Bistro Wagon Rouge

A good friend of mine treated me to Bistro Wagon Rouge for my birthday this week. Lucky lucky! Lots of interesting neighbours nearby including The Pie Shoppe.

Our waiter was really good at describing/selling the menu items, so you'll want to be careful actually not to get too carried away by ad copy.

Complimentary Bread

A nice retro touch you don't see much anymore. Warm, and butter softened for convenience.
Really handy if you order moules frites (mussels and fries) to get at the tasty soup.

2018-Jul-11 Bistro Wagon Rouge - complimentary bread

House Burger ($18)

Touted as the best in Vancouver so obviously I had to try it.
Composition is nothing too adventurous. Sweet caramelized onions were a nice touch.
Fries were great - hot and and fresh, very crispy on the outside. Could have used something more sour as a dip to balance the heaviness of the meal though.
When they asked how I wanted my burger I went with medium rare and you can see from the pictures it did come out basically so though the center looks quite rare.
Very tender and juicy burger. And not being a big meat or burger connoisseur I'd have to guess that by "best burger" it's not in the interesting-ness of the burger but rather the really good patty inside.
At $18 it's pretty steep but it's a thick patty and a filling meal overall.

2018-Jul-11 Bistro Wagon Rouge - house burger

2018-Jul-11 Bistro Wagon Rouge - house burger medium rare

Asparagus ($12)

Always curious about ways to make asparagus tasty so I was sold on it by the description of the compound butter.
Turns out... this tastes like asparagus with just some butter on it. Whatever subtleties in the special didn't really come through for me.
And at $12... pass.

2018-Jul-11 Bistro Wagon Rouge - asparagus

Moules Frites

My friend's order. I got to try some of the thai curry (one of the options) and it was good.

House Made Lavender Lemonade ($4)

Lavender flavour in a not-too-sharp and not-too-sweet lemonade. Pretty decent.
The slice of lemon might fall sideways and block the flow of the drink so you might want to pull that out.

2018-Jul-11 Bistro Wagon Rouge - Housemade Lavender Lemonade

Pretty busy shortly after 6pm. Not many tables in the small place but bar seating is possible for dinner. Confident, pleasant, and not-pushy waitstaff.

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Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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