Wine list is vast and food shows glimmers of excellence

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Divino Wine Bar

Where: 1590 Commercial Dr.

604-258-0005

www.divinovancouver.com

When: Open for lunch and dinner, Monday to Saturday

Overall: Rating 3

Food: fRating 3

Ambience: fRating 3

Service: Rating 3Price: $$

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously, and interviews are done by phone. Reviews are rated out of five stars.

$: Less than $50 for two before tip and tax

$$: $50 to $100

$$$: more than $100

There’s a lot of energy, ambition and earnestness wrapped up in this restaurant that ventures into upscale dining on Commercial Drive. The intent is fine dining, but it’s more bistro, which is good because the charm of Commercial Drive is its proletarian nature.

But then again, Divino Wine Bar’s extravagant once-a-month Bordeaux and Burgundy dinners, featuring prized vintages, are sold out until September, and for $300 to $400 a meal, this is not the Commercial Drive I know.

“I think Commercial Drive has been waiting for this,” says David Fert, the manager and sommelier.

Who knows? Maybe it takes a newbie. Fert arrived in Vancouver last year, lured by a “beautiful girl from Vancouver” he met working as restaurant and wine director at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Austria.

Once here, he decided to check out Divino, curious about the “wine bar” aspect. “I looked at the wine list and said, ‘Sorry, this is not a wine bar.’ “

Before he knew it, owner Ted Grippo hired him. In turn, Fert hired Jefferson Alvarez who’s trained in some esteemed kitchens in North America and Spain. As a teen, he worked at Centro, one of Toronto’s crown jewels. He went on to work at Canoe, another stellar spot. He did stages at Morimoto (run by Japanese and American Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto), Susur Lee’s restaurants and at two-Michelin starred Restaurant Arzak in Spain.

This August, he’ll do a two-week stage at El Poblet, an avant-garde Spanish restaurant.

Divino’s wine list is deep and vast, with nice hits from small B.C. wineries, forgoing big hitters such as Mission Hill.

The food shows glimmers of the excellence the chef is striving for. He offers a five-course tasting menu with wine for $75 and will cook off-menu with some regulars. He makes his own cured meats for the charcuterie menu and changes it up constantly.

On my visits, cocoa-braised bison short ribs were exquisite; Arctic char, seared to a golden crust, was served with a lobster-studded potato salad (delicious); musk-ox with mushroom bread pudding was tender; tuna sashimi with spicy aioli could use a sharper presentation but featured good-quality, fresh tuna.

But not every dish sang. Arepa (a dish from Alvarez’s native country, Venezuela) was leathery and required much sawing with my knife.

But most disappointing, a dish of seasonal spot prawns were mushy. The heads hadn’t been removed. (If heads are on too long after they die, enzymes in the stomach turn the flesh mushy unless they’re treated chemically, as the Japanese do.)

Desserts vary. Pineapple ginger cake with vanilla gelato underwhelmed, but an apple strudel with gelato showed great pastry-making skill. It was served hot, and my partner and I waged war over it.

The room is casual (a TV in the corner is shorthand for that) and is filled with the ease of locals coming in for drinks or a meal. I really wish they’d remove the annoying footless champagne glasses from the tables; they sit, bouquet-like, with stems inserted in a base.

Fert is not only sommelier and manager, he waits tables as well, engagingly, and with quiet aplomb.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Great food, excellent service keeps award-winning restaurant at the top of the pack

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Jade Seafood Restaurant

Where: 8511 Alexandra Road. Richmond,
 604-249-0082
www.jaderestaurant.ca.
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, daily.
Overall: 4
Food: 4

It’s double happiness for me. First, the start of the Chinese Restaurant Awards two years ago became my compass for bushwhacking through the forest of Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver.

That’s especially so in Richmond with the highest number of restaurants per capita in the universe. I have no stats to back me but all you need to do is look. There’s nothing but restaurants, block after block after block. They are so well-loved by the populace that you use more fuel circling parking lots than in getting there.

The second source of my delight is the Canada Line, which shrinks my carbon footprint guilt and my time spent in getting to Richmond, although I confess, I sped to Jade Seafood Restaurant in my gas-fed steed.

