Sean Cousins butchers his meat, perfectly fillets his trout and creates a gorgeous venison dish with hat-trick skill

Mia Stainsby
Sun

It’s not just the kitchen at So.cial at Le Magasin that’s obsessed with everything local. One of the owners is a local hero.

Kirk McLean is the former goaltender who took the Vancouver Canucks agonizingly close to the Stanley Cup in 1994. Another owner, Bob McCammon, is a former Canucks head coach, which might explain Canucks’ alumni sightings in the restaurant. And that’s just about as far as I can go posing as a hockey know-it-all.

In some parallel universe way, restaurateurs suddenly decided “social” is a cool name. Notice Brown’s Social House on Fourth Avenue. The Habit restaurant owners on Main Street were on the brink of calling their next project social but are back to the drawing board on that.

So.cial (with a gap-tooth period in the middle) is no Shark Club or Malone’s sports bar — far from it, although the downstairs oyster bar has its obligatory TV screens. Co-owner and chef Sean Cousins does have his own kind of hat tricks, concurrently stick-handling fabulous food at Ocean 6 Seventeen, a jewel of a neighbourhood bistro off False Creek, and before that at Raincity Grill and C restaurant.

Before So.cial, the space was heritage tacky under Troll’s and Capri’s. But it wasn’t a Humpty-Dumpty fall that couldn’t be put back together again. The carpet’s been ripped out to expose mosaic tiles, the original tin ceilings are on proud display, and the 1911 building has reclaimed its natural beauty.

In the kitchen, Cousins lets his pampered ingredients do the talking. The menu isn’t written in purple prose; rather, it’s to the point, as in crab — Dungeness crab salad, creme fraiche, cucumber, mint. You see for yourself that he’s conducted the dance of flavours very well.

Part of his 20-hour days are thanks to his DIY take on cooking. He butchers his own meats, and in fact, will open a retail butcher shop across from the restaurant in about a month. “I get to create my own cuts,” he explains. He’s training his sous chefs on the art of charcuterie. I tried his charcuterie plate with a pate, pork rillet and a chicken ballotine. All nice, except I like a country-style coarser pate and his was super fine. He’s also in the process of starting a mini-farmer’s market in the skinny alley off Le Magasin.

His knife skills are evident in the trout dish, perfectly filleted and served with a warm octopus salad and tomato consomme vinaigrette. Cousins is in a surf-‘n-‘turf mood: salmon is served with maple seared pork belly (think bacon) and clam emulsion; pork is stuffed with Dungeness crab and blue cheese and served with apple puree.

The salmon was lovely but my mind rejected pork, crab and blue cheese in one dish. Venison with pureed and pumpkin-seed-and-parsley pesto is a gorgeous dish. A pork and duck confit is formed into a crabcake-like format and served with a stylized mushroom pot pie — delicious.

Overall, his dishes sing with deep and clear notes and you do pay accordingly. Appetizers are $10 to $26; mains are $22 to $29, and you must order side dishes separately. I wasn’t impressed with the Pods, Peas and Fave Beans side dish, which was drenched in butter, but the Kennebec Pomme Frites had me.

The wine list isn’t deep but includes some hard-to-buy B.C. products from Joie and Blue Mountain. A soon-to-be-hired sommelier will be ramping up the cellar. Markups tend to be a little higher than the usual doubling of price. It can all add up to a hefty bill if you’re not careful.

SO.CIAL AT LE MAGASIN

332 Water St., 604-669-4488. (socialatlemagasin.com) Open for lunch and dinner, 7 days a week and brunch on weekends.

Overall: 4

Food: 4

Ambience: 4

Service: 4

Price $$$

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

But at the Wicked Cafe you’ll find a laid-back vibe for enjoying a cup made with top beans

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Wicked Cafe is a little off grid, just enough for False Creek condo dwellers to treat it like their private living room.

And if they like coffee — good coffee, that is — so much the better.

The place has been open for two years and owner, Brad Ford, takes coffee seriously. He took over the sole distribution of Intelligentsia Coffee when Caffe Artigiano changed hands last year; the coffee is from a single farm and he also buys top-of-the-crop auction lots (sort of like great vintage wines).

The corner cafe is turf for the laid back; it’s pumped with music (reggae, jazz, blues, funk, rock) and has a couple of sofas, mid-room, to plop back and read or chat with friends. You can order panini (made with bread from Mixx Bakery), muffins, croissants, scones or soup for sustenance and on weekends, you can try the sweet waffles with pearl sugar chunks that Ford went to Belgium to learn how to make.

