March 7th, 2010 · Toronto
We were excited to go to this restaurant by chef David Lee of Splendido fame, particularly because we had read that it was one of the best new restaurants in 2009.
You can’t miss this restaurant with the bright green lighting at the windows on a busy strip on Queen Street East. Once you walk in – the noise hits you. This is a busy restaurant – the tables and bar were packed and there definitely was a vibe. Aside from the noise, the space was clean and modern with high ceilings and an airy feel even though the tables are quite packed together. The service was fast – maybe too fast – like there was a lot of advanced preparation and it seemed like one of our pasta dishes had been sitting around a little too long before it was served.
Although there were few vegetarian options on the menu, the restaurant is vegetarian friendly and the kitchen was happy to accomodate our one vegetarian guest. Our starters were all quite good, including yucatan hot and sour soup, hamachi ceviche and mafalda pasta (mushroom bolognese). The mains were less impressive - in fact the papardelle pasta with grilled rabbit loin was the pasta dish that had a gluey consistency suggesting that it had been sitting around too long. My grilled seabass was average – nothing special with no overwhelming flavour but not overcooked. The side of onion rings was excellent – a huge bowl of strings of crispy fried onion rings that were so thin that originally I had thought they brought fries by mistake to our table. Dessert was apple crumble (average) while the sticky toffee with spotted dick ice cream was quite good. To tell you the truth – I ordered it because the spotted dick ice cream intrigued me. Turns out that spotted dick is an english pudding with dick being a collioquial word for pudding and the “spots” refer to raisins/currents. The food was average. But, if you don’t care so much about the food and want to go to a busy restaurant with some vibe (maybe just for a drink and dessert) – then this might be the place to go if you are in the area.
Nota Bene
www.notabenerestaurant.com
180 Queen Street West
416-977-6400
info@notabenerestaurant.com
Cost: $340 incl tip for dinner for 4 including beer and wine, most mains between $20-30
Verdict: average, does not live up to the hype
Tags: David Lee·Queen Street·Toronto
This is a convenient place if you are in the Cambie area with decent Thai food. We tried the green papaya salad, beef red curry and the seafood with chili oil and basil served on a sizzling plate (#44). It was tasty but average food. The service was reasonably fast. The decor is nothing special – more of a casual dinner place. Overall, I prefer Sawasdee for thai food – this place would be good if you were craving thai food and were in the area.
Sala Thai
3364 Cambie St
Vancouver, BC V5Z
www.salathai.ca
604-683-7999
Hours: Lunch 11:30AM-3PM, Dinner 3PM-Closing
Verdict: average thai food
Cost: average $10-15 entree
Tags: beef red curry·green papaya salad
Food is an integral and important part of my travels. In fact, if a place does not have good food, I strongly think about whether I want to go there and if there are other redeeming factors to the city/country in question. Thankfully, if you do look hard enough, usually you can find some decent food even in the most unlikely places. So when I am visiting a new city, I always like to do a bit of research on places to eat. Who wants to waste even one meal on a subpar or just average food? Please feel free to search our blog for our favourite places to eat in Vancouver. Off the top of my head – Thomas Haas (awesome chocolate and pastries), Refuel (reasonably priced comfort food), Dragon Ball Tea House (great bubble tea), Vij’s (great indian food but be prepared for long waits given that they do not take reservations), House of Dosas (great dosas, $5.99 dosa mondays), Congee Noodle House (very good congee), Bishop’s (west coast cuisine in a restaurant which has been around longer than most, quiet intimate setting, Japadog (a japanese twist on an american classic) . There are many more…feel free to search our blog under favourites.
