While we were planning our trip to Montreal, one place we really wanted to check out for dinner was Garde Manger. My mom is a huge fan of Chuck Hughes and his show Chuck’s Day Off on Food TV so I tried to call in about a month before our trip to make reservations. Unfortunately, our visit coincided with a long weekend and the small size of the restaurant was also unable to accommodate our party of eight. However, once we arrived in Montreal, my parents happened to be wandering past the restaurant and my ever so persuasive dad wandered in and was able to finagle a reservation. The only caveat was that we’d have to split our party up and go on separate nights. It would have been nice if we could all go together but we decided that it would be an ok compromise to split up so we’d have an opportunity to eat at Garde Manger.

Jenkins, Grick, Snoopy, and I ended up visiting on the first evening and we almost walked past Garde Manger’s non-descript entrance (above). Luckily, there is a mini chalk board in the foyer that confirms you are at the right place.

While we perused the chalk board menu, both Snoopy and I decided to indulge in the (non-alcoholic) drink of the day, a fizzy ginger lemonade. It was pretty refreshing and had a nice balance of ginger and lemony flavour.

We decided to order a bunch of dishes to share. First came the jerk crab. The crab was sweet but it was actually a little hard to pick out the crab flavour since the jerk flavour was really strong. This was a really spicy and in-your-face dish which had us reaching for our drinks to wash down the spiciness. The all spice was really evident here and I think this seasoning would have went well with almost any type of meat but Jenkins felt that the jerk seasoning here overwhelmed the delicate flavour of the crab.

We also had to try that lobster poutine since that was one of Chuck’s winning dishes from the Iron Chef America show. The gravy here was slightly milder so it actually went well with the meaty lobster and the fries were crispy on the outside yet soaked up the gravy flavour. The cheese curds were all pretty melted but also went nicely with the lobster.

The duck breast was nicely seared and came medium trending medium rare.  To me, the real star of this dish was actually the creamed corn, which was buttery and creamy without overpowering the sweet and slightly crispy corn. The corn wasn’t really crispy but I liked how it was perfectly cooked without being mushy…you know what I mean. If I could have ordered the corn on its own, I definitely would have.

We also ordered a fried cod, which came with a vinegary coleslaw and some type of peach chutney. The breading on the cod was thicker than I was accustomed to but it made the exterior super crispy and protected some of the moisture in the fish. However, as with the duck breast, I actually enjoyed the coleslaw side more, which had a terrific crunch and a slightly mustardy vinaigrette dressing.

For dessert, we decided to share a couple of items as well. We had really wanted to order more but we had already spent the entire day stuffing our faces so there was only so much we could cram in at dinner. First came some cinnamon sugar doughnuts with some whipped cinnamon mascarpone cream and a hint of lemon. The doughnuts were fried perfectly and the crispy exterior gave way to a moist and airy inside. I dolloped healthy amounts of the delicious mascarpone cream onto my doughnut and thoroughly enjoyed each bite.

We also decided to indulge in a deep fried Mars bar, which also came with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. The batter on the Mars bar was similar to what we had in the cod but the thick crust seemed to work better with the chocolate bar than the fish. The crust actually tempered the extreme sweetness of the Mars bar, which was nicely melted inside but not searing hot, like I thought it would be. Compared to the chocolate bar, the vanilla ice cream didn’t seem sweet at all but I think that worked out well in this case.

We quite enjoyed our meal at Garde Manger but perhaps because we were so hyped to go, we were surprised to find that some of the dishes fell short of expectation. For me, I actually enjoyed my desserts much more than the appetizers and mains but I’m not sure if that’s attributed to the dishes we ordered. That being said, we were told that the jerk chicken and lobster poutine were some of the most popular items on the menu. Service was excellent and very attentive throughout the evening though. As a side note, when my parents went the following night, they reported that they enjoyed the dishes that the ordered and service was also great for them.

