Shine Café | Restaurants Victoria

Shine Café - Restaurants Victoria
Where the Sun Don’t Shine

Black Pudding anyone? I should have closed my menu and quietly left after learning from our server exactly what this English treat consisted of. It’s difficult not to judge an entire establishment based on the first breakfast item I read; especially when the dish ends up being coagulated sausage made from cow blood and fat. Ick! Although Shine Café serves mostly old-fashioned Canadian breakfasts, there were a number of other shortcomings that turned my usually relaxing Saturday morning meal into an unfortunate experience.

After waiting half an hour outside for the next available table, my guest and I were kindly seated inside this brightly lit café. The interior is reminiscent of a gardening store with walls painted crayon yellow, green, orange, and pink. Mirrors and homemade posters adorned the walls with feel-good sayings such as: “I had to tell my ordinary life we were growing apart, I was falling in love with magic.” Accompanying this handcrafted art were smiling servers and all types of music ranging from Jack Johnson to the Bachman Turner Overdrive.

The menu at Shine Café involves little risk, which is enjoyable if you’re just looking for plain old eggs. In fact, the greatest culinary conception of the morning resulted when a server accidentally crossed the iced tea and the apple juice lines on the beverage tower. Apologetically, our server comp’d our Iced Apple Juice. Apart from the full view of the entire kitchen from the restaurant and the fact that the cooks kept coming out to hug and socialize with patrons, the restaurant does have a few perks. Prices are very reasonable starting at $8.95 for breakfast and $9.25 for lunch. While the servers aren’t so much serving you your food, as they are bringing you a version of what you ordered at their leisure, they are all very friendly.

Shine serves only breakfast and lunch, seven days a week, and is located near the Fort Street and Oak Bay Avenue intersection. Its inaccessibility to the downtown core is made up for by its two-table patio and fascinating passers-by.

With all of the other diverse and unique possibilities in Victoria for AM dining, Shine is more like a small flicker or a very dull gleam.


Shine Cafe
1548 Fort Street
Victoria, BC
595-2133