West Restaurant + Bar (Dine Out Vancouver 2010)

I was very excited to try West. I had to reschedule this multiple times and was worried from hearing about how everybody was disappointed with their meals at West during Dine Out Vancouver 2010. Oh, parking was pretty expensive. $2/hour at the meters.

West Restaurant + Bar
2881 Granville St. (Around 13th Avenue)
Vancouver, BC V6H 3J4
604-738-8938

Bread didn't seem that fresh though the server emphasized it was baked fresh in house. Having both butter and olive oil was a nice touch.



Queen Charlotte salmon tempura with smoked creme fraiche, cracked wheat and citrus. Very good, well fried and good flavour.



Sweet onion soup, crispy shallots and thyme oil. Tried a spoon of this, was pretty sweet. Don't think it's my type of soup though. I was surprised by the portion size, which I think is pretty good for this type of restaurant. The bowl was actually quite deep, which you can't see from the picture.



Salad of Hannah Brook's organic greens with Sloping Hills shredded ham and green beans. Didn't get to try this one, unfortunately.



Hecate Strait ling cod with Pemberton sunchoke, asparagus, and mild Madras curry sauce. Only had a bite of the cod, which was pain on its own. Can't comment on how it would have went with the sauce. I don't see any sunchoke though?



Peace River lamb shank with North Arm farm vegetables, creamy polenta, and olive jus. Lamb was very well done, but didn't try much of the vegetables or the polenta. This dish was well received by others though.



Tagliatelle with locally cultivated mushrooms, parmesan, and black truffle sauce. This was my dish, I added on the red wine braised short ribs ($9). A little off putting that it was basically $9 for two pieces, but without it I think the pasta would have been deficient. The black truffle sauce and mushrooms had a dominating presence, making it very earthy. This was a good thing. I've never had tagliatelle so I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like. For me, it was a little reminiscent of chinese egg noodles, which makes me feel a different pasta would have paired better. The pasta was also done a little bit on the firmer side, I would have enjoyed it a bit softer.



Coconut génoise with roasted pineapple, banana caramel ice cream and caramel crisp. On its own, the coconut cake portion was rather plain while the banana caramel ice cream on its own was good. Together, however, was fantastic and delicious all the way through. No complaints about the roasted pineapple or the caramel crisp, but the génoise and the ice cream were the main players here.



Prosecco braised grapefruit segments with basmati rice custard and raspberry marshmallow ice cream. I believe the grapefruit segments were substituted with rhubarb pieces, which I think would work better both in flavour and texture. The presentation screams inukshuk to me.



Chocolate orange marmalade pot de crème chocolate olive oil chiffon mousse cake chocolate orange sorbet. This was well received. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the génoise and ice cream. Don't remember getting much orange out of this though.



Wonderful meal and loved the lighting! Guess they really want you to see the food. It's great that they source their ingredients locally and in BC. The environment of the restaurant seemed a bit hectic and busy, but I had a booth seated adjacent to the kitchen...plus it's dine out. Portion sizes were a lot more than I predicted too, so that was a bonus for me.