3 replies to this topic

[AllseeingEye]

No you won't find this little dive-ish place in Chinatown or anywhere in the core. Its actually in a small strip-mall like development on Sooke Rd just before you hit the town.

 

We took our new pooch, a Great Pyrenees called Will, out to Whiffen Spit today to give the big boy some good exercise. Afterwards we were very hungry but had to find a spot where we could sit outside and where Will could sit with us. One thing about this breed, the bigger the body - 130 lbs in this case - the bigger the anxiety and separation attack especially when "mom" is out of sight so where we go, he goes.

 

Driving back through the town on our way home I remembered this joint from a fishing trip a few years ago to the San Juan River and how we stumbled on it and discovered it was home to some of the greasiest and best tasting burgers I've ever encountered in Victoria. Having dredged up that memory all I could think of was one of those burgers! How disappointed I was to discover it was now called Teriyaki House and owned by a Korean couple - not a likely burger hotspot.

 

But wow, to heck with the burgers the fare these folks create now is awesome; as you would expect from the name of the place its primarily Asian with a mix of popular Japanese (tempura, Yakisoba, Udon noodles etc) and Korean (spicy chicken, hot pots) and a dash of Chinese standards thrown in along with some more traditional local fare, i.e. fish and chips.

 

Its not the cheapest place I've ever eaten, and his English is limited and his manners not great - you're sitting at a table outside waiting on the order and he raps sharply on a window from inside saying "you come get food!" - but she does the cooking and what comes out of the tiny kitchen is hot, fresh and super tasty. I had a side order of 4 tempura prawns, clearly right out of the deep fryer (holy CRAP they were good) and a very tasty,very filling order of chicken yakisoba. It ain't fancy but I'll take great home cooked food over overpriced "fancy" every time.

[lanforod]

As always, you paint a vivid picture (with a splash of taste here) with your writing. Cheers, ASE!

[Nparker]

In the absence of aastra's wit and wisdom, might I proffer that ASE gave us a (teriyaki) saucy little anecdote of his time at this Sooke eatery?

[AllseeingEye]

In the absence of aastra's wit and wisdom, might I proffer that ASE gave us a (teriyaki) saucy little anecdote of his time at this Sooke eatery?

 

Hm...what happened to aastra? Did he run afoul of the powers that be and get consigned to the VV penalty box? I seriously love places like this; neither Mrs ASE or me are super formal people when it comes to eating out and I love investigating off the beaten path places like this. Its probably why I like Guy Fieri . Il Terrazzo is about as 'formal' as we get locally. Given the option I'm just as likely to opt for Jones BBQ....

 

Ditto whenever we occasionally venture over to the mainland "yes" I've dined at various Rob Feenie establishments going back to when I lived there, including Bacchus at the Wedgewood Hotel - which are perfectly fine for an occasional change of pace -  but maaaaan I much prefer to scour Main St or dead end side roads in some Richmond strip mall to discover dive-y Italian joints in the former, or tiny mom and pop places that specialize in Mongolian hot pot dishes in the latter.

 

Mention "Asian" food in Victoria and the average person here will just automatically go with the usual suspects like Don Mee or maybe Ocean Garden ad infinitum., but for my money I would stack up this itty-bitty greasy spoon in Sooke against any of them. BTW another great and seriously underrated 'asian' outfit locally is the distinctly un-asian sounding, and very definitely un-high end, very much working class Halibut House on Cloverdale and Quadra......