West Restaurant DOV Experiences

[winegeek]

it's 1:10am. Just got back from an incredible dinner at West. My expectations were high and they were met!!

Reservations were at 9:30 and we were seated promptly. We started off with a bottle of Vasse felix 2001 Cab.($72) Did not have as much back bone as I would like but was a good wine to start. There were 4 of us in our party and 3 started with the marcello goat cheese tartlet. I had a bite of my wives and thought it was very tasty. She found it a bit salty but does not like black olives. I started with a pork terrine. Fantastic!! It had some carrot and foie gras and I believe it was wrapped with procuitto.

Next course we ordered a bottle of Edge(2002- $85)). It's been a while since I've enjoyed a California Cab. This is produced by Signorello. Good value and a bit more tannin than the previous wine.

Two of our party had a wild mushroom and ricotta ravioli.. Very good (and different). It was in a mushroom broth with truffles. Not overly salty (nice for a broth), but not my favourite preparation. My wife loved it.

I had one of the best dishes I have had in a while. I had a braised veal breast served with crispy polenta and basil jus. The jus was such a great compliment to the veal, which was served "tornedo"(??) style. It was wrapped with a thin layer of fat. It made for a great compliment to the wine. Highly recommended.

Dessert we had 3 different items.

Chocolate Bavaroise

Apple and Sour Cream cake

Marshmellow & pomegranate salad.The server suggested the last one and was very really good. It came with the most incredible marinated fruit (pineapple, blood orange and kiwi). Just try it .

The chocolate was, well, chocolate! I don't eat alot of chocolate but did enjoy the taste I pryed away from my wife. She proclaimed it excellent.

Service was very good but we did know the staff there, having worked with some of them in the past.. Was it good value? I would have payed $35 for my veal alone. The veal portion was probably close to 5-6 ounces, which was alot larger than I'd expect during DOV. I have a reservation next Friday and will probably go back .

Sorry I can't describe the dishes in greater detail.

Edited the next morning to add that I should never drink & post .

Edited January 22, 2005 by winegeek (log)

[Ling]

Wow, I'm really looking forward to the Egullet dinner at West. I had decided on the pork terrine and the veal earlier, so I'm happy to know that they both come recommended!

[Jeffy Boy]

Good timing on your review, winegeek! I may change my initial dessert thoughts, but it's full speed ahead on the terrine and veal!

[Andrew Morrison]

Truly the best dining experience I've had in a while. My dining companions were wonderful, very well educated on wine and food, and a real pleasure to talk to .

Mr. Hawksworth's dishes were outstanding. I had the pork and fioe gras terrine with a glass of Lincourt pinot noir followed by the braised veal breast with a glass of Cline syrah. fabulous. The two amuse bouche courses were a surprising and delicious touch. The chocolate and bavaroise at the end was superb, and had me feeling like i should glide around like fred astaire (minus the grace).

Service? Absolutely top notch. Not a glitch. I was very impressed by David (the foodrunner). He was without question the most eloquent and professional guy who has ever put a plate in front of me. Everything on the service end was the best I've seen in the city. I should be so lucky to be that good.

Altogether it was a memorable evening and it's always nice to see everyone and meet new people.

Special thanks to peppyre for putting it all together and being such a wonderful hostess.

Where to next?

Edited January 24, 2005 by editor@waiterblog (log)

[peppyre]

oh my Andrew. I just got in and what do I see, but the first post about the evening There is much more to come, but what a fantastic evening. The Food, The wine, The food, The Company, The wine. It was a fantastic night and I am thankful that everyone could make it.

Oh so much more to say but it will have to wait until I've recovered a bit.

[Vancouver Lee]

oh my Andrew.  I just got in and what do I see, but the first post about the evening There is much more to come, but what a fantastic evening.  The Food, The wine, The food, The Company, The wine.  It was a fantastic night and I am thankful that everyone could make it. 

Oh so much more to say but it will have to wait until I've recovered a bit.

