pre-opera dining in Vancouver?

[Eden]

A friend and I are coming up to Vancouver for the Opera next month (from Seattle) and would really appreciate some suggestions of where to dine that would be in walking distance of the Queen Elizabeth theatre.

the last few trips we've just eaten dinner in other parts of town at 5pm so we could go drive back to the hotel & change in time for the performance, but that's really hideously early, and it would be nice to dine nearby & not have to fuss about hurrying back...

I've skimmed through the postings in this forum, but not knowing the area well it's hard to know where something is, and the restaurants that I try to track down always end up being too far away.

Thanks for your advice,

Eden

[butter]

Hi Eden, I'm assuming that you prefer something better than casual fare and unfortunately, as far as I know, there isn't a restaurant in the area within walking distance that I know of or can recommend. Yaletown is possibly the closest area, but in case of rain or your attire you may not want to walk. Perhaps another member can suggest something. If you are willing to take a taxi, I can suggest all kinds of places. Which opera are you seeing?

[jamiemaw]

A friend and I are coming up to Vancouver for the Opera next month (from Seattle) and would really appreciate some suggestions of where to dine that would be in walking distance of the Queen Elizabeth theatre. 

Thanks for your advice,

Eden

←

Eden,

Here are three useful alternatives, each within a three to five block radius of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre:

Cassis French cuisine à la grandmere. You can read a current review here by scrolling halfway through this article

Chambar Belgian-influenced bistro that’s very hot right now. The moules frites are exceptional, as is the lamb tagine. Here's a recent review

The William Tell offers a 'Show and Tell' menu—four course prix fixe for $42.50 that includes parking and dessert after the performance.

Edited November 11, 2004 by jamiemaw (log)

[Mooshmouse]

My knee-jerk reaction would be Chambar... about a 6 or 7 city block walk from the QE Theatre. Link to the Opening thread is noted below:

Chambar -- Opening and Reviews

Not too far for me to walk on a dress-up night... unless, of course, I'm in a floor-length ball gown and stilettos...

[Shellback]

For a romantic Italian evening to complement Puccini's Madam Butterfly, Villa del Lupo is just a couple of blocks from the QE Theatre on Hamilton Street. Here is their website: http://www.villadellupo.com/index.html.

[jamiemaw]

For a romantic Italian evening to complement Puccini's Madam Butterfly, Villa del Lupo is just a couple of blocks from the QE Theatre on Hamilton Street.  Here is their website: http://www.villadellupo.com/index.html.

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Outstanding pairing Shellback. Julio's roasted chicken and osso buco are delicious.

I think we should appoint you our resident opera/restaurant sommelier from here on in.

Jamie

[Coop]

This has certainly been an under-serviced area. I don't know why there is not a real good restaurant in the area. Back in the 80's when I was at VVI we always had a busy pre theatre crowd. In the 90's there was Bianco Nero but it's long gone and the room still sits empty. Chambar and Wild Rice are very casual and at least in the case of Wild Rice not so dependable.

I went to Villa Del Lupo once and paid $250.00 for two and basically sat in a closet. House conversions are great if you get to sit at The Grown Up Table. If it was me I would go to Parkside and order a taxi with my dessert.

[Eden]

egullet folks just rock!

Thank you all for the suggestions. Villa del lupo with Puccini is a lovely pairing, and the descriptions of Chambar make my mouth water!

I'll discuss all the options with my fellow traveller & look forward to an excellent meal however we go.

Eden

[Jeffy Boy]

If it was me I would go to Parkside and order a taxi with my dessert.

Just to make your selection more difficult, I would agree with Coop - don't let the location necessarily dictate where you eat. The QE Theatre is a short cab ride from any of the downtown restaurants. A few weeks ago, we ate at Cru before heading to a Comedy Club downtown. Made reservations for 5:30pm, had a fantastic meal, and it took almost no time to get to our show (at 7:30pm). There's a cab stand right there, so it would probably only take about 10 minutes to get to the QE Theatre.

That said, I think Villa del Lupo and Chambar are great choices.

[Eden]

Thank you all! We went to Chambar last night & had a wonderful meal.