Here are two other links which you also may find helpful
The HSBC chinese restaurant awards which just came out at the end of 2009 – http://chineserestaurantawards.com/
A recent New York Times article – http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/03/dining/vancouver-dining-guide.html
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Piggy puffs – that was the first thing that caught my eye on the menu at Refuel and so I made my mind up to go there. We have been fans of Chef Belcham from the beginning. We loved Fuel when it first opened but our recent experiences had been more disappointing. With the revamp of Fuel into Refuel – a more laid-back comfort food concept with good food at a reasonable price – we are again fans. In fact, I went there two days in a row – at brunch and at dinner. Both times, I was impressed – particularly with the quantity and quality of food with respect to the price.
For starters, we had the ox tongue salad, bone marrow (a huge split roasted bone with toast and a delicious green apple salad), pork cheek terrine (a large slab of terrine on toast and covered with a fried egg and the fried humboldt squid with coriander, green onion and jalapeno (the favourite of the bunch). The house-made charctuterie is also supposed to be excellent although we will have to save that for next time. The piggy puffs – a name which intrigued me – were perfectly fried and crispy pork rinds accompanied with a chili vinegar. The mains included the buttermilk fried chicken ( 3 pieces of chicken, coleslaw, biscuit), the sloping hill farms pork (we had the leg but apparently the cut of meat changes), and the ling cod with swiss chard. Another dish which also looked appetizing was the hangar steak salad. We sat at the counter for dinner (these seats are first come first serve) so we could watch the dinner preparation.
Interestingly, all the meat and vegetables are cooked sous vide. ” Sous vide” which is french for “under vacuum” was a cooking technique developed in France in the 1970s for foie gras. It has become increasingly popular with North American chefs. The is vacuum packed in plastic and left immersed in a hot water bath kept at 55-60F degrees. This type of cooking allows the food to cook in its own juices and leads to tender meat due to slow-cooking at low temperature for hours. In fact, the food apparently can be kept in the water bath for hours without overcooking due to the low-temperature. Whenever a dish was ordered, one of the blue-apronned staff would pull out a bag, snip it open and finish off the meat or vegetable – usually by either grilling or deep-frying it. The meat does not look appetizing as it comes out of the bag but there is a magical transformation that occurs with the grilling or deep-frying before it is plated. The meat comes out tender and tasty.
Although we were full after the large starters and mains, we couldn’t resist sharing a dessert both times. At brunch, the peanut and chocolate parfait with honeycomb was small yet rich and hit the spot – not sure whether the little crispy bits were partly honeycomb but who cares, it was delicious. After dinner, we still wanted something sweet to finish off the dinner but all of the desserts on the menu seemed a bit too rich. The kitchen was happy to accommodate with their homemade coconut lime sorbet which was delicious – a great combination of sweet and tangy – and surprise, surprise we finished that off pretty quickly too.
The service is friendly and attentive without being intrusive. One of the waitstaff even recognized me from the day before. The decor is slightly warmer and more casual than its predecessor Fuel and the overall ambiance is relaxed and comfortable. This is definitely one of our new favourite places in Vancouver.
Refuel
www.refuelrestaurant.com
1944 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6J 1M5, Canada
(604) 288-7905
Cost: good value given the portion size and the quality of food
Verdict: one of our new favourites, portion size is generous for the starters and mains
Who knew that New Westminster would have an authentic thai place with a thai owner/chef in the middle of all the mediocre food?
The pad thai is authentic – none of those westernised ketchup-doused noodle dishes you too often find. The green papaya salad is also excellent with just the right amount of bite. The larb gai (minced chicken tossed with onion, cilantro and lime leaves with chili and lime dressing) is tasty but a little light on the minced chicken. If you are not convinced that that this is an authentic thai place, then thai sticky rice is the real deal and even comes like it does in Thailand – in a small plastic lined straw container. The lunch combos are a good deal but even the dinner mains are not too expensive. Overall, the food is authentic thai and delicious.
The restaurant itself is nothing special with a few thai decorations and a bunch of plain wooden tables and chairs. The open kitchen is right behind the counter. So really the ambience is zero but the food more than makes up for it. The service is fast and attentive with our water glasses being regularly filled.
