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Century is a new restaurant and lounge that opened up downtown in a heritage building which was formerly a bank. Century offers a menu of innovative latin inspired cuisine in a lively and cozy atmosphere.
The value for your money at this restaurant is incredible. For $100.00 before tax and tip we had 1 dessert, 1 appetizer, 2 entrees and a bottle of wine. The food was exceptional for the money and the portions were a decent size. We shared the mojito prawns as an appetizer. It was nicely presented - 6 good size prawns flamed with white rum and served with a nice lime and basil sauce accompanied by hot crusty bread and 3 kinds of whipped butter. Our server continuously topped up the bread for us. When our entrees arrived Matt (our server) commented that the bread was getting cold as it had been sitting for awhile so he went to the kitchen and brought out a fresh batch. For the entrees my husband and I both had 10 oz rib steak with chipolte sauce. It was absolutely delicious. The sauce was nice and spicy and complimented the steak perfectly. The steak was served with garlic mashed potatoes and nice crispy green beans. We shared the molten lava cake for dessert. This was amazing. It is one of our favorite desserts and for $8.00 it is easily the best one that I've had for the price. Just a perfect ending to the meal.
The service was absolutely amazing. The restaurant not very busy but I've been in restaurants that have not been busy and the server takes that as an opportunity to socialize or make personal calls. Not our server he was absolutely on top of everything. He was attentive and very sociable but not in an obtrusive way. We tipped accordingly.
The ambiance is also very nice. We had a great big circular booth for the two of us so we able to really talk even when people were sitting in the booth next to us. There was music playing but it was not too loud.
It was a really great evening. I would highly recommend Century Restaurant.
Checked out Century for lunch from friends' recommendations. At first I was a little worried about the neighborhood, but the inside is pretty neat - I'm told it was converted from an old bank and even has a room that used to be a vault!
The food was pretty good; not fantastic but better than your average lunch fare and at fairly reasonable prices for downtown. No complaints on the salad, or sheppard's pie, although I did feel really thirsty after so wondered if there was some msg in there. All in all, very reasonable - lunch for two for under 30 bucks including drinks.
Service was friendly and attentive, glasses filled ample times.
Will return.
After frantically trying to find a restaurant that would accomodate 25 people w/o charging a $2000 min. with not much luck, I was grateful to finally end up at Century House. Since being turned down from other restaurants that just wouldn't take our reservation even though I "confirmed" that the 25 would definitely show up, I was a little hesitant calling CH. The fellow on the phone was very nice and simply replied "Of course we can take your reservation". I was caught off guard at how simple that was - and no questions asked! However, they had a wedding private function in their dining room, but reassured us that the Heist Lounge upstairs would be just as nice, especially for a party our size. We had the entire raised level to ourselves.
The food was good, but I rated it a 3 because it was pretty expensive for the portion size. Our Ahi tuna 3-ways was $16 and consisted of 3 1"cubed sesame-seared pieces, a thin 2" disk of tuna tartare, and 3 small pieces of tuna wonton. Oh, and Breton crackers. But in the end, the food was tasty.
Service was great, especially our first server, Mike. He is a sweetheart! My only pet-peeve and disappointment was that they never once mentioned the auto 17% included gratuity - so we double tipped!
Ambiance - the main dining room is gorgeous! Unfortunately, I only saw it from afar because of the private function. The Heist Lounge is still beautiful and chic, but next time, I would definitely love to sit in the main room.
Went by the other day and it looks like they've closed up.
The obligatory 'closed for renovations open soon' sign was up. Another sad casualty but sadder knowing what kind of hype and buzz it had when it opened up. This was a pretty exceptional operation when the original owner (Sherwood) owned it.
Meal and service was fine, but as tourists, being charged twice for our meal and the subsequent explanation from the manager when we discovered the unauthorised transaction on our credit card statement, tainted our dining experience. We couldn't help but being concerned that this may happen to others who perhaps aren't so vigilent with their credit cards.
The Century Restaurant is located in an old bank building and the decoration and furnishings are tasteful and peaceful. The ambience oozes old world solidity to keep you away from the hectic outside world of falling share prices. There is a small meeting room located in the old vault that looks perfect for quiet meetings, however our 2 group lunches there have never been organized to take advantage of the space.
