Kitsilano Daily Kitchen

Early dinner before going to see Hamlet

Judy and I do not eat out often and our trips to Vancouver to dine are very rare. It is a friend's birthday on July 30, so we travelled over to town to celebrate at a restaurant and then go to see Hamlet at the Bard on the Beach. My friend's choice for a dining spot was the Kitsilano Daily Kitchen. This is a rather small restaurant and the chef prepares a menu on a daily basis. I corresponded with him on twitter and he let me know that it is about 4 pm that he will post the menu for that evening.

The wine list is strongly comprised of BC Wines. They also have an option for you to bring your own wine and pay a corkage fee of $25 per bottle. We chose to do this, bringing a red and a white. It is nice to see a wine list with primarily wines from BC, however it happened for this birthday celebration that husband of the birthday girl wanted to bring a special Barolo and I brought a Quinta Ferreria unoaked Chardonnay.

Tapas to start

I started with the Tapas Marinated White Pacific Anchovies. With the ruby red beets and other accompaniments it was quite a nice starter. Judy did not have a starter as she was holding off for dessert. One other starter that got good reviews was the Sashimi.

Wonderful Halibut for the main

For my main course I enjoyed the Grilled Pacific Haida Gwaii Halibut. It was perfectly cooked and served with a mung bean ragout and a roasted pepper puree. The menu indicated that it would also come with a peach compote, but I never discovered where that was. I didn't really miss it though. There was a pea pod that was close to raw and without the tip and string still in place. I would have removed that before plating and did so myself. The mung bean ragout was quite good and I'll be searching my recipe books for something similar. Judy and four others at the table ordered the Cedar Roasted Tenderloin of Sakura Pork. It was a bit on the rare side for Judy. I usually cook her pork to an internal temperature of 170* and my guess is this was about 150 or 155. One of the ladies at the table, who is herself a fine cook, said she cooks her pork tenderloin to this level of doneness. Judy enjoyed the tomato and serrano coulis, declaring it not too spicy.

Judy's dessert

I'm not a dessert person so my meal concluded with a cappuccino. Judy on the other hand is a chocolate lover. There were two choices for dessert and she chose what was described as a chocolate fudge. Others at the table had this as well and all declared that it had been named incorrectly, but was a delicious finish to the meal.

The final bill was under $400 for the six of us, including taxes, corkage fee and gratuity which all of us felt was a very reasonable price for what we consumed.