There was a fantastic deal on Travelzoo for Bistro Pastis, and having had a good experience there for Dine Out Vancouver this year, I quickly snatched it up and enlisted Fannypack to go with me.
One reason I like Bistro Pastis was because their portions are pretty decent for a French restaurant. For my appetizer I chose the les moules marinières (regularly $16) which is steamed mussels in a white wine butter shallots sauce. The sauce was very rich and not too salty. It was very good for dipping with the bread basket provided.
The mussels were big and succulent. This was fantastic.
Fannypack had the le tartare et les frites (regularly $17) which was a steak tartare, pommes frites and cornichons plate. The tartare was tender which no chewy pieces, nicely seasoned and peppered. The salad was a nice touch. The portion was big also.
For mains, Fannypack chose the les coquilles saint jacques ($34 regularly) and that was seared scallops with brussel sprouts, quinoa, french beans, in a lobster bisque émulsion.
Unfortunately the scallops were over-done…not up to MasterChef standards I must say. We were both a little disappointed.
The grilled brussel sprouts however were fantastic and had good caramelization, so much that they were a little sweet.
As for me, I had something that was the special of the day which wasn’t on the regular menu. It was sauteed frog legs ($29) with asparagus, brocollini, and potatoes.
I had always wanted to try frog legs and having it prepared the french way in a French bistro was more than I can ask for. The meat was very tender and moist and it does indeed taste like chicken. The only thing that weirded us out was that each pair of legs were attached to each other still so it was weird to look at…and it didn’t help that I kept making them do a silly dance for Fannypack haha.
The shared dessert for us was the Baked Alaska ($10.50) which was set on fire in front of us. We were instructed to blow out the fire before the meringue gets too charred.
This was tasty, the meringue tasted like toasted marshmellow and the vanilla ice cream was rich. The cake bottom however did absorb a lot of the alcohol though so that threw us off a bit.
In all, we enjoyed Bistro Pastis very much.
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