2008 August : Tiny Bites

A Tiny Bites dinner date at Cobre

13 Comments Karen HamiltonAugust 22, 2008

My husband reconnected with his family in Winnipeg last week while I missed him greatly at home. To pass the time, I booked myself silly with lunch and dinner dates, which culminated in a general Facebook & Twitter call for dining companions for Friday evening. The address to explore was Cobre, a Gastown tapas restaurant whose praises have been sung by many a Tiny Bites reader.

Photo courtesy of my lovely cousin

Five diners responded to my invitation, and on Friday, the 6 of us gathered for a lively meal atop Cobre’s mezzanine. Introductions were made and wine was poured: a velvety carmenere from Chile that had everyone competing for the last drop.

We then began the lengthy but enjoyable process of deciding what to order. The menu was littered with Spanish and culinary terms which would have otherwise daunted the uninitiated; luckily, Cobre supplied each diner with a glossary to help us decipher each item.

Everything sounded intriguing so we went bat-crazy with the menu, ordering 12 different dishes and doubles of some. (One guest must have found his gastronomic soulmate in another, because these two ordered almost exactly alike and flattered each other’s sense of taste all night. His girlfriend seemed okay with that.)

These were the highlights for me:

We nearly exhausted the Taqueria menu that night, ordering 4 of the 5 varieties available. My pick of these was the pulled duck with scallions and roasted garlic. Duck titillates my palate in oh so many ways, so I was very pleased to discover another method of preparation for my favourite fowl.

Honourable mention goes to the one with wild boar chorizo, sunchokes, and nugget potato. It wasn’t the runner-up in terms of taste (I’d say that was the rockfish) but it definitely won points for originality.

I fell in love with the mango crème brulée after my first spoonful, but unfortunately, it was not the dessert I had ordered. I made googly eyes at it from across the table while I nibbled at my delicious but extremely sweet dulce de leche.

The chocolate soufflé was absolutely sinful with its molten centre and dark, starchy outer shell. I was content with just a bite and a giggle at the curious geometry of the accompanying cinnamon churros.

Dinner conversation often veered back towards the gorgeous artwork that peppered Cobre’s walls. It seems inevitable that my cousin will track this artist down and buy some of her works, as we did find one of her business cards leaned up against the back of our booth.

The Verdict

Group consensus was quite positive. Plates were licked clean; wine was duly noted for future consumption; service was attentive and accommodated our communal table by splitting all our orders into smaller, shareable portions. I’m looking very forward to returning to Cobre and introducing my husband (and hopefully more Tiny Bites dining companions) to this wonderful Gastown find.

Cobre
52 Powell St | Gastown
(604) 699-2396
www.cobrerestaurant.com

Categories: Downtown, Events, Food, Gastown, Restaurants

The ups and downs of dining at Goldfish Pacific Kitchen

5 Comments Karen HamiltonAugust 19, 2008

When Goldfish Pacific Kitchen first came into being in Yaletown, regular Tiny Bites dining companion Bruce and I couldn’t wait to set a dinner date at this new address. This was before my husband gifted me with my Canon Rebel XTi, and even before my camera became a permanent fixture around my neck (if you can believe that). First impressions were mixed: friendly service, ultra mod lounge chairs that I wanted to take home with me…but more importantly, hit and miss dishes, sticker shock. $140 for a weeknight dinner for two seemed hefty for a restaurant where we ordered 5 à la cartes and a bottle of their shelf merlot. 5-star Atlanta restaurant Bacchanalia charges $72 per person, but you get 4 phenomenal dishes and 6 equally phenomenal amuse-bouches.

My second experience at Goldfish was not on my dime. They had a fan in my boss at work, who treated the team to lunch last Christmas. The sweet potato and pork curry from visit #1 was memorable enough to have again and delivered exactly as it had before. The à la carte-ness of some meals surprised a few, who expected sides to come naturally with the dish that was ordered. The lunch items were generally met with lukewarm reception, but the taste and presentation of the desserts that we shared made up for it to a degree. Still, most of us were glad that we weren’t footing the bill.

So when a third opportunity arose in the form of a $50 lunch gift certificate from Omar, blogger marketer on behalf of Goldfish, I was not enthusiastic about a meal-for-review exchange. For one, past visits did not exactly make me jump at the chance to dine there again. Secondly, I did not want to set a slippery slope precedent for selling my airtime for perks. It was my husband that made the decision for me in the end. He had never been; he wanted to go; and I didn’t want us to pay full price for it.

Thus began the frustrating experience of trying to book a lunch date at Goldfish. To be fair to the restaurant, I must state that Goldfish always does lunch during the work week and making a reservation during that timeframe was easy as pie. Unfortunately, I no longer worked in the Yaletown area, and Goldfish does not do weekend lunch. It was weeks (literally the last day before the certificate expired) before I found a Friday time slot that worked for both my husband and I.

