The Butler Did It’s hearty lunch fare at reasonable prices keeps patrons coming back

Mia Stainsby
Sun

If anyone’s out to get you, I can tell you one of the safest places for lunch would be at The Butler Did It.

If the butler does anything, it sure won’t be anything criminal because this place is crawling with police at lunch with VPD headquarters just down the street.

The Butler Did It started off as a teeny little place on West First near Granville Market with about eight seats and more activity around the catering end of their business. They moved two years ago to this much bigger space and they’re still frantically catering 35 to 50 corporate lunches a day, plus weddings and corporate barbecues, but the front of the house has a lot more activity too.

A good lunch spot was much-needed in this neighbourhood as the line-ups to the cash suggests.

The menu is arrayed before you, under glass: Salads, panini, entrees, baked goods. As the cafe is often the testing ground for some of the catered affairs, you can expect the unexpected and for a really good price — entrees like stuffed chicken leg with cranberry salsa and risotto and pyrogies, sausage and sauerkraut for $4.50 to $5.95. They’re lunch-sized portions but great value.

“We’d rather have people come back three or four times a week so we try to keep everything under $6,” says Darryl Ray, one of the owners. There’s usually six entrees on offer. Salads are about $2.95 unless you want a fill-‘er-up size, which is $4.95.

Dishes are constantly changing in tandem with the catering end of things. Recently, salad offerings included Tuscan white bean salad with spinach, olives, sundried tomatoes; frisee, radish and greens with mushrooms and shrimp.

The other thing, in the realm of the unexpected, is the quite agreeable wine list with offerings including Mission Hills and Yellow Tail.

– – –

THE BUTLER DID IT

340 West Second Ave. 604- 739-3663. (www.butlerdiditcatering.com)

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

‘La Brasserie’ tag indicates upward mobility, but while there are some winning dishes, their menu rambles a little

Mia Stainsby
Sun

The first Henry’s Kitchen opened a couple of years ago on Macdonald Street to huzzahs from the locals around Macdonald and 25th, grateful for the unpretentious, inexpensive spot offering very good returns from the kitchen.

Henry’s has since vacated and locals are rejoicing the next incarnation, La Buca, a fabulous little neighbourhood Italian spot.

Henry Hsu moved on to a larger space at the King Edward Shopping Plaza and changed the name from Henry’s Kitchen Pasta and Grill to Henry’s Kitchen La Brasserie, indicating upward mobility. Outside, it lacks elan but inside, it’s a wannabe brasserie and it’s very busy. Norah Jones and Billie Holiday songs drift between the conversations.

Hsu carries on with good-value meals (he’s added French bistro dishes) but prices have drifted upwards to accommodate higher rent and more staff, which means there’s less room for forgiveness from customers. His wife Jasmine was the one and only front-of-house staff before. I counted four at his new spot. Customers here are a greyer demographic than at his first location; in fact, about half the diners were pensioners.

The menu — straddling Italian and French bistro dishes — tends to ramble. There are starters, appetizers, pasta and risotto (a dozen), brasserie specials, “Henry’s recommendations,” and “Henry’s Popular Dishes,” the last featuring 34 items ranging from pan-seared calf’s liver to sauteed frog’s legs and escargots with shiitake mushrooms. As well, there are daily specials. I think he needs to trim and refine some of the dishes.

One absolute keeper is his cheesecake. I’m no cheesecake-a-phile, but his is the best in terms of light and guilt-free. Beaten egg whites and a slow bake have something to do with it. Since I’m hooked, I’ve only tried one other dessert at Henry’s and it’s the chocolate ganache cake, which holds its own, too.

But back to the stuff of dinner. (He’s open for lunch, too, with a somewhat leaner menu and prices.) Appetizers run $4 to $11. Mains are $9 to $18 for pasta and risotto dishes; French bistro style dishes are $16 to $29.

To start, a grilled calamari steak was a hit. It was actually cuttlefish (bigger-bodied, smaller tendrilled, more expensive), very tender and jazzed with papaya and mango salsa and crisp pappadam. A neatly composed crabcake came with avocado mash and tomato salsa.