Details:
408 Rue St-Francois-Xavier, Montreal
Tel: 514-678-5044

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 4 out of 5 stars
Price: $$$$

This post is about one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. I think that’s saying a lot since I’m pretty picky about my sandwiches and have definitely sampled my fair share of sandwiches from a variety of restaurants, cuisines, and countries. So with that introduction, let me tell you a little more. I’m sure many people have heard about the fantastic sandwiches at Finch’s before but for some reason, I just never made it out there to sample their offerings. There have been numerous cancelled visits to this place for one reason or another but one day, Snoopy and I decided that no matter what, we’d make our schedules work and check out Finch’s Tea & Coffee House for lunch.

We arrived just after 12pm and luckily, the restaurant was not full yet and we were even able to snag ourselves a table. We made a haphazard attempt at perusing the menu but we both already knew what we wanted to order before we even arrived. We thought briefly about ordering different things so we could have more variety but then decided that it would be deviating from our original mission.

The pear, blue brie, prosciutto, roasted walnuts, oil, and vinegar baguette was delicious and definitely lived up to all the hype I had been hearing about it. The slight sweetness of the pear just melted with the soft layers of salty prosciutto and creamy blue brie cheese. The crusty baguette and walnuts provided the requisite crunch while the balsamic vinegar added a hint of tangy sweetness. It was a magical mix of ingredients that worked really well together and the only difficult thing about this was how to eat it without making a huge mess!

The sandwich is not huge in size but the ingredients are pretty rich so it ended up being very filling, especially for lunch. I had wanted to finish my meal off with a freshly baked cookie but I really had no room left in my stomach to fit anything else in. The next time I’m back (which I hope will be soon), I’ll try to somehow make room for dessert.

Details:
353 West Pender Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-899-4040

Summary:
Food: 5 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

For my mom’s birthday, we decided to go for a family dinner at La Regalade in West Vancouver. I had heard about their great food many times but the fact that it was on the North Shore always deterred me from going. I decided to bite the bullet and make reservations there for my mom’s birthday since my mom has been on a bit of a French food kick lately. Luckily for us, traffic turned out to be pretty good and we arrived at the restaurant in a fairly short amount of time from downtown.

La Regalade has quite an extensive daily special menu in addition to their regular menu. While we tried to sort out what we wanted to eat, we munched on some crunchy radishes and bread crisps, which were accompanied with a creamy vegetable dip.

I wasn’t super hungry that day and I had also been forewarned about La Regalade’s generous portions so Jenkins and I decided to share an appetizer. We decided on the pan-fried scallops with potato salad, partly because I’m quite a potato salad fan. The scallops were simply cooked with a nice crunchy exterior that gave way to a just-cooked inside. It contrasted quite nicely with the dill in the the potato salad.

Grick and Nav decided to share mussels mariniere. This is a fairly common dish at many French bistros but the version here was nicely executed with a great white wine flavour and a generous amount of fresh parsley and onions. I sampled some of the broth, which was very flavourful and went great with some bread.

Nav and I decided to share the boeuf bourguinon. I’m a huge boeuf bourguinon fan and Nav actually makes a really good version herself so the expectations here were quite high. There was plenty of depth and flavour to the stew and the pieces of beef were very tender and soaked up the flavour of the stew. As you can imagine, this also went really well with bread.

Along with our boeuf bourguinon and many of the other dishes we ordered came some potato gratin. I’m not a potato gratin fan so I only found these to be ok but the potatoes were quite creamy and we could really smell the copious amounts of butter used in this little side dish. However, if you like this dish normally, I think you would have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Jenkins had another special of the day, which was a pork chop with lentils. The pork chop was really juicy and soaked up the flavour from the lentil stew. What really added to the flavour here were the strips of thick-cut bacon.

La Regalade piles their desserts on the counter by the kitchen area and since that was right next to our table, it was pretty difficult to pass up dessert. We noticed that there was only one portion left of the Monaco Tart so we decided to order that. It was a little sweet from the layer of caramel at the bottom but I felt that this was offset by the crunchy almonds. There was also a layer of cream on top that was generously sprinkled with cocoa powder. This was definitely my favourite dessert item of the evening.

Grick decided to be “healthy” and ordered the apple tatin. The still crispy shell engulfed the buttery and slightly sweet apples. I think it would have tasted just fine on its own but the addition of fresh vanilla gelato and creme anglaise only made this dessert better. Even though I enjoyed the Monaco tart the most, this definitely came in at a close second.

