Where's the last place you ate at and rate it ...

[roastpuff]

Originally Posted by Durrann

anyone have restaurant ideas for Valentines? fine dining please. thanks

Blue Water Cafe?

[Galactic_Phantom]

Naka Bistro in Langley
The owners are Laos and they have quite a bit thai dishes as well. Reasonable prices and reasonable portions. The only place in the Lower Mainland with Goong Chea Nam Pla (thai raw prawns). The girl who works there (owner's daughter?) was cute as well.

10/10

[turbos86]

Cocoru in Richmond
8/10
Korean fried chicken and beer, yum.
Food could come faster but waitresses do come around with complimentary finger food that you can ask for more, while you wait.

[Obsideon]

Question, if you had to choose one The Keg location in Vancouver which one would it be and why?

Granville Island
Yaletown
Alberni
Dunsmir

Thx

[knight604]

Neither, find another place...

[skiiipi]

Sixteen - Chicago

Recently on a trip to Chicago, I was able to meet up with a friend and have lunch at the 2 Michelin Star restaurant, Sixteen, located in the Trump Towers in downtown Chicago.

The restaurant on the 16th floor of the Trump hotel, and boast a gorgeous dining room with floor to ceiling windows that overlooks lake Michigan, the Chicago River and the Wrigley Clock Tower.









For lunch, both my friend and I decided on the Appie + Meat and Fish dish so 3 courses for $56 which was an incredible value for a 2 Michelin star meal. There was also a 6 course tasting menu, but the dishes did not seem as appealing as the a la carte options.

My friend and I ordered a bottle of wine from the wine list, I forgot the exact bottle, but it was a bottle of Riesling from Alsace France, the wine was approx $150 so likely it was a $30-40 dollar wine at the liquor store.

to start, we were offered a selection of bread, and then the server quickly brought us the Amuse Bouche, it was a corn jelly with smoked salmon, it was light while flavorful, great way to start the meal.



Then the waiter, to our surprise, brought us another dish that was the compliments of the kitchen, it was a beat/citrus salad with tuna. This dish was easily big enough to be considered a full appetizer, so our 3 course meal now became a 4 course meal....again incredible value.


For our starter, I went with the "Roast Medallion of Foie Gras, Onion Marmalade, Endive, Walnut and Fig" which carried a $7 supplement charge which was well worth it, as the portions was very generous with 2 decent pieces of Foie Gras, that was cooked to perfection, so buttery, rich and creamy.



My friend went for the "Golden Saffron Risotto with Rock Shrimp and Yellow Squash Frito" as her starter, and yes there was a piece of gold leaf on her Risotto.



Next up is the fish dish, I went with the "Roasted Maine Lobster Tail with Red Pepper, Fennel and Succulents" which was also $10 extra. I felt the lobster tail was slightly undercooked and could not be compared to the butter poached lobster tail at The French Laundry (3 Michelin Star), or the Curried Lobster tail at The Campton Place in San Francisco (2 Michelin Star).



My friend went with the "Striped Bass with Autumn Vegetables à la Grecque, Brandade, Confit Potato and Cipollini" for her fish dish.



For our meat dishes, I went to the "Roast Duck Breast with Salsify, Braised Red Cabbage, Currant Jus" which was very well done, the Duck beast was perfectly cooked, the skin was crispy and the fat rendered.



My friend decided to go with the "Filet of Beef with Pomme Puree, Brussels Sprouts, Verjus and Bacon" which she thought was under whelming as the steak was actually over cooked and was not quite "Michelin caliber"



At this point we were both quite full, but managed to save room to share a dessert, it was a coconut tapioca dessert with raspberry sorbet and some candied flowers (which was actually very delicious to eat)



Last but not least, the Petit Fours


Overall the experience was a 7/10, the ambiance and service was top notch and is what you'd expect from a 2 Michelin star Restaurant. However in comparison to another 2 Michelin Star restaurant, The Campton Place in San Francisco (which was actually only 1 star when I had lunch there last year), the food fell short. The Campton Place had, in my opinion better food, which the equal level of service.

Price wise, the lunch ended up being just under $300 before taxes and tips, which is not bad considering we had a bottle of wine as well.

The quality of food is certainly better than most lunch venues in Vancouver, such as Market at Shangri-la, or Oru at the Pacific Rim etc.
The overall dining experience also exceeds most high end resturants in Vancouver, such as Hawksworth or Le Crocodile but if we are comparing just food, some of the dishes at Sixteen would actually fall short of some of the finest resturants in Vancouver.

Next up on my foodie adventure is the Signature Tasting Menu at Jean Georges in New York this coming Sunday.

[skiiipi]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

Question, if you had to choose one The Keg location in Vancouver which one would it be and why?

Granville Island
Yaletown
Alberni
Dunsmir

Thx

yaletown for the patio
and or the private dining room if you have a large party

[Verdasco]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

Question, if you had to choose one The Keg location in Vancouver which one would it be and why?

Granville Island
Yaletown
Alberni
Dunsmir

Thx

dunsmir or alberni, probably alberni

[jinxcrusader]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

Question, if you had to choose one The Keg location in Vancouver which one would it be and why?

Granville Island
Yaletown
Alberni
Dunsmir

Thx

They're all the same to me IMO so I would go by parking accessibility
Granville island

[6793026]

yeah parking is a bitch for the Keg but if i had to choose, the yaletown patio for the win.

