I recently spent a week test driving the re-engineered Honda Civic Sedan Sport Touring 2022 car around the city while I was out and about trying some new dishes at restaurants and cafes in Vancouver. I have always loved Italian food and Robba da Matti is a beautiful restaurant in the Westend.
The restaurant was celebrating with their first annual Venetian Carnival with a special 3 course dinner the night that I had visited.
We enjoyed sharing the Appetizers: Cozze & Vongoleragu di anatra a tasty Venetian dish with Clams & Mussels Sauté with pinot grigio, cherry tomatoes & chillies; and the Beef carpaccio Thinly sliced, raw AAA Alberta beef tenderloin & drizzled with a grainy Dijon & white alba truffle aioli.
The mains followed, I had the delicious Paccheri al ragu di anatra homemade pasta with a duck ragu while Jason had the Spaghetti allo Scoglio a Venetian dish with a tomato sauce base, scallops & chillies with tiger prawns, calamari, mussels & clams.
We finished the meal with the dreamy Tiramisu which served in clear glasses.
In this 2022 model there were many new features introduced such as the first all-digital LCD instrument display (Touring); they also added their first heated steering wheel.
The next day I visited Doughnut Love in Coquitlam to try some of their new selections. Here I the beautiful Love Cake, the yummy NY Strawberry Cheesecake, the fun Homer and Twinkie donuts. This is a wonderful cafe to visit when out in the Coquitlam area for tasty donuts, coffees and more.
Visited another fun bakery in the North Burnaby area, Punk Rock Pastries opened a few years ago, they started off making erotic cakes and cookies, they then added crazy cupcakes, donuts and cookie pies into the mix and it’s became very popular since. I had their yummy Ballistic Banoffee donut which was filled with Punk Rock Pastries signature caramel buttercream, topped with a caramelized banana tart and finished with a sweet dulce de Leche.
Standard addition is the new 7-inch colour touchscreen with Apple CarPlay® & Android Auto™ integration; also available is a new 9-inch HD colour touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay® & Android Auto™ integration.
Enjoyed a wonderful dinner with friends at Alimentaria Mexicana on Granville Island one evening with delicious eats.
Started off with the Tortilla chips and salsa – house-made salsa roja (dried pasilla chiles and tomato) & salsa verde (jalapeno chiles and garlic) served with corn tostadas
The Golden Beet Ceviche was a refreshing and tasty dish; this was followed by the delicious Birria Tacos that was filled with slow cooked beef braised in dried chillies, with onions, cilantro, limes & consommé.
Another favourite was the Halloumi & Grilled Cactus in a charred tomatillo salsa verde, topped with pickled red onion and cilantro; this was so good. Served with corn tortillas. Lastly, the Mushroom Birria was another tasty dish with mixed organic mushrooms braised in delicious spices & chiles and topped with onions and cilantro; a spicy flavourful dish.
One restaurant that I hadn’t visited since they had opened last year was L’Onore Pizza which is located in the Victoria Hill neighbourhood. Took a drive out to New Westminster for an early dinner here. I had the outstanding SUNRISE (In Paradise) pizza which was incredible, flavourful and creative pizza with their delicious sourdough crust (the owner/chef mills his own wheat) topped with Fontina, Fior di Latte, Low Moisture Mozzarella, Shaved Garlic, Leoncini Ham, Candied Orange, Organic Cherry Tomatoes Confit and Chili Oil.
The sedan also features all-new simple, clean exterior and interior styling, with a more powerful and fuel-efficient 1.5-litre turbo engine; enhanced architecture and stronger body, updated suspension and steering tuning for improved handling and ride. The touring model also boasts a Civic-first Bose premium sound system with 12 speakers. One other great feature was the updated single camera Honda Sensing® system with new Traffic Jam Assist, Low Speed Braking Control (Touring).
On Sunday night, Lawrence and I had dinner at Amay’s House on Victoria Drive to enjoy some of their Burmese dishes; this is favourite spot of ours in East Van. Here we had the Myanmar Tea Leaf Salad and the Burmese Style Biryani with roasted chicken, both delicious.
The Honda Civic Sedan Sport Touring was enjoyable to drive around Vancouver in the to try some great eateries.
By: Richard Wolak
Disclosure: Honda Canada provided me with the 2022 Honda Civic for a week to test drive, and photograph.