Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

For Dine Out Vancouver 2018 my friend's pick was Bufala for a late Sunday afternoon lunch. We got in late-ish almost at 2pm I believe and seating was pretty easy, no reservations required. They were however out of two of three desserts on their Dine Out menu! So you might want to take that into consideration. The Dine Out menu is basically their whole menu minus some smaller appetizers. The $20 appy and pizza deal is almost half price and a goodly amount of food! Their pizzas are very thin Neapolitan/Napolitana style  with a pretty generous amount of edge crust. To help you eat that crust there are three flavoured oils (that you can slather over your pizza ingredients too if you like): Chili, Herb, and Parmesan. Flavours of the oils are on the subtle side but unless you drown your pizza you (or at least I) won't feel the same heavy feeling from food being too oily. Kale Caesar Salad (normally $13) green & purple kale, grana padano, anchovy, bacon, salt-cured eg...

Dine Out Vancouver FOUR-Course at La Buca La Buca ("the hole") is a tiny restaurant in sort of the middle of nowhere (unless you love The Patty Shop and go there all the time). It's so small you have to go through the kitchen to get to the single (but clean and nicely appointed) bathroom. They do the best they can with the small space, but the space between tables is a bit tight and more or less ends up having a long-table community-dining feel. You can't look left or right without looking all the way down and accidentally staring at someone. If you are a misanthrope who must not have any eyes on your person, then consider a later 8 PM seating for Dine Out Vancouver when things will be quieter, and there'll be a chance of more isolated seating (there are two rows of seats and everyone got nudged into the row that didn't have a straight sight-line into the kitchen), plus there won't be a third seating spilling out from the cubicle sized coat check ar...

The Patty Shop has a storefront, but there are no seats inside. It's really just a take-out counter. No coffee either. Just milk, apparently. Fortunately, there's decent coffee next door at the BakeShop , which has counter seating and apparently they don't mind if you bring patties in from next door (maybe so long as you get coffee or tea). For $2 you can get a Jamaican Patty , which is sort of like a Pizza Pop , but with fillings that are a lot less messy, and a crust that is thinner and flaky. I ordered the three most expensive ones: Vegetable, Spinach, and Chicken. Completely unimpressed. Taste was mediocre and nothing to write home about. Don't order those three (well, maybe the veggie or spinach one if you are vegetarian and dragged in there by you friends). Maybe something from their $2 line-up will be better. No bulk discount either, sadly. What the Patty Shop is good for is quick, cheap, eats. Three patties stack up to a burger in volume at about half th...