We started with frites for an appetizer. Oh My! I haven't had good frites in SOOO long! perfectly crispy on the outside, rich & potato-y on the inside, without being remotely greasy

Mis Lara had a beautiful looking boulliabase which made her very happy over on the fishy side of the table, and I had the lamb tajine with couscous which was sublime. So very tender & with a cinnamony, fruity sauce & lovely bits of fresh fig, Yumm! (WHERE do they find fresh figs at this time of year???)

We finished by sharing the waffle served with a little scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a baby pitcher of chocolate sauce. there was pearl sugar baked into the waffle, which was very light, & just the right level of crispyness. simple, but very tasty.

The dishes were all beautifully arranged, but the one off note I felt was that the two entrees were awkward to eat gracefully.

The boulliabase came in a large ramequin-like bowl sitting on a narrow rectangular plate which had a molded pile of black rice on it. The second Miss Lara touched the rice with her fork some of it tried to escape off the plate and there was also not a lot of room between the rice & the bowl to put the shell bits.

The tajine was incredibly soupy (rather than saucy) so that trying to add couscous into it made the couscous run away & disperse too much, and the tajine dish was too big & heavy to move aside in order to eat from the little coucous bowl by transferring bits of lamb onto the couscous. Fprtunately there was so much lamb that I ended up using about half of it to set my couscous on while eating the other half.

But really this is a nitpicky detail. Overall it was a lovely meal followed by a beautiful opera & we're looking forward to our next trip when we can try some of your other restaurant suggestions!

Thanks again,

Eden

[Foodie in Vancouver]

Eden:

Wasn't that just a great Butterfly? I have seen many Mme. B'flys over the years but this production was truly wonderful. Everything worked - sets, voices, orchestra, lighting and I loved the 'ancestors' who haunted the stage.

(I know this is a forum about food - but I had to comment. Hope I get forgiven for my transgressions )

[Eden]

I was just up in Vancouver again this weekend to see Cosi fan tutte (Fab production!) and following your previous reccommendations we had dinner at Villa Del Lupo saturday night.

We had a very nice meal. the food was lovely (and amusing), and overall the service was good.

We started with the house focaccia, which was quite good, much herbyness baked in, perfectly crisp exterior, and some lovely fresh tomatoes baked on top. Unfortunately how we GOT the focaccia was the one real off note of the evening. Just after we'd been seated an older Italian gentleman came & poured olive oil in a little dish & asked us if we'd like some focaccia. It came across as if he was offering the usual free bread so we said yes of course. We discovered after he'd gone away & we'd actually had a chance to open the menu that we'd just ordered an appetizer without knowing it now I really liked the focaccia, and it's not about the $, it was very cheap compared to some of the other options, but if we were going to order an appetizer we would have preferred to have had a chance to discuss & choose which one we wanted for ourselves instead of feeling like we'd been suckered into it... Fortunately he was not our main waiter, who was quite good and had this perfect radio-announcer voice: "and broadcasting live tonight from radio VDL..."

Miss Lara had the pasta special of the evening, house-made angel hair pasta with seared scallops and crab leg, and a bit of tarragon which she pronounced quite tasty.

I had the carnivore special which was rolls of veal stuffed with slivers of veggies in a marsala reduction, and served with "roasted root vegetables" which turned out to be a very small collection of pea-sized little balls of carrots and potato and zucchini - very tasty, but just a bit silly. there were actually lots of other veggies on the plate & it was overall quite lovely, several charming touches like the little square of paper thin slices of sweet-potato layered up with some kind of mushroom? stuffing that looked like a little square of candy. I especially liked the piece of roasted potato stuffed with sweet-potato puree that looked just like a little puff-pastry nest stuffed with sweet potato. I didn't know until I cut into it. I had lots of fun figuring out what everything was. I would have liked more than 3 mini-roasted-carrot balls though - they were really good!

oh somewhere in here the actual house bread arrived too...

For dessert we shared an amazing coconut/drambuie semifreddo, which was SOOO good. The toasted coconut covered the outside & the inside was all orangy creamy goodness, a perfect flavor balance. Also beautiful plating on the dessert.

And Miss Lara got the cutest little mini-Ciambella with her espresso!

Thanks again for the suggestion - we had a great evening, and as always came home singing Vancouver's praises