Four nights, four restaurants

Last week I had dinner out every night from Wednesday to Saturday. How did it go?

For the first two nights, Wednesday at the Bistro de Paris on Denman, and Thursday at Felico's in Richmond, the decor was better than the food.

Above is the bar at the Bistro de Paris. It's a lovely little restaurant that looks very much like a bistro in Paris - the problem is that the food isn't anywhere near as good as the real thing. It's not bad, and if you're a tourist looking for some French ambience, this place might be for you. The service was good, though not outstanding. The best part was the wine.

Thursday night I ate with some friends at Felico's in Richmond. The friends were great, the entrance to the restaurant was great, and so I had high hopes of the food.

There was nothing wrong with it, and it was certainly reasonably priced, and the service was very good. The menu was Greek and Italian and maybe something else, and for me, the food reflected the restaurant's ambivalent view of what it was. My food was fine but it's not a place I'd go back to unless I was going back with terrific friends and it was all about the companions rather than the food.

Friday night I had dinner at a friend's house. She's a terrific cook but as she was packing for a six week trip, we ordered in.

I have to say that the Panago pizza (which I've never had before) was the best meal of the four. We had a veggie on thin-crust multigrain and it was terrific. In fact, I've switched my personal pizza ordering to Panago on the basis of that meal. The wine was good too - I brought along a bottle of Dancing Bull California zin, an inexpensive wine I've become addicted to.

Saturday night was a special treat as my partner almost always works on Saturday nights, but he took it off because a friend was having a surprise birthday party at Priscilla's - it's a bright pink restaurant on Davie. They closed the restaurant for the party and it was so much fun. We sat with two couples, complete strangers, and had plenty of laughs. And it was a complete surprise to the birthday boy which made it even more fun. The food was a fixed menu and for the price it was pretty darn good. The dessert - tiramisu - was exceptional. Definitely the best food of the dining out marathon.

Kate

Dining out

Last week I did something I very rarely do unless I'm on vacation - I was out to dinner three times in a row, to three vastly different restaurants. And as a bonus, with three of my favourite women.

Wednesday - Bistro de Paris - This was a special treat for me because the restaurant this used to be, the Cafe de Paris, was one of my favourites for years. It went downhill and I stopped going, but yesterday morning I read a good review of this new incarnation. The restaurant still has that lovely French bistro feel (it's a neighbourhood restaurant), small, not fancy, but comfortable and comforting. It has lovely service, a fabulous wine list with great French wines (something few restaurants in Vancouver do), and the menu is definitely bistro - steak frites, chicken, fish. It's a small menu but well chosen to reflect the bistro mentality. I had steak frites and it was fine. They have a daily special - soup or salad, main course (yesterday's was salmon), dessert - which is also very reasonable and I'll definitely try that next time, especially since there are millions of sockeye salmon being caught, bought off the boats, then cooked and eaten the same day (and I'm not kidding when I say millions, we've had the biggest return of sockeye since 1913).

Thursday - Hotel Vancouver - This hotel is one of Vancouver's grand old dames, one of the original CN hotels. The lobby has just had a fabulous renovation and, as an aside, has some of the prettiest washrooms in the city. The lobby bar is one of my favourite places to stop and have a drink in the evening and they have live music to warm up the space. The service is impeccable, it's a great place for people watching, and they have - I know, I know, you might not think of this as a great dinner out - the best grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had. It's not on the menu but if you ask for it, they're happy to order it for you.

Friday - Legendary Noodles. This tiny restaurant is the complete opposite of both the other restaurants, but it's equally charming. It's also on Denman Street, a couple of blocks south of Bistro de Paris. It's one of those restaurants that transports you to another place and time - in this case, I think of any Chinese city in the 1930s. I'm always fascinated by the woman who runs it - older, incredibly elegant - I expect to see her in a movie. And the restaurant itself? You walk up a couple of stairs, through a tiny wooden door and into a very narrow room - aged wood, tiny tables, dark. You might just be in Hong Kong or Shanghai. It always makes me want to rush home and watch my favourite Chinese movies - like Jeremy Irons in The Chinese Box. The menu is not extensive, but if you like handthrown noodles, you'll love this place. I have a glass of wine or a beer, some kind of noodles, and it costs $10-15 and I've been on vacation - in both time and space. Hard to beat that.

Kate