I am simultaneously a morning person and a night owl. What is sleep? But being an early riser is great, especially when it means no wait (literally the first table) at a popular brunch spot. We started off day 3 at Toast to Coast Brunch Bar, a cute and cozy restaurant in Steveston.
Toast to Coast opened just a couple years ago, but has become a fan favourite in the neighbourhood. It's a small restaurant so I would suggest going early, especially on the weekend.
The small menu features brunch classics, some with a Korean twist. Case in point, the Korean benny ($24.00) which had juicy bulgogi, kimchi jam, two poached eggs, and hollandaise on top of toasted brioche. This was delicious! The bulgogi was on the sweeter side, but it paired well with the sour, spicy kimchi, and the creaminess from the eggs and hollandaise. On the side are two of their hash blocks, which were pretty dense but nice and crispy on the outside.
We also got the Korean fried chicken & waffles ($22.00) which had two pieces of Korean-style fried chicken on top of a fluffy waffle. The chicken was super crunchy, and it still held up well when we reheated the leftovers. What really made the dish was the honey and maple syrup infused dipping sauce, which was a riff on classic yangnyeom, with sweet and spicy gochujang flavours.
Our last dish was the fisherman's feast ($19.00). This is your classic breakfast with two eggs, two hashblocks, two pieces of toast, your choice of Korean bulgogi, in-house dry-aged bacon or smoked salmon, served with a side salad. Since we already had bulgogi in the benny, we chose the bacon which turned out to be a great choice. A simple plate, but done well.
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Since we were in the Steveston area, we spent a little bit of time walking along the docks and admiring the harbour. There were a few fishing boats set up selling fresh seafood like uni and spot prawns. What a luxury that we could only dream of in Edmonton. Also, spot the sea lion!
Our next adventure brought us to Tsawwassen Mills, an outlet mall that was only a 20 minute drive from Steveston. It pretty much reminded me of the Premium Outlets in Edmonton or CrossIron Mills in Calgary. Interesting to visit for the first time, but not a must stop for me in the future.
After shopping, we drove back into Richmond and stopped by J Squared Ice Cream. It's located in a strip mall, serving up unique, Asian-inspired ice cream flavours. They don't offer samples, which is disappointing, but we got 2 double scoops ($7.50) to try the most flavours. We ordered Thai tea, black sesame, egg tart, and pineapple cake. The last 2 were seasonal flavours for the month, but I do believe they rotate back into the lineup at some point. My favourite flavour was the black sesame as it was nutty and strong. I had high hopes for the egg tart and pineapple cake but both flavours were pretty subtle.
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Before we drove back to the hotel, we made another stop at Takeya Sushi, a take-out spot that had coolers full of pre-made bentos, sushi, rice bowls, onigiris, and more. It felt like I was transported back to a Japanese convenience store.
We picked up a mini unagi don ($8.45), tuna mayo ongiri ($3.25), salmon ikura onigiri ($3.95), and a fruit sando with white chocolate ($3.95). It was a very small sampling, but having had Japanese food the day before, we didn't want to overload on sushi or sashimi. It's a very cool concept that Takeya offers, and I'd be down to come back.
Our trip coincided with Hobi Day (IYKYK) and there was a little event/market held at The Bubble Tea Shop. We joined the line but decided against getting a drink after seeing the prices. Didn't stop us taking pics though!
In the same underground parking structure, we saw a long line at HK BBQ Master and decided to pick up some meats for the hotel picnic we were curating. HK BBQ Master has been a mainstay in the community for years, but after being showcased on Netflix with David Chang and Seth Rogen, it's sort of achieved celebrity status.
There are two lines, one for dine-in and one for take-out, so be sure to know where you're going.
We tried mostly every meat they offer, including roast pork, BBQ pork, soya chicken and BBQ duck. Meats were prepared well, nothing dry or stringy. The roast pork was super crispy and the meat was fatty but not too oily.
That concludes another day of good eats in YVR! Until next time.
- CT
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