Opus Bar & Restaurant

Restaurant: Opus Bar & Restaurant

Cuisine: Tapas/Global/Contemporary

Last visited: November 10, 09
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/Yaletown)
350 Davie Street
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 1.5 (for the 2 things I tried)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 2
Additional comments:

• The Opus Hotel Bar/Lounge
• Offers gourmet bar food/tapas
• Savoury and Sweet small bites
• Trendy
• Very nice, but pretentious atmosphere
• Offers bigger tapas/smaller tapas
• Banks on the name to carry the food
• Go for drinks/atmosphere

**Recommendation: n/a

Opus Bar & Restaurant is more for drinks and atmosphere than food. I came here for one of their parties and we decided to order some small bites. The restaurant is kind of split into thirds - a section for the bar, a smaller and more private room for dining (the restaurant), and then half the space is for their the lounge. I find Opus more of a lounge than anything else though.

It definitely has that Yaletown feel and attracts the yuppies that live in the area. With its impressive interior and upscale decor you would expect the food to match to some degree...but it didn't and I was so disappointed. The food came across as "you don't really order food at Opus Lounge". Does that make sense? I felt like they used the Opus name to carry them and the food did not come up to standards of what they aim for.

On the table:

• Empanadas De Mole 1/6
• Corn tortilla stuffed with chicken, corn and mole served with guacamole and salsa $8
• It was pretty much a battered corn tortilla. They were so small! Maybe the size of a gyoza. Empandas can either be deep-fried or baked...depending on what kind of Empanada you are making. These ones were deep-fried and not authentic at all. They were "American" Empanadas - not Spanish, not Latin, not Chilean, Portuguese or anything.
• Even if Opus was going for a fusion thing rather than an authentic thing they did a poor job. There was barely any stuffing. No chicken, maybe only a couple shreds that were dry and no sauce inside. No mole, nothing. Maybe 2 corn kernels, and I couldn't even taste any sauteed onions, which is a must in any type of Empanada. I was shocked that they would serve these.
• The only good thing was the sauce underneath it. I guess it was their twist on guacamole. It tasted like a thick yogurt dip made with pureed green peas, jalapeno, and avocado. It was really interesting and I would have enjoyed that with a bowl of tortilla chips 100 times more than the Empanadas.
  

• "O" Pizza 2/6
• Daily creation $10
• The positive: thin crust and a decent size, I expected smaller.
• It was a thin crust pizza with housemade marinara sauce, salami, cheddar cheese an chopped fresh basil.
• This was one of the oiliest pizza's I've ever had. No joke. I don't know if the salami made it extra oily. It wasn't even necessarily greasy or heavy, but just oily. Literally oil everywhere. My whole plate was oily, my lips were slippery and that's hard to do with a thin crust pizza. They needed to let the oil absorb on something before plating it. It was really gross.
• They also need to adjust their oven temperature because the pizza crust was and tasted a bit burnt. The marinara was just pureed tomatoes. They didn't flavour it much, but they didn't really need to. At least I could taste the fresh tomatoes.

Bin 941 Tapas Parlour

Restaurant: Bin 941 Tapas Parlour

Cuisine: Tapas/Global/Contemporary
Last visited: November 4, 09
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/West end)
941 Davie Street
Price Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 4
Additional comments:

• Specializes in international/global tapas
• Offers bigger tapas/smaller tapas
  
• Chef owner Gord Martin
• Local/organic/sustainable ingredients for 10+ years
• Carefully prepared gourmet tapas
• Creative and inventive dishes/presentation
  
• Wine bar
• Local gem
• Contemporary/trendy/cosmopolitan atmosphere
• Very small/crowded/busy
• Loud/low lighting
• Small tables/narrow space
• Sister to Bin 942 Tapas Parlour
• Family of Go Fish
• Recipient of several Vancouver awards
• $5 tapa specials "Pinxos" available
• Opens 5pm-2am daily
  

**Recommendation: Beef Tenderloin Wellington, Pomme Frites, Mash, Gulf prawns

Bin 941 is affordable fine dining. It's a tapas place for small groups or even just couples. It accommodates it's small space by designing a menu and tapas that are meant to be shared by 2 instead of the usual 4-6. The prices are steeper than most small plate restaurants of the same caliber with larger "tapas" at $16 and small tapas at $5-10. For me the larger tapas or "tapatisers" were more or less entrees/mains and they smaller tapas were the sides. For 2, you need about 2 "tapatisers" and 2-3 sides to feel satisfied.

