Vancouver Vacation Notes: Urban Fare, a Shopping Attraction

During our recent family trip to Vancouver, BC, we discovered a great attraction located near our hotel. It's not a place that most people would consider to be on their top places to see in Vancouver list, but for Foodies like us (my wife, Jennifer, brother-in-law, Scott and his wife, Wendy) we fell in love. Next time you are in Vancouver you should visit Urban Fare.

Urban Fare is a gourmet market that. . .

". . . offers the finest gourmet products from around the world and around the corner. As ambassadors for the love of food and a passion for gourmet, our goal is to be your destination for unique, sophisticated gourmet food and to introduce you to international flavours."

It was quite simply a feast for the senses. They had:

• the largest selection and variety of produce I have seen in one store.
  At the time we were visiting, they were featuring black apricots and the square watermelons, shown in the picture. Yes that is $99 for a watermelon.
  
• a full scale flower store with beautiful fresh flowers and very reasonable priced bouquets
• an in-house bakery and chocolatier with staff on to help you until closing time
• a wide variety of prepared foods
• a restaurant and coffee bar

It wasn't the largest store I have ever been in, but it didn't lack for variety of products or choices in manufacturers. Think of Urban Fare as very similar to a Whole Foods or Bristol Farms. Scott was so excited that he look to see if there were in back in the states. Unfortunately, there isn't, but we wish there were.

Technorati Tags: Vancouver, gourmet store

Burgermaster, More Like Burger"Average"

On our recent vacation, I read a review in a local Seattle magazine saying that Burgermaster was the place to go for burgers in the Seattle area. So my wife and I visited the one in Bellevue near where we were staying on our last trip. I was very underwhelmed I must say.

The cool thing about it was it had the old 50's drive in feel to it with car hops. You turn your lights on when you want service, and all. The menu was short and sweet - usually a good thing (think In-n-Out Burger). However, we weren't impressed.

Jen and I both ordered the Burgermaster with cheese, onion rings in place of fries and blackberry shake. Our verdict was that Carl's Jr. had much better hamburgers, the onion rings were average at best, but what saved them in this review was the very good blackberry shake.

You may want to go there to experience the eat in your car, car hop service, but don't expect great food.

Burgermaster
10606 Northup Way
Bellevue, WA 98004
(425) 827-9566

Technorati Tags: seattle, restaurant review, hamburger