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Chef Dale MacKay and his team at Ensemble have designed a menu that combines classic French techniques, precision execution and unique globally inspired ingredients to create an extraordinary culinary experience in a fun and relaxed environment.
Been wanting to try this place after our friends raved about it. The location is not the best, off in the corner right across from a fire hall off of Thurlow & Robson, but the decor & ambiance inside is very cool. Dark, red and a modernist feel. I agree with previous reviewers that the food portions are not very large; mainly appetizer/tapas sized, but what they do give you is top quality selections and the food is delicious. That alone speaks for itself. The presentation, taste, & texture were fantastic. We opted for a few dishes and two desserts. First off the bat was the Cornmeal Crusted Scallops with tamarind date puree and cauliflower - done very well and probably the best scallops I've eaten in a long time. Cooked perfectly, with the right amount of heat, good accompanying garnish, sauce and really tasty. Then we opted for the Black Cod with Pork Thai Broth w/ Bok Choy, Coriander, Chili Oil, then followed by the Poached and Crispy Chicken w/ Smoked Maitake, Red Wine Braised Cabbage & finally the Five Spice Pork Belly w/ Choucroute, Baby Carrots, Pork Mustard Jus. I really enjoyed the cod in the broth - very delicious and the cod was so smooth it just melted in our mouths. The chicken was also done nicely with a nice twist of banana wrap for some of the pieces. It tasted amazing. The Pork Belly was yummy, but wasn't spectacular in my opinion. We ended our meal with a souffle and eggnog sundae desserts. While my husband really enjoyed their spiced pumpkin souffle, I really liked the eggnog sundae - super yummy; creamy ice cream with a nice wafer cookie. We really enjoyed our meal here, but would only return on a special occasion. But you know a good restaurant when it's packed even on a Sunday evening. Top notch Top Chef! =)
This is a restaurant to take your Foodie friends to, not because Chef Dale MacKay won Top Chef Canada, but because the food is excellent and different.
Be prepared to spend some money. The style is small plates, and you need 2 - 3 plates per person. You can't order one plate and a glass of wine and feel as if you have eaten. The plates are served one at a time as courses. So all in for dinner, wine, dessert, tip you are looking at spending $75 per person; $150 for a couple.
Be prepared to share tasting bites. The plates aren't really designed for sharing the way Chinese food is. You have your plate and then try Tasting bites from the other diners. That way you get to try many more of the dishes. The flavors are not blended, there isn't much spice or salt, but sweet notes are often present. The pork belly for example has a sweet apple sauce. You taste each flavor in the dish distinctly. Like a peanut butter sandwich where you taste soft bread, nutty peanut butter, sweet jelly. Each flavor is distinct and the whole is great. The dishes here are like that on an elevated level.
The restaurant is on Thurlow just off Robson, you can get there by Skytrain to Burrand station and then it is a 5 - 10 minute walk. It is jam packed so make reservations or go late after 8:00 p.m to get a table.
The staff is friendly and attentive. This is not the restaurant for a business meeting, or a romantic dinner. Go with people who are into food and who you are comfortable enough with to grab a taste from their plates, order 2 - 3 plates per person, wine and talk about the food. Enjoy!
While I think my dining partner and I were the only people in the restaurant who had never seen Top Chef (the chef was walking around taking pictures with all the tables), I was actually very pleasantly surprised by this place. Everything we had was tasty and reasonably priced, I loved the eggplant appetizer and it was a great place to go with a friend and share a few different plates. Overall a positive experience and some interesting dishes!
My friends and I decided to check out Ensemble, as we didn't want to go to a dine out restaurant on the weekend. Menu/website looked great, and we had wanted to check this place out.
I arrived prior to my friends, and it was rather a cool reception, like the hostess didn't want to have customers? She seemed to warm up somewhat more as the night went on and I guess as more people started showing up. Room it self was okay...they can't help being located by a firehall - i guess...
I don't drink, but was surprised to hear they make mixed drinks for non-alcholics - that was great!
