This is a continuation of my Annual Dine Out Festival presented by Tourism Vancouver series! Went to three restaurants offering $18, $28, and $38 set menus in the first week and then went to another three, to wrap up the two-week (17 day) festival.
On my list to try: The Abbey, Chicha, Bistro Pastis, Café Pacfica, Mahony & Sons Public House and Minami. You can view all of the available restaurants and full menus here on the Tourism Vancouver Website. I covered the first three in my previous post and will cover the remaining three here:
- Café Pacifica – A West Coast restaurant on Vancouver’s dramatic waterfront – offering panoramic views of the city, harbour and Coastal Mountains.
www.panpacificvancouver.com/dining - Mahony & Sons Public House– Casual Irish Pub on UBC’s Campus
www.mahonyandsons.com - Minami – Sister to Miku Restaurant, with the similiar Aburi styled specialty sushi, located in Yaletown
www.minamirestaurant.com
Side note – on my way to dinner at Café Pacifica, I got a notification on my instagram that I won the Tourism Vancouver Dine Out Festival Photo of the Day Contest! I was so surprised and delighted! My prize was a $75 gift card to check out a seafood restaurant at Lonsdale Quay – stay tuned for that restaurant review 🙂 Thanks Dine Out Festival Vancouver!
First –Café Pacifica – $28
This is one of the restaurants at the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver. It boasts a beautiful waterfront location with lots of beautiful sights and tourist attractions nearby, including a fantastic spa that Rosine took me to, to celebrate my wedding this past Summer. We did a great package that included lunch on Café Pacifica’s Patio (my full experience here). How fitting that Rosine and I would come here again for the festival, along with part of our “luvas” group, Irene and Sarah.
The entrance to the restaurant is pleasant and welcoming! They even have live music out here by the winding water fountain.
APPETIZER
ENTREE
Sarah had no complaints and didn’t need to send the dish back! I thought the lamb was a bit salty and wasn’t really wowed by this entree. The flavour improved when I had bites of cabbage in between though.
Pacific Northwest Style Bouillabaisse (GF) Scallops, tiger prawns and B.C. Salmon – option to add half a lobster tail
DESSERT
Very beautiful dessert – not what I pictured in my mind at all! (Maybe I’m used to the giant Red Velvet dessert from the Cheesecake Factory which, by the way, is amazing!) I was hoping for something with a more distinct chocolate taste but instead, it was very light and faint (kind of like desserts from Asian bakeries). The tartness of the lignon berries was nice, as it added a bit of much needed punch, but otherwise the dessert was very mediocre. I haven’t had the greatest luck with desserts this year on Dine Out! Maybe my standards are too high with all the baking I’ve been doing, and all the desserts I had while in France and Italy this past Summer!
Irene, my fellow foodie who also booked multiple Dine Outs, said this was slightly above average for her. I would agree with that.
All in all, very nice venue and ambiance, great salad but lacklustre main and dessert. I would come back again for the lunch I had before or maybe for the brunch buffet (fond memories of doing this with family growing up!)
Overall – 3 *
Next: Mahony & Sons – $18 (lunch)
Convenient lunch spot on the UBC campus! This was the only $18 menu I went out for and come on, it’s hard to go wrong with a three-course $18 menu!
Julia made reservations for 3 of us to have lunch here and when I arrived, I was whisked away to this private alcove in the back! With a fireplace! How cozy and comforting!
APPETIZER
Roma Tomato Bisque – Vegetarian bisque topped with crème fraîche and basil
ENTREE
DESSERT
Cheesecake Brownie – Vanilla bean chilled cheesecake on a chocolate brownie base with raspberry and mango coulis
My choice! Good size for a lunch dessert! Creamy and satisfying 🙂
Overall – 3 1/2*
It gets extra stars for being a great value!
Finally
Minami – $28 (lunch)
Lunch date with best friends! The Miku and Minami restaurants have been a staple in my go-to restaurant list for quite some time! Countless birthdays and celebrations have been held here where we can count on delicious and savoury aburi style, flame-seared sushi! It’s not cheap, at almost $20 for a sushi roll, but it’s high-quality, delicate and fresh seafood, so for a special occasion it is worth it!
The menu was pre-determined with no substitutions which meant there wasn’t a lot of fussing and deciding over what to order.
Alison and Millie with their miso soup and assortment of aburi sushi.
OK, so here’s the confusing part. This was listed as the “main” but it came out first, so of course, we started to eat this dish.
APPETIZER
ENTREE
DESSERT
Perfect end to the meal! Very tangy gelato that would please anyone’s sweet tooth! We did poke fun at the halved-berries and quartered-strawberries heh heh.. but it didn’t take away from the dessert. Just gave us a funny talking point.
I would come back again here for Dine Out to try the variety that have in the future, but also will continue to return for the signature aburi specialties! Yum! For both the Miku and Minami locations, I love the spacious lay-out and that they can accommodate large groups. I didn’t take a lot of photos of the interior or exterior but you can kind of see the fishes on the walls in my photos above.
Overall – 4 *
I would love to hear from you in the comments below if you have been to some dine-outs as well and what your experience was like!
As one food festival wraps up, another in the City continues – The Hot Chocolate Festival!!!
Here’s a preview of a delicious and decadent afternoon with Victoria and Cornelia – we shared three desserts at Thierry ::)
More food pics, descriptions and viewpoints in some of my other food posts: