I’ve heard of this monthly event over and over, year after year, and I’ve never been. But I’m thinking about this Friday. By all accounts, you won’t find a more satisfying Ukrainian dinner in town, and you can’t beat the price – two things that have turned this quiet little event into a must-try for those in the know in Mount Pleasant.

Here are the details for the dinner, including a menu, which happens the first Friday of every month (This Friday, Feb. 6th, as it happens.) Also of interest is that besides the vegetarian-friendly varieties of perogy, they also have vegetarian cabbage rolls as well.

Three weeks back, Burgoo opened it’s third (I’m pretty sure it’s third) location on Main – it used to be a Subway, so automatically it’s a step up for the neighbourhood. I went with my best gal and two friends visiting from Calgary and it was fantastic – not exactly what I expected. The sign says “comfort food”, which always registers as cheese and carbs. They did have mac and cheese on the menu, but I went for the butter chicken. Surprise! It was delicious, but not the creamy variety we usually associate with the dish. Served on a wood plank (cuz they’s hot!) and add a side of herb biscuits… fantastic.

The group also enjoyed an opener fondue – cheese, fruit, bread… glah. I also have a picture of another dish, eaten by one of the visiting friends, but I can’t remember what it was and it’s not on their online menu. But it looks like a chowder. I’ll say chowder.

As a bonus, Kristin Kreuk was having dinner on the patio, which thrilled the pair of Calgarians to no end.

Funny story…

So, we had dinner, Kristin Kreuk is there. Giggles all round. We leave before her and her group, and cross the street for gelato. Yum. As we’re sitting and eating our desert, the Kristin Kreuk Krew come in for some iced confections as well. Polite smiles. Fair play. She dances to the cheesy pop on the radio a bit, and Calgarians applaud. A little forward. They leave. We leave. We get in car and drive, and that’s when we pass her and beau (ok, alleged beau) who are walking. So, they must live in the DON’T ALL STARE! Sure enough, they look at us all looking at them. OK, kind of creepy now.

The next day, I’m leaving a mom and pop shop and who’s coming in? Kristin Kreuk. Awkward.

But, I can confirm that Kristin Kreuk lives in Mount Pleasant. S’true.

Kristin, I’m harmless, I swear.

I do like coffee. A lot. I own a cappuccino machine and I buy expensive shade grown, organic beans. This means that when I leave my home and buy a cuppa java I am often less than satisfied with what I drink.

jjbean don’t just sell cups of coffee – they are small scale roasters. Which means the beans with which the coffee has been made have been roasted a very short time before they were ground for your coffee. And you can taste the difference. There used to be an expression in restaurant reviews started by the Michelin guide. “Vaux le voyage”
If you care about really good coffee, jjbean at Homer and Davie is worth the trip.

I have no relationship with this company and this was my first visit

Every Year Tourism Vancouver puts on Dine Out Vancouver [tv] which provides an opportunity for locals and tourists alike to try some of Vancouver’s best restaurants at a reasonable price. The event runs from January 16th through to February 3rd. The other night my girlfriend Lydia and I went to Raincity Grill [tv]. For my foodie girlfriend’s review of the meal go here [mm]. For my less accomplished tongue’s take on the meal read on.

Raincity Grill
1193 Denman St. Vancouver, B.C.
V6G 2N1
604-685-7337

There are some meals that are incredibly good. There are some meals that are fantastic. The Raincity Grill’s Seared Fraser Valley chicken (pictured above) is neither of those because quite frankly it was perfect. The entree was the best thing I have ever eaten. I mean ever, ever. It was so good that I felt that the rest of the resturant was actually privileged to watch me eat it, and I’m sure that the other patrons went home and spoke of my meal in the hushed tones of reverence that some people use for having seen the Beatles play the Cavern Club in Liverpool [cc] or how people who were at the fight speak of the Ali / Forman Rumble in the Jungle [wp]. My meal was a once in a lifetime event that may possibly have changed the course of human history.

But I’m getting ahead of myself and soon you might be suspecting that my enthusiasm is dropping into the realm of hyperbole. It is not, and I stand by my statement, that this is the greatest meal I have ever eaten. It started out kind of shitty though, I mean I really hated the starter.

