Truth be told: Where've you eaten lately? (Part 1)

[Ling]

and the most darling éclair ever, with a delicious crème pâtissière and fine scrollwork decoration on top...

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OooOohhh....wish I could've been there!

How do the items served at the afternoon tea at Bacchus compare to other places?

Edited April 11, 2005 by Ling (log)

[*Deborah*]

and the most darling éclair ever, with a delicious crème pâtissière and fine scrollwork decoration on top...

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OooOohhh....wish I could've been there!

How do the items served at the afternoon tea at Bacchus compare to other places?

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I don't know if it's fair to compare with teas I've had in London I haven't had any others in Vancouver, though...the tiny éclair was certainly the standout, for me. Two inches of goodness!! The other stuff was basically what you'd expect, I guess, not outstanding but not bad at all...but the experience was lots of fun, and it's a pretty room.

[Memo]

1. Oyster Po'Boy @ Go Fish - good balance of goo, sauce & bun

2. Venison tartar @ Chambar - incredibly fresh with crisp minced white onion - a delight. NB - absolute best service experience in ages - by bartender Josh (intuitive, with no "attitude", and right on top of everything)

3. Arugula salad @ Temple (Victoria) - fresh island greens with blue cheese, crisp apple and a sweet-smart dressing

[BCinBC]

Sat dinner Fiction on Broadway @ Trutch

Finally (!) made it to Fiction, and may I say it is a fine establishment that I'm sure Mr Sherwood is quite proud of. I had just finished playing hockey and was not in tip-top shape fashion-wise, but the staff didn’t seem to mind – they treated me like I was dressed in head-to-toe black, just like every other person in there. The room was warm, the bar cool, and the little staging area for the wines in the back an especially nice touch (I assumed there was a larger “cellar” elsewhere on premises). Shared the taster trifecta with my wife: we chose the phylo beef Wellington, stilton soufflé, and scrambled eggs with truffles on brioche (my favourite was the eggs, though the soufflé was just a nose behind). Then she had mussels Provincial (what a broth!) and I had the BBQ ribs (which, Mr Maw, were indeed falling off the bone) with a frites and chili aioli accompaniment. All of this plus a beautiful ½ litre of Mandolin pinot noir made for a really delicious meal, and like I said above, thanks to Jade the service topped off the experience. I’ll be back.

Fri lunch Chutney Villa on Broadway @ Main

Lunch with Moosh’s eG lunch army. Once again I’m amazed at this pleasurable dining experience with what is essentially a table of strangers (okay I sat with Canucklehead at Adesso so we’re old friends). We all shared onion baji and chicken 65s to start, along with 4 types of chutney (mint, ginger, tomato and coconut – the last was my favourite, but I think popular vote went to tomato). Then I had the lamb curry special, with parata and more chutneys, and raita (cucumber yoghurt fire extinguisher). Really decent portion, I didn’t even finish all of my rice – was too busy scooping up curry with my parata. Also I ordered “medium” as I usually like it spicy, and it was definitely a good heat. Others reported the fish curry to be milder, even at the same setting. A great lunch, but next time I’m getting the dosa that Arne got because it looked delicious and it was, in the lilt of Mike Myers, “friggin ‘uge”!

[Ling]

Damn exams and papers...I haven't eaten out in so long! (unless take-out desserts count )

Phnomh Pehn with a few other Egulleters. This is the first time I've had that legendary crispy garlic squid--so delicious! Other stand-outs for me were the green papaya and shrimp salad, the butter beef (nice and rare...I like my meat just past moo-ing), and the deep-fried chicken wings.

All Indian Sweets: I tried all their savoury fried offerings. My favourite was the lentil one, and my second favourite, the samosas. I didn't really like the "homemade cream cheese" one--it tasted like paneer.

The Pear Tree: This was our five-year anniversary dinner! My bf had the lobster cappuccino (frothy, with lucious chunks of lobster and dashi custard! ) He also had the poached chicken breast with porcini foam and potato gnocchi. I had a slightly less figure-friendly meal. I started with the foie gras terrine with frisee, white truffle essence, and 12 year old balsamico. It came with slices of warm, buttery brioche...I almost died smelling that bread while waiting for my bf to take pictures of the food! I also had the red wine braised lamb shank topped with seared scallops (interesting combination) with the roasted pear risotto. The risotto was the highlight for me--more savoury than sweet (not what I expected, but then again, I've never had fruit in risotto before!) with the creamy stock hugging each kernel of rice. I ordered a bottle of the Cline Syrah with our meal, which went better with my lamb than his chicken (selfish me... ) We both had coffee and the Callebaut pate for dessert (3 triangles arranged prettily on the plate, with a stick of dark chocolate).