The menu features globally inspired creations and the quality is top notch with presentation matching fine dining standards. Everything is made with care and detail and ingredients support organic/local/sustainable techniques. The food is excellent and almost everything tasted great. However it didn't really feel like a tapas place because their"tapatisers" are basically small portioned main dishes. If I'm going to a tapas place I except to share my meal with at least 2-3 friends. But from the space, to the food, and even the tables - this is a tapas restaurant meant for 2.

On the table:

• Complimentary tapa - Vegetable soup 4/6
• I think this vegetable soup was squash based. Out server didn't say what was in it besides calling it a "vegetable soup".
• It was thick, rich and very flavourful. It had a very pureed texture and I could definitely taste carrots, potato, celery, onions, squash and maybe even parsnip. All these ingredients actually stood out in the soup so they used the perfect ratio of each.
  
• It had a little tang at the end, which was unexpected. It made me think they might have thickened it with some yogurt or sour cream.
  
• 
• It was really dark, which made pictures near impossible.

• **Gulf Prawns 5/6
• Yam string fried gulf prawns and sweet hot chile mayo $5
• These were excellent! But unfortunately it's on their Pinxos menu which changes every so often. It came with 2 and each prawn was huge and very tender. They cooked them perfectly and they still had that fresh seafood crunch.
• It was a nice change from your once gourmet, and now typical, Panko-breading. Instead they used a batter made of shoestring cut yams and wrapped them tightly around the prawns. It created an extremely crispy and crunchy coating and it almost tasted like extra crispy fried chicken batter. Amazing and inventive.
• To prevent it from getting soggy the sauce was underneath. The sauce was ok, it kind of tasted like Tabasco sauce and it was missing a sweet note.
  
• 
• Photo borrowed from www.chowtimes.com (mine was too dark)

• **Pomme Frites 3/6
  
• A mile high serving of shoestring frites and thick balsamic reduction layered throughout $6.
• I've never seen fries done like this before and that's why we had to order them.
• These are knife and fork fries and very messy to eat, but the presentation is great.
  
• Some of the fries were crispy, but some were so thin they absorbed a lot of oil and tasted soggy. The exterior wasn't that oily though. They're even good cold however I wish they would have seasoned them with more salt and pepper, I don't even think they used pepper.
• They're popular, but more impressive than they taste. I probably wouldn't order them again unless I was with at least 4 people though, because it was the only thing we ordered that was too much for 2.
  
• I would have preferred a separate dipping sauce on the side.
  
• 
• **Beef Tenderloin 5/6
  
• Beef tenderloin Wellington, mash, grainy mustard Marsala sauce $16
  
• The beef tenderloin was probably seared, wrapped in a few sheets of filo pastry and baked. In between the sheets of filo and beef was I think basil and sauteed red peppers and mushrooms. It was very thin layer and you couldn't really see it or even taste it.
• The beef was really tender and juicy and well marinated with Rosemary. However it was quite small and not trimmed very well. It was so dark, I couldn't tell if I was eating fat or soggy filo pastry sometimes.
• We ordered it rare, but it was more on the medium side which was disappointing.
  
• The sauce was thick and very reduced, almost syrupy with slight bitter notes. I couldn't taste the grainy mustard though.
• **The Mash 6/6
  
• The mash was served under the beef and it was one of the best mashed potatoes I've had.
  
• There were caramelized roasted whole garlic cloves throughout the mash. In the small pile of mash I had about 6 full cloves or garlic. They were so sweet and juicy - it was delicious. It was the creamiest mashed potatoes and they include the skins and some chives to give it more flavour.
  
• 
• Wild BC Salmon 4.5/6
  
• Wild BC salmon, Indian curry potato cake with Marscapone, salmon skin tortilla chip, fire-roasted cherry tomatoes and leek sauce $16
• Upon serving it the server takes out a mini perfume bottle and sprays the salmon with an "orange-blossom Vodka mist". I couldn't taste it at all.
• The salmon was a little dry except for the thickest part which was moist. It was very plain - just bitter and no seasoning.
• The leek sauce was cold, which I think would have tasted better hot. It needed some more spice because the salmon was so plain already.
• The Indian curry potato cake tastes like the filling in a samosa. I think they used their standard in-house mash and added curry powder and Indian spices. It was still very good though. They served it with a dollop of Marscapone and salmon roe. The Marscapone tasted like melted whipped cream and they needed to serve it with more salmon roe. There were only 4.
• The salmon skin tortilla chip was very crispy but also extremely oily. It was paper thin and I think they seasoned it with hot paprika or Wasabi powder because it was quite spicy.
  
