Late December a good friend of mine came to visit me, and we did some catching up over afternoon tea at Tracy Cakes in White Rock.

This place has a great location, right at the ocean front. It was quite busy when we got there at 1pm, and luckily I made a reservation. For high tea, there were only about 9 teas to choose from, I stuck with the classic earl grey.

Our food came out pretty quickly, the bottom of the tray had egg salad, cucumber, turkey sandwiches and 2 sections of a wrap. There were also sliced pineapples, and cantaloupes.

I started with the egg salad sandwich, and found it to be extremely salty; it was hard to finish it. My friend started with the turkey sandwich and also found it salty. Why so much salt?

The top of the 2 tier trays had the sweets such as scones, mini cupcakes, and cookies. I started with the scones and had them with raspberry jam and their devonshire, this was not the best I’ve had, but it was the best part of the whole tray.

The overall experience wasn’t as good as I had hoped and the bad experience started pretty early. When we first sat down at the table, I could smell the dirty cloth they used to wipe the table, it was not a pleasant smell. The presentation of the food seemed sloppy compared to Secret Garden, and I still can’t get over how salty the egg salad sandwich was.

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TracyCakes
15015 Marine Drive
White Rock, BC V4B

The wired monk is a small coffee chain in the lower mainland, with most of their locations in Langley or Surrey. I went to the one located at Sullivan Station, on 152nd and 56 Ave. They serve lattés, mocha, and other specialty coffees you’ll find at most coffee shops. They have baked goods such as muffins and biscottis, and they also have panini sandwiches, wraps if you need a quick bite to eat.

Their coffee doesn’t have a distinctive taste like starbucks coffees, but it is not terrible either. If you are familiar with starbucks drinks, you will have no problem ordering here. They use the usual coffee vocabularies such as: tall, grande, etc.

The one thing I strongly recommend is the almond biscotti. It is very tasty, and it is the only thing that keeps me going back. It is dense, moist and not too sweet. It goes really well with a latte.

Hot foods such as the sandwiches are very pricey. They average around $8 each, and they come with a side of coleslaw. If you’re going for a brunch consisting a panini sandwich, a tall coffee, and a baked good, you’re probably looking at $20 dollars. Pricey for a coffee shop.

Overall, it is a very nice quiet place to go for coffee and hang out without the crowd of Starbucks. The ambiance is great, glass windows all around the shop, it’s bright, and on top of that they have free wi-fi with no time limits.

3 stars and a thumb up.

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The Wired Monk.
Various Locations.
http://www.wiredmonk.com/index2.asp