Of the mains, two get both thumbs up and two don’t. The roasted Tuscan chicken was juicy and tender with hints of garlic and rosemary; it came with three plainly cooked vegetables and some scalloped potatoes — a hearty winter dish. And the seafood cannelloni is something I’d order again. It was gently handled and maintained its form while so many cannellonis are flattened carcasses of their real selves.

The beef bourguignon was more like North American stew with carrots and potatoes and was served punishingly hot; ingredients listed were red wine, pearl onions, mushrooms and bacon (the Burgundian way) but I tasted little of the wine or the depth it should have added. It came with a bowl of rice, which detracted from the brasserie tag.

The Cassoulet Toulouse was rugged. Very rugged. It had little in the way of beans and the duck had an off-putting layer of blubbery fat. It was quite abysmal compared to what I had recently at Jules, a new French bistro in Gastown.

Among the long list of dishes, I’m sure I’ve missed some gems but why must we slog through some mediocre ones to get to them?

Truly, I think he needs to trim fat off the menu as well as the duck, allowing him to spend time on consistent quality. He’s capable of it. He did a great job when he was the chef at Southside Grill in Tsawwassen; he’s worked at Borgo Antico as well as five-star hotels in Taipei.

The wine list carries a wide variety of budget wines by the bottle; by the glass, it tends towards plonk.

– – –

HENRY’S KITCHEN

Overall: 3

Food: 3

Ambience: 3

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $$

904 West King Edward

604-738-9883

www.henryskitchen.com

Open Tuesday to Friday for lunch, 11 p.m. to 2 p.m., and Tuesday to Saturday for dinner, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Sobieski is a family affair with a charming atmosphere and hearty menu featuring homemade Eastern European dishes

Mia Thomas
Sun

Dining out in the depths of winter calls for comfort food. And it doesn’t get more comforting than the array of choices at Sobieski Restaurant in Abbotsford, where Eastern Europe is the inspiration in the kitchen.

Traditional Polish meals are the house specialties, but other culinary cultures have a look-in, particularly in the selection of schnitzels.

A recent visit got off on a bad footing when the hostess, in spite of several promises that she’d be with us “in a minute,” left us waiting at the door for five minutes — on the clock. With only three tables occupied, and everyone else already eating, there was no excuse.

However, it was one of only a couple glitches in what was otherwise a pleasant evening out.

Sobieski has a cosy atmosphere, with soft lighting and comfortable, well-spaced seating.

My companion and I selected an appetizer we’d never heard of before: Cheese blankets. We also ordered cups of borscht to warm us up.

Unable to choose from a tempting array of entrees that included perogies, potato pancakes and cabbage rolls, we finally decided on the Sobieski Platter for Two. It was advertised in the menu as a selection of schnitzel, cabbage rolls, perogies, Polish sausage and cabbage, served with potatoes and vegetables.

We had a choice of perogy fillings — cheddar and potato; white cheese and potato; meat, mushroom and sauerkraut; meat; and mushroom and sauerkraut — of which we opted for the latter.

The cheese blankets turned out to be salmon and cream cheese rolled up in filo pastry. And absolutely delicious.

The soup never did arrive, and it was a little difficult to capture our otherwise friendly server’s attention and ask. Which was glitch number 2 that evening.

But we temporarily forgot about the borscht once the platter arrived.

From the reference to a platter for two, we were expecting a sampling from the menu. What we got would have satisfied four growing teenagers: A whole schnitzel each, two or three perogies each, a cabbage roll and a sizable chunk of Polish sausage each. No one was going hungry tonight.

We tried a bit of everything, and it was all wonderful and well-cooked. The cabbage, which is rarely seen nicely prepared in a restaurant, was very good, as were the cabbage rolls.

The schnitzel — we had chosen chicken; pork was the other offering — was tender and prepared to perfection, and the perogies proved a tasty choice.

But it was all a little overwhelming, and we might have appreciated it more if there’d been a little less.

Sobieski Restaurant has been a family-run business since it opened seven years ago, said manager Tom Filip, whose cousins are the owners and whose aunt is the head chef.

