Ulla Restaurant

As a pre-tenth anniversary dinner, my wife and I went out for supper and a movie downtown, in Chinatown (one block in Victoria). My wife had been to Ulla before and enjoyed it so we chose it for me to enjoy. It didn't disappoint. Its at 509 Fisgard St; 250-590-8795.

Excellent West coast style is served with attention to detail. Each of our dishes had many ingredients but they were prepared differently with different vinegars/sauces/cooking...etc in order to make the dishes lively and promote depth in our taste buds.

The dishes seem small but an appetizer, main and dessert have the calorie intake recommended by Health Canada's food guide for calorie intake.

For a drink, since I was driving, was a cranberry type drink with cinnamon (a Casablanca something). Very tasty and refreshing.

We shared an order of the olives (edremit, gemlik, picholine and castelvetrano varieties). They were lightly cooked in a frying pan with a neutral olive oil. The heat brought out the best in the olives.

For an appetizer i had the octopus (black humus, olive powder, yogurt, bread crisp, pumpkin seeds, romesco). For those who have seen the excellent documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi", know that to have a tender octopus you need to massage it for a long time (45 minutes in the restaurant Jiro owns). This octopus could be cut with a fork. Each sauce added to the dish and were lovely in combinations. The cooked chickpeas were nice and tasty too.

As a main I had the herb crusted halibut (lemon quinoa, cherry tomato, zucchini, basil, artichoke puree). The fish was poached but poached to perfection. The lemon quinoa was also a highlight with me wondering how i could get it to taste like that (I normally cook it in a broth or with sesame oil added to the water).

For dessert I had chocolate three ways (chocolate cake, rice crispy crunch, dulce de leche cream, and aerated chocolate). They were delicious and an excellent end to the meal. The aerated chocolate tasted like what an aero bar should taste like.

For a movie we saw the Amazing Spider-Man and was not disappointed.