Diplomat Bakery

Restaurant: Diplomat Bakery

Cuisine: Desserts/Bakery/Coffee

Last visited: February 23, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

6111 London Road (Steveston)
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5 (based on the 3 items I tried)

Service: 4

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Location in the middle of nowhere (industrial)
• Near Steveston Village
• Popular to locals
• European bakery
• Popular for cakes
• Whole cakes available
• Wedding cakes available
• Very reasonably priced
• Quality ingredients
• Some savoury café foods available
• Great for quick lunch/coffee/dessert
• Spacious, clean, contemporary
• Self-serve/pay at cashier
• Seats 20
• Eat in/Take-out

**Recommendation: Napoleon, Spinach and Feta Cheese Brioche

I’ve only tried a few things here and based on those I gave it a 4.5/6. However I think it could easily movie up to a 5 if I tried more things – I still need to try more of their cakes.

It’s basically the True Confections (cake café) of Richmond. The style, look, and choices at Diplomat Bakery are similar to those offered at True Confections, but not quite as refined. I can’t say 100% because I haven’t tried enough, but True Confections I think is better. On the other hand Diplomat bakery is half the price of True Confections. All Diplomat Bakery cakes are $3.50 a slice so it’s very affordable compared to the $7-8 you would pay in downtown.

Overall I enjoyed everything I had and would go back to try more. However it is a little out of the way and not so convenient so I would really have to make it a plan to go again. I don’t think they’re an open late kind of place, but they were very busy in the late afternoon with lots of locals stopping for coffee and dessert. They also serve a small selection of savoury foods like muffins, quiche etc.

On the table:

**Napoleon 4.5/6

• $2.75
• Every bakery has their interpretation of the Napoleon.
• It was layers of flakey crisp pastry and butter cream sprinkled with icing sugar.
• It was sweet, but not overly sweet. It’s sweeter than the Saint Germain’s Napoleon though.
  

• It was very fresh and you could taste the quality of ingredients. I loved the layers of flakey pastry and the ratio of cream to pastry was great.
• However the layers of butter cream were really buttery and I could taste it – it didn’t melt as well as I would have liked. It was a denser butter cream, not the fluffy whipped kind. It was almost like pastry custard, but it tasted buttery. I prefer pastry cream or custard in Napoleons.
  

• 

White Chocolate Baileys 3.5/6

• $3.50 for a slice $40 for 9 inch cake
• This was a pretty cake. It was white chocolate cake with a layer of white chocolate Bailey’s cake and a layer of dark chocolate cake in the middle.
  

• This was a dense cake and although the middle layers look moussey, it’s not. It’s an actual cake, but it does have a slightly creamy texture…almost like cheesecake does, but it’s not cheesecake. It was thickend with butter instead of cheese but it was still a cake. I liked the texture of cake and the denser middle layers of cake though.
  

• It had white chocolate shavings all around the edges, which was a nice touch.
• It actually wasn’t that sweet and I thought it would be since it was white chocolate.
  

• I could taste the Bailey’s and it’s not overwhelming or too heavy on the liquor but carries a light coffee taste. It’s mixed into the middle white layers.
• I think they the dark chocolate layer could have overpowered the white chocolate layers a little bit. The white chocolate cake layers came off as regular white cake and it was a tad dry. Luckily it had the middle layers to keep it more moist.

**Spinach and Feta Cheese Brioche 4.5/6

• $3.25
• This was huge and a really good price.

• I enjoyed mine with a fried egg for breakfast and my friend enjoyed hers with tuna. It was very enjoyable with these extras although it tastes good on its own too.
  

• It’s not soft and fluffy, but the crumbs are tight like brioche should be. It’s egg and butter based bread, so it’s rich in texture and flavour. It’s a bit dry, drier than brioche should be though, but it was ok because the filling kept in moist.

• It’s stuffed with spinach and Feta cheese mixture and the Feta was actually quite strong and stood out. There are some ‘fillers’ in the mixture, but it just made it even better so it didn’t bother me one bit.
  

• They add some mashed potato and onions into the mixture so it’s almost creamy and hold lots of flavour. You can bite into small pieces of minced potato so the texture is great.
• I kind of wanted a bit more egg wash on the top though – I like my brioche to have that slightly sweetened and baked egg wash.

