mindless ramblings

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, We went to our first Dine Out Vancouver experience at Bistro Pastis yesterday. We took a slow drive there and found the place with little problem, it’s just a block west of Arbutus along 4th. By some stroke of luck, we got a lot right outside the restaurant.

Although we were about 15 mins early, we managed to get seated immediately at a little table opposite the bar. We were given little Dine Out-specific menus and since we knew what we wanted, we ordered pretty quickly. I had the tomato and basil soup, coq au vin and raspberry parfait to end the meal. Esther had the heart of lettuce salad, flat iron steak and chocolate mousse. This way we would be able to sample double the amount of food! I also had a glass of Mission Hill pinot noir to accompany the meal. By the time we ordered, the restaurant was packed with people, with the entire bar filled up with patrons waiting for their tables. Good thing we came early, or else we would have been one of those starving people waiting.

Our appetizers came almost immediately, together with a delicious basket of bread. One thing I liked was the large amount of butter that came with the bread. Far too many places provide a miniscule amount of butter, which is way too small for butter lovers like Esther and me! Both of the appys were good, the heart of lettuce salad was fresh, crisp (organic perhaps?) and the red wine dressing added a sharp tangy touch to the dish. The tomato basil soup was wonderful too, thick and full of tomato flavour. Definitely not Campbell’s soup by any means!

With the appys out of the way, it was time to sample the entrees. The coq au vin was very nice, with a flavourful sauce complementing the juicy boneless (albeit slightly bland) chicken. The buttered fettucine, mushrooms and bacon also helped to add more goodness to the dish. Both of us enjoyed this a lot. Moreover, the wine pairing matched the coq au vin perfectly, it was light and didn’t overwhelm my tastebuds.
Unfortunately, Esther’s flat iron steak wasn’t all that great. The beef came as 4 seperate strips cooked to various degrees. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the way it was meant to be. The first 2 pieces were more or less medium-rare or so, but the other 2 were essentially rare with perhaps only 15% of the steak anything but red. The peppercorn sauce was weak too, and there wasn’t much on the plate to begin with. A poor dish in comparison to the coq au vin.

Now it was up to the desserts to salvage the meal. It was kinda tough to try both desserts at the same time, as the parfait was very sweet, while the mousse was made with pretty bitter chocolate.The parfait… well it tasted like solidified sherbet to me. I’m not saying it was bad, it was fine but it was nothing spectacular. Esther’s chocolate mousse was pretty normal too, she mentioned that it tasted like those chocolate pudding cups you get from the supermarket. Not exactly a compliment by any means.

In conclusion, it was a distinctly average meal. The service was nothing to crow about, we finished our 3 course meal in just over an hour and it definitely felt rushed at times. Our server made no attempt to be friendly to us and it seemed that they were slightly understaffed for the night. This was made worse by the close seating arrangements and fact that our table was situated along the bar so there were people walking back and forth all the time. I wouldn’t mind going back sometime, but Bistro Pastis is pretty far down on the list. There are lots of restaurants that I would try before coming back.