The restaurant won awards at this year’s Chinese Restaurant Awards for two of their dishes: a gold for the Mushroom Dumplings and a silver for Grandpa’s Smoked Chicken. Last year, it won an award for its Claypot chicken.

It was a good tip. I couldn’t try the Mushroom Dumplings because it’s a dim sum dish (I went in the evening) but I did try Grandpa’s Smoked Chicken. I don’t know who Grandpa is, but his chicken is sure delicious.

The chicken is smoked with stir-fried rice and tea leaves in a wok, then served cold with a ginger green onion sauce; it was so juicy, masterfully balanced and delicately flavoured.

Hot Sour Soup was good but nothing out of the ordinary. Crispy Golden Shrimps, were large prawns which appeared to be deep-fried with a tempura-like batter. But no, the batter is just egg yolk. Large fresh prawns lie in wait inside the crispy coating.

I wondered if the Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Scrambled Eggs would feature the perfect scrambled eggs I’ve had in good Chinese restaurants. I wasn’t disappointed. My omelettes where I beat the egg whites for extra poof aren’t as good as these slightly jiggly, poofy eggs.

The also-noted Claypot Chicken is first marinated, then baked until the skin is crispy before cooked further in the claypot with herbs, green onions and a sauce.

The dishes averaged about $15 and what I tried is but a tiny fraction of the menu. Owner David Chung, a Richmond developer (Dava Developments) loves food and considers the restaurant his hobby.

“Some people spend money on their hobbies. I don’t make much money but I enjoy it like a hobby and spending time here,” he says.

The head chef, Tony Luk, who previously cooked at Grand Honour restaurant, likes to invent dishes, like his lobster or crab with foie gras sauce. “You take off the cover and it smells like foie gras,” Chung says.

“And our dim sum chef is one of the best,” Chung says. “He apprenticed in one of the best places to eat in China.” The various dumplings, he says, all have different wrappers. “Every one has a different recipe, no matter how small the difference.”

There are three levels of set menus, he says. The “family dinner” is $45 for a party of four but they must be finished by 7:30. The next level is called Corner Store Cafe and costs about $25-35 per person. The customized dinner is upwards of $40 per person and gets the most creative work from the kitchen.

Chinese restaurants aren’t always noted for service, which is often perfunctory and quick and efficient.

Here, they go the extra distance, with greetings and welcomes and friendliness even when the place is going nuts with a dinner rush. Servers are suited and dressed to impress.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Chic sweets and savory Italian

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Giovane Cafe

Where: Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel,

1038 Canada Place, 604-695-5501 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              604-695-5501      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Info:www.giovanecafe.com.

Open daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Generally speaking, retail scones are profoundly disappointing. After a couple of bites they turn to sludge, so what could I do but start making my own.

Well, lately, I’ve been cheating on myself. Since the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel opened, I’ve hustled a couple of blocks from my office to Giovane, a Milano modern cafe. If I’m very, very bad, I’ll get a white chocolate-cherry scone. If I’m virtuous, I’ll get the buttermilk scone with butter and jam to compensate for the lack of cherry and chocolate.

A bit of a primer: You’ll know you’re at Giovane when you walk into the giant yellow “G” sculpture on the sidewalk. Enter and the first counter is more of a takeout or coffee quickie, with baked goods — such as scones, muffins, cinnamon buns, zeppoli (Italian doughnut with pastry cream and chocolate), cookies, artisanal cakes by the piece or whole, single panettone, and oh yes, those snipers, the sugar buns. They mesmerize until you surrender to them.

Further in, there’s a more substantial counter with savories as well as the baking. There are thin-crust pizzas, panini on very good bread and salads. But it’s nice to simply bask in the chicness of it all at Giovane, even if it’s just with a cuppa coffee (49th Parallel).

Soon, a bright yellow Vespa branded with their “G” will be scooting around the downtown, delivering the buxom sugar buns and other goodies to those in dire need. They’re just waiting for a sidecar appendage to be attached to the scooter.

The chef overseeing the food is the hotel’s exec chef, David Wong. The man behind the artful pastries is Arthur Chen, who competed at the World Culinary Olympics three years ago with his boss. He took top place for his petits fours and chocolate sculpture in the dessert competitions.

