Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

We were warned that the portions for Minami's Taste of Yaletown 2015 were going to be small, but fortunately that turned out to actually not be the case. They aren't huge either, but unless you are a really big eater, you will probably leave satisfied but not feeling too full. And there's a tricky workaround as well -- read on. I ordered the vegetarian option because I knew no one else would, so my experience of the "normal" Taste of Yaletown menu is limited. Garden Trio Soy Paper Quinoa-Avocado roll was horridly bland and boring. Tasted like avocado with rice. Which it mainly was. And you got four pieces of this. Was I supposed to pair it in the same bite with the tomato-with-pesto? Honestly those "fresh market vegetables" stood out better. Okra. Yuck for their sliminess once you start chewing -- BUT before you set them aside, there's a brown strip of sharp and slightly spicy-hot sauce that really helps with the flavour and makes it almos...

Most of the items on the Taste of Yaletown 2015 menu for La Pentola are on their current seasonal menu, so keep in mind that this review is really only for their Taste of Yaletown 2015 menu, and doesn't necessarily reflect on the restaurant itself. That said, you could infer that they won't always blow you away with their creations on the 7- or 10- course family-style dinners. But with so many courses per dinner, there will be bound to be some hits and misses. $45 Taste of Yaletown Dinner Menu 1st course Cauliflower and Endive Salad with bagna cauda and pecorino or Parmesan Soufflé with roasted beets and balsamic carrots (veg)   2nd course Taglierini with octopus, arrabiatta and bottarga or Tagliatelle Bolognese or Taglierini with arrabiatta , bocconcini and basil (veg)   3rd course Grilled Skirt Steak with arugula, pine nuts, balsamic and parmesan or Ling Cod with roasted tomato purée, peppers, baby squid and black olive oil or Wild Mushroom Risotto Dolce Lemon C...

Almost exactly a year ago I tried the Honjin Sushi Taste of Yaletown menu . With Brix closed for a private function and therefore not taking walk-ins, I ended up at Honjin Sushi again for a very late dinner (after 9pm). Being across a courtyard opposite Urban Fare, Honjin Sushi is much less visible in Yaletown, but definitely worth a visit. Their Taste of Yaletown menu this year is much stronger than last year's, which had rice as part of your main. Nothing wrong with it, but it stopped the momentum of a great meal after some really nice appetizers and a delightful sushi roll. This year, their $29 menu (same as last year) did away with rice and yet still so very filling so that you will probably be grateful the dessert is just one scoop of ice cream. APPETIZER Honjin Tuna Tsunami Chunks of Tuna, Mango, Avocado and cucumber in a fruity spicy sauce surrounded with three pieces of Salmon Tartar: chopped salmon, avocado and cucumber served on a shisho leaf tempura OR Negitor...

Follow Me Foodie is giving away THREE x $50 gift cards as part of the Taste of Yaletown promotion. All you have to do is Comment, Tweet, or Like to enter!

Society Dining Lounge is a pretty busy place that sometimes sees rather large groups. We were there at the tail end of the Taste of Yaletown promotion on a late Friday, and it was one of the few restaurants in the 1200-block of Hamilton that was seeing any action. Good for them, I suppose, since that far off, they are outside the busy restaurant hub of Yaletown. They enforce an 18% gratuity for a table of 8 persons. This seemed to scare off some of our dining group because interest fell from eight persons to six, and then two no-showed so we were only four in the end. Sigh. They were fortunately understanding and did not make us feel bad about it. There's the dark interior and the heated-patio exterior. The overhead lamps seem to pulse, so you get periods of warmth and then it cools down, especially in the current Fall weather and if you're out at 8pm for dinner. Blankets are available for extra warmth. After perusing the menu, only one person ordered the Taste of Yaleto...

Honjin Sushi is at the water's edge of Yaletown, in the plaza with the funny chairs and steaming floor lights (at night) that is opposite Urban Fare. Their sister restaurant is Kibo Restaurant and Lounge , also in Yaletown. The restaurant is smallish but seating is spacious. Staff are friendly, attentive, and helpful. They can be counted on to list what is in each roll of maki sushi -- which is very helpful because the ingredients aren't listed in the menu or on the website. If you have allergies, you'd better ask because the names of the rolls aren't that indicative of what's inside (e.g., NHL Roll?). The regular menu is available during the Taste of Yaletown promotion! In addition to trying all the sushi on the TOY menu, we also had a few side orders, which turned out to be a strategic error because you do get a really decent-sized meal for $29 because of the "main dish". Taste of Yaletown $29 menu Appetizer Crab salad fresh crab meat and cris...

Yaletown L'Antipasto has a solid Taste of Yaletown line-up at a decent value compared to the regular menu price. Overall, the food was tasty, but there were some oddities in a couple of items that threw us off. Whether this was a case of kitchen error or a choice on the part of the restaurant is debatable, but unless you're a conservative or perfectionist, it won't ruin your experience. We had a later dinner at 8pm, and though it was still busy at the start, the dinner rush was clearly over and we had a relaxed time at this later seating, lingering past 10pm savouring our food and enjoying conversation and company. At this later hour, there were no lineups waiting at the door to pressure the restaurant to move people along, Taste of Yaletown notwithstanding. Prior to coming, I had heard that the menu used to have smaller portions in their early days, but that is no longer the case. I had also heard of speculation that some of the food was reheated. The kitchen is smal...

