fud

I have no problem with the covert early start or late extension. We went to Parkside last night for a birthday dinner and it was considered "dineout ok". Wonderful time. Oxtail consommé with Madeira, shiitake mushrooms, bone marrow dumplings My God. The consumme was ethereal. Seriously. It dropped on my table and the waft of warm beefy fatty goodness just rocked my senses. The little shitake mushrooms floating in the sea of deep rich soup only brought further promise to the flavours I was about to receive. With it came three dumplings like little beached whales. My god. My SO had Handmade pumpkin ravioli, sage butter and crushed amaretti The flavours were there, but the ravioli was a little on the hard side. I was too focussed on my consumme I didn't give this dish much more thought. Next...SO had Polderside farms organic chicken, mushroom duxelles, gnocchi, braised lettuce, Parma ham, peas, jus rôti The gnocchi was very good. Just the perfect balance of starch. The chicken was, well, chicken. The braised lettuce was an interesting touch. I imagined the standard British style boiled cabbage thing but it was actually quite different and unique. I had Braised veal cheeks and grilled flatiron, cauliflower puree, pomme croquette, gremolata, red wine jus The flatiron was ok. Nicely done just not really that standout. More salt perhaps? The braised veal cheeks...We joked about which cheek it came from (which of the four possibilities). Honestly I didn't care. I put my fork in that bundle of joy and it melted right through it. If I hadn't eaten the bread already I would have slathered liquid braised cheek all over my bun and chowed down. Wonderful red wine jus was more of a really hearty "sexy" sauce with some serious monter-action that went with the meat. The pomme croquette honestly tasted like cheese...so good. Dessert SO had Lemon tart brûlée with blood orange sorbet Brulee was ok but the sorbet was wonderful. A little tart and vibrant colour and flavour. I had the Espresso panna cotta with white chocolate foam I will admit to being a little peckish after the main course and worried over not being sated after dinner but the dessert finished me off. I was done after this. It's like an espresso made with cheese that you dip a perfectly made biscotti into. This biscotti was the type of biscotti I remember learning how to make in class. Cookie like, not gigantic and definitely not very starchy. The problem was it (as in the cheese espresso) was pretty big and thats a lotta cheese man. A lot of cheese. I didn't mind. I finished the whole thing and then proceeded to make groaning noises. One down, 5 to go. Phew it's like a marathon.

^ If they are as good as House of Selassie I will shower you with gratitude Sam.

I had NO idea about this fact. Is this really true? If it is it helps explain some of the more odd price points for some places.

^ I just re-read my post. What the heck? I was way off topic. Anyways I am still not entirely proud to admit to have never eaten at: - Lumiere - La Regalade - Salt - Cioppino's - La Belle Auberge - Paprika's on the Island I hope Chris still works at Lumiere I still intend to hit up the tasting bar soon...i keep saying that.

Meat was actually surprisingly tender on the 5 pounder. Not sure about the 6 and 7s but I was wary of this as well. There are rumours that if you kill the lobster when it is relaxed (how is a good question) the meat will be more tender and not as tense from (stress?). We put ours in the fridge for an hour or so till it got sleepy then POW it didn't now what hit it - at least I hope it didn't.

Oh god they're back. We bought a 5 pounder last time they went on sale and I couldn't for the life of me fit it in my already large pot. We had to put the pincers in one load, the head in another and the body in the last. The upshot was I had a tonne of shell for bisque mmmm.

That's a wonderful attitude to have and an very valid point. Although it may be a bit of a boxing day mentality the truth is that many diners will be eating at all of the participating restaurant and when these people talk about said place to their friends, a simple "oh yeah I ate at Capones for Dineout and it was really good! Plus the live music was a real plus." I'm sure that will generate more interest. Certainly if it were not for Dineout 2006 I would have never discovered Parkside which is one of my more favoured haunts now.

