Vancouver

By the way, here is the list and their code: So just visit http://tourismvancouver.com/visitors/dinin...ails.php?id=XXX and replace "XXX" with the number of the restaurant. That should give you a bit faster access while their website is running slow. Cheers!

Today marks the official start of bookings for Dine Out 2006. The Tourism Vancouver website seems to be fairly slow in loading today - guess it is having load issues or something. But the menus are up and available if you can get through to the site: Tourism Vancouver Seems like a slightly different mix of restaurants than in year's past (most notably the Top Table group of restaurants is absent), and several are making their bookings available through Open Table to be booked directly as well. Cheers!

The location that used to house Al's Soul Food on the corner of Rupert and 1st has a new restaurant called European Village Restaurant. Anyone know anything about this place? Which type of European food does it offer? Cheers!

Were the ribs from the suckling pig? Or his regular ones that are always on the menu? Cheers!

Glad to have helped out. Happy eating!

That is great news! I'm looking forward to hearing more details! Cheers!

What about Choices in White Rock? http://choicesmarkets.com/whiterock.htm It opened in September of this year. Cheers!

[Host's note: to minimise the load on our servers, this topic has been split. The discussion continues from here.] The lights have been on both yesterday and today at Bis Moreno. The tables appeared set as well Is there a new owner getting ready to open?!?!?!?!? Cheers!

Grocery delivery is grocery delivery. Seems that Vancouver is starting to get a few players: Fujiya (Japanese) Stongs (General) Spud (Organic) Organics@Home (Organic) They all have their own niche, but must have some impact on each other, no? Cheers!

Has anyone tried out the new free delivery from Fujiya market? Details here: Fujiya website. I wonder if it will have any impact on Stongs service? Cheers!

Thanks! Definitely want to check it out! How's the food? Anyone? Anyone? Cheers!

We were there tonight too! I think I know who snacky_cat is now - that is if you were started off with a crab bisque in a martini glass from Daniel! We were also started off with the crab bisque with tarragon served in a martini glass. The bisque was rich and flavourful and got our appetites ready for the main course. Daniel suggested a seafood platter, and I'm glad we took his suggestion. The platter included an entire dungeness crab prepared in a tomato, pepper, and garlic sauce; clams and mussels prepared in a jalapeño and corriander sauce; grilled squid; piri-piri prawns; grilled bacon wrapped scallops; safron rice; and kale dog (mashed potato with kale piped into the shape of a dog (ears and everything)). Daniel brought the live crab to the table prior to preparing it, similar to the experience at a Chinese seafood restaurant. The crab was juicy and absorbed the flavours of the sauce nicely. The clams and mussels were extremely fresh and the sauce was an adaptation of the jalapeño sauce served in the sauce jars which highlighted the seafood. The grilled squid was perfectly tender and had a nice charred flavour. The piri-piri prawns were just as good as canucklehead mentioned upthread. The scallops paired with bacon perfectly. The "kale dog" was a cute, creative presentation with an interesting texture created by the kale being mixed into the fluffy potatos. Dessert was blueberry flambé prepared tableside. His flambé is truly a notch above others I have had. Frequently flambés end up tasting a bit too syrupy for my taste. But this one had a perfect balance of sweetness and tartness. It was served in a martini glass over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The warm flambé paired nicely with the cold ice cream, creating a pleasant mixture. Another fabulous meal! And yes, he did mention he is doing a lechon (roast suckling pig) on Boxing Day. Sounds like a fabulous treat! Cheers!

I heard someone mention in passing a place called Grandma's Latin Deli. Does anyone know where it is? Thanks!

Portuguese omakase, eh? Cheers!

Yes, that sauce is quite tasty. The chinese sausage they put over the rice next to it is wonderful as well. Cheers!

Is that the one that has a batter that is similar to the type you find on fish and chips at a lot of places? (I don't know how to describe that batter, but that is what it reminded me of.) Cheers!

That sounds just about right. Here is the city's official parking zone map for the West End: West End Parking Permit Zone Cheers!

For very casual sushi rolls check out Kadoya on Davie. It is a Chinese run sushi bar, but the fish is quite fresh, and they make some of those North American style creative rolls quite well. Their sashimi appetizer is a steal as well for $4.95 which normally comes with 4-5 very generous slices of salmon, and 3-4 very generous slices of tuna. There is also a very good Korean place on Denman about 1 block south of Robson whose name slips my mind right now. I'd also recommend Norboo on Robson. I believe there was an extensive review of it (pictures and all) in the Korean food thread a while back. I would also recommend a Thai place called Foo Faa. But I heard a rumour they had closed. Don't know if this is true, but if it is that is a sad loss. Cheers!

