Parkside DOV Experiences

[JasmineL]

Hi, nice to almost meet you!

I will have my play-by-play later today.

[Sonja]

Thanks for the review, snackycat! I'm going on tuesday, and after reading your comments I'm even more excited.

[JasmineL]

My friends and I arrived at around 8:00, our reservations were not

until 8:45 but we figured we would have a drink or two at the bar. I

ordered a Manhattan, as that is my usual poison of choice. My drink

had not even arrived when the hostess informed us that our table was

ready! I was thrilled to be seated early.

Our party of 3, the United Nations of Gluttony, made ourselves

comfortable and proceeded to take in the sights, sounds and smells of

the room. We observed that there is a lovely little private room that

would be fantastic for a birthday dinner...I made a note on my PDA

because I always forget these important features when the time comes

to plan an event.

The drinks we ordered from the bar arrived at our table and I sipped

my Manhattan whilst reading the menu. The waitress was on the ball

from beginning to end, attentive without being invasive. She brought

her A game. We placed our orders and quickly attacked the bread

basket. The bread was airy which contrasted nicely with the crunchy

sprinkling of poppy seeds on the crust. I ate more than my fair share

so I was happy when another basket of bread arrived.

The waitress noticed my Manhattan had magically disappeared in to my

mouth and offered to bring me another, I declined and opted for a

glass of Blue Mountain Chardonnay. It was crisp and slightly floral.I am

not usually a white wine drinker, but lately I have been experiencing terrible

allergies related to tannins (stuffy nose, sneezing, hives).

Now on to the food! I started with the same terrine that SnackyCat described.

My notes on the dish are similar in that I felt it tasted like all the best parts of thanksgiving dinner with none of the filler. I had a bite of my friends salmon carpaccio, but it didn't wow me. My other dining companion had the terrine, so there was no need to steal from her plate.

My two friends ordered the beef short rib, once again very nicely described in the first post of this thread. They were kind enough to share some of the tender beef with me. A good friend never hordes her beef.

I ordered the pumpkin and marscapone ravioli, a departure for me because I usually opt for heartier fare when I have the option. The truffled sage butter added some velvety richness, but I was still a bit hungry when the plate was empty. I am greedy pig though, I'm sure the average person would have been stuffed.

Dessert, dessert, dessert...oh how I loved my dessert! I had the dark chocolate pot-de-crème with brandy soaked cherries burried like treasures of tartness. I let my friends have a taste and they were envious. They both had the sticky toffee pudding, delicious but remarkably similar to everyone's favorite from HSG.

I had a glass of Blue Mountain Brut to cap off the evening, it was a delight.

Hooray for Parkside!

Edit: Not sure what is up with the formatting of my post.

Edited January 22, 2006 by JasmineL (log)

[Dumpling Girl]

Wow! How many eGulleters did I get to breathe the same air as?? I was there for my 8 pm reservation on Friday night, and it was an incredible evening! I've been to Parkside before, and love it, and the DOV experience only compounded that love. Full report on my blog to come soon, but I went for the terrine, beef short rib, and sticky toffee pudding, and was ever so sad that I couldn't fit more of the dessert in. So portion size definitely wasn't an issue. Everything was delicious. Service wasn't rushed at all. Corners weren't cut for DOV at all - little touches like the biscotti with my coffee were still there, the server decanted our Chianti, and was perfectly attentive without being disruptive. Nothing was done to make our $25 meal feel any less than their normal $45. Hmm...now I want to get my eGullet decoder ring. Did anyone notice me? I was the one with the flash! Taking pictures of the food at my table for two near the entrance. Heehee.

[Vancouver]

You'll get the ring when you post the pictures in this thread!

Cheers!

[JasmineL]

Dang! Another near meeting!

[fud]

^ We arrived at Parkside late . Being a Vancouverite and forgetting that parking down on Haro is ... well... ridiculous I ended up causing our party to be late. Note to self, use the damn Valet. The bright side is we got a really nice long walk after dinner to the car.

We got in and were seated right away. I have never been to Parkside so this was really a pleasant surprise. The room is really cozy. I love it. I also like the frosted glass window in the back where you can peek into the letters to see the kitchen. I wasn't brave enough to do this but still it was a nice touch. The restaurant was nicely full but no lines or anything at the door. The waitress was very attentive we kept sending her away because we simply could not choose from the plethora of choices (4 of each item) on the menu.

