Vancouver Good

Yes, it’s been much too long. I have been busy writing for  Modern Mama Vancouver – different topic, but also fun for me.

But, I have been eating! Here’s a drive-by review of some memorable ones…

Downtown: Thierry Patisserie – I have been a regular at this lovely French cafe since they opened a few months back. Good coffee but the pastries, desserts, and macarons are what this place is all about. My faves: The apple turnover, layers of flaky delicate crust filled with tart and sweet apples – perfect. The blackberry macaron, with a actual blackberry in the middle it’s the perfect texture and flavour contrast in these cookies that are beautiful, but quite sweet. For chocolate lovers, the chocolate succé cake is dense, rich, and full of chocolate. I only needed 1 bite, but it was a good bite. Prices are a more than your average cafe, but worth it in most cases. However, I cannot grasp how 100g of candied maple pecans can cost $14.95. Or how a small tub of ice cream can cost $14.95. But then six lemon madelines for $6 is pretty good! Make sure you look at the price for no surprises.

Downtown: Bel Cafe – When David Hawksworth opens a cafe, you run to it! I did. Although, I walked into the cafe distracted and manged to look like a complete ditz right in front of David Hawksworth – not one of my better moments. However, is the food good. A crispy ham and cheese sandwich like no other and a smooth roasted tomato soup made a memorable lunch. And the macarons, despite being everywhere now, are quite tasty. The outside macron layer just shatters when you take a bite and the flavours (ie. black sesame seed and yuzu, raspberry and rosewater) are interesting and delicious. Again, expect to pay restaurant prices at the cafe, but the food you get is worthy.

Downtown: Hawksworth Restaurant, visit #2 – I was at Hawksworth for a second visit this week and it was a great dinner. Service was much improved from my first visit as well. I just LOVED my salad – pear, speck, burrata, and greens, which came beautifully plated on a wooden board. Amazing combination.

Downtown: My daily lunch spot is now Italian Kitchen 2 Go. A tasty sandwich with a fresh salad for $6.50? Best deal anywhere. They also have great pastas, and pizza. The line-ups are long, but the staff is fast and efficient.

Downtown: RIP amazing chorizo sandwich from La Brasserie Street – You know, I enjoy the now famous La Brasserie Chicken Sandwich, but I just LOVED their new sandwich of chorizo, arugula, roasted red peppers, and spicy tomato sauce. It was so delicious, saucy, and included vegetables! I just can’t bring myself to have a vegetable free lunch on most days. Sadly, so many people demanded the chicken sandwich that this amazing chorizo never stood a chance. They phased out the chorizo for chicken after a couple weeks. *sigh*

Kitsilano/Point Grey: La Ghianda – Keeping to the trend of “great restaurant opens a cafe,” La Ghianda is also a good one. From the owners of the excellent La Quercia is La Ghianda, an excellent Italian style deli and cafe. Go there for the huge Italian sandwiches (mortadella, mmmm), or made to order pastas.

South Granville: Go Fish 2.0 – Part of my summer is at least 1 long line-up and feast at the Go Fish shack by Granville Island. But a second Go Fish location is now open! This version is Go Fish restaurant style, in the former Bin 942 location on Broadway near Granville. I attended a menu tasting while back and it was excellent. My best memory was really the passion I saw in the chefs creating the food. They spoke about all the menu items with such zest and enjoyment – love that! The menu is different from the fish shack location. The fish and chips are still there, but the tacones are not. There are appetizers, mains, and desserts. I loved the “chips and dip” – a great little snack. Lots of Latin-influenced flavours on the menu. Definitely worth a visit.

Main St: Bob like Thai Food – Someone at work tipped me off on this place, telling me it was the most authentic Thai food they’d eaten since being in Thailand. With an endorsement like that, I ordered takeout from them that night. And I’ve ordered it again and again since. A menu with the usual items plus lots of interesting and authentic dishes you don’t see at other Thai restaurants. The pad thai is awesome. It’s different from the amazing Maenam pad thai, but just as good. With lunch specials for $7.50, it’s an affordable, yummy option. My friend just raves about the mango sticky rice, too.  The restaurant itself is super casual (but cold!).

Happy eating.

