The Pink Bicycle

Address: 1008 Blanshard St.
Phone: (250) 384-1008
Website: http://www.pinkbicycleburger.com/
Price: $8-15
Notes: Victoria's first gourmet hamburger joint

The Pink Bike has such a reputation for the best burgers in town - it's close enough to being correct that you can't really argue too much! There's certainly the most variety in town, and although I haven't been often the quality has been pretty consistent.

They are pretty awesome because they source as much as possible of their meats from local, small farms. They also get their buns from an extremely local source - the bakery next door to their restaurant! I also love that their beer menu includes so much local beer! This was the first place I tried Driftwood's White Bark and it's one of my favourite beers so I will forever be thankful for that.

It has been a while since I have been inside, so I'm struggling to remember the decor, but I feel like it's pretty basic and understated, which is not a bad thing at all! Love the Charles Rennie Mackintosh styling on the menu & sign outside.


Service:
Aug 12, 2011
I had heard a few bad things about the service here through the grape vine, so I was a little intimidated to ask if we could sit outside so our dog could join us on the patio. As it turned out, not only was that just fine, but it meant not having to wait inside for a table - and they brought her some water. Score! The people service (aka us) was pretty good too.


Food:
Aug 12, 2011

Swine burger with truffled fries via foodspotting.com

I don't know why this caught my eye - something about the description was pretty fantastic:

Stillmeadow Farm Berkshire pork bursting with flavors of teriyaki green onion and ginger Topped with grilled pineapple & Little Qualicum Gruyere

I think it was the combination of the words "bursting" "green onion" "ginger" and "gruyere" that got me as those are some of my favourite flavours right now. I was not disappointed! The burger itself was a definite highlight - epically juicy and flavourful (bursting is a good word, actually). I allowed myself to be up sold on the truffle fries, as "truffle" is also a pretty great word for my tastebuds right now, and ended up up-selling the next table on some before leaving. 

Poutine via foodspotting.com

Hard to tell the scale on this, but the bowl of poutine is pretty epic in size! It satisfied my partner-in-food-and-life for dinner and the remainder still managed to feed me several days later when I was scrounging for dinner after a late return on the ferry from Vancouver. 

The onions on top were a nice touch, although a bit salty - and that in combination with the salt in the cheese made for a bit of a salty dish. Overall, it was tasty. They gravy was pretty yum, and the fries were pretty close to perfect although a little bit soft once they had sad in the gravy for a bit but that can't Really be helped in any poutine situation.