Central Bistro - Dine Out 2014

On Monday we went to Central Bistro in the west end for another Dine Out. It was quite busy while we were there, which seemed like a good sign. Unfortunately it wasn't a great experience. It was the slowest service I had ever experienced, luckily we had a good group of people, so it didn't seem as slow as it was.

For starters, I had the White Bean & Wild Boar Bacon Spread on a grilled baguette. It was good, but didn't blow me away.

G had the Red Truck Salt Spring Island Mussels in a chorizo, tomato, basil, garlic, onion, chipotle & Red Truck lager broth. A few people at the table had this, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately it took about an hour for all the appetizers to come.

After another 45 minute wait, we received our main courses, and we both had the 8oz Sterling Silver Steak & Frites. It was fine. The fries were very tasty, great flavor and perfectly crunchy, and the steak was well cooked but lacked seasoning. 

Someone else at the table ordered the chicken, which arrived cold and overcooked - very dry. 

After another 45 minute wait, we received our desserts. We ordered the Dark Chocolate Lava Cake. Now, it was quite good, but it was not a lava cake. With a lava cake you expect a runny, gooey, warm chocolate centre. This did not have it. It was either cooked wrong, or simply made wrong. So while it tasted fine, it was a disappointment. 

On the plus side, they did have a decent whiskey menu for a small restaurant, so going for drinks only might be an option. 

Overall the food was fine, but nothing special, and the service was awful. Our dinner took almost 3 hours. We will not be eating at Central Bistro again.

L'Abattoir - Dine Out 2014

On Sunday we went to L'Abattoir in Gastown for Dine Out. We had heard good things about the food from other people, and we were expecting big things from the $38 menu. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to the high praise.

We both started with the homemade duck pate with pickled vegetables on toast. I thought it was pretty good, but G thought the pickled vegetables made the dish overly sour. 

For the main course, I had the slow cooked pork loin. No complaints about this one, the dish was fine if uninspiring. The pork was cooked well, nice and tender. 

G ordered the veal picatta, which was terrible. They should have served the veal with a chainsaw. It was very tough, and it was also extremely lemon-y - it tasted like it had been doused in lemon juice.  

On the plus side the desserts were quite tasty. G had the sticky toffee pudding with honey and ginger ice cream, which was very ginger-y, and very good. 

I had the coffee and chocolate float, which is coffee flavored soda with chocolate ice cream. I thought it was very well executed, and was pleasantly surprised that coffee soda would taste so good. 

Of course nothing caps off an evening like poor service. He took away all of our wine glasses without asking whether we wanted to order wine, so I simply didn't order any. He was not very attentive to our table during the meal, and topped it off with forgetting to add something to the bill which I had to go find him to correct after waiting for 10 minutes at the table. 

L'Abattoir did not live up to the rave reviews we had been given, and was not worth the $38 Dine Out price. We will probably not be going there again.

Horizons

We were invited to join my fifteen family members at Horizons for my little cousin's birthday. Normally, I would say that's a bad idea - for seventeen people to dine at a quiet romantic type restaurant, but I'm glad I was wrong.

For this dine out, I ordered from the dine out menu and my partner ordered from the normal menu. Our table shared two bottles of Lindeman's Bin 45 Cabernet Sauvignon. It went down so smooth my uncle said you can drink it straight from the bottle.

As appetizer, I ordered the crab cake. At first I thought it was too fishy, it didn't taste like fresh crab meat. Then I realized it was served with wasabi, and it was the "wow" factor in the dish.

As our entree, I ordered the pork tenderloin while my partner ordered the New York Steak, rare.

The pork was really tender, juicy, and flavourful. I was afraid we were going to be shortchange during dine out, but the dish was so big we had to pack half of it.

The steak was done just right. It was properly cooked - pink throughout and cool in the middle. It was juicy and tasty. It was really good steak. We also packed half.

For dessert, I ordered the raspberry green tea creme brûlée. My partner ordered the brownie. The green tea flavour from the creme brûlée caught me off guard. It was so strong, but so deliciously balanced by the tartness of the raspberry, which is ever so light. The brownie was the exact opposite - dense, and the texture created by the nuts mixed in was great.

The menu says they add 15% gratuity to parties of 8 or more, but not for us! That's such a brilliant thing to do when you give good service - because you can always get more than that if we have a good time!

Abode

I went to Abode with some friends for dine out last week. Usually, we choose restaurants based on menus because they're appealing. We forgot to read the online reviews - our mistake.

We all ordered the North Pacific Cod and BC Sockeye Bisque because it was a cold night and the soup sounded more appetizing. I personally liked the soup because it was super salty. My companions did not, it was too salty for them - but it's to be expected from a bisque.

The service was terrible. Not only did we have to go to the front to tell them we were ready to order but I had the time to stack all our dishes neatly to wait for them. Out appetizer, which was just a soup, didn't end up coming until an hour after we were seated, more than half an hour after we ordered.

Since I ordered the Braised Short Ribs, I also ordered a glass of Road 13 Winery's Seventy Four K.

Both were solid. The wine went down smooth - warm and not acidic at all. The parsnip purée was too sweet but the short ribs weren't sweet enough. Perhaps the chef mixed up the seasoning.

My friend who ordered the Miso Glazed Arctic Char thought her plate was too bland.

There's only one dessert. It was very rich and chocolaty, but tasty. It would be better if it were served with some kind of biscuit. Although it was supposed to be a Belgian Chocolate Mousse, the texture wasn't smooth like you would expect mousse to be - it was kind of grainy.

I will not be returning.

Tivoli's

We arrived at Tivoli's Restaurant on a Friday night for dinner, it was really quiet. By the time we left there were just two other tables the whole night. I don't know how the servers stay so friendly and polite when there's no business.

The food started out pretty good. My partner had the chicken jeera hash cake and I had the coconut prawns. They were both flavorful, has great texture, and well presented.

As main course, we had the braised lamb shank and the roast pork porchetta. The lamb shank was really tender, but the taste wasn't the best. I thought it was too gamey, and my partner was just not impressed with the taste. The skin on the pork was so tough I couldn't cut through it with a steak knife. When my mother makes roast pork, the skin is crispy you can just bite through it. The taste was good though.

Dessert was a travesty. I think they order in. There's no way a decent chef can make something fresh taste that bad. Even with a "trio" of chocolate treats, none of them were decent.

It's really too bad as the setting and service were both great.