Patisserie Lebeau

Restaurant: Patisserie Lebeau

Cuisine: Bakery/Dessert/Cafe

Last visited: February 1, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Robson Street/West End/Downtown)

1728 West 2nd Avenue
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: n/a (didn't try enough)

Service: 3

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Family owned
• Famous for waffles
• Authentic Belgian waffles
• Made with butter/natural ingredients
• Unbleached flour, pure vanilla
• No additives/preservatives
• Savoury foods available: quiche/sandwiches etc
• Pay at cashier
• Fresh baked breads
• Baked daily
• Homemade/home baked
• Ready to eat or sold frozen
• Seats 20-30
• Located around industrial area
• Available for wholesale

**Recommendation: Any of their Belgian waffles or Leige waffles (several flavours)

My friend had first introduced me to this bakery by bringing me some waffles from the store. However I managed to discover the actual location quite randomly. I noticed it while driving around that area and I took a quick stop to check it out. I saw the “Authentic Belgian waffle” sign outside and as soon as I walked in I noticed the display case full of them. I put one and one together and was really pleased that I had found it. It’s kind of located in a small industrial/office area on West 2^nd so It’s not an obvious location people would know about. It’s one of those word or mouth places that you would feel lucky to find.

It’s a great place for a quick lunch or coffee break. They have some sweet and savoury baked goods and sandwiches and a nice café set up in the front. It was actually decently busy from local businesses during lunch but the line-up goes fast and there’s actually a lot of seats inside.

They are most known for their waffles obviously. The website claims that they’re a “healthy snack” because it’s made with natural ingredients…but I highly doubt they are healthy or recommended for a healthy diet…even if they’re all natural.

I’ve been to Brussels before so I am very lucky to have tried the real deal…these are quite close to the real deal, but they're not as moist. I would go back to try more stuff because I believe that they can do better then what I had. Let's go in detail...

On the table:

**White Chocolate Lemon (Liege) Waffle 3.5/6

• $2.80
• I would give a 5.5/6 (a bit dry) to their original leige waffle, but not for this white chocolate lemon one.
• There was no white chocolate...at all. I was expecting white chocolate chips throughout the batter but there wasn't. I'm not sure if they melted the white chocolate right into the batter but I couldn't taste any so I doubt it.
• It smelt like lemons though and I could taste the fresh lemon zest and see it.
• The best part of these waffles is the sugar crystals which they call "pearl sugar" - a sugar that's made in Belgium. I call them sugar crystals - they're basically tiny clumps of sugar that's all natural. Some of them melt into the dough and some of them stay clumped and create "crystals". So when you eat it you bite into little clumps of sugar that are delicious! They're not hard like rock sugar, but they're slightly crunchy like little balls of sugar soaked in sugar syrup.
  
• The sugar crystals that do melt during the baking process end up coating the outside of these waffles and make them crispy.
• It sounds sweet and it is, but not overly sweet at all.
• It's really dense and heavy and it was almost bread-like because they're made from yeast. It was like a dense lemon cake.
• As good as these waffles are they could be better because they're a bit dry.

Peach and Custard Waffle 2.5/6

• Brussels waffles stuffed with peach and custard $3.55 (I think)
• I was actually pretty disappointed by this. It’s their most popular stuffed waffle so I had high expectations.
• The biggest disappointment is because they used canned peaches.

• It’s actually a pretty heavy and dense waffle. My friend had bought them that afternoon and they're baked fresh daily. We were eating them about 6 hours later and by then they were already a bit hard, stale and quite dry. I don't think that should have happened that quickly...I don't know though maybe it's because they're "all natural" that they go stale so quickly as well.

• The custard is almost like a pastry cream. It's super thick and almost like a pudding. It's light tasting though because it's not that sweet. I wanted a stronger vanilla taste though. I couldn't see any vanilla bean seeds so I think they just use pure vanilla extract.
  
• There is a lot of stuffing in the waffle, but I just wish it was real peaches...it cheapened it.
• This one has no sugar crystals, it's more bread like.

Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House

Restaurant: Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House

Cuisine: Café/Coffee/Desserts/Cakes
Last visited: January 19, 2010
Area: Multiple - Vancouver, BC (Gastown/Downtown)
321 Water Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3
Service: 2.5

Ambiance: 3.5

Overall: 3

Additional comments:

• Local chain since 1996
• Clean/European style cafe
• Good for snacks/coffee breaks
• Relaxed, but upscale café feel
• Fair-trade 100% certified organic coffee
• Coffee roasted in small batches on site
• Award winning cheesecakes
• Vancouver’s Best Cheesecake by The Province newspaper
• By the slice or whole cheesecakes available
• Organic coffee, not organic food
• Breakfast/Lunch
• Sandwiches/Baked goods
• Display case/pre-made items
• Vegan options
• Eat in/Take-out
• Difficult to park

**Recommendation: The Sin Cheesecake, Coffee, Latte

I went to the grand opening of the 4^th location of Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House in Gastown. I was really excited because 1) I was meeting a friend I hadn’t seen in years and 2) they advertised an “all day tasting party with free coffee and samples of cheesecake, muffins, scones and sandwiches!” It was supposed to be a big party and celebration so they got everyone all excited and anticipated – but for nothing. In the end we did sample one cheesecake (upon ordering and paying), but we also asked for it. I just don’t believe in false advertising and hyping your customers up for expectations you can’t deliver. I mean people went to support their business so I don’t think it’s unfair to ask that they should stay true to their words.

I support their 100% Organic & Fair Trade Coffee policy – and I actually think they should include this “organic” policy into everything they make. I mean it’s in the store name, and they stress it with their coffee, so why not in the food? All their baked goods and sandwiches are actually brought in from their flagship store on Granville Island, so if I were to choose a location I would go for that one.

Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House in Gastown is good for a coffee break or a snack, but I wouldn’t go for lunch. It’s a very nice, clean, comfortable set-up but the selection is limited to a display case of premade sandwiches and cheesecakes…the cheesecakes are a local favourite and pretty good though. I’d only come back for coffee or cheesecake.

I’m going to review this like any other review because this “grand opening” was nothing different than a regular day…except with maybe some balloons.

On the table:

**Latte 5/6

• Size: Tall - about $3.50
• I really liked this and it’s quite creamy with a nice amount of froth. I still like Elysian or 49^th Parallel better I think. I need to do a comparison one of these days.
• It’s smooth and almost naturally sweet with a malted flavour.
• Very light roast.
• They need to work on the design though.

**Coffee 5/6

• 100% Organic & Fair Trade Coffee Size: Tall – about $2.50
• Very light roast, I like mine a bit stronger.
• Very smooth.

**The Sin Cheesecake 5.5/6

• They don’t have the description on the menu but it’s a chocolate marble cheesecake with cherries and a chocolate crust $5.99
• It was good and better than the blueberry cheesecake we ordered. This is their most popular cheesecake.
• This is the only sample we actually got, and that’s because we asked.It's hard to judge based on a sample but from a non-cheesecake lover (I really don’t like those heavy thick New York style cheesecakes) this was a good cheesecake.
• It’s very creamy, not dense at all and almost mousse like. It’s still very rich but not too cheesy in taste either. It was lighter than most cheesecakes but heavier than a tiramisu (which is the only cheesecake I like). A few bites would be enough for me, not becuase it's too sweet, but just extremely creamy.
  
• It had a nice balance of sweet chocolate, creamy light cheese, and tartness from these plump sour cherries. Great balance, flavour, and texture.
• I didn’t mind that the crust was a bit thin because since it’s a chocolate/Oreo crust it’s more flavourful than a graham cracker crust.
• Cherries weren’t red, but an orange yellow caramel in colour. I don’t remember what they were called, but they were tiny, round, plump and juicy. I’m pretty sure they’re preserved because they had that sticky syrup coating around them, but it wasn’t fake tasting like Maraschino cherries. They were almost like the sour cherries from the Amarena Cherry Crème Brulee I had at Cin Cin.

Blueberry Cheesecake 3.5/6

• Fresh blueberries mixed in the cheesecake burst in your mouth with juicy, sweet flavour $5.99 (Description from website)
• The cheesecake part was really good. Not too sweet and just as creamy and mousse-like as The Sin Cheesecake. It’s so soft and creamy you can’t even cut through it.
• This is lighter than The Sin Cheesecake but I still wouldn’t want a whole piece to myself – although light, the creaminess is too much.
• The crust was a graham cracker crust and I wish it was thicker. It was also very soggy and wet, perhaps because it was sitting in the display case for too long and then plated on top of unnecessary chocolate syrup.
• The chocolate syrup just tasted like bottled chocolate syrup and did nothing for me. That part was too sweet.
• The cheesecake is a baked cheesecake, which I liked. However it wasn’t baked evenly. The edges were stiffer and dense and almost dried out from being in the display case. However the centre was fluffy and creamy and melted in your mouth.
• Besides the crust, the other problem was the blueberries. The description says “fresh blueberries” but they didn’t taste fresh at all. They were extremely wrinkly and dry and tasted like dried blueberries or frozen blueberries. I highly doubt they were fresh. There were only blueberries on top too and they weren’t plump juicy or sweet.

