2015 Victoria Exceptional Eats! Food & Drink Awards

After letting the scene steep and flourish for a couple of years, we’re back with the 5th Annual Exceptional Eats! Reader Awards. With your participation and support, we can help celebrate and recognize what has happened over the past two years. Plus more fantastic draw prizes for entries. Thanks and let’s get celebrating!

It is incredible the growth that can occur in 24 short months—the lunch spots, the brunch spots, the food trucks and eateries, the products and produce that can flourish in such a relatively short time. Take a moment to pause with us. We live in a ripe and thriving community and this is beautifully represented in the food and drink being created right where we live.

So we invite you, our readers, to look back and consider: how has your year in food been, both at home and out and about? This is the perfect moment to explore where we are now.

Those of you who have been a part of this process before will see some familiar places in the questions, but there are new ones too that reflect what has been happening here. We need to respect and appreciate where our love for local culture food is taking us.

Please take your time and answer those questions that interest you and about which you feel knowledgeable (you don’t have to answer them all). At EAT Magazine, we value your opinion; we also believe it’s important to celebrate what’s happening in food and drink and those who are making it happen. Combine the two and you get what the Exceptional Eats! Reader Awards are all about.

Discuss the questions with friends and family, or simply mull them over with a glass of your favourite libation. Taking part has its rewards—it could land you one of a selection of delectable prizes. Thanks for your time, and now—we begin.

DRAW PRIZES

10 Acres Bistro + Bar + Farm – $100 Gift Certificate

Camilles Restaurant – Two $50 Gift Certificates

Canoe Brewpub – A Canoe branded hoodie

Cascadia Liquor Stores- A private wine tasting for four, led by a certified Cascadia Liquor Store sommelier

Crooked Goose Bistro – $50 Gift Certificate

Delta Ocean Pointe Hotel – VIP Patio Party for 6 people consisting of dinner for 6 with cocktails/craft beer

Fernwood Inn – $60 Gift Certificate

Galloping Goose Grille – $164 Gift Certificate

Hester Creek Estate Winery – Magnum of Cabernet Franc with box

Heron Rock Bistro – $50 Gift Certificate

Hillside Liquor Store – Two $50 Gift Certificates

Hudson on First – $100 Gift Certificate

Oughtred Coffee & Tea – $100 Gift Certificate

Pescatores/Oyster Bar – $100 Gift Certificate

Rocky Road Winery – Gift Certificate worth $100

Silk Road – Tea & Chocolate Pairing Gift Certificate worth $300

Spinnakers – Three Course Dinner for Two with Beer Pairings and a One Night Stay   in our Heritage House including Breakfast for Two

Spud.ca – $150 Gift Certificate

Unsworth Vineyards & Restaurant – Lunch, Wine tasting & Tour for Four $100 value

Victoria Public Market – $50 in Market Bucks

The Whole Beast – One year of meat valued at $120.00.

Photo: Lemon Ricotta Risotto at Cafe Brio