The new spot offers a vibrant interior and delicious, Instagram-worthy pastries
Photo by Melody Powers.
Have you ever seen those viral cube or circle croissants and wanted to try one? Luckily, you don’t have to travel to try this special treat.
Tombo Eats is the newest cafe/bakery/restaurant that just launched in Victoria. Tombo Eats was opened by Tom Moore, award-winning chef and former co-owner of Victoria’s beloved bakery Crust. The eatery’s motto is “good food, made here,” which aligns with how everything is either sourced as locally as possible or made in house with a rotating menu to match what’s in season.
Located on Yates Street between Douglas and Blanshard, Tombo has everything you might be looking for in a restaurant or cafè, all with a pretty affordable price tag.
Moore used the same interior designer as Crust, and in an interview with Victoria Buzz, he explained he wanted the inside to “help people understand the flow of what Tombo will be.”
The interior of Tombo is quirky, colourful, and inviting, adding to the unique vibe of the restaurant. It is very visually pleasing. With cute doodle-like pictures and bright colours, it is definitely one of my favourite interiors from a coffee shop in the city.
The restaurant has two sections. To the right is the bar with a wide selection of alcohol and a larger sit-down area. To the left is an open-concept coffee bar. It has both bar and table seating, but be warned the tables are very small.
If you’re not interested in sitting at the bar there are three tables against the wall just big enough to place your coffee and a plate on.
When I first went to Tombo I was a little confused about what to expect. The cashier who helped me was nice, but without visible menus around, I ordered blind, which was a little stressful.
Not knowing the prices or the full extent of the coffee options, I stayed safe and ordered a latte and a cube croissant. My order cost around $15 with a tip, which is pretty standard compared to other cafès in Victoria, in my experience.
With most of the bar seats taken, I decided to sit down at a small table near the back. The cafè side was a little cramped compared to the restaurant side, so if you’re looking for somewhere to work on a laptop, this might not be the place for you.
Aside from the seating area, the other aspect that threw me off was when the barista called out the drinks. Since there is no designated coffee or pastry pick up spot, if you’re not sitting at the bar, you’re going to have to squeeze past the other customers sitting down to grab your drink or food. As a cafe that is also half restaurant, I was expecting table service like other popular coffee shops such as Hey Happy and Nemesis in Vancouver.
Other than the awkward interactions I had while grabbing my order, the cube croissant lived up to the hype. Going in blind, I found out it was a chocolate orange flavour, the filling oozed out the pastry. I thought the orange and chocolate would be overpowering, it was the perfect hint of orange and sweetness, and it paired extremely well with the dark chocolate on top.
As for the latte, I am a bit more critical. After working in the coffee industry for over eight years, I have become an annoying coffee snob. The espresso wasn’t over-extracted and it was pretty good, but it didn’t stand out like Saint Cecila or even Hey Happy. On the plus side, their beans are locally sourced from Regard Coffee, a specialty roaster located in Nanaimo.
After leaving, I decided to check out the Tombo To-Go section. It had coffee, grab and go sandwiches, pastries, coffee bags, and merch. I ended up getting the “Supreme Croissant,” which was the famous circle croissant, with a blackcurrant filling and meringue topping.
In the end, the cafe side of Tombo Eats was unique and really good. It might not be the place to hunker down and get work done, but if you’re looking to have a pretty good cup of coffee and delicious pastries I would recommend it.
