Sauce Restaurant & Lounge

I’m happy to say this nightmare is over. Sauce closed its doors forever 2 miserable years after my review.

Unfortunately, Sauce has closed for good.

In order to properly celebrate a three year anniversary with my beloved partner, I whisked him away from the hubbub of Seattle, boarded the Victoria Clipper, and let loose in a beautiful and quiet Canadian towne.
On Saturday, January 26^th, the day of our anniversary, it was blustery cold in downtown Victoria and we were famished from walking around the entire harbor all day.
Wandering along Wharf Street we were hoping to walk through an alley to eat at an Italian restaurant, but along our way Sauce caught our eyes.
We are the only 20somethings I know who celebrate an anniversary at 4pm in the afternoon, but we did it!
The place was DEAD when we came in (and it stayed very quiet the entire time we were there, but we were definitely gone before real Saturday nights begin). An extremely friendly waitress named Alex greeted and seated us, and we immediately got down and dirty with the menu.
I interrogated Alex up and down the menu about what was the best, should I eat this or that, etc, and I’m happy with her recommendations.
I was looking at a couple different cocktails on the menu… and I totally ordered the pink drink. Raven (my partner) absolutely loves the fact I ordered a pink drink. It was actually called that, too. «Pink Slip.»
Raven had the Kronenbourg Blanc and he is in love with this beer now. He really hasn’t shut up about it since returning home to Queen Anne in Seattle. He loves it and Alex LOVED that he knew what he wanted, ha.
Raven and I enjoyed the tapas style restaurant from the moment we obtained our drinks. Shortly after we arrived the strawberry stilton salad (oh man was this good! Get this salad, really!) and the phyllo baked brie. Wow, that dish was pretty wonderous. I absolutely love brie, and there was SO MUCH BRIE, and a delicious jam and leafy greens and tastiness.
Overall, our drinks and first courses were very satisfying.
Next up, still feeling ambitious, we ordered the baked macaroni and cheese and house fries and cinnamon yams. Alex, the great waitress she is, totally convinced us to get the cinnamon yams and house fries when I asked her «yam frites or house fries?»
Needless to say, we were too bloated to finish our food, and she still tried to offer us dessert. And it sounded oh so good.
If you are in downtown Victoria, I really do think this is one of those magical moment spots. It was extremely clean and comfortable (we both prefer a new age feel, not something out of Colonial times) and the service was superb.
The worst part was hoping back on food onto Wharf Street and enduring the cold. If you’re looking for a good array of dishes, Sauce will be your spot in Victoria.

Excellent food and great for Gluten-​Free options. Deeelicious!

Rather disappointing. My wife and I had a late lunch on a Sunday afternoon. The restaurant is nice looking, and the service was friendly and efficient. Alas the food was only fair at best. My wife’s Seafood and Corn Chowder looked lovely, but was scant on seafood and lacked flavor. I had a steak sandwich. The portion was fine, the meat was cooked as ordered, and the accompanying mushrooms were nice. But the steak itself was almost flavorless … I am not sure why. All in all it was a disappointing experience.

We’ve been here a long time ago and we ended up back here recently. Must be the convenient location and that the restrurant is pretty open and bright to dine in. The service was good, but we have good and bad experience with the food. The fish and chips was good. Once piece itself is very crispy and large portion. I am even tempted to order the two piece next time and share it with my husband. I was disappointed in the appetizer. The tuna tataki was small with not much taste. Pretty bland. I got the mac and cheese and portion was small and it wasn’t as warm as it should be. Not sure i would go back since experience was mediocure.