• 
• Candied Fennel Seeds
• These are the "mints" you get with the bill.
• Sweet candy coating with a licorice taste.
  

Milestones - Brunch Review

Grilled Chicken Corn Hash

Restaurant: Milestones - Brunch Review
Cuisine: American/Global/West Coast
Last visited: October 25, 09

Area: Multiple locations - White Rock
3085-152nd Street in South Point Mall
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Chain restaurant
• Casual and lively atmosphere
• A couple classic breakfast items
• A twist on the traditional, gourmet twists
• Homemade sauces
• In-house smoke mustard ham
  
• Quite hearty options
• $9-18 brunch menu items
• Line-up/crowded at peak hours
• Available Saturday & Sunday only

**Recommendation: Grilled Chicken Corn Hash

We couldn't find a family-owned breakfast/brunch restaurant around the area so we just settled on Milestones. I'm not against chain restaurants or anything, but I usually chose them out of convenience or if they have a new item to try. I usually try and find the independent places.

I am actually quite impressed with the brunch we had at Milestones. They bring traditional breakfast items to new heights and add their own gourmet touches and creativity. Most of the options are quite hearty and the portions are quite big so it fills you up for most of the day. The best thing is that the sauces are homemade - I just wish the breads were too...but that could be asking for too much...?

I would come back again to try the other items or even just the grilled chicken corn hash, that was really good!

On the table:

• Grilled Shrimp California Benedict 2/6
• Spicy house-made avocado salsa, double-smoked bacon & grilled shrimp.

• I was actually disappointed in this because it sounded so good on the menu.
  
• The menu says "large grilled shrimp" but they should have wrote "grilled shrimp". They were pretty small - 2 shrimps on each English muffin. They were also overcooked so they maybe shrank more than they should have.
• The avocado salsa was really weak too. It was very brown, and didn't look fresh. It looked like it was sitting under the heaters for too long, which very well may have been the case. It's house-made and I was expecting diced avocado, lime juice and onions etc., but what I got looked worse than grocery store guacamole. There was no flavor except for some seasoning salt.
• Bacon wasn't crispy either.
• The poached egg on the other hand was really good. The hollandaise is also made in house but it wasn't thick enough. It was very buttery but on the watery side.
  
• Okay this is the shock factor - despite the poor execution the combination of it all actually didn't taste bad! It just could have been so much better if everything had been fresh!
• **Grilled Chicken Corn Hash 5/6
  
• Sliced grilled chicken mixed with potatoes, onions, roasted corn, red peppers and house marinade. Topped with two poached eggs, hollandaise and salsa. Served with Roma tomatoes and grilled herb toast.
• This was very tasty! The house sauce is what makes this dish, it was really good. It's almost like an onion-based barbeque sauce but not as thick and not as bold in flavour. There was a smoky charred flavour and the dried Rosemary and oregano really came out. The fresh salsa was the perfect balance. It was nice and saucy especially after breaking the egg yolks into it. The texture of this hearty dish was just excellent, crunchy, soft, crispy and the flavours: sweet, savoury, tangy and smoky!
• Strawberry French Toast 3/6
  
• Baguette dipped in cinnamon vanilla egg batter, then griddled. Topped with fresh strawberries poached in agave syrup with Mango cream finish.

• This was a really big portion of French toast. It was good, but I think it was too big and I got sick of it fast. Using baguette is a creative idea, but I would have preferred a regular bread or brioche...it would absorb the flavours better.
  
• They should consider making their own bread.
• It was moist but it was swimming in a pool of agave syrup. The syrup was also a combination of agave and a simple sugar reduction. It needed to be more reduced because it was too watery. I did appreciate the generous amount of fresh strawberries though.
• I couldn't taste the mango cream at all and they needed more of it.I could barely see it.
• They called it a" cinnamon vanilla egg batter," but it wasn't as flavourful as it sounds. They used an extract instead of the real vanilla bean so they shouldn't bother advertising the "vanilla" part...what kind of French toast doesn't have cinnamon or vanilla in the mixture anyways?