This recap had no business taking me this long to post, my apologies.
I went to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was wonderful.
If you’re interested about the budget for this quick trip – click here.
Sunday, September 3rd
The flight with Flair from Toronto Pearson to Halifax went perfectly. Yes, you read that right. By some miracle, this airline, Flair, went really well for me. The seats were comfortable, the plane took off on time and even landed early. No complaints at all.
Have to say the landing into Halifax was pretty nice to look at as well.
Warning that Halifax airport is located behind God’s back. It is so freaking far from the actual city-center. There are transit options, but it was a Sunday and those ran once an hour. No thanks, I had reservations to get to.
Uber from the airport to where I needed to get to was $53.00, one-way. Fine. No traffic, smooth ride.
Arriving at my AirBnB was pretty darn nice too. My host was there to greet me and the house was massive. Old and massive.
I got a ‘private room in AirBnB‘ option for this stay and let me tell you, this damn room was bigger than some of the bachelor apartments I see in Toronto.
The room was big, clean and the host even had chocolates on the pillows waiting for me. A woman after my heart clearly. On the same floor as my room there was a half-bath and then upstairs there was a full-bath. As I was the only visitor that weekend, it was just me and the host in this huge house. The backyard was really cute too.
I give this AirBnB a total 10/10. Between the cleanliness, location, the host…. everything was perfect! Also, for my coffee drinkers there is a Tim Horton’s not even 50m away. I know that is very important. If you want a nice place to stay in Halifax for a really good price, click here. I can see why it is always booked up so far ahead.
The walk from the AirBnB to the center was about 20-30 minutes, depending how fast you walk. I walk fast.
During the walk you will see a really nice garden too, but this evening I didn’t have time for stopping and enjoying all that – it was FOOD TIME.
I made it to The Five Fishermen!
One of my coworkers had suggested this place to me and I made a reservation a few weeks before for dinner.
It’s very fancy pants looking inside.
My server, Kiera, suggested that as a starter I should have the oysters. Happy I listened to her, they were very good. For my main I went for The Five Fish Experience which had seared shrimp, local scallops, half lobster tail, halibut, salmon, maritime gourmet mushroom risotto, kabayaki & nori cracker. A mouthful, literally. I think you should absolutely get this main because it includes SO much and it was all tasty.
Naturally, had to finish it off with some dessert, chose the chocolate ganache. Not bad. Not my favourite, but not bad.
After this hearty meal I just decided to walk along the waterfront.
Just like in Guayaquil, the waterfront in Halifax makes me sad that we don’t do more with ours in Toronto. I love how many people were strolling and there were so many cute food spots and boat tours. The smell of the water felt really calming to me.
I also made it to their party street, Argyle.
There were hoards of people out because of it being the last long weekend before school starts. The crowd was a little too young for me, I just decided to go home and sleep.
To note – an Uber from the waterfront back to the AirBnB was only $9.00. Great.
Monday, September 4th
What was I going to do today?
You bet, more eating.
On todays walk to my eating spots, I had some more time to gallivant and I spent some of that time perusing the Public Gardens.
If you want to chill out, rollerblade or just have a pretty walk, you should come by here. If I wasn’t in such a rush to have food in my belly, probably could have spent a couple of hours just at the gardens.
Moving on to my food exploits…..
I had come across a place called Mera Cafe + Bar on Halifax Food Tiktok.
Yes, this is where I sometimes look up places to eat. Don’t judge me.
There was a specific food item I had seen on Tiktok that they serve and I NEEDED TO HAVE IT.
First of all, this place is beautiful. If you enjoy a nice *aesthetic* in a brunch place, this is for you.
Walked right up to the person at the counter and asked for the delicious-looking lobster and ricotta omelet that I saw online. Read that again.
Lobster. And. Ricotta. Omelet. Mhmmmm
Person at counter: “Sorry, we only have pastries today because it is a holiday. You can come back tomorrow!”
Me: “I fly home tomorrow.”