“His pieces,” Wong says, “were crazy. They looked like they defied gravity.”

I’ve tried a couple of Giovane pizzas. They’re expensive, at $9 a piece, certainly a heck of a lot more than the $1.99 floppy jobbies you see on the streets. But Giovane pizzas offer much better eating and the crust and toppings are way more interesting. (The breads and pizzas are made in a moisture-injected stone oven, overseen by Adam Chandler, the master of bread dough.)

I tried the cured pork with fresh arugula pizza; there’s one with hard-boiled eggs, anchovies and tomato sauce. “It’s a solid, classic preparation of pizzas from various Italian regions,” Wong says.

Some are kept in the display and reheated, but I’d recommend you ask for it to be made fresh. Pizza doesn’t sit well.

Grilled panini (about $9) are made with lovely breads (also for sale at the counter for about $5 a loaf). The Genovese with turkey, pear, taleggio cheese and prosciutto, basil and arugula is a sure bet.

Wong says when the weather smartens up, the sidewalk windows will open up; actually, they open down and it’ll be somewhat al fresco in the lower part of the cafe. Of course, if you ascend the Carrera marble stairs in the lobby, you’ll find the swish Oru restaurant with a menu that swoops through Asia.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Executive chef and co-owner Elliott Hashimoto of the Cork & Fin Restaurant displays his Ahi tuna carpaccio, with watercress and truffle aiolio. Photograph by: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun

Tapas Tree alumni launch Gastown venue that offers good value

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Cork & Fin

221 Carrall St.,

604-569-2215

www.corkandfin.ca.

Open: For dinner, Tuesday to Sunday. (May be opening for lunch in the summer.)

Rating 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $$

“You gonna eat that?” It was more demand than question so we surrendered our leftovers. That’s how a dishevelled couple, slumped on the sidewalk on a Downtown Eastside street one evening, supped on braised lamb with harissa chickpeas and on pappardelle with Dungeness crab, peas and creme fraiche.

We were happy to share what remained of our meal at Cork & Fin, but I had been looking forward to tucking into the lamb for lunch the next day. It was quite scrumptious.

The pappardelle was easier to forfeit; it was tasty, but the noodles were middling and the crab was playing Find Waldo. If it was there, it wore camouflage.

Cork & Fin arrived in the culinary cauldron of Gastown just as the Olympics began.

It’s run by Francis Regio and Elliott Hashimoto (the chef), both alumni from Tapas Tree in the West End.

Gastown has exploded with arty little eating places which are more character-driven than Yaletown’s polished gloss.

Cork & Fin is a little more mainstream than some of its edgier neighbours, but there’s a place for a warm, unpretentious spot that offers good value.

We noted that sports medicine guru Doug Clement and wife Diane — both also Sun Run founders — had dropped in for a nosh, as well as a Sun colleague, who’s a regular there.

As I often find in these tapas-driven times, the menu needs better focus. It’s largely a tapas menu, but dishes like the pasta and the half pan-roasted game hen with gravy and wild mushrooms read more like mains.

It ought to get with one program or the other.

The seafood, or the “fin” part of the name, is fresh and foraged with care from various suppliers.

The first dish we tried, however, lowered expectations.

Ahi tuna carpaccio was rather bluntly plated and we braced for so-so food.

But things perked up over our two visits.

The house-smoked sablefish was gorgeous; it was perfectly poached in milk and simply presented with a grainy mustard sauce and napa cabbage. A special, ling cod en papillotte with julienne vegetables, was a delight. So often, ling cod is badly handled.

Seafood chowder was done in a light tomato-based broth with very good prawns, mussels and clams cooked just right.

They did go astray with a side of Dungeness crab mashed potatoes. It was dumped on a dish, pale and unappetizing.

Scallop ceviche with pea shoots, chilies and lemon dressing was fresh, but the flavours weren’t impressively balanced.

A side of pommes frites with aioli began auspiciously, but wilted soon after arrival.

On the meat side, the half game hen ($15) was flavourful and a bargain.

As for desserts, I’d say don’t fool around with what ain’t broke.

A dessert billed as poached pear arrived as cut-up bits in a sabayon.

