C Restaurant

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Sean

On my first dine out adventure I checked out C Restaurant on beautiful False Creek. Seeing it was my first ever Dine Out dinner I felt it appropriate to invite @MaryInVancity with me, she has been here before for brunch and really loved her experience, you can read about it here.

I used the Open Table reservation service to book us a table, I’m new to that type of service and I loved how easy it was to book and also see what times are available for your visit plus you earn points that can be used for restaurant gift certificates for future dining, I arrived and was greeted by name at the door and the hostess quickly offered to check my coat seeing it was raining out, the service is really great and what you would expect for a fine dining restaurant.

The room is a split level space with a more intimate dining area upstairs, the room downstairs is all about the False Creek view with floor to ceiling windows, the space was not so busy when we got there so it was pretty quiet with soft music playing in the background but as the night went on it got packed and the volume definitely went up.

C is all about the Ocean Wise fish and seafood program and head Chef Robert Clark is the man in the kitchen coming up with innovative dishes that really you can’t get anywhere else. The restaurant is part of the Kambollis group of restaurants that include The Rain City Grill and Nu Greek.

Like I said we were here for Dine Out 2012 and they were offering a unique 4 course menu for $38~all the other restaurants in town that are offering the $38 menu are only offering 3 courses, you also have the option of adding additional courses for a nominal charge and also wine pairings are available if you choose.

We were served some complementary house made bread and butter, the bread here is delicious, one of the types were served is their famous seaweed bread, both Mary and I loved this, it’s such a nice treat when a restaurant makes delicious in-house bread.

Our amuse bouche was a Smoked Salmon Cannelloni with Preserved Lemon and Creme Friache. The salmon was melt in your mouth tender and the creamy yet slightly tart creme friache added another nice note of richness. I’m not a big smoked salmon fan and I really liked this I must say, the salmon smoke wasn’t too strong so it would appeal to a wide range of dinners.

For our first course I chose the sautéed BC Spot Prawns with kale,chilli, lime and romesco sauce for a $9 extra charge. They were succulent and really good!, the romesco sauce added a great smoked note to the plate, the kale was a great touch but the chilli and lime didn’t really come through.

Mary went with the Northern Arm Farms Beet Panzanella salad with harissa dressing and shaved ricotta, this is the standard first course on the Dine Out menu. We ended up sharing so we split all the dishes in half to get an accurate taste of the menu and did this for the whole dinner. The harissa wasn’t too strong or spicy, the beets were pickled and are a favorite of mine and Mary’s. We both loved this dish and would order it again.

For my second course I went with the Poached Lobster with a lemon herb risotto and a cognac creme, it was a $12 extra charge for this dish and I think it was worth it, there was a nice big lobster claw on top and the dish was smothered in cognac cream, the lobster for mine and Mary’s taste was over cooked and quite firm, besides that one negative it was a great bowl of risotto, the rice was perfectly cooked and it all went down quite nicely!

The other second course was a seared Albacore Tuna with a Winter minestrone, Parmesan pistou and crisp basil. Melt in your mouth tender tuna and a hearty Winter minestrone with orzo pasta was a great accompaniment to the tuna, there was also a basil pesto on the plate that rounded out the plate and reminded me of an Italian tuna dish.

The main course or third course in this menu they are offering a lake Babine Salmon with a squash puree and almond tapenade. The salmon was nice and pink inside, the flavor was nice and rich and was the star of the plate that is for sure. Both of us enjoyed this a lot.

Mary wanted to try the beef option on the menu, for $12 extra they had a Roasted Beef Tenderloin with a walnut polenta, tarragon butter and confit of Portobello mushroom, there was also candied dates on the plate. It was a great beef dish and I ended up cleaning the plate clean, the walnut polenta accented the beef nicely but the Portobello mushroom was a bit to mushroomy for my taste.

We both opted for the Lemon and Olive Oil Sorbet palette cleanser for $4, they served this with little shortbread cookies, it really worked to get our palette ready for dinner.

The standard dessert on the menu is a Spiced Chocolate Pudding with caramelized rice cereal and a Chantilly cream.

It was also available with an orange sorbet for a small extra charge, Mary for this on her plate and I took a taste~it was great but I like my chocolate without orange and would love this on its own (I know the sorbet looks like the olive oil lemon kind we also had but it was definitely orange!). The pudding was spiced with cardamom and the flavors were GREAT!, the caramelized rice cereal wasn’t too sweet and added a nice texture to the pudding, the Chantilly cream rounded out everything nicely.