Prosciutto & Brie Baguette Sandwich 2.5/6

• With lettuce & tomato $7.99
• For $7.99 I would much rather go to So.Cial at Le Magasin or Brioche around the corner. Those places have value and specialize in quality meats and sandwiches.
• This sandwich tasted good, but there were hardly any ingredients in it. One leaf of romaine, a very thin slice of tomato, one slice of prosciutto and one slice of brie. I couldn’t even taste the brie in every bite.
• We asked for the sandwich to be warmed up but that didn’t really help. The brie was so thin it turned into a brie spread. It was good and creamy, but almost turned saucy.
• The lack of ingredients usually means a lack in flavour, so to make up for the natural flavours they replaced it with heavy seasonings. It was mostly kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, but they used a lot.
• The best part is the bread; and thank goodness because it was quite thick and there was a lot. It’s baked in house in their Granville location and I really liked it! It was very crunchy and although it is thick, it also wasn’t too chewy, it worked. Great bread!

Cranberry Pecan Oat Muffin 1.5/6

• $2.50
• I had major issues with this muffin. It really bothers me when cranberry and pecan is used in the title of the muffin, but used only as décor. Very deceiving.
  
• There were no pecans or cranberries in the actual muffin. It would have given the muffin so much more flavour and was really disappointing.
• The muffin bottom was just plain vanilla muffin batter. Actually at first bite it almost has a candied orange taste and then later on you get a tiny bit of vanilla extract taste. I think there might be lemon zest in it or maybe some kind of orange liquor like Grand Marnier in it. It is very subtle and it would have gone great with the cranberries…if there had been actual cranberries IN it, no just on top of it.
• I actually didn’t find much oat in it either. A few odd flakes, and maybe used more on the top.
• That’s about the only thing this muffin had going – was the top. It had a huge muffin top (haha muffin top!)...which is great! That’s the best part because it was really crispy and flavourful. It’s the only part that had cranberries and pecans too.
• The muffin was moist, but baked a bit unevenly which is odd. Parts of it still tasted like batter.

Café Gloucester

Restaurant: Café Gloucester

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian/Fusion
Last visited: January 12, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (South Cambie)
3338 Cambie Street
Price Range: $10 or less / $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: 3

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• Typical Hong Kong café menu
• Some fancier items like sizzling plates and 3 course meals
• Some creative dishes
• Small selection of Japanese donburi/ramen
• Cheap for what you are getting
• Extensive menu
• Individual meals $10 or less
• Set 3 course menus around $20-22
• Daily specials around $13
• Spacious, brightly lit
• Great for snacks
• Offers some Asian fusion dishes
• Some Western plates w/Chinese influence
• Dine-In/Take-out
• Extra $.50 or $2 for take-out
• Some desserts: ice cream/jello/cheesecakes
• Open late, attracts late night diners, all ages
• Accepts Visa

**Recommendation: Tahitian Pork Chop on Rice, Seafood Bread Box

Café Gloucester has been around for ages! I remember going there for late night dining when I was younger, but I haven’t made a visit in a while. It’s one of those casual late night default kind of places, but it’s not a 24 hour Hong Kong diner either. I wouldn’t make the trek out there just for the food, but I was craving Chinese and was in the area I wouldn’t mind going. It’s almost like a classy version of #9 Restaurant serving up typical Hong Kong café dishes. It’s very typical Chinese (Cantonese) dining and attracts all ages.

The menu is more creative than I remember it being and they told me that they were releasing a new menu in a couple months. The items are typical Hong Kong café items with some inspirations from other cuisines like Japanese, Shanghai and Malaysian. Since the restaurant caters to Chinese (Cantonese) most of these dishes are made with that kind of Chinese twist. I’m impressed with what they had to offer – I mean it’s not gourmet, but for most items at $7-8 with a drink included…I can’t say they do a bad job. Nonetheless the dishes were quite tasty and it exceeded my expectations. They also call them "mini sets" but there's nothing mini about them...pretty big portions.

