I’ll be leaving for a South American cruise on Saturday, meaning I’ll miss the bulk of Dine-out Vancouver. Since I’ll also be missing a friend’s birthday during that time, I quickly organized a dinner together to take advantage of Dine-out.
A friend wanted to try a restaurant from the $18 menu. I picked Granville Room since they have an interesting Dine-out menu for $18.
The restaurant itself was quite hard to find. It’s completely black in the front, and the name of the restaurant is in pretty small lettering. It’s located in downtown Granville between Nelson and Smithe. As that block is also home to many nightclubs (all with big neon signs), this restaurant was quite inconspicuous.
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| Carrot & roasted red pepper soup | |||||||
| — or — | Soy cured sockeye salmon coriander cream dipping sauce | ||||||
| Duck leg confit chanterelle mushroom risotto with a cherry jus | |||||||
| — or — | Porcini mushroom ravioli pommery mustard sauce & pecorino pepato | ||||||
| — or — | Pan seared trout toasted almond & plum salsa, fondant potato with a almond sauce | ||||||
| Vanilla cheesecake red bull reduction | |||||||
| — or — | Chocolate peanut butter cup caramel sauce | ||||||
We went on the first day of Dine-out. Maybe it’s because of that, or maybe because it’s a weekday, there wasn’t a lot of people. Despite that, the server seemed to always forget about us. We had to flag her down multiple times to get water, clear our plates, get our bill, take our credit cards.
Or maybe the interior was too dark =)
The chandeliers were a nice classy touch though. This restaurant is more like a lounge/bar. The music wasn’t turned on too loud so that suited my friends and I perfectly as we’re not clubbing people.
We all went for the Soy cured Sockeye Salmon. It was really good. There were quite a few pieces of salmon and the coriander cream sauce went really well with them.
O and I both picked the Duck Leg Confit. This was actually better than I expected. It was after all an $18 menu and it was a lounge so I didn’t expect much. The definitely exceeded my expectations.
The skin was crisp, but the meat was most and flavorful. My leg was a bit more fatty than O’s. The chanterelle mushrooms were done well as was the risotto. The whole combination was very satisfying.
Birthday girl W had the Pan-seared Trout. The filet looked so thin I didn’t think much of it. However upon trying it it was moist and the skin was crispy also. This also exceeded my expectations.
C chose the Porcini Mushroom Ravioli. I tried one and WOW it was STUFFED with mushrooms. It was VERY fragrant. Even though it didn’t look like there were a lot of pieces, the richness of the pecorino pepato cheese made the dish very satisfying, or “lau” in Chinese.
Then it was time for dessert.
Two of us ordered the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup and the other two had the Vanilla Cheesecake. However, the two cheesecake girls asked for a caramel sauce instead of the original Red Bull reduction. If it were me I would’ve stayed with the chef’s original creation just to try it out.
The PB cup was pretty good. Very indulgent and sweet though. The chocolate part was a soft ganache and the PB was very PB-like. C said that she could really taste the butter in it. This was different and I enjoyed it. However I probably would stay with cheesecake next time.
The cheesecake was very fragrant with vanilla. It was very creamy. I wondered if this was made inhouse.
Overall I we had a very good experience here. I was really surprised at the quality of their food. If service was better the night would’ve been even more enjoyable. It was still a good night hanging out with old friends though.
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