fine dining restaurants
Anacora restaurant opening
Ancora Waterfront Dining and Patio, Vancouver’s newest upscale eatery. Situated along the False Creek seawall, the highly anticipated restaurant has opened its doors to dish up West Coast sustainable cuisine with Peruvian and Japanese flare. Continue reading “Anacora Waterfront Dining and Patio”
Heads up, the meal I had at Kits Daily included a plate that ranked within my All Time Favourite Plates. It was a mind-blowing gastro climax, I was instantly aroused and obsessed.
So before that epic climax…
The venison dish was a tad heavy on the black pepper. The venison was a quality lean cut but, I thought it could have been more thinly sliced, it was a bit tough. Overall, the flavours were outstanding. The broth was so flavourful and meaty. Not in the sense of the portion of the meat but, the flavor the meat imparted.
I had high expectations for this cod but, in the end it was unfortunately very under seasoned and lacked flavor. We did shake a few granules of salt on top but, instead of infusing with the fish it just sat on top and overwhelmed the flavor of the fish.
Kudos, to Kits Daily and our server Morgan she took the dish back and offered a replacement dish.
You ready for the epic gastro-utopia climax?
Bambi was delicious! White tail deer perched on pomme puree with a side of cranberry chutney. Although the deer was very lean, this succulent cut was very tender and cooked to perfection. Perfectly charred rim and when you look at it closely, the rarer middle was slightly elevated. Shit, I’m getting a reaction just reminiscing about it. The richness of the pomme puree complimented the gaminess of the deer and the tartness of the cranberry cut through the richness.
It wasn’t just the meat, every single ingredient had its purpose and went so well together and, that is why Bambi ranked within my All Time Favourite Plates.
Highly anticipated Mosaic s Bar and Grille French tasting menu is now available. When I think of French food I think of sensory indulgent, heart attack inducing goodness. Yes, I was right.
Foie Gras Parfait, rougie quebec foie gras terrine with a waffle biscuit on the side, plated on marcona almond butter. Marcona almonds, from Spain are heralded as the best almonds in the world, thus the exuberant price tag. The plate was sprinkled with calvados fluid gel and chives blossom. The parfait was very dense in texture and rich in flavor. A little too dense to eat on it’s own but, would go great with biscuit or crackers.
Escargot, burgundy snails, shallots, roasted garlic and parsley. Pomme puree underneath the shells to keep them in place. The sprinkle of fine pumpernickel crumbs give it a nice grainy texture and, finished off with a drizzle of parsley oil. It was very garlicky on the noise yet it was not overpowering on the palette. Overall, the texture and the flavor of the dish was very well rounded.
The reaction that I get when I tell someone I cannot eat lobster or crab is comparable to if a hamster had died. Oh….tragic, my condolences.
My co-eater gleefully and albeit revengefully ate up two lobster dishes. Chef Heinrich’s Lobster Thermidor, atlantic lobster tail, kale nori and lobster roe pomme puree. The lucky bastard also commented the lobster roe pomme puree was to die for. Yes, of course it was, it had lobster in it, I get it.
I had the scallop version, it was very nicely browned and perfectly cooked. Sans lobster.
Duck a l’orange, a classic French dish. The duck had been sous vide in orange juice brine. Plated with celery root puree, orange fluid gel, duck jus, and orange roll up and tarragon. He kept flavours to a minimum, the orange and tarragon flavours were repeated throughout the entire dish to enhance it’s concentration.
Pièce de résistance! Layers of pastry with salted chocolate in the middle, ice cream and baby poached pear.
Not overly sweet, love how the fluffy layers of pastry gives this dessert the illusion that it’s somewhat lighter. Mille – Feuille is a class French desert, light desserts just doesn’t exists in French cuisine.
Chef Thomas Heinrich of Mosaic Bar and Grille hits it out of the park once more. I was invited to try out their tasting menu, 5 dishes and 5 wine pairings.
The first two items are not part of the tasting menu.
Crab ravioli and avocado terrine with yuzu sauce.
Smoked salmon brined in smoked paprika for 7 hours, paired with cucumber jelly, sour cream and young fresh pressed olive oil, fried leeks and caviar. Young fresh pressed olive oil reminded me of fresh cut grass and unripe fruits. My description is a little odd but it gave the dish a nice robust finish.