My grandparents and parents were also trying to be healthy that day so they decided to have the fig tart. It was quite the day for tarts in my family. The fresh figs provided a mild sweetness that went really well with the shaved almonds and raspberry sauce. I thought this was only ok but it was actually the perfect dessert for my parents and grandparents, who didn’t want anything that was too sweet.

My first meal at La Regalade turned out to be highly enjoyable. I could definitely see why it was so busy as they do an excellent job of serving up French bistro classics. I’m not French but the dishes here are still my kind of comfort food.

Details:
2232 Marine Drive, West Vancouver
Tel: 604-921-2228

Summary:
Food: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$$

Jenkins and I were invited on Saturday to preview the latest offering from Vancouver’s Foodie Tour: food carts. I had gone to one of Michelle’s tours last year along Granville Street and quite enjoyed it so I didn’t see why this time would be any different. I thought this would be a great opportunity to try some of the food cart offerings around the downtown area as I had definitely been to less than I would have liked. We met at 10:30 in front of the Granville Canada Line station but it was around 11 before the tour actually started going.

As I had suspected earlier, our first stop was the La Brasserie Street food cart. They were running a little behind that morning, which was why it took a while for us to get started.

I had been to La Brasserie Street a few times before and really enjoyed it each time so I was looking forward to this, even though it was not new to me. The chicken sandwich was just as good as the other times with the crispy fried onions adding a nice crunch to the otherwise soft and moist sandwich. Jenkins noted that he would have liked for some of the larger chicken chunks to be shredded even more so it could soak up more of the house-made rosemary beer sauce.

Since it was the first stop of the tour and the day was particularly sunny, I was glad that La Brasserie Street also gave us each a drink with our sandwiches. In addition, we were also given a butter tart each. Jenkins was pretty smart in getting us to share one since we needed to pace ourselves for the remaining carts. At first, I objected but this ended up being some good foresight on his part. As with the last time I had the butter tarts, I thought the crust was nice and buttery but the filling was a little too sweet for my taste. I also would have preferred some nuts to give the tart a little bit of crunch.

Our next stop was one of Vancouver’s oldest food carts, Japa Dog. I had first reviewed Japa Dog in the early days of Ho Yummy and then again when they opened their Pender Street location so it was definitely another food cart that I was quite familiar with.

We each got half of a Terimayo dog, which is one of Japa Dog’s original offerings. As usual, I added some wasabi mayo to the already present regular Japanese mayo, seaweed, and teriyaki sauce. I quite enjoyed this and it was nice to try one of the original flavours since I usually opt to try the newer creations.

Our next stop was finally to a location that was new to me: Bun Me. To be honest, I had walked past this place a couple of times but never checked out what they had because I’m pretty particular about my banh mi and I honestly did not know what to expect. The baguettes at Bun Me are baked fresh daily and made using a special recipe that its owners had developed.

Bun Me had a couple of offerings and the one we had that day was the lemongrass chicken banh mi. Although we had only a third of a baguette, it was quite a generous portion and seemed to be larger than most other banh mi I’ve tried around Vancouver. The lemongrass chicken was quite juicy and flavourful and if you like your baguette to be crispier and crunchier, then the one at Bun Me would be right up your alley. I was pretty impressed with the banh mi here and wouldn’t mind trying it again the next time I need to buy lunch.

By this point, I was starting to fill up but we still had two more stops to make. Our next cart was Kaboom Box, another cart that I had walked past several times but never tried any of their offerings.

We each got a generous portion of Kaboom Box’s poutine. I’m not sure if this is their regular size or if it was smaller for the tour, but I thought it was a pretty large portion nonetheless. Unlike traditional poutine, Kaboom Box’s version uses a vegetable gravy with miso and is topped with mushrooms and green onions. Having gone to Montreal quite recently, both Jenkins and I didn’t think this was very comparable. I would have liked for the fries to be crispier and although I appreciated Kaboom Box’s attempt to make the gravy more universally appealing, I felt that a regular beef stock has a stronger flavour that allows the gravy to hold up against the fries and cheese. Lastly, and I’m not sure if it was due to the hot day, I found the cheese curds a bit on the soft side and would have liked some more texture and bounciness to it. All that being said, I wouldn’t mind coming back another day to try out some of the sandwiches, especially the in-cart smoked salmon sandwich.