The owner/manager hovers around during meals which is usually a sign that things should run smoothly. Our recent visit was the second one where an organized group went for lunch together. The reservation was efficiently handled and everyone was sat quickly and drink orders were taken. The lunch menu has a fair range of steak, fish and pasta at prices of about $13 to $25.
The pasta dishes were modest in size but very tasty. If you are hungry you may not find them sufficient. The steak sandwiches during our recent lunches were not good and the meat was very tough. Upon complaint, the meals were comped but it left a bad taste about a restaurant serving this type of food.
Service was reasonably quick and efficient without being overly intrusive. No problems there.
I was very much looking forward to dinner at Century with a couple of girlfriends. We made a reservation for 8pm on a Saturday night expecting it to be a busy spot. We arrived to a restaurant that was fairly empty, very surprising.
We pondered the excellent and imaginative drink menu that consists of drinks containing interesting ingredients like balsamic vinegar and basil. The drinks were amazing! Unfortunatly that was where the amazement stopped.
We ordered a mixed green salad and crab burritos to share. The salad was tasty as were the burritos although they were more like crepes than burritos. I ordered Paella for my main course and I was very excited to try it. It arrived and looked great, the presentation was really nice. Then I tried a mussel and almost lost it! It was raw or something and had the consistency of raw egg and tasted like low tide. It really turned me off the rest of my meal which was just okay. I told the server about my mussel mishap and the manager came over to assure me that the mussel was not raw. Okay, so what was wrong with it then? The comped my meal and we finished up our wine and departed for the rest of our evening.
I think it will be a while before I return to Century.
came for a party and the entire restaurant was booked for 50+. The reservation was made for 7 but the last ppl only arrived near 8:30pm. Normally this woulc not go well with the manager and servers but they were extremely patient, courteous and understanding.
We chose from a set menu and I had a tortilla soup which was interesting but still very delectable. For the main, a mushroom stuffed chicken which was alright, but my friend had the ribeye steak and that was unbelievably good! It was cooked perfectly and so mouth-watering. For those wondering, you also get free bread with this tasty jalapeno butter. Servers were ready to take away dirty plates, fill up water and replenish bread while the bartenders were on top of things with the drink orders.
Desserts were good but nothing that made it stick out from other places.
For such a large party, I was surprised to see no automatic gratuity on the separate bills. Tipped accordingly given the excellent service.
They also have a club upstairs called Heist which is pretty small but that's another story.
I travel often and have spent quite a bit of time in Spain including Madrid, Barcelona, Segovia, Toledo, Malaga, Sevelle and Granada. The food that I had at the Century rivals and in many way is better than much of the food I had in Spain. My girlfriend and I visited Vancouver this last February and it just so happens we were in town over Valentine’s day. We hadn't planned ahead and did not have reservations. We walked in and the staff bent over backwards in order to fit us in. The service was great, the staff was friendly and the owner was charming. The dining area had a great feel to it, almost like an old jazz club with sultry red lights, leather, eclectic artwork, vaulted ceilings with plush reds and browns everywhere. The food was excellent from appetizer to dessert, the croquettes where my favorite. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone! This restaurant deserves much higher than 3 stars, I would give them 4.5 stars at the very least!!!! Please if you’re in the mood for some Spanish/Latin American cuisine, do yourself a favor and check this place out!
I went to the Century House with pretty low expectations. I work downtown and had walked passed their sandwich board hundreds of times in the summer and was always intrigued by the "latin penguin".
I suggested the place as a place to get some drinks and dinner with some coworkers on a Saturday. The food was really good, except that I think my salmon could have been a bit saltier. The service was pretty good, except I think one of our servers might have been eyeing one of the women I work with. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by their cocktails, I ordered one with blueberry juice in it and ended up drinking a few too many they were so good..! We also ordered the "Chocolate Fondue", and i got chocolate all over my pants. Luckily our server was right on the spot to help me sop it up.
