Ensemble, Vancouver, Top Chef Eatery



Roasted Beet Salad



I had chef Dale Mackay pegged to win Top Chef Canada by episode 2. And I was right, this guy can cook, not to mention that (from the show perspective anyway) he is ultra competitive, passionate and has a single minded  intensity that I think translates well to owning and running your own reaturant.
Enter Ensemble, Vancouver’s newest celebrity chef joint
I've had the opportunity to eat at Ensemble a couple of times now and here are some general impressions.
The restaurant is cosy if not a bit dark. It has the feel of a mom and pop place but mom and pop consulted with a slick modern designer first feel. Did I mention it was dark? The bar throws me off a bit as well, it takes a whole back wall but has only a small booze display that look budgety. The staff are friendly and attentive but not polished. I like the casual approach.

The menu is all about small plates. Order a bunch. Try a few different things. The suggestion for a typical meal are 4 plates (includes a desert). Still theses are small plates and I can see how a big eater might get into an uncomfortable financial position if they were to order with abandon. Hey, I know these people. These people are upon occasion me.

There are very many interesting and yummy things on the menu:
Here's a few of the things we had.

Sorry about the quality of the photos (did I mention it was dark)

I liked Ensemble

                         Sweet and Sour Eggplant

An Item voted Van Mags Best things to Eat and Drink in Vancouver 2011 – agreed, this was a standout favourite, Baba Ghanoush, Yogurt, Tomato all marry together, fabulous.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

The pulled pork, a dish Dale did on Top Chef. It was good but ya ok nothing to stand on the roof and scream about. The deep fried pickle was interesting if not a bit dry. How do you make a pickle dry? I didn’t get the watermelon, why was it there? Sorry, I’m just channelling a Top Chef Judge.

                                    Potato Gnocchi

Potato Gnocchi, soft, light, nice. But then so was the tomato sauce. It was ok.

Oysters

I love raw oysters. When I come across oysters on the menu I linger. I quickly scan for something else and then I order the oysters. Yes these oysters made me happy.

Cornmeal Crusted Scallops

With Tamarind-Date Purée, Cauliflower, good, if you like that kind of thing.

Beef Shin and Fritz

The beef shin was a surprise. Imagine taking a tough piece of meat, which for sure shin meat has to be. Cook it, probably boiled for hours until the meat falls of the shin. The meat would be in long strands. Take these strands add sauce and flavorings and pack into a tube mold. The result, a very unique texture, almost a stringy pate, but it works, this was really cool and tasty.

                    Chocolate Fondant

              Hazelnut-Nougatine Ice Cream

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

Campagnolo Roma. A nice casual simple place. I like it.

I like Refeul, especially their burger.

I had one bad experience there.

I like Campagnolo on main.

Now I finally had the opportunity to check out Campagnola Roma on Hastings. The third restaurant in the Refeul/Campagnolo empire.

It seams like decreasing fanciness and increasing casualness as we go down this list.
Roma has a real simple mom and pop feel but with a trendy young edge. The menu is short and simple, a few apps a few pastas and a few pizzas. But then really what more do you need.
I had the diavola - spicy salami, tomato sauce, aged provolone  pizza. The crust was good a bit soggy in the middle but that's ok and the topping was a bit greasy from the sausage (99% sure the salami is made in-house at Refeul - I love when that happens) but then that's totally expected.

I like the pizza I would go back in a heartbeat and really thats all that matters as well.

A really nice casual simple place. I like it.

BTW, this is a great dinning corner of Hastings with Red Wagon right across the street. All this corner needs now is that the Churches Chicken  kitty corner convert itself into a soul food Chicken and Waffles joint and the neighbourhood transformation would be complete.

La Ghianda. Officially my sandwich shop

La Ghianda is an upscale deli / restaurant on Alma kitty corner to its sister restaurant La Quercia on

4^th Ave.



Beef tongue - La Quarcia



La Quercia tops Van Mags best Italian Restaurant List year after year. I just eat there last month but I'm not going to blog about it except to say that it was outstanding. I was there with a group of friends and the chit chat got in the way of serious, yes this place demands serious attention, serious critiquing and serious picture taking. My friend Cristina took one photo of the beef tongue appetizer just because it’s something you don't usually see on menus. It tasted a bit like really fine head cheese. The rest of the dinner was a surprise 7 course meal, served family style.

