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Taste of Yaletown at George Ultra Lounge

Posted in Bistro, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dinner, Fine dining, Joyce, Lounge, Meat, Restaurants, Salad, Seafood, Taste of Yaletown, Vancouver, West Coast, Yaletown, tagged apple tart, Beef Carpaccio, Brix Restaurant, duck breast, George Ultra Lounge, lamb bacon, ling cod, panna cotta, Prix Fixe, Taste of Yaletown, Yaletown on October 29, 2014| 2 Comments »

Last weekend I went for a girls’ dinner with CC and LW. It’s Taste of Yaletown time, which means we were able to order a prix fixe menu for an affordable $25, $35 or $45. We initially wanted to try Brix because it had a more appealing menu; unfortunately they were closed for a private event so we were offered a table at the sister operation, George Ultra Lounge.

Food

Turns out both Brix and George offer the same menu, which is a combination of what was posted on the Taste of Yaletown website. They kept the best part of both menus, i.e. lots of appealing meat options, so we could order a few different things to try. And they operate out of the same kitchen, so it didn’t make a difference whether we dined at Brix or George in this case.

For appetizers, I ordered the Lamb Bacon Salad. I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb bacon before so that was quite intriguing. It was similar to pork belly; it had equal distribution of meat and fat, fried to a crispy yet meaty texture. It wasn’t overly fatty or greasy either. It had a bit of gamey taste but that’s partly why I enjoy eating lamb. The salad was well balanced with soft and crunchy elements, and hint of bitterness from the endives and radish; they used a pungent, blue-cheese like cheese, which I wasn’t a fan of.

CC and LW both ordered the AAA Beef Carpaccio. (more…)

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The Observatory [Dine Out Vancouver 2014]

Posted in Bread, Chocolate, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Fine dining, Great Views, Joyce, North Vancouver, Restaurants, Seafood, Special Occasion, Sustainable, West Coast, tagged apple tart, Beef Short Rib, beet salad, Brandade, Chinese New Year, Chocolate Ganache, Dine Out Vancouver 2014, Duck Confit, gnocchi, Grouse Mountain, Pain d'Epi, The Observatory, trout on February 5, 2014| 3 Comments »

For every Dine Out, in addition to the new restaurants that pop up throughout the year, my family and I also have a wishlist of restaurants that we would look for. It has been a few years since we wanted to go to The Observatory on Grouse Mountain, but every time the menu just wasn’t very interesting to us. Finally this year’s menu seemed to have something for everyone so we booked it as part of our Chinese New Year celebration.

Food

I should give a caveat that The Observatory isn’t a typical Westcoast restaurant. There are elements of molecular gastronomy that you will see below. But before I even talk about the actual menu, I must compliment on the Epi French Bread (Pain d’Epi) that they offer each table. First of all, it’s free; secondly, it’s of generous amount; and thirdly, it’s hot and tastes good. It came with a compound butter with some smokey and apricot flavours topped with some sea salt. It was some really good-tasting bread, crunchy but not jaw-breaking, and we finished it rather quickly.

Because there were 3 of us, we got all three appetizers. The Duck Confit wasn’t a whole duck leg; it was shredded duck meat in a ring mold along with some micro green salad. The grapefruit gel was basically the dressing, adding a bit of sweetness, bitterness and tartness to the salad.

The Roasted Heirloom Beets was just too pretty to eat. The two preparations (crispy and soft roasted) really showcased the beets and its natural sweetness was very pronounced. The ricotta cheese cake replaced the usual goat cheese but still brought in some creaminess to the salad.