Our last stop was at Nu Greek Street. I was surprised to hear that this was the street cart offering from Nu Restaurant and even more surprised to hear that Nu had recently changed its offering from West Coast to Greek food. To be honest, I had not been all that impressed with Nu previously so I was hoping that their foray into Greek food would be more successful.

We each got mini versions of Nu Greek Street’s chicken souvlaki pita, which came with tomatoes, onions, and tzatziki sauce. The tzatziki sauce was actually made with owner Harry Kambolis’ grandma’s recipe and I liked how it was quite thick and tangy, which went quite well with the moist chicken. Although the pita was a bit bready for my liking, it did a good job of soaking up all the juices from the chicken, tomatoes, and tzaziki sauce.

Jenkins and I had a great time at the Food Cart Foodie Tour. It was nice to revisit some carts we had been to previously but what we really enjoyed was sampling the new ones. The carts that are visited on each tour vary depending on the day. Tours are held each Saturday starting at 10:45AM and end about 1:30PM. They cost $50 per person and tickets can be purchased via Foodis Tour’s website. Be prepared to be stuffed and even though you walk from cart to cart, you definitely don’t walk enough to shed the calories you consumed. Jenkins and I were so full afterwards that we didn’t eat dinner until quite late!

Details:
Time: Saturdays from 10:45AM to 1:30PM
Cost: $50/person
Tickets: http://foodietour.ca

I had been hearing a lot about one of the newer additions to Vancouver’s street cart scene: La Brasserie Street. I was intrigued by their simple menu as I find that most street carts are generally better when they stick to 1-2 things that they are good at. Of course, there’s always the exception but the fact that La Brasserie Street mainly did one thing, and seemed to do it quite well, was what appealed to me.

I was able to round up a few friends and one sunny lunch hour, we trooped over to the entrance to the Georgia and Granville Canada Line station, which was where the La Brasserie Street cart was located. I was expecting there to be a wait but we must have missed the crowds as we were able to put in our orders almost immediately. Before long, we were presented with our sandwiches: roasted chicken drizzled with gravy and topped with crispy fried onions nestled between a soft bun. You had your choice of adding spicy mustard or grainy Dijon. I chose Dijon (not pictured below).

Somehow, we resisted diving right into our sandwiches until we were able to find a table back at the office so we could sit down and eat like civilised people. The bun did not get too soggy during transit and the flavours of the chicken and gravy was tasty and delicious without being too salty. The onions added the prerequisite crunch and I really liked my choice of grainy Dijon mustard, which added some crunch. If we were still standing in front of the street cart, I may have been tempted to order a second one. At only $6.95 per sandwich, I thought this was a great deal.

When I was placing my order, I saw a large jar of butter tarts and a sign proclaiming that these were the best butter tarts ever. I was intrigued so decided to order one for dessert. I’m not sure if these were the best butter tarts ever but then again, I’m not a huge fan of butter tarts in general. The crust was quite crumbly though and the buttery, sweet filling was nice but I would have liked for there to be some more nuts. This is more of a personal preference than anything else though. At $1.79 per tart, the price isn’t bad so if you are a butter tart fan, you may be interested in checking these out.

I really enjoyed my sandwich at La Brasserie Street. Since it’s quite close to my office, I have yet another temptation nearby when I conveniently forget to bring my lunch from home.

Details:
Corner of West Georgia and Granville Street, Vancouver

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

For Jenkins’ dad’s birthday, we decided to take the family to Mistral French Bistro. Jenkins’ dad wanted to have something other than the usual Asian fare but wanted something that was reasonably priced. Since I had a recent hankering for some French food, I decided that we would go to Mistral. It had been quite a while since I was last there so I figured a re-visit was in order.

The complimentary bread was served warm and was actually quite tasty, with a crusty outside. I ate more of this than I probably should have but I was quite hungry that evening.

Both Jenkins and his brother decided to have the prix fixe dinner for $35. First came a warm goat cheese salad drizzled in a lemon-Dijon dressing. The salad was quite delicious and came with some prosciutto and of course, two warm discs of goat cheese perched. The goat cheese was not too strong and went really well with the salad.

