A couple of weeks back myself, @MaryInVancity and her hubby @JakeSheridan attended the Tasting Plates event put on by Vancouver Foodster and one of the places that was on the list was WE. Coffee on Robson St in the West End. On the night we visited they had a selection of 3 of their most popular dessert items to choose from so seeing that we had 3 people in out group we went with the idea of trying one of each dessert.
WE. is known for there take on traditional North American desserts and inventive coffee and tea drinks and I’ve passed by it a ton of times~it’s right next door to Ramen Santouka and is a popular place for a quick dessert.
The first item that was brought to the table was a plate of waffles and ice cream, the waffles are made fresh in-house which is a nice touch, the ice cream had the taste and texture (mouth feel) of store-bought ice cream and it was topped with crushed Oreo cookies and drizzled with chocolate sauce. This was a simple dessert and really would have shone if they used homemade ice cream or a premium store-bought brand and I must say that the star of the plate was the waffle~the batter wasn’t overly sweet and the outside was crisp and the inside was tender.
Our next dessert was the Strawberry Trifle. It was a mix of vanilla custard, fresh strawberries, whipped cream and plain pound cake that was cubed up. This was more of a winner out of the desserts we had, the cake was a necessary item to give this some texture, I wouldn’t quite call this a trifle because there were no repeat layers and it was more of a parfait than a trifle but it was an enjoyable treat.
This is where I would be talking about our 3rd and final dessert here but the restaurant got slammed with people and we waited for about 20 minutes and because of the time frame that we all were working with we had to leave and head to some other venues that we all wanted to check out. If you’re looking for a something a little different from the traditional cake and pie for dessert I’d check out WE. Coffee for something out of the ordinary.
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.
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.
Now the old spaghetti factory has turned more tourist destination than local joint but can that be a bad thing-let’s find out shall we. I used to think the restaurant was unique till I was down south in Atlanta and walked past one on the way to eat some killer Mexican food at Rosa Mexicano, it was filled with whimsical antiques and decorative items like velvet armchairs, vintage-looking fringed lamps and booths made from iron bedsteads filled the dining room.
Coming back here was like walking back in time-it’s just the same as when I was here as a kid, I was greeted and seated really quickly and the restaurant was packed with family’s finishing lunch so my server took a bit to get over to me and take my order-no big deal because it gave me some time to check out the newspaper style menu
Complementary bread and whipped garlic butter & regular butter. This is a staple of the Old Spaghetti factory, the bread here isn’t as good as the bread basket at other places-the bread here is really dense but the whipped butter is really good. I wonder how much bread is thrown away on weekly basis seeing the volume they do?
Garden Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing. The choice of minestrone soup or salad is given with every meal and I think I should have gone with the soup, you can also upgrade your salad to a Cesar or a french onion soup for a couple bucks more. The salad was right out of the fridge cold and the iceberg lettuce was kinda lame, the dressing was nice and tart.
The Managers Favorite-choice of 2 sauces in one plate for $10.95. I went with the classic meat sauce and something I have never heard of-Mizithra Cheese from Greece, it was supposed to be a sauce of browned butter and the cheese but it was more like regular buttered noodles with yummy cheese which is all good in the end. The meat sauce on the other hand was just of-they rinse the pasta here which makes it impossible for the sauce to stick to so I was left with sauce on top of noodles that ended up being sopped up with that bread.
Spumoni Ice Cream. The classic Old Spaghetti Factory spumoni ice cream, this was a nice treat at the end of the meal and was pretty good.
Gastown is becoming a dining, drinking and now a destination for tea and coffee lovers. With the addition of Après mid tea and the amazing Revolver Coffee, Milano Coffee has opened up shop with the addition of one really great item to have with your cup of Joe-Erin Ireland’s to die for premium banana bread.
I went with the La Futura blend for my Americano, the blend was described as a avant-garde super blend with luscious body, toffee, spice, floral notes and a full spectrum finish. It was a good blend of espresso that did have lots of flavor notes but I enjoyed that Revolver selections a bit better.
This was the star of the show I must say tho, I’ve heard of this fabulous banana bread in the past and it was featured at the PNE this year. It’s hand-made by our Vancouver home girl Erin Ireland who is also the food reporter for Vancouver’s daily publication 