Thanks for the lovely pictures. I'm hungry! Yes, the jalapeño sauce is my favourite one of his. Very addictive! I know exactly what you mean about the Asian taste on this sauce. It is similar to that sauce that is sometimes used in Chinese cooking with those very thin black fungus whose name is slipping my mind. The one that sometimes has tofu stir fried in as well. Do you know the one? The one time we had the BBQ musrooms it had a nice variety other than button mushrooms - I guess whatever is available that night. He also put a strong corriander flavour into the sauce. Was that the same one? Cheers!

Sophisticated? It is a casual neighbourhood place. Sophisticated sauces and flavours - but in a very casual atmosphere. Cheers!

We visited again and had another wonderful experience. The meal started off with a linguica chourico which was presented perched over flaming liquor. The flames served to carmelize the edges of the sausage. The sausage itself had a nice seasoning which included garlic, sweet paprika, and piri-piri. The sweetness and spiceness blended perfectly. The next course was a braised lamb shank served over saffron risotto. The lamb was perfectly done, and fell off the bone with gentle prodding. The sauce, which was served on the side, was a lovely combination of fennel and lamb which highlighted the natural flavours of the dish. The main course was a salt-encrusted game hen. This was brought tableside to be served. He broke the salt-crust with a meat tenderizer and peeled away the crust revealing a cabbage layer that was encasing the game hen. The game hen had been deboned and stuffed with risotto, raisins, and mandarin orange. He sliced the hen and served it with a mandarin orange liquor based sauce which tied everything together nicely. The game hen was incredibly tender and had absorbed the various flavours beautifully. Dessert was a chocolate mouse, which was dusted with coconut flakes. Overall another fabulous meal. We shall certainly return! Cheers!

I used to use opentable when booking tables on travel. (Particularly for SF Bay area) It generally worked well when the restaurant you wanted was available on the system. But in Vancouver there was a very limited selection so I got into the habit of using the free services from Diners Club: https://dinersclubus.vipdesk.com/ which is a private label from vipdesk.com. It doesn't have the same convenience of seeing actual table availabilities and doesn't provide any backend data for the restaurant other than the reservation itself. But it does work nicely for booking any restaurant at all. You put in your reservation request, and they take care of calling until they get through and confirm the reservation. They then send you an e-mail confirmation. The restaurant doesn't have to be a participant of the system, etc. The other thing they are useful for is tracking down hard to find items, tickets, etc. They generally provide a pseudo-concierge service. I say pseudo because they are nowhere near as well connected as a real concierge. But can help track down various hard to find items by calling around for you. Sorry for not giving an answer that is helpful to your particular question, Neil. But I figured I would mention the option as other customers may be interested in using something similar as well. My understanding is that vipdesk.com has private labels with a lot of the various credit card companies (not just Diners). In terms of your question about giving a credit card to hold a place I have no problems with that at all - particularly during Dine Out. Only seems fair. We give credit cards to hold hotels, car rentals, etc. Why not restaurants? Cheers!

Has anyone tried out Swiss Bakery? I just recently heard of them and was wondering if anyone has any experience? They seem to have a nice variety of breads based upon the website. Cheers!

Seems that banh mi must be ordered in quantity often? The bakery on Kingsway has them priced as 10 banh mi for $25. Cheers!

We visited again tonight and had another lovely meal. Appetizer was a BBQ mushroom dish where he BBQed several types of mushrooms and then presented them in a garlic corriander sauce which was so good we just had to clean up every last drop of it with the Portuguese rolls. Our 2 mains were both specials of the day. The first was basa basa which is a white fish with a lovely texture. It was lightly coated in flour and pan fried. The fish was perfectly done, with the outside being slightly crispy and the inside perfectly moist. Delicious. The second main was NY strip with peppercorn sauce. Once again I was impressed with the saucing. He does a fabulous job with sauces. Dessert was a surprise from off the menu again. It was a port soaked pear that was baked with coconut and presented in a beautiful pattern with the base of the pear in the centre filled with coconut and topped with vanilla ice cream and a cinnamon dusted meringue, and surrounded by slices from the top half of the pear. There was a brandy sauce to round out the flavours of the dish. Overall once again a fabulous meal. We shall return again.