Boathouse Restaurant Port Moody

Been wanting to try the Boathouse at English Bay but never wanted to go all the way downtown for that. Fortunately, they just opened another chain in Port Moody in November. For a business dinner, I had the opportunity to try it out.

The evening started with a cocktail drink. I ordered a Mango Tango which had
Finlandia Mango Vodka, Cointreau, white cranberry juice, lime and mango puree. I love mango flavoured drinks (alcohol or non-alcohol) and this one didn't disappoint me. That was followed by some appetizers to share. We ordered calamari, tuna spring rolls and a shrimp dish. Entree I ordered a Westcoast Hot Pot which is one of their Boathouse favourites. I also ordered dessert, Mocha Ice Cream Pie.

There's a hiccup with the services. Another person at the table ordered a Fresh Steamer Pot, which was fairly close to what I ordered. Hence when the food arrived, the servers accidentally switched our two orders. The other person had started eating my Westcoast Hot Pot by the time they found out about the mistake. Then they quickly put in another order to get me a new one and gave her back the Fresh Steamer Pot. So here I was, awkwardly twiddling my fingers for a good 15 minutes before I got to eat my entree. Overall, I think they handled the situation pretty well.

Food was good. Size of dishes was fairly big, too. The Westcoast Hot Pot was nice but the rice noodles were quite filling. The dessert was gigantic but it was so awesome I finished the whole thing!

Boathouse Restaurant Port Moody
Food: 8.5
Presentation: 7.5
Environment: 8
View: 8 (You can actually see the Burrard Inlet)
Service: 8 (The follow-up service made up for the mistakes they made)
Overall: 8

Ganache Pâtisserie

Heard good things about Ganache so went to give it a try. During eat-in, I ordered a piece of Chocolat-Canneberge. The cake was pretty good: white chocolate cranberry parfait and milk chocolate mousse on top of a bed of praline crunch. The presentation is simple, just serving on a white plate, but that makes the cake really stand out. Twenty-two kinds of dessert to choose from and they all look appealing!

Afterwards I bought an assortment of cakes and a box of truffles. The truffles were really good. It's actually crunchy on the outside but the inside is really rich.

I'll definitely go back for some more sweet treats!

The assortment of cakes (clockwise, starting from top left hand corner): Tiramisu-Chocolat, Coco-Mango, Chocolat³, Matcha-Exotique.

Chocolat³ - chocolate cheesecake, chocolate biscotti crust, chocolate cake, dark chocolate caramel mousse: As suggested by the name, it is very chocolaty. It's sweet but it's great for any chocolate craver.

Tiramisu-Chocolat - tiramisu cream, 70% dark chocolate mousse: It is different from regular ones, the texture is a bit firmer and foamier but it tastes pretty good.

Coco-Mango - coconut mango cheesecake, coconut biscotti: I'm not a big fan of coconut but this one is acceptable. I taste more of the mango than coconut. The cheesecake part of it is pretty good.

Matcha-Exotique - green tea mousse, mango-passionfruit gelée, lychees, black sesame biscuit joconde: I actually liked this one a lot. It is very light and the taste of green tea is very subtle. I like the touch of adding some fruit pieces in the cake.

Ganache Pâtisserie
Food: 8.5
Presentation: 9.5
Environment: 8 (Less romantic than I imagined)
View: 7.5
Service: 8
Overall: 8.3

COAST Restaurant

Went to COAST in Yaletown as part of the Taste of Yaletown event. Parking around yaletown is already an issue, with this special event taking place, it's impossible to find a spot 3 blocks around the area. And it's pouring the day I was there. I ended up doing a valet parking which cost me $7 when I could've paid only $2 for one hour of street parking.

The food was not bad. The crab cake was ok, a bit too flaky for me, and it's filling. I ordered the Surf n Turf. At first I wasn't too impressed because they gave me a rare when I ordered a medium rare. But the beef tenderloin turned out to be really good. Perhaps I should consider ordering rare in the future.

Tried a bite of the risotto. I personally don't like too much cheese in my food and the risotto had a bit too much. The cheese made the risotto really rich and filling. The dessert was a bit disappointing. I was hoping the fondue to be a bit more exciting, but the German chocolate cake was good.

Bread under the candle light.

Appetizer: Dungeness Crab & Halibut Cake

Entree Choice #1: Seared Baja Scallops on Johna crab and pea risotto - A bit cheesy and too rich.

Entree Choice #2: Surf n Turf - the beef tenderloin was really good.

Dessert: Dessert duo - Warm milk chocolate fondue & German chocolate cake

COAST Restaurant
Food: 8.5
Presentation: 8.5
Environment: 7.5 (Score would've been higher if the parking wasn't that terrible)
View: 7
Service: 8
Overall: 7.9

Taste of Yaletown

Similar to Dine Out Vancouver, a number of Yaletown restaurants are doing something called "Taste of Yaletown" and it runs from Oct. 12 to Oct. 28.

http://www.yaletowninfo.com/events/toy.aspx

I think it's great to have initiatives like this to raise awareness for restaurants in the communities. But there were just too many of them this year, the novelty effect seems to be wearing off. To name a few, there's Dine Out Vancouver, Dine Italia, Eat BC, and individual restaurants also host their own. Wouldn't it be more effective if all restaurants are grouped together to have one gigantic Dine Out BC event? Just hold it for a longer period of time to allow people to try multiple restaurants...

Dessert 100%

Went to a dessert place called "Dessert 100%". It's right next to Kingspark in Richmond. Here's a funky dessert called "Coral Weed, Tadpoles and Fresh Fruits with Coconut Juice Noodles".



A close-up of the tadpole-shaped stuff



The best part I think was actually the coconut juice noodles underneath. The coral weeds/tadpoles were so-so. They're kinda crunchy, not chewy like bubbles or tapioca.