Slif

Part of the W 4th Ave new-boy triangle (Fuel, Gastropod, Bistrot Bistro), Fuel was the first of the three to open late last year. I’ve been 3 times in the last few months and I can honestly say, it’s my favourite table in the entire city. The food is excellent, pricing reasonable, and service is absolutely astounding.

I’ve had lunch twice there and the lamb shoulder sandwich is astounding. It’s flavourful, very tender, and for the size, is a steal at $14. They also have a soup/sandwich/dessert special at $25, and app/entree/dessert at $35.

Now for the main reason why I keep coming back, I gotta tell you about dinner.

There were four of us, and 2 of us ordered a 4 course tasting menu. Only 1 friend didn’t order an appetizer. When our starters arrived, the manager brought him an amuse bouche so he “wouldn’t feel left out.” Nice touch.

When our 2nd course arrived, we received a ramp leaf risotto – resulting in a very VERY green risotto, but when you bite into it, you get a smooth flavouring of cheese. It was unusual to say the least, but not at all bad. When our server came to check on us (which she did constantly, and would always offer welcome friendly banter) – she asked us how it was.

My friend could only respond with “weird” because it honestly didn’t taste the way it looked She took this as us being disagreeable with it, even though I was clearly tucking into my plateful.

Without asking, she brought us out an extra course of arugula greens salad, PLUS wine as a replacement (even though we finished off the risotto)

That’s just outstanding in my books.

The rest of the food was very good as well, but it’s truly the attention to detail and service that gets me to keep spending money at this little room on W 4th. Sorry Cru — your food was good, but your snootiness finally got to me.

The third comer of the W 4th trifecta (Fuel, Gastropod, Bistrot) is a comfy little room represented by the green and white colours of their bizarrely pedestrian street sign. Inside is a world of difference – a room softly lit by tea lights, it’s packed house of diners quietly enjoying their warming French countryside fare. We were a fairly large party of 18 folk and that they managed to fit us in, and impeccably serve us was not a feat to be discounted by any means.

Dinner was started with a freshly baked and toasty warm baguette served on a long wooden plank, with a small ramekin of olive tapenade. The tapenade was too lightly flavoured and finely textured to be memorable, but the baguette exuded hints of creamy butter with each delightful bite amidst the mesmerizing crunch of the crust. It was magnificent, and I purposely hoarded so I had some to use for the rest of the meal. It’s telling that we had 2 insanely long baguettes (maybe 2 1/2 feet in length each?) between 9 people and it was gone before the entrees came to play.

The meals were served family style in cast-iron skillets which was both efficiently brilliant, and just added to the atmosphere of the entire meal. First plate was an appetizer of various forcemeats – a pork rilette, a foie pate, a pork/chicken pate whose name escapes me (tastes VERY similar to Filipino empotido/meatloaf), some proscuitto, and a small thing of grainy mustard. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of forcemeat so I will take a pass on this review. I ate it though, and ironically really enjoyed the immemorable one ha ha. Next were moules frites – the fries were nicely seasoned and shoestring style – very nice. The mussels I took a pass on – sorry, not a shellfish fan. A baked brie with phyllo topped with bacon, and mesclun greens with a balsamic topping came next. Sadly this one was just forgettable. Very little flavour to it

Now the mains started to arrive. A chicken breast on the bone with a creamy mushroom sauce; a steak in butter sauce; and a halibut with watercress emulsion sauce. The chicken was nicely tender – smart move doing it on the bone, and just lightly and perfectly flavoured. The steak was generally forgettable – it was what it was. The halibut was very nice – the watercress sauce added a nice creamy bitterness to the firmness of the fish – a very complete dish.

Desserts came and it was a lemon tart with blueberries and fresh whipped cream, and what I could only describe as a big bowlful of chocolate mousse goodness. Seriously. The waitress came by holding a gimongous white bowl just filled with chocolate mousse. She asked me if I wanted some and all I could mutter was “I love you chocolate goddess.” And yeah. It delivered on expectations. Very creamy — almost gooey and pudding-ey in the middle to a certain extent.

I’m not a fan of lemon tart, but all the flavours on the plate worked perfectly. The fresh whipped cream balanced out the tartness of the lemon, and the blueberries were a nice hint of sweetness. Very nice.

All in all, I was very impressed with how the waitstaff handled the absolutely packed room, as well as our little wall of rowdiness. I had enough of a taste of their food to know that I would most certainly be back (if I can pull myself away from Fuel that is ;-D) – and I encourage you to give them a try as well. Perhaps on my next, more calm visit, I can raise that rating to 4 stars.

I do love this place. Something about unlimited meat and fish, plus sushi to boot pleases the inner glutton (is it really inner?) in me. I’ve also always liked this room more than the Granville branch – it’s amusing that I’d find parking easier in the middle of downtown than off-downtown, but there it be.

In a city where great restaurants are a-plenty, and sexy new CFD joints pop up all the time and are in disturbing proliferation, where do I go when I want a guaranteed satisfying meal?

White Spot.

The classic.

Not over-reaching and upscale-wannabe Earls.
Not crap-on-a-plate-for-$25 Milestone’s.
Not we’re-a-club-no-we’re-a-resto-with-hookers-for-waitresses Joey’s.
Not forever-teetering-on-mediocrity-Sammy J Pepper’s.
Cactus Club is on a turnaround so I have no issues with them anymore – but I digress.

I don’t remember ever having a single bad meal, nor even a mediocre meal at White Spot. From back in the days of my pirate packs (and their stubborn refusal to give them to me now…), to my favourite plate of fluffy buttermilk pancakes, and to their seasonal specials – I’ve a special place in my tummy for Mssr Chuck & Co.’s culinary delights.