←

Before we all begin gushing about how wonderful the food was, and raving about the terrific service, I wanted to make sure we said a proper THANKS to you, Peppyre. You must have put a ton of work into the event tonight for it to have run so smoothly. I'm sure I speak for everyone else here when I say kudos to you, and a big thank you from all of us happy eGulleteers!

[Ling]

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...album&album=667

Here are some of the dishes we had tonight. (There is an extra dessert in there that I ordered after our fabulous dinner that is not included on the DOV menu, but it was fantastic and I highly recommend it. The chocolate parfait with the sour cherry sauce was to die for!)

I'll post about West tomorrow...going to bed now.

[montrachet]

Truly the best dining experience I've had in a while. My dining companions were wonderful, very well educated on wine and food, and a real pleasure to talk to  .

Mr. Hawksworth's dishes were outstanding. I had the pork and fioe gras terrine with a glass of Lincourt pinot noir followed by the braised veal breast with a glass of Cline syrah. fabulous. The two amuse bouche courses were a surprising and delicious touch. The chocolate and bavaroise at the end was superb, and had me feeling like i should glide around like fred astaire (minus the grace).

Service? Absolutely top notch. Not a glitch. I was very impressed by David (the foodrunner). He was without question the most eloquent and professional guy who has ever put a plate in front of me. Everything on the service end was the best I've seen in the city.

←

My sentiments exactly Andrew. I'm not trying to be lazy to say this but you summed it up perfectly for me. Thank you Andrew, Eric and Gail for being such wonderful dining companions. The amuses were a wonderful touch by Chef Hawksworth and his team to compliment a fantastic ensemble of finely crafted dishes.

After my Lincourt PN, I matched the braised veal with a Langmeil GSM, a bold wine with lots of fruit and a hint of spice.

And of course a well deserved THANK YOU to Pepprye for all the preparation work you did to ensure the success of this event.

Oh, should we be calling you Auntie Pepprye?

[*Deborah*]

Oh, how delicious!

I started with the Pork Terrine and a glass of the Nk Mip Pinot Noir (?? Merlot?? it was red, and dry and fruity, and it was good, and I cannot remember the varietal I thought I would be able to check the list online to confirm what I drank, and find I cannot!)

Then the braised veal, oh, how delicious was that, and the polenta was as creamy as can be...Peppyre and I shared a half-litre of the Kettle Valley red with our mains.

With my Bavaroise, I had a glass of Bolla Recioto della Valpolicella, a red dessert wine that was much thinner than the wonderful things my table-mates kindly let me try, but actually was probably a better choice for me inasmuch as I have drunk a LOT of wine over the past several days and a whole glass of something as rich as the 30-year-old stuff Chef Metcalf had (wow, that was good!) or Peppyre's 20-year-old stuff (wow, that was good, too!) might have sent me over the edge.

Thanks to all for a wonderful evening

[Edible Vancouver]

What a great evening! Gail and I had a fantastic time, great conversation, and even learned what a "blog" is!

The staff at West are definitely the best in the city (IMHO) and the food Chef Hawksworth prepared for my special diet (as I am allergic to wheat and dairy) was outstanding!

I started with an amuse bouche of duck confit topped with a twice roasted fois gras and a crab apple jelly, followed by the terrine which I matched with the Petit Verdot from De Bartoli. Gail had the Smoked Sablefish and Quadra Island Honey Mussel Soup that she said was excellent paired with a French wine whose name escapes me at this time.

For the intermittent course, the kitchen provided me with an endive and walnut salad with a lemon vinaigrette which was perfectly prepared which was then followed by the Steelhead with Pumpkin, Sunchoke and Shellfish Essence. It was with great confidence that our food runner pronounced that it was a perfectly cooked piece of salmon - and he was right! This was paired by Kevin our server with the Burrowing Owl Chardonnay that matched the fish nicely. Gail had the Wild Mushroom and Ricotta Ravioli with Truffle and White Mushroom Broth which was fantastic - you can never go wrong with truffles!!!

Dessert is always a bit more of a challenge without dairy and wheat, but a kiwi sorbet and fresh fruit was a perfect ending to the meal. However, the look on Gail's face as she ate the Caramelized Lady Apple with Fig Compote made me think I might be missing something!