[Galactic_Phantom]

Peckinpah 0/10
Can't find a reason to give it any points

Dry meat. Check
Tiny portions. Check
Overpriced. Check
Shitty sauce. Check
Below average service. Check

[westopher]

Bummer, I used to enjoy it there, but saw it slipping every time.

[guurl]

Off the grid waffles 7/10

Don't get california pizza waffle lol even though they say its the most popular item on the menu

[Galactic_Phantom]

Mosquito 10/10

[Durrann]

Originally Posted by Galactic_Phantom

Mosquito 10/10

since you gave it 10/10 can you elaborate ?

[6793026]

^ Mosquito is a niche market. If you just want dessert at a decent place with it being hidden in gastown, that's where I would go.

decent dessert, smaller portions but it's all good. I popped opened a bottle of bubble and a few dessert and thought it was perfectly reasonable with service as well as food.

Would go back for sure. I mean, other than theirry, bbt / shaved ice place in richmond or sweet revenge, i think Mosquito is not too shabby.

[Galactic_Phantom]

Compared to Vancouver's vanilla dessert scene, it is just something different. The ambience is great, decor and the food is eye appealing and good service. I had the dark chocolate cremeux which was a cream, mousse, cookie in a cup and the layers and texture that overlap in one bite was just terrifically done. I am limited in explaining what it was specifically because I was too busy indulging in it to think about how to explain this to someone else

[Bender Unit]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

Question, if you had to choose one The Keg location in Vancouver which one would it be and why?

Granville Island
Yaletown
Alberni
Dunsmir

Thx

The Keg at Granville Island 0/10

Went there last Thursday. Ordered from their Dine Out Menu. Got food poison.
Both me & my wife got stomach virus. Required days off on Friday & Saturday.
It was my usual The Keg location frequently visit.
Don't think I will be going back to that location.

[Obsideon]

Ended up at the Yaletown Keg.
5/10.
I ordered the New York in the Dine-Out and my GF went for the Rib Steak from the regular menu.
Both steaks were just "ok", ended up being a little dry and mine was definitely not rare as I always have it. It was closer to medium. She ordered medium rare and we compared steaks, both were identical colour inside, barely pink.
My friends said their prime rib was ok. Ambiance was good, service was good.

Trattoria on W. 4th
6/10
The Calamari was delicious, crispy with some heat.
Pasta was decent but overpriced for $23 a plate.
Couple of my friends ordered from the dine-out menu and they didn't like the entrees of fish and ham at all. Barely touched it.
The Nutella dessert was really good.
The server (looked like Liam Hemsworth) gave us the feeling that he didn't want to be there and was not friendly at all, was barely at our table. We had to flag him down for everything. He never came by with the pepper mill, I had to wave him away from his "chat" with the hostess to order another beer. I asked for a glass for my beer and he's like "oh, *sigh* fine" I guess also knowing that he was gonna automatically include 18% gratuity onto the bill too didn't help.

[syee]

Did Dine Out menu at West last Friday

5/10
I ordered off their Dine Out menu - the Confit Duck Salad + Roasted Beef Flatiron + Apple Cheesecake Galette.

The confit duck salad was actually pretty good, roasted beef was cold and pretty tasteless and really needed the BBQ sauce to give it some flavour. The Apple Cheesecake Galette was pretty good. I guess 2 out of 3 isn't too bad.

Service seemed like they wanted to get us out the door ASAP. They cleared our dishes even though we weren't completely done with them. (I had ordered some foie gras for the table that they brought out with the salad, and they took it away with our salad plates even though there was still 1/4 of it still left!). My expectation would be at least to ask if we were done with it before taking it away. I guess they got to get tables moving, but this clearly isn't the way to do it.

While they were quick to clear our plates, they only came back once to check on our drinks and promptly gave us the check right after dessert was done. By that time, the restaurant was half empty so I don't think there really was a reason to push people out the door.

I expected more from West, but I think this kind of highlights what most people say about DoV and hopefully doesn't reflect how the place really is during non DoV season. I don't think I'd ever come back here during DoV season. Maybe I might try it some other time and hopefully it'll be better.

[Hondaracer]

i dont really get why anyone would wait at all to get into the keg, nor run there for dine out.

Friends of mine tried to go to the Walnut Grove location last week, and the wait was like 2 hours?.. why..

[MindBomber]

Meet on Main (vegan/vegetarian)

Food - 8/10
Service - 10/10 (I think our particular server may have had a lot to do with it)

It's cool for a place to be taking a comfort food approach to vegan/vegetarian food. It's certainly unlike the other options of its type in the city and worth a try if you're interested in the concept.

[Galactic_Phantom]

Steveston Pizza 9.5/10
Don't ask me to explain it. I don't know what they do or what they put (probably crack), but its fucking delicious

[guurl]

^ what do you order from there? im in steveston like 2/3 times a week so maybe i will give it a try

[skiiipi]

Originally Posted by Galactic_Phantom

Steveston Pizza 9.5/10
Don't ask me to explain it. I don't know what they do or what they put (probably crack), but its fucking delicious

Haha agreed..I know it's not authentic Italian pizza but it's still so good
So much topping.

My usual is the Hawaiian, premium grade black Forrest ham and lots of cheese.

Their C pizzas are also good but kind of a splurge.