I skipped the appetizer since I had a huge main course waiting for me, namely the daily special of an 8oz AAA rib eye steak. The steak was enormous and perfectly grilled rare. It came in a red wine shallot sauce with some shallots piled on top and some seasonal vegetables. I could really taste the red wine in my sauce, which was not overly rich and went really well with the steak.

My steak also came with some sticks of potato, I think (on the left) and some fries. The sticks were only ok and I forgot to ask our server what it was. The fries were quite tasty but I felt that the could have been crispier. However, they were quite tasty when I dipped them in my red wine sauce.

Jenkins went for the coq au vin, which was quite a large and hearty dish. The chicken was slowly braised and could be picked apart with just a fork. It absorbed all of the delicious red wine sauce that it was cooked in and the accompanying vegetables soaked up the sauce as well. This came piled on top of some fettuccini which served as a good starch accompaniment to the chicken.

And finally, it was time for dessert. Jenkins decided to go healthy and chose the coconut sorbet with pineapples. It was very simple but also very refreshing with the coconut sorbet and pineapples making a great match for one another.

I decided to go the slightly more decadent route with the warm soft centred chocolate cake. This came with some orange segments, chocolate mint ice cream, and some chocolate-mint ice cream. Despite this obvious indulgence, my dessert was not overly heavy and I think the richness of the cake was offset with the orange and coolness of the ice cream. I felt a bit like the mint ice cream and orange seemed to be doing too many things at once but I still enjoyed my dessert.

I quite enjoyed my visit to Mistral Bistro. It’s a bustling bistro that’s pretty casual and serves some great food and reasonable prices. The prices aren’t super low but for the portion sizes and quality of food, I think it is more than fair value. Although they were quite busy when we were there, our servers did their best to be attentive and answered all our questions promptly.

Details:
2585 West Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-733-0046

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$$

I’ve blogged about brunch at Twisted Fork Bistro previously but what I didn’t realise was that I’ve actually only been to Twisted Fork for brunch. I had been wanting to try their Mussel Tuesdays special for quite a while now and it was just a matter of finding the time to go and someone to go with. Complicating things a little more was the fact that Twisted Fork does not take reservations so I had to time my visit carefully. Luckily for me, Mabel was also interested in checking out Twisted Fork Bistro so we arranged to meet up for dinner one Tuesday evening.

For my starter, I decided to go with the wild mushroom tart, which came with goat cheese and caramelized onions in a buttery, flaky crust. I’m a big mushroom fan so I really enjoyed the strong mushroom flavour in my tart. The tart came with a small scoop of spiced pear chutney, which added a hint of sweetness to the rich tart but I did not taste much spiciness.

On Tuesdays, Twisted Fork offers up its mussels for only $10. The mussels are served in a cream sauce with herbs and fresh tomatoes and also comes with a mix of regular and yam fries and bread. The cream sauce was quite heavy and I would have liked to taste more herb flavour. Although it was ok overall, I prefer my mussel sauces to not be so heavy. I also found it a bit odd that the fries came on top of the mussels rather than in a separate vessel so towards the end of the dish, the fries on the bottom started to get soggy from the cream sauce. Although the yam fries were done well, I usually prefer regular fries over yam fries.

I was pretty full by the time it came for dessert but I really didn’t want to pass it up so I convinced Jenkins to share with me. This turned out to be a great idea because the chocolate terrine was huge. On the other side of the tuile you see below, is another slice of chocolate terrine so I essentially got a double serving! The frozen dark chocolate mousse was delicious and its rich sweetness went very well with the raspberry sorbet and coulis.

I quite enjoyed our meal at Twisted Fork Bistro. The food was well-prepared for the most part and service was very prompt despite the restaurant being a full house the entire evening. The Mussels Tuesdays deal is definitely a good deal and something to check out, especially if you are a mussels fan.

Details:
1147 Granville St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-568-0749

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Before we went to Seattle, I did a little research to determine which places to visit. Part of the reason for our trip was to celebrate Jenkins and my anniversary so instead of going all out on a super nice place, I wanted to go to several smaller and cheaper places so I could draw the celebration out. I saw that Le Pichet was rated really highly on Yelp, the prices were reasonable, and it was quite close to our hotel so I decided that we should give it a try. I probably should have made reservations since it appeared to be quite busy but we were lucky enough to grab the last two spots at the bar.