Chef’s Thomas Heinrich – Chef’s Table
On Chef’s Heinrich’s menu…
Roasted sweet corn bouillon, tomatoes, local chantrelles and topped with feta foam. This is a great summer soup. The roasted corn gave the dish a hint of sweetness and lots of texture. Feta is usually over powering however in a foam form it was very subtle.
G.B.E. Farms Heirloom Tomato Salad, basil gel, pickle okra, and aged parmesan. Tomatoes were quickly sous-vide to intensify the tomato flavor. My favourite part of this dish was the tomato chips, deep fried tomato skins that were crispy. I always thought tomato skins were tough but when you deep fry them they become delicately crispy.
Skuna Bay sockeye Salmon, sweet garlic gnocchi and sorrel mushrooms. Skuna Bay is a local salmon farm known for their excellent farmed salmon standards. The salmon is sous- vide to medium rare and quickly seared. The sweet garlic is pureed and then added to the gnocchi dough. The sorrel mushrooms are naturally a little sour. This was my favourite dish of the night.
Taleggio D.O.P with fig jam and pistachio tuile. The granola reminded me of breakfast. Taleggio is an Italian cheese, stinky with a brie like texture. However stinky it was the flavor was mild. Melted down, topped with toasted granola and fruits.
I will be replicating this dish this weekend. The fig jam is the glue of this dish, you can’t skip this ingredient.
Watermelon panna cotta with black pepper and lemon sorbet. The panna cotta is made out of soy, I can imagine you scrunching up your face, however you can’t taste the soy. This was light and refreshing. I hope they keep this on their menu for the summer it is a perfect summer desert.
Finished with salted chocolate caramels and macarons
Thanks Chef Heinrich for another amazing meal.
No more second guessing where to go for late night desserts. I just uncovered a great place, Blue Water Cafe, a seafood restaurant with finger-licking desserts.
An hour after our rather large and fattening dinner, my friends and I decided what the hey? Let’s go for oysters and desserts. After what seemed like hours of hmmms… and, “where do you wanna go?, “I don’t care, you are the food blogger, you recommend”, I decided on Blue Water Cafe.
The service was impeccable and the atmosphere was relaxing and inviting. A place where you can comfortably sit for hours without being rushed out the door.
We ordered a dozen oysters between the four of us which were devoured in less than 2 minutes. I was so excited that I forgot to snap a photo.
Jean Pierre Sanchez, resident Pastry Chef plated inspiring delectable desserts. His name threw me off, so I had to ask. He grew up in France and I believe his father is Spanish.
Warm Dark Cuban Chocolate Cake brandy truffle center, vanilla bean ice cream 12.50. Think of molten chocolate lava cakes, where the center is filled with luscious, warm, oozing chocolate. I couldn’t taste the brandy. Admittedly, I inhaled this and might have not taken the time to savour the flavours. It barely touched the spoon before I gobbled it up.
Lemon Grass Creme Brulee carrot cake, papaya salsa yoghurt, ginger sorbet 11.50. This was my favourite out of the bunch, the flavors had the ‘in your face’ kind of intensity. I love lemongrass so this was awesome. Seared to perfection, very often the sugar is over caramelized resulting in the burnt taste. This was perfect.
Lemon Meringue Tartelette rhubarb orange compote, pistachio ice cream 11.50. This was very citrusy and refreshing. It went superb with the rhubarb and orange compote. The pistachio ice cream gave the tart dessert a smooth finish.
Kalamansi Cheesecake roasted strawberries with sweet basil strawberry tellicherry pepper sorbet 11.00. See that dessert way in the back right corner, that’s the cheesecake. My friends dug into it before I could smack their spoons away and snap a close-up. The cheesecake was light, almost airy.
It is on the expensive side but it is well worth it. Also because my friend snuck a spoonful of their treasured artichoke vinaigrette preserve, who know how much that costs.
Minami Japanese fine dining restaurant opened their doors this Spring and it has become my go to restaurant this Summer.
Minami Japanese Restaurant, located in Yaletown and sister restaurant to Miku, a fine dining Japanese restaurant in the heart of Coal Harbour meets high expectations. I’ve been to both, the menu is very similar but, the atmosphere and décor is much nicer at Minami.
The service was impeccable right from when we entered to when we left.
It is a rare treat, when all the dishes scored between 4 -5 out of 5!