Many, many thanks to Tricia for organizing such a great night!

Three dinners down and a few more to go!

Cheers,

Eric

[nwyles]

I just wanted to add a quick post.

This Dine Out season stands to be the busiest ever for us so I have had no time to post.

A quick " Wow" to David - what a great meal. Excellent flavours, colours, combinations etc. I know what sort of planning I had to put in for Dine Out so hats off to David for pulling that fantastic menu off ( night after night ! )

Also a thank you for the extras that David included - 80 extra plates on top of all that was going on.

Service was great, smooth, pleasent and informative - they were proud of what they were doing and serving !

It was nice to see that West has embraced the Dine Out Promotion - I am sad that some others have had negative experiences at other restaurants - a loss for the restaurant in the long run - Why would you make restaurant X your special place after a negative Dine Out experience and why wouldn't you make West your special place after such a warm and positive experience.

Ok, back to the salt mines...........

[Vancouver Lee]

I agree with you, Neil - West is our new special place.

No one has yet mentioned how wonderful the beetroot and arugula pesto salad was - WOW. I would have happily traded the goat cheese tart for anoth scoop of the salad!

Also, special thanks to my table-mates for a most enjoyable evening.

[Daddy-A]

I would have enjoyed last night's dinner, but there were all these food geeks running around the place taking pictures!

J & I would like to add our thanks to Tricia for organizing, and to David, Jay, Brian et al for as close to a seamless performance as we have ever seen in a restaurant. I lost track of the number of times emptied glasses (and there were several) disappeared to be replaced in an equaly stealth-like manner with a clean one.

Joie & Ian again were terrific dinner companions ... her wine choices were stellar. I know the first was the Poplar Grove Merlot, the second being an Aussie Cab Sav whose name escapes me. Now that I think of it, I don't know if the wine list ever left Joie's hands

I only wish I would have had more time to visit with the rest of you!

Pictures will be up hopefully this evening. See, there's this thing I have to do called a "job"

A.

[canucklehead]

Ling - Beautiful pictures!

Okay - I am seriously jealous now...

But I am glad that everybody had such a great time.

[Chef Metcalf]

Our thanks to Chef Hawksworth and staff for a night of fantastic food and wine paired with impeccable service.

The food was really outstanding and your wine list...amazing!

And Tricia...thanks again for all your hard work organizing it.

It was really above and beyond the call of duty to sample all those fine wines and put together such an outstanding list for us to choose from!

And as Deborah said above, the 30 year old sherry was to die for!

[Ling]

As everyone noted above, the food at West was superb. My favourites were the pork terrine, the beet and argula salad that came with the goat cheese tart, the crispy polenta from the veal dish, the chocolate bavarois, and my extra "chocolate tasting" (especially the chocolate parfait with sour cherry sauce! Amazing!)

Jeffy Boy and lemon curd were excellent dining companians!

We shared a bottle of pinot noir and I had the Wandering Star cocktail (with Chambord, creme de cacao) and my bf had the Ka-Bling. The Ka-Bling was really good, a little tart and very gangsta.

Edited January 25, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Daddy-A]

my bf had the Ka-Bling. The Ka-Bling was really good, a little tart and very gangsta. 

Yeah, that Albert. He's so "street".

A.

ps. Great pictures Ling!

[Foodie in Vancouver]

Not that I can add anything to the other posts, but I took notes last night so I might as well tell you what I managed to record.

First off, let me say thank you to Tricia for getting us together. The energy in the room was so wonderful - 9:30 on a Sunday night and the place was buzzing. It felt wonderful and quite frankly, I needed some transporting!

And a huge thank-you to everyone at West. We have considered West our celebratory restaurant since our first DOV experience there 3 years ago. Every meal since has been memorable, even the short ones when we were dining before the theatre. This is an establishment that instinctively knows how to make each and every diner feel at ease and ensure they have a wonderful experience from start to finish.

