I like food, and my friend Michelle likes good causes. So we combined forces and went for Dining out for Life on March 29, 2007. This worthy cause happens one day a year when participating restaurants donate 25% of their food revenue to charities supporting local people living with AIDS.
We went to La Regalade, which is a very popular French Bistro in West Vancouver. Upon arrival, we were met with waiters and waitresses with French accents and a daily specials board with many tempting items. Michelle and I took a while to decide, and finally settled on sharing a couple of items: La Frisee Salade with hard boiled eggs and Bacon, Home made Pate, and Beef Bourguignon.
The Frisee Salade was delicious and totally brought me back to the days when I travelled to France and enjoyed lunch on the sunny patios of sidewalk Bistros. However, I prefer a poached egg in the salad instead because the runny yoke brings out the flavor of the salad dressing.
I was not crazy about the pate, even though Michelle tried to convince me that the dry texture is a deliberate part of the "rustic" French peasant cuisine that the restaurant is known for. However, I think there is a difference between yummy rustic and yucky rustic. Besides, there were dark grey spots in the pate that did not look particularly appetizing.
The Beef Bourguignon is DELICIOUS. I have to admit that it may even taste better than the one I make from Julia Child's cookbook. It is served with a dish of bubbling scalloped potatoes. And when you mix in some of the sauce from the Beef Bourguignon into the potatoes, you get an explosion of heavenly flavor that comes from ingesting pure fat.
*I would have added a picture of the Beef Bourguignon, but by the time it came, I already had a glass of wine ..or two, and forgot to document it.
For Dessert, I took the suggestion from one of my students who frequents the restaurant with her French parents and ordered the Floating Island. This consists of a light fluffy merigue on top of Creme Anglaise and topped with hardened caramel. It was the perfect finish to the hearty meal we just had.
Taste: 3.5 out of 5
Creativity: 3.5 out of 5
Appearance: 4 out of 5. Main dishes were mostly presented in cute little pots and the pate was served tableside from the terraine dish.
The Verdict:
Although there were some hits and misses with this restaurant, I would definitely go back again. That is a good sign because I am notoriously fickle with restaurants and would only go back to the ones I think has the potential to impress me with other dishes they have. I would go back to try the Kidney Special, which smelled wonderful from a neighboring table, or the prime rib with marrow that my student recommends I ask to have served with their heavenly mash potatoes.
La Regalade: #103-2232 Marine Drive, 604-921-2228
2 comments:
janet - harden up. pate is supposed to be like that. i think the French know what they are doing! my little lesson learned from the weekend: never look up while cutting down
also good to see you eating on the North Shore somewhere other than a place with althentic Thai cuisine
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