Ok, so the votes are definitely in now, and I expect this will be my last review of Sauce. I’m upgrading my review to a 3-​star, but that is largely because of service.
My husband and I tried Sauce some months ago, and were very disappointed by the experience, and I wrote about it here. The owner promptly responded via Unilocal,and then later via email, and asked that we give the restaurant another shot (on his dime), and assured us that improvements were imminent and we had just experienced an off-​night. He was so earnest and attentive and cared so much that I was impressed — I think it’s a good sign when an owner is so dedicated to their business. So, we went back tonight, after a long day scavenger-​hunting in the sun for our friend’s 30^th birthday.
THE GOOD: Let’s do the good first. First is the service. Not only does Steve (owner) get serious points for obviously caring so much and being hands-​on, but our server tonight (Amy) was incredibly attentive, efficient, friendly and helpful. She was awesome.
The yam fries that my husband had with his burger were excellent — among the best we’d ever had, The aioli sauce (mayo with spicy stuff and garlic?) that came with them was also delicious. Our shared appetizers — chicken tenders and onion rings — were also well executed. The chicken especially was excellent — moist and cooked perfectly with a light batter that brought out the meat rather than overwhelming it. The onion rings (be warned: four bucks gets you six onion rings, literally) were also very well done, in panko.
We also shared a good glass of sangria, and some good after-​dinner coffee, which came in truly excellent mugs.
THE BAD: Unfortunately, the rest of the food just didn’t cut it. My husband’s burger was so oversalted that he was downing his water desperately, and eventually asked for ketchup just to cut the salt (aside: there’s no shame in using pre-​made, store-​bought hot sauce and ketchup, but when you serve it in big 3 tbsp serving dishes instead of just bringing the bottle, people will still know it’s store-​bought, but be puzzled by the wastefulness when they might have only used a dash of it).
My pasta (the Grape escape — chicken, grapes and greens in a supposed brie cream sauce with penne) was conversely bland to the point of making me comatose. The chicken was badly overcooked and underseasoned, the supposed cream sauce was so thin it all pooled in the bottom of the dish, not sticking to the pasta at all and leaving blandly naked penne above, and there was absolutely zero brie flavor, at all. The piece of focaccia alongside (cold, untoasted) was on the stale side. I ended up adding a lot of salt and some of the aforementioned side of hot sauce, which is a thing one should never have to do to an $ 18 pasta dish, but I was falling asleep.
We shared the peanut butter pie for dessert. It was unmemorable to both me and my husband, both of whom love peanut butter and chocolate. It just tasted oily and sweet, nothing else, and while I can’t prove it wasn’t made in-​house, it sure tastes like it (EDIT: The owner has since let me know the peanut butter pie is definitely made in-​house, so that’s my mistake), and the blob of whipped cream on it was certainly out of a spray can.
THE GIST: What rubs me the wrong way about Sauce is that I get the feeling it can’t make up its mind what it wants to be, so is straddling both sides of the fence. Their prices, location and ambiance speak to a trendy, upscale young night spot for dinner and cocktails, while the food itself isn’t quite cutting it and speaks more to just a step above a diner in many areas. Which for someone like me means I end up paying a pretty hefty bill for something I could get elsewhere for much cheaper, or make myself.
Again, there is a lot happening here that’s working — the location is perfect, the atmosphere and decoration and ambiance is great, and the service that I’ve experienced really is world class. The problem is with the menu, the kitchen, and the price, and getting those three to make a plan together and stick to it. As it is today, it’s just not worth the money, for me.

Folks in Victoria must be upside down… They give an awful Mexican place four and five stars but this restaurant only 2 – 3 stars. What gives?
We had lunch at Sauce and we really enjoyed it. The place is warm and inviting, the service fast and friendly, and the food was great. The kids ordered grilled cheese, which came with a soda and dessert. My wife had one of the rice bowls and I had the Thai beef sandwich. All dishes were tasty and reasonably priced. The server was attentive and we left with full stomachs and a smile on our faces.

Great. My only complaint is I waited for a couple of minutes at the host (ess) station before being acknowledged. Once I was looked after everything went well. I sat at the bar and had great service from the bartenders. My steak and prawns came out perfectly cooked with a nice spicy sauce over garlic mash and grilled veg. The blue buck on tap was delicious. I shall return.

The Sauce Bread is the best better than ever before. Been a while since I have been here and everything is so much better than it was.

