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C restaurant is a contemporary fish restaurant located downtown under the Granville Street Bridge overlooking the waterfront.
Have been to C numerous times but feel that they are resting on their reputation these days.
Service: The last few times dining there the service has been lacking in one way or another. One time it was very slow as there was a big function going on. We didn't get our bread until we asked for it (and still waited for a long time) and water was not refilled. At times certain servers can be rather pretentious.
Food: Thankfully this is always well executed.
Value: Compared to some other fine dining establishments that are now open in town, C is not great value for the money. Perhaps this is where it's Groupon promotions can give the diners a more acceptable reason to dine there.
Ambiance: Is good on the patio on a sunny afternoon. Inside is ok although the place does need some updating. The paint on the bottom of all the chair legs are peeled and look very unkept for a high-end restaurant.
As mentioned previously, with the plethora of fine dining around town these days, I'll need some more reasons to return.
This review is based on 9 course tasting menu using Groupon deal.
I bought groupons for my friend and myself at $49/coupon (50% discount) for 9 course tasting menu.
Upon arrival, I thought the restaurant had nice ambiance with good lighting, view and open-kitchen. Sadly, we are seated on the second floor with absolutel no view, no decoration, and poor lighting. I was not complaining at this point; at least the area was clean and each table was nicely dressed with a white table cloth.
We ordered cocktails first, and moved on to the tasting menu with a few add-on such as lobster claw, foie gras and etc, because we wanted to try what this restaurant had to offer.
About food. All savory courses (first six) were more than decent (right seasoning, good portion, presentation, and freshness). However, when we got to the last three dessert courses, I could not be more disappointed. Seriously, cucumber sorbet with store-bought picked ginger??? rock-hard thumb-sized chocolate brownies??? macaroon that is no bigger than a quarter in diameter?? Presentation was awful, taste was terrible. Absolutely, pathetic!!!!
Now, service. There are 11 tables (twos and fours) on the second floor. Apprently, they seated all groupon people in the area. What is worse is that there was only ONE server for all 11 tables with one or two bussers helping him occasionally, That is ridiculous. At least the server was a hard-worker, taking orders, pouring water, clearing plates, wine service.. etc..... Guess what happens when you have only one server serving 9-course tasting menu to 11 tables. Extremly slow service. At the end of the dessert courses, we just wanted to get out of the place. It was such an arduous experience.
Normally, I do not complain too much when I use groupon/coupon. But I spent $100+ on add-ons and drinks. After tax and tips, including groupon price, it was $250 for two people. Considering total moeny I spent and food and service I got, it was not totally worth it.
In addition, I cannot see myself spending $95 for the tasting menu even if service were good.
When an upscaled restaurant like C offer groupon deals, there must be something wrong with the restaurant. I learned my lesson.
Two of us had the Groupon 4 course tasting menu which (for $20 as a Groupon 1/2 price deal) was good value.
Service was attentive and smart without being snobbish.
And the food was sublime, though goodness knows how many thousands of these identical Groupon meals the kitchen must have churned out of late. Enough boredom in that routine to tax the enthusiasm of even the most committed of chefs! But there was no hint of fatigue in any of the dishes we sampled.
What was noticeably lacking, and in many cases really SAD for such a renowned restaurant in such a stellar setting, was the decrepit condition of the premises. From the rusting exterior awnings supports and chipped terracotta tile steps to the white tile dining room floor that was in need of a good mechanical cleaning and polishing, the whole place reeked of deferred maintenance and neglected attention to details.
The wooden bar top is stained and needs to be sanded down and refinished. Martini glasses behind the bar rested on a very dirty and stained looking towel. The bizarre cladding on the supporting dining room pillars ( looks like a school project made of cardboard scissor cutouts) had been damaged or caved in at the base and no attempt made to repair it. The space between the exterior window and the kitchen prep area was a hideous mess of old food and grease, all clearly and nauseatingly visible to departing diners.
I have seen this happen to too many restaurants. A steady increase in shabbiness resulting from complacency. Reputations need not only to be built but maintained, and the physical space is as important to the dining experience as what the kitchen is turning out.
C needs a facelift. Get a good interior designer in there (and a good cleaning company too) and spruce the place up a bit.
The experience is on par with what you'd expect from fine dining; dedicated service, long wait times between dishes and a high cost (of course), but the food doesn't exactly match up.
I tried C Restaurant for lunch and gave the 4-course tasting menu a whirl, and started with some drinks. A word of advice... don't start with drinks. Some of the worst I've had. They'll also set you up with some bread, which is what it is. Hopefully you and your party or significant other will have plenty to discuss, because the entire meal will take upwards of 1.5 hours.