There are four panini — smoked turkey on cranberry bread, spicy tuna, roasted veg, and spicy capicolla.

Manager Arthur Wynne is another coffee nutter. He passed the tough exams in Switzerland to qualify as a world barista judge and unless you’re ready for a verbal outpouring, don’t ask too many questions about coffee. He’s tutoring some of his customers on the subject of coffee — farming, elevation differences, varietals of coffee trees, roasting, aromas and flavours.

Wynne is the one blanketed in tattoos and has big holes in his ears.

“I had it done in Australia [he’s Australian]. It’s part of getting back to the lost art of body modification,” he says. “Tattooing, piercing, flesh tunnels, it’s a worldwide thing. I wear hardwood plugs with mother-of-pearl in my ear holes.”

I think I’ll pass. I have trouble enough inserting my pierced earrings with needle-thin prongs.

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WICKED CAFE

1399 West Seventh Ave., 604-733-9425, wickedcafe.ca

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

New bistro offers impressive menu, but stay out of the alley

Mark Laba
Province

JULES BISTRO

Where: 216 Abbott St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-669-0033

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Tues.-Sat., lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., dinner 5 p.m.-10 p.m., closed Sun./Mon.

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Restaurant reviewers are not unlike hyenas. We lie quietly behind a baobab tree, licking our chops and waiting for a fresh kill. Slowly we creep toward the carcass, trying to be inconspicuous (at least some of us), wait for our chance and then grab a big hunk of meat and maybe even a drink from the bar.

I was reminded of that image when this new French bistro first opened and food scribes across the city descended in a sniffing pack, each coming away to sing the praises of the joint. As Humphrey Bogart said to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris,” but as for me, I’ll always have the rats.

It begins with Texas Slim and I driving through a Gastown alley looking for parking and, spread out before us in the car’s headlights, was a rat-a-rama. It looked like a scene out of Willard. The image was extinguished once we set foot into this high-ceilinged, chandelier-sparkling, white-and-black-tiled-floor setting. Immediately, we were transported via its general joie de vivre attitude into a French bistro, even though I wouldn’t know — when I was in Paris I only ate at McDonald’s and a Pizza Hut.

Nevertheless, this joint is charming except the noise level is so bombastic you need a megaphone to speak to the person across from you. A guy at the next table was so loud I thought he was going to pop his larynx into a wineglass. I heard him yell “sexual deviation” at one point and I thought, ‘Well, you don’t get more French than that.’

“Rather disquieting,” said Texas Slim in his usual understated manner. “I got me a yodelling chicken from Nashville that’d be hard-pressed to impress this crowd.”

We began our journey with a beet- and green-onion salad with warm goat cheese ($7) and a country-style pate with a red wine-onion compote that had a wonderfully sweet flavour to balance and enhance the hefty bulk of this chilled meatloaf-like slab with hot mustard, little French pickles and pickled pearl onions for accent. The salad was OK.

For entrees, Texas Slim tucked into steak with frites ($17) while I took on a classic Toulouse-style cassoulet with duck confit, white beans, Toulouse sausage and double-smoked back bacon ($18). A hearty shlimazel but I found it a tad salty and the duck confit seemed tough to me. Texas Slim found his thin-cut rib-eye in peppercorn sauce satisfying, if a little sinewy, and we both agreed the frites didn’t quite make the ‘tater hit parade.

The creme brulee was the highlight of the evening, along with the beer and wine listings.

There’s plenty to return for, including ling cod in red-wine sauce, duck foie gras in ice wine with beet chutney, snails in garlic herb butter or the roasted rabbit leg with Dijon mustard. As for me, with such a bounty in our alleyways, I’m working on a rat foie gras with bubonic plague sauce. That’ll teach those French a thing or two about cooking.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

El Taco serves light, fresh, healthy food and some unique dishes such as a burrito in a bowl

Mia Stainsby
Sun

It was a cold call. The staff looked young and friendly, it had an element of fun and funky and the music was good. So I went in, hoping to have a quick, tasty Mexican meal.

I found El Taco to be a friendly neighbourhood spot where the food is light, fresh and healthy. It’s casual but that doesn’t have to exclude margaritas, mojitas, sangria, daiquiris, wine and Mexican and Brazilian beers. The food is not stodgy and it doesn’t sit like a medicine ball in the stomach. Cheese isn’t blanketed over everything.