“It’s Eastern European,” Filip said later in a telephone interview. He said the menu was, for the most part, developed by the family. “Perogies, schnitzel, cabbage rolls: Everything is homemade right here on the premises.”

The combination of home and charm creates an atmosphere that draws a loyal clientele.

“It’s definitely the good food and the ambience, the feel of the place, that attracts people,” Filip said. “People enjoy it because it’s quiet.”

Mia Thomas is a freelance writer.

– – –

AT A GLANCE

Sobieski Restaurant

103 – 32071 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford

604-864-8088

Menu at www.sobieski.ca

Open Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 4 to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Steeps on West Broadway offers some 200 varieties of tea, served in china cups or mugs

Mia Stainsby
Sun

I went to an opthamologist appointment the other week and somehow the waiting time stretched to three hours.

I read. I grew weary. I debated the pros and cons of handling the wait with grace or letting loose my shrew. After two hours, I learned there were still six patients ahead of me and went cross-eyed from imploding. I cared enough about my eyecare not to go postal, preceding a dramatic exit. Instead, I marched out the door to blow off steam.

It was raining. I was hungry. I walked down to West Broadway and I found the perfect “serenity now” spot — Steeps Tea Lounge. Tea was just what I needed and I had my pick of some 200 teas, some flavoured with fruit or flower infusians, herbal teas. Over by the wall — stacks of china tea cups, the grandma kind, if one prefers them over mugs.

“That’s the appeal of tea,” says Pierre Leonardon, who runs the tea shop with Hiroko Yamamoto.

“Our customers are seven to 77 years old. We get young people, old people, sick people from the hospital [it’s close to Vancouver General], people going to see doctors [and spend half their day waiting for them], tourists from the hotel nearby.” From 11 p.m. to midnight, they see another crowd who come for a healthy nightcap.

There’s also food — panini, soup, baked goods. Grilled panini with blue corn chips cost $7.50 and soups change daily and include the Serious Mushroom Soup, Indonesian Lentil And Pumpkin. Yamamoto talks up the carrot cake.

“It’s most famous,” she says. “It’s soooo good and huge and in between, there’s caramel filling.” On top — cream cheese icing. And should you need, there are doctors’ offices all around.

“We also have a nice, big chocolate cake,” she says.

 

– – –

STEEPS TEA LOUNGE

895 West Broadway, 604-371-8343.

Open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m. weekends, www.steepstealounge.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Terrific fish and chips, delicious crab cakes but ‘slaw needs work

Mark Laba
Province

FINEST AT SEA SEAFOOD BOUTIQUE & BISTRO

Where: 4675 Arbutus St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-266-1904

Drinks: Soft drinks, juice, coffee and tea

Hours: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-8pm, Sun. & Mon. until 6 p.m.

– – –

There was nothing I loved more as a kid than tuning into the Red Fisher Show on Saturday afternoon. Something about Red and his buddies pulling smallmouth bass out of Lake Nipigon and then sitting around Scuttlebutt Lodge and watching grainy footage of the event struck a chord in my daydreaming brain.

So imagine my surprise when I stumbled into this place and saw the large flat-screen TV broadcasting fishing.

“Look,” I pointed out to my son, Small Fry Eli. “Those men are catching huge ocean fish.”

“When do they turn them into sticks?” he asked, eyes glazing at the sight of a huge flopping halibut.

“Good point. I don’t know. Let’s watch and see.”

The Law went to the counter to order for us while we zoned out on big-sea adventure. This is really a fish shop with a small dine-in area and sizable kitchen off to the side with tables of hewn timber that look like Paul Bunyon was the decorator. The display case is brimming with wild sea life caught by one of the eight boats owned by FAS (Frozen at Sea), a company started by Victoria fisherman Bob Fraumeni and now partnered with experienced restaurateur Bruno Born, who runs this bistro/fish shop. FAS prides itself on the finest and freshest of fish, ethically caught and delivered to the doorstep of some of Vancouver and Victoria’s best restaurants, and now yours to experience at this landlocked strip-mall location.

