Mary in Vancity

Chef David Hawksworth’s new Bel Cafe is located inside the Georgia Hotel on West Georgia St. This fantastic new eatery gets its inspiration from the boulangeries of Paris.    

The space is wonderful! Lots of chrome and wood accents gives this Cafe a fantastic modern feel, Orchids on the tables and white linen napkins give it an air of sophistication and class. This is a great place to enjoy a break from shopping or meet a friend for a latte.        

This is gonna be an easy post: I absolutely LOVED everything about this place! Our service was impeccable, and the food was fantastic. Sean and I got there around 2pm and the place was packed! We were lucky enough to get a table! For Sean’s take on Bel Cafe, click here.    

The menu has an assortment of pastries and light meals, as well as some breakfast items. We started with a couple of sandwiches:

The Confit Albacore Tuna ($10.60). Delicious tuna with celeriac remoulade, fine herbes and crispy romaine. The tuna was very light tasting, overall a delightful sandwich.

 The Roasted Butternut Squash ($10.60) asian pear, arugula, brie and apple marmalade. This sandwich was heaven on a plate. I absolutely loved it. Great savory and sweet flavours. The bread was toasted to perfection and the squash had a great texture, creamy, yet firm. I would order this sandwich again in a heartbeat. The sandwiches come with small pickles and a bit of salad.

Bel Cafe has a fantastic menu of pastries and macaroons. Their macaroons are to die for! So perfectly flaky and chewy. We tried each of them! They have six flavours: Black Sesame and Yuzu – very interesting combination! The sesame taste was very prominent in the beginning, but after a couple of bites the zesty taste of the yuzu come thru.  Dark Chocolate – creamy, dark and delicious.

Pistachio – creamy, but not my favourite. My three favourites were the Vanilla Bean, Rose and Raspberry and Passion Fruit. The Vanilla Bean was fantastic, with such an authentic vanilla taste, that it has to be tasted to be believed. The Rose and Raspberry macaroon was flavoured with real rose water, and the Passion Fruit had a sweet passion fruit jam filling. I found the macaroons here to be top class, I love my macaroons more flaky than chewy, and these just melted in your mouth. For $2 a piece you can’t go wrong.

We also sampled some of their amazing desserts! Each cost $6.20. My favourite was the Dark Chocolate, Raspberry, Vanilla. This dessert has a lovely flaky crust and the mousse was creamy, with a fantastic raspberry centre. 

They have a fantastic Classic Cheesecake – not too creamy, with a tasty Graham cookie crust. Also they have a  White Chocolate, Kalamanzi, Coconut if you’re on the mood for something refreshingly delicious!

Follow Bel Cafe on twitter: @bel_cafe