Day 5 Itinerary:
Short and sweet because it was the last and final day... (╥_╥)
L ' O P E R A P A T I S S E R I E
5951 Minoru Blvd
Richmond, BC
V6X 4B1
A midafternoon flight home meant taking it easy for our last few hours in YVR. L'Opera Patisserie was located just below our hotel so we decided to stop by for breakfast. Hey, pastries for breakfast is a thing.
If you followed my last trip, you'll know a little bit about L'Opera. It's a small French-inspired bakery, scratch-making their own cakes, macarons, and pastries.
L'Opera opens at 10:00 but they weren't quite ready when we tried to walk in just a couple minutes past opening. They asked if we wouldn't mind just waiting outside for a little longer.
When the lady finally let us in, we made our way to the small counter. Going early meant getting to pick from their full selection of goodies. Last time when I visited, the inventory was severely depleted at 4:00.
From what I understand, the cakes at L'Opera changes with the seasons. New items are regularly introduced and rotated through their line-up.
Macaron flavours are as creative as they are abundant. You'll find the typical salted caramel, pistachio, and vanilla, but you'll also find flavours such as lychee, honeydew, and apricot & passion fruit.
We decided to sit in to enjoy our goodies. During our time there, we noticed a few people coming in for a quick coffee to go.
The raspberry mille feuille ($6.20) was the only cake that seemed "appropriate" for breakfast. By appropriate, I mean... it had fruit in it! Flaky layers of puff pastry sandwiching vanilla cream and fresh raspberries. I liked how it wasn't too sweet which I think is a common trait for most of their goods.
We also got a ham and cheese croissant ($4.50). Super flaky, buttery, and delicious. You can even see how many layers of lamination their dough has, which means you'll be making a lot of crumbs. I've also noticed on their Instagram recently that they've been experimenting with new croissant flavours like gooey cheddar and taro! Sad that I'm not there right now to be able to try them out.
I love trying new places when I'm in YVR but L'Opera seems like a place that I'll visit over and over again. The pastries are refined and the interior is elegant, but there's just something about this place that makes it retain a cozy, homemade charm about it.
We walked back to the hotel to check out and do some last-minute packing. For lunch, we had plans to hit up a sushi restaurant in Steveston but seeing as we had Japanese the night before, we decided to try something different. We wanted something closeby so we hit up Continental Centre (yes... again) to try out:
U N C L E L U
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC
V6X 1J8
Despite them being located in a very popular strip of restaurants, Uncle Lu was a restaurant that I actually never heard of before coming here. They serve Taiwanese food, a cuisine that I haven't dabbled with too much. I guess, that, combined with being in the very far corner lot, pushed them away from my radar.
One thing to note about Uncle Lu's is that they're cash only. Seems to be common as most other restaurants in Continental Centre are also cash only. Keep that in mind when visiting.
The restaurant space is a long rectangle with tall ceilings. It's decorated quite nice and modern. Look up and you'll see a lot of Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling.
Part of the reason why we chose Uncle Lu's was because I had a sudden craving for Taiwanese chicken nuggets. The deep fried chicken nuggets ($7.60) here are tender and fried well with a light batter. There weren't many basil pieces in our order but the chicken was seasoned well nonetheless.
We also tried their five spiced beef wrap ($6.50). The pancake wasn't very flaky as it was a bit doughy and chewy. I still liked it though, and they were quite generous with the sauce which gave the wrap a lot of flavour.
For our final dish, we got the Taiwanese sausage and egg fried rice ($9.50). A decent fried rice with good wok hei where the individual grains of rice are dry and separated. The bits of Taiwanese sausage tasted more sweet than smoky. Overall, it was a good filler dish but it wasn't anything too exciting.
Although the food was pretty good, I can't say that much for their service. It's to be expected but we weren't given any water or tea, and trying to catch the attention of the server was difficult. The fried rice was dropped off at our table before we could ask for bowls. Have you tried eating rice off a plate? It's quite hard.
M c A R T H U R G L E N D E S I G N E R O U T L E T S
1000-7899 Templeton Station Rd
Richmond, BC
V7B 0B7
Before dropping off the rental car, we stopped by the outlets which is conveniently located near the airport. It's a good spot to visit if you have some time (but not too much time) to kill during a layover. Not much has changed since my last visit in terms of new stores, but I was quite sad to see Hugo's Churros close down before I was even able to try them. You will be missed. (´ヘ｀;)
- CT
0 comments:
Post a Comment