Despite that, the food is decent. Nothing special, but presented with enough flair and pompt to make it worth a one-off visit. I subbed in the bisque for the starter which was fairly good, and the fish is cooked extraordinarily well. The prawns are very nice but the meals never approach anything that justifies their high cost.
This is the first time I did a tasting menu (6 courses) so was in for a surprise when after 3 hours our dinner was not over. Also found it strange that our first course came out before our wine. Seems like our server was not very interested in serving us. Groupon people beware. Of the 6 dishes, he actually only served 2. He did pour all the wine though. Since it is a tasting menu, portions are small. I get that. And the food was increasingly good. But it takes > half an hour for each course to come out. We got a bit tired at the 3-hour mark and dessert has yet to be served. Dessert finally came out when we commented on the time. When we got the bill, they overcharged us on the tax. Thanks to Nicole's post earlier, we got it adjusted. Everything was on the good until I went to get my jacket. My bf had to go out earlier and the manager could not find his jacket so he asked him to go into the coat room and fetch it. When our server went to get mine, he brought out the wrong one as well so my bf told me to just go get it. Another server blocked me and was pretty snippy with me. So good food if you have 4 hours to spare.
I've been hearing a lot about this restaurant and how good the seafood is.
I went last night and had the "AWARD WINNING DISH for the olympics" It was rabbit and consumme, as well as a pickled beet salad.
My boyfriend had a beef tar tar and the sablefish.
The bread to start was terrible, they all had weird herb tastes and it was not warm.
We then had our appetizers and yes because it's fine dining the portions are the size of my palms. This was the first time my bf had trouble finishing his food, he said he has never tasted anything so bad. My salad was okay but not the best.
I was then served my rabbit, and it was nothing outstanding nor award winning. The sable fish was one of the best dishes (if I had to choose), yet I've had way better at Coast Seafood Restaurant.
The desserts were not appealing so we did not have any.
Service is excellent but the food is just nothing of my expectations. I wouldn't recommend anyone. Usually, good food comes with a price.. and this is just TOTALLY not worth it.
The nice thing about Dine Out Vancouver is that it encourages you to try restaurants you would not normally go to. Although dinner can be a little rushed, its about experiencing new restaurants and discovering your own city. I hope they do it again next year.
I thorougly enjoyed my dinner at C. I had the duck confit to try something different at my table. The potato soup with truffle oil and lobster was superb. The service was prompt and what you would expect for a fine dining establishment. Overall, I had an enjoyable dining experience.
Me and a couple of companions decided to give C Restaurant's dine out menu a try since they were offering up a four course meal rather than the normal 3 courses for dine out. We arrived about 10 minutes early, but were fortunate enough to be seated quite quickly.
We perused the menu and noticed that there were a couple of additional items that we could substitute for some of the dishes (for about $9 more).
The first course was an oxtail consomme that was poured over a mixture of dungeness crab meat, lemon chorizo and gremolata. The consomme was quite earthy and we felt that it would be perfect in a mug by a fire place at night.
The second course was the Seared Trout. Only one of us had that as me and another person opted for the Lobster risotto. The person who had the trout thought that it had a slight fishy taste to it, but liked the crushed potatoes, almond rapini and the caramelized lemon sauce. As for the risotto, it was excellent. The creaminess of the risotto made me want to lick the plate and the lobster paired off quite nicely with it.
The third course was the seared scallops with Confit Pork Belly. Individually they tasted good, but for some strange (in a good way) reason, when eaten together it was absolutely delectable. As well the pairing of the creamed cabbage and the roasted crab apple played off of each other as well.
Dessert was a Dark Chocolate Brownie with a Hot White Chocolate. The brownie was quite rich, but a little sweet and the Hot White Chocolate was also sweet, but was interesting in that they had homemade marshmallows topping it.
Finally, we were given some cookies to go. They were okay, but I figure they would have been better if we ate them fresh baked.
Overall, we were quite full by dessert and the overall meal was quite good. We've been to C in the past for previous DOV's, but this time was simply the best.
First time to C restaurant and was pleasantly surprised. I found the ambience unique and different from other restaurants in the area. Large windows look onto the seawall, false creek and granville island. The furniture and artwork is unique. We dined from the 6-course tasting menu that featured a wide variety of what they offer. The food was outstanding. I'm a big fan of scallops and they were cooked to perfection so cudos to the chefs. Justin, our waiter did an excellent job at explaining each dish to it's finest details. His wine recommendations were excellent.
Thanks for a great evening!