After Jenkins and I put in our orders, we were presented with a small dish of mixed olives. The olives were soaked in oil and had just the right amount of saltiness to them.

I also enjoyed munching on my olives with the complimentary French bread. It had a crusty exterior and a fairly chewy interior, which I really liked.

For our first course, Jenkins and I decided to share a small plate of charcuterie. I really enjoyed the pâté albigeois, which was country-style pork paté (far right below).  It was just fatty enough and was seasoned just right. The saucisse au jambon was a large sausage of smoked ham, forecemeat, and herbs. I could really taste the herbs in this. The saucisse lyonnais was Lyon-style sausage with pork and pistachios. The combo of the pork and pistachios was actually quite nice. We enjoyed munching on this with some gherkins, mustard, and French bread. At $7, this was a fantastic deal, especially when compared to Vancouver prices.

When I saw that there was steak frites on the daily special menu, I knew that’s what I wanted to eat that night. Funnily enough, I had a craving for steak frites even before I walked in so I was quite happy to see that it was available. I asked for my steak to be rare and it was tender and flavourful and went great with the crimini mushroom sauce that it came with. There was a bit of tendon in some of my pieces of steak that I had to cut off but overall, I found it to be very well made and tasty. I also loved the fries that came with my steak. They were double fried, crispy, and had just the right amount of salt. Jenkins didn’t think they were as good as I thought they were but I think this ranks amongst one of the  best fries I’ve ever had.

Jenkins chose the truite poêlée sur salade de tomates, buerre noisette au gingembre (Idaho Trout, pan roasted on a salad of tomatoes, fresh cheese, and pistachios with orange-ginger brown butter). He’s been on a roll lately in terms of ordering great dishes and this time was no different. The ginger brown butter gave the trout a hint of Asian flavour and the pistachios added a nice slight crunch. Jenkins noted that the trout was perfectly cooked and was the second best trout he has ever tasted (the first being when we ate it in Peru). As you may have noticed, Jenkins rarely raves about his food so when he noted that he was very impressed with his trout, I was in turn, also impressed.

At this point, both Jenkins and I were stuffed so we probably should have stopped eating. However, I was so happy with everything that I had eaten so far at Le Pichet that I felt that I would be doing myself a disservice if I walked away without eating dessert! Le Pichet seems to have a daily rotating dessert menu and our server told us that the chocolate tarte was excellent. I’m always up for chocolate so Jenkins and I ordered it to share. I was kind of expecting a typical chocolate ganache tarte but Le Pichet put a different spin on it by making the curst crumbly and flaky rather than a typical shortbread-type crust. I really enjoyed it with the velvety smooth chocolate ganache which was highlighted by the delicious salted caramel sauce. The creme fraiche cut the sweetness a bit. Overall, this was an excellent chocolate tarte.

Needless to say, Jenkins and I thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Le Pichet. Not only were all the dishes very well made, the prices were all quite reasonable as well. We each ordered a glass of wine and our total before tip came out to $68 USD. Perhaps because we were at the bar, we had excellent service because there was always someone around to top up our water and clear our dishes. The next time I come back to Seattle, Le Pichet will definitely be on our list of places to revisit!

Details:
1933 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA
Tel: 206-256-1499

Summary:
Food: 5 out of 5 stars
Service: 4 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

When Victoria first introduced me to Chez Meme Baguette Bistro, she described to me a fantastic sandwich place that served some of the tastiest French-style sandwiches she’d had…at least on this side of the Atlantic. I was tempted to join her for lunch that very day so we could make the visit out to Chez Meme but unfortunately, I was busy. Instead, I decided to go a few days later with Chris, who happened to be in town visiting. Chris is usually game for many of my restaurant suggestions so off we went.