We were there on the same night. I'm quite sure which table you were at inanimate Service was really slow, food was mediocre, although the flaming portugese sausage was enjoyable. We did have the salt encrusted hen which was very nicely done with fall-off-the bone meat. Not sure it was worth the price tag but definitely worth trying once. My dinner companions started off coats off and ready to eat. By the middle of the evening the coats were on, the scarves were on. It was COLD. The random keyboardist with synthesizer and dueling dollar store rotating lights was a little alarming. I quickly realized why some of the diners were so fancily dressed. Does this happen every night? I'd love to try the place when it's a little less loud. I could barely hear my friends. Certainly I got looks from them - "why did you ask to come here again?" Hope things sort themselves out. Sometimes in a new locale the place just needs to re-orient itself.

I feel that the "truth be told part" has been lost a little in this thread... Saturday Lunch - Frozen Tamago from Asiana on Terminal Ave - But had to go to Home Depot so what do you do? Harveys? Might have been a better choice, at least the rolls were good. Sunday Lunch - Delissio Pizza while tiling my front landing (well really I was managing my friend who knows what he's doing) Monday Dinner - Stir fry all the damn veggies in the fridge with some oyster sauce and white pepper Tuesday Lunch - Monday's dinner Tuesday's Dinner - SO's sister made home style Bee Bim Bop sans hot rock bowl - Yumm Wednesday Dinner - Good old Congee Noodle House for some sliced fish congee, donuts and a ying yang coffee tea mixture. Tonight? Whats in the fridge?

Wow the Senhor Rooster web site has a direct link to this thread from their main page I'm going tomorrow (for the first time). I kind of regret not experiencing the original location but I'm very much looking forward to the visit.

Does it help deter such people by asking for a credit card when reserving through open table? I know I find it a bit of a hassle to drop a card number but I am empathizing with your guys now. Hoarding spots is ridiculous. Probably why Lumier decided not to participate. I heard of people calling from work all morning the day it opened for reservations to get one. "Like lining up for a future shop door crasher?" hell yes. It's already happening. What's next? People hawking reso's for money on the street? Holy crap we could all become reso scalpers!

Interesting! Similar to Victoria's Green Box program which I was part of for a while. THe random veggies are kind of fun but sometimes when you get home late from work trying to sort out what to do with a particular type of squash can be a little hard. This one looks like you get to choose

^ I empathize D90 I think in some ways the whole thing, for some restaurants, has become like a boxing day for food. Oh please please let us fight tooth and nail for the chance to pay $25/$35 for some food. I always find it funny to see HONS on there for $15. I could easily feast at HONS for that amount. Certainly the industry gets flabbergasted with the number of calls and influx of new diners. I still think the concept is sound but I think the event has become a little too nuts. In some ways the West before 6:30 price fix is a nice reprieve as we can always feel safe that if we wanted to try a price fix we can do it anytime of the year, just a little earlier in the evening.

I'm starting to book up my Reso's too! Interestingly many of my friends are beginning a counter trend to 'dine away' from dineout - in other words hit up the restaurants that are not participating and enjoying a less busy period with fewer crowds and reservations that are not at 5:00pm. Is dineout becoming too much of a mad rush and less of the original intent of getting people into empty seats and at the same time introducing people who normally wouldn't dine out to try new places and foods?

Parkside has bone marrow dumplings on their menu. Oh wow. That's one place I've added to my list

Bacchus Burgoo Pear Tree Cannery Nice n Quiet

Wow...I used to eat all the time at Re-Bar Funky will need to try it

Lumiere Restaurant is not participating in Dine Out Vancouver 2007 Bugger. Looks like the tasting bar is where it's at then!

Tojo's has a sign up across the street from our beloved BOWMAC/Toy's R Us sign on Broadway west of Oak. Looks like a slick new place-in-the-works! Finally he's updating the restaurant!