The appetizers are no longer a "wow" like years before--it's just "not bad" now. The main courses have improved, while the desserts have gone downhill.
The tasting menu ($98 per) is a must try! And most definitely with the wine pairings (+$50). IF you are able to hold your liquor, the wine pairings (8 or so glasses) that go along with the 9 courses is a definite must! Each of the brilliant choices in wine pairs so perfectly with the food and each glass in itself has a very distinct flavour that's different from the last. That aside, you will definitely need some wine to wash down that extra juicy seared oversized chunk of abusively overstuffed poor goose's liver so well prepared & so delicately scrumptuous, you don't even notice you're swallowing all that overworked liver of fat that is just literally waiting to melt in your mouth & slide down your throat like silk (a.k.a. perfectly seared Quebec foie gras). Anyway, conscience bedamned, it really is delicious, but would possibly be a little too rich to actually consume all of without the help of something to break down the fatty acids.
Service was perfect except for the bread guy. Also, the bread/biscuit selection itself, though a nice gesture, most of it was either too cold, too hard, too dry, or just too dull--I'd just pass on those. Then there's the bread bearer. He looks to be in his 40's maybe? Or maybe older or maybe he just looks old, but in reality is a young parisian at heart, but he sure likes to look down his nose at everyone in the room while he holds out his basket of bread for you to choose from--I think even if you tickled him on the spot, he'd just slap you silly & still find no joy in life. He doesn't seem to want to be there while he still waltzes around the room bearing the basket of breads--well, it's another day of work, I suppose, but I wouldn't have expected that from such a fine establishment.
I was looking forward to visiting the restaurant for New Year's dinner. I love visiting different restaurants and I've seen their chef on the television programs and thought it would be a spectacular experience. Needless to say, it wasn't.
The food was all right. It wasn't extraordinary. Maybe my expectations were too high? The service was okay.
I really wish I had a better dining experience but it was just mediocre.
Food: Was there for DOV, had the smoked trout (kind of fishy and too salty), salmon (perfectly cooked), and chocolate dessert (weird w/ some sort of fruity and gingery taste, did not go well with the pear that was put on top).
Service: top notch, server explained each dish as it was served, no glasses were empty.
Value: portions and taste didn't really justify the cost, even if it was DOV pricing.
Ambiance: nice, clean, interesting layout/use of space
Overall it was a very good meal and dining experience but I wouldn't go out of my way to come back.
...because now I can say I have been thoroughly disappointed. I had heard so many wonderful things about them, I thought we would have a great time. Unfortunately, not the case.
Went during DOV. Started off poorly. Despite having a reservation, still had to wait 20 min for a table. Friendly hostess tho. Manager (?) gave us an amuse bouche- duck w/ cranberry sauce- which was nice, but I'd rather be seated promptly. Service from our waiter was definitely not on par from the moment we sat down. Our server first served a table that was seated AFTER we were. We were NOT impressed, having sat unattended for 10 min. Our server seemed to not care about us at all, this was evident throughout the night. No quality checks. Drinks arrived AFTER appies were served. In fact, food runners/buspersons were more deserving of the tip than the waiter was! The blond busgirl was really nice tho and brought us some bread even before our server came to take our order!
Food was meh. Nothing to brag about. Salmon tartare appy, though tasty, was small, even for my gf. My steak entree was good, but gf wasn't happy w/ her tuna- too soft, cassoulet was bland, & the bacon froth didn't enhance the tuna's flavour. Creme brulee dessert was ok, but not the best we've had.
The ambience was alright.... restaurant was too cold for our liking.
Overall, for the quality of service and food, this dinner wasn't worth $35... it should be in the $25 category. However, if you consider their regular dinner menu, then it's alright. But like a previous reviewer said, all the add-ons for extra $$ makes you feel cheated of what the dishes are supposed to actually taste like. Would not recommend this place. Not good value for your dollar.
I was disappointed with this meal.
Here is a breakdown of the experience
1) Service- When we arrived we had to wait a for around 15-20 mins for our table (totally fine) so we hung out at a bar where were were served a complementary amuse bouche of duck with cranberry puree (wonderful). we were seated, and served a selection of breads (ok but sort of dressed up for what it was). Their veritable ARMY of staff attended to us flawlessly- full glasses of water, plenty of bread, great timing. Table side presentations and a nice but concise explanation of the dishes.
2) FOOD-. There were four of us. I got the cauliflower soup with a poached egg, garlic croutons and truffle pearls. The soup was presented tableside so to show us the individual components. The soup, to me, was very nice but a little bland. This is not the type of place with a salt and pepper shaker and that was all I wanted. it was a nice texture with the perfectly cooked egg and the pearls and croutons were a good touch, but it was a bit bland. The tartare was nice, highly seasoned, and small.
