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WHET focuses on using local and organic ingredients in everything possible to create a sophisticated seasonal menu with a relaxed atmosphere and panoramic view.
Went on a weekend later afternoon and sat outside on their patio. Nice long patio with views of the boats and bridge. Had a great spot on on of the couches outside. Menu concentrates on seafood which makes sense seeing that most of the summer crowd are out of towners. Tried some local oysters on the half shell and they are very good with 3 types of condiments. Calamari was your standard fried with some peppers and onions. Tried their snapper sandwhich and it was pretty good, open faced with a decent portion size. Overall food was farily priced. Service was outstanding with the server splitting the groups bills and glasses were never empty. Would return again for the patio.
My gf and I have made our way here on a couple of trips already. The first time expecting the old Sammy J's but having been replaced by this incarnation.
While the great views and airy ambiance remains, the space has been refreshed to compliment itself with the surroundings. Even the tvs remain to catch those must watch Canuck games.
The menu focuses on our westcoast bounty, with fish and seafood overtaking much of the menu's real estate but instead we stuck with appetizers. The crab cakes are quite good without an overpowering breadcrumb exterior. The crab itself is noticably present but they represent nothing more than the typical crab cakes you'd find elsewhere. The fromage du jour plate was nothing more than a wagon of brie with crostini, a strawberry spread and some grapes on the side which was hard to mess up. The flatbread was disappointing with the cracker like flatbread that provided little texture while the tomato and boccaccini topping was bland at best. The fresh mussels were a nice surprise, but throughly ruined by the overly salty light cream broth it swam in. We shared a slice of red velvet cake on our first visit, a decent finisher but I found the cake portion to be on the dry end. We mostly ordered their cocktail brews on both visits, which I would say far superceded the food portion in satisfaction.
Service seems to depend on who you get. Our first visit yielded someone obviously seasoned. Very amiable and offered up recommendations in addition to being on top of very timely checkups. The A game was absent on the second visit with a different server. The lack of checkups required flagdowns as they passed by, though still friendly but MIA when needed. Long story short, inconsistent.
Our food was unmemorable, the service can be spotty but the drinks and ambiance might be worth the trip.
Terrible experience. It started at the door. All the indoor tables were full. There was no wait but another party of 4 was seated ahead of us, even though they arrived later. Our waitress was slow to arrive and then slow to take our drink order. 9 minutes later our drinks (pop and water) arrived. We ordered appies, mains and tea. The tea arrived after another 7 minutes. No refills were offered at any time, and we had to ask twice to get more hot water for the tea. Our appies arrived 45 minutes after we sat down. We didn’t see the waitress again until after the appies arrived and we asked how long our food would take. She said the kitchen was backed up because they weren’t expecting to be so busy, but she would find out how much longer it would be. She never came back. Apparently the annual Boat Show came as a surprise this year. After an hour since we were seated we asked the manager. He gave us the same story and said he would check on our food. He came back a few minutes later and said it would be two minutes. 5 minutes later, an hour and ten minutes after we arrived, we left. No one made any attempt to make amends for the slow food, not even free drink refills! We’ll never know what the main dishes taste like.
I was really looking forward to trying this place as I'd never been here before. My bf and I chose this place in the mad rush that is Dine-Out Vancouver and arrived, slightly early, our reservation but were seated right away. (Which is highly unusual in many other restaurants). The ambiance is beautiful as it's set right on the water and even though it was fairly early for a Friday, the place was hoppin'.
We weren't in a rush so we ordered a few bevvies and an appy prior to looking at the Dine-Out Menu. We choose the Ginger Beef (YAY for happy hour specials) and he had a beer, while I had a cosmo and a cucumber saki martini. (the latter was absolutely delicious despite being extremely potent.) I actually want to give a big shout-out to the cook who created out ginger beef as it was absolutely stellar. Seriously, we are huge fans of ginger beef and are usually thoroughly disappointed because it's either too saucy or fried or plain. This one, though, wasn't fried at all. In fact it was seared beef strips served over crispy noodles in a rich dark ginger sauce. It was delightful.
After this we ordered. I chose the Dine-Out Menu while my bf chose to order of the regular menu. I had the crap cakes (appy), merlot braised short ribs (entree) and the red velvet cake for dessert. He ordered the jambalaya with corn bread. The crab cakes arrived and they were pretty tasty. A little bit too deep-fried for my taste but still yummy. The inside of the cake had nice flavor and the dipping sauce served with the cakes was really tasty. (I do, though, wish it came with more than two little cakes, but what can you do.) After that the mains came and they were NOT great. My short ribs were cold, too salty and and the sauce had a very strange aftertaste. (the mushroom linguini served with it was cooked perfectly though). The jambalaya was even worse; completely bland, no taste whatsoever and the seafood was slightly overdone. I did, though, warn him that having just come back from New Orleans it was probably not a good idea to order a southern dish. He agreed with this comment afterwards.
