I had walked past La Brasserie on Davie Street several times, usually while on my way to some other restaurant, and every time, I tell myself that I should check out La Brasserie the next time I’m going out to eat. My short term memory can be pretty bad at times so La Brasserie doesn’t come front to mind, which is why it has taken me so long to finally make it there. I originally thought La Brasserie was a regular French bistro, but after I checked out their website, I discovered that it was actually French-German cuisine, featuring food from the famous Alsace region.

Tricia organized a mini spa day for Juanita, herself, and me one day and since the spa was close to La Brasserie, I suggested that it would be a suitable place for us to have dinner afterwards. La Brasserie does not take reservations and although it was a busy weeknight evening, we only had to wait about 5 minutes before we were seated.

First came some rye bread and baguette slices. The baguette was surprisingly good, with a crispy exterior and a slightly chewy interior. Since I was a bit hungry that day, I really enjoyed the hearty and filling rye bread. It had a great rye flavour to it and I enjoyed eating it with a thin spread of butter.

The three of us all decided to each start with one of the daily specials, a pan-fried scallop with spinach, baby carrots, and a squash puree. The scallop was perfectly cooked and had a slightly crisp outer layer. The creaminess and natural sweetness of the veggies went very well with the fresh sea taste of the scallop.

It was a cold and rainy day when we met up for dinner so we all decided to try the French onion soup as well. We were all surprised when the soup broth turned out to be slightly sweet, possibly from the addition of some wine. I found the soup to be too cheesy for my taste and the combination of the cheese and the bread made this soup a very filling dish. Juanita liked the flavour of the French onion soup but both Tricia and I found it to be too cheesy and the sweet flavour a bit odd.

The mussels and frites seemed like a light dish to balance the French onion soup so the three of us decided to share it. We had our choice of the apple cider, fennel, chili broth or lemon, parsley cream. The apple cider, fennel, chili broth sounded more unique so that was the one we decided to try. I was a bit disappointed with the size of the mussels, which were quite small. There was an abundance of fennel in the broth but I wished that the chili flavour was stronger.

We asked our server to replace the fries that came with our mussels with some poutine. The fries were crispy and fried perfectly and the gravy was also slightly sweet. Although I normally love cheese curds, I found the curds in this poutine clumped together too much, making it difficult to eat with the fries. Perhaps I was cheesed out already by the French onion soup, but I also felt that there was a little too much cheese in the poutine for my liking.

Overall, I found the food at La Brasserie to be fairly good and reasonably priced. There were a few misses with the dishes we ordered but I would still go back to La Brasserie to give it another go. I noticed that they also have a brunch menu, so I would definitely like to try that out sometime.

Details:
1091 Davie Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-568-6499

Summary:
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Price: $$

Tagged as: downtown, French, German, Reviews, Vancouver