I got the trout and everyone else got the ribeye and I wish so much I could have tried to tuna also.
the trout dish (with israeli cous cous) was not good really. the flavours were bland and it needed something else. I really almost struggled through it because it was sort of mushy in a lot of ways.
The ribeye was thoroughly enjoyed by all who got it. I wasn't in love with it but they liked it so thats what matters. Nicely cooked (if you love really really rare meat, which I do. It was pretty much raw). I hated the ginger stuff (thats what they said it was though it looked like olives and tasted like nothing)
desert- wonderful (though as someone else here said, the spork is really awkward)
The 'wow' factor here is the location and decor (or the lack thereof). By that, I mean the minimalist interior decor, big sheets of glass, and ample natural light combine to give you that outdoor waterfront feel even if you are sitting indoors. I can't think of another waterfront restaurant off hand that can match this.
The wine selection is excellent. However, the food is sometimes a bit variable in quality. I would say it varies from merely good to excellent, but I have not had a bad experience here. I will return.
I had high expectations of C but was not wowed by the food for the price. Though it was good, I won't be rushing back. The ambiance and service are great - I loved the bread variety. My guests thoroughly enjoyed their meals and I did too so it would be safe to order just about anything on the menu. I would recommend trying it at least once but not rave about it. It is an esthetically-pleasing place serving food that does not quite taste as nice as it looks.
1st Course - Trio Smoked Salmon Taster (Smoked Sockeye, Candied Salmon, Smoked Coho)
- nothing special in particular; all three salmon tastings had the same exact garnish and creme fraiche treatment. Expected a little more creativity in this starter
2nd Course (Main Course)- Pan Roasted Trout with Dungeness Crab Meat, red beets, pears and spinach with a nutmeg cream sauce
- the quality of ingredients used were good; however, overall taste was a bit on the bland side - I can see how the chef is trying to extract the full potential of each ingredient's natural flavors, but otherwise, fairly bland flavor combinations over what I would consider an over-salted piece of trout. couldn't taste the nutmeg in the cream sauce, making it insignficant to the dish....wouldve liked to taste more pears in the dish for flavor contrasts. most disappointing of the three dishes.
3rd Course (dessert) - Molten Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache
-perfect for the chocolate lover; creamy and gooey semi-sweet chocolate in a sourdough based chocolate cake.
The food was slightly disappointing as I had pretty high expectations for Rob Clark's infamous seafood works. Perhaps the Dine Out menu didn't do it any justice. Beautiful restaurant with an understated elegance. Efficient and friendly wait staff.
C is a nice seafood restaurant in downtown. I tried it as a part of the dineout Vancouver. Service was good and friendly. Dinner was tasty, but not crazy good, like it should be for the price. The room was very cozy, I may try it in the summer and hit the patio.
I purchased 3 Groupons. I used two in October and the third one last night. When our bill came, we were charged HST on the full value of the meal, not the amount after the Groupon discount. When questioned, the server didn't know anything about it so the manager was sent over. She didn't explain anything but simply said she would adjust the tax amount then told us that their accountant told them to charge HST on the full amount, which was an additional $20. She then said that she didn't want to pay any extra tax to the governent so she would deduct it off our bill. It seems they automatically add HST on the full value of the meal. If you call their bluff, it's deducted BUT if you don't notice it they get additional $ to make up for the lost income from all the Groupons they've sold. I'm sure we were overcharge when I used the other two Groupons but I can't do anything about it now.
C Restaurant: 1/10 wait. -5/10. Thank you for wasting my time.
If I can rate this lower, I would. I'm writing this review based on only what was experienced.
Severe issue with their idea of "Service" for fine dinig. DOV does not mean you are allowed to alienate or treat customers differently.
When you visit them make sure to ask for the Table for 2 in Wine Cellar.
Special includes:
- Proximity to the bathroom (you will get to meet every patron in restaurant because they will be looking into your direction when they are on the "GO")
- No privacy because of the security camera (they don't want you to steal their wine)
- You are the Fire hazard (because you will be blocking everyone from entering/exiting the wine cellar).
Someone definitely dropped the ball in terms of placing the table where it was. Truly it shouldn't even have been there if they consider themselves a fine dining restaurant.
Walked out of restaurant and politely addressed the hostess on the way out - offered a different table but declined. You only get to make an impression once and you failed miserably. Thank you C for wasting my time and calling yourself a fine dining restaurant.
Will not repeat or ever visit even if comp'ed meal or paid for by others.
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