Dairy Free in Victoria Part II

Victoria, BC is one of my very favourite places to visit!   Not only is it a gorgeous, city with a funky hippy vibe but it also has the small town feel to it! (which this small town girl loves)!!

I’ve posted before about my dairy free adventures in Victoria and this time was no different. This city has OODLES of great dairy free (and vegan) options!

One tip about travelling dairy free is to check out places that are vegan or vegan friendly.  This usually means they will have options for you!  A few different things I use is the URBAN SPOON APP and the HAPPY COW app (or www.happycow.net)!  Also for Victoria – you can check out Sarah’s Vegan Guide to the City here.  This is a fantastic resource for anyone dairy free, vegan or even gluten free!

So first up – Green Cuisine!  Located in Market Square on Johnson Street this place is 100% Vegan (aka everything is dairy free)…

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I first went in because I was told they have awesome cookies and desserts.  I grabbed 5 cookies (that were the size of my hand) for under $10!  Now we all know that being dairy free has it challenges, and over priced treats is one of them!  These were SO reasonable!  Take a look at how good they look… and they tasted amazing (I recommend the Maui Wowie soooooo good)!

 

I went back the next day for lunch – and let me tell you it was SO good!  Even my very meat and dairy eating husband said he would eat there next time!   It’s pay by weight $1.99 per 100 grams.   I had this huge plate of goodies and a cookie for $14.00. 

 

(mmmm the focaccia bread on the left was SO good)

I loved the buffet style service, because you could choose as much or as little as you wanted!  Plus everything had all the ingredients listed – so you could really cater to any allergy!

I am looking forward to heading back to Victoria JUST so I can eat here! MMMMMmmmmm

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I feel bad for my hubby – whenever we travel, I do choose the restaurants most of the time! (happy wife = happy life)

Most of the time he doesn’t mind – but sometimes he just wants to choose – so he did… and much to my surprise it turned out to be awesome!

We were walking down the street and found a pizza place with a stone oven and thin crust authentic Italian style pizzas. Famoso’s.

We decided to try it, and I figured I’d just get a pizza with no cheese!  MUCH to my surprise – they offer daiya cheese for their pizzas! (YES!)  (not sure if this is true for all locations)

The menu was dripping with pizza goodness from margarita pizzas, to the Sicilian to a Thai pizza – this place was drool worthy.  I had a hard time deciding between a mushroom pizza with truffle oil and the Thai… I asked the waitress to surprise me and choose between the two!

Thai it was!  (this is just my left overs)

SOOOOOO good – peanut sauce, chicken, bean sprouts, cilantro, carrots, crushed peanuts , white daiya cheese and a lime wedge!

Not only did they have dairy free cheese, but also dairy free dessert! I was too fully to have any – but it sounded delicious!

What I didn’t realize is it’s actually a chain – so check out the other British Columbia locations here.

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It’s so much fun to go to a restaurant and actually be able to eat (AND ENJOY) a meal!   Victoria is such a great place to go for this and if I could be teleported down there for every meal I’d do it in a heart beat!

Do you have a favourite Victoria restaurant?

Someone also mentioned on facebook that if you order ahead of time, you can do high tea at the Empress Hotel and they will make it vegan (or gluten free) for you!  We plan to do that in the future for sure.

From their website  -

DIETARY NEEDS
The Fairmont Empress is pleased to accommodate dietary needs including vegan, gluten free and diabetic. Please advise of all food allergies and dietary needs at the time of reservation.”

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I LOVE that being dairy free is starting to be less challenging and much more fun!

I hope you enjoyed these reviews!!

 

Much love,

Jessica

Please note I received nothing for any of these reviews and paid for everything 100% myself. As always this opinion is completely mine!

Dairy Free in Victoria, BC

Hello!  I’m alive!

We snuck away for a few days in Victoria and it was LOVELY!

We spent the first night at the Chateau Victoria – and checked out Vista 18.  Beautiful view – and the bar tender made some pretty incredible drinks! It was late – so I didn’t take any pictures!

I used my Urban Spoon app to find yummy restaurants while we were there.  I highly recommend this app for making sure you are eating at the best of the best!

First off we went to Sura Korean – it was awesome and from what I understood from the waitress – it’s all dairy free!

We ordered the BBQ for 2 which was $40, and this is all the food we got.

Left to right.  Sesame bean sprouts, deep friend gyozas, lettuce (for wraps), garlic, jalepeno, awesome sauce,  spinach, kimichi, potatoes, rice x2, salad and 2 bowls of broth with a wonton in it.

Continued – veggies (on the grill), 2 kinds of beef, 1 pork and 1 chicken (I ate the chicken!).  We also got tea!  The meal was so great!  Loved it – it was my first time going for Korean and I would do it again in a heart beat!

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Now to be fair to the hubby, I can’t eat ethnic food all the time, so we also went to Red Robin, they make awesome burgers.

I got the grilled teriyaki burger with no cheese or sauce on a whole wheat bun. 

It was tasty!  I wasn’t impressed with their fries though – they used to be my favorite and I think I only ate a few.

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I remembered that the Vegan Backpacker did an awesome post on eating Vegan in Victoria.  I checked it out and went on a mission to find BLISS  - just my luck, it’s just a few seconds from Lululemon (my kinda street).

Bliss – was – bliss

I got a bunch of treats for the weekend (they are just mini)  left to right – a heart truffle (which was my favorite),  macaroon, peanut butter cup, Nanaimo bar and fudge.   All dairy free, and raw!! 

I got all that plus a kombucha (in a mason jar to go cup) for $15… not too bad!  (Mason Jar to go cup = so awesome).

I like bliss – their menu looked great too – but I was just in the market for sweets!

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We also went to another restaurant on the water – wish I could remember it’s name.

I ordered fish tacos – yum.  They were great about my allergy and double checked everything for me! 

They had salmon, grapefruit, veggies and a spicy mayo – so good and that coleslaw was the best I’ve ever had. So awesome.

D – had fish and chips!

It was a little pricy, but was well worth it! 

If I can remember the name I will let you know for sure!

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We also stopped at Quizno’s for a quick lunch.

Did you know their chocolate chunk cookies are dairy free?  Yup, true and delicious!

I will do more of a recap of our trip in the next few days!  We stayed at a gorgeous cabin right on the ocean!

Hope you all had a great weekend!