ETA pictures of our meal:

Lobster cappucino with dashi custard:

Foie gras terrine and brioche:

Poached chicken with porcini foam and gnocchi:

Braised lamb shank with scallops and roasted pear risotto:

Callebaut pate:

And a bonus pic of me (you can see you open kitchen reflected in the mirror behind me! I can't believe the quality of the food that comes out of this tiny kitchen....amazing.)

Edited April 12, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Vancouver Lee]

There hasn't been much dining out for me of late, but we made up for that on Saturday night:

First it was sushi at Shin Ju, located at the corner of Broadway and Heather. I work just around the corner and this place is my default lunchtime sushi to-go place, and we decided to try it for dinner. The highlight was a light and airy wild salmon nigiri. We couldn't find anything drinkable on the wine list (Piat D'Or, Blue Nun, etc.), so we inquired about the house white. We had neer heard of it, so we decided to give it a try - turns out it came from a box. Somehow we managed to spent $60 on dinner here.

In desperate need of a good glass of wine, we walked a few steps West and grabbed two seats at the bar at Cru. I had two glasses of the Blue Mountain Brut and Tricia had....something red that I can't remember! The couple sitting next to us ordered the awesome Papardelle, and when we smelled it, we just HAD to order one for ourselves. And of course, you can't order just one thing, so we kept it company with a place of wild mushrooms.

Then off for a nighcap at Lucy Mae Brown, or more correctly the lounge downstairs from LMB. Does it have it's own name??? Anyhow, one nightcap turned into three (Hawaii-Five-O martini's - I ate the garnish so this stop qualifies as having eaten there!!!), and then Sean arrived and offered us this amazing toffee/caramel liqueur......OMG was I one hungover puppy Sunday morning.

Edited April 11, 2005 by Vancouver Lee (log)

[Mooshmouse]

How do the items served at the afternoon tea at Bacchus compare to other places?

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...the tiny éclair was certainly the standout, for me. Two inches of goodness!! The other stuff was basically what you'd expect, I guess, not outstanding but not bad at all...but the experience was lots of fun, and it's a pretty room.

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Probably two of the best inches you could ever have!

Deborah summarized it quite aptly in pointing out that Afternoon Tea at Bacchus, though not outstanding, was a good overall experience... and a great opportunity to show off some fabulous footwear! A seat by the fire on a cushy banquette and a comfy wing chair, watching the glitterati file past (Mary McDonnell and her rather Hollywoodesque entourage were dining in the restaurant), and lots of girly chit-chat to be sure.

The petit eclair was definitely the tastiest morsel. However, aside from that, I think my preference leans towards Secret Garden as far as the rest of the items on our tiered trays go and for their broad selection of teas.

Working backwards for the rest of last week's dining out.

Walked over to the Hamilton Street Grill from the Auto Show on Friday and sampled the KoolAid over a chat with Neil and Brian. Ian was still full after demolishing his lunch and 1/3 of mine, so I polished off a Pear and Stilton Salad and the Beef Carpaccio on my own. Okay. He had some carpaccio. Two Super Model cocktails for me (something sweet and girly) and two or three pints of something sudsy for Ian.

Chutney Villa with fellow members of the eG lunch mafia. My meal and comments virtually mirror BCinBC's, except my picks of the tomato and the mint chutneys as my favourites. Outstanding paratha and, at $8.95, excellent food value for the dollar with their enormous lunch specials. My first visit and certainly not my last.

Wednesday lunch with a girlfriend at Burgoo. I ordered Boeuf Bourguignon with a side caesar salad, and she had a "Gooey Grilled Cheese" (mozzarella, gruyere and emmenthal on sourdough) and French Onion Soup. Damn, they make a decadent grilled cheese sandwich.

Tropika with Arne on Tuesday for a quick impromptu meal. My lunch special included curried beef brisket, a sambal egg and an Indonesian spring roll. Not my favourite item on the menu, but tasty nonetheless. Also a side of Ikan Bilis, which is salted peanuts and dried anchovies.

[Ling]

fellow members of the eG lunch mafia

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I'm a member of the mafia?

Well...I guess I could be...I'm so badass I got myself banned from a restaurant.

[*Deborah*]

Again, just two restaurants...I've been cooking all kinds of weird comfort food at home, trying to work my way through the pantry and use up older stuff...