Although I was determined to only choose $18 menus for Dine Out Vancouver 2013, I still ended up accepting an invitation to Bistro Sakana. They'd had impressive and tasty offerings previously, and I figured this year wouldn't be any different. I was just there this past October for the Taste of Yaletown , in fact. If you went to the Taste of Yaletown, last year, more than half the Signature Sample Platter will be familiar (how many signature dishes can a restaurant have, after all). The ones that stood the test of time are clearly among their tastiest offerings, and still consistently delicious when prepared by the chefs. Moreover, the samples on the Dine Out Vancouver menu continue their tradition of a wide variety of tastes and textures, making Bistro Sakana still one of the best choices for sheer food experience. That said, because so many items are the same as before, if you still clearly remember the Taste of Yaletown offerings and want to try something different, yo...

Chinois was a year old in the final week of the Taste of Yaletown. As it coincided with the weekend before Halloween, they also had Heaven & Hell Halloween night on Saturday, October 27th. The restaurant opened to some buzz last year, although mainly what I heard was a lot of whining about the price. And as some of these tapas plates do come in at the $20-$30 range, that's not unjustified. The room is rather dimly lit, but if you want a bit more light you can sit against the wall on the right side, which has lower-hanging lights. Decor is interesting and how they do the Chinese theme is definitely worth a look. Far in the back is a cocktail lounge (Pierre's) where they completely drop the Chinese theme in favour of a curious classic-artwork-meets-irreverent-additions pieces of art on the wall. You'll understand what I mean when you see it. Servers are all friendly hotties in tight black dresses. Our two servers, Jessica and Rebecca (Becky) were super, super nice...

EDIT (2012-Oct-22) - Corrected various details in the post after hearing from the owner. Gosh, someone actually reads my posts?! O_O  I went to Bistro Sakana last year for the Taste of Yaletown , and was very pleasantly surprised, so well ahead of time I made a reservation for this busy restaurant. Like Miku , they do the "aburi" style box-pressed and blow-torched. Here, they use a stick of charcoal (imported from Japan) to deflect the flame onto the sushi instead of using the direct flame jet, to reduce the chances of the sushi smelling/tasting like fuel. There are three seating areas -- reservations go in the main dining room, walk-ins go to the covered and heated patio, or to the bar. Our party was to dine at 6pm, but two dropped out at the last moment, two no-showed, and two were stuck behind traffic in Surrey after a wine tour. So there was just two of us and we decided to move to the bar. Which doesn't sound so great, unless you like watching the chefs roll a...

Went for my third and probably last Taste of Yaletown 2011  outing last night. It's the Secret Souls Walk  at Garden Park (East 2nd and Templeton) and possibly some poking around the Waldorf's Halloween Carnival of the Souls tonight, so that's it for my weekend. Although there were a few hits and misses, it was mostly an excellent experience at Hapa Izakaya last night. Here's the menu: $25.00 per person (excludes taxes, gratuities and alcohol) Appetizer - Please choose two dishes: 1. Negitoro: Chopped albacore tuna belly served with garlic toast 2. Beef Tataki: Lightly seared AAA beef topped with sesame chili sauce 3. Tuna Carpaccio: Thinly sliced ahi tuna with yuzu dressing 4. Enoki Bacon: Enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon skewer 5. Bintoro: Lightly seared albacore tuna sashimi with ponzu sauce 6. Ahi Tuna Taco: Sautéed  ahi tuna, pickled serrano tartar sauce with guacamole wrapped in flour tortilla Entrée - Please choose two dishes: 1. Chowder: Halibut,...

It's only 7:30pm and I'm just back from another excellent Taste of Yaletown dinner! Not early enough to avoid the after-game skytrain rush, but definitely not sorry to have had dinner at Bistro Sakana . It's a very fixed menu with no vegetarian option here, but the variety makes up for it. Here's the $35 menu: $35.00 per person (excludes taxes, gratuities and alcohol) Appetizer Sockeye Salmon Miso Chowder -OR- Atlantic Lobster Miso Bisque -OR- Tai (New Zealand Red Snapper) Sashimi with fresh ginger & ponzu sauce Entrée All of: Wild Sockeye Jalapeno Aburi "Hakozushi": Sockeye Salmon layered with rice, box pressed, flame torched, and topped with jalapeño slices Toro Red Chili Aburi "Hakozushi": Albacore Toro marinated in Junmai sake & miso, layered with rice, box pressed, flame torched, and topped with red chili and key lime slivers Yuzu Black Sesame Encrusted Tuna Tataki: Albacore sashimi tataki encrusted with roasted black sesam...

It's time for Taste of Yaletown again! Now in it's 7th year, we sadly won't see Capones in the lineup. That mainstay of live jazz in downtown Vancouver has since folded despite an attempt to renovate and revive it . Another institution in Vancouver has folded, gone the way of The William Tell Restaurant, it seems. I'm just back from an early dinner at Hurricane Grill down on the seawall in Yaletown. Honestly, I've never thought of going in there because of the tacky red-text-on-banana-yellow banner. It just didn't seem... classy? Inside, it's hockey bar with lots of TVs on the bar side, just one medium-sized one on the sit-down-restaurant side. If you pay attention, you'll notice the flickering light of the wax candle brought to your table is inside  the candle. No napkins here, just refills of cutlery wrapped in paper napkins, bar style. The whole place feels more bar than restaurant and trying to be both. Anyway I'm glad I went tonight b...