Cafe Salads de Fruits, French Fry Fanatastic

Moules et frites

Cafe Salads de Fruits wins two awards:

1. First award: Most non descript frontage.
Let's call this the secret restaurant awards.
I've never been here before, meeting friends for lunch, I have the address and do a slow drive by on

7th Ave

, I hit the end of block. Crap, missed it. I've got the address, 1551, great, should be mid block, I do a Uiee, park mid block. Were this place? Oh wait a second, it sort of looks like someone could be sitting at a table behind the glass in the building next to me. Yup, turns out Salads is sequestered in a small corner of the French Cultural Centre on 7th. The signage sucks. But on the other hand it didn't really seem to matter, once inside, seated and enjoying lunch with friends there was a constant line of people being turned away. This place was packed and rocking. I guess this is the secret hidden gem of French bistro dining in Vancouver.
Those in the know, know and now happily so do I.

 

Poutine Maison

2. Second award: dare I say it, one of the best frites in the city.
Yes, the fries rock. And its funny because there are so many places doing mediocre fries out there that when you come across fry greatness it blows your head off. Hey, anyplace that includes fries with the pizza order has to have it going on. So what makes these fries so special? I don’t know what they are cooked in, I don’t believe the waiters veg oil answer, but the flavour is outstanding and the cut is Mcdonaldesque, thin, crispy, salty, so tasty that I would upon occasion forget to dip them in the mayo. Hey, its French bistro no ketchup allowed.
The rest of the food is classic French Bitro, simple, uncomplicated and delicious.

Enjoy the food pics and don’t tell anyone were this place is.

Poisson du jour - Tuna

Halibat

Rouleau du Printemps

The Pear Tree Restaurant

The Pear Tree Restaurant is a white collar establishment in a sea if blue. The Heights on Hastings in Burnaby is a great strip, coffee shops, mom and pop restaurants, Italian delis, specialty bakeries and of course my barber shop. Yes that's right a barber shop not a hair stylist. This strip is not trendy it’s almost small townie. Amongst all this hominess sits the Pear Tree Restaurant, dissimilar from the whole lot around it both outside and in. You could pick up the entire structure move it to Yaletown and none of the beautiful people down there would blink.

I've lived in this hood almost my entire life and I've always been curious but I've never eaten here. I guess when the special occasion meals come up there is always a new Vancouver restaurant with buzz or an old standard that wins out. I finally had an opportunity to dine, not eat rather dine at the Pear Tree and I'm happy I did. This is a really modern downtown restaurant located in the burbs. I don't usually write about the service, it's a hard job and people have off days, but here there was just a comfort to the service here that made it absolutely outstanding.
The food was good, really good, but not great. Let's call it slightly above average fine dining fair.

Pheasant:
I don't think I ever had pheasant before. Just OK, a bit gamey but maybe that's what it’s supposed to taste like. The bed of small black lentils was tasteless.

Pork belly:I've never had a bad pork, I'm mean really how can you screw up all that luscious fat. This one was really good, the mushrooms, white beans and spot prawns, let's call it a rag out, was a nice complement. I was craving a big thick slice of rustic bread to soak everything up and clean my plate.

A most excellent vanilla crème brulee finished the meal. I guess I got too excited at it’s arrival because I totally forgot to take a picture.

I enjoyed everything about the Pear Tree, or perhaps that a restaurant of this caliber can make a go of things outside of the downtown core. It's nice to have a place like this in the community.