Last night, the Punk Rock Boy™ and I went to Da Francesco, as it's in his unter 'hood. I picked him up (after carefully checking the address in the thread, I didn't want a repeat of the Ch'i directional fiasco, he'd been working all day and was starving!) and off we went. About 7 tables were full when we sat down, and many of us had arrived quite recently (it was a bit after 8:00). It took a while for the waitress to take our order, but that was fine as we had lots and lots of chatting to do, and she was obviously going as fast as she could. We both ordered the Osso Buco, me with the mushroom risotto, and he with spaghetti in rosé sauce. We had a litre of Citrá red (current house red), and shared a Caesar salad. Well, everyone has talked about this place, it's just a homely litle joint with good food, and we had a nice homely dinner and brought home lunch, too. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we went again, especially since it's so close to his house. They were out of pizza dough, so we weren't able to try that, but from the wedge of crust with herbs and oil we got for bread, it's worth going back for. We were offered a comped coffee as we had to wait to order, but neither of us wanted coffee, and we didn't consider it a hardship to wait a few minutes to order when we can see a place is slammed...it was a nice gesture, though.

Yesterday afternoon, I met up with the Pink Tea Triad (Zucchini Mama, Mooshmouse, Ling, and Sashavan, and yes, every one of us had some pink in her outfit) at Provence. I could talk about the tea (metal pot with hot water leaching out onto the darling cozy, teabag on the side)...I could talk about the savouries (very different from the British style, and quite delicious: smoked salmon on cucumber; black olive crème fraîche on baguette; roasted peppers on a toasted baguette; was there another? Edit: oh, yes, I remembered! a bocconcini with split cherry tomato (one half of mine was...not edible) and balsamico on a skewer)...and I could talk about the sweets (numerous, undersized, and underwhelming, although the lemon tart filling was just perfect, and the crème fraîche with orange was similarly worth going ooooh and aaaah). But let me instead talk about our waiter, French from France, with eyes that remind you why they call it the Côte d'Azur. Rrrrowr.

Edited April 17, 2005 by *Deborah* (log)

[gerald]

THe last 3 in order of meal (not that I am specific about what I'll eat and when)

Breakfast,

friday at PHAT, had their scrambled eggs with hollandaise, pumpernickle bagel and for good measure as I was feeling a little peckish, a nutella banana croissant and 2 pizza bagels. To top it all off, no heartburn. The croissant was great, the pizza bagels tasty, the eggs and bagel just what the doctor ordered, my partner had the bagel lox and cc, which is the best thing on their breakfast menu.

Lunch,

Wednesday at Secret Tea Garden, first time, shrimp sally sandy, very tasty, great bread, wife had the asian chcken salad, again very tasty, not overdone with dressing. Tomato soup was excellent.

Dinner,

Saturday at Lift, dinner was very good, had the tuna, wife had the sablefish, both entrees were very well plated and flavourful. as for the appetizers, the salmon roll was very good, the salmon and tuna roll, not so much. the tomato and bocconcini salad was neither tomatoey, nor bocconcini, really left much to be desired. The room was jumping, but VERY LOUD, a by-product of designing and room with a low ceiling and hard surfaces, when the window are open the sound should dissipate. The bill for 4 required me to get an adjustment to my line of credit.

[Vancouver Lee]

This post just might get me expelled from eGullet. My last three meals were as follows:

Smitty's in Regina for lunch on Tuesday.

Smitty's in Regina for breakfast on Tuesday (yes, the very same Smitty's).

Denny's in Regina for dinner on Monday.

I'm not even going to try and describe what I ate or it's relative suckitude, to use another eGulleters expression, and it's a long and frankly boring story about why I ended up eating truck stop food three meals in a row. I'll just beg not to have my secret decoder ring taken away!

I did, however, eat at one noteworthy place on the weekend: The Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria in Anchorage, Alaska last Friday night. I was in Alaska for a short visit with my brother, and we were in the mood for pizza. It was surprisingly good, for Alaskan pizza - the crust was a bit bland and doughy, but the sauce, cheese and toppings compensated well. The Moose's Tooth brews their own beer, and I tried the Alpenglow Amber - very good.

Sadly, I did not get to visit any FD places in Anchorage as my time there was limited, but I'm planning to head back up there in June for a week or so. Hopefully I'll be able to try some of Anchorage's nicer places.

Toronto, Alaska, Edmonton and Regina, all in the last 6 days. Man, it's good to be home.

[Ling]

In no particular order...

Samurai on Davie...I had ika sashimi, their huge House Roll, and some Rainbow Roll.

Cassis, Steamworks, One Lounge all in one night...that's been posted about in the "Cocktail" thread, though.