“Ahoy there, matey,” I cried to the battered ling cod The Law delivered to the table. Small Fry Eli, even though only three and change, was embarrassed in public by my dumbass exclamations and quickly scooted into his grandmother’s lap to put some distance between me and him. The Japanese couple at the next table looked at me sadly.

The fish was very tasty, the batter a perfect texture and thickness, crispy and adding a nice deep-fryer barrier without burying the fish in breading. The Law thought the fish was a bit overcooked in spots but I disagreed, though I wouldn’t voice that to her.

The tartar sauce was excellent and Small Fry Eli was pleased with the crunchy fries but the coleslaw, like in every other place in this city, was no great shakes. I don’t know why Vancouver restaurants can’t stop this shredded cabbage madness and create a tangy version with vinegar the way ‘slaw was meant to be. Nevertheless, the fish and chips are very good and available with cod, salmon, halibut or sablefish ($7-$14 depending on size ordered).

Also sampled the great Dungeness crab cakes ($11), moist, tender and ready to crumble at the touch of the fork tines with actual chunks of crustacean meat rather than the pulverized versions I’ve tried in other places. With a sweet chili mayo this was a standout.

Between bites I ladled spoonfuls of creamy Westcoast Chowder ($5) into my mouth. There’s also a tempting house-smoked steamed sablefish with homemade relish, a polenta-crusted halibut filet (both $14) and a white spring-salmon Caesar salad calling to me like sirens of the sea for a return journey. It ain’t no Scuttlebutt Lodge but, then again, Red Fisher didn’t have a big-screen TV like this.

THE BOTTOM LINE: An aquatic centre of edible pleasure.

Grade: Food: B+; Service: B; Atmosphere: B

© The Vancouver Province 2007

Chef Emanuel Joinville’s food would make the French proud — it’s straight-ahead bistro fare, cooked to perfection

Mia Stainsby
Sun

At Jules Bistro, I ate like a Labrador retriever (noted for lacking a stop-eating switch) and consumed way too many perfectly cooked frites. After a couple of dinners there I developed France fever.

Too many meals at Jules and I could find myself horribly fat, in France.

It was serendipitous in that I just did not expect Jules to be quite so perfectly charming. It’s in the historic Dominion Hotel and a light reno has transformed the room into a convincing slice of Paris. Mosaic tiles, black lacquer contrast, crystal chandeliers to lighten the black, a brick feature wall, white marble-topped bar and wait staff in black with heavy French accents. They hadn’t been open long before it got busier than they’d hoped while getting to their feet.

The other surprise is who’s in the kitchen. French chef/co-owner Emanuel Joinville is no stranger to this city. After running a couple of restaurants, one in Paris and another in Dijon, he came to Vancouver and opened up Soupspoons, which soon grew to five.

He sold and opened Jules with friend Stephan Gagnon, a contractor who recently worked on Gastropod and Fuel in Kitsilano. Gagnon is charged with front-of-the-house good will. (Although it’s more a sideways situation, with the open kitchen situated at the entryway beside the dining area.)

Joinville’s food would make the French proud. It’s straight-ahead bistro fare that the French have refined to perfect pitch over generations, like jambon persille (ham and parsley mould), steak frites, cassoulet, and beef Bourguignon. It feels as authentic as La Regalade but the fare isn’t quite as rustic or massively portioned.

Prices intend to seduce you senseless. Appetizers are $5 to $14; entrees are $12 to $21.

I do not die and go to heaven over foie gras, nor do I like the way the birds are force-fed to produce overblown livers, but I succumbed to the temptation of duck foie gras in ice wine with a beet chutney. I thought I’d eat a little but ate a lot! I love the poached quail eggs in red wine sauce with mushrooms, bacon and pearl onions.

If you love steak frites, you can order a three-course deal at $21 (salad, steak frites, creme caramel) or order a la carte at $15 or $21, depending on whether you want the 8-ounce or 12-ounce steak. It’s lovely, juicy, tender triple-A rib-eye meat and comes with those perfect frites that demand your undivided attention.

The cassoulet with duck confit, Toulouse sausage and double-smoked back bacon was a strapping meal, which, okay, I couldn’t finish. Salmon, slow-cooked, was succulently moist and more fine dining than bistro. The beef Bourguignon really disappointed me. I usually love it for its intensity and depth but Joinville serves it with linguine and in effect, becomes a sauce for the pasta.

