Fairway Market is a local grocery chain founded by a Cantonese-speaking family few decades ago. It now has about 10 stores in the Greater Victoria area. The Quadra and Shelbourne locations are found to have more Chinese-friendly groceries.
And then there is Fisgard Market in Chinatown. They have been supplying vegetables to local Chinese restaurants for decades. The store has just changed hands so the new owners and/or employees may not speak Cantonese like the previous ones.
Besides these two, one can also find bulk size Asian grocery items in the Real Canadian Wholesale Club in Esquimalt (still within Greater Victoria). And of course there are more than just one Asian grocery store in Chinatown.
There are also at least 2 Japanese grocery stores in Victoria. One is Fujiya on Shelbourne and the other is at the corner of Yates and Quadra. There are Korean grocery stores as well.
A year or so ago, I got a 10kg bag of Thai jasmine rice from Costco for $20. A 20-lb size of 阿姐靚米 can be found in Fairway for anywhere between $23 to $30. There are also rice from Taiwan and Japan as well as Korea.
As for eateries, most of the Chinese restaurants are geared towards American Chinese style but there are more authentic dishes on the menu now. A few to note are Cozy Place & Wah Lai Yuen in Chinatown and Halibut House near uptown. All these owners speak Cantonese.
One place to note is Tropical Island in Shelbourne Street. It has satay skewers and Ha Moon noodles as well as Hainan Chicken.
Vietnamese restaurants can be found all over Victoria. One of them is run by Korean with some Korean dishes on the menu (see photo with black menu cover). Fusion is very popular here so you’ll find many Asian fusion eateries.
There are also Japanese restaurants, some are operated by non-Japanese in different fusion styles. The newest one in Chinatown has a rather different menu from the rest (see photo with Yua’s menu - prices have gone up since the photo was taken though). A few ramen shops have popped up around town too.
There are different types of Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants. Some of those have more than one location in the Greater Victoria area.
Bubble tea has been growing in popularity so more and more are popping up but mostly around downtown area.
Pineapple buns are not exactly like those you would find in Hong Kong. The photo with a cup of tea shows the size of it from a pack of 6 available at Fairway Market. They can also be found in Chinatown.
The photos of CHEK news FB post and comments can tell you a little about why there are not much authentic Asian eateries here.
Dumplings are getting popular these days. There’s a Korean dumpling restaurant on Store Street in Chinatown and a Thai dumpling shop run by Thai mother-daughter team on Pandora Avenue on the edge of Chinatown.
The photos of Taiwanese noodles, Japanese mochi boxes, and Korean frozen meal are things that can be found in Costco and possibly couple other places too.
Please note prices on the menus have increased since I posted the photos.