The pot de creme with brandied cherry syrup was like a custard with a transparent layer of cherry syrup atop it. Pretty, but not rocking with cherries.

The compact wine list is thoughtful with an eye to partnering with seafood.

Regio, who ran the wine program at Tapas Tree, says one outcome from the recent recession is lowered wine prices.

“Now we’re able to offer wines by the glass that we couldn’t a few years back. Prices are back to where they should be and it’s a great time to buy wines.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Chef Rob Clark picks up some fresh spot prawns off the boat for his C Restaurant. Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Cannery Revisited: Remember how loyalists mourned the passing of The Cannery? Well, think of Pink Peppercorn as something of a resurrection. Edward Geekiyanage, who was The Cannery’s lunch chef, has opened a seafood restaurant called Pink Peppercorn Seafood House at 1485 Kingsway (604-569-3626). The menu features many of The Cannery dishes, including the salmon Wellington and steamed lobster — only the prices are about a third less.

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Eran Rozen of Gaia Bistro shows a plate of Imam Baildi (stuffed eggplant) with homemade leban (a Middle Eastern-style yogurt). Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, PNG, Vancouver Sun

Eran Rozen left a career on the Israeli police force to pursue his passion for food

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Gaia BistroWhere: 2055 West 41st Ave., 604-568-5022.

www.gaiabistro.ca

Open: Monday to Saturday, 11:30 to 9 p.m.

After 17 years in the police force in Israel, some of it as a chief forensic inspector, dealing with incidents we’ve witnessed in the world news, Eran Rozen had enough.

He resigned. He moved to Vancouver three years ago and immediately turned his attention to his passion -cooking. He’s loved cooking since boyhood; in fact, he cooked for his own bar mitzvah.

Quelling my astonishment, he says: “It was only 20 people,” he says. Only? He was 13!

In Vancouver, he enrolled at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, worked for a French patisserie and a catering company, then finally, about eight months ago, opened his place.

“I’m not a young guy but I put all my love into my dishes,” he says.

Gaia Bistro is about the foods from the Mediterranean areas near his homeland so the menu cruises the Middle East, Greece, southern France, Italy and North Africa. They’re all cuisines which influence modern Israeli cuisine.

I’d definitely give residents in or near Kerrisdale a heads up about Gaia. You get really good value. Where else can you get good coq au vin for $14?

His love for his second career is obvious. He makes everything from the demi-glace to desserts himself (except for the cheesecakes which he buys from Trees Organic, a coffee shop which has earned a reputation for their cheesecakes).

Dishes are bistro style, not fussy or primped, but it’s good honest cooking, with lots of organics, including the coffee and some of the wines and beers.

The meal starts with an amuse bouche, a plate with tabbouli, Asian pear/mint/orange salad, and olives. And the water is perfumed with mint, lemon and rosewater (just a hint of the latter, lest it be cloying).

The two main dishes I’ve tried were a big deal, as in what a bargain. The aforementioned coq au vin, came with a rich, reduced wine sauce. The chicken had flavour (don’t laugh, it often doesn’t) but the wild rice turned out to be flecks sprinkled amid white rice.

Duck breast with pomegranate demi-glace was really tender and was a very reasonable $18.

A goulash appetizer was an almost-meal-sized beef stew ($9); nothing special but it was hearty. Rosemary panisse (a chickpea flour cake from southern France) sandwiched feta, basil and a sun-dried tomato mix and was served with a side salad.

Other offerings include lamb osso bucco, shakshuka (a North African dish with vegetables and free-range eggs cooked over low heat and served either with feta cheese or spicy sausage).

Luna’s puff pastry is an homage to his grandmother. It’s a savoury pastry stuffed with roasted eggplant, Balkan cheese, beef, pine nuts or with spinach and feta -just $3.95.

The desserts on display looked inviting. Of two I tried, pear and almond tart and almond cake, the latter was the better. (The former turned too pasty in the mouth.) The ground almonds lent a marzipan taste and it was a straight forward, not too sweet, end to the meal.

He also does a Turkish rice pudding (with rosewater and orange blossom), a financier and creme brulee.

