It’s a brand-new year, with all the hope and promise that usually brings. But before you whip out the scales and healthy resolutions, don’t forget that Dine Out Vancouver is also back this month, running Jan. 16 to Feb. 1 (reservations opened Jan. 7 at DineOutVancouver.com).
RESTAURANTS
There are close to 300 restaurants offering prix fixe menus at $18, $28 or $38 per person, so how to choose? While there are many great options, here are a few of my personal picks:
Bella Gelateria Yaletown ($28) The same delicious and hand-crafted gelato as at the original Coal Harbour location, but here with the addition of Napoletana pizza and old-world Italian classics like buffalo bruschetta, farro soup, handmade tagliatelle and tiramisu coppetta. The Coal Harbour location is also serving up a three-course dessert platter for $18.
The Irish Heather ($18) Vancouver’s original gastropub, serving up classic British comfort food like pot pie, colcannon, Yorkshire pudding and more. This year’s Dine Out choices include the likes of potato-leek soup, vegan haggis, beef tongue ’n’ cheek pie, chocolate bread pudding and meringues.
Exile Bistro ($28) The West End’s newest “wild at heart” restaurant focuses more on the plant side of the menu with dishes like handmade sunchoke ravioli with ricotta and kale sauce, borscht salad, lentil pâté and stuffed squash with wild mushrooms, but meats are also represented. Bison shortribs with spelt kernels and chaga cream sounds too good to miss, as does the flourless chocolate cake with spruce tip ice cream.
Graze ($28) Vegans deserve to eat well, too. The three-course plant-based (and largely gluten-free) menu includes kale Caesar with creamy garlic avocado dressing, flatbread with toasted walnut pesto, cashew gouda and roasted vegetables, wild mushroom phyllo purses, eggplant roulade, truffles with hazelnut ganache and warm gingerbread cake.
Left Bank ($28) This fun West End bistro offers up French food “kissed by the colonies.” Start with curried butternut squash velouté with pumpkin seed raita, beetroot carpaccio with toasted almonds and manchego, or steelhead croquettes with lemon mayo, before moving on to braised chicken leg with potato cake, steak frites or pan-seared sockeye with beluga lentil and cabbage fricassee. Finish with chocolate and espresso torte or the yogurt and lemon panna cotta.
Merchants Oyster Bar ($28) Commercial Drive dining has definitely improved with the arrival of this little gem. Their regular menu already offers up excellent deals, so look at this Dine Out menu as gravy. Start with raw oysters or tuna ceviche, followed by their excellent beef tartare and handmade pasta, lingcod with chorizo emulsion or braised shortribs with parsnip puree and honey-roasted carrots.
Siena ($28) Tucked away in the South Granville neighbourhood, this small trattoria offers up excellent Italian nosh. Brandied pear and Gorgonzola salad is an excellent choice, as is the mushroom-truffle tagliatelle. Finish with almond and apple bread pudding for something comforting or go luxe with the dark chocolate and orange torte.
Blacktail ($38) It’s Gastown’s restaurant reborn. Cauliflower soup with apple butter, milk-poached chicken and barley risotto, hanger steak with fondant potatoes, all speak to the easy, comfortable and locally-based excellence of the menu. Finish with chocoloate mousse s’mores or apple pie with cinnamon chantilly for a nice little hit of home sweet home.
Cibo Trattoria ($38) Fine-dining Italian in a casual and elegant setting is so very Vancouver, no? Chef Faizal Kassam’s menu highlights options like fresh ravioli with roasted squash and ricotta, beef carpaccio with mustard greens ($5 supplement), roasted local cod, bison short rib ($5 supplement), fresh tagliatelle with veal and pork Bolognese, and the famous chocolate nemesis cake.
Wildebeest ($38) Get your meat-on here. Bison carpaccio drizzled with black olive and soy vinaigrette is paired with crispy burdock, sous vide steelhead sits with compressed apple, bergamot and honey. Angus Reserve striploin is well matched with creamed leeks and salt-baked sunchoke (definitely get the roasted veal sweetbread supplement). Even the vegetarian option for your main is lavish, a sweet onion and barley risotto with slow-cooked egg, roasted mushrooms and melted fontina (the supplement of shaved black truffles is recommended).
Zen ($38) Ocean Wise and sustainable seafood and sushi is always in style. Choosing between prawn wontons stuffed with Wild Selva black tiger prawns and shitakes or crispy sesame cones with edamame hummus and topped with ahi poke, wild sockeye and those ridiculously good prawns might be hard, but miso-glazed sea bream is a no-brainer, especially when paired with mushroom-yam chips and micro shiso. Don’t miss the chef selection of sushi, torched aburi-style, or the sashimi with fresh-grated BC wasabi.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
It’s impossible to list every restaurant worth checking out, but here are a few more worthy names for consideration.
