Off the Eaten Track offers guided tours through Victoria's Chinatown

Laurenne Karmel/Daily Hive

We already know that Victoria is a city full of incredible food, but if you’re not a local – and sometimes even if you are – it can be hard to figure out which spots are worth checking out.

This is where food tours come in. With a knowledgeable, experienced guide leading you through the best of the best, you’re able to learn about new (and old!) spots that you may not have found on your own.

In Victoria, the Off the Eaten Track tour is the city’s original food tour guide company, offering both guided and self-guided tours.

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During a recent visit, we had a chance to take the company’s Modern Chinatown Food and History Tour, which led us through the oldest Chinatown in Canada and its abundant restaurants.

The locations that you’ll stop at on this tour depend on the day and which restaurants happen to be open, but you’re basically guaranteed to stop at the Victoria Public Market, a dessert shop of some kind, and a local brewery to top it all off.

This tour isn’t just about food, either – the guide also shared some history of the area and of the Public Market.

Added bonus: at the end of the tour, you get a discount sheet for a bunch of local spots.

Here are all the eats we tried at the must-try spots we hit up during our tour.

The Bikery

The Bikery’s famous pretzel (Laurenne Karmel/Daily Hive)

This is the only certified kosher bakery on Vancouver Island, offering baked goods like its well-known pretzels, challah, and bagels. The owner comes from a baking family, and started out this business as a delivery-only service, baking pretzels out of a commercial space then packing them onto a bike and selling them on the streets of Victoria. Now, the environmentally-focused bakery operates on 100% electric power with deliveries still being made either via bike or electric car.

The Big Spoon

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The owners of this Victoria Public Market spot initially ran Shatterbox, a coffee shop in the market, but when the pandemic led to decreased foot traffic and, as a result, revenue, they started offering take-home soups. The concept was so popular, they ended up establishing a full soup menu for The Big Spoon by 2021. The flavourful soups are made with leftover produce from farmer’s markets and the varieties rotate based on what’s available. We got to try the smoky corn chowder with bread from Working Culture, a local bakeshop.

La Pasta La Pizza

Laurenne Karmel/Daily Hive

Also tucked inside the Public Market is this spot serving – you guessed it – pasta and pizza. Here you’ll find freshly-made pasta in varieties like fettuccini alfredo and fusilli with basil and ricotta, as well as pizzas made from focaccia.

La Roux

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This charming space serves French-inspired pastries and sweets. Fun fact: the owner had to teach herself how to bake after losing her head chef during the pandemic. We got to try the Paris-Brest.

Oni-Oni

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This Japanese confectionary is located at 585 Johnson Street and offers up a great selection of specialty snacks and over 13 varieties of onigiri made with sushi-flavoured rice. On top of that, you can get soft drinks and desserts like ice cream and freshly shaved kakigōri. Oni-Oni also offers unique giftware such as fans, chopsticks, toys, key rings, novelty lamps, and posters.

Whistle Buoy

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This patio and brewery located in Market Square also does growler fills and take-home cans, with one-of-a-kind beers like the Undersea Gose, made with bull kelp, coriander, lemon peel, and spirulina (the stuff that makes it green!). You can also grab bar snacks from here to pair with your flights and pints.

Wah Lai Yuen

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This Chinese bakery and restaurant is one of the best spots in the city to get BBQ duck or roasted pork. Stop here for an authentic Chinatown dining experience.

Maiiz Nixtamal Tortilleria

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Maiiz is a newer spot in Chinatown making corn tortillas that they sell for take-out. This place is not primarily a restaurant, but they do sell food from their kitchen, like tacos, quesadillas, and tamales. It’s also recently expanded to sell house-made sauces, and frequently do collaborations with other cool, local spots.

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