Being that I drove and am well aware of my asian gene/alcohol tolerance I was ecstatic that they had a selection of booze free drinks on the menu and they were all really interesting sounding - the two I remember (because I ordered them):

- Basil and Lemon with Fleur de Sel

- Blood Orange and ginger with carrot

The highlight dishes we had:

The mushroom soup - mind blowing. I don't know how else to describe it. The flavours were SO intense yet you could still enjoy the milder truffle oil and of course some Creme Freche to top it all off.

The Ravioli - Sadly I didn't order this one but my friend gave me one piece. Now THAT is ravioli. The pasta was so fresh tasting and soft in texture (like they literally just rolled it out and made it on the spot). The filling was sublime with a mixture of tangy, sweet and crunchy. Really a party in your mouth.

We all left very satisfied and my friend actually said to me "you know, this dineout thing works. I would never have gone to this place on my own but now...now we will go back often."

There you go. Anecdotal evidence that dineout can, indeed, make converts out of what the industry likes to call "only during dineout people".

[BCinBC]

Parkside for us last night. I had a late meeting on Bowen (what a ride the 5:05 ferry was) so had to meet up with N downtown, and we ended up getting to the resto at 6:45 for a 7:00 seating. But we used the opportunity to sit at the bar and do a final decision on the menu - and order a bottle of wine (Fifteen Grenache 2001 - I'd link to Mr Gismond's review but it won't let me, so go here and search for it if you really want to; just one note: unfiltered, so TANNINS! Nicer after breathing a bit).

When our table opened up, we were efficiently transferred and treated to some poppy-seed crusted bread (beautiful crust, soft innards). Rattled off our selections to our server Chris (who was courteous, efficient and non-intrusive) and off we went.

N started with the mushroom soup which has been raved over, and rightly so - the only thing I could add is that if a bowl has just been set down anywhere within 25 feet of you, you will smell the truffle oil. Just the fragrance is outstanding, but the soup as a whole with the beautiful colouring (matching the walls!) and the occasional slice of mushroom and the creme... fungal nirvana.

I had the terrine to start, also rightly raved over - although, unlike Snacky, I did not have any bones in mine. Instead it was a very smooth terrine mainly of chicken, but also rabbit, foie, egg yolk? and other bits and pieces, sprinkled with fleur de sel and served with onion marmalade, ?? paste (lima bean? I totally missed it when I asked for a repeat on the type of marmalade, oops), celeriac salad, cornichon and toasted country bread (which was outstanding too - anyone know if Andre bakes the bread in-house?).

We both went for the duck confit with Toulouse sausage, cassoulet white beans and blood orange reduction. Beautiful job with the duck, lots of succulent meat with some crispy bits near the end of the leg. Sausage good, did I detect fennel? Beans (with occasional bacon bits!) cooked perfectly and sauce only very slightly acidic (on a whole as you may expect super rich). By the end, you could see the sauce separating into roughly 50% fat. Somehow perfect for the night's weather, but there's no way I could see eating this sauce outside of winter.

Desserts were "dolce latte" Gorgonzola with walnuts, poached apples and digestives (the cookie) for N and toffee pudding for me. The cheese - wow, dolce latte confirmed, and super ripe blue-ness which was excellent if you're into that sort of thing. And we were. The pudding - good, but still not as good as HSG or even Lumiere TB. The toffee sauce was very good, sweet but just enough so, but it was all gooey and soft, no textural counter.

It was our first time at Parkside, and we both liked the decor - my impression was somewhere around a very classical French inn, maybe starred or maybe not, with classic being the key word. And the feel matched the food we had.

Timing again was very good; yes we got in early and ordered quickly, but still there was never a rushed feel in the room and everyone seemed to be quite relaxed in conversation. We could have been out in 1.5 hours but lingered for our full alotted amount (1.75 at Parkside) to enjoy the wine and the warmth - or to avoid the storm outside, more likely.

All in all I would definitely return here, they definitely seem to have the French classics in control. So once again DOV succeeded.