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#10 dineout vancouver 2010 #1

Posted by swisscheese on May 4, 2010 in dineout vancouver, fine dining, french cuisine, vancouver |



and so due to the winter olympics, dine out vancouver was postponed from january/february to april/may. this year, dine out vancouver officially starts from the 26th of april to the 6th of may.

well, so what is dine out vancouver all about ?
dine out vancouver is an annual event that allows foodies like myself enjoy a 3-course meal in high end restaurants such as ” bridges ” at affordable fixed prices – either CAN$18, $28 & $38.

with that said, i shall give a review on my first dine out at ..

MISTRAL FRENCH BISTRO
2585 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6K 2E9
(604) 733-0046
price: CAN$28
for an appetizer, an entree and a dessert of your choice.


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kenny & i made a reservation for 12 to 16 people & i could not believe that just because 5 of us were late for 15 minutes, the damn owner took away our remaining reserved tables & all 13 of us have to squeeze at a tiny corner. my first impression is already pretty bad. oh & i was told that when the earlier 8 people came on time, the owner wanted them to make an order instantly. how atrocious is that !??

regadring the bad service, there is more to come to come. but for now, let’s talk abt the food.

1) APPETIZERS
A. Warm Goat Cheese salad on crouton,
mixed organic greens and prosciutto

the greens was ordinary but the goat cheese salad, as a whole, was pretty unique. maybe because i have not tried goat cheese before. still, pretty good i would say ! the goat cheese has an overpowering, strong taste but a bitter aftertaste though. the prosciutto goes along well with the goat cheese and vegetables. however, i do not eat salads very often so i am not one who can judge very well.

therefore, i’ll only rate it 3/5★

B. Marinated and slightly seared salmon,
beet salad with green onions

this is gigi & aldh‘s appertizer. i only got to taste part of the salmon and i would say it was really fresh and definitely well done. pretty juicy too. i have no right to rate this since i didn’t get to taste the entire dish but according to the taste of the salmon and the looks of it,

i’ll rate it 3.5/5★

2) ENTREE
A. Coq au vin – red wine Chicken stew

with fresh Fettuccini pasta

this entree is the WORST of the lot ! strong taste of wine and it totally looks like chinese noodles in soup with carrots, chicken and potato. i am so DISAPPOINTED that i ordered this because 3/13 of us ordered this and we could not finish it because of the horrid taste. the pasta taste like noodles and the sauce taste like soup so that explains why this entree is the LEAST worth it of the lot. makes me hate dineout more …

therefore, i’m rating it 1.5/5★ (the only reason why i’m giving it a little bit of credit is due to the large serving size)

B. Grilled AAA Alberta New York steak,
creamy green peppercorn sauce, house fries

this is gigi‘s dish. i was APPALLED by how the server served gigi a really WELL-DONE steak when she ordered the most rare steak. kenny had the same situation ! i can’t believe their service is way too bad, eww. please do not give excuses that they are busy because every other dine out restaurants are way too busy too. other than the fact that the server didn’t followed instructions for our orders, the steak is relatively tender and succulent.

thus, i’ll rate it 3/5

DESSERTS
A. Fresh strawberries and pineapple in sirop,
lemon sorbet

unfortunately, i have to say that whatever i ordered (whether it is the appertizer/entree/desserts) is the WORST of the three choices that we can choose from. the above is declared as a dessert when it is nothing more than many tiny slices of fruits & a scoop of sorbet. how ordinary & what a waste of money seriously ! even fogg & sudd ($18 for 3 course meals can do MUCH better !)

i’ll only rate it 1.5/5

B. Warm Belgian Waffle,
vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate sauce

this is gigi‘s dessert so i did not get to taste it because of it’s small portion. however according to her, she found the dessert dulcet. she didn’t like the small serving size and chocolate sauce on it though. i have no right to rate it but i simply love how it looks. totally appealing !