I tell everyone that Kingyo is the best izakaya in town and I still stand by this. Yes, all the Guu and Hapa locations are great, but for me Kingyo is the benchmark. When Kingyo opened a second location at Broadway & Fir,  snack bar Suika, I was stoked. Kingyo food without having to drive to Denman Street? Score!

I finally got to Suika last week and it’s great. Kingyo is still better (and always will be, as long as their seared saba pressed sushi is on the menu), but Suika is a more casual and better priced sister restaurant that I expect to frequent regularly.

The yummy factor:

- Pressed toro and avocado sushi. Toro on its own is buttery and fresh. Pressed down with avocado it melts on your tongue and is even more delicious.

- Beef filet & garlic fried rice. Tender cubes of beef tossed with rice and lots of crispy fried garlic. Satisfying, but you definitely need gum after this one.

- Plum marinated Ika Karaage – Loved the plum marinate, give the Ika a delicious flavour. The breading on the squid was a bit greasy and texture tough…but still tasty. Would probably try the chicken next time

- Tofu salad – Cold tofu, fresh greens, tasty sweet and spicy dressing. Tofu can be good.

- Agedashi tofu – comes with two big pieces of crispy fried shrimp, all sitting in a warm sauce for dipping

A fun room too – dark lighting, a projector playing on the bar wall, a fun sake/booze bottle chandelier, and open kitchen.

You can go to Suika for a quick bite or  spend an evening with a group of friends. Most izakayas are located downtown, so Suika is a welcome restaurant just across the bridge. It’s also near the Arts Club Theatre and a great spot for dinner before a show.

Suika
1626 West Broadway (@ Fir), Vancouver
604 730 1678

I had dinner at L’abbattoir a few weeks ago and it was lovely – a beautiful room with playful and refined Westcoast/French food.

They restaurant did a great job with the room, turning it from its former life as a dark casual Irish pub to a light, airy, and natural setting. Really beautiful wood light fixtures and natural light streaming through the back room. A great setting for a get together or date.

My date for the evening was a girlfriend, and together we sampled:

- Dungeness crab and chickpea toast – A creative and fun dish. The toast is a rounded mold of toasted brioche that is so thin and crispy that it shatters into crispy pieces when your spoon hits it. Mixed with the crab and chickpeas, you have fresh, texture, and spice in every bite. A lovely dish.

- Warm steelhead and crunchy potato salad – So beautiful when presented, with the beautiful pink salmon, yellow potatoes, green herbs, and a white horseradish dressing. The taste was good, but not as good as it looked. I wanted to taste the salmon more, but got much more horseradish, herbs and pickled garlic…and not much potato either.

- Steamed halibut with Indian spices and chickpea fritters – perfectly cooked and delicious.

- Apple and olive cake for dessert – quite creative, but not my favourite. There was an awesome green apple granita with the cake, but it was soaked in this syrup that was way too sweet for my liking.

Overall, this restaurant has it going on. Nice menu, good service, and a nice bar area if you want a before/after dinner drink. It’s a nice change from going to Boneta and I will always expect an interesting menu when I go. Nice addition to this area of Gastown, which is mainly pubs and casual restaurants.

L’abbatoir
217 Carral Street,Vancouver
604 568 1701

The long awaited Hawksworth Restaurant is here!

Hawksworth is a fresh addition to the Vancouver dining scene, featuring a gorgeous room, beautiful food, plus an even more stunning clientele. This is the restaurant where you put on that killer dress you’ve been saving up and work it.

First, the good:
- I love the room. It’s contemporary with a huge glam factor and overlooks the Vancouver Art Gallery, one of the city’s most beautiful buildings.
- The beautiful restaurant and bar are just asking for you to dress up. The people watching here is excellent.
- A great cocktail list – Plan for a before dinner drink at the bar and watch the bartenders craft some beautiful drinks. I am not drinking alcohol at the moment, and they had several “zero proof” cocktails for me too.
- Playful plates. For every dish we ordered, the plates came out colourful, composed, and playful. I truly enjoyed the plating for all dishes. You eat with your eyes first, after all.
- From the bar menu:  thick cut, triple fried  frites, soft and tender inside with a crispy exterior.
- The Foie Gras Parfait – a delicious, must-have appetizer. Great texture, flavour, and the best part – it comes with foie gras cotton candy!
- Yellowfin tuna carpaccio – fresh, generous slices of yellowfin with a perfectly balanced sauce and crispy puffed rice
-Seared scallops with a housemade xo sauce – perfectly cooked with sweet, salty, spicy flavours
- Tender, tender pork loin cooked sous vide with spatzle
- Flaky and moist olive oil poached salmon with mild Indian flavours and an eggplant caviar tinted black with squid ink
- And I didn’t order this, but I sure wish I did – a 22oz rib eye to share. Every order that came out of the kitchen looked so good and tender.
- The restaurant also offers a great bar menu and brunch/lunch menus, so there’s something for all occasions.