The velvet cake arrived and it was delicious! I mean how can you go wrong with red velvet cake and cream cheese icing. Exactly.
All in all, I would definitely try it again as the service was amazing, the drinks superb and the appies phenomenal. I will not be having either of the mains we ordered again.
I have now tried this place 6 times. I have had one very disappointing dish (the Mahi Mahi sandwich) at $17 is really overpriced and the fish was overcooked and lacked any flavour. To be fair though the only place I have ever had mahi mahi cooked properly was Hawaii, where it is fresh and they just grill it without any fuss-it is a delicious fish but requires quick and simple handling. One of our dining companions tried the fish and chips-mmm-Tonys a few steps away do a much better job of this dish.
I have had the rib sandwich-excellent, this was shared and we both really enjoyed it. We also shared the beet and goat cheese salad, it was very good, so many great tasting fresh ingredients and it was so huge that even though we shared it we could not finish the whole thing. So that meal was a plus.
I have had the tomato and boconcini salad-it was much bigger than you usually get in restaurants here, the ingredients were fresh and very well put together.
We have both had the Whet burger-enjoyed it and I am pretty picky about my burgers. It wasn't the best we ever had but it was good and we have now had it twice. I do suggest though that you go for the (kind of expensive) add ons because the one time I didn't the burger was kind of blah.
I have had the calamari twice now, nothing special but just right when I am not too hungry and the flavour is fine.
So, if you think of Whet in the same genre as say Cactus Club, I would say their prices are similar, menus somewhat different but not radically. I have found the Cactus Club over the past few years to have really gone downhill in the quality of their food and their prices are getting too high.
I have had mixed service experiences at Whet. Some times excellent, mostly okay but inattentive (once your meal hits the table it is hard to get anyones attention if you want something else), and once it was pretty bad. Not busy at all, lots of staff but the 'primary' server was really inattentive, and we had to rely on other staff passing by to get additional things. Once the weather changes and the draw of the patio is gone, Whet will have to step up its game if they want to fill that massive indoor space. It is usually pretty empty, but so dark, it isn't really appealing.
The corn bread was good, which surprised me because it is hard to get good corn bread in Vancouver.
I had my birthday dinner here a couple weeks ago and they were very accommodating since I called back 3x to increase my numbers. Thumbs up for this. The food was mediocre and quite pricey for what you get, but then again, this is located on Granville Island, a tourist trap. I ordered the scallops to start and they were pretty good. My bf ordered the crab cakes and they were very tasty. I followed with the roasted beet and goat cheese salad and it really left me hanging. It literally was a few chunks of beets, some greens and a sprinkle of goat cheese. Something I would make at home. When I order a salad in a restaurant, I expect something more than this.
Some other food items to note from my dinner guests:
- Jambalaya and corn bread - this was a hit with my friend. She was happy to see 3 of each item and enjoyed it
- Rib Eye Steak - everyone gawked ooohed and ahhed when this arrive. Huge portion and apparently quite tasty.
- Miso glazed cod with bok choy - this was a feature and for the price you pay, it was tiny.
- Bacon & mushroom mac & cheese - didn't look cheese at my. 3 guests ordered this and were all sent back. I think the kitchen forgot the cheese so they sprinkled some on top. My guests ate their dishes but I don't think any were too pleased.
I'm not sure if this was because it was my birthday party or because they messed up the mac & cheese, but the manager (I think) brought out a red velvet cake for me and then followed with another huge slice and 2 cheesecakes for the rest of the table. The red velvet cake is really good. I recommend ordering this if it's on the menu (I didn't check).
All in all, this is a nice place to grab drinks and appies. Great patio to drop by if you're on the island.
| 1. | Granville Island Brewery (8 m) |  |
| 2. | Beanstalk Bistro (9 m) |  |
| 3. | Tony's Fish & Oyster Cafe (23 m) | |
| 4. | WhoopieDeeDoo Sweet Shop (28 m) |  |
| 5. | Keg Steakhouse & Bar, The (58 m) | |
| 6. | Cats Socialhouse (89 m) |  |
| 7. | Edible Canada at the Market (155 m) | |
| 8. | Sandbar Seafood Restaurant (157 m) |  |
| 9. | GI Gelato & Coffee House (157 m) | |
| 10. | Backstage Lounge, The (157 m) |  |