Afterwards we went upstairs, where we found a crowded dancefloor, although I don't remember much from the night (a good sign?). One thing I don remember was that the bartender was wearing a ridiculous cowboy shirt, but I think that just added to the "casual fine-lounge" atmostphere.
I would definitely go back, but maybe on a night when it's less busy so I can sit down and check out the rest of the room.
I thought that I was possibly coming down a lil too hard on this place until I read the other reviews and found that this is a recurring problem. A large group of us (22+) went there for a bday dinner on April 13 and were shocked that at 8:30 on a friday night this place was as dead as a cemetary. We were the only table in there for quite some time. And we had two waiters serving us. One would think that with two servers in an empty restaurant you would have great service....unfortunately this is not the case.
There were no complaints as to timing on delivery of our orders be it drinks or food but the condescending comments and lack of enthusiasm coming from the wait staff was ridiculous.
The food was decent. They didn't have any of the wine that we were trying to order and didn't seem to have any reason for it either. I wish I could remember the server smiling at least once but I can't. He was dry, rude and boring. Especially when you have a large table of people in a great mood, it doesn't take much to make them smile or reconfirm that they are going to have a great time in your establishment.
We couldn't get out of there fast enough.
What a great way to ensure that those 22 people will not want to return.
It is a shame since it is such a beautiful room.
what a waste what a waste.
I work right across the street from this place and had wanted to try it for some time. It was nice, but certain elements seemed to keep it from being outstanding. 1. Service. The owner was there on the floor, and was very attentive, warm and genial. He took good care of us, and seemed genuinely concerned that we enjoy our dinner. He even got cutely offended by an over-charred piece of grilled bread that managed to land on our table. However, in between his visits to our table we were pretty much ignored by the wait staff. Still, we were chatting, so it didn't really effect us..but still. 2. Room. It's gorgeous. Lovely, cozy and not overly "stuffy" in the way some Vancouver places can be. 3. FOOD. We started with some AMAZING Mojitos (the organic mint of which we were told had come straight from a local garden that morning), followed by a solid (if somewhat unexciting) Gazpacho, which was served on ice cold plates (nice). I then had the Spanish Paella, which was good, if again somewhat flat on the flavour side. It came with exactly 2 mussels and 2 clams, and the peas felt distinctly freezer-bag-ish. Dessert was good, again, if not a little boring. As the 'Tasting' plate was sold out, we split a Passion Fruit 'Bombe' and a Marci's chocolate platter. Both good but not exciting. The bill finally arrived with two shooters of molten chocolate-something--gratis! it was a nice touch--and was roughly $125 for two, tax & tip in. The place was very dead and empty for a Saturday night, so I'm not confident Century will be around for very long. I guess if I had to sum up Century in one word it would be 'uninspired'. I feel badly saying that as the owner really was lovely and definitely tried, but he needs some of that attentiveness and enthusiasm to rub off on the people working in his kitchen if he wants it to last. The food let us down, the restaurant definitely didn't.
We booked out the Heist Lounge above Century House for a private function recently after searching all over town for a bar/lounge that accommodated a stand-up cocktail party. Too many places are sit-down only.
Mike was very helpful in organising and setting up the night, and Jonnie worked hard all night keeping us up to date with what was going on. Thanks guys. The barstaff were ok, but i did hear back from some guests that they had a couple of issues throughout the night. There was no room hire charge (just a minimum spend), which was a great change from most of the places we looked at, and the DJ was happy to accommodate our many musical requests.
The appetizers were very tasty, coconut prawns, calamari, beef sliders, roast vegetable tapenade, although despite being promised "healthy" size serves, we found the $14 per head didnt go anywhere near far enough unfortuantely.
The room itself is newly renovated and looks great. It was the perfect size for our 85 guests and we received a lot of compliments for our choice. So it seems the reno money was well spent.
Overall, it was a great night, the staff worked hard and everyone had a fantastic time. So thanks to Century and Heist. I would definately recommend Heist for private parties for 75-100 ppl.
