de'lish Fine Foods & Catering — Restaurant in Oak Bay

It’s hot cross bun season, and de’lish has again stepped forward with an excellent offering.

Last year, we visited several purveyors of hot cross buns, and commended them all for excellent work, suggesting that such a Victoria-area road trip is a lovely way to support all the various Victoria bakeries, and then enjoy their efforts with a hot beverage at nearby lookouts or viewpoints. And it still is. But for us, a tank of gas now costs about a zillion dollars, crimping funds available for hot cross buns, so with de’lish just down the way, we’re single-sourcing.

And just as well. The de’lish hot cross bun is every bit as good this year as it was last year, maybe even better. Not too sweet, nice cinnamon smell, maybe some cranberry, a hint of — look, I’m really just guessing at all that because I’m so busy shoving the things down my piehole when we get them, it’s all pretty much a blur.

I’m sure I’d made a suggestion last year that they increase the size of each hot cross bun to eight inches by eight inches — you know, for those of us with larger hands. De’lish offers all kinds of great items, and is always busy, so I’m thinking that one might still be with their product review committee. Hey, one can always hope.

New this year is their child-proof box, whereby they tape the edges so none of the goodness falls out on the way home. Who takes these things home? I just rip the tape off in the car with my teeth and that solves that.

With restrictions eased, some have asked us, “If you are meeting friends and wish to bring de’lish hot cross buns, how many should you get?” This is an excellent question. Our rule of thumb is this: For each additional person, get two more de’lish hot cross buns, and one small bag.

If the two of us are meeting four friends, for example, we get ten de’lish hot cross buns. After ripping the tape off the box with my teeth in the car, we eat nine on the way to meet the friends, put one in the bag, and offer it to the four friends saying “Only had one left; really popular this year! Who’s up for Hunger Games?” then toss the bag in the air and just see what happens. Always fun, that.

Others have asked, “What about toasting them?” Huh? Cars come with toasters?

The de’lish hot cross bun is a delight. As is everything they have available. What a simple pleasure it is to pick up something nice from them and head to Beach Drive, or the lookout on King George Terrace and pause for a few moments to mark the little things that...

It being Easter, Spring, and a pandemic, we decided to go local and narrow in search of the Very Best Hot Cross Bun.*

Our adventure took us through Oak Bay and parts of Victoria that are still accessible to people from anywhere else, or that you don’t risk getting stuck in forever if they reconfigure the streets while you’re eating your research and you can’t get out.

Our search for truth took us to Ottavio on Oak Bay Avenue, Bond Bond’s on Blanshard, Foi-Epi on Yates, Fry’s Bakery on Craigflower Road in Esquimalt, Cobs Bread on Oak Bay Avenue, and to our local bakery and caterer, De’lish. It was pretty gruelling, all things considered, but I’ve watched Jumanji, so I know what a quest is like. We returned to most locations several times to correct sampling errors. There were a lot of sampling errors, and it’s important that hot-cross-bun research be thorough. We’re just dedicated that way.

We used a totally subjective rating system. My co-rater identified texture, spice mixture, quantity of citrus, cranberry presence, sweetness, size. Blah, Blah, Blah. Me, I looked for how many I could shove down my cakehole before feeling woozy. I also looked at how they tasted cold versus toasted, because sometimes you need to eat the evidence before you get home, especially if your co-rater is watching your weight for you.

In the end, the Hot Cross Buns from De’lish won out as the Very Best Hot Cross Bun. This is because they are, and because they’re, like, only three blocks from the house, so trust me when I say there was no sampling error, over and over again.

*Individual results may vary, so create your own Best Hot Cross Bun Quest. You’ll have fun toodling about, discover some fantastic Hot Cross Buns, and will support the folks who have kept us fed, and in better spirits these past many months. Nothing wrong with...

De'lish catered my birthday party last month, and my guests and I were so impressed! We cannot speak highly enough of this team. Mark and George came out to our house and provided a dinner for 14 that was both delicious and well presented, delivered flawlessly, and graciously without a hitch despite a power outage before any of the guests arrived. Yes, that's right a power outage. I would never have known from their demeanour, they did not bat an eye, but carried on with the use of our bbq. Their main concern was not for themselves or how it was making more work for them, or even how it would affect the food; it was only to reassure me that all would be well. They candlelit my whole house and the party was even more elegant than it would have been. All the while these two worked a couple of feet away from my dining room table and you would not have known they were there. As I said, I cannot say enough good things about them, and I will never forget what they...