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Beychevelle

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  1. Bravo Bistro's owner sold to new owners from Korea. The sign on the door says it's re-opening as "Bliss" Asian Bistro on February 14th. They're busy in there tonight banging away at floor tiles. Not sure when it was sold, but I'm guessing it was prior to Saturday! The previous owner is looking at opening a new place in Gastown with a more straightforward Moroccan theme.
  2. Bravo Bistro at the foot of Denman is no more. An "Asian Bistro" is apparently set to open mid-month under new ownership.
  3. DOV "Rush" factor We've been to six DOV dinners this year. The overall value was high everywhere we went. Job well done across the board. Most places had the usual 1-1/2 or 2 hour limit, which I have no problem with. However, some places handle it more smoothly than others. To illustrate: 4 of us at Beyond. Warned us in advance there'd be a 2-hour limit. Fair enough. Restaurant 2/3 full. We each ordered a cocktail. Waiter took our wine order at the same time. We said we'd start with white and move on to red. (Should have been a hint we wouldn't be drinking hot water and lemons.) Wine arrived same time as cocktails, followed shortly by the first course. As soon as those were done the entrees were in front of us, followed immediately by the desserts. We still weren't even finished the white wine (and trust me, we are not slow drinkers!). Even though the place was by this time only half full, we got our bill and left to have that other bottle of wine elsewhere. In and out in 75 minutes. A little bit of pacing and recognition we had the potential for a good liquor tab, and the waiter could have generated a bigger tab and a lot bigger tip. Food was great, atmosphere needs some work (that big open room is not fun when it's not full), and good service, aside from being rushed. Last night at Parkside was a different story. The place was packed. Nothing was said, but we assumed the 1-1/2 hour limit would be in effect. We had already drooled over the menu on line, so didn't waste too much time ordering. Nonetheless, no sense that we were being rushed. Had a few minutes to sip our wine before first course arrived. Decent interval before the entrees arrived. Still had lots of wine left when we finished those. Waitress saw we were enjoying the wine, so held off bringing desserts. The desserts arrived just as we finished off the wine. No time wasted bringing the bill once we were done, but we were sated by then anyway. In and out in 95 minutes, and never once had the sense we were being rushed. (We'd have been out in 90 minutes but for a mistake on the bill!) No one who dines out a lot resents the short time limits when we know what a bargain we're getting. However, a little more deft handling of it by staff, and especially management, would make a big difference to the impression you're leaving with customers.
  4. What? No slams of Ms Gill this week? Could it be because she complimented an E-Gullet favourite: Gord Martin?
  5. It's a hassle to get to, and can be over-run with tourists, but Sequoia Grill in Stanley Park is pretty hard to beat for a view, and the food almost matches up. Bravo Bistro also has a nice patio. Location is great, food is exceptional, service is exceptionally bad. I keep waiting for John Cleese to come out of the back. The owner is such a nice guy, and so gracious, why can't he get good help? I agree with EatBC that Raincity Grill is great. A little bit too much traffic noise but the food and wine list make up for it. I'm surprised to see the criticism of Ocean 617. I've been three times since Sean Cousins took over and have yet to be disappointed. (The weather hasn't cooperated, so can't comment on how comfortable their patio is.) A hidden gem is the Kingston Pub on Richards. Their patio is enclosed by the surrounding buildings, so zero view. The food is, naturally, pub food, but best of the genre. Mainly it's just a relaxing hideaway to escape on a sunny day.