I could never be a food critic because there are just certain things that I hate eating. Onions, for example, are my arch-enemy and always have been ever since I was a young boy picking through my mother’s tuna and rice casserole. That my selected starter theTrio of Tartar tasted strongly of onions was not a good way to begin the meal. I poked at it, made faces and generally annoyed my girlfriend who was wondering if it was possible to take me to any place nice without me making a scene at some point. Eventually I had poked, prodded and moved about enough of the starter to look as if I had actually ingested some of it that the waiting staff took it away.

Insert your best sports metaphor here, but the fact was it was not going well and it would require some sort of miracle play by the cooking staff to get me back into the meal. I was fiddling with my silverware, hungry and gulping down water worried that it was going to be the only thing that my taste buds were not going to object to that evening. That Lydia’s starter had been a scallion vinaigrette was not exactly promising. Was there going to be something that I was going to enjoy?

According to the menu my main course was “Seared Fraser Valley chicken, hay baked celeriac, a ragout of mushrooms, whipped potato puree, chicken glaze”. It was fucking amazing. If vegtables always tasted like that I’d be a happily eating three greens a day instead of keeping my non-meat diet limited to french fries and diet cola. The potato puree was incredibly delicious, the mushrooms were amoung the best I’ve ever had and whatever hay baked celeriac is it was amazing. The chicken was the best I have ever had. Ever.

The Fireweed honey Pot-au-Creme was the perfect closer to such a incredible meal.

I am not lying when I say that the main course was the single best meal I have ever eaten. I can not recomend trying the Raincity Grill enough. We ordered from the Dine Out Vancouver menu ($35 per person) but as long as you’re getting the chicken you won’t be disapointed. If you’re a vegitarian don’t worry, the vegtables that I had were incredibly good as well, and I am someone who really does not rate the veggies normally.

I know it’s a tired trope of the food critique to claim that something was the best that they’d ever eaten, or to die for. I don’t quite want to die for another meal at the Raincity Grill, that seems like the sort of Faustian bargin I’d leave to saving the life of my dear old Aunt May [wp], but I certainly will watch my budget and save some money so I can afford to eat there again. It’s well worth eating a few meals of Kraft Dinner to save money for another chance for the perfect dinner at Raincity Grill.

Every Year Tourism Vancouver puts on Dine Out Vancouver [tv] which provides an opportunity for locals and tourists alike to try some of Vancouver’s best restaurants at a reasonable price. The event runs from January 16th through to February 3rd. The other night my girlfriend Lydia and I went to The Flying Tiger [tv]. For my foodie girlfriend’s review of the meal go here [mm]. For my less accomplished tongue’s take on the meal read on.

The Flying Tiger
2958 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
604-737-7529

After going to Bistro Pastis [mbv] and Aurora Bistro [mbv] so far on my year of meals for Dine Out Vancouver I was actually glad to discover upon arrival that The Flying Tiger was quite a bit more laid back than our first two resturant choices. With a televsion in one corner showing sports, and relaxed ambient music throughout the resturant it certainly had a different vibe than we’d experianced previously.

We were quickly seated at a table by the open kitchen. In most resturants “by the kitchen” is code for the shitty seats, because you get tied up in the flood of activity of food going in and and plus the heat from the kitchen plays havok with the temperature. None of that was a factor, and being able to watch the kitchen staff turn out meals gave us an enticing preview of what we were about to be served.

I started with the Togarashi Tuna (pictured above), which was actually quite spicy. I’m generally not keen on spicy foods, but the tuna was so good that I pushed on. The inclusion of some cool soba noodles to keep my mouth from catching fire was a nice addition. Lydia enjoyed her starter which was the Salt Spring Island Mussels with Chili Fry Bread, I wasn’t a fan of the curry sauce they came in but she enjoyed them.

For the first, and so far only time, this Dine Out season we both ordered the same selection, and that was for our main the Pulled Duck Confit Crepes. The crepes, which required some IKEA style user assembly, where excellent. The duck was tender, the included cucumber and herbs allowed us to customize each bite to our own liking. There was ample meat, and even after I had used my last crepe I had duck left over to enjoy on its own.