The antipasto plate is really quite good, including the lightly toasted sourdough on the generous platter. But the place is really more of a bar — a sit-​down bar where it’d be tough to meet others who seem to be there… looking to meet others.
So we watched the single ladies, all dolled up for the evening in their «I’m available» outfits, scanning the room for eligible guys, barely involved in their own superficial conversations, surely going home alone because how will they have a chance to meet single guys in a dining room atmosphere?
Do a bunch of communal seating: tourists at one section, local middle-​agers at another section (hey — over 40’s want to meet new people too!) and then mid 20s– mid 30s in the partiest area.
I’d go.

Kudos to Sauce for taking online criticisms and acting on them in a constructive manner.
After my last brunch visit to Sauce, I wrote my review and noted the good (thai rib benny), the ok (classic benny) and the bad (the hashbrowns /​potatoes). Within 2 hours of posting, I received a response from one of the owners who stated that he agreed that the potatoes were definitely needing some improvement and that he’d told his chef that they had until the next weekend to make them much better. Very impressive. He then invited us back for a complimentary brunch to review the improvements.
For total transparency and full disclosure, I should mention that I «know» one of the owners, as in, I went to the same high school as him 15+ years ago. We haven’t kept in contact or been friends since or anything like that.
We arrived for brunch, were greeted and seated quickly at a nice window booth. I made a point of not mentioning that I was the return reviewer as I didn’t want to receive biased service or attention.
For fair comparison, I ordered the thai rib benny again. It was pretty darn good again, however the potatoes were ten fold better than last time. Crispy outside, soft (but not mushy) inside, little bit of salt, rosemary and parsley I believe to finish it off, SO MUCH BETTER.
I sampled my wife’s steak sandwich. The mushrooms were smoky and salty, I loved the full head of roasted garlic served with it. Overall a very respectable offering. My daughter’s French toast was pretty good as well, served with syrup, fruit, whip cream and a cinnamon spread, she devoured the entire thing.
We decided to have a couple brunch time beverages before heading downtown. Perhaps I should have checked out the drink list before, I was quickly impressed with the selections. You can tell the guys here have been spending some time over at Clives for extra inspiration. My wife had a «pick me up», van gogh espresso vodka, baileys, irish cream, white cacao and vanilla coffee served cold, delicious. My Pimms cup was well balanced, well presented, very refreshing. I then asked for «an interesting caesar», the waitress smiled and said (I’m paraphrasing here) «do you really mean that? the last one someone ordered got sent back as it was a little too different for them» she went on to describe setting rosemary on fire in the glass and some other interesting techniques. I replied that I was game for anything and was interested to see what came. She came back with a rimless caesar with a slice of fire roasted red pepper speared across the top, it had a good dose of tequila in it and some aromatic salt/​seasoning. It really reminded me of mexico and the fresh, sweet and smoky scent of the red pepper really added nicely to the drink. I quite enjoyed it and I’ll have to go back to enjoy some more of their libations.
I finally told the waitress that I was the reviewer getting the complimentary brunch and that I fully expected to pay for my drinks. She came back and told me that Steve (owner) had left specific instructions that I was not to pay for anything under any circumstances, very impressive.
If I could offer 2 more things that could use an improvement; 1) The hollandaise could use some love, I get that you guys only do brunch once a week so it might not be as high priority as some other items, but it could take that benny from quite good to great. 2) when it’s not that busy, some of the servers look a little lost. It didn’t affect our service, but as a patron, it’s something you might notice.
Any restaurant can survive the endless turnstile procession of summer tourists in a location like Sauce’s. It takes one with care for standards and willingness to respond to issues quickly if you want the locals to help keep you alive during off season. I’m pretty confident you will see an upward trending of Sauce’s ratings this year with the obvious care the owners are demonstrating.

SUCH POTENTIAL… great location & ambiance, but food something to be desired. The appetizer of tomatoes & beets was ok. The tomatoes were like nothing special. Maybe I am just used to great tomatoes being from SO CAL. I had a baked stuffed chicken dish Chow something Valley, but it wasn’t that great. It could have been a contender. I think I had better food at Butchardt Gardens.