Provence Marinaside for afternoon tea, as mentioned in the "Sweets and the City" thread.

Some Chinese restaurant atop VanCity in Richmond for my sister's birthday dinner--my favourite dish was the garlic crab.

[Daddy-A]

Today, I finally made it to Phnom Penh! What the hell have I been waiting for? Shared a bowl of pho, the Papaya Salad, Garlic Squid and Baby Lotus Shoots in Garlic with a co-worker. Needless to say, neither of us had afternoon appointments The squid lived up to its reputation (the dipping sauce was amazing!), but the star for me was the papaya salad! I felt like a bit of a knob wondering where the hell all the papaya was, only to realize the shredded bits I thought were cucumber were in fact papaya. Time to get a large group together and really explore the menu!

Monday evening Mooshmouse and family brought dinner from Da Francesco to our place after Ian and I returned from our bike ride. Enough pasta and pizza were consumed to virtually negate the exercise. Food was good, company was better. What was name of the scotch Ian brought? 'Twas very smokey!

Monday lunch was at HSG with Neil. Cob Salad and a club soda. Gotta branch out from the tomato soup

Saturday ... Happa Izakaya, again with Mooshmouse, Ian and their non e-Gullet friends for Ian's birthday. I really really really like this place, and was glad to see their remodel has not affectected the service or the ambience. Does anybody know what the "secret" room behind the new bar is all about? Many Kirins were consumed along with neggitoro, a couple of those rice-in-the-stone-bowl dishes (Asian names are tough for me to memorize ), Kobe beef carpaccio, and a mess of other dishes. Really need to visit Happa more often.

A.

[Daddy-A]

This post just might get me expelled from eGullet.  My last three meals were as follows:

Smitty's in Regina for lunch on Tuesday.

Smitty's in Regina for breakfast on Tuesday (yes, the very same Smitty's).

Denny's in Regina for dinner on Monday.

You poor poor poor man! Nothing a good week in sunny Vancouver won't fix!

A.

[Chocoholic]

Sunday afternoon: Rangoli's for lunch. This is quickly becoming a favorite stop on weekends during the usual South Granville stroll with the family. The little one devours their naan bread and daal and us grown ups have lots of great stuff to choose from as well. Wash down the food with a mango lassie and you have the perfect Sunday lunch.

Tuesday: Cru with a small group from work. We sometimes get people in from other studios around the world and when I work with them I usually take them to dinner in the evening. Cru delivered the goods again and everyone was very happy. It is always funny to see people's reactions to the colour coded wine pairings.

Last night: Pastis for a post-birthday boy's night out. The room was full at 8:30 when we arrived and had a nice buzz throughout the evening. We stayed until the very end (perphaps a little past, apologies to the staff ), enjoying the food which is always top notch. It is good to know that classic French food will never go out of style and there is a daily Foie Gras special on the menu

Now it is time to dust off the old Weber and get grilling!

[Daddy-A]

Pastis for a post-birthday boy's night out.

Okay, after this, nobody better be bustin' my chops for having Persian tea with my wife!

A.

[peppyre]

Only here would it seem normal to have a "Boy's Night Out" at Pastis

[Chocoholic]

Hey what's wrong with Pastis?!

Quite a few of us have squeamish wives so being able to order venison without the usual 'you are eating Bambi' comments or indulging in foie gras without hearing about poor little force-fed ducks is very liberating. And ordering rabbit will result in such pouting that you quickly go for the chicken instead. Trust me, I have been there.

The French don't seem to have this problem.

[Ling]

^Awww....venison, foie gras, and rabbit--some of my favourite things in life.

[Feedbag]

Took a couple eg recommendations for the last 3.

1) Da Francesco for the much raved about rose sauce.

Ehh, OK. I usually don't eat pasta out because I tend to make

it better. Plus I try to order something I wouldn't normally

make myself. Should have tried the osso bucco and risotto

also raved about. Or pizza. Think I'll be back for pizza.

The room had only two other tables occupied. The highlight

was being served by Uncle Junior.

2) Keddah House. Got the garlic prawns, chicken broccoli

and chicken satay. Ehh, OK. Did I miss something? What

were the dishes others here have raved about? Went

next door for gulab jamun. Ehh, OK. Had better at a place

on sixth st in New West (can't remember the name).

3) Nevermind. Pizza and Stella Artois on the deck in the

sunshine because the Jericho Sailing Club grill was closed

for reno's. Pretty good thin crust smoked chicken pizza.