For dessert, I’d urge you to try the creme brulee, velvety and rich; the “melting chocolate cake” was exactly that, a warm, moist, melt-in-mouth cake. The profiteroles didn’t make the cut … the pastry should yield to a fork but neither the choux pastry nor ice cream inside gave in easily and the chocolate sauce was like milk chocolate.

The small wine list features budget wines appropriate for a bistro and include B.C. and French; most are available by the glass.

The other serendipity in all this is Joinville’s sous chef Sean (whose last name Joinville didn’t know). He has worked at the three-Michelin star Michel Bras hotel restaurant in France.

“He knocked at the door just when we opened and now we are both so excited talking about food,” says Joinville.

– – –

JULES BISTRO

Overall: 4

Food: 4

Ambience: 4

Service 3 1/2

Price: $$

216 Abbott St., 604-669-0033. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. www.julesbistro.ca.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Every diner is greeted as an amigo by the owner of the popular restaurant that specializes in ‘homestyle Mexican food’

Alfie Lau
Sun

Raul Senties may be the friendliest restaurateur in the Royal City. Senties, who operates Ole Ole Mexican Restaurant in New Westminster, greets all customers by calling them friends or amigos.

On a quiet Sunday night, myself and two friends, along with their three-year-old daughter, decided to try the offerings of Senties and his chef Lui.

“Hello my friends,” he greeted us as we entered. “Please sit, make yourself comfortable and I’ll serve you some of my homestyle Mexican food.”

The simple two-page menu includes old standbys such as nachos, tacos, burritos, quesadillas and chimichangas. But it’s not the stuff you’d find in fast food Mexican restaurants.

For example, Senties prides himself on serving traditional Mexican cuisine prepared with the freshest ingredients. That means when you order guacamole, the avocados are sliced almost before your eyes and the resulting dish is a natural green, not the nuclear colour you’ll find in a store-bought dip.

For our appetizers, we decided to start with the nachos with beans and cheese and a cocktail de camarones, the shrimp cocktail.

“What does the little girl want?” Senties asked politely. When we said she’d have a bit of each appetizer, that wasn’t enough for our newfound friend.

“Let me get her something for herself,” he said. “Kids always like to have their own plates.”

And before we knew it, Lui had put together a kid’s-size quesadilla with melted cheese for our smallest diner.

For our mains, we decided on the steak ranchero, steak served in an enchilada with rice, beans and guacamole; the pollo a la Mexicana, the chicken cooked in tomato salsa with rice and beans; and the carnitas, the barbecued Mexican pork served with a soft tortilla, rice, beans and guacamole.

The portion sizes were generous without being too large and the meat was cooked to its proper tenderness for all three mains. The chicken, a huge thigh and drumstick, was done so well that the meat came off in strips, perfect for both mom and daughter to eat without making too much of a mess.

Dad was loving his steak, which was cooked medium rare and had that beautiful shade of pink when slicing into the meat. And I loved my pork, which was leaner than I expected — it must have been a tenderloin cut — but no less flavourful than some of the fatty pork meals I can’t resist.

All items on the menu cost less than $10 and the four of us ate for less than $48 before tip.

“I really hope you had a great meal, my friends,” Senties told me later in a telephone interview, explaining that he grew up in a small town near Mexico City.

His dishes are traditional recipes borrowed from his mother.

“Come again, my friend,” he adds, at the end of the phone interview.

“Almost everybody who’s come here becomes a friend.”

Alfie Lau is a freelance writer.

– – –

AT A GLANCE

Ole Ole Mexican restaurant

831 12th St., New Westminster

Open every day from 12 noon to 9 p.m., except Sundays, when it closes at 7 p.m. 604-540-7435.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Stop in for a specialty cheese or frozen main dishes for yourself or the whole family

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Last time I went to Les Amis du Fromage, succumbing to my weakness for Brillat-Savarin triple cream cheese, I made a detour to the freezer case. And there, in solid block state, are umpteen ways to avoid cooking dinner — particularly on those nights you’re on your own. There are two branches of Les Amis — one in Kitsilano and the other at Park Royal South.