On the table:

**Taiwan Seafood & Mushroom Bread Box 5/6

• $7.95 + drink included (Cold drink + $1, Jumbo + $1.50)
• It looks pretty good huh? I really like this dish and I used to always order it back when Honolulu Café was open in Richmond. It’s rare to come across, but when it’s on the menu I like to order it.
• It’s basically half a loaf of Taiwanese bread (white bread) and they fill it with seafood and a cream sauce that tastes like the base for their cream soups. It’s more of a cream soup than sauce they fill it with. Then they bake the entire thing until the ‘bread box’ is nicely toasted on the outside.
• Chinese style cream soups are less rich than the Western ones. There’s no cheese in it, but it’s still milk, flour, and some butter (although not as much as Western versions).

  

• There’s actually a lot of seafood in here and I was surprised. Mind you it was all frozen, but everything tasted pretty good except for the shrimps.
• It had 1 mussel, 2 shrimp, 2 pieces of cod, 2 artificial crab sticks, 1 squid, 1 octopus, 1 scallop and some button mushrooms and chopped onions. I kept finding more and more seafood as I got further into the box…it was great!
• If you’ve never had Taiwanese bread it’s fantastic! It’s really soft and a bit sweet. Taiwanese bread is completely different than American white bread…it’s better!
• The bread box holds all the ingredients really well and it’s toasted on the outside but still really soft on the inside. This is a way better version of the Western soup in a bread bowl. I just wish they used fresh seafood and cooked the seafood in the broth…but this is going gourmet and double the price I was paying, so I can’t ding them.

Szechuan Spare Ribs Rice Cake Soup 2/6

• $7.50 + drink included (Cold drink + $1, Jumbo + $1.50)
• This soup and noodle bowl didn’t really do anything for me. I love these rice cakes too! Rice cakes are a Shanghainese thing and they taste like rice noodles but they’re patties. They’re chewy, firm, but not hard, and sticky yet slippery at the same time…does that makes sense?
• I don’t find that rice cakes go well with soup though. It’s a heartier noodle so I prefer it to be served in a more traditional way – in a sautéed dish with lots of sauce like at Taiwanese Cuisine or Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen.
• They give quite a lot of spare ribs, it’s just they’re really small and don’t have much meat, although the meat it did have was tender. They’re not quality pieces either, quite fatty – but Chinese people like this. I think they cook the spare ribs separately and toss it in the soup so the flavour of both is mediocre.
• The soup was just a regular pork based broth, but it was a bit too watered down. It’s the standard soup base they would use for all their noodles with added chili oil. It was spicy broth, but one dimensional in flavour.
• The dish also had Chinese fungus (those black jelly-like clouds), celery, snow peas and some chopped cilantro that was also tossed in at the end.
• It didn’t taste bad, but I just wouldn’t order it again. I’ve never seen it anywhere else.

**Baked Tahitian Style Pork Chop with Rice 5/6

• $7.25 + drink included (Cold drink + $1, Jumbo + $1.50)
• I liked this! Kudos to creativity! It's one of their specialties because I haven’t seen it anywhere else either.
• It's almost like an Asian, or this case Tahitian, casserole. It’s a huge piece of breaded pork chop served on top of fried white rice with a rich and creamy coconut curry sauce. There are also some scrambled eggs in the mix, but not much. It tastes like and reminds me of Baked Portuguese Chicken on Rice – that is a common dish offered at Hong Kong style cafes.
• The twist to the dish and what made it “Tahitian” was because it had honeydew, cantaloupe and raisins in it! I was very surprised and I don’t even like these fruits but I liked it in this dish! They sauté them so they get very sweet, tender and juicy! It’s almost the texture of sautéed zucchini so think of it as adding sweet ‘vegetables’ to the dish. (Or warm up to the idea by thinking of pineapple fried rice).
• The cream sauce was savoury for sure, but also sweet from the coconut milk so the sautéed fruits and raisins just complemented with another level of sweetness. (It’s also not spicy)
• I could have used more raisins though. I could also use some toasted coconut on top, which would have been great! I also missed a little bit of crunch and some onions would have been nice.
• On top was a HUGE piece of breaded and deep fried boneless pork chop or cutlet. It was actually really good, but it got soggy underneath the sauce.
• They baked the whole thing with a little bit of cheese on top so it had a lovely gratin topping.
• This dish is rich and heavy, but it’s really good especially if you like that savoury and sweet chemistry.