Bridges Restaurant (Bistro&Pub Floor)

It was a beautiful Saturday, my dad's old university friend and his family came to Vancouver to visit for a week. They lived in Yaletown and the aqua bus was just a few steps away from the apartment that they rented, so we decided to "transit" to Granville Island for lunch.

We were initially going to Sand Bar, but settled with Bridges since it has nicer views.

The restaurant was very busy on a Saturday afternoon. They don't open the second floor till 5 for fine dining, the dining style downstairs and at the patio was more casual. We decided to share all the dishes that we ordered.


First off, we got some appetizers.

Mixed Lettuce Salad

sundried tomatoes, dijon vinaigrette

($13 4.5/5)

I think the best parts of this salad were its dressing, crunchiness and refreshing flavours. The dish was colourful and nutritious. A healthy start! But not a must order since it's not a fancy salad.

Sizzling Garlic Prawns with cherry tomatoes 

($16 3.5/5)

I believe it was originally 6 pieces, but I couldn't take a picture when it first arrived. The prawns were cooked on point, you could add a tiny amount of salt to bring out the flavours even more, I was fine with just the sauce. However, for $16 and a rate of $2.60 per prawn (almost identical to the price of an oyster) It didn't have the "wow" factor to outweigh the cost of the dish. 

Steamed Local Mussels 

parsley, white wine & cream

($24 4/5)

I feel annoying when I repeat every time that I am not a big fan of seafood other than salmon, sashimi, shrimps/prawns, lobster, and certain types of crabs and fishes. But I will have to repeat in every blog post that has seafood featured because our opinions might differ. I usually hate mussels, I just think they have a weird flavour and texture to it, but since we were on the Island, their seafood must be fresh. Without a doubt, the mussels tasted good with the white wine sauce. Once again, didn't have the "wow" factor, but good enough that I was actually willing to take a few pieces. 

Shrimp Linguini 

Cherry tomatoes, peas & lemon cream

($21 3.5/5)

The pasta sauce itself was very creamy, which was not bad. But the dish overall had 0 flavours other than its creaminess. I had to dump loads of salt and pepper to mix with the noodles. The amount of shrimps they gave was decent, but they were less tasty than the prawns. Noodles were however, cooked al dente. So far I haven't had a pasta dish that was over or under cooked. But the sauce is just as important. The whole dish tasted well after I added seasonings, maybe the restaurant wanted people to add the right amount of flavours by their own preference, if so I would give this dish 4/5.  

Pizza Margherita

Tomato Sauce & Fresh Basil

($18 4.5/5)

My fave dish of the day! Although I can make decent pizza margharitas myself, it is still difficult to maintain the perfect crispiness of its thin crust. Bridges did a pretty good job with the crust, even though it was still a little bit on the hard side.  (That's way I deducted 0.5 points) The toppings of course was nice and simple, good portion of the cheese since I love cheesy pizzas with thin crust. I usually throw out the crust or give it to guys that need carbs, but now I can actually finish an entire slice of pizza by myself.  

Fresh Local Fish & Chips 

house made tartar sauce & winter slaw

($21 4/5)

Lastly, we shared some simple fish and chips. I like fried seafood, so fish and chips is something I enjoy, but not what I would usually order at restaurants. But again, seafood here must be fresh since it's on Granville Island so why not give it a try! Plus frying on point is not an easy task. The cod pieces were of course fresh and the color inside was white and pure. They were fried nicely, not the same type of the ones fried by Pajo's but I like either way. The winter slaw was finely added to balance all the fried food. 

Overall Experience:

A pleasant dining experience on a sunny day. Had many highlights with their dishes. The food and service were above average, but there are rooms to improve for sure. (for ex, the "wow" factor to fit its price range)  The price range is a little expensive for the quality of its food (expected all the dishes to be at least 4.5/5) since Granville Island is a tourist site, and it's a well known fine dining restaurant as well. I would revisit for dinner if I was in the area, but I won't specifically go to GI just for its food. 

49th Parallel & Lucky's Donut (Kitsliano Store)

Living in North Burnaby/Burquitlam, it's extremely hard to find a nice cafe where you can sit and chat with your friends, or to study in a nice environment. Ahhh.. Ironically, I'm a cafe and coffee shop lover who loves to discover new cafes, and relax while I sip on my coffee. Sometimes, Starbucks is just not enough!

49th happened on a Wednesday after a whole day of tests. My friend and I decided to travel all the way to West Van to explore this magical place with not only good coffee, but creative donuts. (I repeat! DONUTS! Yes, It's donut not doughnut, I'm still Canadian..)
What a lovely place!! I absolutely adore it's interiors, very refreshing and stress relieving (you would understand if you've been to this location), especially with the mint/light green coloured wall, garden plants and marble tables. Love at first sight!

