Well our DINE OUT adventure has come to an end, three restaurants, three dinners, one clear winner.
Our first meal was at OUISI BISTRO, a cajun/creole spot on Granville. First thing we noticed is that none of the dishes were spicy... at all, disappointing considering we were all looking forward to some tingling taste buds. Secondly, the "Seafood Gumbo traditional New Orleans dark roux seafood stew" should have been called the Oyster Gumbo as that was the only thing you could taste. The staff won major props though for replacing Michelle's Gumbo for the "Peppered Chicken Breast served under fresh spinach, roasted garlic & brie with red beans, paprika rice and sauteed vegetables", without question and free of charge. Nice touch! Overall, the meals were a bit bland and nowhere near as exciting as they sounded on the menu but the clear favorite was the "Blue Cheese Spinach Salad".
Our second meal was at the historic RAINCITY GRILL in the West End. While this meal over all was better than our first Dine Out meal yet truthfully I again found each dish bland and lacking punch. Overall, the menu was more exciting with favorites like "Grilled Albacore Tuna, manilla clam & minted wheat salad, eggplant, cold pressed canola oil, yogurt" and "White Bean Soup garlic chili oil, truffle cream" but here the clear winner was dessert featuring a tasty "Vanilla Creme Brule" and an amazingly dense "Bittersweet Chocolate & Hazelnut Terrine". This is an extremely popular restaurant that we were looking forward to, only to walk away a little deflated, perhaps a regular dining visit is in order to see what Raincity Grill truly has to offer.
Our final meal and hands down favorite was at Yaletown's CIRCOLO, one of Umberto's Italian restaurants. There were eight of us for dinner and everyone of us had a fantastic meal. Some of the clear favorites were the "Prime cut New York Steak, Yukon Gold potato gnocchi, horseradish foam and balsamic reduction", the "Lemon cured lean Beef Carpaccio, with acacia honey and truffle oil", the "Agnolotti, with roasted winter squash, brunoise of vegetables, pan seared mushroom medley, finished with a Chardonnay beurre blanc" and ofcourse the "Creme Brulee, infused with Citrus zest, accompanied with almond biscotti". The wine was flowing, the laughs were a plenty and a good time was had by all, so much so, Michelle and I will come back for a regular dinner in the future. Circolo was the perfect restaurant to end our DINE OUT adventure!
Well that's it for this year! I can't wait for next year and to try a whole slew of other places. Take it from me, get in on this DINE OUT experience, it's well worth the time and the money!!!
1 comment:
I agree with the Raincity Grill, a little let down but the Grilled Albacore Tuna was super yum!! Gonna have to go back and see the real deal. That being said though, I did a dine-out at Brix in Gastown and it was amazing! Check that place out if you haven't already.
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