Now the Food…
We started with the Shiso Mojito Watermelon and Citrus Cured Scallops, mojito infused watermelon, montchevre goat cheese, micro greens, pickled celery, cucumber, a light salad to prepare our paletes. Creative ingredients that melded so well and gave a refreshing blend of flavours. 4.5/5
We were recommended to try the calamari, everyone that went to Minami raved about this dish.
Calamari, nori tempura batter, brussels sprout chips, pickled tomatoes, tosazu sauce. The batter was heavenly, so light, not the usual American calamari. This is one of their popular dishes. 4/5
Miso Baked Duck Breast, ginger braised carrots, watercress, sweet potato fondant, orange reduction. This dish is slightly different from the one offered at Miku. I much prefer the duck breast at Minami. Again, this dish was able to hit my entire palette, sour, sweet, spicy, salty. 4.5/5
Minami and Miku are known for their Aburi Sushi, a roll that is pressed and then lightly seared and, topped with the secret Miku sauce. We tried dissecting the sauce, the two ingredients we all agreed on were sesame and soy sauce but, that is a given, it’s the base of almost all Japanese, Chinese sauces.
Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi, pressed local salmon, jalapeño, miku sauce, my favourite dish. It was sooo good. 5/5
Aburi Saba Oshi Sushi, pressed mackerel, miku miso sauce. Once again they hit this out of the ball park, a terrific dish. 4.5/5.
I keeping my fingers crossed, Minami will stay open longer than the other predecessors at this location, Goldfish being one of that recently closed. Their dishes were made with creativity and detail. The ingredients were fresh and, I will be recommending this place to my picky foodies.
Tableau Bistro, located inside the Loden Hotel serves a locally inspired French menu.
I’m sorry, I haven’t been blogging for a while, I was dying of exhaustion. It took me 12 hours of sleep on Sunday to fully recover from a week-long binge of drinking, eating and debauchery. Vegas is not a relaxing vacation spot. ;I’ve been thinking of going on a cleanse but, seriously who was I kidding, how could a restaurant blogger go on a cleanse and still be able to blog??
Now, I’m back!
I’ve been going to Tableau a lot these past couple of weeks. I always, love coming here, if I ever wanted to relax in a comfortable and nice environment, Tableau is the first place to come to mind and, admittedly it’s one of the closest restaurants to where I live. To my friends outside of downtown…I’m sorry I made you trek all the way downtown but, aren’t you glad you did?
This is a good first date spot. If your date turns out to be a bore you would also have other first dates around you for entertainment.
The service was attentive and the food for the most part was delicious. There were a few dishes that were off but, generally they rated 4/5. Tableau makes one of the best TWENTIETH CENTURY cocktails in Vancouver gin, white chocolate syrup, lillet, lemon and, egg white.
Absolutely DELISH!
I recently went to Bottleneck on Granville, review to come, I ordered the same cocktail and they came back with some disgusting licorice mouthwash concoction. Arghhh gag I can still taste it.
So on to the food….
Lamb chops – we all loved this dish. Unfortunately, this is a seasonal dish and is no longer available on their summer menu. The meat was so packed with flavor and the smokiness really came through. 4/5.
Mushrooms on toast, I know, I was skeptical at first, it’s mushrooms on toast, how phenomenal could this be? Our server told us this was one of their popular appetizers so we decided to give it a try. ;I was pleasantly surprised, this was good! ; Expensive for what it is but, I’m a big fan of mushrooms and this is now one of my favourite dishes on the menu 4.5/5
French onion soup, crouton-less, the fragrant was amazing. This rich soup was so flavourful, after I finished the bowl, I was pretty much full.
Burger and fries – Gruyère cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato. I rate burgers by the quality of the patty and the condiments. The patty was juicy and the bun was toasted. Other than the Gruyère there wasn’t much that set this burger apart from every other burger. 3/5
Rabbit Dijionaise pan-fried, although it tasted like it was braised. The meat was a sopping mess. 2/5
Beef tartare, the quality of the meat was superb. 4/5
Gnocchi pan-fried was nice and buoyant, often gnocchi’s are doughy, this was perfect. 4/5
Garganelli pasta with meatballs was simple and delicious. 4/5.
Steelhead trout with quinoa 3.5/5
Banana cake and peanut brittle and carmalized and chocolate ice-cream. They ran out of peanut brittle, and cake itself was hard and too dense. 2/5 I was looking forward to the peanut brittle too.
Coffee cheesecake, light in texture and also in flavor. 2.5/5
Food Persuasion 