  6. As a consumer who has to pay for his own meals -- no freebies from industry pals, no expense account from a publication -- I applaud Ms. Gill. Too many of the reviewers in this city see it as their duty to promote restaurants, as opposed to offering any impartial observations. Chef Billy-Bob may be a nice guy and toil long hours, but I work hard for my money too. I want a restaurant review that tells me whether my money and time will be well-spent. The Tojo review did that. She didn't totally diss the place. The point was not that Tojo's is a bad restaurant. It was that it's over-priced and over-hyped, and has gotten too big for its britches. As for the suggestion that she ought to only review new and unusual places, that's nonsense. She reviewed Ocean 617, a relatively new and out-of-the-way place, last week (and gave it much-deserved good marks) so obviously she doesn't confine herself to mainstream, well-known places. Tojo's is regularly applauded as one of the best restaurants in the city. Maybe if more reviewers took the time to critically assess whether the plaudits are justified, there would be a better chance for new and exciting places to get the attention they deserve.
  7. While Ms. Gill's review wasn't consistent with my recent experiences at Diva (admittedly only for business lunches, all of which have been good, though not mind-blowing), as a consumer I was happy to see a review that dares to criticize. Most "reviewers"in this city are little more than cheerleaders for their pals'endeavours, or worse, hyping restaurants that appear to reciprocate by buying ad space. I've given up relying on any recommendation from our local media so-called reviewers. Most troubling is that this thread has degenerated into character assasination of Ms Gill, as opposed to meaningful rebuttal. Bravo to the Globe for daring to ruffle feathers.
  8. Karri, I too am impressed by your polite and gracious response. I know my tone was very sarcastic, and (with benefit of hindsight) apologize for that. It was rooted in my disappointment, not out of a failure to recognize the effort you put into making Chambar an exceptional dining destination. Good luck, and you may see me again. My wife (the rational one) said we should give Chambar another shot when DOV is over. Personally I think she just wants to go back for the frites. Now the cattle prod is a whole other issue. Does it come with handcuffs...
  9. We go to Gavroche often, and have had nothing but good experiences, even when Manuel is not around. This thread has made me so curious if maybe we've misjudged it, that I'm going to phone tomorrow and see if I can sneak in for one of the last nights of DOV. My wife will kill me, since we've already blown our DOV budget, but I'll let you know the results (besides divorce). p.s. Took my 85-year-old mother their for dinner last year (not DOV), and she still talks about it as the best dinner of her life. She was treated like royalty.
  10. Let me respond as a consumer with no industry ties. A few random thoughts in no particular order: I have no objection whatsoever to giving my c.c. number to confirm a reservation. Be it a deposit of $20 or whatever, I know restauranteurs are in a tough business and can't let tables sit empty. No shows should pay (and not just during DOV). DOV is a victim of its own success. The trendy restaurants that would have good business anyway, get swamped. One in particular, as far as I can tell, had no tables set aside for DOV, despite purporting to participate. On the other hand, the struggling places don't seem to attract the crowds they need to promote themselves. As an example, in the past 2 weeks I've wandered by a couple of what I know are very good restaurants participating in DOV that have been empty. How about auctioning off tables at the popular spots, with the extra proceeds going to charity. What about customers "buying credits" from Tourism Vancouver. When they book the table, the credits are immediately deducted whether they show up for dinner or not. Maybe push the hotel/dinner idea a bit more. I live downtown, so wouldn't take advantage, but some better promotion of the idea of staying in a hotel would draw in more people from the suburbs. Tourism Vancouver advertises it on their website, but otherwise it's not widely known. Some killer room rates tied to cheap eats at the places that really need bums in the seats might benefit everyone. Better linking of the VQA wines to DOV might pay off. Instead of just passively offering them, how about making it a fixed part of the menu. Part of DOV is to get people to try VQA wines. Some stubborn people just won't go for B.C. wines unless they have their arms twisted. Make it a $50 dinner with VQA wine included. (Hmmm - what to do with non-drinkers? Haven't solved that yet.) For restauranteurs -- don't think you need to give away the candy store. I don't think you need to do a $50 dinner for $25. Most people I know are just looking for a fair break after the Christmas bills. (Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe the world is full of cheapskates.) As an example, Feenie's $25 menu is pretty much identical to their usual $35 prix fixe menu. That's more than fair. All I'm really hoping for from DOV is a few buck break in places I might not otherwise get around to trying. A little break on the food prices or a little lower markup on a decent VQA wine is enough to get me back another time - as long as the quality of the food and service remain high. Don't be shy about warning people in advance that they'll only have the table X minutes. If they know they're getting a break, and have been told in advance $35 does not include squatting rights, it should be less of a hassle for staff to nudge them along. However, if you choose not to warn the diners, and they come in unaware that you're expecting them to clear out in time for the next reservation, you're putting your staff in a tough spot and setting the stage for disgruntled customers. Tell us right up front "We have another reservation for your table at 8:00". There will still be goofs, but I think most people will try cooperate. Just some Aberlour Single Malt-fueled thoughts...