In fact, I had a salad that I could certainly go back for — called Sayulita Salad, a light toss of organic greens with hits of grated cheese, avocado slices, toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dressed with a lime-cilantro dressing. Very yummy and healthy. I had a fish taco, and it too was lightened with crunchy greens and guacamole. The fish was lightly battered and tasty.

On the other side of the table, my partner’s tortilla soup tasted of freshly roasted tomatoes (pureed) with chunks of tortilla chips, avocado and gratings of cheese. His quesadilla was quartered and neatly arranged. There was a choice of a couple of unusual ones — cilantro pesto or roasted garlic as well as shrimp, chicken, beef, chorizo or shrimp.

I didn’t try the enchiladas or burritos, but I witnessed a burrito being eaten. They will satiate. They weigh over a pound (says so on the menu) and require two hands to eat.

This is the second El Taco. The first is in Nelson. Jeannine Belanger runs this one and her brother Gill Langevin and niece Justine run the one in the Interior. There are plans for more in Vancouver.

There are a couple of dishes you won’t see in other Mexican cafes — the Huicol Bowl (wee-chole) is a burrito without the tortilla. In other words, you get the filling in a bowl and four warm corn tortillas on the side. They’ve just started offering a Guadalajaran dish, something like a beef dip but spicier.

Other dishes include tortas (Mexican style sandwiches), tamales, enchiladas, nachos and breakfast dishes. Prices top off at $8.

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EL TACO

788 Davie St., 604-806-0300.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

The exotic Indian dish as a lot to offer, and House of Dosas makes the most of it

Mia Stainsby
Sun

As the name suggests, you go here for dosas. The menu offers up some 30 different fillings.

Dosas, for those unfamiliar with this wonderful south Indian dish, are thin, crispy crepes as expansive as angel’s wings, which are rolled up with a filling. They’re delivered on regular dinner plates but really, they’re sized for a wheelbarrow. The overhang on the plate is considerable.

The dough is made from a fermented lentil/rice slurry and the most common dosa is masala dosa with its filling of potatoes and spices.

But really, why stop there?

Owner Raja Kumar Muttavanchery does one called Gunpowder Dosa. Worry not. It won’t be your last meal. It’s a mix of chicken, veggies and spices that look like gunpowder.

I was happy with my spinach and Indian cheese (paneer) filling. The top seller, he says, is lamb spinach dosa. You can rachet up the heat to your tongue’s content — super-mild, mild, medium, medium-hot, hot, and extra hot.

If you would like more crepe to mop up the filling, you can order it plain, for $4.99. The most expensive is the prawn dosa for $12.99.

There are other offerings — south Indian appetizers like vadai (doughnut made from lentil or potato) and idli (steamed dough) and, the restaurant’s best-selling appy, Chicken 65.

“Back home, we were supposed to use 65-day-old chicken for this dish while the bones are still chewy and tender. Here, we just use boneless chicken,” says Muttavanchery.

On Monday, there’s a biryani special. But my advice is that you stick with dosas. I tried the vadai and idli as well as a prawn curry, which came with hot, but watery sauce. I think the strength here is in their specialty, the dosas.

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HOUSE OF DOSAS

1391 Kingsway, 604-875-1283.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

The wasabi is perfection and so are some of the other ingredients, but they have to fight their way past the sauces

Mia Stainsby
Sun

A black SUV drives up to the restaurant. The driver, like a paparazzo hound dog, is pointing a video camera with one hand. He’s chasing down a beauty shot of Coal Harbour.

It tells you something about the view outside of Bliss Asian Bistro. The name fits and it seems there’s no let-up in the boomlet of Asian-style restaurants. Bliss is run by Sy Baek, who also runs Deep Cove Osaka Sushi. With Bliss, he’s more right-brain, with imaginative food, grounded in Japanese cuisine with hits of Korea.

I needed help deciphering parts of the menu. A section called “Dragons” offers a potpourri of bite-sized inventions. Under “Hot,” you’ll find entree-style dishes lacking in description. Under “Noodle,” there was pad Thai and the other was simply called “Chinese.” It highlights the importance of menu-writing for selling the food.

Thankfully, our server was gracious and helpful. (Baek says this server, Sakura, went out to restaurants on her own to learn the nuances of fine service. She shines.)