Food wise? Well.. small portions yes -- our server did explain that it was "small plates" so best to get 3 plates per person. The food we order for the most part pretty good... Eggplant dish, scallops, poached/crispy chicken, gnocchi and others... only gripe of sorts is, kinda left not feeling full? We had though we would do dessert, but on a rainy misserable day like we had been, all on offer was icecream/sorbet deserts?
It was okay.. may go back sometime, but there are plenty of other restaurants I would go to first before coming here.
Went there for dinner with gal pals and boy were we disappointed. Food wasn't great. Portions were exceptionally small for the price you pay. No value at all. Service was okay at first but went the restaurant filled up, it was hard to get our server's attention. The chef came out to chat with us which was nice but... Also, the TVs in the restaurant poses a distraction to conversation.
Every time I go out I'm waiting for a restaurant to create the missing Vancouver food scene.
First of all, Ensemble is a Tapas bar and that's somewhat generous. The menu reads fairly well, but does not deliver on value whatsoever. You can't really go there for dinner. I ordered a number of dishes off the menu and left quite hungry.
Risotto - Cooked properly but you couldn't taste the herbs, just a 1/2 pound of butter.
Pulled Pork - Decent, but I can get better pulled pork and the Lonsdale Night market for $6.
Black Cod with Pork broth - A nice dish. Lacks a bit of acidity (like a pickled vegetable). The broth is very nice, but again I can go to Lao Shan and get that will hand-made noodles for $7.
Beef Shin and Frites - Probably the best dish I tried. Again, its a kids portion at best.
It really blows me away (especially as a cook myself), that Vancouver is so hurting for good restaurants. Don't people ever travel at all and get inspired to at least achieve a hotspot status? There's going to be a lot of disappointed people who watched the TV show with high expectations and then never go back.
Sedlak's restaurant failed there and I wouldn't be surprised if this goes under unless Mr. Mackay wakes up and listens to his customers.
I walked by it a few times and decided to go there with my dad for a little Sunday dinner since we both wanted to try it. The menu looked good, with the ingredients and flavours seemingly complementing each other. We got there at around 8 on a Sunday and the restaurant was pretty full. I guess it was because of all the hype and the fact that it's a new restaurant.
I have no complaints about the service. Nothing spectacular, but nothing wrong either.
The food however, I have lots to write about. Being Asian, the first thing I looked at was the price. It ranged from around $8 upwards to around $24, yet there was no clear distinction between appetizers and mains. So I asked the server about the portion sizes and he told me that they are all served on medium sized plates, so about appy size. Fair enough. I went ahead and ordered the Five Spice Pork Belly and Beef Shin with Fries, while my dad got the watermelon and tomato salad, and the black cod with thai broth.
Speed was a bit on the slow side. Waited about 15 minutes for our first course to come, finished in 5 minutes, and waited another 5 minutes for them to pick up our plates. Then another 15 minutes for second course.
As for the food itself, my Five Spice Pork Belly included a rasher of pork belly. Yes, a rasher. It was moist, soft and tender, and the accompany brussel sprouts, cashew, celeriac puree, pear, and mushrooms were nice, but one single rasher? I sure hope that was Berkshire pork I just ate. For $13 I was expecting at least a small palm size/half a cup/120g portion. That was the first red flag.
Next came the Beef Shin and Fries. That sounded interesting because not a lot of restaurants offer beef shin. In all honesty, it wasn't too bad. The shin was braised, then pulled and shredded, and packed and molded into cylinders. Again it was nice and moist. The dish came garnished with a little watercress and a side of fries. Nothing to say about the fries. Fries, frites, chips, by another other name is still fried potatoes.
But when my dad's black cod arrived, we looked at it, looked at each other, looked at the menu, and back at the cod. Why? Because the piece of cod was no bigger than a kiwi, on top a few baby bok choi and a bit of broth. Yes, the cod was firm and smooth and cooked perfectly, but again for $18 we were expecting an actual piece of fish. It honestly looked more like an amuse to me.