  11. Admittedly maybe my expectations were too high because Chambar was so over-hyped before it even opened. Hard to live up to the press it got before they even fired up the ovens. Note to p.r. consultants and editors of glossy lifestyle magazines: let restaurants prove themselves a bit before touting them as best new restaurant of the year. That said, we dine out a lot, and know we need to lower expectations for DOV, but not that low.
  12. Hate to be the odd man out, but our experience was not as good as Plunk and Mooshmouse. 18:30 Arrive on time for our reservation. Promptly seated near the drafty front door. 18:40 Waitress first appears. Apologizes for the delay. Says she'll be right back. Don't think it's because she's too busy. There are 3 empty tables within 15 feet of us. 18:42 Waitress comes back to take drink order. Would we like to order our dinners too? Well, not really, but since you're here,and it's DOV and we know you're busy we'll try not to dawdle. We each order the Tourelle de Crevettes et Crabe 18:48 Tourelles de Crevettes et Crabe arrive. Were we hallucinating, or did we order drinks. Don't they normally come, like, before the food? Let's maybe just wait a minute. 18:50 Waiter brings our drinks. He sees we haven't started our appetizers and must have assumed it was because we weren't properly introduced. Proceeds to tell us every detail of what's on the plate. This is an annoying trend. Tolerable at West where they carry it off with style. Not so endearing here. Glad we ordered the Tourelles because now we have great inspiration for our next dinner party. Mix a tin of canned shrimp with a tin of crabmeat, sprinkle some pomegranate seeds, voila. Maybe they'd been in the fridge too long, but we were definitely underwhelmed. 18:55 Waitress returns to take our wine order. They have a limited selection of VQA, but a nice cross-section of choices other than the usual suspects. We go for the Blasted Church Pinot Noir. 19:00 Waiter returns with the wine and proceeds to open it and begin to fill our glasses, despite our nearly full drinks. Does he think it needs to breathe? Maybe we're meant to mix the wine with my Hoegaarden beer? He asks if we've tried it before. Nope. Now the usual response to that would be something vacuous like "I think you'll enjoy it. It's a precocious little wine. You'll find it goes well with your dinners, blah, blah,blah." Nothing like that for our man though. His response? "Gotta be a first time for everything." 19:05 Entrees arrive. Tajine d'Aziz a l'Agneau for me and Moules-Frites Cocotte for my wife. Lamb was very stringy and lukewarm. The cinnamon overwhelmed any other flavour that the poor lamb may have ever had. The mussels were plump and succulent. Very enjoyable. The frites were top-class. My wife's only complaint was that the broth was extremely salty. It's usually nice to dip some bread into the sauce, but no chance of that here -- no bread for one thing, but also the sauce would have been too salty anyway. 19:15 Waitress delivers 2 glasses of water. Did we suddenly look thirstier than we did 30 minutes ago? Maybe she knows about the over-salting. 19:25 Waitress takes our plates. Still 1/3 bottle of wine. The wine was the best part of the meal, so, knowing we still had 35 minutes on the DOV clock, we thought we could take a few minutes to enjoy it. 19:27 Desserts arrive unannounced. Eggo waffles with Lucerne ice cream. Oh, sorry. Actually it was the Gaufre de Liege . Now what do we do? Let the ice cream melt so we can finish the wine, or ruin the wine experience by eating the dessert? We compromise. My wife eats her dessert, I drink my wine. 19:35 Waitress removes plates. 19:36 Waitress delivers bill. Okay, even dullards like us can get the hint we're unwelcome. 19:40 Out the door. 2010 No, that's not the time. That's the year we'll go back to Chambar, if it's still in existence. Really funny part is, when I made the reservation, the fellow bragged "We give you a full 2 hours, not like most DOV restaurants where they want you out in 90 minutes." We had the distinct impression they were striving for a maximum number of turns per night, rather than giving diners an experience that would make them come back, or recommend Chambar to friends. I read on another thread that Chambar had brought in a consultant to rectify its early shortcomings. It's time to bring her/him back. I don't mind "brisk" service during DOV, but they made us feel like they couldn't wait to get rid of us. This was our 5th and last DOV restaurant. The other 4 were excellent value, and we'll be back. Not so Chambar. Sorry for what I know is a very sarcastic tone, but, believe me, it would have been worse had I written it as soon as we came home.