I finished off with the chocolate banana, and though it wasn’t a Bluth style frozen banana it was still quite a treat. Not too sweet, and not too much to take away from the memory of the excellent meal that had preceded it.

The Flying Tiger is definitly one place that we’re planning on going back to, and certainly one that I would recomend. Unlike the other two resturants we’ve eaten at for Dine Out it’s relaxed enough that I don’t think it’s got to be a big deal to eat there. It could be a “special occasion” destination, but it could just as well be a place to meet up with some friends for a few beers and a some good South-East Asian appies. A nice change from the fries and wings at your typical pub.

Bistro Pastis

Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Every Year Tourism Vancouver puts on Dine Out Vancouver [tv] which provides an opportunity for locals and tourists alike to try some of Vancouver’s best restaurants at a reasonable price. The event runs from January 16th through to February 3rd. On Saturday night my girlfriend Lydia and I went to Bistro Pastis.

Bistro Pastis
2153 W 4th
Vancouver
Tel 604-731-5020

I’ve always had trouble reviewing restaurants, because so much of how a restaurant is enjoyed is beyond the quality and taste of the food. If I’m reviewing a movie I try to look past the fact that I had to wait in line to get into the threatre and I can not blame the fact that an annoying couple is explaining the plot of the movie to each other in the row behind me on the director. Is it fair then that it is hard to stay incredibly positive about a restaurant when part of the experience is less than stellar?

We went to Bistro Pastis last year [mbv] and it was one of those places we decided that we needed to go again this year. The only drawback last year was the wait for a table, which saw us standing on West 4th for about twenty minutes. At the time I didn’t mention it in my review because I figured it was a one off, and the food was so good. This year again we were again left waiting for our seats for around twenty-five minutes. I realize that Dine Out is a busy time, but clearly if it’s happening every year something needs to be done. Either they need to take less reservations, space them apart better or just get the table service to go a bit quicker.

Actually probably not the last one, because once we did sit down everything came quick quickly. Having examined the menu online we already knew what we were going to order, and we were soon eating some very fine French cuisine. Lydia has a much better review than I could do so go read that here [mm]. I would recomend anything on the Dine Out menu, though I would also suggest that ordering a side of the fries is well worth the addition onto the fixed menu price.

Aurora Bistro [dov] was one of the resturants I went to during last year’s Dine Out Vancouver [mbv] and having enjoyed it so much my girlfriend Lydia and I made sure that we added it to the list of must visit places for this year. If you’re a foodie and want a full review of the meal then check out Lydia’s bite-by-bite coverage of our meal over at Meal Max where she’s trying to win money [mm].

Like last year I had the cornish game hen, which probably says as much about me being predictable than it does about the quality of the meal. Still it was excellent once again, though ten dollars more expensive with the rise of the Dine Out Vancouver fare from $25 to $35. The accompanying potato gnocchi was very good as well as was the soup that I had to start. If you’re not worried about spending a little extra money get the suggested wines to go along with each course, the ice wine in particular was qutie a nice addition.

Aurora Bistro was nice to return to, and frankly I’m surprised I never made time to go there during the rest of the year. The meal was filling and even at $35 the Dine Out Vancouver price is well worth a visit.

Dine Out at Cassis Bistro ($25)

Originally uploaded by w_yvr.

That’s right, it’s a new year and that means the Dine Out Vancouver menus are up online [tv] and it’s time to get your eat on. For those of you playing a long at home Dine Out Vancouver is a program by Tourism Vancouver where a number of local restaurants offer reasonably priced set menus (between $15 and $35) for a few weeks to give locals, tourists and others a chance to taste their fare, while bringing in business for restaurants during their slower post-Christmas period.

This is the program’s sixth year, and every year it gets more and more popular. I’d suggest getting reservations as soon as you can, especially if there’s somewhere specific you want to eat. Lydia’s already got a whole host of eateries booked for us, and she was online the day the menus came out to make sure we got to go where we wanted.

For our past bits on Dine Out Vancouver just check here [mbv]. From personal experiance I’d suggest Aurora Bistro [mbv] and Raincity Grill.

Dine Out Vancouver runs from January 16th until February 3rd.

Note: The menu pictured is from last year, please check the website for an updated Cassis Bistro menu.