Dinner

cooked broccoli & mushroom

steak with mashed potato and baked broccoli & cauliflower

tossed in garlic

poached pear with syrup covered strawberries

and caramelized sugar

TAPASTREE

Tapastree is an interesting restaurant, in the sense that it is well known, but at the same time almost a well kept secret. A year ago or so, a few friends and I were fortunate enough to have found this little restaurant, located at 1829 Robson Street. As I entered the restaurant I was pleased by the cozy yet unique atmosphere and immediately fell in love with the place. The atmosphere of Tapastree is unique in the sense that the whole restaurant could be packed and full of people chatting away, but it feels quiet enough that you can bring a date and have a decent conversation without feeling like you are shouting over everyone else.

After that first fateful discovery, I have been to Tapastree on several occasions and have not been disappointed by the food or service once. I have noticed that each time I have gone to the restaurant the menu is shifted around slightly, which I believe is to prevent the regulars from getting bored of the menu. This is the case because as the name of the restaurant may reveal, the entire menu is tapas style. Tapas, for those who may not know, are pretty much appetizers, which makes Tapastree a perfect place for a drink. However, just because Tapastree specializes in tapas, don't assume that you won't get full.

Due to the fact that I have been to Tapastree several times and their several changes in menu, I will only post the most recent menu I have ordered from. A thing to note about Tapastree is the service; if you continue to order wine and food, they will continue to bring out bread in between dishes, so that you can continue to sip wine with food. My most recent trip to Tapastree, again was with my girlfriend and we ordered:

Salad:

Tomato, bocconcini and avocado with fresh basil

Tapas:

Japanese eggplant with pesto and goat cheese on spicy tomato sauce

Bruschetta topped with tomatoes, olives, basil, garlic

Prawns grilled with pesto

Dessert:

Creme brulee

Wine:

Schloss Reinhartshausen Riesling 2005 Germany

We started with a bottle of 2005 Schloss Reinhartshausen, which is a riesling from Germany. Again, you can never go wrong with a bottle of riesling. Accompanying the wine was bread with two sets of butter, one being garlic and the other plain. Nothing to write home about, but all in all tasty. Then came the salad, which tasted very fresh and was very pleasant to the pallet.

Then came the tapas, starting with the Japanese eggplant, which had a very interesting taste. The small smudge of goat cheese was a nice compliment to the eggplant because the tangy taste of the cheese suited the sweet taste of the sauce as well as the eggplant. Next came the bruschetta, which is a personal favourite of mine. The combination of tomato, basil, garlic and olives is a testimate to how well Italians take simple ingredients and make delicious dishes. Finally, we finished off our night with the prawns grilled with pesto. The dish was tasty, but there wasn't anything that special about it. None the less the dish was very delicious and we cleared the plate without any trouble.

After the tapas, we decided that we could go for dessert and ordered the creme brulee. The creme brulee was perfectly prepared and the top layer of the creme brulee was caramalized just enough so that it didn't taste too bitter and the drizzle of strawberry syrup was a nice addition to the simple vanilla flavour.

Now I guess its time to talk about the price range and some of the more "technical" factors of the restaurant. Tapastree, like I mentioned previously, is a restaurant that specializes in tapas. So, if you have an extremely large appetite, your bill may turn out to be a little bit high or you may leave a bit hungry. However, if you are looking for a place to simply have a nice conversation with your friend/date/lover and a glass of wine, Tapastree may be the place for you. The atmosphere along with their extensive wine list and appealing tapas makes it a perfect place for a casual dining experience. The price range of the restaurant in my opinion is about mid range to high depending on if you drink wine or not.

Out of 5, I would rate Tapastree a 3.5-4 because while the food and wine are great, they aren't mind blowing. However, I would still highly recommend visiting Tapastree at least once as it is a hidden little gem in the massive swarm of Korean restaurants lining Robson street.

+For more information and a detailed look at the menu you can visit the restaurants website. Also, Tapastree uses the opentable website as well so making reservations is fairly simple.

http://www.tapastree.ca/

GOLD FISH KITCHEN

So on Thursday night I went to Gold Fish Pacific Kitchen, located in the 'famous' Yaletown restaurant district(1118 Mainland St at Helmcken), with my girlfriend. After hearing a lot of good things about Gold Fish we decided that it was finally time to give the place a visit and with high expectations we were not disappointed.