However.

My first Hawksworth experience was not perfect, so I need to detail my issues. But, I am giving them some benefit of the doubt as they are newly opened and I was there at 8pm on a Saturday night – the place was packed.

The drawbacks:
- I was really disappointed with the service. Our waiter was nice, but clearly too busy and there was no personalized service at all. For a restaurant of this caliber, that is unacceptable. It took 20 minutes for our drinks to be served after we were seated, and another 20 minutes before they returned to take our order. Coffees arrived after our desserts were served. A friend ordered a cocktail that she did not like and it sat at our table throughout the entire dinner, full. When the mains were cleared the waiter picked it up, asked if she was done with it and walked off. What?!! My friend said not to say anything, or I would have.

- Dessert was a miss. Most people at our table had the milk chocolate mousse with passion fruit. Sounds delicious, but the milk chocolate was way too subtle for the tart passion fruit, which overwhelmed it. Pretty plate, but unbalanced flavour. I’ll order a different dessert next time.

- And my nit-pick issue. There is carpet in the centre of the dining room, where we were seated. It’s a nice carpet, but there’s one problem. The chairs don’t slide gracefully on the carpet. Getting in/out of the chair turned into a slightly awkward occasion.

So, let’s return to the good as my overall experience at Hawksworth was wonderful. Great food, glam room, and fun people watching. I can’t think of another restaurant in Vancouver with a combination quite like this. Go, dress-up, and enjoy.

Hawksworth Restaurant
801 West Georgia Street inside the Rosewood Hotel Georgia (@ Howe)
604.673.7000

Blogger’s note: I title this blog “Vancouver Good” because I like to only write about the good things in Vancouver. Overall, I really liked Hawksworth and look forward to many future visits. I had to highlight some drawbacks this time or I would have felt uneasy making the recommendation when I did experience some negatives.

A friend and I checked out Tableau Bar & Bistro and it was a nice surprise – great room, good service, and simple, refined French bistro food.

First, I love how the Loden Hotel renovated the restaurant formerly known as Voya into Tableau – an urban, French bistro feel, a la Balthazar in NYC. They’ve also added an outdoor patio for afternoon lunches and drinks.

I’ve only been for lunch, but the food was excellent. A nicely cooked halibut cobb salad with fresh greens and a mild blue cheese. Or the quintessential bistro dish, steak frites – sliced steak drizzled with a red wine sauce. You also get a lovely salad with the dish, which makes having steak and fries for lunch much healthier. Portions are a little small, but you don’t leave the restaurant hungry.

The website also says takeout is coming soon. This excites me – as a new mom, I am eating at home more so having access to quality takeout food will be a treat.

The restaurant was bustling at lunch with a diverse crowd, including lots of business meetings – this is a great expense account restaurant.

The restaurant scene in this part of downtown isn’t great, so it’s nice to see Tableau here. I hope it does well.

Tableau Bar & Bistro
1181 Melville Street (@Bute)
Vancouver
604-639-8692

I was never a huge fan of sandwiches growing up. As I began to discover cooking and food as an adult, I understood why – the sandwich is the epitome of a food that is only as good as its ingredients. Wonder bread + deli ham + squirt of mustard = blah sandwich. Crusty ciabatta + crispy moist porchetta + house made mustard = delicious, destination-worthy sandwich.

And Meat & Bread is a lunchtime destination in Gastown these days. The place is packed everyday with a long, but quick-moving line of people ordering some seriously mouth watering sandwiches.

As the name indicates, Meat & Bread is a simple concept – just 4 sandwiches on the menu, all done well plus an always changing soup and salad. When you march into the place you’re greeted with the smell of slowly cooked meat (mmmmmm) and then you see this beautiful juicy porchetta with crispy fatty skin, and you think…I’m ready to eat.

