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Pacific Prime Steak & Chophouse (Parksville, BC)

Raul — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:45:15 +0000

You know when you realize that you’ve got A LOT of content still left behind? That’s seriously been the theme of my weekend, and it looks like it’s going to be the theme of THIS week. I have eaten dinner and breakfast at Pacific Prime Steak & Chophouse (the restaurant of The Beach Club Resort in Parksville, on Vancouver Island) at least five times, and I have NEVER written about it. Ridiculous, I know.

The first time I think I ever had dinner at Pacific Prime Steak & Chophouse I think was last summer when my Mom visited me. We went on a holiday to Parksville and Qualicum Beach and we stayed at The Beach Club Resort. And as you can imagine, we had a fantastic time.

The dinner menu is really solid, with a variety of seafood, vegetarian and meat-based dishes.

In my opinion, despite its name (Pacific Prime Steak & Chophouse), the dishes that are the most delicate, savoury and delicious at this restaurant are seafood-based. When we had dinner here for the Parksville Uncorked Wine and Food Festival 2011, we ate a number of seafood dishes and these were amazing, same thing when I had dinner here with my Mom.

Pacific Prime’s linguine with giant prawn is absolutely stellar.

And yes, I know I’m weird. I hate cheese but absolutely love cheesecake. And look at this cheesecake!

I would strongly recommend that, if you are ever in Parksville, whether you stay or not (and I’d recommend you DO) at the Beach Club Resort, you should try Pacific Prime Steak & Chophouse at least once in your lifetime. It’s totally worth it. And the prices for entrées, appetizers and drinks are on-par with great restaurants in Vancouver, so not too expensive. Good value for your money.

Disclosure: The first time I ate at Pacific Prime with my Mom, our dinner was complimentary courtesy of The Beach Club Resort. We had breakfast there twice and I paid for that on my own dime. I attended a Burrowing Owl Winemakers’ Dinner there in 2010 that was also complimentary, but then I also had dinner there one night afterwards and I paid on my own dime.

Tell me your favorite restaurant!

Raul — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:15:29 +0000

I’ve been going through about 60 pages of archived blog posts, but found that one of the most popular posts I’ve ever had (in terms of comments, more than actual traffic) is my post on your favorite restaurant in Vancouver. I’m expanding the blog post here so… tell me, which is your favorite restaurant? Lower Mainland, Vancouver, US, anywhere. Let me know!

Mexican food restaurants in Vancouver: An updated post

Raul — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:00:20 +0000

Last year, Rebecca asked me to write a review post for the best Mexican restaurants in Vancouver. Not surprisingly, given how widely read her blog is, she is the top result for Google.ca’s search for “Mexican restaurant Vancouver review”. Luckily, that is also precisely my guest post, so I’m just going to update it here.

REVIEWING MY CHOICES FROM THE GUEST POST ON REBECCA’S BLOG

5. First off, I don’t know exactly how I ended up recommending Las Margaritas as one of my top five choices, given that I had a horrible experience a few months later.

4. El Rinconcito Salvadoreño isn’t right now my fave for Mexican food, but Karen Hamilton recently went there, so read her review and come back.

3. Taco Loco. Haven’t been there in months, so I’m going to hold back on my recommendation.

2. Casa Blanca. Haven’t been there in months either, so holding back on my recommendation too.

1. Sadly, apparently Tio Pepe’s was horrible for a visitor to UrbanSpoon (which is too bad because my experience was good). So, won’t make the top 5 anymore. Ooops.

SO HOW DID YOU UPDATE THE POST? THE METHOD

The first step I took was to narrow down the UrbanSpoon listings for Vancouver’s Mexican restaurants. I then looked at the listing and checked which ones I have recently reviewed to get a general feel.

So, here is the list of Mexican restaurants in Vancouver that I’ve recently visited and that I would recommend, in order of how much I like them.

THE NEW LIST

1. Salsa and Agave – Delicious. Tasty. Authentic. Inexpensive. Best place to have lunch with someone you care for (which then explains why I have been there so frequently with close friends of mine!).

2. La Casita – Inexpensive, surprisingly tasty and authentic, and they make some of the best margaritas in town.

3. Tequila Kitchen – Really authentic, very good food, upscale. A bit on the higher end in pricing, but good and very much real Mexican food.

4. Delicados – Kind of Tex-Mex-y. But filling, and quick for a cheap and good eat.

And of course, everyone and their mother have been suggesting that I go to Doña Cata. I was going to go just before I had to come to Mexico, but you can rest assured that I’ll update this post with a review of Doña Cata as soon as I go there for dinner.

THOSE THAT SOME OTHERS HAVE RECOMMENDED AND I HAVEN’T TRIED.

- Topanga Café. Don’t ask me why, but I might venture.
- Andale’s. Not sure about how I feel about this, but may visit.
- Casa de Amigos. They moved, and now there’s Chica’s (another restaurant) but I will try them at their new location.
- Poncho’s. Rebecca and John Bollwitt swear by this restaurant, so gotta try it.
- Zocalo. Even though I live literally 10 blocks away, haven’t tried it. May do it, but not 100% sure.
- Mexicali. Um, no, really not sure if I want to go there.

There were other suggestions in the Lower Mainland, so I might go to the one in New Westminster (Ole Ole I think it was called) upon my return to Vancouver. In the mean time, feel free to drop a comment and/or suggest any other new Mexican restaurants.