My dad doesn't eat a whole lot, but he decided to order the pulled pork sandwich afterwards. I opted to go for a slice of pizza on the way home instead.
So at the end, our bill came to $70 for 5 dishes, and left wondering what we just spent our money on.
I was long waiting for dale's new restaurant to open since the sad closure of Lumiere. And what a surprise! It seems the restaurant got right straight from day 1. As Dale was virtually been followed by his entire team from Lumiere, it seemed to almost skip the "warming up" period new restaurants normally go through. While I fully appreciate the respect the difficulties such establishment has when it comes to food quality -" value" and "price" ratio, I pretty much enjoyed most of Dale's compromises. I've already been there 5 times and very quickly it became my favorite vancouver restaurant. While the casual, pleasant ambience is refreshing, the food excels. My absolute favorite is the black cod in the pork Thai broth - one of the best dishes I ever had anywhere! Good luck Dale and your wonderful team. We'll definitely meet very often!
I try not to let hype influence my reviews of a restaurant. I went to Ensemble thinking that it might be okay because it had great pictures on its website and some fairly interesting-sounding dishes. It is owned by the very well-respected Dale MacKay, so that piqued my interest; however, this is Vancouver, after all, and it's hard to find a decent restaurant that is consistent, let alone innovative.
So, the hostess experience was unpleasant right off that bat. Perhaps she was new? Smug hostesses do not make me feel like I want to sit down and have a pleasant dining experience. Thankfully, the other hostess was perfectly ... civil. My friend and I then waited for what felt like an eternity (more like 15 minutes) before a server acknowledged our existence. They were too busy chatting each other up and disappearing into back rooms to re-emerge empty-handed, then lean against something and smirk. We finally got water and ordered our drinks and dishes. It was a casual atmosphere, so I forgive our server for explaining things haphazardly, though it would have been nice if she hadn't forcefully interrupted us when we were deep in conversation, or if she'd come 'round when we tried multiple times to catch her -- or anyone's -- attention. The food itself brought up some conflicting feelings: the ingredients were fresh, the preparation can't be faulted -- but the food itself was quite boring. Perhaps I was expecting too much? I chose dishes that I thought would illustrate the chef's creativity and skill, and I was disappointed in that respect. I understood what they were going for, but I didn't want to order any of the dishes ever again. They included the crab in melon soup, the foie gras sundae, and the pork belly. The latter was the best of the three because it had the addition of Brussels sprouts, cashews, and pear, creating nice texture and a good contrast to the salty, fatty pork. The other dishes were slightly mismatched and uninteresting, the foie gras sundae having no discernible flavour aside from the apricot. All in all, I would give it a miss -- and it hurts me to say that!
I got loved at ensemble this morning and sister that ain't easy. To say that i'm a difficult curmudgeon wouldn't suffice since i'm also homely, hunchbacked and brittle. But when I walked thru those doors today I was greeted with remarkable warmth and a disarming smile. Pleasantly disoriented I brace myself to be 'processed' and hustled away but instead this poised young women took an interest in me, gave me the time of day and seemed reluctant to have me take my seat at the bar. I'm a peripatetic dining room habitant and can attest that this class of conduct is revered for it's rarity. A stylish barman took good care of me and I enjoyed perfectly scrambled eggs and expertly cooked bacon. I fault the barman for only one thing, throwing his captain under the bus. I said i'd seen the owner on Top Chef Canada and before I could go on I was interrupted with the question "do you know what episode because he can seem mean sometimes" prompting me to think "quit interrupting people and they'll stop being mean to you". No; I corrected the barman he wasn't being mean; he's a clear spoken, surefooted professional competing in public and under pressure. Winners know; you can't let a wishbone grow where a backbone needs to be.
For the second day of Ensemble being opened this restaurant was busy. Every table was taken, luckily we made reservations.