Making reservations at Gold Fish was relatively easy due to the opentable.com reservation system, which simply allows you to place your reservation online. Although, due to it being my first time using the opentable website, I was a little worried that it would mess up my reservation and ultimately mess up my night. However, when I arrived at the restaurant the hostess pulled up my name from the system and took us to our seats.

The first impression I got when I stepped into Gold Fish was that it had a very lively ambiance. There were couples wining and dining, large groups of people just having drinks, and there were even a few people just lounging with their laptops(most notably a lady with a custom mac book). Even with the variety of people and the lively ambiance, Gold Fish is well laid out so that you don't have to yell over everyone else to have a conversation, even with the occasional loud drunk trying to get friendly with the waitresses.

Once seated, we were greeted by a waitress and asked if we would like anything to drink. Something that really surprised me about Gold Fish was the level of service and the attitude the servers carried. None of the servers carried a snooty attitude and offered assistance at any turn, while at the same time not seeming like they were just sucking up for a bigger tip.

Now I guess its on to the important part of this post...the food.

When you look at the menu you can understand why they label their restaurant as 'west coast cooking, pacific rim flavours.' A lot of the dishes are 'west coast cooking' but when you look at the ingredients you can see the pacific rim influence, such as ginger, coconut, taro, and thai basil.

My girlfriend and I decided that we wanted to try both their meat and seafood dishes, so we decided to share a lot of our dishes. What we ordered that night was:

salad:
ROMAINE creamy garlic vinaigrette, asian bacon
side:
OVEN ROASTED CAULIFLOWER & BROCCOLI thai basil
main:
RIBEYE STEAK mushroom risotto spring roll, brandy peppercorn sauce
HALIBUT sake thyme, tomato green onion, ginger relish
dessert:
WARM BANANA SPRING ROLLS cashew butter, caramel sauce, lychee mint salad
wine:
balthasar ress 2006 Rheingau, Germany

We started off the night by ordering a bottle of wine, which the choice of the night was a riesling. The riesling wasn't exactly amazing, but wasn't disappointing either. It was tasty enough to be drank without food and as most rieslings go, good enough to be enjoyed with most foods. Another positive note about the service was that our wine glasses were constantly being refilled.

The salad came out immediately after and is brought out as whole romaine lettuce leaves. You are given the option to serve it yourself or have the server divide it evenly amongst your party and remove the plate to save room. The salad overall was very tasty and the dressing was just right. The amount of vinegar in the vinaigrette was just enough so that you could enjoy the taste and not have to cringe every time you took a bite. The asian bacon was a nice addition to the salad and was a nice change of pace from the usual bacon bits that restaurants use.

Then came the side and the main dishes. The oven roasted cauliflower and broccoli with thai basil was extremely tasty, but I guess I am a little biased because I just like cauliflower and broccoli. However, biased or not, both veggies were full of flavour and I will definitely have them again. Both main dishes came out at the same time but we decided to start with the halibut, which I regret to say was just average. While the fish was cooked perfectly, I did not really enjoy the sauce that came with the fish. However, that might just be a personal preference and others may enjoy it. The ribeye on the other hand was tasty and cooked just enough to show a little red in the meat. The brandy peppercorn sauce was also very pleasant and went well with the steak.The mushroom risotto spring roll that came with the ribeye was a nice little touch, as well as the string beans drizzled in peppercorn sauce.

For dessert we had warm banana spring rolls, lychee mint salad with cashew butter and caramel dipping sauce. I was pleasantly surprised with this dish because when I was told that the bananas were wrapped in spring rolls I was a little put off. However, the spring rolls were rolled in cinnamon sugar and accompanied with dipping sauce, which made it very tasty.

A thing to note about Gold Fish are the prices. While the prices are fairly reasonable, they aren't exactly that cheap either. So if i were to place Gold Fish in a price range I would put it in a mid price range. Another thing to note is Gold Fish does not take debit, but they do have an ATM machine near the bathrooms.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Gold Fish Pacific Kitchen and would absolutely recommend it. Out of 5, I would rate Gold Fish to be a 4 - 4.5.

+For more information and a detailed look at the menu you can visit the restaurants website

http://www.goldfishkitchen.com/