Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe

Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe
850 Thurlow Street
Vancouver, BC

In the last couple of weeks, it seems I have been forcing myself into restaurants that have had an “opening soon” sign hanging outside. OK, I am exaggerating. In one of the failed attempts to go to Gyuu Don Ya, I mentioned to PO there was another nearby restaurant I wanted to visit; however, it had also a serie of issues before opening. That restaurant is today’s post Corner Suite Bistro Deluxe.

As mentioned, there were a lot of pains before the opening of the restaurant, from remodeling issues, shifting opening days and, just before they finally opened, celebrity chef Anthony Sedlak, who was supposed to command their kitchen, left. So, that brings the question: what is left? Reality is, I didn’t care that previous fact other than to see how good was the food. But… Can somebody explain me why the #!$%!#@$ colour of the chairs???

Chose to sit in the extremely bright area…

After we were given the menu, we were given these gougeres as amouse bouche. They also have gougeres in their menu as appetizers but I wonder how many pieces would there be in that dish. Anyway, I won’t say much about these other than they were OK.

The complimentary bread came with paprika olive butter. Now, I do understand the need to be creative in the restaurant business; as long as the end result is good, hey, that is what matters. However, it seems this was an innovation that didn’t really work, as the paprika didn’t really stood out nor the olives. In fact, not even butter characteristics showed up. As for the bread, oh, well, it was just bread.

PO’s appetizer – French onion soup, double-smoked bacon, gruyere – $5. When I originally showed this picture to some people, most of them thought this was a regular size cup of onion soup. This was an unfortunate case where I wished I had something to use as reference. If I had to guess, this would be ~150mL at most. Tastewise, PO mentioned it was sweet but no other exciting qualities.

My appetizer: duck rillette, crostini – $6. Now, I am not sure if it is supposed to come in a jar but, regardless, what was strange to me is that there were only five pieces of crostini. I thought, WTH?! I mean, given the rillette/crostini surface area, there was no way I would have finished the rillette with those five pieces!

Picture of the rillette over the crostini, not the bread.

In the end, I finished the rillette using the bread. As for the taste itself, it did have some mild meaty taste to it; however, thinking about it, PO’s comments might have been more accurate (though in a humourus way): It tasted like a tuna salad (even with onion and celery!). In fact, PO thought it *was* tuna salad until I told him it was duck!

Now, moving to the entrees…

This is what PO ordered – Station 7 burger, thick-cut bacon, aged cheddar, bbq sauce, fries – $15; had he not ordered it, I would have done so myself. Yes, feel free to call me nuts – why the hell would somebody order a burger in a place like this? Well, Cactus Club has a quite good burger and, according to Sherman, so does DB Moderne Bistro. And, since it is in the menu, it is fair game.

As for the burger itself, PO cut a piece of the patty with some bacon for me to try and… Well, once again, I will reference his comment: It tasted like a piece of meatloaf. I will have to agree with that statement as I couldn’t taste any charring of the meat (the piece I was given was from the side) and it was a bit compact. As for the rest, the bacon was not crispy and the bread was average at best.

As for myself, thanks to a post from Mijune a couple of months ago, I decided to try something “Ocean Wise” and that ended up being mussels & fries, white wine, lemon, butter – $18. The mussels were indeed plum; however, I couldn’t taste any lemony or buttery hints, though, the broth at the bottom ended up a bit refreshing. In a way, the mussels were there almost on their own.

Of course, the dish is mussels and fries and here is the fries component. I will have to say that these were an epic fail in almost any way possible. The fries was plain and, while not really visible from this shot, after eating the top pieces, the remaining ones were minuscule ones. Most of them were under 35mm (<1.5″). I can’t help but wonder how they hell I was supposed to eat them?!

Some complimentary pieces of meringue when the bill was presented.

After settling the bill and on our way back to the office, I couldn’t help wonder if I could pin-point if there was something that miserably failed. The problem wasn’t trying to find out one; rather, it was a test to identify which one was the biggest of all epic fails (and this includes the hype surrounding it). I do admire that a chef did stand up when the original head chef departed; however, the resulting dishes were average at best (but with a high price tag). Sure, you can say that the dishes ordered and consumed were pedestrian dishes but, at the same time, I can argue that it was in the menu. Since, for the same price (or even lower), I can find better meals, I see no reason to come back.

Tagged under: Downtown • Lunch • Seafood • Vancouver • West End