We started with cocktails at the bar- Jay who is so gracious and welcoming made us a lovely version of my usual Lemon Drop. And you know what? His is definitely better. I can see me stopping in of a Friday to end the week with a flourish.

At the table we ordered the Falanghina, an Italian white which was on the list of suggested pairings. As a rule, I am not a white wine enthusiast but this wine was crisp, had lots of structure with apple and fennel on the nose. It paired perfectly with the delightful amuse - albacore tuna wrapped in Yukon gold potatoes. I have to admit to some trepidation about the match with my selected first course - the terrine. I noticed that Waiter Blog and Montrachet were drinking the Lincourt PN, one of my favorites. I started to sweat - what if I had ordered the wrong wine?

Don't worry, dear reader - all was well and the Falanghina (sounds like those guys in the box outside the Chinese consul on Granville) was a great match with the amuse as well as my first course.

The terrine had elements of salty earthy ham contrasting with the feather-light foie;the cauliflower piccali provideded a perfect crunchy-sour contrast against the softness of the terrine. The sesame oil on the picalali (have no idea how to spell this) provided a nutty note (in the best sense of the word).

Next up was the sublime "gift from the kitchen". As has been mentioned by Andrew, the food runner whose name didn't make it into my notes, was an enthusiast for the food and hightened our anticipation with his perfect explanations. The Khurri squash risotto was truly a thing of beauty. I could have stopped at this point and been completely satisfied. (Even without a cigarette!)There was a subtle curry flavour matched against the tender arborio (or caranoli) rice. No flavour dominated - it just happened all over your mouth and finished with a beautiful blend of flavours. If there was a superlative for the evening this might have been it - a perfect balance of texture and flavour. Again, the Falanghina was a match for this dish.

Next wine was another Italian - Cantina Santadi (my notes start to fail me at this point) Carginano Shardana 1999. First impression on the nose was leather, followed by blackberry. At first I thought there was a lot of tannin so I was concerned that it might overwhelm the veal breast - but fear not, gentle reader. The tannins disapated quickly and the wine was soft and supple, much like the veal breast. My overall impression was "amazing". The creamy, crispy polenta was the perfect foil for the meat which was tender and the epitome of braised meat. The wine by now had faint licorce notes and was the perfect underpinning for this course.

Normally I don't "do" dessert. It takes too much effort to repent for my sins but by now, I was not in the mind to resist the wonderful options. Chocolate is never my weakness so it was easy to migrate to the other desserts. I chose the tropical fruit and marshmallow dessert. Total whimsey - light, focused and flavourful. Shards of pineapple and kiwi on blood orange with a mound of marshmallow (don't for God's sake think campfire marshmallows) and pomegrante accompanied by severa; dainty scoops of ice cream. Again, texture was the point - smooth, creamy, soft, yielding, citrus segments and pineapple spears. I had a moscato (now I am going from memory - the notes have long since ended) which was a spritzy little flirt of wine. Light, fun and a perfect ending to a perfect dinner. Our waiter was cheerful, helpful and clearly enjoying the evening. He was there to guide us through the experience and ensure we got the most from the evening. A consumate professional. How the kitchen managed to meet the expectations of the group so perfectly, I shall never know. But they truly met and exceeded my expecatations and well worth getting only 5 hours sleep. Thank you to one and all. I floated out the door on a cloud of good food, good wine and a wonderful experience shared with great people.

[SushiCat]

Nice to hear everyone's comments. It was our second time dining at West and it certainly sears it in our minds as our special place. The food really is WOW as everyone has said, each component on every plate is like a work of art!

I did not take notes, and don't drink much wine ... our table opted to chose from the shorter list of what was matched to the food, and the glass I had was the Kettle Valley Naramanta Pinot - I overheard someone say they didn't like it after I had been enjoying it as a great complement to the veal!

I believe it has been said, but still I must add my kudos

Peppyre, as you hear/see, we all are quite grateful for the work you did to organize the evening, and act as hostess in addition to the warm welcome that West FOH staff provide - brava and many thanks! Also congrats on your new title of Auntie, I hope you enjoy that role as much as I do in my family

FOH West crew - you are inspiring, with warmth, knowledge and finess! Seemless placings, never interrupting and yet always being there if needed - it is very impressive.