  13. Lee, We probably saw you at the leaning bar on our way out. It sounds like our experience was somewhat better than yours. We arrived at 7:30 and were promptly seated. We found the staff to be pleasant, but not intrusive. Even the bread girl was no problem -- though I can't say I was a fan of the Japanese seaweed scone she had on offer. We never felt rushed. We had a pre-dinner cocktail, and the waiter let us relax with that before putting our order in. We were in-and-out in 95 minutes, so he obviously had his eye on the clock, but we never felt any pressure. Our dinners pretty much matched yours, with the exception that my wife had the Side Stripe Shrimp with Forest Mushroom Risotto. I started with the soup and was also very surprised by the velvety texture. It had a hint of roasted garlic, just enough to give it some sweetness. The lobster knuckle was delicious. Your description of it being sweet and tender is right on the mark. My wife started with the Wild Salmon Taster. She shared a small bite of the Salmon Candy. It was the best I've had. Not quite as sweet as usual, which let the flavour come through more. It had a hint of spiciness (possibly come from the red onion creme fraiche) that added another dimension. I had the Crisp Sun Valley Trout and Dungeness Crab and loved it. Maybe it was because I got the last of the nutmeg cream! I don't usually go for trout, but found this one rich and tasty. I could even have done without the crab. As good as the crab was, there was really no need for it, the trout was satisfying enough. I had the Sourdough Chocolate Cake for dessert. Even for a chocoholic I found it a bit much. The ice cream was delicious, but the cake itself had a bittersweet chocolate sauce over and inside it. It overpowered everything else on the plate. For wine we wanted to try something different than the recommended Cedar Creek, so asked the waiter for some advice. He was pretty light on wine knowledge, so we spoke to the sommelier. He was a wealth of knowledge and spent time guiding us through some of the other B.C. wines on offer, even though I'd made it clear our budget was not towards the $300 bottles they had on offer. We ended up with a bottle of Poplar Grove Pinot Gris (not VQA -- Ooops -- but at least B.C.), an excellent choice. It was a bit cold (okay a lot too cold) when it came to the table, but the flavours really came through after it warmed up in the glasses. I was at West last month (pre-DOV) and have to say "C" was just as good. We'll definitely be going back.
  14. Another good, non-Asian candidate is The Mouse and Bean on Hastings at Cambie. The delicious Mexican food there has been discussed on a couple of other threads. I haven't been disappointed by anything on the menu yet, and don't think I've ever spent more than $7. An added bonus is that the owners are a genuinely nice family.
  15. I've been to the Mouse and Bean several times for lunch. Can't really compare to anything I've had in Mexico, but maybe that's a regional thing. Decor and location are nothing to scream about (okay - that part's authentically Mexican), but the food and people are terrific, and very reasonable prices. The Ascencio's, who own it, are extremely friendly and are terrific hosts. If they miss being 'truly authentic' Mexican, it's not for lack of trying.
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