A very enjoyable restaurant, although the menu isn't thoroughly Latin American (the soup of the day was New England clam chowder, for example, and one of their specialties is shepherd's pie). Regardless, all 5 of us found the meal to be quite tasty, and the decor of the room is incredible. The service was extremely attentive, which I find refreshing these days even though most restaurants aren't extremely busy, but it was a little creepy that the waiter figured out all of our names without being told. There are many enticing dishes on the menu and I definitely want to go back to try some more.
Decided to pop in for a drink to show some friends what a great place this was........NOT. Michael the co-owner was not working and some tall guy made us feel so unwelcome it will take a while to persuade me to go back. We decided not to eat there and take our business around the corner to Guu. Its a shame, such a great place and such terrible staff...oh well, when it hurts the pocket it will change!!
First of all, I got really drunk there, so my review is tainted from the start. Also, we waited to be seated for about an hour because we did not have resos; our fault entirely. The staff did their outmost and were very gracious.
The room is spectacular, really pretty and hip. However, as happens often, more money is spent on the decor instead of the food. The wine list is extensive, however the drink menu is poor, especially since most of the drinks are muddled and they were out of blueberries and strawberries that night and half of the drinks on the menu contain one of those. If you go, opt for wine, which is at reasonable $$.
I have not had a caesar salad in a long time, and I wanted to try theirs. While $8 is cheap for a place like that, it left A LOT to be desired, like flavour. Also, I guess $8 is not enough to get croutons these days. I had the seafood platter for main. Ditto. Flavour and quality was missing ($19).
I don't mind short menus (as it is here), but I mind places that charge higher than average prices (around $28-32 for mains) and do not deliver for quality. There are many other places that do much better food, especially downtown. Save your money. Check out the decor, have some red wine, and go somewhere else for food.
Century is in one of the most beautiful rooms in Vancouver! After I had lunch, I found out why the room was so breathtaking, it was originally a bank that was built at the turn of the century. That would explain the vaulted ceilings, marble floors, friendly staff, and modest menu. It’s one of those restaurants where the prices on the menu do not reflect the posh and upscale room. I had lunch there and I was surprised at how cheap it is for excellent lunch dishes. Apparently it used to be under old management and owners that had a much more expensive menu.
There's something about Century that is warm and soothing once you get inside. I definitely recommend Century for lunch or dinner. Oh ya I almost forgot to mention that the staff are awesome, warm, and friendly.
-Extremely happy customer
My boyfriend and I were left without plans on New Year's Eve and decided to give this restaurant a try as they did not have a fixed menu for this night, a plus in our eyes. After reading some reviews of this place I was hoping that we hadn't made a bad choice, and we didn't. The food was good, we had scallops and calamari for appetizers and then steak and paella for the main. We even had dessert for a special treat. The steak was done just as ordered and my paella was excellent. Overall a great experience and we will be back for dinner and might even try their lunch menu.
My Husband and I go out quite a bit and we haven't been truly impressed by a restaurant in a long time until we dined at Century. We were greeted by the owner who not only ended up serving us but ended up entertaining us. The room is gorgeous and comfortable. The menu appealled to both my vegetarian husband and to the carnivore in me. The Rib eye was outstanding, huge, tender and only 22 dollars, the sauce was great as well. My husband had the zucchni ravioli and the pear and squash in phyllo both were great. For dessert we split the coffe and doughnuts, again a winner. Great prices as well, our bill was much less than what we would spend at a chain restaurant. We're going back and we will be bringing friends.
Since moving here 6 months ago from Montreal, my girlfriend and I have gone to many Vancouver restaurants. Our ideal restaurant is one with exceptional food and service but with reasonable prices. We found that in Century. Our friends invited us out and we checked the place out on this site (lots of mixed reviews) So we didn't have high expectations. The room is beautiful without being stuffy and the all the staff were uber friendly. We were told by our server that this was there second night with a new menu and that the chef was also new to the restaurant. The food was outstanding. We split 7 tapas between the 5 of us and 3 main courses, more than enough food. Some standouts were the pear and squash in phyllo and the short rib with gnocchi. We also had 2 desserts, around of drinks, 2 bottles of wine and for the five of us the bill came to $285. What a deal. This is definetly going into our regular rotation of restaurants.
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