The food is honest and offers very good value but the wines could be improved. Many are pedestrian (the mediocre Mouton Cadet’s gotta go); even a sit-down with an LCB staffer might help hone a good-value wine list to match the food.

Rozen says he wanted to name his first restaurant after his grandmother, Luna, but the name was already taken.

Instead, there’s a photograph of her on the wall.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Chef Lee Humphries proffers a meatball appetizer at Judas Goat, in Blood Alley in Vancouver. The restaurant offers a tapas-type food experience with several gently cooked dishes, some of which use the sous vide method. Photograph by: Jon Murray, PNG, Vancouver Sun

Follow this goat to good food

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Judas GoatWhere: 27 Blood Alley, 604-681-5090

www.judasgoat.ca

Open: Monday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight. Will open for lunch soon

Over-all: 4
Food: f4
Ambience: f4
Service: ff3 1/2
Price: $/$$

 It’s called Judas Goat and I’ll let co-owner Sean Heather explain the name. The gregarious restaurateur doesn’t let a little laryngitis stop him.

“It’s from slaughterhouses around the world,” he says. “People had difficulty getting animals off the truck but the goat’s demeanour is embraced by most farm animals. If a goat approached the truck and made nice with the animals, they would follow it off the truck and he gets something to eat in the end. The goat is oblivious. It’s not being malicious.” The term was also adopted for traitors in politics and war.

And furthermore, Judas Goat, the restaurant sits in an alley once lined with abattoirs in Vancouver’s history, thus its name, Blood Alley. “Nobody could accuse us of stealing a Spanish name,” Heather says.

At first, he and co-owner Scott Hawthorn wanted to replicate the Spanish tapas bar but realized the food inspectors would not approve of dogs, of standing and drinking, or of food sitting on counters in need of refrigeration. And the tapas bar groove in Spain, they realized after a food-filled tour, was of serial visits by families moving on from one bar to another.

They did, however, want Judas Goat to be a place for a nibble and a drink before moving on to bigger bites at nearby nosheries such as his Irish Heather or Boneta. They’ve been pleasantly surprised to find people don’t want stopgap. They want dinner, so they stay and work through most of the menu.

Like at Au Petit Chavignol, the menu is a list with boxes where you write in how many of each dish you want.

The place is a squeeze boite. The Lilliputian kitchen, with a sous vide and conveyor toaster as the main appliances, butts up against a marble-topped diners’ table with chairs that look like yellow clothes pegs. Lee Humphries is in charge and his dishes, despite their pre-prepped nature, are exciting.

Like the other Spanish tapas impersonator I love — Mis Trucos, on Davie Street — there’s no grill at Judas Goat, which encourages gentle treatment, like the tasty warm lamb cheek wrapped in Savoy cabbage with white truffle oil. So tender and delicious. Pork belly aficionados are going crazy over the melt-in-your mouth texture of the fatty meat cooked by sous vide with onion puree and pine nut and orange gremolata. Me, I prefer a crisp texture which fools me into thinking it’s not as fatty as it really is.

Beef brisket meatballs are made with pulled, not ground, meat. Very good. The sablefish with smoked paprika and lemon and a side of couscous should convince any sous vide doubter that it does wonders for fish.

Rabbit rillette with carrot panna cotta is a playful conceit and delicious, too.

Scallop tartare with pork rinds features a very nice tartare, but the crispy rind next to it had the pig’s number stamped on it. A reality check.

Potted prawns with pistachio butter featured prawns so tenderly cooked, it was just past sashimi stage.

All of the above might seem like I attended a Roman orgy supper, but I visited twice and the dishes are tapas. They’re about $6 a pop. You’ll find a tight, food friendly wine list on the flip side of the menu sheet; and interestingly, there’s half a dozen Spanish sherries. In a couple of weeks, Judas Goat opens for lunch and I’ve taken note. It’s walking distance from my office.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Reviews are rated out of five stars.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

A taste of heaven for hungry parents

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Munch

Where: 1233 Lynn Valley Rd., North Vancouver, 604-980-3287

www.munchmunch.ca

Open daily for breakfast, lunch, early dinner; brunch on weekends.

You buzz yourself in through the security gate. A meal might be punctuated with piercing shrieks and occasional sobbing. It’s not unusual to see customers lying on the floor, babbling to themselves or staring at you.