Mom-and-daughter owners Alice and Allison Spurrell were caterers before establishing themselves as the go-to place for cheese. Once they got the cheese shop running smoothly, they started carrying home replacement meals which come in small (for one person) and large (for two or three).

They have 13 soups on offer as well as chicken, pork, lamb, beef, veal, seafood and vegetarian dishes. And though they’re mostly comfort dishes, they don’t suffer the cruel fate of many — they’re not at all stodgy or heavy. In fact, they’re light and lively.

Soups include cauliflower Stilton, chorizo corn chowder, portobello and balsamic onion and sell for $4 for a small and $9.95 for a large.

Main dishes range from $7 to $14 (for the crab cannelloni) for singles and $14 to $27 for multi portions. Their best-seller is the macaroni dishes: either a four-cheese blend or the Jura macaroni made with Comte and gruyere cheeses, roasted ham and peas. Chicken shepherd’s pie features flavourful chicken topped with a parmesan potato crust. Crab cannelloni is gently constructed with an equally gently flavoured tomato cream sauce.

Other choices include beef stroganoff, Swedish meatballs, Thai chicken curry, eggplant roulade and chicken with mustard sauce.

Of course, while you’re there, you’d have to be on a very focused mission not to notice the cheeses. And if you are a fromage freak, you might ask about their cheese-wine pairing events, like the one coming up at Park Royal on April 16 and 17. The theme will be French cheeses (25) and they’ll be paired with French wines. The cost for the tastings is $65. Sounds like a slice of heaven to me.

– – –

LES AMIS DU FROMAGE

1752 West Second Ave., 604-732-4218 and 518 Park Royal South, 604-925-4218. www.buycheese.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Lost in speedy translation

Mark Laba
Province

PRIMA TASTE

Where: 570 Robson St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-685-7881

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; Sat. noon-10 p.m., Sun. noon-9 p.m.

– – –

I thought I’d never see anything faster than the food replicator on Star Trek until I hit this place. It seems the words were barely out of my mouth before the dishes arrived in a flurry. And this wasn’t simple stuff like a cup of Earl Grey tea, hot, or quiche or Klingon blood pie but curries and laksa and spicy prawns.

Well, the food replicator is a concept and this restaurant was begun by the Prima Taste Concept Restaurant franchise from Singapore, so they both have that in common, along with the amazingly quick delivery of the edibles. The franchise has gained much success in South-East Asia, China and the U.S. and this version, with it’s sleek, ultra-modern stylings, looks very spiffy and, as I always maintain, the future looks better with plush velour seating.

Hit the joint with painter Benny Verschmeer, now into a new phase of his velvet period.

“I’m working on sad clown faces but on blue and red velvet instead of black. Incorporating the colour fields of Mark Rothko so that the clown faces virtually shimmer off the surface.”

“Sounds very subtle, Benny.”

“Subtle! Are you nuts? It’s bold! Sheesh, stick to your food criticism.”

I wish I could say the food here was bold in statement but, unfortunately, there was a kind of overall uniformity to the dishes. Singapore cuisine should be a melting pot of influences, from Malaysian to Thai, Chinese to Indian and you’d imagine the flavours and spicing would reflect the complexities of these origins.

Prima Taste not only franchises restaurants, they also sell a line of packaged spices and sauces available for home-cooking that seem to be utilized in the restaurant kitchens. The dishes seem evolved by consensus, as if judged by a focus group.

Not that this is a completely bad thing. There is a qualitative pleasure in the quantitative process. Sound scientific? Don’t worry — science is your friend, unless you’re handling uranium in your basement using oven mitts. The truth is the results here are satisfying and there are even a few highlight items.

The Nonya sambal prawns ($13.95) were more fun than a barrel of sea monkeys with portly crustaceans lounging in a saucy mix of chilis, tamarind, tomato and shrimp paste with a smattering of green peppers for crispy texture. The fried chicken rice ($8.50), with its sesame- soy dousing, had a light touch in the saucing, which was most welcome after some of the thicker concoctions that Benny described “as glutinous as a snail’s underbelly.” The pepper beef ($14.95), I believe, suffered from too heavy a gravy, not allowing the peppery flavour to ring clean and clear, but the laksa with chicken ($7.50) was a pleasant mire simmering with poultry, noodles, two golden pillows of tofu and swirls of curry atop the coconut-milk surface.