Chef Hawksworth, your humble personality on the floor, and your inventive creations with food are truly awe inspiring! I am inspired by the creativity - it is always a treat to see and taste your creations! Thank you for circling the room and stopping at each table - this was a touch above what I could have anticipated, and much appreciated, nice touch that made us feel truly special.

Gulleteers ... I still didn't get to meet everyone, but you each added to the night. Here's to more fine dining and fun food events in the future

[Mooshmouse]

Though I'm late to weigh in my thoughts on this thread, I've got nothing short of sincerest thanks and effusive praise for Chef Hawksworth and everyone at West who contributed to our superlative evening. And certainly to Tricia for organizing our group of rabblerousers!

Fantastic dining companions always make food taste that much better, and Arne and J. certainly didn't disappoint in that department... punctuated by the fact that we somehow ended up being the loudest table in the restaurant!

Everything I tasted was outstanding. Sharing plates is, indeed a good thing. However, the standout taste of the night for me was, without question, the Khurri squash risotto. Phenomenal. An absolute party in my mouth. Thank you again Chef Hawksworth for such a wonderful treat. And our cappuccinos, care of Darryl, were lovely and creamy and delicately sweet... I'd have one every day if I could.

I echo Arne's sentiments that I would've liked more time to chat with many others, especially those of you who are new to our local fold. But there'll definitely be a next time... sooner rather than later!

Edited January 25, 2005 by Mooshmouse (log)

[hayasaka.k]

A standout night; there's nothing to add or take away. Here's to more of them.

[forever_young_ca]

Just to add my 2 cents worth on the dinner at West. The food was wonderful and certainly the best $35 I ever spent on a dinner. West has always been one of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver and it remains so after Sunday night.

Thanks to Chef H and his staff for the faboulous food and hospitality. It was above and beyond for DOV. The risotto was to die for! I could have had a huge bowl of just risotto

Thanks also to Mrs and Mr Sushi Cat. It was the first egullet event we attended and not knowing anyone they made us feel welcome and were great dinner companions.

Thanks also to the organizing group. I know things like this are always time consuming. Your efforts are appreciated.

My bed was calling to me after dinner so regretably I did not get to meet everyone I would have liked, but hopefully next time.

[scout]

I just wanted to thank everyone who played a part in putting this together. It was a most enjoyable way to spend a Sunday night.

Hope to chat with everyone a bit longer next time.

Terra

[Andy Lynes]

Can someone talk me through this event. As far as I can tell, eGullet members occupied the whole or most of the restaurant, got to choose from a selection of dishes and what they wanted from the wine list, were served additional courses and special dietry requirements were also catered for. And you paid $35 for the food? I assume not everyone got their food at the same time, surely?

[Daddy-A]

Can someone talk me through this event. As far as I can tell, eGullet members occupied the whole or most of the restaurant, got to choose from a selection of dishes and what they wanted from the wine list, were served additional courses and special dietry requirements were also catered for. And you paid $35 for the food? I assume not everyone got their food at the same time, surely?

Andy, surely you remember how spoiled we are out here! Honestly though, Chef Hawksworth & the staff at West were simply f**king amazing. No other way to say it.

As to the timing of the meals ... some of us were busy chatting and lingered a bit over cocktails which I'm sure pleased the serving staff. But outside of that everyone seemed to have dishes coming at regular intervals. The wait staff even went so far as to come and find those of us who were chatting at other tables to let us know our next course was up.

What was the most amazing thing for me was how quickly they seated us all. When I first arrived there was a bit of a log-jam in front of the bar. "Oh shit" I thought "They're going to HATE us!" Next thing I know we're being seated, and as I looked back to the front door, the log-jam was cleared.

Another thing I'm not sure anyone has discussed yet ... everyone on staff knew we were part of eGullet, and some even knew of the people & threads in our forum! That I am certain has to do with Chef Hawksworth ... nonetheless it was impressive.

Shall I make your reservation for next year Andy?

A.