Vancouver Good

Saturday night, on our way to Campagnolo to meet our friends. We’re all excited and have been looking forward to trying Campagnolo for a while now.

But, things don’t always go as planned, right? We meet up at 8:30pm and there is a 45 minute wait at Campagnolo, which is bustling and smells fantastic when you walk in, btw.  The bar at the back was equally packed the prospect of waiting 45 minutes wasn’t ideal, so out came the blackberry to find a Plan B restaurant.

We called some of our usual haunts:

Chambar – all booked up
DB Bistro Moderne – 45 minute wait
Cru – 45 minute wait
Boneta – 45 minute wait

Jeez, who says the economy is bad? Finally I think of Voya, which I have been wanting to try for a while . I call them and they have a table! So we get ourselves from Main St to Melville St. and enter the  Loden Hotel in Vancouver’s financial district.

This was our first time visiting the hotel. My first impression descriptors: clean, modern, trendy, boutique. Great location, too. My friend commented that it was like we were in another city – we completely did not expect such a nice hotel and restaurant to be amongst all the business buildings.

Voya is right at the hotel’s entrance and we were seated immediately. The restaurant was quite busy when we arrived and features a lounge, dining room, and a small private room for parties. The kitchen is led by executive chef Marc André Choquette of Lumiere fame (he was with Rob Feenie in kitchen stadium when he won Iron Chef America).

Some highlights from the evening:

• Evidently my  husband’s dry martini was not very dry. I told him he should have sent it back. Oh well – they did give lots of extra olives.
• A small and focused menu, but it was still hard to decide what to order. Note, the menu we were given was much smaller than what’s on the website, so don’t expect an identical menu when you arrive.
• My appetizer was a big highlight: Beautiful and tender octopus carpaccio with a tomato, lentil salad. The combination somehow worked beautifully. I would return to Voya just for that dish.
• Mains: the lamb shank with butternut squash risotto was reviewed well, as was the beautifully cooked duck.
• Dessert: A light and lovely yogurt panna cotta washed down with an espresso

Price range was medium to high range. Mains were around $28-30. Appetizers $9-15.

Voya Restaurant gave me an unplanned but lovely dinner out. And we’ll do Campangnolo next month…on a weekday evening!

Voya Restaurant at the Loden Hotel
1177 Melville Street
T. 604.639.VOYA
Open Sun to Thurs until midnight
Open Fri & Sat until 2:00am