Ho Yummy

I went with Pick to Cassis Bistro the other day. It is a French bistro located at 420 W. Pender in downtown Vancouver. I haven’t been here for over a year but the value of the food here is great. Pick had wanted to try this for a while and I’m always happy to go there.

First, the bread. I’m not sure if they make the bread themselves but it was so good that we asked for a second helping. The outside was warm and crusty and the inside was nice and soft. It went great with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

We were pleasantly surprised when our waiter served us with small dishes of amuse-bouche. It wasn’t too much to look at but our server told us it was a potato vichyssoise with a drizzle of truffle oil. To me, this was my favourite dish of the meal. If it was on the menu, I would definitely order it every time I come here! It was light and airy, almost like mousse, and the truffle oil added a nice little punch.

For our appetizer, Pick and I shared the brie cheese fondue, which came with focaccia breadsticks, cucumbers, and grapes. There are different types of cheese you can choose for the fondue and this one was $14.75. The cheese was not too heavy and the cucumbers and grapes were interesting accompaniments for the fondue. I also dipped some of the French bread with the cheese.

The main courses at Cassis are very reasonable…most if not all are under $20. I chose the canard l’orange (orange duck) for $17.50 and a side of glazed cauliflower, asparagus, and tomatoes.

The duck tasted great and came with a small fennel salad. You could really taste the oranges and all the fat had been cooked off so the duck did not taste too fatty at all.

The market veggies were pretty good but if I had known the duck dish was so big, I probably wouldn’t have ordered the additional veggies. I was only able to eat a few pieces and had to pack this up.

Pick had the Daube de Boeuf (beef stew) because one of his friends had told him this was really good. This did not disappoint and Pick was very happy.

He also had a side of ratatouille (like the movie ;)) but like me and the market veggies, he was already full with the beef stew and probably didn’t need to add the ratatouille to be full.

On to dessert. By this point, I was already pretty full, but Pick convinced me that I couldn’t come to Cassis and not have dessert. We decided on the lemon tart, which was a great deal at $5, and a flourless chocolate torte with pistachio ice cream.

The lemon tart was nice and tangy with a great lemon flavour but the crust was a bit too thick for me.

The flourless chocolate torte was perfection and went very well with the pistachio ice cream. It was very hot that day and even hotter inside the restaurant (there was no air conn!) so unfortunately, the ice cream was a bit melted. However, I liked this quite a bit more than the lemon tart.

.

Yet another great meal at Cassis. If you want good French food at reasonable prices, this is the place to go. The wine selection is great and the server even let me try a variety of different wines before I finally settled on one. The last few times I was here, I found the entrees a bit on the small side and always needed to add a side dish. However, this time, I found that the entrees were more than enough and didn’t even need a side dish.

Details:
420 W. Pender St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-605-0420

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$$