Padella Italian Bistro - gnocchi near the beach

Tucked away in Estevan Village (deep, dark Oak Bay!), a few blocks up from Willows Beach is Padella Italian Bistro - a lovely little restaurant serving dinner. {Tangent: for only being a block long, this little village is great - in addition to this great Italian place you can get top notch breakfasts from The Village, classic fish & chips from Willows F&C and fancy cupcakes from Crumsby's (well curated greeting card selection at Bungalow too...but this is a food blog ;-) }

Padella's bright red door greets you on the outside....

Padella's welcoming red door

de'lish - Tweed Curtain Treats

Years ago it was a bakery, now (for the past few years) this tiny St. Patrick street storefront holds a fresh new array of baked goods. Gone are the brown-paper wrapped loaves of bread with your family's name on them (hands up those who remember THAT!); replaced by a shiny red espresso machine, caramelized onion tarts, homemade soups, rhubarb compote topped porridge and seating inside & out.

You'll find de'lish on St Patrick Street, near the corner of Central Avenue - just a short stroll up from Beach Drive.

de'lish on St. Patrick Street in Oak Bay

Once you step through the door, de'ish's tasty looking creations are laid out in front of you.

Jubilee Pharmacy...there's food too!

Pharmacy?
A food blog with a Pharmacy entry?
Yes, it sounds like a miss-post, but you need to know about this store.

Jubilee Pharmacy has two locations - one kitty-corner from the Jubilee Hospital (that one you could see coming, I'm sure) and the brand-new, second location on Johnson Street at Quadra. If you're now performing a mental Google Map - this location used to house a rotating array of carpet vendors (and Fabricland, way back when). The rugs are gone, the reno's are done and the food is here.

Yes, it's THAT old carpet building

Jubilee Pharmacy AND MARKET!

The original location is always an interesting place to shop for groceries. Two jam-packed aisles are loaded with an incredible selection of sauces, spices, pasta, gluten-free items, dried fruits, exotic chocolates, pop, jams and so much more. Shoppers brave tight aisles, barely allowing two people with hefted baskets to pass, to access the unique selection and amazing prices.

The second location?...

Charelli's & Co. - say Cheese...sandwich.

Charelli's is a great little cheese shop in Oak Bay (well, truthfully it's on the edge - across the street is Victoria) - but it's not quite in my 'hood, and I find I don't get there as often as I'd like (which could be daily, but I'd settle for once every couple of weeks). And now I really need to get to them more because they have a tiny cafe to go along with their amazing cheese shop & deli.

The original cheese shop was two doors to the left from where it is now and they've turned this spot into Charelli's & Co. It's a lovely little counter/restaurant open for breakfast and lunch (2863 Foul Bay Rd, Tue-Sun, 8am-3pm). The menu changes weekly and is posted on their facebook site, if you want to pre-plan your attack.

This was my third attempt at eating here - the first time we arrived at 3:10....the next time we got in the door, clutching our debit cards and read the "cash only" sign. So onto lucky visit number three - we're through the door, seated on stools with menu items picked from the blackboard above the "kitchen".

Breakfast items look and sound great (skillet eggs with creamed spinach on this week's menu and the granola in the giant glass jar adjacent to our bar stools is chock full of dried fruits and nuts). Today some of their offerings include five different sandwiches, pizza and a ploughman's platter for two. We begin by wetting our whistles with glasses of homemade ginger and lemonade with fresh cilantro.

Homemade Ginger Lemonade with Cilantro

We settle on two sandwiches - a Brie & Pear and a PB PB & C.

Tartan Toque - Winging It

The Tartan Toque, located in the Stadacona Centre (Pandora St. side) is a newer restaurant on the scene in Victoria - opened by the great people from the Shine cafes.  This time they're doing lunch and dinner (because their former places cover breakfast quite nicely).

The Tartan Toque focuses on chicken wings - with twenty (20!) different types of wings - including candied bacon, chipotle maple, dry maple and the list goes on.  But - they also do these sauces with fried tofu sticks!  So if you feel like tofu instead of chicken - they have you taken care of.

Candied bacon chicken wings

Sweet chill tofu sticks

But there's more than wings...