A simple dish of pasta deceivingly hides a plateful of flavours. Pizza topped with ingredients far-flung, plated on an amazingly crispy thin crust. Sandwiches stacked masterfully, and filled to fill. And best of all, service with a smile that matches the quality of the food.

Now if they’d only let me order a pirate pak for myself. I mean COME ON.

After a false start where we missed last call by a half hour 2 months ago, I had a chance to go back for a group dinner last week and I must say, we had loads of fun. The room is eclectic, vibrant, yet still dark and relaxed. It’s bizarre but it all works. There’s a lot of colour, and string lights everywhere – there are coloured pillows planted on the ceiling and an interesting vibe of Indian, West Indian and… heck I don’t even know anymore — but I liked it! Also — best. washroom. EVER. I cannot describe it. I will not describe it. It must be seen to be believed.

The 8 of us were all seated in the back along a long bench and the place was packed – it was a Friday night in Belltown after all. The room is a decent size, but it seemed like the kitchen was too small – and served to be their undoing. It took almost 5 minutes before we even got menus, even longer to get drink orders, even more longer for them to arrive… long story short – we arrived at 8PM and our entrees didn’t arrive until almost 930. That is horribly unreasonably long – by any standards – and even more damning – the food didn’t seem to benefit from that time. It was just a simple logistical issue. The kitchen staff just seemed like they were completely in over their heads. The floor staff seemed like they were short-staffed though because once the crowd started thinning out – we got much much more attentive service. Fortunately good friends can make any wait bearable – almost.

Now as for the aforementioned food – it was good. Nothing spectacularly, but there were some glimpses of brilliance. We had some starters to stat, which of course took an insane amount of time to arrive: chicken tikka masala with naan; mussels; edamame; plantain chips. I didn’t go for the mussels or edamame — nothing wrong with them, just not my thing. Of the two I did try, the plantain chips were my highlight. They were thin, nicely seasoned and a very pleasant crunch. The tikka masala was ok – nothing particuarly spectacular – I think I’ve actually had better tikka masala from a can…

My entree was the famed pork chop – it was reviewed well by eGulleters, and the waiter said the grits were to die for. Well at least 1 person was correct. The grits were some of the best I’ve ever had – closer to polenta really, but just soupy enough to be more grits-like. Also. Bacon. Inside. Awesomeness. The pork chop taste-wise wasn’t anything memorable… and it was dry. So sadly I was not impressed. Here’s the thing. For the amount of time I waited for this food – though the pork chop was dry – the grits were just barely warm – and chop itself wasn’t particularly large so sadly I was severely underwhelmed and disappointed.

Now the third course. The caramel brioche pudding was described as practically legendary so I went with them and when they eventually arrived — it was good, yes. Soft, tender – all the goodness of brioche. But IMHO my friend makes a superior bread pudding at home and the time it took the bread pudding to arrive at our table took the same amount of time he would have taken to make it practically from scratch at home.

So tremendously disappointed in the food, but an awesome place to hang out with friends for drinks and atmosphere.

It’s true – it really is incredibly difficult to find this place, but with a GPS and a Treo – we found it – and I can honestly say, the search was worth it. This lovely room is located down a ramp in a small lower courtyard with only a small sandwich board advertising it from the street. The room is white, clean and modern – and just all around lovely. There’s no other word I could use to describe it.

We got there at 12:30PM on Friday and it was packed, but since it was a lunch place, the turnover was quick and we got a seat at the bar after 10 minutes. It took a wee too long to get the menus and service though, but it was a packed room so I’ll let that go.

The lunch menu is quite varied and there’s a good selection of sandwiches, appies and entrees for every appetite. I was choosing between a pesto trout entree and a pork loin sandwich and since it was a really warm day, I went with the sandwich as well as a side of tomato soup (which worried me too b/c of the temperature). My friend ordered the curried tuna sandwich which in-description, was just perplexing.

The food arrived and all my worries melted away, literally and figuratively. The tomato soup was more broth-like, and had lots of tomatoes to keep it fresh, light and a wee tart so very refreshing. The pork was browned nicely and carved about 1/4 inch thick – thin enough to be bite-able, but still thick enough to get the flavour. There were touches of rosemary and herbs that elevated it. My friend enjoyed the flavours of the curried tuna – it was shredded and mixed with the seasoning, but packed enough that it wasn’t wet and falling apart. We were pleased with the entire experience and I’m glad I finally had the chance to give this place a try – and I shall return.

I will forego my usual meaningless yeandering by saying 1 simple thing: their brioche loaf is f*cking legendary. I try to buy a loaf everytime I’m in town and it fills my car with the sweet wonderness of butter on the drive down.

Also, I had my first try at quiche on my last visit… and it was world-changing.

Went to brunch on a Sunday and when we arrived at noon (practically on the dot) the line-up took us about 30 minutes to navigate which is quite reasonable. Now that being said, the line absolutely exploded 5 minutes after we got there so I definitely wasn’t complaining. Now what I will complain about was the cold and overcooked fish dishes… yes it’s a buffet – but at $30 for brunch at a place as seemingly decadent as the Wynn, I’m expecting at least food that’s warm. The desserts were also absolute crap. Tasteless sheetcakes, various tough-at-worst regrettable-at-best breads and just a whole world of blah. The ice cream wasn’t too shabby though. But… seriously… not too shabby? I couldn’t even get ice cream that I could rate as being good?