Dine Out Vancouver 2014
 

Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2014

What are some places on people's list.

Bistro 101 and the Keg are the 2 places that never disappoint my expectations. They have good standards even in DoV. However, bistro 101 looks fully booked up

Dine Out Vancouver is where my Costco Amex yearly rebate goes to. Just in time too.

If you want to go out and get a decent meal cheap, DOV is good for that, but please, don't go to a restaurant you have been dying to try and be surprised that it isn't all you hoped for. EVERY restaurants quality drops and its not an accurate representation of what they can do. Everyone who works it wants to blow their brains out by the end, so expect a few less smiles. Lots of people who don't have the manners to be out in public are at restaurants at this time, and trust me, the shit some of the servers have to put up with is crazy. I always hear people go to somewhere like hawksworth or l'abbatior and say "oh I don't know why people like this place so much" or "the food wasn't even that good." When you are eating somewhere charging less than half of what they usually charge, the food won't be the same, I promise that. That said, enjoy a decent cheap meal and smile at your server, they will greatly appreciate it and return the smile with way better service than the table of people that can't say please or thank you will get.

DoV is a plague.

me and GF looked through a whole bunch of menus of places we wanted to try, nothing very interesting at all, think we'll just go with regular menu at our leisure as Westopher says

Any reviews of the DOV menu at Pier 73? -brother said that they have a $20 menu of seafood items.

Agreed.

Take it from someone who is in the industry (westopher).

I'm not a jaded industry prick either. I quite like my job, and thoroughly appreciate cooking good food for cool people, some of the behaviour that comes with the dine out crowd though is really embarrassing.

Why is that?

Isn't the whole point of participating in dov to provide a "tasting menu" of what the place offers, and by offers, I don't mean just food - I mean, the atmosphere, the wait staff, etc. For most people, dov is the first impression because it's affordable. I'm sure from a business perspective, it's advertising- come in, try a sample of food, we hope you like it/us enough to comeback and pay regular price. So, why not make an impression by putting the same effort into the $40 dish as the $140 dish? If the place does not want to "cheapen" it's brand by offering a $40 menu, maybe they should take a lesson from Tiffany & Co. and never put their brand on sale. I'm sure, I along with a lot of other people will have more respect for a quality restaurant that will offer top notch service 100% of the time even if the price is $140 24/7/365.

I'm no foodie, but interested to hear your thoughts from the other side of the grass.

Yep.
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I'll give you my point of view, and while not necessarily always the case, I can tell you it is very often the case. February is dead, dead as fuck in restaurants. The people that they need to fill the seats with are not their normal clientele. You do what you can to survive. There are SO MANY restaurants in vancouver, and lots of them can barely scrape through the january february lull. The people that commonly come out for dine out are the people that go out to eat once or twice a year, and believe it or not, those are a lot of people. You wont see them again til next year in the restaurant. You get their money, throw it into the bill account thats overdrawn and hope that enough of them keep you afloat. After dine out, the regulars bank accounts have replenished after christmas/vacations and the customers you see once a month or more are back filling your seats, and you don't worry til next january. There is no physical possible way that most independent restaurants can offer the same food quality for half the prices, because margins are so slim, you'd never make it out alive.

I understand the purpose of a marketing budget, but it can't outweigh the profits. Also, the volume, as well as the low cost mean there is no way the restaurant will be adequately staffed, therefore, no way the quality of service will be there. Dine outs motto should be "asses in the seats, some food on the plates" I've ran kitchens in dineout and I'm still expected to meet my labour costs, yet I'm supposed to sell 1.5x the food at .75 the price. I don't hit labour? I take the heat. My only options are put out a weaker product or run a kitchen that loses money. Owners don't take to kindly to a kitchen losing money. Also, I have to hit food cost. Either portions get small, or food gets lower quality. People rip places to shreds over leaving full, yet most people that come out won't notice the difference between good food and ok food. Unfortunately, the good customer that wants to try something new and appreciates good food suffers so we can fill the seats with just anyone with a wallet. Its not every restaurant with this mindset, but lots of independent restaurants it has to be.