The décor and layout remained pretty much the same as the previous restaurant Corner Suite Bistro.
All dishes are to be considered small plates and meant to be shared. So now that you are warned don’t react like me and balk at the tiny portion sizes. All dishes are under $20. Their menu is not up on their website yet so I’ve taken pictures of it below.
We started with the sweet and sour eggplant stuffed with baba ganoush, yogurt and tomato -$7.50 My friend couldn’t stop craving about it. There was a teaser of mushroom and anise spread gave it a nice earthy licorice taste. We gave it a 4.5/5
Pulled pork sandwich, apple horseradish slaw, watermelon -$8.50. This was exactly what was written on the menu. I thought, “hey, watermelon that’s an interesting, how are they going to incorporate it in the sandwich. It was a freaking slice a watermelon on the side of the dish, like a garnish. The presentation was compared to a elementary school cafeteria This was disappointing, a 2/5. The sandwich itself was uninspiring and comparable to what could have gotten from Re-Up (pulled pork sandwich food cart)
Five spice pork belly with cauliflower, pear and cashews – $13. It was a little sweet, probably due to the pear juices. The meat was tender and flavourful. Overall, this was a flavorful dish we but, would not reorder. 3/5
I don't often write reviews about restaurants but as a savvy food person not doing so would be criminal to those expecting something special. Most of us who follow the local food scene knows that the restaurant is run by former Lumiere chef Dale Mackay and staffed by former staff of Lumiere and DB Bistro. So you can see the expectation here of the food and service quality.
Okay, so here's how our adventure begins. We arrived at the restaurant on Friday evening without a reservation. It's something we do quite often to gauge a restaurants ability to provide quality service ad-hoc. We were greeted warmly by our hostesses and a high stool table was available at the back of the restaurant. We were seated and provided the menus. The menu items looked enticing enough to the eyes so we were quite excited with the offerings. The waitress greeted us and offered beverages. We ordered a bottle of sparkling water for $7.00.
For dinner we ordered the Spot prawns and the foie gras sundae for appetizers. The spot prawn appetizer came on a beautiful leaf style plate with 2 "canapé like" pieces each with 2 prawns. The prawns were not tasty at all. As a matter of fact they were mushy and i swear it seemed like they used frozen instead of fresh spot prawns. I don't get it. The month of May is spot prawn season. You can't honestly say that fresh spot prawns were not available. I was at Granville Island the week prior and picked up a pound easily. The shredded lettuce garnish made it taste even more watery. A cocktail sauce provided tasted more ketchupy than cocktail sauce. Now to the foie gras sundae. We were told this was a popular item at Lumiere. There was barely a taste of the foie gras and the brioche waffle, while whimsical, lacked the buttery flavor that should be in brioche. We were told to spoon everything down to the bottom to get the full flavors of the sundae. But The balsamic drizzle used to simulate chocolate sauce drowned out the rest of the flavors.
Main courses. We had the chicken done 2 ways - crispy and poached and the black cod in Thai broth. The poached chicken breast was a bit dry and lacked flavor. The crispy chicken "spring roll" was fine though the portion size was a bit small. The accompanying trumpet mushrooms were also over salted. The black cod in Thai broth was sublime though so you can't say we were out to get them!
Dessert was the best course. The raspberry souffle and chocolate fondant we ordered were delicious. Kudos to the pastry chef.
I understand that new restaurants need time to tweak things to get to perfection but there's an expectation that if you take the majority of a crew from one restaurant and drop them into the downtown core from West Broadway that there should be very little transition time. The food quality and portion expectations need to be better managed for what they pay, Ensemble is NOT Lumiere and the Relais Gourmand designation it had belonged to Rob Feenie and his crew that brought it to the table when it was his. You got to be passionate and bring it if you care to say that you were mentored by Ramsey and Boulud and ran Feenie's kitchen. In the meanwhile, we'll be hanging out at Les Faux Bourgeois. At least a great 3 course meal there for 2 people will cost less than $80 with tip!
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