Skinnytato - Polish Home Cooking

Last day in Victoria! I had wanted to find a restaurant that was part of You Gotta Eat Here, sort of like the Tomahawk, but I was unsuccessful. I did find a restaurant that was a mom and pop spot, and serves up home cooking, Polish style. And that is how we ended up at Skinnytato. 

 

The lady who took our order strongly recommended a cocktail, a martini actually, this is called a Zubrowka/Bison Grass Vodka. The Szarlotka, a vodka based cocktail was infused with cucumber water and apple juice. This tasted amazing and the vodka was almost undetectable, deadly! I didn't know this at the time, but Szarlotka is actually the name of a Polish apple tart, and yes, this definitely reminded me of a apple pie-like dessert.
 Deciding against a potato pancake, we decided to get a bit of everything. We opted for a few of their specialties. They were kind enough to split everything up for us. The Polish Sausage was reminiscent of a European Weiner. It was probably not the best part of our plate. I didn't think it was worth $3.75 (note that the serving you see is a half order.  
These Cabbage Rolls were amazing. Inside the very tender cabbage were pork and bacon, and some rice as well. The home-made tomato sauce was really tangy and gave the rolls a moistness that was very appreciated. At $7.95 for two, this was the second priciest item of our lunch. 
We also got an order of their Potato Pancakes. These were quite oily and softer than your average latke. It wasn't seasoned as much as I would have liked either. The greasiness was a bit too much for me, and they could have been fried just a bit more to give the cakes a bit more of a crust. These were $5.95 for three.
So what was the priciest item? Our Pierogies coming in at $9.95 for six. We opted for a selection of their Potato and bacon, Potato and cheddar, Sauerkraut and mushroom and a generic Meat version.
These were really good, with plentiful fillings, but again, I would have like them to be fried a bit longer, to give the dumplings a bit more of the crust.
The service here is very friendly, almost as if your mother was making you lunch. What we found out afterwards was the You Gotta Eat Here did actually film them for the show, so I guess I was a bit ahead of the curve on this one. I can't wait to see the show now.
Looking for more Victoria ideas? Here you go!