Jerry_A

Thanks for the vote of confidence Pimp Daddy Suede, I mean Coop.

Sorry, one more question: any sort of attire requirements for this thing? I saw Jamie Maw on the Food Network last night and he looked quite dapper, I'm not sure I can compete with that. Maybe I can just dust off my I AB t-shirt?

Any word on when the transition begins, and any philosophy changes that make take place? I was at Bacchus yesterday and would hate to see any drastic changes. I find it to be a pretty safe bet.

Well I've been out of commission for a while, but this sounds absolutely brilliant. I hope there are still two spots left!!

My only memory of this place is from several years ago. I was attending our companies annual Christmas party at the Hotel Vancouver and just moments before the inevitable drunken escapades and debauchery began (cursing at and calling our CEO names, passing out on the dance floor, smashing the ice sculpture on the ground, you know, the usual) I slipped away for the safe confines of 900 West for a dinner with my fiancee. I remember adequate food, average wine, great coffee, and spectacular company. The food never warranted a return visit, but after just celebrating our third wedding anniversary the place still holds a special spot in my heart...just not in my stomach.

I was very surprised to see it there when I walked by, having not heard a single thing about it. You're right, it is definitely not a dump and it is a "BC Lions Preferred Restaurant" so you know it must be good. And oh yeah, I'll take the under.

Does anyone know if they do lunch, it's just a hop and a skip from the office so....

I agree with Oakley, I've never heard that term before. Makes it sound like a pub for drunken frat boys.

Agreed.

So, does the fact that the menu at Parkside now includes entrees above $20 (up to $27 I believe) diminish the feeling of value? The lamb rack at $19.50 was pretty damn satisfying, would it be the same at $23? It's purely a psychological difference I'm sure, but one of the great ways to sell this place to others who were skeptical was the whole 20 under 20 thing.

Wow, that sounds brilliant! Thanks for posting. So are you saying you don't have to be a VIP or anything to have this option, or was Keller just feeling generous that night? We are going in August and would be amazed to having something as exquisite as that sounded.

Man, that just killed me for some reason, I am still laughing...

I doubt they'd have me. But now that I know Coop works there, maybe he could get me hired.....

Right, take away the pretentiousness, small portions, overpricing, and cramped space of Cru, and voila, you have Parkside.

We were at Victoria just last weekend and enjoyed pretty much everything, although one of our dining companions almost threw up her dessert on the table (we ordered steamed tapioca tarts, and they were definitely not what she/we expected). Overall though, I would have to vote for Kirin because it just feels a step above what Victoria is doing.

Comparing Hapa to Gyoza King is like comparing Feenie's to Lumiere. They are two unique restaurants offering contrasting styles of cooking, presentation, and atmosphere. Gyoza King does feel a little more rustic, and offers, as Talent says below, "the same stuff you're used to eating at every other Japanese joint in the city, but it's good" while Hapa offers new (at least for me) and different dishes that I can't get at Gyoza King, Guu, or the million other Japanese restaurants in the neighbourhood. Overall I prefer Hapa because I feel they offer greater variety for my tastebuds, but if it is the usual suspects (gyoza, etc..) I am in the mood for, Gyoza King gets the nod.

Welcome rhodegirl! This is an interesting question for me, Lumiere or not to Lumiere. If you had asked me a year ago, I would not have hesitated and said Lumiere all the way, but we were there a little while back to celebrate and were left a little disappointed. Overall, the food was good, some dishes were spectacular (foie gras and boudin) while some were just ok and for the size of the bill, we expected spectacular throughout. The service was good, if not a little cold, but that is standard there. Overall it did not live up to the experiences of our previous meals there and left us wondering what we could have gotten at West for the same price (my guess is a slightly better experience). West has a more relaxed atmosphere in my opinion helped by the friendlier service. I'm not saying you should not go to Lumiere, because they still do some great things there, but for us we get more satisfaction from the tasting bar or the many other fantastic restaurants in town. Regardless of where you end up I hope you have a great visit. Cheers.

I ordered the French Laundry cookbook from Chapters.ca , and saved myself about $35 after the on-line discount and Chapters card discount. The service was very quick and the book was in perfect condition. There was also the added benefit of only having to deal with the guy in my mailroom and not the dopey Chapters counterperson who wouldn't know Thomas Keller from (gasp) Bobby Flay.

Sounds like a blast! You can add 2 JerryA's to the group if this becomes a reality, any time except April 30th to May 5th.

I believe it was a combination of our lofty expectations and the underwhelming atmosphere that did us in. That and the nagging feeling that we were being ignored due to our youthful appearance (we're cursed, I know), but that is just par for the course. I obviously must agree that it's hard to hold a candle to Parkside right now. We have been there several times and are never anything but completely satisfied. There is something to be said about the comfort level there that I just did not, and most likely could not, feel at Cru. Whether it is the staff, the space, or the food that does it, I don't know. As far as I'm concerned Parkside is dollar for dollar the best place in town right now. And Coop I'm glad to hear you don't wax your legs, but it could help you slip through those tight areas between the Cru tabletops.