In addition to the porchetta, there are roasted chicken, meatball, and grilled cheese sandwiches, although I’ve never gotten past the porchetta. The soups and salads are all delicous, but really you are there for the sandwich. My only minor quibble is the bread. It’s a good ciabatta, but the sandwich would be even better if it was slightly toasted or warmed.

All sandwiches are $7-8, a steal of a price for what you’re getting.

Hail to the sandwich!

Meat & Bread
370 Cambie Street (@Hastings)
Vancouver
604-566-9003
Open Monday-Saturday, 11am-5pm

If you are looking for homemade taste and a warm atmosphere, Coco et Olive Fine Foods is a great spot for meeting a friend for coffee or a light lunch. Everything in the cafe is made in-house daily with quality ingredients. Choose from a dozen different paninis ranging from a croque monsieur, to raspberry jam and brie, to roasted free range chicken and  artichokes. Add a warm bowl of made-from-scratch soup on the side (I love the Moroccan lentil soup), and don’t forget a sweet treat like triple chocolate swirl, peanut butter, or oatmeal cookies – all baked til thin, cripsy, and chewy.

Both locations feature charmingly comfortable and rustic surroundings -(think brightly painted wooden tables with mis-matched chic chairs), and the Kitsilano location also offers plenty of specialty food items for sale.

It’s homemade deliciousness – to eat-in or take out.

Coco et Olive Fine Foods
3707 Main Street and 3476 West Broadway
Vancouver

I had the most delicious sandwich for lunch today, courtesy of the La Brasserie Food Truck on the corner of Georgia & Granville.

Rotisserie chicken – shredded and tossed in gravy, mounded on a pillowy soft buttermilk bun and topped with crispy fried onions. That’s it. Simple and super yum. The gravy makes the sandwich moist, but not soggy, and the whole sandwich smells and tastes great. Add a dollop of grainy mustard and you’re all set.

In a perfect world they’d have a salad I could have on the side, but I will never so no to such a tasty sandwich. The truck is open until 6pm everyday.Go get one.

Download the street food app to find this and all food trucks in the city.

I enjoyed a lovely night out last week on Keefer Street – first drinks with the Downtown Networking Association at The Keefer Bar followed by a great dinner with friends at Bao Bei Brasserie down the block.

The Keefer Bar is a dark, long, and narrow bar but it’s also modern and intimate -  they make the space work. Cocktails are king here and the bartenders all know what they’re doing. With a 4-month old at home, I am still alcohol free. I couldn’t try any of the cocktails, but my friends all gave them raves. I asked the bartender for something alcohol free and he happily (with no judgment – thank you!) fixed me a drink of fresh ginger beer and lime juice. Delicious, refreshing, and the perfect amount of ginger flavour. I’m looking forward to trying the cocktails here on a future visit.

We left the Keefer Bar as they were setting up for their weekly burlesque show since our stomachs were calling out to try  Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie. Bao Bei opened last year to great fanfare and long line-ups. Despite the raves, I was not in a hurry to try the restaurant because 1) I am always grumpy when I can’t make a reservation somewhere, and 2) With a Chinese background, I’m generally leery of hipster “Chinese” restaurants as the food is always underwhelming. Bao Bei was a nice surprise. The food is quite authentic, but refined and beautiful. The room is simple and funky with clean lines. Service is pretty good, and they were able to give a few options to my gluten-free friend dining with us, which is a challenge for a Chinese place since soy sauce is a no-no.

Bao Bei food highlights:

• Cold Chinese pickles and marinated cucumbers. A fresh version of what’s usually bought canned at the Chinese grocers. Refreshing with a spicy kick
• Poached chicken salad – tender and moist organic chicken, poached and served cold with a fresh ginger scallion dressing. This is one of my favourite Chinese dishes. My mom’s is better, but this was a great rendition.
• Tofu Duet – light and crispy tofu blocks with a sweet and garlicky sauce aside a cold tofu dipped in a soy and sesame sauce. Silken tofu texture and the restaurant brought great flavour to typically bland tofu.
• Shao Bing – when I get this a other Chinese restaurants it’s usually a denser bun with a crispy fried layer. I loved Bao Bei’s thin, light, and super crispy version. Sandwiched between the bread was a deliciously tender braised pork with Asian pear and greens.
• Mantou – steamed buns with braised beef and crispy peanuts. Pretty tasty Asian style mini-burgers, although my friend wasn’t big on the crispy peanuts (she thought they tasted like burnt meat).
• Fried rice of the day – ours featured squid and crab and was complete with lots of crispy rice bits from the wok. A substantial course for sharing.
• Sticky rice cake – I was expecting a literal rice cake, but this is actually closer to a common noodle-ish dish served at Chinese restaurants. Think of a really thick and wide rice noodle with a chewy (but tender) texture. Loved this dish. Bad versions of this are tough, chewy and feel like big lumps down the throat. This was light and melt in your mouth, yet still full of flavour. And we even had it without the soy sauce for my gluten free friend!
• Sauteed pea tips with garlic – The Chinese really know how to cook green vegetables. They always come out light, tender, and fresh. It always seems simple to cook, but I can never get it right at home. I could eat two plate of these greens all for myself.

The Keefer/Bao Bei combo is a grand way to spend a relaxing evening with friends. Just a couple notes: the area is slightly dodgy, but safe. And be prepared to wait at Bao Bei if you arrive during the dinner rush.

The Keefer Bar
135 Keefer Street, Chinatown (@ Columbia)
(604)688-1961

Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie
163 Keefer Street, Chinatown
604 688 0876

I’m back from a weekend at Whistler where my husband skied while my 4 month old and I soaked up the Whistler experience. We ended up staying close to our hotel, Nita Lake Lodge as it had everything we needed for a relaxing weekend away: beautiful accommodation, great service, and most importantly – excellent food.

Highlights:

• We stayed in a two-bedroom suite, which featured spacious rooms and two bathrooms. The room also included french press coffee, a kitchenette, and three televisions. Only issues: one of the rooms had no door, and the “living room” was quite small. So, not perfect but very nice.
• The food at Aura Restaurant. Wow. Now this is a hotel restaurant worth visiting. Creative, local, and interesting dishes. Ingredients are sourced from local farms and the dishes are beautiful to look at and eat. I started with a bio-dyanmic mushroom risotto, which was creamy and full of rich mushroom flavour, garnished with a cripsy red pepper arancine (fried risotto ball). The main was perfectly cooked venison with lightly cooked swiss chard and these addictive mashed potatoes with carmelized onions. This was an incredible dish. The venison was buttery and tender, and those potatoes were sweet, rich, and sumptuous. Everything was garnished with paper thin strands of red swiss chard stems, giving great colour and texture to the dish. And dessert! A generously portioned espresso parfait with layers of espresso custard, banana ice cream, and crispy honeycomb, all bruleed and topped with salted peanuts and house made candy floss – salty, sweet, crispy, yummy . The prices at Aura are on the higher end – $65 for three courses, but the food is memorable.
• The Cure Lounge – Also at the hotel, the lounge is no slouch in the food department. I spent an entire afternoon at the lounge with my friend having a long lunch. First, the most delicious heirloom carrot and ginger soup. The carrots are prepared in the sous-vide style, locking in all that “carrot” flavour and colour. The result was the most flavourful carrot soup I’ve ever had. Then, we noshed on a beautiful charcuterie plate. The hotel prepares all their charcuterie in-house and we were treated to eight different kinds of delicious salty goodness, including porchetta, duck proscuitto, beef tongue, veal and beef breasola. How can you not enjoy that?
• The Fix Coffee Shop – the benefit of a hotel that prepares all their charcuterie? The sandwiches at the coffee shop are awesome! The hotel also bakes their own bread, so you’re picking up sandwiches that are way better than your average cafe. The breakfast sandwich was excellent, mainly because the bacon in it was thick and flavourful.

My original Whistler plan was to go for high tea at the Fairmont in Whistler, but my friend and I ended up eating so much at the Nita Lake restaurants we iced our high tea plans for a future trip. Nita Lake Lodge also has a lovely spa and a walking trail. So, eat, spa, walk and relax. Who needs to ski with all this around?

Nita Lake Lodge and Aura Restaurant
2131 Lake Placid Road, Whistler (Creekside area of Whistler)
1-888-755-6482(NITA)