cheesecake Archives

Graze is a vegan restaurant in Vancouver that has an all plant-based menu, which includes their beverages as well. They make sure all their ingredients are organic and locally-sourced when possible.

Chef Karen McAthy is the culinary genius behind the food. The concept is for people of all eating preferences to be able to find something that they can fall in love with. From strict vegetarians to flexitarians, There’s bound to be something on the menu to tickle your taste buds.

I came here with VeggieGirl after work. I needed someone that loves vegetables to have a fair review since it would be very hard for me to give up steak and pork belly. I do appreciate vegetables and could eat carrots and tomatoes all day long.

The interior is quite beautiful. We came here at 5:30pm for an early dinner and it wasn’t very busy. It started picking up around 7pm.

Graze Organic Ginger Beer ($5) is non-alcoholic and comes with a wedge of lime. Good balance of flavour and it was very good.

Dark and Stormy ($9) has Flor de Cana Rum, ginger beer, lime and ginger. VeggieGirl did enjoy it and the alcohol wasn’t too potent, but she did find there was a bit too much lime for her liking.

Vegetable Menage a Trois ($10) comes with 3 featured veggies. When we were here, there were carrots, dragon tongue beans, and squash. It also came with a phenomenal pesto sauce. The veggies were lightly grilled to It makes for good finger food. That pesto sauce was frickin fantastic!

Portobello Filets ($9) is gluten free and the coating is made with pepita, spices and corn flour, then panned until crisp. It is paired with a pink peppercorn aioli. I love portobello mushrooms, so naturally I was addicted. The crust was delicious and crispy and went well with the aioli.

One of their featured small plates for the night was the fermented collard leaf wrapped ‘chorizo’ with turnip puree, patty pan tempura, chili oil, and tomatoes from their garden.

The dish definitely tried to emulate the texture of chorizo, but it has no meat at all. It had a spongey texture but still delicious.

Macaroni ($14) has brown rice pasta in a smoky coconut cheddar sauce, crispy eggplant & toasted nut crumble over a potato pavé, seasonal vegetables. You can add their house-smoked tofu & fresh tomato for $3.

Those seasonal veggies are mighty pretty.

Paella ($15) has spicy bomba rice, asparagus, red pepper, green garbanzo beans, kalamata olives, spring fava beans and saffron. It was a filling dish.

Cheesecake ($7) dessert is their Blueberry & lavender cultured cashew cheesecake. It is topped with edible flowers and fresh cherries. The top had more of a mousse texture and the crust was so yummy and nutty.

Overall, we had a great time at Graze. You definitely need to appreciate vegetables to love this place. If you want to try a bit of everything, I would suggest getting their Prix Fixe set for $30, which includes their featured small plate, entree and dessert. Also check out their weekly specials as there are some good deals. Thursdays is date night, so you can get the 2 of the Prix Fixe courses for $50. Awesome deal!

We Rate Graze:

Address:
3980 Fraser Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://grazerestaurant.ca/

There’s a new cafe in town! North Burnaby finally has another cafe that offers bubble tea and desserts. It’s right beside Mountain Shadow Pub. Years ago, this used to be a parking lots, but they have since built town homes and retail spaces.

Blossom Teas opened last year and they serve up Chinese style desserts. It’s quite unexpected here, but it’s a nice surprise because you would never expect this place to be here.

The interior is a bit small, so there really isn’t a lot of space for large groups. I did notice a lot of people were doing take out.

This is the drink menu and they have hot drinks, cold drinks, coffee, tea, etc.

Here are a few more dessert items. There’s a lot more, but I didn’t take photos of.

A cool feature is the darts area! Imagine sipping on bubble tea and watching your friend duke it out at darts.

New York style Cheesecake with a berry compote ($4.99) has the graham cracker crust with the cheesecake filling. Delicious and smooth.

Egg Pudding ($1.90) comes in a small container, but it was just the right amount.

Matcha Shake with mochi ($5.50) was quite large! The mochi on top was very soft. Pretty good matcha shake.

Large Super Mango Shaved Ice ($7.85) tasted pretty average. The mango chunks were room temperature, so it really clashed with the temperature of this dish since the shaved ice and ice cream were really cold.