For me there is a lot not to like about this place. We went there a little while back for an early dinner and had one of the most disappointing experiences I've had at a restaurant in a very long while. We went in with very high expectations, after reading all of the glowing reviews and seeing Cru on many, if not all, of the best new restaurant lists, which may have hindered us from the start. The space. Overall not that bad although much too narrow to be comfortable in my opinion. It is almost impossible to navigate through the tables, chairs, and servers to get to the washroom or back to your table. Everything else was ok, chairs relatively comfortable, decent amount of space between tables considering how small the place is. The food. Again, not bad. I certainly was not blown away here as I thought/hoped I would be. We had the bruschetta to start, which was very average. The fig one was the best by far, but I would never order this dish again. What made the bruschetta even worse was the fact that the two tables on either side of us received complementary bruschetta with an additional tuna tartare topping to boot. Now, I don't know what we did or did not do to not receive the free platter, but I can tell you I was not very happy with the fact that we had just paid for what everyone else was getting for free (and no they were not friends of the owners, at least as far as I could tell). After that I had some sort of prawn dish, which was pretty damn delicious I must say. Mrs. A had the Short Rib & Mac & cheese which we both found to be quite weak, I found both the short rib meat and the mac & cheese to be lacking in flavour (maybe they should walk up the street and take lesson from Vij in how to do short ribs). We were pretty disenchanted by this point so we decided just to skip to dessert where we split the Icewine cake. I enjoyed the flavours here, not too boozy, nice orange flavour, pretty enjoyable. The service. Terrible. Had a nice greeting at the door, and initial chat while we received our menus, but it was all downhill after that. Our server offered very little insight into the dishes we asked about, and he, along with everyone else, virtually ignored us the rest of the night. Our empty plates sat on our table for waaayyy too long, and we had to wait forever to get the cheque and to get it paid. There was the minimum possible interaction with our server outside of here's your food and here's your bill. Now, I don't need the server, the chef, the whole restaurant to be fawning over my table, in fact I prefer if they don't, but being there when needed and answering any questions I may have is paramount, and Cru did not come through. Overall. Just below average. If not for the prawn dish and Icewine cake, I don't think I would ever go back, and it will still be a long time before I do (if ever). We went to the Lumiere tasting bar on Friday and had a much better experience, better food, service, atmosphere, and much better value. I found Cru to be far too pretentious for my liking, maybe their heads are swollen from all of the good press, and there are too many other good places around for me to waste my money there. Edited for spelling.

Keith, it's too bad you didn't stay for the meal. I would love to have heard about the service that is so great that it made number three on a list that West could not even get on.

Let's see..... Firstly, that sounds like a great plan...I think I will try that. I'm pretty sure that the cake at our wedding was just a thick white chocolate ganache over the cake and no buttercream. Of course this was over white cake (my personal favourite, not really a big chocolate cake guy) which obviously did not cause the problems I am facing here. You are right though, the temperature will be key. Second, I do not own Herme's book, although it seems that I should. My mousse recipe is as follows: 2 cups packed fresh blackberries 1 envelope unflavored gelatin 2 tablespoons cold water 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/4 cup water 2 egg whites 1 1/2 cups whipping cream I thought this was relatively sound, but maybe there is a better way. Third, I used Callebaut white chocolate. I could smell it from my living room as it sat wrapped on the kitchen counter...it almost did not make it to the ganache. Question: For this ganache do you recommend a higher white chocolate to cream ratio?

Wendy, were you in my apartment, looking over my shoulder as I made some test cakes this weekend? What you described is exactly what happened, I stared in horror as the ganache slid off the cake like water off a ducks back. I tried to salvage some of the remaining ganache by mixing it in my mixer a little bit which worked, although it did not look that great. So after all of this I had one cake with just white-chocolate buttercream (pretty tasty), one with white chocolate slop puddled around the bottom of it, and one with some sort of whipped ganache hybrid. All in all it was a big disaster, except for the first cake which was pretty darn good. Eating the last cake made me think that the ganache added too much sweetness and not enough flavour, so I'm not sure what to do about that. Also, we felt that there was not enough blackberry flavour coming through from the blackberry jam and mousse, I'm thinking maybe I will pour blackberry juice right on the inside of each half of the cake before I put the other fillings in it, to hopefully intensify the berry flavour. Well, that was my weekend, now feeling a little wiser, a little deflated, and a heck of a lot dumber....oh well, there is always next week!

I second Parkside! www.parksiderestaurant.ca