer that it is already pre-made, so no leaving out ingredients. She said, “you can’t choose to leave out the pepper, or the berry, or the sugar…etc etc”. Chill out, lady, I only asked if I can leave out the black pepper for my kids. Anyway. We got the drink anyway, but it really wasn’t good. Overly sweet, lukewarm, and the overpowering berry flavour just doesn’t work with the chocolate. My kids took a few sips and didn’t want the rest. I took a sip and agreed with them that we just wasted over $10 on a very mediocre lukewarm drink.

Great little cofee shop and bakery with just the best views.

This is still a great place to have a sit-down, but the selection of pastries hasn’t bounced back (yet?! Fingers crossed) from pandemic staffing shortage. I miss the seasonal selection of danishes — you used to have to be first in the door to get one of them, but now pastries only start showing up on the counter after 10 am.But it remains one of my favourite places. On the mornings that they have quiche, the massive slices are good value and yummy.

The good news is that my wife loved her meal of trout. She loved the appetizer, assorted tomatoes, her main course, trout and her desert, the tiramisu. I on the on the other hand was disappointed by my selection. The appetizer, three small scallops perfectly cooked but their delicate flavor was overwhelmed by the picante flavor of the hot sauce. My main-meal was allegedly something the equivalent to a New York steak or Delmonico. I asked for and received the steak medium rare. It was served with crispy fried potatoes. The meat was barely edible. I don't know the cut of meat they served or the origin of the meat but I would never recommend this steak to anyone familiar with the finer cuts of meat such as filet or rib eye or New York. I did finally manage to finish the steak but not without picking stands of meat from my teeth throughout the course of the meal, A restaurants signature is predicated on their ability to deliver an tender cut of meat cooked to perfection. Total failure. My desert was to be Profiteroles with ice cream. What I expected and what I got were two different things. I expected the type of puff pastry in and eclair or the like but the profiteroles we more the consistency of a cookie. I was disappoint on all three counts