Chez Meme had a small but tasty looking menu. They serve several brunch items and although they looked interesting enough, I was there for the sandwiches. After checking out the sandwiches ordered by the people sitting around us, we decided to order two and split so we could get some variety. First up was the boeuf bourguinon baguette, which was basically beef short rib slowly braised in what I suspect was red wine, a variety of herbs, and much more. The baguette seemed to be freshly baked and was crispy on the outside and light and airy. It was the perfect vessel for a simple filling of beef and caramelized onions. It was a bit heavy (especially for lunch) but I have to say that I enjoyed every single bite.

Our second choice of sandwich was the Nordique, which had generous layers of smoked salmon with cucumbers and a generous spread of dill cream cheese. This was more west coast than French but I thoroughly enjoyed this sandwich as well. It was less heavy than the boeuf bourguinon and tasted very fresh. The cucumbers provided the requisite crunch and the cream cheese was packed full of dill flavour.

I should note that the baguettes all come with your choice of soup, salad, or fries. Chris and I both decided to go for the green salad with dijon vinaigrette which turned out to be quite good as well. The salad portion was actually quite large and the vinaigrette had a nice combo of dijon with some tanginess from some white wine vinegar. It was simple but oh so tasty.

Although I wouldn’t say that the baguettes at Chez Meme are necessarily the type you would find in your typical Parisien bistro, they tasted great and were full of fresh ingredients. I would definitely say that they retained a certain French flavour to them. I went back another day with Jenkins and tried the From’ton, which was made with brie, warm pears, and walnuts. If you are a cheese fan, this would be your thing.

Details:
4016 Hastings Street, Burnaby
Tel: 604-299-1141
Note: They are only open Monday to Fridays and the second Saturday of each month

Summary:
Food: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $

I first heard about Cafeteria when I wanted to make a repeat visit to Ping’s Cafe. I was trying to review Ping’s menu offerings when I found out that it had actually closed down and the owners had sold its space to the owners of Pied a Terre and La Buca. Cafeteria’s concept sounded pretty interesting: its menu changed daily and its offerings were quite focused and sought to bring in only the freshest ingredients for its dishes. Its dishes were also at a slightly lower price point than Pied a Terre and La Buca and since I’m always up for a deal, that really appealed to me.

Mike and Victoria wanted to meet up for dinner one day and since we are always up for trying something new, we agreed to meet at Cafeteria. While we were trying to decide on what to order, I ordered a virgin cranberry lime soda.

I was in a beefy kind of mood that day so I decided to order Cafeteria’s duo of beef. I really enjoyed the slow braised short rib that was super tender and flavourful. The beef medallions were cooked perfectly rare but I felt that it lacked the flavour that the slow braised beef had. The bed of mashed potatoes picked up the flavour of the sauce, which was rich but not overly heavy.

Jenkins and Victoria both decided to have the tagliatelle with a porchetta-like pork and fresh peas. The dish looked a little small when it first arrived but it turned out to be quite filling, most likely due to the fatty, slow-cooked pork. Jenkins remarked that it was tasty but nothing spectacular.

For dessert, the four of us decided to share a couple of items. Strawberries were still in season during our dinner so we thought the strawberries and cream would be a good choice. Fresh BC strawberries were lightly macerated in sugar and layered with fluffy whipped cream and topped with some amaretto cookies. It was a simple and light dessert that we all quite enjoyed. I think I would have liked it even more if there were more cookies to provide some additional texture and crunch.

Despite the fact that I’m a huge fan of fresh BC strawberries, I actually liked the chocolate tart even more. The bittersweet chocolate ganache filling was just sweet enough and full of rich chocolate flavour. The tart shell itself was quite buttery and crumbly and provided a nice contrast to the creamy smooth ganache. A sufficient amount of tang was provided with a dollop of crème fraiche and raspberries on top.

I quite enjoyed the simple offerings at Cafeteria. Although I liked some dishes more than others, I felt that they were all quite well made and the quality overall seemed fairly consistent. I’m still quite intrigued by their daily rotating menu and although this does seem a bit difficult to predict, they did let us know that we were welcome to call in before coming in to find out what was on the menu for that day. Reservations are also not taken so it is best for you to time your arrival accordingly. The four of us arrived on a weekday for dinner at about 7:30PM and only had to wait for about 15 minutes so we were fairly lucky.

Details:
2702 Main Street, Vancouver
Tel: 778-317-3783

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$$