We had a great time at C and I wold come back and check it out for a lunch seeing they have a killer patio in the summer, our bill after our add-on’s, taxes and a beer I had came out to $142~definitely a bit more than we were thinking but when splitting the bill down the middle it came to $80/person including tip which wasn’t so bad for a 2 hour dinner and as a bonus Mijune Pak was dining in the restaurant so it was finally nice to meet and dish about food with the lovely @FollowMeFoodie but the menu could have been clearer with what courses were extra!

C Restaurant is also Zagat rated and can be checked out here.

Back To Thierry-This Time With Mary

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Sean

I hit up Thierry again this week for some deserts and this time I took Maryinvancity along with me to try some treats after a Canuck’s preseason home game~what better way to drowned one’s sorrows than with fine deserts!.

When we got there around 9:30 the place was packed but we were lucky and scored a table on the patio, we grabbed a selection of deserts so on to the food!

Chocolate Opera Cake $6.95, a layer of chocolate ganache and chocolate butter cream with coffee type liquor and topped off with a think hard layer of chocolate, for being so small this bad boy packs a punch and is quite rich, I really enjoyed it but Mary found it a bit to rich.

Blueberry Tart $6.55, like the exotic fruit tart I’ve had before but with just blueberry’s and vanilla pastry cream, I like the fruit tarts here and Mary also really enjoyed it, we both commented on how rich the pastry cream is without being heavy. This dish is a total winner.

Chocolate Trio $6.95, layers of white chocolate mousse, milk chocolate mousse and dark chocolate mouse with 2 thin layers of chocolate cake, the mousse’s are really rich and creamy yet are light and airy so it’s actually pretty easy to eat one of these yourself.

Assorted Macaroons $11.95 for 7, by the time we got here a lot of the popular flavors were sold out, in this selection we got a couple of chocolate with hazelnut butter cream, a lemon, a key lime, a cappuccino and a chocolate with pistachio butter cream. A couple of the bigger macaroons were kind of hard to eat but most were soft and tender and the butter cream fillings were really nice, some of the macaroons have a little surprise in the form of a jam or real fruit drop in the butter cream middle~really nice.

Save On Meats Diner-Pig’s Can Fly!

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Sean

Yes pigs can fly!, the Vancouver icon Save On Meats has been reborn and I must say that it manages to keep the best parts and more have been added~the booths are wired for laptops and there’s WiFi !.

Originally opened in 1957 it went strong for all of my life~things that stand out in my mind from childhood are Woodwards and Save On Meats and the big pig sign, the business finally closed it’s doors in 2009 when Al DesLauriers retired. I know I was now very happy to see it close, it was a go to place for summer BBQ eats and good deals on roasts for family dinners for me and my friends and a kick ass burger for pennies on the dollar, here’s a video I found that documents the last day of the old Save On Meats uploaded by Davely70. The new owner Mark Brand is the owner of the higher end restaurant Boneta in Gastown as well as Sea Monstr Sushi, The Diamond, Sharks + Hammers and the Catalog Gallery, this Vancouverite was eager to see something good happen to the building and not let it become another victim to the wrecking ball. After a year and a half full renovation and more than $1,000,000.00 pumped into the facility it’s a welcome and needed business in the Downtown Eastside.

There is a lot going on in the space now, part of the four-story building is leased to SOLE Food, an urban farm, run by local residents, who use it as a distribution center for produce. Brand is planning a commissary kitchen for neighborhood residents who might wish to start a food business. The complex also includes a bakery for the restaurant and baked goods are also sold next door in the butcher shop. It’s one of the few places where almost everything is made in~house, the bakery grind their own flour for baking, using wheat from various farms on Vancouver Island and this ends up in the homemade killer bread, baked goods and the brioche hamburger buns.

The ice cream for the triple thick shakes and soda fountain ice cream deserts is all made in-house and is DIVINE!. I’ve had the chocolate, banana and the coffee shakes here and have been a happy camper every time.

Having the butcher shop as part of the building helps keep the costs down on the restaurant side so you can have a filling home cooked meal and it won’t break the bank and also lets the neighborhood residents get benefit of being able to get quality affordable meat and baked goods on a limited budget. At the front where the windows used to separate the 2 entrances is now a take out sandwich and quick eats window where you can get an all day breakfast sandwich on homemade biscuit for $1.50

The menu speaks for itself:

they do the big 3 here~breakfast, lunch and dinner here, opening at 7am and closing at 10pm you have ample time to get over and get some good eats, the addition of a $4 kids menu with dishes that all come with your or your little one’s choice of salad, fries, coleslaw or fruit cup and milk or juice. makes it kid friendly and headache free for mom and dad.

