Recently opened, but with a family link to La Regalade, this is a true discovery for lovers of rustic bistro cuisine with a seafood speciality
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Owner and chef Steeve Raye, seen here with lobsters, returned from Europe to open his West Vancouver restaurant. Sometimes his mother and father help out. Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
Fans of West Vancouver’s La Regalade will be thrilled. There’s a sequel.
La Regalade Cote Mer concentrates on seafood, but like La Regalade the first, the rustic French bistro food divines the mysteries of deliciousness. It’s not perfectly groomed and refined food; it’s honest and straight-forward with seductively assertive flavours. It makes my heart pound and my mouth water.
Upon finishing a meal of tuna tartare, beef cheeks in a dark, glassy, wine sauce and ile flottante, my husband declared, “I’ve reached nirvana. This is bliss.”
La Regalade Cote Mer is buried deep in West Vancouver, almost at Horseshoe Bay, across from Thunderbird Marina in a location where restaurants come and go with such regularity it should be a lesson to the next taker. That is, unless it happens to be the Raye family. This second Raye venture is operated by son, Steeve, 25, who returned from cooking at a restaurant in Belgium to oversee the operation.
The restaurant was open for a couple of weeks when I visited and I was astonished at word-of-mouth velocity. I tried to reserve the same day a couple of times and couldn’t get in. And when I did, the place was packed with West Van’s older, well-established demography. One night, I saw Douglas Coupland walk in, only to be turned away.
It was a little early to be critiquing the place, but I could not wait. And yes, there were some service glitches but I’m aware that it was freshly opened and they were slammed. There was French music; servers were dressed in the striped French mariners top, jeans and long waiters’ aprons. There was plenty of staff and there’s lots of hustle and bustle.
One Sunday evening the senior Rayes were pitching in on their day off from the Ambleside restaurant. Mom Brigitte Raye contributed immensely to the convincingly French feel of the place. “Bon soir!” she says in that singsong French welcome. Dad Alain was cooking like mad with Steeve.
The menu changes frequently and about two thirds of the menu had changed from one week to the next. On my first visit, one of the chalkboard menus (quaintly, but awkwardly lugged from table to table) was almost exclusively seafood; on the second, there were three meat dishes, at the request of diners.
On our two visits, we enjoyed a dish piled high with lightly deepfried white “baitfish”; crab and avocado salad; a beautifully grilled snapper with skin crisply seared, served over braised fennel; a helmet-sized bowl of bourride (fish stew); scallop carpaccio and onion tart (delectable); a velvety tuna tartare in mustard mayo; fillet of salmon with creamed leeks and bacon; beef cheeks in red wine with potato gnocchi. Most of the dishes come with a cone of perfectly cooked french fries. The potato gnocchi was the best I’d had with an incredible lightness of bearing. My only criticism was of the creamed leeks and bacon, which I felt was too heavy; my husband completely disagreed, with a countering “Mmmm,” upon tasting its richness.
Meals are big and burly, leaving only room for shared desserts. We had plum tart and ile flottante (absolutely sumptuous). Food is served in hefty portions, sometimes in rustic pots or Le Creuset ovenware.
If you’re thinking, yeah, but, it’s so far to drive, just remember, people go all the way to France for food like this. In fact, sitting on the patio, if it weren’t for the blue buses roaring by on Marine Drive, you’d swear you were there, in France.
LA REGALADE COTE MER
Overall: 4
Food: 4 1/2
Ambience: 4
Service: 3 1/2
Price $$/$$$
5775 Marine Dr., West Vancouver, 604-921-9701. Open Wednesday to Sunday for dinner; Friday to Sunday for lunch.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
