Honey Salt Vancouver – Giant Cake and Crispy Skins

« [Dine Out Vancouver 2018] Menus are out: What caught our eyes #DOVF

2017 Lights at Lafarge – Free Holiday Light Display in Coquitlam »

Honey Salt Vancouver – Giant Cake and Crispy Skins

January 11, 2018 by Joyce

To celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary, we went to Honey Salt at the Parq Vancouver for dinner. Since its opening, I’ve been seeing photos on Instagram and I’ve been curious about it. Finally our turn to check it out.

So it’s our first time at the restaurant AND the casino. Everything looks shiny new to us. The restaurant interior is quite cute. It reminded me of a modern cottage kitchen/nook, with cupboards and shelves, hanging lights, and a lot of white and green. I quite like the style.

Food

The four of us shared a few appetizers. First, the Tofino Fry. Fried calamari and side stripe shrimps on one plate. The batter was thin, outside was crunchy, and the meat was tender. The Japanese mayo dipping sauce had some subtle heat; in my opinion the heat could be dialed up a bit. What surprised me was the few slices of fried lemon. Perhaps the batter took away some of the acidity, so it wasn’t face-puckering sour. The citrus flavour worked well with the seafood.

The Crisped Bacon Brussels is listed under Sides, and it’s in small print, so make sure you don’t miss it.

True to its name, brussels sprouts were crispy, had great flavours. And there were plenty of bacon bits.

We actually had no idea what to expect when I ordered the Little Louie Cups. Then, when the server brought over our dish, I realized it’s crab louie lettuce cups! The crab louie had a decent amount of heat, especially if you took one of the jalapeno slices. I thought it’s a bit too saucy to be wrapped with the butter lettuce. Overall, not my favourite appetizer.

Entrees here were solid. The RR Ranch Filet was the least memorable entrees of all but it was still very good. The steak was sous vide, then seared with perfect grill marks on the outside. It was tender, flavourful. It was sitting on top of rosti potato, which was slightly crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside.

I ordered the Icey Waters Arctic Char and boy, was I excited about the crispy skin. Fish was tender, the skin was super crispy. The romesco sauce brought acidity but I didn’t care for the big chunk of squash underneath. I’m not a fan of lentils but these were tasty. The only downside was the salt on the crispy skin – eating the skin alone was a bit too salty for my liking.

The Organic King Salmon Steak, surprise surprise, also had crispy skin. Salmon can be over-cooked sometimes, but this was cooked right. It was moist, seasoned well. The dungeness crab stuffing definitely helped keep the fish moist, and brought in more flavours.

The last entree was the Haida Wild Black Cod. I was not expecting the server to be pouring the chowder at the table, but I managed to grab a shot:

And to no surprise to you by now, the black cod also had crispy skin. Suffering from the same issue as the arctic char, the skin was also over-salted. But the fish was nice and flaky. The mussels were plump. There were many pieces of bacon and the smokiness was picked up by the chowder. This was probably the richest entree of all.

And then, there’s dessert. I’ve been seeing this giant slice of cake from Honey Salt, so I decided to experience that ourselves. And wow, I can see the slice of Society Chocolate & Banana Cake from miles away! It was about 8-inch long (and you can see how big it was next to my hand). There were rich and creamy layers of banana cake, milk chocolate mousse and chocolate cake. The dark chocolate glaze was decadent. The downside? The banana ice cream. If you like banana anything, you’d love it. I’m not a fan of banana-flavoured food so this was a no-no for me. Because the cake is so rich, a scoop of vanilla ice cream would probably make a nice alternative to banana ice cream.

We also ordered a slice of Salted Honey Pie. This is another signature dessert at Honey Salt. But being side-by-side with the Society Cake, this just wasn’t very impressive. The pie crust was thin yet flaky, but the filling didn’t wow me.

Parking

Parq Vancouver has an underground self-parking lot. It’s usually $5 for 3 hours. However, according to the website, on event nights, the parking would go up to $25. Unfortunately it was a Canucks home game that evening, so I called the restaurant ahead to confirm this information. Luckily for me, I also found out that Parq would refund you for the extra parking fees. So, I paid for parking at the vending machine, and went to the casino guest service counter (after being asked for my IDs at the door, thank you very much!) to get my refund. To my surprise, I actually received the full $25! Conditions apply: You need to be an Encore Rewards member, and you receive your refund in the form of a credit voucher. So, if you have self control like me, you would take the voucher to the cashing machine, and cash it out and get your free parking. Or, you can take the voucher to a slot machine and double it up!

Final Thoughts

Before the dinner, I’ve heard mixed reviews about Honey Salt, so frankly I went in with lower expectations. That being said, I left the restaurant satisfied and happy about our meal. Entrees were solid, love the crispy skins on all fish, and the Society Cake was memorable. I would recommend sharing the Society Cake — or just order it as your main!