^ Have you tried Chada Thai in Coquitlam? His presentation is definately European but the flavours are downright Thai. I'm going again tonight

That's a shame that Montri's has changed hands. I agree eatrustic, defnately one of the best thai restaurants in the city and I'm sad to see it go. But maybe we're being too fatalistic here. I'd like to wish the best of luck to the new proprieters. May they pour as much heart and soul that Montri has in the past many years into the operation. My bigger question is, why would he want to sell? Was the offer really good? Or was that location not good enough for business?

And you will always sell hanger steak because it kicks serious ass so there's no need to have in on a dineout menu. Maybe you can offer it as a side I'll have the salmon with a sideof hanger steak mwahahah.

Last year opentable took reservations at midnight of the first day which meant anyone who called the morning of generally got turned away. I hope this year restraunts either put a cap on the number of tables bookable through opentable OR they make open table accept reso's at the same time a person could also call in and have someone take the reso. Regardless I guess I'll be trying to get into some of the more popular spots at midnight

This place opened 6 months ago but I had to mention it because I was really pleasantly surprised! Chada Thai is a tiny little spot in Coquitlam by Coquitlam center run by a chef Brian. I dropped by there on a whim after work tonight and had a great meal. My friends and I ordered: Tom Kah Gai - The soup to which I compare all Thai spots. The one here was within the top three I've ever had. The flavours were rich, complex and packed with so many "inedibles" (lime leaves, lemon grass, galanga). The chef even finely chopped the lime leaf so it was edible. Damn good. Will be back for more. Stuffed chicken wings - It did not look anything like what I had in mind. I liken it to a giant spring roll but instead of rice wrapper, it's chicken skin. My lord it was also good. It reminded me of the spring rolls from Au Petit Cafe but it was chicken. I did a double take on this one. The tangly dipping sauce was a perfect match Red Curry - Chicken - Wow. First bite of the chicken curry with some jasmin rice whisked me right to Bankok in a famous Thai spot with my aunt. It was just that good. The flavours were so, well, genuine. I asked the chef how he did it and he said all his ingredients come from Thailand. He wanted the flavours of home so badly he flew them from there. The curry was so rich with coconut milk but not overly so that you feel ill after. The chili oil was floating on top. The whole arrangement was beautiful. Basil Chicken Noodles - So much more complex than the title. A wonderful aroma from the Thai basil and peppers matched with the tangyness of some lime and fish sauce and something else I could not figure out. The last item was of course dessert. FBI. Fried Bananas and Ice cream. I'm no stranger to this dish but I was definately a stranger to this one. Chef Brian's FBI is like no other. If I can remember his description: "I slice the bananas thinly and make them into a ball by wrapping them into a wonton wrapper. Then I freeze it (!!). Why? Because when you drop raw bananas into hot oil they get VERY sweet and assume an almost overripe flavour. To avoid this I freeze it and when it drops, the oil simply thaws and then lightly cooks it keeping the raw banana flavour and sweetness. The whole thing is then wrapped with soda water embedded batter such that the soda bubbles escape during the deep frying process (this somehow prevents oil from penetrating the batter as much leaving a much lighter crust). The mixture also has jasmin water and black sesame. The whole thing is then deep fried and served with three ice creams: coconut, vanilla and mango." My god. And here I was thinking bananas, batter, fry, ice cream. The end product was very tasty and the crust was thicker than usual but more cake like than deep fried. I really liked the bananas as they tasted warm and fresh and not overly sweet. Will certainly go back. It's a real find for me and I hope it continues to serve top notch Thai with this strange European flare.

Yeah me too. Bean sprouts not so much of a scarcity but the basil is outright missing in most of my favorite spots. This is really sad actually. I love the basil. My question is, how do you guys eat your noodles with basil? I've noticed a surprising number of Vietnamese people in Pho places take the basil leaf and eat it directly then follow it up with a mouthful of noodles bathed in hot sauce or oyster sauce. Interesting. I like to put my basil into my soup. I assumed this was what most people did