That being said, the restaurant I'm at doesn't do dine out, and we will hopefully still be full every night as we have been but getting a great clientele and tons of regulars.

Question for the pros:
1. Reservations.
2. Seats are almost full.
3. Some places no longer have an a la carte, but only offer the set menu.

In theory, these things should mean...
- Predictable numbers, less wastage
- Economies of scale for pushing out similar dishes (more overlap?)
- More slow cooked, braised meals to help push things out easier.

I'm curious if in reality, how much those factors really help?
How many restaurants remove the a la carte?

I've seen a lot of damage coming from wannabe know it all food bloggers to Yelp / Urbanspoon Master Level 9000s blasting great restaurants. Does it do the restaurant/chefs/owners any good? You decide.

The crowds eat up that shit like it's a free lunch and then they tell their buddies. And like westopher said, these are the people who eat out maybe once a year and post on their Facebook "I'm a Foodie!" No. Fuck you. STFU.

DoV can be dangerous for some restaurants.

You've nailed it pretty much from MY own personal experience, though I've noticed from two years of DoV that seafood selection sell surprisingly better than the "braised" selection. Probably because "braised" lol.

Will agree with westopher that DoV is great for an affordable date in reputable restaurants. Expect to be in for something good, but nothing "omgbestmeal2014300%finediningWOWsogood" good.

Agreed. The last restaurant I worked in closes during DoV for vacation because the chef knows its not worth participating in a restaurant that seats only 52 and pulls in most $$ from their wine selection.

For me personally, I don't go to a lot of expensive restaurants all the time. But I used to go to DOV and go to places I normally wouldn't. If I have a good experience, I ALWAYS go back during 'normal' times paying full price. A few times, I have found a new 'favourite' that is my go-to when I want to spend a bit of money on a nice dinner.

Other places gave the shit service and shit food Westopher talked about. This was their time to show me why I should come back, and many other restaurants are smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity. Others can bitch and moan, give shitty service, prepare shitty food, and I'll never go back, DOV or not.

Like you said, Vancouver is highly competitive, and Feb is a slow month. So if anything, they should be jumping all over the opportunity to get some people in who would otherwise never go, even as a loss leader.

Sorry but that just seems like kind of a shitty snobby attitude to have, and restaurants that think like that deserve all the failure they get while others succeed with good non-discriminatory customer service.

I will say that I sympathise with people who have to work during this time, it must be tough. But for customers to complain about this? Calling it a "plague" and bitching about people posting photos on Facebook? What a pleasure you must be to be around if you have that kind of attitude.

I'm not saying the food or service is going to be "shit." Its just not necessarily going to be up to standard for a normally high standard restaurant. It has nothing to do with discriminatory customer service, its a simple inability to provide the same quality.

This thread went sideways quickly.

Can we get people opinions about DoV out of it as a whole and just talk about what the OP wanted? Good places to check out and have fun.

I already have a few reservations booked.

Which ones have people booked?
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Hope this helps.

Dine Out Vancouver 2014: how to choose the best restaurants | Georgia Straight, Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly

Didn't book any coz I am forever alone -_-

So... people are usually broke after the holiday seasons after spending tons of money on gifts, dinners, end-of-year catch-ups and get togethers, NYE celebrations... no surprise restaurants are empty.

Well, boyfriend is a January baby so I gotta take him out for his birthday. We decided on West. We managed to get a reservation and we're pretty excited!

People don't want the hordes who wear sneakers and hoodies and the ne'er do wells invading their restaurants.

I do agree with the sentiment expressed by some that people who claim to be foodies on social media and don't know how to make a proper meal at home are annoying.
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Who gives a fuck what other people wear?

And just because someone posts a picture of their meal on facebook doesn't mean they are "claiming" to be anything.