The great thing about the menu, though, is that the food is 99-per-cent organic. The fish is wild, much of it flown from Japan a couple times a week. I tasted what he called “white tuna” for the first time. It was part of a sashimi combo and was quite surprised its contrast from ahi or other tunas. It’s buttery and has a cooked texture, almost like processed turkey meat. And yet, it’s raw.

Aek has also eliminated sugar from his menu, subbing organic honey for the sweet background in many Japanese dishes. (Baek isn’t the chef in the kitchen. He creates the menu and shows the chefs how to make the dishes.)

And the other qualitative difference is the wasabi — it’s the real thing which he imports from Japan for $100 an ounce. It’s worth coming here just to find out what real wasabi is about.

There’s a line-up of some 16 New Wave maki rolls, a bandwagon many sushi chefs have jumped onto. These maki rolls bulge with fillings that would astonish the Japanese and they have catchy names like Kamikaze (with duck or steak, sweet potato, carrots, lettuce); Baked Alaska (smoked salmon, salmon, crab, avocado, mozzarella, Cheddar cheeses); Black Widow (soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, tobiko, crab, unagi, red pepper) and so on.

While I like innovation and moving on from tradition, I like some rules — like sticking to seafood and veggies when it comes to sushi and maintaining a clean, refreshing taste. Meat and cheese make a poor match with vinegared sushi rice. Fruit, like mango and papaya, I can accept. These jumbo maki rolls often fall apart and sometimes they’re drizzled with heavy, teriyaki-like sauces which to me, is like having dessert wine with salad. It detracts from delicate and bright flavours.

At Bliss, the flavours were bright, the ingredients fresh and some of the ideas clever, but not the Kamikaze Maki, mentioned above, which was drizzled with a tastebud-destroying hot sauce.

The Black Widow maki stuck to seafood and cleverly evoked an arachnid with the tentacles of deep-fried soft-shelled crab and the black nori wrapped around the girth of the roll.

I tried a couple of the “Dragons.” The Dragon Pouch looked like a cute little baby dragon with a tempura prawn sticking out like a head from inari sushi; thin slices of avocado covered the top.

Rib-eye bulgogi (the “b” sound should be somewhere between a b and a p, I’m told) was a tasty complete meal with perks like white asparagus amongst a variety of veggies and fresh green salad.

Wines are chosen for Asian cuisine but there’s a lot going on with some of the dishes and Baek steers diners towards the premium sakes, which matches the food well. There are about 30 to choose from and some are infused with fruit (strawberries and pears).

Desserts are worth keeping an eye on with the pastry chef from the Four Seasons Hotel moonlighting for him.

Baek could rethink the music which puts one into elevator-riding mood — something that accents the beauty outside the glass walls.

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BLISS ASIAN BISTRO

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 4

Service: 4

Price: $$

550 Denman St., 604-662-3044. Open for dinner only until May when it will also be open for lunch.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Live music some nights and big-screen hockey

Mark Laba
Province

FALCONETTI’S EAST SIDE GRILL

Where: 1812 Commercial Dr., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-251-7287

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Noon to 12:30 a.m. every day

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When other kids dreamed of getting their driver’s licence and one day slipping behind the wheel of a Corvette or Mustang or Dodge Charger, I thought, how cool it would be to drive the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile.

What better way to impress girls than to pick up your date in a large sausage car with mustard- and ketchup-coloured seats and the thrumming of a powerful V8 under the bun? There’d be no doubt that the girl’s father would know you meant business and were a serious young man with great aspirations. Well, I’m still waiting for my day to take a spin in the old wiener casing but, in the meantime, I’ve discovered a place where sausage is king and if you put one of these critters on wheels, they’d run Oscar right into a ditch.

First, the point must be made that these are not hot dogs but homemade sausages of the finest order. Co-owner Carmine Falcone’s father, who owns the longtime Commercial Drive establishment Falcone’s Butcher Shop next door, is the creator of these tubular treats but the brains behind the sausage-style array is Carmine and business partner Eddie Dolmat.

Paid a visit with Peaches to this cool venue where folks were packed into the room, well, like sausage meat into casing. Johnny Cash playing over the airwaves, a bar that features some very spiffy back-wall masonry, a long black banquette seat with a line of round tables and stools down the aisle, a big booth up front near the grill and ornate semi-thriftstore architectural touches placed here and there for some hipster flair.