The surprise was the fact that we actually didn’t order anything; this is chefs’ choice all the way. The table next to us got the same treatment but entirely different food.



This place has its act together.
Our dinner culminated it what was probably the best lamb I've almost ever had.

Ok I said I won't blog about La Quarcia, back to La Ghianda.

La Ghianda is a cross between an Italian deli and restaurant. It has a huge kitchen for a deli and an extended menu. Great looking deli like stuff especially the salumi.  
I'm here for a sandwich. A sub actually, roast beef (perfectly roasted pink middle) on a gorgeous crusty sub style bun. The type of bun that has a thick outer crust dusted with flour that gets all over your face and cloths with every bite but soft chewy airy holiness inside. The holes in the bread suck up the ample amounts of horseradish cream and then this masterpiece is finished with crisp bitter arugula. I embellished my sandwich further by purchasing a bottle of good expensive peppery olive oil and then drizzling every bite so that the green oil filled all the air pockets in the bread. What can I say; I've got issues with olive oil (amongst other things).

Remind me again why people eat at subway? This behemoth at La Ghianda is bigger infinitely better and about a dollar more then a footlong at subway. (if you don’t count the olive oil)
La Ghianda is now officially my sandwich shop whenever I'm in this neck of the woods, unless its a Monday they are not open Mondays WTF they should be open 24/7 as far as I'm concerned.

See you there.

Las Margaritas Restaurant. It's Hammer time!

I haven't been to Los Margeritas in 20 years. I think there was a tequila margs phase I went through when I was younger sometime in my late 20's long before my frontal lobe fully developed. Yes, visiting Las Margeritas was more about the booze then the food.

Walking in now I can't say much has changed it’s like a time capsule to the 80’s.

A couple of friends invited me to lunch, pull up a chair, relax, it’s Hammer time!

Let's call the food Americanized Mexican.

I'm a fan good Mexican food.

I’m a fan of the drinks at Los Margaritas.

Here are a few pics of our meal; they speak for themselves, what you see is what you kinda get.

Ceviche

White fish marinated in fresh lime juice and mixed with tomatoes, white onions, cilantro, green olives and jalapeño peppers

Crappy crappy picture, sorry, but then not the greatest civiche either. I’m going to guess the it’s been sitting in a tub in the walk in fridge for some time.

Tejas

A Mexican pizza made with an 8-inch crispy flour/corn tortilla layered with refried beans, edam, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, green peppers, olives, tomatoes and sour cream.

Think 5 layer dip sitting on the nachos

Fajita Burrito

A large flour tortilla filled with onions, green and red peppers, lettuce, cheese, salsa, pico de gallo and sour  cream. Served with Mexican rice and house salad.

Grilled Sirloin Steak, Grilled Chicken Breast or Prawns

With fresh guacamole

Taco

One flour or corn tortilla, your choice of soft or hard shell, filled with ground beef, chicken or roasted beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and taco sauce. Served with refried beans and Mexican rice.

I’ll be back in another 20 years, just for nostalgias sake.

Meat and Bread - Porchetta - My Crack

There are a few things popping up on the Vancouver food scene that I like, that I like a lot.
Thin crust Neapolitan style pizza:
Nicle

Bibo

Campagnolo

All excellent.
And then there are the Porchetta sandwiches joints.
Pronto

Meat and Bread

I say bring it on. I think there should be a pizza place and a porchetta joint next to every Starbucks in town.
In fact, let's combine the two - porchetta thin crust pizza, OMG.
I'm going to grab takeout Pizza Margereta from Nicli, walk the block and a half to Meat and Bread, grab a pound of porchetta,  find a doorway in Gastown and dig in. I don't care that the guy next to me is smoking crack or that the doorway smells like piss, I'm having my porchetta pizza, this is my crack, leave me the fuck alone.
Six months from now when you find me in a Gastown gutter weighing 300 pounds caked in pork fat and cloths stained with tomato sauce hallucinating about pork skin, still chasing the high of the very first luscious crackling pork skin in my sandwich, please pick me up, slap me senseless, throw me in a shower and drive me to Jenny Craig.

Making the Sandwich

Yes, the Porchetta at Meat and Bread is that good.
There’s a bunch of other stuff on the menu, but if I were to visit 100 times I still wouldn’t care about them. I’m sure it’s all very good though but at the end of the day how can you compete with porchetta. And also, buy a jar of their homemade mustard, there is nothing like it anywhere, trust me.

Bacon maple syrup ice cream sandwich:

Van Mags best things to eat in Vancouver 2011

Very light on the maple, nice Smokey salty goodness when you come across a a chunk of bacon.

Bacon Maple Ice Cream

It seems another trend is to throw bacon into everything. Not a bad idea generally speaking but in the end I’m not sure if I would order it again, Its ok, perhaps I am more of an ice cream traditionalist.

Brave the crowds pray for a seat and do yourself a favour, grab a porchetta sandwich at Meat and Bread.

In case anyone was counting I wrote porchetta 8 times...9 times.

The Red Wagon Cafe. Mmm pulled pork pancakes.

I hear Deb saying, "Wow, you ate that fast"
I look up from what's left of my pancakes, quickly scan everyone else’s plates, yup they look shamefully untouched and yes I have indeed hoovered my meal.
Slight embarrassment ensues but only for a moment. Screw it, I look down and continue the destruction of the pulled pork buttermilk pancakes.

Ya, this totally sucks! I need another stack.

Pride wins over gluttony. Both are deadly, but then perhaps so are these pancakes. Spicy succulent pulled pork nestled between three soft butter pancakes and then doused in totally awesome Jack Daniels maple syrup. Make sure you have all three on your fork at every bit because together this is a symphony. I bumped things up with a poached egg on top. What can I say a bit of gluttony kicked in during ordering, the creamy yoke breaking over the pancakes just adds an extra layer of decadence. I’m not even a pancakes guy. I can’t remember the last time I ordered pancakes, seriously.

The server tells me that this is the number one order for breakfast lunch and dinner service. I can believe it. It’s also what Guy Fieri had when he visited with Triple D. BTW, mark down Dec 19^th on your calendar the Red Wagon airs on the food network. That would be Triple D checking out Triple P at RW ;) Nevermind.

Deb had the burger. It looked great. Better in fact then the one I had a while back. Check out my review back at Handsome Burger.

Dave had the pulled pork. He licked his fingers clean.

Wei had the beef and brie sandwich. I had a slice, it was ok. But then I just had the pancakes and its not a fair transition. The home made chps are addictive.

My only complaint about the Red Wagon is the size, this place is tiny and there was a constant line at the door waiting to be seated. It’s time to hitch another wagon to the red wagon and expand.

Nicli Antica Pizzaria: Prosciutto e Rucola

The dough has a nice thick shell, soft tender toothy interior.

The tomato sauce is soft subtle sweet.

The prosciutto is unfortunately over salty. I can't believe I'm even entertaining the idea but perhaps the pizza would be better off without this prosciutto. I don't have a list per say but prosciutto might just be in my top 10 favourite things of all time. I know, it’s a scary thought but somehow, the saltiness of the prosciutto overpowers the delicacy of the other ingredients.
Maybe it was the brand, I sometimes find the local grocery store prosciutto overly salty. The producer cutting corners during processing, it’s a lot cheaper to pump the hog full of salt instead of letting it hang and properly cure.

None the less there is lots to like about Nicli pizza. It’s fresh its lively its toothy and it is good.

I look forward to going back,  I've already picked my next order. Is that wrong?
Definitely on my favourite Vancouver pizza list.

My apologies on the photos. I didn't have my camera and my Blackberry was not cutting the mustard. Or maybe it was just shooting through it becouse it just wouldn't focus.

Zakos Deli. No way VanMag!

Really?? Van Mags Best Things to Eat and Drink in Vancouver.

No Way! Are the people at Van Mag insane? Read this:
" As close as you can get to experiencing Schwartz's in Montreal without boarding a plane"

I've been to Schwartz's and Zakos's isn’t  even close. BTW, just out of coincidence Follow me Foodie just posted a blog on Schwartz this week. Check out the photos and compare. My god, no comparison.



There is no soul at Zako's. OK, the smoked meat is pretty good, but the Sandwich is sloppy, there's no TLC.
In the end it's just a very average sandwich. The best smoked meat in the lower mainland, which I've had so far (happy to take recommendations because I probably won't be going back to Zako's) is at Estrellas in Langley. They get their meat from Montreal as well but they tend to give a damn. Check both out and you'll feel and taste the difference.
I'm looking forward to one day trying locally produced "Montreal Smoked Meat". I'm surprised no one in Vancouver is doing this. And if you are please let me know.



halloween cookie



Cafe Medina

   

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Olive Tapenade



I'm a big fan of Chambar Belgian restaurant. It's been my long standing pre - restaurant. Meaning it’s the go to place pre game, pre theatre, downtown outing. When I crave mussels and fries, Chambar has the best in the city. Cafe Medina is Chambers’ sister restaurant next door. Were Chambar is open for dinner only Cafe Medina is open for breakfast lunch brunch and special events. A nice fit.
You can certainly tell that the same hand is in on the menu chef and owner Nico Schuermans has a certain distinguishable touch. Outside of mussel frites and waffles and beer I am painfully ignorant of Belgian cuisine but here as with Chambar there is a distinctively Moroccan fusion and west coast style.
I had the, Canard confit
Duck confit, sour cherry compote, brie, anjou pears an pecan raison sourdough. Watercress and caramelized pecans.

When I ordered I didn't know that it was a sandwich. But I was pleasantly surprised because I love almost anything between two pieces of bread. The canard sandwich was flavourful, sweat and totally hit the spot and BTW paired beautifully with my apricot beer.
My dining companion (DC) had the Paella.

Duck

Paella
Baked egg, curried orzo, Hungarian chorizo, zucchini, red pepper, roasted corn, grana padano. Watercress, tomatoes, avocado.

Unfortunatly she came away unimpressed, primarily because she didn't read the small print, orzo pealle, not rice, she was looking for rice and the dish never rebounded, she ate half before giving up.

DC Wei looked like she got the prize, the fricassee was phenomenal, and I had some.

2 eggs, braised short ribs, roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, arugula and smoked applewood cheddar. Grilled foccacia.

Fricassee

Fricassee in this case is French for short rib hash and it’s a standout everything comes together. I would wait in line for this one.

Definitely check cafe medina out for brunch lunch or whenever it's open.

Fresh Local Wild Seafood Cart

The food cart thing in Vancouver is still in it's infancy and already there are early favorites and the good ones are starting to generate some buzz. Fresh Local Wild has generated enough buzz that Guy Fieri from the Food Network made a visit on his first trip to Vancouver. I'm looking forward to seeing the episode.

I'm a big fan of food trucks at least the ones that do it right. Doing it right means fresh food, local food and organic ingredients. Holy crap someone should name a truck fresh local and organic! Close but then again since this truck is a seafood joint the wild fits better.

I had the fried oyster sandwich, crunchy oyster nuggets soft, supple, briny on the inside, nice. I'm glad I made it in time, I got the last one, two persons after me they ran out of all sandwiches, 90 tuna melts today, wow. It seams the tuna melt is the truck specialty, ok, I know what I 'm having next time. BTW, the fries are also outstanding, fresh cut, crispy, totally flavorful; my recommendation is to mix the sriracha in with your ketchup, my new favorite, who knew?

I like this cart; I'm going to add it to my favorites for carts. If you like places like Go Fish at Granville island or Red Fish Blue Fish in Victoria, then I don't think you'll be disappointed with Fresh Local Wild. Check them out at the corner of Burrard and Hastings

Peaceful Restaurant - No Thousand Chili Chicken

Peaceful has two restaurant locations in Vancouver I visited the

Davie Street

location.

I am here because of the “buzz”: Van Mags things to eat 2011 – Thousand Chilli Chicken.

And also a few months ago Guy Fieri from Food Networks Diners Drive-ins and Dives visited Vancouver and Peaceful was one of the restaurants he visited. I don’t know what he ate?  The show will view in the New Year.

