As I mentioned at the end of our last post - Tofino is a land of plenty and a land of not - all at the same time. First, for our readers not familiar with this area, Tofino is a tourist destination - like Whistler and Banff here in Canada, like Telluride or Key West in the USA.
The main difference is that it is remote and small. If you come here as most do, to stay in a hotel for a few days and eat all your meals out it is all good - expensive but good. Most of the shops are 'gift shops' so you can pick up all the souvenirs and keepsakes you could want. Or if you surf you have more than enough choices for gear and lessons. If you live here - well - to be honest I'm not sure how you would work out the details of life. For us - living here cheaply - by Tofino standards ($40 per night as opposed to 6 - 10x that for a hotel room) - for an extended period of time - we find it challenging to procure all the items we would like - particularly food. After all, as tempting as it might be with all of the amazing restaurants here to eat out all the time, our pocketbook nor our waistlines could stand it.
So, although not ideal we have made it work. Since the main grocery store is lacking and expensive for not much we've sought out all of the amazing businesses that are putting out some great products. For us it has made all the difference and therefore we want to let you know who they are - just in case you too find yourself wondering what to eat here in Tofino.
In no particular order here is our list of go to food/eating establishments in Tofino. There are a lot of high quality restaurants in Tofino but since we are limited to take out we haven't been to many of them. As far as eating out though this area is foodie heaven.
Common Loaf is a Tofino institution of sorts - it has been here since at least 2002 when we visited. Really good bread based items. We highly recommend their bread, pizza slices and breakfast.
Cassia and I came several times to sit for a few hours to do her learning.
The last photo we were seated on the main floor. We realized shortly after that there is an upstairs and so moved to enjoy the sun and view.
We stop in at
Picnic Charcuterie once or twice a week for a bunch of things such as high quality meat, cheese, sausage, soup broths, kimchi and other in house made products.
I mentioned
Wildside Grill in the last post. It was one of our favourites back in 2019 and still is this year. One of the best poutine we've ever had followed closely by the seafood poboy and the seafood gumbo and the baja burger and ....... Thankfully we need to drive there from Surf Grove whereas back then it was walking distance!
While we need to drive to Wildside Grill -
Surfside Grill is just a short walk down the beach. Also having great poutine and really good burgers. It's been our go to when we couldn't decide on lunch or dinner.
It has a great outdoor seating area with propane fires.
At the end of the street in Tofino we found this little complex this year. If you don't go to the end of the street - Campbell Street that is - you are really missing out! Although sadly, at this time of year, we are indeed missing out as most of these container businesses are closed including
Chirpz Chicken - the chicken and waffles had my name all over it!
However, upon laying our eyes on
Ouest Artisan Patisserie we were smitten. And although we'd hate to pick favourites I can say without question, Ouest will forever be at the top of the list for the Wood Clan.
I couldn't help myself wanting to be in a picture with Jessyca, 1/2 of Ouest - holding my
Island Eats book that I had purchased from them and had asked Jessyca and Stephen to sign. A fan moment. BTW an amazing gift for the foodie in your life!
Derek with Ouest's Great Dane Bon Bon - who has her own Instagram -
@bonbon.pastrypup
Cassia's rendition of Bon Bon.
Trust me when I say that we went ahead and tried a lot few macarons for you and they are amazing!
All decked out for Christmas.
It's safe to say we tried almost everything at Ouest. We definitely tried everything you can see here. One of our gifts to ourselves was one of each of the Nutcracker inspired chocolates .....
and this Buche de Noel. As Jessyca wrote: "Les Fruits de Bois: Soft chocolate cake is layered with chanterelle ganache and a wild cranberry jam, then surrounded with smooth creamy chocolate mousse, and topped with a chocolate crèmeux and some forest inspired decor." If you can believe it tasted even better than it looks!
The Wood Clan is no stranger to wonderful baked goods - after all of our searching on our travels we have been fortunate to enjoy many amazing items. But hear us when we say that the phenomenal talent of Stephen - and the combo of him with Jessyca is - staggering. We await the release of the book we think they should write.
That's a wrap on our favourite food businesses in Tofino - I should add Gaia Grocery. I didn't take a picture but this shop has been a life safer for us for more health conscious type foods.
This was our day back in early December. I'm adding it as a reminder of our friends - we call them the 'peepers'. They are fun to watch.
A t-shirt in Canada on Dec. 4th!
A few days later back to grey. Cassia practicing her surf pose.
I find the rocks implanted into the wood pretty neat.
A guy and his wolf dog.
Meanwhile, back in Jan 2019 on Chesterman Beach here in Tofino.
A rare selfie!
Back on January 8, 2020 I see that we were at the
Texas Aquarium in Corpus Christi. It was great - we spent they whole day there! A Wood Clan travel highlight.
We watched the outdoor dolphin show .....
we petted the sharks .....
and the rays ....
and Cassia walked like a ... flamingo.
During the afternoon dolphin show Cassia was chosen to come up to pose with a dolphin.
A fun experience for a 10 year old.
After the show we enjoyed some one on one time with the dolphins.
While choosing todays pictures I realized that we not yet shown our collection of photos of our trips up to the Cox Bay beach lookout. We've gotten some stellar views of the beach from above - as well as some great shots going up the trail. I'll even share a not so flattering pic of me trying unsuccessfully to maneuver up a steep portion of the trail.
So, those are coming up next.