Desserts here are intriguing, to say the least, although perhaps an aquired taste with ingredients like white fungus, gelatinous strands and mung beans. But the fried bananas with ice cream was perfect for a culinary wimp like me. All in all, the food was OK but didn’t send my tastebuds spinning, although at least this food replicator will probably never go on the blink.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Prefab culture hits Singaporean street-hawker dining.

Grade: Food: B-; Service: B; Atmosphere: B

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Chefs with varying backgrounds prepare numerous Asian cuisines, so it’s like three or four restaurants in one

Mia Stainsby
Sun

What’s the point of going to a movie without the ritual of meeting friends, racing through a meal, then rushing to the theatre?

Near the Paramount Vancouver downtown, the swish Earl’s is a hotspot but the lineups into it look more nightclub or sports bar than movie crowd.

Around the corner, Lombardo’s recently opened its second location on Smythe with pizzas and pasta on offer but I wasn’t enthralled when I tried it. Next door, though, a dark horse restaurant opened a few weeks ago. Azia Restaurant and Lounge (pronounced Asia) offers Chinese/Japanese/Malaysian/Thai food, which didn’t bode well. It sounded like a dragnet to capture everyone in its path — perhaps the modern-day equivalent of Chinese-Canadian food.

But not so. The food definitely isn’t a lost-in-translation muddle overseen by an over-taxed chef. There are several chefs with backgrounds in the various cuisines. They’ve beautified the dishes, presenting the food more elegantly than traditional counterparts. It’s like three or four restaurants in one. The food reminded me of Red Door, the pan-Asian restaurant on South Granville, only Azia is sexier with its dramatic, modern design work.

Most of the food I tried over two visits was satisfying or better, although there were a couple of misses. For me, the restaurant passed some kind of credibility test to see two sets of a three-generation Chinese family amongst the 30- and 40-something collection of downtown diners. At the small bar, guys have their heads adjusted to sports TV.

The menu is long and varied but it doesn’t careen through the cuisines. It’s more a wish list of everything the owners (Ed Lum, who also owns Shanghai Bistro on Alberni Street, and pal Mike Sam) want to eat themselves. Starters are $3.25 to $10 and mains are an average $10 to $15. Shanghai Bistro customers will see notice some crossover dishes.

We had sashimi and sushi and hailed the sushi chef, who runs the small sushi bar in the restaurant. The seared tuna sashimi salad, on greens with ginger pear dressing was lovely. Some of the dishes come in half-order sizes, such as the Hainanese boneless chicken. I say, order the full size. It’s silky-tender with gentle flavours. The Mandarin-smoked tea duck with steamed buns sounded good but both proved to be overcooked and dry.

While we polished off the steamed clams in lemongrass and coconut cream, it needed attention. We bit into grit, one of the shells remained closed (should have been removed), and most of the clams had fallen out of the shells. The wok-roasted salt and pepper prawns featured meaty prawns lightly battered and deep fried and simply flavoured with salt and peppers. Very good.

Tangerine and chili beef was weak, featuring fibreless beef but I enjoyed the Malaysian laksa and a comfort dish — the wok-fried Hokkien mee — a combo of egg noodles and rice vermicelli with bits of eggs, meat and seafood.

The wine list is an improvement over many I’ve seen at Asian restaurants, with good matches for spicy and herbal dishes.

While there were some misses, there’s lots more to try and I’m sure there’s plenty more to keep people coming back. I know it’s where I’m heading for pre-movie meals.

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AZIA

Overall: Rating 3 1/2

Food: Rating 3 1/2

Ambience: Rating 4

Service Rating 3 1/2

Price: $$

990 Smithe St., 604-682-8622. www.aziarestaurants.com. Open daily for lunch and dim sum, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner. Closed 3 to 5 p.m.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2007