OK I must eat out far too often.  All it ever seems like I post here are restaurant reviews lately.  Sometimes it’s a pain to think of what to make for lunch right?  Anyways, don’t judge me.

Today I was going to reheat some leftover tasty ribby goodness but instead decided to get out of the house for a bit.  Not sure what I wanted I thought of a new place in town … where one of my old favorites used to live – Bagel Lane.  This new place is called Raina’s Bistro.

But, this isn’t meant to be a reminiscent journey of delicious bagels and good memories.  My brother was one of the bakers at Bagel Lane, back when it was opened by the Lane’s.  Ahh the good old days.  Bagels and scones.

I went to Raina’s Bistro to see what was new, to see if they kept some of the old stuff, and just to give it a good old-fashioned try.

I was happy to see the place had been spruced up, including the addition of brighter mood lights and a fresher color on the walls.  They also sported a new counter top and display case set up.  New professionally printed menus hung on the walls.  First impressions walking in – Raina’s Bistro is a fresh clean and healthy cafe.

I have to be honest though I wasn’t too impressed with the selection of food available.  The sign indicates it’s a bistro – and also a coffee and tea house.  But there were far more tea and coffee selections on the menu rather than any food items.

More disappointingly, it was evident that most of the baked goodies that were in the display case were not fresh-baked at Raina’s Bistro, but were of the M&M Meat Shop variety.  Not that those types of squares and desserts aren’t tasty…they just aren’t really home made, which is what you’d expect in a bistro.  (I do realize that Bagel Lane also sold these goodies but … somehow I didn’t expect Bagel Lane to bake fresh bagels PLUS a whole host of sweets.)

The selection for lunch items was truly so limited I almost contemplated walking out.  The girl behind the counter told me that if I was looking for lunch they had a tuna panini or a turkey panini on special for $4.75.  Sure, why not?

I never got a look at the panini before it went in the panini press, but had I seen it I would probably have passed up on it and went with one of the pre-made wraps instead.  It wasn’t until I arrived home with my food that I realized that the only thing that my turkey panini contained was bread, turkey, mushy tomato, cheese, and overkill on mayo.  No real veggies, no real flavor.  One bonus to my panini?  The ciabatta bread was nice and crunchy and tasty.  Would have made an awesome garlic bread type panini base.

I don’t want to write Raina’s Bistro off completely yet.  I see that they have a few bagels that resemble the Bagel Lane bagels (assume they got those recipes when they bought the business), and they do have the raspberry white chocolate scones.  I also noticed that ‘by popular demand’ they brought back the Eggers (bagel sandwich with egg – like an omelet inside a bagel). 

It’s not fair for me (and likely countless other loyal patrons of Bagel Lane) to compare Raina’s Bistro to the old standard.  It’s probably also not really fair to Raina or whoever the owners are to feel pressured to measure up and keep the old Bagel Lane traditions and specials alive.  I really hope that they are able to set themselves apart and create their own identity.  I imagine it can be hard when you have such big shoes to fill and the business you bought had such a loyal following before.

I will go back to Raina’s Bistro.  I will try other things there.  I am especially interested in their wide variety of loose leaf teas.  I guess what myself and others need to get through our heads is that Raina’s Bistro is more of a coffee/tea shop, not a sandwich/lunch shop.  It’s hard to do that with ‘Bistro’ in the name, but eventually people will catch on and maybe won’t expect quality food so much as a quality beverage.

I wish Raina’s Bistro success in their first year of business in Vernon.

107 – 5301 25th Ave., Vernon, BC V1T 9R1
(couldn’t find a phone number, sorry)