$18
• Chutney Villa
• Clough Club
• Damso Modern Korean Cuisine
• Dunn’s Famous
• The Reef
• Rocky Mountain Flatbread
• Romer’s Burger Bar
$28
• The Abbey
• Abigail’s Party
• Cactus Club Café
• Campagnolo
• Campagnolo Roma
• Chewies Steam & Oyster Bar
• Chicha
• Forage
• Gyoza Bar
• Maenam
• Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts – Bistro 101
• Twisted Fork Bistro
$38
• Bambudda
• Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar
• Chambar
• CinCin
• La Buca
• Miku
• Minami
• Oru
• Provence Restaurants
• Yew Seafood & Bar
EVENTS
As important as the restaurants involved, the events that make this festival such a local and international draw each year are many and varied. Here are the experiences and menus you won’t want to miss.
International Chef Exchange: Brighton Comes to Vancouver Food festivals happen all around the world, including Brighton in the UK. As part of an international chef exchange and co-presented by Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival, chef Matty Bowling of Terre à Terre, an award-winning vegetarian restaurant in Brighton, will be taking over the kitchen at The Parker for one night on Jan. 18, showcasing the local foods and flavours of their region. Local UK spirits and sparkling wine will also be featured. This is a new event for Dine Out, and The Parker’s Felix Zhou will be travelling to Brighton in May for part two of this chef exchange. Tickets for Jan. 18 are $66.
Mamie’s Southern Feast Known for their Southern-inspired comfort food, Mamie Taylor’s is hosting a long-table dinner on Jan. 20 featuring southern comfort classics. The three-course menu will be served family-style and includes a cocktail and Mississippi mud pie for dessert. Tickets $48.
Street Food City Back for a fourth year, this popular event runs Jan. 19-25 on the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery. More than 25 food trucks will be in rotation this year, offering up tasty eats Monday to Thursday, 11am-3pm, and Friday to Sunday, 11am-5pm. The trucks will offer special dishes for Dine Out, as well as modified pricing. There will also be tents with tables and seating, so don’t be put off by bad weather. Trucks this year include Blue Smoke, Le Tigre, Roaming Dragon, Fat Duck, Mom’s Grilled Cheese and more. On Monday, Jan. 19, chef Matty Bowling of Brighton’s Terre à Terre will be taking over one truck for a special pop-up experience.
Side Dishes: The Best of Hawksworth One of city’s most lauded restaurants, Hawksworth has created an indelible place for itself on Vancouver’s dining scene since opening four years ago. Over the course of five evenings (Jan. 17, 20, 24, 27 and 31), the restaurant will present its most popular dishes in a series of three-course menus. Look for dishes like confit pork shoulder, hamachi in buttermilk and green apple, slow-cooked beef shortribs and more. Tickets are $75, or $123 with wine pairings.
Film Feast: Big Night Shangri-La Hotel has brought back their annual dinner-and-a-movie event, and this year the classic Big Night will be screened on four nights, followed by a four-course dinner at Market by Jean-Georges. The evening also includes popcorn for the movie, and some bubbly on arrival. Date night luxe, indeed. Tickets are $78.
Six-Course Discourse My fellow columnist, Mijune Pak, is once again hosting this “gathering of minds,” – chef minds, that is. Join Mijune for a scintillating evening, starting with a BC VQA wine and canapé reception with food stations manned by Café Medina, Bambudda, Chocolate Arts, No Fixed Address, and the kitchens of the six guest speakers: David Hawksworth, Pino Posteraro, Angus An, Robert Clark, Taryn Wa and Thomas Haas. Then listen to these chefs “dish” on their thoughts, followed by a talk-back session and aftermath social. Tickets $79.40.
Robbie Burns Whisky Supper @ Café Medina What happens when you pair chef Jonathan Chovancek’s West-Coast-meets-Scotland food with whisky-based cocktails from award-winning mixologist Lauren Mote? A bit o’ the good stuff, me lassies. Celebrate Scotland’s favourite son with cocktails highlighting Highland Park, Macallan, Famous Grouse and Laphroaig, paired with dishes such as Chovancek’s take on a traditional haggis, plus golden carrot and whisky soup with charcoal chicken confit and Za’atar crème fraîche, harissa lamb sausage with peated oat and farrow, and dark chocolate and whisky stuffed dates with smoky, crispy meringues. Tickets $107.94.
Bittered Sling Bistro Pop-Up Dinner Bittered Sling owners award-winning bartender/sommelier Lauren Mote and celebrated chef Jonathan Chovancek are bringing back their ever-popular Bittered Sling Bistro for an exclusive, one-night-only, two-seating event on Jan. 29 profiling agave spirits, sponsored by Herradura and El Jimador Tequilas. Collaboration is key for this fiesta as Cibo Trattoria and UVA Wine & Cocktail Bar executive chef Faizal Kassam welcomes Café Medina executive chef Chovancek into the kitchen to prepare a sumptuous three-course dinner that will be paired with unique drinks shaken and stirred by cocktail partners-in-crime and agave enthusiasts Danielle Tatarin of The Keefer Bar, along with UVA’s Mote. Tickets $107.94 for first seating and $80.34 for second seating.
For the full Dine Out 2015 line line-up, visit DineOutVancouver.com
