Tartar
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Le Smoking Vallée
Jun 06 2012Cardamom cherry cheesecake mousse between sweet crackers
We heard about Le Smoking Vallée through social media a few weeks ago and were intrigued by the buzz. What we have here is a real bring your own wine veteran Marc-André Paradis (Les Infidels, Mr. B, Les Heritiers, L’Emporte-Pièce), teaming up with some past collaborators and upstart 25 year old chef Thierry Dufour.
ShuRaku Sake Bar
Sep 29 2011
Chef's Choice Sashimi
I passed by ShuRaku quite a few times during my last few trips to Vancouver and it didn’t stand out to me from the outside. When I travel for work I always have to stay downtown and so my options for restaurants are somewhat limited. ShuRaku came up on a Friday night when I was looking for a really great sushi dinner and a few Japanese beers.
As soon as I walked in I was immediately impressed with the interior and ambiance. I have to go out of my way to say that the service at ShuRaku was probably the best and most friendly I’ve had in years. Even more charming was that it appeared that the entire staff spoke Japanese quite well – even those who looked born and bred Canadian. Orders were authentically shouted to the kitchen and I had a chat with one of the sushi chefs who made excellent suggestions.
I started with the Chef’s Choice Sashimi along with a Mackerel Roll and the Volcano Roll. I was really hungry so I followed that with a Salmon Tartar with Crispy Seaweed Tempura and the coveted Toro Sashimi, a specialty cut of Tuna Belly (the fattiest part). Vancouver magazine described the sashimi at ShuRaku as “achingly fresh” and I can say this is no hyperbole, it really is. Great choice for lunch or dinner.
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