It’s heaven! For parents of small children, that is.

At Munch, a state-of-the-art play area mesmerizes the little ones while parents treat themselves to a date night with a meal that’s definitely an improvement on the family chain restaurants.

It used to be a less ambitious cafe called Baby Eats but proprietor Rachel Dempster changed things up a few months ago, beginning with a name change. Munch is now a full-on restaurant with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a liquor licence (wines are nicely chosen). The name Baby Eats was a dad deterrent. They all thought it was just for babies and stayed clear. With the renovations, Dempster installed some booth seats (clad in soft brown leather) as well as muscular communal tables for large family groups.

When I visited recently, a dad ate his dinner in relative calm, while two young daughters scampered around the playhouse after their meal. Beside us, a young couple ate while their toddler son had his quick meal then ran to the play area. And if that’s not enough child care, Munch offers nanny service on Fridays and Saturdays.

“When the weather’s warm, the parents can book a table on the patio and the nanny will look after the children inside in the play area. It could be a date night,” says Dempster. The nanny service is free between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays if you eat indoors and $5 if parents dine on the patio.

The restaurant is in Lynn Valley Village and looks like a pleasant public square. The patio, with chic outdoor furniture, looks quite appealing.

You have to be accustomed to kid cacophony but if you go after 7 p.m. for dinner, the kids are all at home brushing their teeth and getting into their pyjamas.

There is, of course, a kids’ menu (meatballs with tomato sauce and brown rice pasta, mac and cheese, free-run chicken and rice, grilled cheese sandwich, mini-bison burger, grazer plate) but dishes for adults would stand up with some high-ends downtown.

Dinner dishes are mostly under $20 except for the charred organic beef tenderloin which sells for $23. Produce is organic and much of the meat is, too. Seafood (only one a day) is Ocean Wise.

Chef Garrett Laffan was installed as part of the change. He cooked at the Banff Springs Hotel and for Toronto celebrity chef Mark McEwan before he moved to the West Coast.

Salads are harbingers of the food to come. A watercress and spinach salad with toasted nuts, orange, strawberry and lemon ginger vinaigrette was lightly tossed, fresh and had a nicely balanced dressing. It was a generous helping, as was a “cup” of soup. A carrot and cucumber mezze with focaccia bits was overly meek and mild, though.

But the organic bison burger was nice and assertive, as was a flavourful grilled (organic) beef tenderloin; penne chicken truffle with cremini mushrooms, asparagus and Parmesan was how I like the pasta, with reins on the sauce. Creamy, slightly truffled (from truffle oil) and the chicken bits were not overcooked. The dinner mains are $14 to $23.

Dempster says they’ll be offering wine pairings with lunch. “A lot of moms aren’t sure about having wine at lunch. We’re going to say go ahead, and offer them for $5 a glass,” she says.

Desserts are homey, too homey, really; I was looking forward to something more exciting than banana bread and chocolate cake, although the latter was very good and nicely presented.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Four Seasons eatery serves aged Alberta prime beef cooked on an infrared grill

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Fifty Two 80 Bistro

4591 Blackcomb Way, Whistler.
604-935-3400.
fourseasons.com/whistler
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: f3 1/2
Ambience: f4
Service: ff3 1/2 Pr ice: $$$

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

When I reviewed Fifty Two 80 Bistro in the Four Seasons Resort Hotel in Whistler six years ago, it shone in its newness. It flexed its youthful muscle and disarmed me.

I got carried away, with good reason, and used adjectives such as gorgeous, artful and sublime in describing the food.

There’ve been a couple of changing of the guards in the kitchen since Jason McLeod revved up that kitchen. Just before the Olympics this year, the menu shifted its target to a more carnivorous market and pitched itself as a modern steak house.

Soon a news release will announce a name change to reflect the ode to steaks — quality steaks at that. Executive chef Scott Thomas Dolbee sources Alberta prime grade, aged 40 days (all the better for tenderizing and flavour), and he’s installed an infrared grill.

“It cooks the meat consistently, perfectly and really, really quickly,” says Dolbee.

