Small bites in a small restaurant an uneven experience
Mark Laba
Province
From left: Neel Singh and Am Mann show off chili-lime chicken skewers and stuffed prawns at the Yew York Tapas Bar in Kitsilano. Photograph by : Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
YEW YORK TAPAS BAR
Where: 1602 Yew St., Vancouver, www.yewyork.ca
Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-730-8870
Drinks: Fully licensed
Hours: Mon.-Fri., 3 p.m.–midnight, Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.–midnight
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It’s said the camera adds 10 pounds. In the case of this place, it looked like the camera had added an extra 4,000 square feet. At least the website photos portrayed the joint that way but, when Ricky Roulette and I stepped through the doorway and rounded the bar corner, we were stopped short by a room barely big enough to hold a walrus after an all-you-can-eat buffet. In human terms the difference was like the scale between Kate Moss and Dom DeLuise.
Nevertheless, the space is cozy with low-slung modular couches and some tables tucked away hither and thither. A big projection screen was pulled down from the ceiling for the broadcast of a Canucks game.
Large windows give the room added light or, at night, an inky twinkling panorama and an overall sense of airiness and the feeling you’re hanging over an abyss. The kind of place that if you have a nose that whistles, even imperceptibly, everyone will know it.
Ricky Roulette and I plunked down at a table and started with a round of Sleeman’s Cream Ale and a plate of mascarpone-stuffed prawns cloaked in filo pastry and finished with noodlings of tomato cream sauce ($12.50). A very pleasant dish with six good-sized crustaceans that, although a tad overcooked, were saved from extinction by the cheese stuffing, pastry and sauce.
Next up was the antipasto platter ($14.50), a selection of meats, cheeses and bread.
“What’s the difference between antipasto and antipasta?” Ricky Roulette asked me.
“Well, like matter and anti-matter, both are explosive when they converge but the pasto implodes, creating a black hole whereas the antipasta explodes shooting noodles outwards into space.”
“Uh huh.”
The antipasto platter was decked out with brie, Swiss cheese, a small bit of bocconcini, smoked salmon and some Italian-style ham and salami. A plate of bread drizzled with balsamic reduction accompanied the thing.
“So, essentially, an antipasto platter means the kitchen is lazy and you have to assemble your own sandwich,” Ricky Roulette observed.
Everything was tasty in this shlimazel except the bread, which was spongy and devoid of any crustiness. I couldn’t figure why, with the decent ingredients, they would skimp on the bread, which is the building block of this whole shindig.
Finished with the prosciutto and capicollo pizza ($13.50) sporting artichokes, red onion, tomato and mozzarella. They claim it’s a homemade crust and it was OK. The pie, about the size of a small frisbee, was loaded down like a pack mule with toppings. It had a healthy appeal and was at least partially satisfying.
Like the website, what you see may not be what you get. The menu is undergoing revamping, so many items the website boasts are no longer in existence. Still, the taro-root tacos with Dungeness crabmeat looked promising, as did the cheesesteak wrap. No dessert on the premises though and, as Ricky Roulette, a gambling man says, “10-to-one odds when it comes to diners who could sink this ship but the drinkers might add the necessary ballast.”
THE BOTTOM LINE: A tapas lounge shrunk down and looking for an identity.
RATINGS: Food: B-; Service: B; Atmosphere: B
© The Vancouver Province 2007