Now on to the food I’ve had:

the Save On Meats burger with bacon and cheese with fries on the side $6, yes that price is right~six bucks!, its made from ground chuck and flank steak, it has house made bacon, cheese and all the usually suspects on a brioche bun, any other place this would be $10-$12 easy. I really liked it and it was the first thing I tried on my initial visit, the burger was flavorful and juicy, the bun was buttery and a bit sweet. It’s like the original Save On Meats burger got grown up and refined during the building makeover and still remained dirt cheap~a deal that you can’t miss in my books. One issue that I do have is the fact that the burger patty was a lot smaller than the bun and is something I’ve seen in other bloggers pictures, it’s not a deal breaker in my eyes~just a minor grumble and the pickle on top made up for it!.

the Clubhouse with fries and house made coleslaw $7

the roasted chicken in this bad boy was moist, tender and in my eyes needs to me a meal on its own!, it’s a classic done right in my eyes and is a solid choice of a sandwich. One thing that I didn’t mention above in talking about the burger were the fries~there crisp and tender inside like great fries should be and I’ve found myself craving them at 11pm at night a few times last week. When I order this again I’m going have to insist my sandwich be on more regular bread~I don’t know if I got the 2 ends from a loaf but the outsides were hard and difficult to eat around the edges, also on this visit my sandwich order was taken but got lost in translation in the kitchen and wasn’t made for 30 mins when I finally had enough and asked WTF, even the waitress couldn’t understand what happened back there in the kitchen, at the end of the day I had a free coffee triple thick shake for my trouble (as pictured above).

the open-faced roasted chicken sandwich with house made brown gravy with fries and coleslaw $8, I really liked this sandwich, the bread was super soft in the middle where the chicken was placed and the crust had some slight chew to it-if my clubhouse was on this It would have been a perfect sandwich, the roasted chicken was moist and tender. The house made brown gravy was not overly salty and added the right moisture to this classic knife and fork sandwich. The coleslaw they make here is vinegar biased I think, all I know it’s not the gloopy mayo kind and I really love it!. One thing that I will say is that this menu item needs to have another piece of bread with chicken and gravy on it to be a open-faced chicken sandwich and to fill you up, I was still hungry and could have easily downed a burger or a couple of pieces of pie from Acme Cafe 2 doors down from Save On Meats.

The Damn Fine Ruben $7, this was ordered by a lady sitting next to me, she asked the waitress to surprise her with a sandwich that is killer and this magnificent treat was brought to her, the sandwich lived up to expectations of something great and I think I’ll have to have one of these next time I’m in.

The Meatloaf plate with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and fresh peas & carrots $9, classic meatloaf with gravy minus the tomato soup top like mom used to make. This plate comes with your choice of fries or buttermilk mashed potatoes and fresh carrots & peas, the mashed potatoes are killer here and are not to me missed. I really enjoyed most of my meatloaf, it has a nice rich beef flavor and the gravy is great without being salty, the one issue I ran into was 3/4 of the way through someone next to me pointed that some of my meatloaf looked pretty pink and boy was she right!, the waitress took my plate back to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later, I was informed that one of the owners looked at it and wasn’t comfortable serving it, she offered me something else off the menu so I chose a sandwich, when she returned from putting in my new order she told me that they use nitrate in the meatloaf~or as she said “salt peter”, I was relieved that I didn’t eat undercooked meat but then I was kinda pissed at the fact I was fed nitrates when I wasn’t expecting them to be in this dish.

the Corned Beef Sandwich on Caraway Rye $7, after my meatloaf incident this is what I ordered, it solidified the fact I have to try the Damn Fine Ruben because the corned beef here is really good!, the mustard cut the richness of the meat just fine and the bread used is really good, it had caraway seeds and they add a great flavor to this and the ruben.

Sitting near the cakes and pies is a dangerous thing, I watched as this beauty was brought out by the pastry chef

the Save On Meats version of a Black forest Cake $6, I didn’t have any of this but it looked damn good and the chocolate glaze on top added to its decadence. One thing I did have a piece of but didn’t get a photo was one of their chocolate chip, macadamia nut and BACON cookies!, the lady next to me ordered some to go, they weren’t my thing~too crisp and crunchy and I didn’t get any bacon flavor.

