Shelter, Tofino BC

Shelter Restaurant in Tofino....

What to say about Shelter...other than, the MOST DISASTROUS DINING EXPERIENCE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you may have guessed I am not that impressed with Shelter. Simply, it is an overpriced restaurant with crappy service!

To back up a bit, some friends of mine and I attended Shelter to celebrate an important event. We had reservations for 6:45 on a Saturday night for 20 people. On arrival we were seated upstairs at two large tables. So far so good, right? Well, about 30 - 40 minutes later someone finally came by to take our drink orders; and, another fifteen minutes later we finally got them!

About 7:30 (45 min after arrival) our waiter finally came to the table to take our diner orders. Without explaining specials or anything else, he opened with what you gettin'?

I am not going to go on forever with this review; in fact, I don't feel it is worth much more of my time. The food arrived at about 9 o'clock (2hr 15min after arrival); and, to say the least it was terrible. Oh, and did I mention we were never asked again about drink refills????

All in all, Shelter is a waste of time! Bad food, bad service and overpriced.

Dinner for two (with one drink each) : $75.00

Giovanni's Shrimp Truck - North Shore, Oahu HI

Oahu has to be the home of the food truck and the shrimp truck seems to out number them all. And in an Island littered with shrimp trucks I think I found the King - Giovanni's in Kahuku on the North Shore of Oahu.

Giovanni's actually has two shrimp trucks; one in Haleiwa and the other in Kahuku. Now, there is no rime or reason why I picked the Kahuku location other than it was on my way to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Now if your wondering how to get their, don't fret, drive to Haleiwa then head east. You can't miss the old white bus, covered in grafiti and converted into a food truck; if that isn't clear enough for you then look for the long lines, smoke and the smell of shrimp and garlic.

As I mentioned the lines are long, but they are definitely worth the wait. I can't speak to all of their dishes, but I will recommend the shrimp scampi. In actual fact, I found it hard to chose between the hot and spicy shrimp and the scampi. However, I believe I got the best of both worlds, I ordered the  scampi and they threw in a side of the hot sauce for free.

The shrimp were cooked in olive oil, fresh cut garlic and lemon butter; and, boy were they delicious. When you order the scampi they also cover your two scoops of rice with the same garlic, olive oil and lemon butter sauce (delicious). My shrimp were cooked to perfection - I guess it helps if you do it every day; however, my wife's were slightly overcooked, oh well....they were still delicious.

I definitely recommend checking out Giovanni's while in the North Shore; better yet, go to the Haleiwa location and then get some shave ice from Aoki's to finish it off.

Clam Bucket Restaurant, Port Alberni

Sitting right across from the water in Port Alberni lies a cute little restaurant. I am speaking of none other than the Clam Bucket. After reading some review on Urbanspoon I was a little hesitant on trying it, but my co-worker absolutely raved on and on about the Clam Bucket. Needless to say I am not one to miss an oportunity to try a new restaurant; especially, one that someone tells me is good.

When I first walked in the door, I was struck by the nicely decorated; somewhat, romantic feel of the Clam Bucket; in fact, with a name like the Clam Bucket I was a little shocked at the decor. I pictured fishing nets and propellers to be draped all over the wall, but this was a nice surprise. The second thing that I noticed about the Clam Bucket is that the servers were all very nice and very attentive, the complete opposite from some of the reviews I have read.

I will say that their menu makes it very difficult to order; I haven't seen a menu that big in quite sometime. I almost wish it was a few pages shorter because it took me almost half an hour to figure out what I wanted. However, once we ordered the food was quick to arrive and the portions were huge. All of my co-workers seemed to enjoy their meals and so did I.

Verdict: I would go back to the Clam Bucket and I would recommend it to those looking for somewhere to eat in Port Alberni. The only downside would be that some of their menu items were a little overpriced, but I guess if you don't have much for competition you can set the market.

Marina Restaurant, Oak Bay

For years I have been hearing about Oak Bay Marina Restaurant's Brunch Buffet. I have heard that this is the best brunch in the city. So, naturally I had to check it out for myself and what better time than for Mother's Day.

For your information, this is not a place you call up a week before for reservations (I made that mistake last year), in fact, I made my reservations about 3 months prior. I couldn't bear the thought of missing this much hyped buffet for a second year in a row.

Well, the time finally came, Mother's Day was upon us. I treated my fiance and my stepson to the renowned brunch buffet. The scenery around the marina is gorgeous and the restaurant is strategically designed to capture the beautiful views from every seat.

Now, I can't realistically write a review on all of the food that was available at the buffet, but I can give a general overview of the food as a whole. I enjoyed most everything I tried. The food ranged from Vanilla Scented French Toast, Waffles, Bacon, Sausages, Pasta, Barron n Beef, Seafood and a plethora of desserts. A couple of standouts for me were the french toast and smoked salmon and mussels. However, they also had eggs Benedict and made to order omelets.

As I stated earlier, all the food was good; however, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more seafood options...we were at a marina restaurant...weren't we?

As for the service, I was not as impressed as I was with the food. Our server seemed to have somewhat of a chip off his shoulder, who knows, maybe he was just run off his feet. He was quick to provide new plates and cutlery; however, he was a little abrupt and quite slow to bring beverages and even at one point removed my fiance's coffee altogether.

As it was mother's day, the restaurant had plenty of fresh flowers available at the front door for outgoing mother's to create their own bouquets (nice touch).

Overall I would say the food was good, but like any buffet, you can get better food on it's own at other restaurants. As for the price, a little high, around $42 per person (including tip). In summary I think it was a nice treat for a special occasion, but it is definitely not somewhere I would go on a regular basis.

Food: 4 out of 5 Stars

Service: 3 out of 5 Stars

View: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

OVERALL: 3.8 out of 5 Stars

P.S. If you haven't been to the marina before, you can feed fish to the harbor seals. The seals have made the marina home and usually hang out by the docks.