The menu isn’t as ambitious or creative or refined as it once was, so it’s disappointing in that way, but the quality remains, and some servings, I found, are outsized.

Bone-in braised Angus beef shortribs were actually boneless, but the meat was succulent and had great flavour. I suppose when it comes to steak houses, it’s not out of the question to see plenty of meat on the plate. There was, I’d say, about 10 ounces, lapped in a very good sauce.

On the topic of sauces, it’s a bit of a flavour cacophony. You choose one of six rubs and then six sauces are delivered with the meal.

I ordered B.C. spot prawns, and these beautiful creatures demand little more than air kisses of sauce. I chose a rub I thought would go with seafood — lemon Buddha rub — and added creme fraiche bearnaise sauce. The prawns were like ballet dancers forced to tango. When it comes to the seafood, especially, the kitchen should do the layering and composing of flavours.

Both starters we tried were more interesting than the usual on a steak house menu. Both the wild mushroom agnolotti carbonara with pea shoots, pecorino cheese and prosciutto and a house-cured salmon “pastrami” with roasted beets, were finely prepared.

The meal starts to add up as veggies and starch must be ordered separately at about $6 a pop. That said, a poached egg and grilled asparagus side dish was great. A perfect, round egg atop the asparagus, spilled out a yolky sauce, once punctured. Fingerling potato and bacon lyonnaise was a great sidekick to the meat dish.

A dessert we shared was meant to be a reformed black forest cake, but in my opinion, it went awry. It was a 14-layer (including the chocolate buttercream icing layers) chocolate cake with a dollop of cherry sorbet and another of whipped cream. The cake was way too big and heavy, especially as it was separated from the lusciousness of whipped cream and kirsch and saucy cherries.

The wine list is substantive, with lots of offerings by the glass, and the service comes with cheerful chit-chat, menu comprehension and a smile.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Sisters serve meat and poultry raised ‘ethically’ on their parents’ farm

Mia Stainsby
Sun

AT A GLANCE

Controversial Kitchen

Where: 1420 Commercial Dr.

Call: 604-254-6101

Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Barbara Schellenberg got some flak over the name of her first restaurant in North Vancouver. Herbivores argued that Ethical Kitchen is not ethical since it serves meat. The meat and poultry are raised “ethically” on her parents’ bio-dynamic farm in the Chilcotin area and distributed as Pasture to Plate meats.

When Schellenberg opened a second place, on Commercial Drive, last October, she didn’t shy away from controversy and literally, called it Controversial Kitchen and got her sister Fiona to manage it.

She introduced more vegetarian/ vegan options but it turned out Commercial Drive isn’t necessarily overrun with vegetarians and the meat dishes were more popular.

The menu board features dishes such as a Moroccan chicken stew with green olives, yams and lemon, served with quinoa; and braised lamb shanks in red wine and cinnamon.

However, neither of these items were available when we arrived on two occasions.

They did have a beef stew on one visit; it wasn’t exciting beef stew, but the meat was tender and tasty.

The sandwiches are delicious. They include beer-braised beef or pulled pork flatbread sandwiches as well as brandied chicken thighs on a baguette.

There are a couple of crepes, as well.

A roast short-rib sandwich was stuffed with meat and sauteed vegetables, and I’d order that again in a heartbeat.

Ditto eggs florentine with delicious eggs and yummy garlicky bread; I didn’t, however, see any spinach, an integral part of this dish.

I liked the fruit crepe. It was light and lengthy, measuring about 35 centimetres; it was filled with a fresh-flavoured apple and raisin filling.

Prices are in the low teens for entree-style dishes and less than $10 for flatbread sandwiches, which come with salad, sauerkraut and sauces.

The flatbread sandwiches are flattened -the dough is run through a lasagna machine and fried in lard and butter (don’t be scared of lard; it’s flavourful and making a comeback).

Like at Ethical Kitchen, someone is a good baker. The baked goods are simple and homespun, and very good.

The room has a country feel, especially with the spiffed-up 1915 wood stove from Kaslo sitting at the entrance. Service could be friendlier and chattier; staff at the counter tend to be impatient and unhelpful even when dishes aren’t available.

However, Tom Waits came to the rescue (over the sound system) and filled in the silence spaces.

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