C. Mistral Mousse au Chocolat

this was aldh‘s dessert. he found the dessert a little ordinary. the chocolate was a little bitter and he needed the whip cream to neutralize the taste but they were not generous on the amount of whip cream put on this dessert. according to him, there are way better desserts in the other restaurants serving a 3 course meal for $28.

to sum this up, here are my ratings of mistral french bistro:

ambiance: 5/10
service: 2/10
food (taste & appearance): 4/10 (so as to be fair, i only calculated what i ordered)
value: 3/10

total: 3.5/10★

i STRONGLY DO NOT recommend this restaurant for fine dining & will NOT be a returning customer. just to let restaurant owners know, FIRST IMPRESSION COUNTS.

maybe i shouldn’t be harsh & just add source of errors since my review contradicts majority of the reviews of this restaurant in other sites:
- we were in such a huge group (shouldn’t we have more attention then ?!)
- 5/13 of us came late (can’t deny that this might be our fault)
- it was the dineout season (so? >.<)

Mistral French Bistro on Urbanspoon

will be back to attempt on my 2nd dine out soon, wish me luck !

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swisscheese*

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9 Comments

  • Dannie says:

    D*mn! That looks great! Soooo pity that I couldn’t join you guys!!

  • zIp-dIsk says:

    Never judge the look of the new york steak to be nice! It looks so juicy but yummy.. yet…………. oh no :P

  • audrey says:

    awww! i cant wait for ur secondd dine out verdict!! the food all look so yummmmyyy!!!

  • ok there says:

    almost half of your party was 15 minutes late during the busiest stretch of the year fo r a restaurant and you’re complaining about losing your seats? get a clue! dine-out was a great idea until all the jewbags of vancouver thought they could get a taste of the high life and started showing up to only buy their fixed courses with no alcohol and leaving the waiter/ress with a pitiful tip

    now version 2 comes along and someone get’s a laptop for xmas paired with an iphone and now they’re a foodie/blogger/connoisseur. don’t worry, i don’t blame you for writing your blog, i blame myself for wasting my time thinking you had a respectable opinion worth reading about

  • Jeffy says:

    From reading this entry, it is brutally apparent that you know nothing about food or dining out. Some examples:

    1) A large chunk of your party was late for a reservation during the busiest time of year and you’re angry that they took some of the tables away? Anyone who knows anything knows that most restaurants cancel your reservation outright if you are 15 minutes late. Furthermore, many small but excellent restaurants have a policy that you will not even be seated until your entire party has arrived. These policies exist to prevent clueless customers from actually losing the restaurant business by trying to give it their business.

    2) You have never eaten goat cheese before? It’s not exactly rare, you know. You’re no foodie.

    3) You dislike the flavour of wine in your food. God forbid that a red wine sauce should taste like wine, hey? Again, you’re no foodie.

    4) Your steak didn’t come the way you ordered and twice, you blamed the server. I’ve got news for you. The service staff don’t cook your meal! Odds are, your server put your order in just as you asked for. But I’m sure you tipped her badly anyway. People like you do.

    5) I’m sorry your friend was disappointed by the small serving size of her DESSERT. Is she a house? Desserts are typically small and rich. Just a modest taste of something sweet to finish off. They’re not supposed to fill you up. Maybe your friend should stick to her Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘n’ Fruity or some Dairy Queen ice cream cake when she’s looking for a meal-sized dessert.

    6) Chocolate is bitter. It’s only sweet when sugar is added. Many chocolately desserts that don’t come in a plastic wrapper, including the one pictured above, are coated in a fine dusting of cocoa. Bitter is a good thing. The flavour spectrum isn’t restricted to sweet and salty.

    DOV can be a lot of fun but the one downside is the sheer number of know-nothings who crawl out from beneath their Whalley trailers and fancy themselves refined for a night. Or worse, suburbanite teenagers with daddy’s credit card playing grown-up.

    Put down the blog for awhile and work on developing a palate.

  • [...] were so willing to take photos of us. the restaurant’s policy for dine out isnot as strict as mistral bistro and did not mind that janet and i were late. i like how the background music is not too loud like [...]

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