Review: West Restaurant + Bar

It was my birthday yesterday. I'm not really into clubbing and drinking... I also hate having to set up big dinners with a lot of people, because it stresses me out to have to figure out a time that suits everyone's schedules. I was originally going to go to a shooting range with a few close friends and my bf, but I decided to do that another time. I didn't plan anything else, so the whole day just consisted of eating (way too much).

In the afternoon, I went to Fisherman's Terrace in Aberdeen with my family and bf for dim sum. This restaurant is my favourite dim sum restaurant in Richmond. Although it is definitely more expensive than the standard dim sum place, the service and food are a lot better (ex. the chinese donut rice rolls aren't hard or too crunchy, the hot and sour soup is actually spicy, etc.). Also, the servers didn't just slam everything down on the table like most dim sum places. I didn't take many pictures, because I didn't eat breakfast and I was starving! I missed taking a picture of my favourite dish; the deep fried taro with meat. =(

The one picture I managed to take:

After brunch, we went to Richmond Centre to get my free Starbucks drink. The weird thing about the postcard is that it says it's "only valid on your birthday", but it also says it's valid until May, 5th. Anyway, I just got my usual iced soy caramel machiatto with extra caramel (venti this time though). I think it's such a waste of money and resources when people get crazy drinks just to see how expensive they can make their free drink and then they just throw it away after because it tastes disgusting.

 

My bf and I also had reservations at West for dinner. My friend recommended this place as a good birthday dinner/date place. The place looks a lot bigger on their website's pictures than in person. While the decor wasn't amazing, I really liked the design for their bar (you can see what I mean if you look at the pictures on their website). West is one of the most expensive restaurants I've eaten at so far and although the food wasn't mind blowingly good, I did enjoy eating there and I thought it was a good experience.

All our servers were genuinely friendly and the food came quickly. However, it was a not-so-busy Sunday night, so I'm not sure if the food comes any slower during peak hours on Fridays and Saturdays. I'll definitely be returning to West to try out their tasting menu, even though those are priced at $70+!

DRESS CODE: Even though the dress code is apparently business casual, I saw three guys wearing tshirts and blue jeans. Another guy was wearing a 'Tapout' shirt...

THE FOOD: Please keep in mind that I am in no way a 'foodie' or an expert food reviewer so my description and "review" of the food is pretty simple.

We started with a fish croquette amuse bouche. Nothing much to say about it since this is pretty standard 'intro' dish.

Since we were still full from dim sum, my bf and I decided to share our first course. We chose the Thiessen farm quail. The beet puree went well with the quail, but I felt that the taste of the beet slices were slighty overpowering. The quail was cooked through, but was still tender. If you've never had quail before (like me), it's sort of tastes like a combination of chicken and duck.

 

I chose the herb crusted lamb loin as my main course. I'm not a big fan of steak or fish, so I usually pick duck or lamb when we eat out at these types of restaurants. Again, this dish had tons of beets (puree, slices, sticks, etc.). I really enjoyed the herb crust on top of the lamb, which had a sort of cheesy taste to it. The lamb itself was tender and tasty, but I didn't feel that it was all that special (i.e. something that you can't get anywhere else).

 

My bf's main course was the 10oz beef ribeye (28 day dry aged angus). I tried a bit of his food and it was pretty tasty. The beef was very tender and the mashed potatoes were extremely soft. My bf was joking that the consistency was even better than babyfood; you didn't even have to chew because it just melted in your mouth. The balsamic jus went really well with the steak, although I did feel like it tasted a little too much like soy sauce at one point.

 

For dessert, we tried the chocolate tasting dish. This consisted of a chocolate sour cherry cake, chocolate profiterole filled with milk chocolate cream cheese mousse, and warm manjari chocolate pudding with condensed milk ice cream.We both really liked the chocolate profiterole. 

Although the filling was milk chocolate mousse, it wasn't too sweet. The outside of the profiterole didn't really taste like chocolate, but I'm sure that if it did the whole thing would be too sweet and wouldn't taste as good. The cherry cake was light and fluffy, but nothing too great. 

The chocolate pudding, on the other hand, was very heavy. It tasted a lot like chocolate cheese cake. I really liked it, but my bf found it to be way too sweet. The ice cream tasted like standard vanilla ice cream.