Anita and I just returned from a great five-day trip to Vancouver over the Christmas holiday.
This was our second trip up from our home in Seattle. We stayed at the Westin Grand on Robson Street, which was a tad generic, but upscale and had a very pleasant and helpful staff. The hotel featured kitchenettes in all rooms, which is a huge plus for foodie travelers. We hadn’t yet explored Yaletown, so the location was perfect.
Day One
We arrived by train in the early afternoon and checked in. Then, dinner at West. This was a return engagement, as we had visited earlier in the year and been absolutely blown away. We had the West tasting menu with wine pairings. I could write a novella about just this meal, but I’ll just list the menu with a few notes:
Amuse: Butternut squash soup
A pleasant revelation, as neither of us are fans of squash. The soup was rich, nutty, and slightly sweet.
Bluefin tuna tartare with avocado, brook trout caviar, and citrus dressing
We particularly enjoyed the intensely floral sauce. Just a touch was plenty – it was like licking an orange peel, in the best possible way.
Nori-wrapped dungeness crab with ginger and cilantro in a lemon grass shellfish bisque
The star of the evening. The bisque was a foam--rich beyond imagining--surrounding a dark, crispy (deep fried?), delicious nori pouch filled with crab.
Addition: Artichoke heart with duck confit mousse and foie gras
The super-star of the evening. The mousse filled a small hollow in the (steamed?) artichoke heart. The whole piece was sauced with a reduction with mushrooms. It tasted exactly as you think that it would, only better. Much better.
Twice-cooked foie gras with crab apple jelly; pain d'epices
Crazy good. Visually, the jelly was like a riff on the aspic from a pate. Very light and refreshing.
Braised short ribs with wild mushrooms; sweet potato and nutmeg gratin
The gratin was wonderful, and the braise was perfectly tender, but the sauce on the beef was too unrelievedly sweet. Neither of us could finish our course.
Selection of cheese (blue from Quebec, local camembert, French sheep’s milk) with raisin walnut bread
Mocha banana cake with tapioca sauce; white chocolate ice cream with chocolate ganache
All of the wines were wonderful but, despite our oath to take notes, we were too enraptured by the meal. The one exception was a Yalumba Viognier that took our breath away. Oh well, we’ll just have to go back. Service was stellar. This was only our second appearance, but we were welcomed as friends (thanks to Chef Hawksworth for stopping by!).
Day Two
We had stocked up with provisions at Urban Fare the day before, so breakfast was baguette, butter, jam, cheese, and some simply amazing rosemary ham (the hot calabrese was less successful). Vij’s was closed for the holiday, but we fed our Indian jones with lunch at Rangoli: samosas, mother-in-law’s pork, and a very fluffy beef keema (sp?). We also bought some takeaway that we stashed in the hotel fridge for lunch on Christmas day.
For dinner, we went out to Szechuan Chongqing on Commercial. We’d been before and were looking forward to returning, but didn’t enjoy our meal this time: scallion pancake, chongqing chicken, and tan-tan noodles. The pancake was good, but the tan-tan noodles weren’t as good as we remembered, and the chicken was just sweet and insipid. Maybe Christmas eve isn’t the best night to go out to dinner to *any* kind of restaurant.
Day Three
We started with dim sum at Kirin. Wow, wow, wow. I will fight armies for the pork with mushrooms and dried scallops steamed in lotus leaf. Then, back to the hotel room for a day in bathrobes, nibbling on Urban Fare provisions. Dinner was Rangoli takeaway: kale and potatoes, Bengali dal, cumin rice, and beef curry.
Day Four
This was the roughest day. We didn’t feel up to Bacchus or the like, so we tried Elixir for brunch. The food was just barely passable -- the duck confit hash was disappointing: lots of potato and very little duck. The croque monsieur was odd: three "fingers" of toasted ham-and-cheese sandwich on egg bread, no béchamel. The frites were good, but the drinks were weak. What really did us in was the service, which was indifferent and incompetent -- as has been suggested elsewhere on this board. It’s been a while since I’ve been that thoroughly ignored.
For dinner, we headed out for a completely aggravating experience at Feenie’s. I feel a bit wiggly about criticizing any restaurant based on one visit (especially on someone else's turf), so please take the following with a grain of salt. In my defense, I’ll humbly argue that any place that’s the “baby bistro” to a restaurant as highly-regarded as Lumiere -- and packing as much attitude as Feenie’s does -- ought be ready to consistently deliver the goods at a high level.
Despite having reservations, we were plunked down at a table perched in a no-man’s-land between the alcove behind the bar and the waiter station on the hall to the kitchen. Anita was jammed up against a wall and couldn’t see anything, while I had a fluorescent-lit view of the restaurant working areas. Our waitress didn’t make a single right move all night long: my…um…favorite was her suggestion that the reason I ordered the bottle of Fin du Monde was that it was the largest bottle of beer with the highest alcohol content, so I could get drunk the fastest. Followed by a struggle to extract the champagne-style cork during which we had to warn her twice (while ducking for cover) that yes, the cork would come flying out like a bullet and yes, she would hurt someone.
I am at a loss for what to write about the food, other than to say I walked out feeling like a world-class chump with a big hole burned in my wallet. I ordered the Feenie burger, which by itself ranks as one of the top two hamburgers I have ever had in my life. However, I also ordered the pan-seared foie gras addition. How could I not experience such an audacious, wonderful idea! But for an extra $25 (twice the cost of the burger) I got two *tiny* slivers of foie. I had to pull apart the sandwich to even confirm that they were there. I’m still furious.
The rest of the meal was uninspired. The salads were average. The bolognese on Anita’s tagliatelle was completely overpowered by the sweetness of caramelized onions. Meanwhile, our server showed her finishing school charm by incorrectly correcting Anita’s pronunciation, informing her it was “TAG-lee-uh-tell-ee.”
Day Five
We started with cheap breakfast at the Elbow Room, with all that that implies. We didn’t have to walk far or wait long, but the food wasn’t very good: rubbery omelete, toxic hollandaise. And, well, charging extra for hash browns at a diner is like charging for smoke at a BBQ joint. We had lunch at the Yaletown Brewery, which was distinguished by the fact that it served both hamburgers and beer. Dinner on the train on the way back was more cheese and rosemary ham from Urban Fare, along with a couple of slices from a regrettable mortadella.
Overall, we had a wonderful trip, and we can’t wait to come back and try the restaurants that were closed while we were there!
Posted by Cameron at December 30, 2004 11:04 AM