Bon Vivant Fashion Cafe

Having nothing in particular to do on this Victoria Day holiday, my best friend went to find ourselves a place to sit down and chat over lunch. She brought me to Bon Vivant Fashion Cafe inside Henderson Mall. They serve simple foods for lunch, extravagant waffles, a wide range of bubble tea, and supposedly desserts. 

Clam Chowder

For lunch, we both ordered a soup and sandwich combo, plus a cold drink. Out of the four soups available today, we both chose a small clam chowder. A small soup (8 oz.) with sandwich is about $4, plus an extra $0.50 for clam chowder or chilli. This clam chowder is not your usual white, creamy, New England version. Instead I believe it is the Manhattan version. One serving is quite a bit, despite not looking like much. Also, there are a lot of clams in this small bowl. I enjoyed it more than I prepared myself to, so I'm glad it was a worth the money.

Front: Egg Salad Sandwich, Back: Avocado & Egg Sandwich

Sandwiches here are about $6 or $7 each for a large serving. The bread used looks like it's from T&T Supermarket, so if you are familiar with that bread,  you can visualize the size of this sandwich. At first I thought I'd have to pack half a sandwich home, as it is a lot larger than the usual lunch sandwiches I bring to school. However, it's the weekends so I usually stuff myself silly anyways. I chose to have my egg salad on whole wheat bread while my friend chose to have white toast. 

The Egg Salad was packed in two layers between fresh slices of tomato and lettuce. This tall sandwich was quite sauce-y; I ended up splitting the sandwich apart to eat open-faced. There are bits of potato and onion scattered between the cubes of hard boiled egg. A standard egg salad to me. (That's a good thing)

When the Avocado & Egg sandwich arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find it in an omelet style, still warm too! I'm glad they didn't skimp on the avocado; there is plenty of it throughout the cooked egg. It's a bit pricey at $7, but besides that, a good sandwich. Strangely, the Avocado & Egg sandwich came with a few potato chips while my Egg Salad didn't. This isn't much of a loss to me, as I don't flavour chips much, but it's a bit odd.

Black Sesame Shake, Matcha Shake

At Bon Vivant, 'shake' is like a thick slushy. Prices are $4.50 each and an additional $0.50 for pearls or jelly etc. Warning: The shakes will begin to melt into a thin consistency, I prefer it when it's still slushy.

The main reason for my best friend bringing me here is to try their bubble tea. As seen in my quite mention of her love for matcha in my high tea post, she highly raves of this matcha shake. And after a taste, I agree that it's one good shake. It's not just any green tea, it's matcha! She says it's one of the best matcha bubble teas she's ever had.

To try something different, I ordered the black sesame shake. It. is. so. good. The black sesame is very fragrant and I am thankful for the 'real' black sesame flavour. (I'm pretty sure they used real sesame seeds...) When I gave some to my dad to try later (who is a black sesame fanatic), he kept wanting more! So there you have it, a solid choice in the Tri-Cities as to where to buy bubble tea.


We came at 12 noon on a Monday holiday, there were very few other customers. Maybe 2 or 3 tiny other groups total during our 2 hour stay. There were only 2 workers there, a Chinese man (probably the owner?) and a Caucasian girl. My friend commented that it was the first time the waitress/barista came to the table to take our orders. Usually orders are taken at the cash register then you seat yourself and they'll bring the food to you. The food comes pretty slowly, I think the sandwiches are made to order and the drinks just seem to take a long time. If you're in a hurry, then ordering here probably isn't the best idea. They usually serve a variety of desserts in a display case, but today there were none. Nada. Perhaps it's only for late night? 

Overall, I enjoy the setting of the restaurant; large windows that let in plenty of sunlight, sleek design, and plentiful and varied of seating. It would be a great place to just get together with a group of friends and chat. I can see myself coming back for more bubble tea (this was my first time in at least 3 years!) but it may be a while before I eat their savoury food. $16 for my meal is too expensive for me!