Dishcrawl West End – Eating My Way Along Robson Street Part 2

Continuing our journey from Part 1 of the Dishcrawl West End tour, we kept on heading eastward from Hida Takayama Ramen and arrived at the door of Forage Restaurant. You would remember my interview with its Executive Chef, Chris Whittaker, a couple of weeks ago, so yes, I did know ahead of time that we would be coming here for a tasting trio. I was quite looking forward to this stop.

Forage Restaurant (1300 Robson Street)

Once again, each table is given three full-size plates to share. First of all, the Nettle Gnocchi with Brown Butter was very good. It’s slightly crispy on the outside, and pillowy inside. The brown butter added extra richness, savouriness and nutty taste to the dish. I don’t eat gnocchi often, but other ones I’ve had tend to be more doughy, whereas this one seemed to have more potato content. It’s almost like pan-fried mashed potato balls.

True to its Farm-to-Table and seasonal concept, the next dish features the Foraged Mushrooms that are currently in season. This is a very simple dish, but that’s also the best way to let the ingredients shine in their own light. You can taste the earthiness of the mushrooms, and their natural flavours. The rye bread was made in-house, which made great toasts to eat the mushrooms with. The use of goat cheese added a creamy texture to the dish.

Lastly, the mystery Flatbread included pancetta, morel mushrooms, onion béchamel, Jersey blue cheese. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of pungent blue cheese, so it’s my least favourite dish at Forage. The blue cheese, to me, was quite strong, and it overpowered the flavours of pancetta andd morel mushrooms. If you like blue cheese, though, you will probably enjoy this dish.

The interior of Forage uses a lot of wood, which matches perfectly with its farm-to-table concept. I also like that they use customized serving planks for their dishes. The quality of food is promising here, so I will definitely go back to try some more of their food.

Capstone Tea & Fondue (1429 Robson Street)

Lastly, we crossed the street to Capstone for desserts. I still remember the time Mr. and I ate at Capstone a couple years ago; a lot has changed at Capstone since then. The number of menu offerings has increased, and they are now serving the fondue in personal size set.

Our Chocolate Fondue included ice cream balls, pineapple & strawberries, banana bread, cheesecake, cookies and macarons (which is still in testing phase). The dark chocolate was rich and silky smooth, and went well with everything on our plate. We were also given some salted caramel sprinkles, which added some crunch and sweet-and-salty flavours to our dessert.

At the end of the event, we all went home stuffed and satisfied. It was a lot of fun touring the West End and eating at restaurants that I have never been/heard of before. It was extra fun to be sitting with a few fellow bloggers, and we didn’t have to worry about taking our time to find the perfect angle for our pictures, or using ghetto lighting in the otherwise dimmed dining room.