Vancouver Hotel Dining
Hotel restaurant food, once seen as the last resort for anyone with a culinary palate, has finally come up to par with some of the best stand-alone restaurants in the city. I remember venturing into a grand hotel’s restaurant as a child while on a family holiday and trying to stomach something French-sounding on the plate, which turned out to be a piece of overcooked, frozen, breaded unknown fish, laden with discoloured gravy, canned peas and garnished with the ubiquitous parsley sprig.
A delightful lobster dish at Diva at the Met
(Diva at the Met)Today hotel restaurants have become fixtures on the urban culinary scene. Vancouver boasts several hotels with exceptional cuisine.
Since 1996, Diva at The Metropolitan Hotel has been a leading contender in Vancouver’s competitive restaurant scene. This stunning contemporary multi-level dining room has an open kitchen, steered under the guidance of talented young restaurant chef Damon Campbell. Superb seasonal and regional choices are reflected in all their menus from a sublime Black Cod Hash for breakfast, to Wild Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto for lunch, and for dinner, Butter Poached Atlantic Lobster with a warm crème fraîche potato salad. All hotel menus have their staple hamburgers, but none compare to Diva at the Met’s DC Burger (appropriately named after Chef Campbell), which features a house-made flank steak patty, braised short rib smothered with a wild mushroom ragout, and seared foie gras.
The Sutton Place Hotel’s delectable Chocolate
Buffet (Tourism Vancouver)The Sutton Place Hotel, one of the city’s landmark luxury establishments, is known not only for its celebrity guests but also for its infamous Chocolate Buffet, which features a plethora of cacao and caffeine-driven temptations. Guests can dine a la carte with the sweet buffet, but I’d recommend starting on Fleuri Restaurant Chef Raman Anand’s wonderful menu featuring elegant international flavours. A velvety Lobster Corn Bisque comes adorned with butter-poached lobster and caviar while a Trio of Duck is represented by a fragrant consommé, a simple roulade and a crisp stuffed wonton. For mains, a crisp Seared Seabass is garnished with an artichoke and prawn ragout and a cashew-cilantro röesti or there’s a tender rack of lamb accompanied with eggplant moussaka, merguez sausage and a delicate curry sauce.
Elixir features a cross-culture menu
(Courtesy of Opus Hotel)For chic Parisienne style, transport yourself to the arrondisement of Saint Germain by heading to the Opus Hotel’s Elixir Restaurant. Chef Don Letendre’s cross-culture menus showcase his diversity. From casual elegant breakfasts to the happening “see and be seen” evening bar scene, where “O Bites” are shared with innovative cocktails, The Opus Hotel is for the stylish set.
Chef Lee Parsons is at the helm at the elegant Bacchus at the boutique Wedgewood Hotel. A cross between an English Gentlemen’s clubroom and a Big Easy bordello, the dining room oozes traditional elegance with contemporary seasonal cuisine. Look for Chef Parson’s Daily Multi-Course Tasting Menus with matched wine pairings for beginnings such as a Spring Salmon Gravlax and Crab Cannelloni to Fraser Valley Lamb Loin and Foie gras with Fennel Puree, ending with a classic warm Okanagan Cherries Jubilee.
Who says hotel food has to be boring? And if you’ve enjoyed a cocktail too many to drive home, there are lots of comfy beds on offer!
Nathan Fong is a trained chef, food journalist and consultant, television and radio culinary host, and one of Canada’s premier food and props stylists for culinary print and film advertising. He is a regular contributor to Global BCTV’s Saturday Morning Chef and Fong on Food segments, contributing editor for EAT magazine and consulting food specialist for CBC Radio One.