Somehow they manage to squeeze live music into this small venue and, on hockey nights, they pull down a big screen and Canuck fever takes over. In fact they hand out coasters with a Canuck’s name and number on it and, if your guy scores, you get a free drink. We got Matt Cooke but, though he set up an excellent screen shot that night, he didn’t get one between the posts.

The sausage lineup here is truly mind-boggling and, with the grill up front, my nasal cavities were flexing with savoury fumes the second I entered the joint. These behemoths of the bun will slap your tastebuds about like Saturday-night wrestling. And, of course, like anything in this world, you have to build on a firm foundation so the owners have a curved bun custom-baked for the sausages to snugly nestle inside.

Peaches and I have now sampled a variety of the fare here and I heartily recommend everything. Honey bratwurst, the Chaurice with Cajun-spiced chorizo, the 100-per-cent ground sirloin Polish creation, the tropical Thai Chicken with coconut, lime, curry and ginger or the Yucatan Chicken with cilantro and jalapeno (all $4.99). Plus the two most traditional styles in this sausage arsenal: the hot Italian or the sweet Italian with roasted red pepper and fennel-spiked pork. Don’t forget to order a side of Kennebec hand-cut fries.

There’s a bunch of other stuff here like beef kabobs, chicken or lamb souvlaki, calamari or breaded oysters but really, it’s the sausage that wears the pants in this house. Which is a far cry from where I live, as Peaches reminded me.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

You’ll find hearty basic breakfasts, a burger-lover’s wish list of delights and plenty of comfort food at Hamburger Mary’s in the West End

Mia Stainsby
Sun

You’d have to be living in a fog not to have noticed Hamburger Mary’s at Davie and Bute at some point in its 22 years of existence. Make that 27 years if you count its beginnings on Denman Street in 1979.

What you might not know is that it’s still a busy, thriving diner busy at breakfast (bennies, omelettes, pancakes and various permutations of egg dishes), lunch and late night. It’s open to 3 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on weekends, in case you’re wandering this naked city, starving, in the wee small hours. The original owner sold the place in 1999 and there’s been a couple of changes since but you’ll still find hearty, basic breakfasts and a burger lovers’ wish list of burgers with meats ranging from musk ox, organic beef, buffalo, bison, venison to vegetarian.

Entree-style dishes lean to old-fashioned comfort foods, like meat loaf, pyrogies, ribs, Salisbury steak and pastas.

There’s a bit of a concession in the milkshakes — they’re made with low-fat yogurt, not the traditional high-fat ice cream.

In summer, the side patio offers good viewing for watching the colourful Davie Street parade of life. Inside, there are flashes of the ’50s, with neon lights, Arborite tables, a jukebox, posters and signs from another era.

It was one of the earliest gay-friendly places to open in Vancouver but that’s nothing unusual on Davie Street these days.

“We don’t flaunt it but do embrace it,” says Rob Logan, who’s been the chef since 1994. “You’ll still hear the occasional Barbra Streisand.”

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HAMBURGER MARY’S DINER

1202 Davie St., 604-687-1293

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

A love of all things Latin American, including salsa dancing

Mark Laba
Province

REVIEW

ZOCALO

Where: 2515 Main St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-677-3521

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Tues.-Sat., 5 p.m.-late; Mon., 9 p.m.-late; closed Sun.

North Americans have their shopping malls, Mexicans have their zocalos. Both are places where folks gather to meet and hang out, although one doesn’t have a Sock World nor does the other have a local police force that appears to be no older than 16, carrying machine guns and eating ice cream. At least, that was the scene at the town square I frequented on Isla Mujeres, but the tacos were phenomenal, the pickup basketball game riveting and the kids even refrained from jumping their BMX bikes down the front steps of the cathedral.

I met up with the Edgy Veggie to shoot the breeze, even if it was a cold north-westerly with a hint of torrential rain, at this new Mexican-influenced restaurant in the burgeoning Main Street culinary scene. Edgy Veggie was looking the picture of health and well being due to his vegetarian tendencies, not to mention his marathon running.

We submerged ourselves in this dusky room with its Day of the Dead chic bar, high ceiling of decorative stamped tin and spiffy overhead chandeliers that look like exploding fireworks. It’s a nifty space that maintains Main Street funk without giving way to Sally Ann functionality.

Owner and chef Tina Shklanka has combined her love of all things Latin American into this restaurant with authentic dishes and salsa dancing on Monday nights.

A bowl of complimentary nuts, salted, spiced and warmed up, arrived as soon as we sat down.