We arrived for lunch that Friday: me, my husband, and my apprehensions. Scored a beautiful table on the sunny patio in the back, directly under the vined archway and adjacent to inviting white couches in the outdoor lounge. So far so good.

Drinks consisted of 2 glasses of decent Sumac Ridge rosé for the husband while I tried a couple of exotic no-alcohol concoctions: their watermelon & cucumber spritzer and the pomegranate & aloe juice. We started food off with a set of duck spring rolls, followed by lunch picks that we chose to ensure that additional sides were not needed.

What we ate knocked our socks off.

Mr. Tiny Bites had the Friday $10 “gold plates” lunch special, which was a seafood fricassée with mussels, fresh fish, thai basil, coconut, and fresh chiles. He was amazed at the bounty of seafood he got considering the price tag of his meal. Upon inquiry, it was found that the fish used in this medley was either Ocean-wise or local to BC and in season.

I opted for the short rib and Shanghai noodle dish, which was similarly massive in quantity and had me oohing and aahing throughout the duration of its consumption.

With absolutely no room for dessert, we called for the bill, which came out to $65 post-tip. We found it pricey for a weekday lunch, even at a higher-end establishment, but we did order $20 worth in drinks and an appetizer to start. The lunch items themselves were under $15 each.

The Verdict

The gold plate lunches, the Shanghai noodles, the sweet potato and pork curry, the bacon fried rice, the banana fritter dessert…these are menu highlights that deserve two thumbs up. It’s entirely possible to enjoy a tasty lunch at Goldfish for under $20. Just be mindful of which dishes come sans accoutrements (thus requiring side orders) and you should be fine.

Was this delectable lunch enough to eliminate my hesitations about dining at Goldfish again? Not quite. Considering my hit-and-miss experiences with the dishes, the bang for buck will always be a concern for me. But this third visit certainly moved me closer to the “Yes” end of the “Would you recommend to a friend?” spectrum, and much gratitude to Omar for giving me an opportunity to re-evaluate my stance on this place.

Goldfish Pacific Kitchen
1118 Mainland St | Yaletown
(604) 689-8318
www.goldfishkitchen.com

Other Goldfish blog reviews:

Restaurant review – Goldfish Pacific Kitchen (Hummingbird604.com)
Patio update: Goldfish Pacific Kitchen (Civilized Spice)

Categories: Downtown, Food, Restaurants, Yaletown

When Twitter, hunger, and hesitation collide at Flux Bistro

3 Comments Karen HamiltonAugust 4, 2008

Lately, I’ve been dipping my toes in the pool of face-to-face meetups with people that I’ve come to know from the internets. One example was last Thursday’s Gastown Tweetup at Flux Bistro, organized by @jordanbehan of the local Twitterverse.

Some of you may scoff to hear this, but I can get extremely shy in group situations. This meetup was no exception. Colleague @skyden agreed to be my +1 while Twitter buddies @nalei, @hummingbird604, and @miss604 assured me that the crowd would be kind to newcomers like myself. Somewhat pacified, I arrive with @skyden promptly at 1pm and starving to the max. A few others that I didn’t recognize walked in before us and seated themselves at a large table. That’s when my bashful gene decided to kick in.

Unable to bring myself to ask whether they were also there for the Tweetup, we scuttled ourselves to a table for 2 at the periphery of the action. We ordered our drinks and perused the menu, with @skyden chomping at the bit to initiate an introduction. I kept telling him to hold off.

When @jordanbehan started the introductions, @skyden decided enough was enough and approached the table. They were indeed the people we were supposed to connect with, and they had no problem with us joining them for lunch. @skyden threw me a was-that-so-hard look as I ushered myself into a seat, completely mortified.

The rest of the experience was smooth sailing. Everyone was open and friendly, and the eventual presence of familiar faces @nalei and @miss604 did much to calm my nerves. It was great to also meet fellow food blogger @rtanglao, who had been aiding me in finding other Filipino restaurants to bookmark for a visit.

On to the food.

I was similarly hesitant about the chorizo & shrimp fettucini and the artichoke & zucchini spaghetti, so @skyden and I wound up ordering both to share. The fettucini won out in the end: the chorizo lent it a punch that the veggies simply could not stand up against. My drink of choice was ginger beer, which is starting to become my de facto order whenever it’s on the menu…though it did feel like I was cheating on my beloved Coca-Cola.

As the event wound down and the Twitterati said their goodbyes, we ended off the meal with a ginger and orange crème brulée, complete with candied orange slice.

In hindsight, the Gastown Tweetup was not as harrowing as my imagination had made it out to be. The food and service at Flux was fine, the people were outgoing, and wing man / second stomach @skyden would have saved the day anyhow.

Looking forward to the next Twitter lunch-up…I’ll try not to be quite so timid for that one!