Person at counter: * walks over to chef in back and the chef agreed to make it just for me
How freaking kind is that? I felt so special.
The omelet was very good, they do not cheap out on the lobster inside of it either. It was definitely in there.
I also made sure to try some of the pastries which were a hazelnut chocolate cookie and the white chocolate macadamia fudge bites.
You can skip the fudge bites, but the cookie and the omelet? YOU HAVE TO GET THAT. The cookie was also warmed up and gooey. All the goods.
I really needed to walk some more after this breakfast so I returned to the waterfront.
Randomly ended up booking myself on a boat tour that goes on land and in the water. This was called the Harbour Hopper and I believe the 1hr tour cost me $63.00.
For some history about Halifax and to enjoy being on the water for a bit, totally worth it. Our tour guide, Isaac, sure knew a lot about Halifax. The captain also took us under / really close to this huge cruise ship that was docked nearby. My goodness, when you see these things from below? Massive. Scary.
This killed enough time for me to end up……eating again.
I’m sure Halifax has so much more to offer than just food, but I knew I just wanted to eat everything in this city before I had even booked the flight.
My 2pm reservation (back on land) was at The Bicycle Thief.
A famous and very busy restaurant.
Thank goodness I had reserved my table weeks before because there was lots of people waiting for a chance at a seat.
This place wasn’t as fancy as the Five Fisherman but it was very nice in its own way.
I began with this gargantuan portion of mussels and there was also a side of rosemary focaccia bread with red pepper hummus. Oh yeaaah. Very good.
But the best part?
The crab ravioli with Argentinian shrimp.
This fucking dish was so good, I almost teared up at the table. No lie. It was THAT good.
I have been to many countries in Europe and some islands in the Caribbean, and I have to say, Halifax seafood could give a lot of places a run for their money. This crab ravioli will be tattooed in my brain forever. I would fly back just to eat this again.
For my dessert I had the peach and bourbon cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, brown butter and bourbon gelato.
Exquisite.
My server, Ali, I think was getting a kick out of all my reactions. She could tell I was having a moment with everything. Or, many moments.
For a big fancy bottle of water, the starter, the main and dessert it was only, I think, $65? In Toronto I probably would have spent well over $100 for this meal. And guess what? If it tasted like this, I would have happily paid for it.
If you don’t eat anything else in Halifax, you have to go to this restaurant.
Remember it, The Bicycle Thief.
Like every adult, I took a nap after all of this. I could feel my belly being the fullest of full. Not even sure how the plane on Tuesday was going to take off with me on it, that is how full I was.
You won’t believe this, maybe you will…
Once I woke up, I still had one more food place on my list to try. Luckily, this one was only a six minute walk from the AirBnB because I was still groggy from my nap.
King of Donair time!
Feel like this is a staple for drinking or hangover foods. I walked over and had a donair with all the fixings. Can’t say it was the best donair I’ve ever had, but it was good. I think if I was really hungover this would probably taste heavenly. I tried it though. It’s fine.
Tuesday, September 5th
Woke up and got ready to get to the airport.
Tell me how the Uber price at one point was saying $100.00 to the airport!!?? HA.
That would have literally been more than my roundtrip flight from Toronto to Halifax, I wasn’t paying that shit. Thankfully, not even 14 minutes later it dropped back down to $56.00.
I took the Uber to the airport and I wanted to say, I wish I had more room in my bag. Do you know what they sell at the airport in Halifax? LIVE LOBSTERS. (and frozen ones) How cool is that? I would have totally brought home one of these bad boys if I wasn’t only with a personal bag.
The flight home with Flair Airlines ended up landing almost 30-minutes early. Really good luck, both ways. Unfortunately we had to sit in the plane for a bit because there had been a security breach at Pearson? Strange.
That was my Halifax story. All I did was walk around and eat. Eat a lot.
I would go back to Halifax in a heartbeat, especially if an airfare deal like this one ever pops up again.
I’m telling everyone to go there. You reading? Yeah you, go visit Halifax.
- Mirna