Order lamb at Sanafir and you’ll get a triplet of plates with tastes of Asia, India and the Mediterranean
Mia Stainsby
Sun
At Sanafir Restaurant & Lounge the food and interior follow the ‘silk route’ in design and flavours.
Discreetly signed, the elegant new Sanafir is too cool to announce itself, but that didn’t help my friend locate the place. She arrived on an ultra-wet evening with her ultra-gorgeous new pumps baptized in a deluge of rain after tramping up and down the street in search of it. A supreme court judge, she showed professional equanimity in dealing with wet shoe distress. I, on the other hand, would later be found wet and near sobbing upon finding a parking ticket for an eight-minute offence.
Sanafir makes a bold move in an unlikely place, a street crowded with sex shops. “We’re confident in the direction it’s going,” says managing partner Peter Girges. “We have no problem being pioneers.”
Sanafir is run by Glowbal Restaurant Group, owners of Glowbal Grill and Satay Bar, Coast Restaurant and Afterglow Lounge — all graduates of the gruelling Yaletown survival test. Sanafir is by far their most sophisticated venture.
Judging by its looks, costs should have soared as high as the 50-foot ceiling (lots of head room here) but Girges says it came in under a million. “We’re good at putting restaurants together. That’s why we’re in business,” he says, buoyed by a traffic jam of people at Sanafir’s doors seven nights a week, mere weeks after opening.
The food and interior follow the “silk route” in design and flavour hits of Asia, India and the Mediterranean. Evoke International Design mixed a modernist sensibility with Middle Eastern accents. In the upstairs lounge area, there are king-sized “beds” dressed in dramatic pillows, but don’t go and get all sleazy on them, please.
The main floor offers comfortable banquette seating as well as uncomfortable ones at a long marble communal table, which might be fine for a glass of wine with a friend, but not so for dinner. They don’t offer to check coats so I, as well as two women seated next to me, sat uncomfortably on leather cube seats with purses and coats over our laps. The others finally asked to be moved. Maybe they found the beds upstairs.
The food is high concept and lots of work for the kitchen. Each order is a triplet affair, prepared three ways with flavours of India, Asia and the Mediterranean — like a flight of dishes, arranged on a wood tray. Most are $14 for the trio, which is not a bad deal considering the effort, but it’s hell for a critic trying to take notes. Order four tapas dishes and you’re looking at at 12 creations. Order dessert and we’re up to 15. (There was only one dessert trio when I visited, but more will be added.)
The menu (on Egyptian papyrus) opens to a flock of words and it’s difficult to focus with so much fluttering text. But the food, in most instances, is more than satisfying.
The lamb is excellent. Here’s the lamb lowdown: grilled lamb chop, napoleon of marinated eggplant, goat cheese and oven-dried tomato; braised lamb shank with vidalia onion confit, Singapore curry and green apple slaw; seared rare lamb sirloin over Thai vegetables with herb shallot vegetables.
Order the scallop dish and you’re looking at seared Indian five-spice scallop with mango chutney and tandoori foam; lettuce-wrapped sauteed scallops with hoisin and water chestnuts, ginger and garlic; scallops gently poached over fattoush salad with fennel scented phyllo cup.
Whew! See what I mean about the words? The dishes are all very nicely cooked, with complex (sometimes maybe too complex) flavours. It’s a demanding way of eating as every morsel deserves attention.
The other triplets are chicken, tuna, beef, prawn, salmon, pork and vegetarian. There’s a $17 option where you can choose three from a “chef’s selection.” (That chef, by the way, is Heath Cates, who has worked at Glowbal Grill, Raincity Grill, C, and Brix.)
Matching wines might be a little challenging with so many flavours going on but I notice there’s an extensive champagne list, with several available by the glass. The vegetarian and seafood dishes certainly would happily mingle with champagne.
The dessert trio, by the way, featured a delicious yogurt cheese cheesecake, a great idea. Chocolate sushi (rice pudding rolled inside chocolate “nori”) didn’t work for me, although my husband loved it, and a meringue with wine-soaked strawberries would have been perfect if the meringue bottom wasn’t quite as chewy.
You can think of restaurants like clothing. Some look good on you, others make you look frumpy. Sanafir makes you look good, even on the cube seat. The food’s interesting and the place is a great social scene.
Oh, and about that parking ticket? Lightning struck. When I went to pay by phone, a compassionate soul answered. (Yes, I said compassionate.) The eight-minute offence was waived. Glory be!
SANAFIR
Overall: 4
Food: 4
Ambience: 4
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
1026 Granville St. , 604-678-1049. Open 5 to midnight, Monday to Sunday.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
