Danube European Restaurant

Danube European Restaurant
102A-3701 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC

It is “fortunate” that, so far (and knock on wood), nobody has complained that I blog a bit too much about a particular cuisine. *cough*Sherman*cough*. While it is true that most of us have favourites, in my case, my mom’s home cooking, I try to go outside of my “familiar zone”. Korean, for example, is a cuisine that I have started to slowly explore (though I sometimes ask myself if it is a good idea to go to a Korean restaurant by yourself). I am sure there are others – a lot others… So, when I “met” (on-line, so far) Darina who blogs Gratinée – Musings on Food & Culture and became aware of her Eastern European heritage, I had to ask that question: What restaurant(s) and dishes would she recommend? After a couple of emails back and forth, I ended up going to Danube European Restaurant.

I have driven my couple of dozen times through the intersection of Hastings and Boundary, where Danube is located, and, I will have to admit, if it wasn’t because of Darina making mention of it, I won’t have known it is there. Actually, I have faint/vague memories of a Greek restaurant in that location but, otherwise, it was nowhere in my radar. While the area is partially a parking nightmare, fortunately, they have parkade in the back so there I went and walk to the restaurant.

When I walked in, it was almost 1:00 p.m. in a Sunday afternoon, which, under normal circumstances, would be considered a late lunch for me. I normally have no issues with an empty restaurant; however, in this case, it felt somewhat… Odd. Still, I was given the option to sit anywhere and chose one of the table next to the glasses overlooking outside. This ended up being not necessarily the best idea as the day turn cloudier by the minute (hence less and less natural light). But, back to the dining room: it was mostly open space and, what seems to be typical of European restaurants, a landscape type drawing on the wall. Could it be it was a remnant of the previous Greek restaurant?

I did check the menu on-line and, again, I have exchanged emails with Darina on the menu so, to a certain extent, there was no need for me to take a look at it again. The cook (who was in the dining room at that moment) told me of the specials for the day written on a board, almost at the other end of the restaurant. Nope, I already made my mind so I quickly made my order. And, soon after, some bread. I wasn’t too excited about it but, then again, most of the time, the complimentary bread ends up being a side note. Still, it would end up serving an additional purpose with the dishes I ordered, starting with…

Goulash, that almost combination of soup/stew in a single dish. I can’t think of a way to describe the dish delivered here that would certainly make justice to it. But, for sanity purposes, let’s just say a really hearty meat soup, with a good amount of tender pieces of meat (something that surprised me!). It wasn’t hot/spicy, in fact, I don’t think I tasted too much paprika. Instead, it was borderline tomato-ey. I used a piece of bread to soak some of the soup at the bottom – whenever somebody does that, it just tells you the soup was good. Yum!

When I first saw the menu, the first dish that sort of caught my attention was schnitzel. For some reason, I was under the impression of it being more on the German side (a German friend of mine loves this dish) or Italian (in Latin American we would call this “Milanesa” in reference to Milan, Italy), not necessarily East European. But, Darina suggested me something else: cabbage rolls. So that is what I ordered, the cabbage roll plate, which comes with two pieces of cabbage roll, served with pork sausage and pan fried potato.

The pan-fried potato was among the best potato this style I have had in a while. I have under the impression they were lightly boiled first and then pan-fried. That is because it had a crunchy exterior and soft, almost fluffy interior. Some seasoning would have helped but, otherwise, “as is” was good enough. The pork sausage was OK; somehow I wasn’t expecting too much this time.

Finally, the cabbage roll which was topped with more cabbage. If I compare it to Ukrainian Village‘s version, the cabbage used to wrap the filing was somewhat thicker. It did not detract from the overall dish but ought to be mentioned. The pork was lightly seasoned but the side mustard (that did not help the pork too much) was a good match. Yeah, I know, not necessarily the way it should be but, when it tastes good, who cares!

While I was having my lunch, three couples walk in so that makes me believe it was an odd moment when I found it empty. That aside, the food had a homely feeling, which I enjoyed greatly. Would I come back? Yes, I will; however, the final assessment will be after I visit another mentioned Eastern European restaurant: Balkan House. Until then…

Tagged under: Burnaby • European • Lunch