Betty L.
Yelp
I'm soooooooo in love with this restaurant. The quality rivals that of the top restaurants in Vancouver. So it didn't have a nice view of the lake but other aspects of it made up for it. The service was really good and the cocktails were pretty tasty too. The decore is modern but with a rustic charm to it. More importantly the food is just good. I had the following dishes:
1)Crispy Pakora Battered Calmari w/lime & chili aioli, pickled carrot & cucumber-the calmari were tender and the batter wasn't thick. I could taste all the components mentioned. The freshness and tartness of the carrot and cucumber balanced out the "heaviness|" of the calmari. The portion was quite healthy too. A good dish to start the rest of my meal.
2)Raviolis stuffed w/braised pork cheek & carbonara w own pancetta - those pork cheek were packed with flavour. The raviolis weren't overcooked. That carbonara sauce was rich in flavour and really complimented the raviolis.
3)Thiessen farm quails - grilled breast, crispy legs, smoked polenta, red vermouth jus and really cute cut up squash - the presentation was just beautiful. I could taste the grill flavour from those quail brests. The meat were tender, moist and full of flavour. That jus added the necessary liquid to this dish. It was so yummy!
4)BC Spot Prawn Risotto w/roasted fennel, red pepper and candied lemon- Both the risotto and fennel were lightly roasted to give it the "earthy" taste to it. The red pepper added some colour to the dish. More importantly that candied lemon gave bursts of flavour to bites of the risotto. Every bite I took, I wondered if I would get that extra zing from that lemon. What a lovely addition to the rice! Presentation wise, it could be even better if one of the spot prawns was almost in tact because it would be a nice wow factor. Yet it's still a good dish.
I was suppose to only three dishes but I have a hearty appetite and the prawn dish sounded too good to pass. I was really happy with my choices. As for dessert, my experience wasn't that good. I had to send back two desserts. I ordered the following:
5) apricot bread pudding- according to the server it was the lightest dessert on the menu. The presentation was pretty but the taste wasn't there. It came with a caramel flavoured tuile or something. It was pretty sticky in my mouth, so I didn't like it. The icecream on top was nice. It was a deconstructed bread pudding. It came out in two slices. I envisioned it in a little cup, pot or something. To me bread puddings have to be really warm or hot, so it can give off that homey feeling. This one was room temperature and that didn't appeal to me. This dish didn't work for me.
6)caramel foam, orange sorbet and chocolate ganache- the server suggested I try the daily special and I didn't like it. It was way too heavy for me. Visually, it wasn't pretty at all because the foam wasn't light and airy rather it was a melted glob. The ganache was too sweet. I only liked the sorbet.
In the end, the server offered me two scopes of the sorbet on the house and I finished it. Overall, I love my dining experience at the Waterfront. Most of the dishes blew me away. It could give those Vancouver restaurants a run for its money!