The Aphrodite Organic Café and Pie Shop on West West 4th is one of Kitsilano’s finest brunch spots. If you haven’t made the trek out in that neighborhood yet, now you’ve got a mighty fine reason to visit. Their pies are outstanding, their breakfast menu exceptional (albeit a bit tough on the wallet) and as Kitsilano Coffee suggests below, they have some of the greatest breakfast pairing java on this side of Burrard. Read on:

Aphrodite Organic Café and Pie Shop is one part country café, one part pie shop, all parts amazing. Despite the fact that prices are quite high, and the service is notoriously slow, this remains one of our favorite places for noshing in the city. We chalk it up to some freaking rad ambiance.

This is the kind of place you just want to stay at all day.

The food at Aphrodite’s doesn’t disappoint and they serve up a great range of organic meals. Breakfast/brunch is clearly their raison d’être, but they also have dinner, lunch and takeout options. If you haven’t tasted one of their pies, you really haven’t lived. Our pick is the Strawberry Rhubarb pie – or the bafflingly incredible Chocolate Beet Cake (I’m getting heart palpitations just thinking about it!).

Alright, enough yammering about their food, let’s talk coffee. The coffee at Aphrodite’s is thick, the stuff is rich, and it’s definitely better and stronger than your average diner coffee cup of joe.

Refills can be hard to come by (service is very slow, on a good day) so it’s worth upgrading to the good stuff (be patient, even the drinks take a while to arrive). Their americanos are robust, and the blend they are using really pairs nicely with a big hearty breakfast – or a piece of pie!

Note: They don’t carry fake-o sweeteners like Splenda as they are an organic cafe, but they have honey or agave if you really have a sweet tooth.

Website: http://www.organiccafe.ca/

Urbanspoon Says:

Recently we signed up for the grocery delivery service Spud.ca. At first we felt a little bit lazy ordering organic groceries online and having them delivered to our door- but we got over that pretty fast and haven’t looked back since.

Spud.ca is a convenient way of getting fresh, local and organic produce (and other groceries) to you weekly. You sign up online, select from their endless selection of products – from home baked chocolate croissants to purple potatoes – and within a week the groceries are delivered to an address of your choosing. I’m at work all day, so I request that they deliver it there. The items are kept cool in a big tupperware tub with ice (or dry ice if need be) and can stay cool for up to 8 hours without refrigeration.

Produce is always fresh, clean and is handled far less than your average grocery store produce. Plus you can feel good knowing that most of their items are organic and as locally grown / produced as possible. Once you place your order they tell you the average distance the food has travelled to get to your door. Nifty! And if that wasn’t enough, they donate leftover food to disadvantaged families.

To make things even more easy, they have a standing order option. Each week we have $35 of fresh produce chosen for us by Spud. We can go online and change / tweak their selection, but they do the bulk of the choosing if you select this option. It’s a great way to try new things. You can also have certain items automatically added to your cart each week. We go through a lot of Que Pasa corn chips and salsa, and have that automatically put in our cart each week. It saves a lot of time, and ensures that you don’t forget the essentials. I’m not sure Jake could survive a week without nachos.

Aside from convenience their selection is pretty good. While we still need the occasional trip to Safeway, we now buy all of our fresh produce, milk, eggs and bread through Spud. Specialty items like pumpkin pie spice or wasabi peas currently aren’t available, but as the company grows I’m sure their selection will as well.

As for prices, Spud is only slightly higher than the grocery store, and delivery is free. For convience, peace of mind, and knowing that I’m supporting an awesome local company, the few extra dollars a month I spend is well worth it.

https://www.spud.ca/