We began our journey with two appetizers: Mole Amarillo ($7), an Oaxacan-style mole with chilies, tomatoes and soft, murky spicing beneath which lurked mushrooms, and Tinga ($9), a great dish of shredded chicken breast with chorizo and tomatoes. Both were served with warm, homemade tortillas for wrapping. The mole was rich and the tinga was boisterous, especially after plopping on some of the chili sauce and fiery green salsa.

I passed on the esoteric tequila and mescal offerings and sloshed my palate with a Dos Equis instead and the Edgy Veggie stuck with authentic Mexican hot chocolate, quietly releasing endorphins for a natural inebriation.

My entree pick was Puerco con Chile Ancho ($17), slow-cooked pork massaged in mild chilies, spices and oranges. The rich, ancho chili sauce with its earthy and sweet undertones was a nice contrast to the tender porker. Edgy Veggie took on the Chick Peas con Chipotle ($12), the trusty garbonzos and yam energized in a sultry and spicy chipotle sauce that, oddly, is spiked with Coca-Cola, a southern secret which smooths out the smoky flavour.

For dessert we sampled the tres leches cake ($5.50) with Mexican chocolate, which was tasty, although I found the cake too dense instead of light and airy.

There’s plenty to like at this place, from the mussels cooked with Mexican chorizo, beer and cilantro, to the flank steak served with mushrooms done up in tequila and chilies.

And, of course, there’s always the mescal in case you want to send your brain on a marathon while your body relaxes and drinks in the scene.

– – –

THE BOTTOM LINE:

If Mr. Potato Head were Mexican and married Miss Poblano Pepper, this would be their den of sin.

Grade: Food: B+ Service: A Atmosphere: A

© The Vancouver Province 2007

In a menu that’s heavy on steaks, seafood and schnitzels, the curried lamb Malaysia is a pleasant change

Mia Thomas
Sun

The Gourmet Hideaway in Maple Ridge has been around long enough to become part of the landscape, but for those who have yet to visit it — or those who haven’t been there for some time — it’s worth another look to experience this unique dining atmosphere.

Its old-world charm and muted elegance are pure mid-20th century Europe. Subdued lighting and old-fashioned lampshades soften the contrast between dark woods and light-coloured linens and walls.

The ambience is reflected in the menu, where the focus is on traditional central-European cuisine.

We started with a couple of appetizers. The prawns saute, flamed with onion, garlic, dill and sundried tomatoes, juggled a delicate balance of flavours. The onion and garlic could easily have overwhelmed the dill, yet each held its own in the tasty dish. The tomatoes added a needed tartness and the well-prepared prawns were rich and firm.

Our other appetizer was smoked salmon. The wild coho was served with capers, onion, cream cheese and toast. It was tender and tasty, not too fishy.

There was no shortage of onion, but the toast was delicious, slightly crispy on the outside and soft inside. The serving size was generous but suitable for a starter dish.

My companion ordered the curried lamb Malaysia. In a menu that’s heavy on steaks, seafood and schnitzels, it was an interesting and tasty change of pace. Small pieces of lamb were cooked with almonds, raisins and mango in a curry sauce.

It was presented on the plate in a way that allowed easy blending of the meat stew with the rice.

The dish wasn’t overly spicy, carrying an underlying sweetness from the fruit and a rich, gingery taste.

My order was the rabbit bourguignonne, one of the house specialties. The meat was flaky and tender and had been prepared with a delightfully herbed mushroom sauce.

The vegetables, firm and with a light butter coating, were a delicious complement to the meat.

Mashed potato balls had been crumbed and seasoned then lightly fried.

Rich as it was, food doesn’t get any more “comfort” than a soul-satisfying stew on a winter’s night.

We finished our meal on a sweet note: creme caramel and baked Alaska.

Both dishes were tasty. The whipped cream on the baked Alaska was served with a generous hand, as was the caramel sauce on the creme caramel, which was also light and creamy.

The Gourmet Hideaway’s menu does veer into exotic territory for those who’d like a break from the usual. Entree prices vary in the $20 to $30 range.

Along with the Malaysian dish, the restaurant has an Indonesian feast that is available for several days twice through the year and includes a range of dishes.

More information on the restaurant, and its full menu, is available on the website, www.gourmethideaway.com.

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The Gourmet Hideaway

11598 224th St., Maple Ridge

604-463-7122

www.gourmethideaway.com

Open Tuesday to Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to closing. Sunday: 5 p.m. to closing.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007