I’ve been wanting to come here ever since I saw Erin Ireland’s Instagram feed that was full of these sinful treats from a new bakery on the edge of the Downtown Eastside and Gastown~the wonderful Cadeaux Bakery!
It’s an open concept bakery where you can see all the deliciousness being created and there are about 6 or 7 nice sized tables for you to dine-in on your wonderful choices.
The large display case is constantly refilled with treats throughout the day and they all looked really good!
Through out the display area there are lots of packaged cookies and treats for you to choose from. I have to go back for one of those salted caramel brownies for sure!
I went with a slice of their rich and decadent chocolate bread pudding and a Americano, for both items after tax the bill was $6 and change so prices are on par with other good quality bakeries.
It was rich and moist throughout and the rum sauce that was drizzled on top was a nice sweet touch to the bread pudding, the chocolate flavor was also good yet it didn’t dominate the bread pudding~a great balance at the end of the day.
I’d say that Cadeaux is going to be a Vancouver institution and I’m looking forward to checking out there other sweet and savory treats!
I feel like a good test for a place besides trying an omelet is to try a clubhouse!~just kidding~I love’s me some clubhouse sandwiches and that’s what I felt like having, they do there’s here with house roasted shredded chicken instead of the sliced stuff you find at most places. I watched the older lady making this and it was she was delicately assembling a bomb ~a food bomb that is, she was precise in her placement of all the ingredients down to each piece of chicken. I used to work above a Korea run sandwich shop on Homer Street for a couple of years and it was they had some of the most well prepared sandwiches I have ever had and this place reminds me of it completely.
I’ve had this here since the first time I came here, the quality of the bread has changed~they used to have homemade whole grain bread before but the amount of nice turkey made up for this.
On my hunt for good Pho downtown the one place that I have yet to check out is Pho Central on Davie street. Out of all the places to get Vietnamese downtown~all 3 or 4 of them, this place has been around the longest and is busy so they must be doing something right.
The place is small and only has 9 tables so seating can be really tight when there packed, the service is friendly and you get your soup fast so it’s a great place if your on your lunch break or if you’re in a hurry in general. I was lucky to come in the later afternoon after the lunch rush so the place was dead.
I had my order taken right away because I knew what I wanted-my usual standard dishes when coming to a new place for the first time. They served me tea but as you can see it was full of tea leaves.
The Vietnamese Spring Rolls here are stuffed with minced pork,taro root, carrots, onion, garlic, black mushroom and egg for $3.50. They were served with a sweet chili and fish sauce dip that is pretty standard to Vietnamese restaurants. The rolls themselves were awesome and have kick the ass of some of the places I have been to recently, the wrapper was nice and crunchy and the filling was nice and flavorful with all the different ingredients.
The pho here was really good and for $6.95 it’s a great deal, my beef was nice and rare as you can see and the broth was piping hot and full of aromatic vegetables and herbs
the noodles were cooked perfectly and they weren’t stingy with them. The beef ball was nicely spiced and definitely wasn’t bland. One thing that I did notice out of all the places I have been to for pho is the fact they use MSG more here and it was really noticeable by my extreme thirst, other than that it was a great bowl of pho.
The space is clean and modern yet has a comfort that a cafe needs, you just want to sit back and relax with a great cup of coffee or tea but that’s just the beginning of the great offerings.
I went with the Tuna Confit Sandwich for $10.50, It was a nice steak of tuna that was beautiful confit and was like an ultimate tuna sandwich, it was on nicely grilled bread and had house made celeriac remulode and crisp lettuce, the side salad of arugula and cornichon was a nice touch.
Mary went with the Butternut Squash sandwich with brie, arugula and apple compote on multigrain bread for $10.50. We split sandwiches so we could give an accurate review of each and we both loved this one, the squash and apple compote gave this a sweet tone but the brie and arugula brought the savory to the sandwich. I loved how the squash was sliced thick like a piece of meat! We’d both order this again in a heart beat.
We started with ALL of the flavors of macaroons!, staring at 12 o’clock and going clockwise we have chocolate, rosewater, vanilla bean, black sesame yuzu, pistachio and finally passion fruit. At $2 each these are now officially the cheapest macaroons in the city, there absolutely delicious and were tender yet slightly chewy. My favorite flavors were the vanilla bean, pistachio and the chocolate. The rosewater was light on flavor yet still tasted like perfume to me and the black sesame yuzu had an after taste that didn’t agree with my palate.
I ordered a white chocolate, coconut and calamansi mousse cake for $6.20. Calamansi is a tree fruit that looks like a lime and is indigenous to the Philippines and grows year round there-it’s the yellow jelly under the decoration, it tasted like perfectly ripe mandarin oranges that you would eat at Christmas time, it’s mainly used to flavor drinks and foods and isn’t generally eaten by its self. The cake was absolutely amazing, the outside was a light cake and that surrounded a mousse inside, the calamansi was on top and was best of you took some of everything in one bite. Both Mary and I loved this desert.
Mary had what I can only describe as a chocolate domed raspberry and chocolate mouse filled plate of awesomeness!, the chocolate on top was not hard but firm enough to hold everything together yet buckle under the weight of your fork
this was the inside so you can get a sense of what this bad boy is all about. It was gobbled up quickly by both of us and another table next to us had it as well and loved it. Again this was $6.20.
Mary also had a Dulce de leche latte and loved it, it’s Bel’s answer to the caramel Macchiato done with in-house made dulce de leche.
when we were talking about what deserts to try I was going to originally go for this but changed my mind to the white chocolate dessert, when our plates arrived the server brought this out as well and thought I should try it so the house compted me this as well as the macaroons. It was a classic baked vanilla bean cheesecake that was nice and dense like a New York cheesecake is, Mary and myself really enjoyed this a lot and a big thanks to Bel’s for letting us try this and the macaroons.
Le Do is doing what good Vietnamese places do right-great pho and other classic Vietnamese dishes at a great price. The seating is tight inside but the table turn over is pretty good so you wont wait long and it’s also closed on Wednesday’s and cash only.
The salad rolls were $5.50 for 2 large rolls cut in half, the filling was roasted pork,shrimp,vermicelli and shredded lettuce and cucumbers. The pork was nice and sliced really thin, they served here with a bowl of hoisin, sriracha and peanuts that you stir all together for dipping.
This is my favorite type of pho-rare beef with beef ball, I don’t like tendons and tripe so this hits the spot quite nicely. The broth here has a great depth of flavor and isn’t heavy or to MSG laden, the noodles were cooked perfectly and for $5.95 for the medium size you can’t go wrong with that deal. The broth was also piping hot which is really important when your dealing with rare beef.