Deck drinks accompanied to the sound of roaring traffic

kinda doesn't do it for me, though.

I'm not usually this picky or hard to please, but lately food

just bores me. Anyone else? Should I start a thread? Or is

being bored by food sacriligeous here?

[butter]

I'm not usually this picky or hard to please, but lately food

just bores me. Anyone else? Should I start a thread? Or is

being bored by food sacriligeous here?

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You are not alone I'm sure...start the thread on General Cooking, I'll try to participate. Maybe you did already, haven't checked.

[Ling]

My last few:

All yesterday:

Lilykate: I had the pork stroganoff, which was OK, but I preferred the chicken and bean stew that Joie and her husband ordered. The sandwiches looked pretty good as well. Good desserts--I recommend both the Chocolate Buttermilk cake (thanks PaoPao for pointing us in this direction) and the coconut layer cake.

Ganache Patisserie: I had the chevre cheesecake with cassis and almond biscotti crust--my favourite of the few new desserts we sampled.

Aurora Bistro: please see this thread http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=62979&st=30 for my comments and pictures.

And today...EAT! Vancouver. And yes, I did eat. I probably ate my 12 dollar ticket price's worth at the KozyShack stand alone.

[Badiane]

We did the big Vancouver trip today...

Got treats at the Bon Ton...divine diplomat cake!

Had a long and hot day, so cancelled the dinner reservation and picked up some dungeness crab, fresh digby scallops and live spot prawns, came home and made a wonderful salad with a honey, dill and lemon dressing and a fresh french stick. Simple but perfect. Piled the seafood on top and we are still smiling.

Had lunch at Go Fish. harummmpppppphhh. The emperor is, in fact, completely naked, but perhaps we are the only ones who noticed. Great restraint is being exercised at this moment.

[Ling]

Had lunch at Go Fish.  harummmpppppphhh.  The emperor is, in fact, completely naked, but perhaps we are the only ones who noticed.  Great restraint is being exercised at this moment.

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I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. I had the fish and chips at Go Fish not too long ago, and I thought the fish was fresh, and the batter nice and crisp--not heavy and greasy at all. I like it better than any of the fish and chips you can get at the Steveston Pier in Richmond (Dave's, Shady Island, Jake's Pier, etc.)

[Badiane]

With regards to Go Fish...

I guess I was expecting more of a Sobo in Tofino experience, only with frites.

They open at 12 and we got there at 10 past. Was prepared for the line, that was fine. But there was some kind of issue in the kitchen...we were in line for about 25 minutes, and they were just starting to kick out food when we got to the counter. That in itself should have tipped me off.

We ordered...and waited and waited and waited and waited...about 20 minutes for my food, and then another 10 for my husband's part of the order. They were really floundering back there. I felt sorry for them, but hey, it's not rocket science, and you do this every day, and you should be prepared for the rush.

So, I ordered the Salmon Burger. So it comes on a cold untoasted bun with a swipe of tasteless mayo, four slices of cucumber soaked in rice vinegar and a few leaves of undressed greens, with about two tablespoons of soggy limp coleslaw clearly left in the cup from the day before. The slaw was absolutely greasy with sesame oil and way oversalted. Really, for 8 bucks, I felt ripped off. The fish was fresh, but completely unseasoned. My feeling was this: Cabbage is about 25 cents a pound. Surely for the price you could throw a decent amount of slaw on a plate, and for the price, toss in 15 cents worth of frites. And as cabbage is cheap, at least make fresh slaw every morning.

My husband had the Fish and Chips. Nice fresh fish, good batter, a bit on the greasy side which indicated to me perhaps the issue in the kitchen was they forgot to turn on the fryer...but anyway, the frites were all about 1 inch long...looked like a lot of broken ends, but they were tasty. He had the same nasty coleslaw and the tartar sauce was completely inedible...it had that kind of scum on it that only comes from mayonnaise sitting uncovered in the fridge for too long...like overnight.

Overall, it was unpleasant...I wasn't expecting the kitchen to be palatial, but I was expecting it to be clean. If it looked like that after only being open 30 minutes, then it looked like that when they started. They have storage issues, with the slaw and the tartar sauce sitting on the counter uncovered and unrefridgerated. And the worst part was this guy, in absolutely filthy whites, with an even filthier bar towel in his hand, kept coming around and asking how things were. I thought perhaps he was homeless and needed lunch...seriously...I offered to buy him something and he looked horrified and said "I work here, ma'am". Okay, dude, you have been at work for like 2 hours...did you go down and roll in fish guts on the way over here? Arrrgh.

So much for exercising great restraint.