Sauce seems to have been doing an overhaul for the last few months and it’s paying off. They have way more healthy and delicious choices (lots of gluten free options) and most importantly they make a killer Old Fashioned. I’ve never been disappointed with their service and I’m a big fan of their «plate» menu. Although the main «thai pulled rib sandwich» takes the cake for me.
If you haven’t been within the last couple months, it’s worth checking out again as there have been oodles of changes for the better at Sauce.

Is it a bar? Is it a restaurant? It does neither very well. The food was mediocre. The fish and chips was awful. There was no texture to the fish at all. The fish must have been frozen because it was soft and watery. The server kept boasting that the fish was really big, which it was, but I wasn’t impressed. I also tried the steak sandwich and enjoyed that at least in comparison with the fish and chips. The steak was bland but OK. Everything else was too garlicy. The cooks seemed to enjoy tossing full heads of garlic into the deep-​fryer. A full head of garlic came with the steak sandwich and the fries tasted like nothing but garlic.
Basically it’s mediocre pub fare at downtown prices. I wasn’t impressed. I had a lot of fun with my friends, but I can have fun with my friends anywhere. Next time it won’t be at Sauce.

We went there just for the bar and the antipasto. It was a great environment, great service, and to best cheese, olives, ham, salad served in the antipasto. We went on Thursday night and had $ 2 off on wines.

Came here for a going away party and it was a good experience. They have the most amazing Sangria — you can order by the glass or as a pitcher. Service wasn’t slow or fast. The only thing was the food took forever to arrive. I ordered steak and mushroom ravioli. The steak was a good medium rare — juicy and well seasoned. The mushroom ravioli was okay. The sauce was good though. I had a couple bites of my friend’s burger and that was well seasoned, but a bit overcooked. The atmosphere was good.

Smooth, dark atmosphere, good location, creative menu and really good cocktails. I had an excellent espresso martini and a lovely glass of local wine to accompany halibut from their specials menu while my boyfriend had the pork.
The portions were a good size and the ingredients were clearly fresh and good, but they were very faint on the flavorings. A little more pizazz on the plate would have taken it from good to great.
Agree with Tara… the window seats are great for people watching in downtown.
It was pretty empty when we went in on a Sunday night. Hope it is usually busier.

We stopped in for a drink on the way home from dinner. The place looked nice and there were a lot of people. Unfortunately it was a meat market with a bunch of loud obnoxious guys with too much hair gel.
If you end up here stick to the beer. This is the first time I’ve legitimately experienced watered down drinks. I normally get a beer but since Mojitos were featured on the menu I figured I would get one.
The waitress was nice, prompt, patience, and attractive. The waitress wanted to know if I wanted a double for a few bucks more. Oh great, one of those places…
I declined and so did my wife.
She brought us our drinks back and told us that they accidentally made a double for my wife but she didn’t charge us. After tasting them we looked at each other and wondered if she meant double club soda? There was no taste to my drink but club soda. No mint, no lime, no rum. My wife’s tasted just as bad.
Most places screw up the drinks by getting the mixture wrong. They just forgot to put anything in it I guess.
Skip it or get a beer.

What, no reviews? Sauce is great, and it deserves more love!
Service on the night I visited was slow, but exceedingly friendly. The calamari appetizer was excellent, followed by very nice entrees.
What really blew me away, though, were the blueberry mojitos. Now, I’m not usually a mixed-​drink girl. In fact, while I’m up here, I’m trying to get as much exposure to BC wines as possible, since they’re crazy hard to get in the US, and why would you worry about them when you live in Oregon’s awesome Willamette Valley, not too terribly far from Washington and California, too? Anyway… I had a point there. Oh, right: I really, really wanted a glass of BC wine, but when I tried my husband’s mojito, I was hooked. We ordered a pitcher (they’re on special Sunday and Tuesday nights, and they’re exceedingly well-​priced anyway.)
Atmosphere is dark and comfortable (great chairs!), humming with energy but not loud like a typical bar. Sauce does advertise itself as a bar, and as far I could see (not far, because those mojitos kept interfering), they have a wide selection of libations, both classic and creative. Sit by a window and watch downtown go by.