First impressions; Peaceful is a nice no frills family restaurant. The kitchen is open so that you can view the chefs pull handmade paste. I love that. If you’ve never had fresh pasta this way go quickly, there is nothing better on a cold wet Vancouver day then fresh pulled home-made pasta in broth.

General Tsao's Chicken

Today I am here for the Thousand Chilli Chicken. But crap it’s not on the lunch menu. I asked for it anyway and I had a slight language problem with the server. I got a bit flustered, had to order by number off the menu, had chicken on the mind and ended up ordering General Tsao’s Chicken instead.

 It was pretty good; the chicken was supper tender, the sauce was sweat and yet a bit on the salty side. The broccoli had a fantastic pineapplely flavour.  But damn it, it wasn’t the thousand chilli chicken. And just to rub it, I was sitting at the window counter and smack in front of my face was the takeout menu with Item C1: Thousand Chilli Chicken staring me right in the face.

C1: Sichuan Thousand Chilli Chicken

Peaceful Beef Rolls: Five Spice beef in crispy green onion flat bread and sweat hiosin sauce. Good finger food. This is all about the sweet hiosin sauce for me, tastily but I found the flatbread a bit greasy. Still an OK dish.

Peaceful Beef Rolls

I can see why Triple D came around. The restaurant is nice family run type of joint, you get a nice show from the pulled pasta and the food is pretty good.

But me, I’m just going to obsess about not having the Thousand Chilli Chicken.

I'll be back!

Refeul very disappointing

One of my favorite Vancouver burgers is from Refeul.

One of my favorite Vancouver Pizzas is from Campagnolo, Refeuls sister restaurant.

So it pains me to say that my last experience at Refeul was far, very far, from stellar.

Let me explain:

3:30 on a sunny Saturday my wife and I are starving we haven't had lunch so we decide to step into Refeul for a quick bite.

We are the only ones in the restaurant when we sit down; two other tables are occupied when we leave an hour later. It’s the dead zone between lunch and dinner service.

We order 4 appies. We ask that they be delivered all together.

10 minutes later Kate's salad arrives. It's a good looking salad and its tasty I only had one bite because Kate loves the beets. So I just watched her eat and then somewhere around her last mouthful of salad 8-10 minutes later my clams showed up.

The clams were very average; but the grilled sourdough was really good which made the dipping in the end very tasty. Kate doesn't like Clams so she watched me eat through the clams for about 10 minutes until the salmon and egg dish arrived.

Then I got the privilege of watching Kate eat for about 5 minutes until I got concerned and asked the server if perhaps my octopus salad is coming at all. Yes it's on the way...5 min later it arrived just as Kate took the last bite of salmon. So now Kate is watching me eat octopus.

The Octopus was not my favorite, I've had the octopus a Campagnolo were it was excellent, here the greens were just a bit strangely flavored and wilted.

In the end the food was very mediocre and the service egregious. If this was my first trip to Refeul I'd never go back and I would recommend that you stay far far away from this pace. Luckily I know they can do and have done better. Refeul please do better.

Oh, and the cherry on top of the bad service Saturday was on the way out when I noticed the fresh board advertizing in season fresh heirloom tomatoes. I would have loved some tomatoes if only my server told me about them. I walk away more disgusted then I was a few steps previous.

Trilussa Pizza and Pane

Trilussa is a small main street eat-in take-out wood oven pizza joint. It bills itself as Roman pizza and makes their pizzas in these long oval boat shapes with thin crust. There are a whole shwack of different flavors on display just point and they’ll cut a 3, 5 or 7 inch piece for you. Cool concept, I've never seen anything like it before and I love pizza and have seen alotta pizza and have eaten alotta pizza so this Roman is kind of confusing because the last time I was in Rome the pizzas were all on display in these big rectangular pans and the dough was decidedly thick. But then the liberal use of the term Roman Pizza is my only criticism of Trilussa. The place is casual comfortable and the pizza is fantastic crispy chewy crust, great toppings and lots of soft gooey cheese. I'm adding Trilussa to my favorite pizza list especially for a quick lunchtime stop.