I’d say that once all the opening kinks get worked out Save On Meats will enjoy another long life in its original home and will be feeding a whole new generation to come. Mark Brand you have done a great thing for the community and me and a lot of other Vancouverites thank you!.

@saveonmeatsdine

@saveonmeats

www.saveonmeats.ca

Meat and Bread

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Sean

Sandwiches, sandwiches, sandwiches!!!, it seems the trend these day’s is towards comfort food and sandwiches and that’s just fine with me!. I loves me some sandwiches and the guy’s at Meat & Bread are putting out what I like~and what tons of other people love as well.

Porchetta being cut for the main event~Porchetta Sandwich

On the menu here everyday is the Porchetta with herb salsa verde sandwich, the meatball with granna padano Parmesan cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich~ask what the cheese of the day is, also on the menu is a special sandwich of the day and can be found on their twitter feed every morning. Also they offer daily soup and salad that changes all the time. Drink wise there is beer and wine and a selection of Fentiman’s Natural Sodas. The porchetta is juicy and tender and mixed in the slices of meat are chopped up crackling that is crispy and everything it should be, the meatball sandwich is not your traditional meatball sandwich, as you can see the meatballs are all broken apart and are the texture of a sloppy joe but all the taste of an Italian Nona’s Sunday sauce and the Parmesan cheese shavings are the icing on the cake. I have yet to have the grilled cheese so I’d love to hear what you guy’s think of it.

each sandwich is assembled by hand with care in front of you, meatball in this case

On the day that I stopped in recently they were out of the pork so I went with a Chicken Caesar sandwich~not your typical Caesar, the crew at Meat & Bread do it up right~slow braised Rossdown Farms chicken with green leaf lettuce,bacon gremolata and anchovy dressing

This was absolutely DELICIOUS and I’ll be back for it again when it’s a special, all the ingredients worked perfectly together and the anchovy pulled it all together without standing out at all so don’t be scared of the little fishes!

I went with the Fentiman’s Rose Lemonade and it really blew me away, I was expecting not to like it because of the rose but it was just a hint and worked perfectly with the lemonade, this would be killer on a hot day with some spirits or straight up.

Seating here is at one huge long table with chairs lining both sides and a small bar, during lunch times it can be busy as all heck in here but seats open up pretty quick so just be patient and you’ll be fine.

The room is decorated with very rustic objects that have had a lot of love in life!

This is visible from the street on the back wall of the restaurant and beckons you in~COME AND GET FED~there’s a reason why there so popular~another bunch of guy’s doing it right!

@1meatandbread

www.meatandbread.ca

The East Village Bakery

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Sean

The area known as Hastings Sunrise has been undergoing some what a revitalization in the last couple years. With additions to the neighborhood like The Red Wagon Cafe,El Barrio and now Campagnolo Roma , The East Village Bakery has found its home in the neighborhood and the residents seem to have fallen in love as well as the rest of Vancouver with the delicious baked goods that Lucia Tam and Bobby Chick make with loving care everyday.

Unable to find quality baked goods in the area they opened the East Village Bakery and quite honestly with all the changes in the area it really is like a little village in the area and the residents are very proud of that.The smell of fresh-baked artisan breads and pastries fill the block so you know you in the right place-also the bakery sign hanging is the other give away!. The shelves here are constantly replenished thru the day with different treats so you always have a great selection to choose from, everything is preservative and additive free,on certain day’s of the week they bake spelt and kamut products and take special and custom orders by email and phone and that’s the beauty of dealing with a local owner operated business like this~some of the best customer service I’ve ever received.

The specialty’s of the house are breads, cookies, pies, bunt cakes and some of the best brioche and challah bread in the city, most items are available in large and small sizes if you give them a call. The kalamata olive and cheddar ciabata is always a winner as well as the cheddar fougasse.

The items that really get me salivating are the deserts!, Callebaut chocolate is used in all of their croissants, bunt cakes and lava cookies resulting in AWESOMENESS!!

I’ll be putting up a gallery below of all the treats that I’ve had and managed to get pictures of. The bottom line is Lucia & Bobby are putting out superior handmade baked goods and I’d recommend taking a trip to visit the East Village bakery yourself so you can also indulge in the delicious treats they make, everything is priced as it should be considering the quality of product your getting and the labor involved in producing these delicious treats.

@eastvillagebake
www.eastvillagebakery.com