Coincidentally, Hot Chocolate Festival was on! (In fact, it's still going until Feb.14th). According to other foodies, Lumberjack was a cool flavour to try out, while its other featured hot chocolate: Nanaimo Bar, was too sweet. So naturally, I ordered the Lumberjack Hot Chocolate ($6.00 3.5/5) served with maple marshmallows and a chocolate covered wafer log. I also ordered a Coffee Cruller ($3.00 4.5/5) to go with my Hot Chocolate.

The Lumberjack was spicier than I expected. I thought it'd be cool to try a spicy dark hot chocolate, but I'm not used to the weird sensation, the spice was too strong for me, however, I was still able to finish it. The wafer log was really good, but the marshmallows tasted artificial. I think I would enjoy the Nanaimo Bar more since I am a sugarholic. 

The coffee cruller saved this whole trip! The texture was nice, slightly chewy, slightly fluffy. The flavour was on point as well. The only reason why i deducted 0.5 points was because of the oil, It'd be perfect if the donut had less oil. 

Overall Experience:

I have had 49th parallel coffee at Prado Cafe before, so I know the quality of their coffee is no doubt amazing. But this hot chocolate was disappointing, I'd like to revisit and try the Nanaimo Bar if I have time. Nonetheless, A wonderful place to talk and do work, It's officially on the top of my favourite cafes in Vancouver. Many returns in the future! And make sure you ALWAYS get a donut! 

Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates&Patisserie (Kitsilano Store)

I've had Thomas Haas chocolates many times before but I have never been to any of their stores. Yesterday after lunch, my family and some of our family friends wanted to continue chatting at a nearby cafe and we all had our eyes on Thomas Haas. Damn, Friday Afternoon on a weekday, the cafe is still packed and more and more people kept coming in during our time there. We waited around 10 to 15 minutes before we had a table. The line up was pretty long, I ordered a Manjari Chocolate Cake, 5 macarons (mango strawberry earl grey lemon and passionfruit). 2 classic hot chocolates and a matcha latte. It took them 10 minutes to prepare my order.

The classic hot chocolate ($4.70 4.5/5) and the Manjari chocolate cake ($5.90 4/5) were no doubt, amazing since they do make one of the best chocolates in Vancouver. The Hot chocolates (I'd say they were about 50-60% dark eventhough we ordered regular) were rich and smooth, If you like sweet ones, simply add a pack of sugar.

The chocolate cake reached its full potentials, It was again, dark, rich and layered perfectly with chocolate mousse, soft sponge cakes and rum creme brûlé, you can feel the chunky bites and soft rum flavours melt in your mouth. The Manjari chocolate is smooth and creamy. It was expensive for a tiny slice of cake but I enjoyed it.

Matcha Latte $3.80 (3.5/5) 

Being a CRAZY matcha lover, (by crazy i mean beyond obsessed), I couldn't stop myself from ordering a matcha latte, the latte art was quite nice, but one sip and i was disappointed, the drink was bland and I could barely taste the matcha. I think it's a personal thing, since I love matcha so much, It is almost impossible to find any matcha drinks or desserts that fit my strong taste..I even have to add tablespoons of matcha powder to my matcha ice cream. So if you are an intense matcha lover like I am, take my advice and bring a pack of matcha powder if you wanna order any matcha lattes at a cafe, but if you're just a regular lover, ignore me hahaha. 

Lastly, MACARONS! $1.80/each 4/5 

Who doesn't like a colourful macaron for dessert? This little elegant, "high class" pastry is one of my favourites. It took me around 12 tries to make a successful batch of macarons, thus $2 for one is totally reasonable since they are so hard to make. Thomas Haas actually has macarons for only $1.80 so I was quite surprised. Their macarons are on the sweet side, but it's still SO much better than macarons from faubourg's (too sweet) and Thierry (too flat,expensive,sweet,not crispy enough). 

Jens Macaron Tips

Overall Experience:

Loved it! I would definitely revisit when I'm in the area, It's a nice little place to chat for you and your friends but it's never a good place to hangout in a huge group since it's always super busy. 

Random Things:

 -You can order any of their cakes full size for birthdays and parties. 

-They have spicy hot chocolates (Aztec) and Dark Hot chocolate. 

-I've heard good comments about their Almond Croissants (my mom had it and she loved it) and Champagne Truffle Chocolate Cake so I would for sure order these 2 when I revisit.