When we moved to East Vancouver, Flourist was one of the few cafes that was already on my radar. They sell the ‘best ever chocolate chip cookie’ so naturally, I had already scoped it out. We had tried to go once before, when we still lived in the West End, but we were walking from Trout Lake in the pouring rain and we ended up deciding it was just too far. In hindsight, I’m pretty pleased about that, because despite the provincial Covid restrictions being relaxed, Flourist has maintained its ‘takeaway only’ policy, meaning we would have had to eat our treats in the rain.

Instead, we first visited Flourist on a Saturday morning on our way to Trout Lake. We joined the queue (which actually moved faster than it looked) and ordered way too much, in response to the overwhelming number of decadent treats in the window display. Ironically, I would describe Flourist has having quite a refined menu, it just happens that everything they offer looks mouth-wateringly good!

We ordered a large selection of sweet and savoury goods, in addition to coffee. We didn’t hold back! We carried all our bags to Trout Lake where we set them out picnic style and tucked in, as we watched the dogs splashing around in the water at the adjacent dog park. We had ordered a breakfast bun (pictured below) which was a bagel style bun, with a huge dollop of pesto and a fried egg and herbs on top. It was super yummy; the bread was satisfyingly chewy and the flavours hit the spot. We also ordered a pear and almond galette which was delightful, as well as a savoury galette too – another treat which hit the mark. For dessert, we’d picked the best ever cookie (which we couldn’t fault, although it still felt like too big a call to award it with the best cookie I have ever tasted) and a butter tart. I had never had a butter tart before (I don’t like butter…) but it seemed like if anyone was going to make this traditional treat tasty, it would be Flourist. Besides, Andy loves butter, so if necessary he would finish it off! I didn’t need to worry though, the butter tart tasted exactly like a butter and brown sugar mix (i.e. like the filling to a pecan pie or something) and it was divine.

Flourist may not be the cheapest bakery around, but it certainly doesn’t disappoint on the flavour factor.