Restaurant review: The Cannery Seafood Restaurant

Share

Driving along the Clark Drive overpass into Port Metro Vancouver, it feels like we've pulled up to a border crossing.

Overhead electronic signs with flashing arrows direct us into the "cars only" lane (as opposed to "container traffic only" ) and the ramp is lit up brighter than an airport runway. A battery of video cameras pointed at all sides of the car, we stop at the security gate and press an intercom button labelled "Push for Help".

"Where are you going tonight?" a disembodied voice asks.

"The Cannery," we shout into the speaker.

"Go ahead," the voice directs, as the gate lifts to let us in.

That's it? No pat down or body scan? No government-issued identification required to cross check our reservation?

The Cannery Seafood Restaurant has always seemed a little out of place, perched over the waterfront, beside the railway tracks in the middle of the port's warehouse district.

Yet the strange dichotomy of finding this quaintly roughhewn crab shack snuggled up against an industrial landscape of concrete silos, cranes and stacked steel containers has been a big part of the restaurant's charm since it opened in 1971.

Or at least it was until the Twin Towers imploded. Tightened security regulations have finally squeezed The Cannery out of the port. Although the restaurant's lease was extended past the Olympic Games, the last fish will be fried on March 27 when it closes for good.

SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts, which bought the restaurant three years ago and also owns the Fish House in Stanley Park, says it couldn't find an affordable relocation site.

A handful of staff members, who counter that the owners haven't negotiated hard enough with port authorities and city officials, are making a last-ditch effort to save the iconic landmark. Their online petition (posted at savethecannery.com ) argues that if the restaurant truly posed a serious security risk, it would have been shut down long ago.

Though I wish them well, it does look as if this ship will sink - especially now that the bar manager is clearing out the wine cellar. As part of the farewell celebrations, which include a series of wine-pairing dinners and a "39 Years of Memories" photo and story contest, the Cannery is offering up to 40 per cent off 200 fine, mostly old-world labels, regularly listed at $120 and up.

The deals are incredible. We ordered a bottle of Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 1997 (one of Tuscany's best vintages) for $140. Though the wine was regularly priced at $240, you'd be hard- pressed to find it elsewhere, if you manage to find it at all, for less than $300.

Sorry, we drank the last of that lusciously elegant Sangiovese. But there's still a huge selection available. The list can be perused online at the restaurant's website and reserved if prepaid.

"You're going to have to give me a taste of that wine later," the manager who took our reservation says, licking his lips after we walk in the door. Yeah, right.

The casual greeting is a tad familiar, but I guess you can't expect formality from a place draped in fishing nets, whale ribs and dusty barn-wood panelling. (And the waiter who later serves us is impeccably professional.)

Our table isn't ready, even though we're 10 minutes late. And the hostess doesn't ask if we'd like to check our coats. All is forgiven, however, when she leads us to a cozy, corner-side window table on the second floor. (These coveted window tables, with breathtaking views of the North Shore Mountains across the harbour, can't be reserved.)

Sinking into lumpy chairs that have seen better days, we toast the evening with a glass of sparkling wine and a dry gin martini as the bottle decants. Now, what to eat with this classy cedar-and-dry-cherry-nosed treasure?

We hold off on the wine while inhaling oyster motoyaki ($14). Executive chef Wayne Sych, who joined the restaurant in the spring of 2008, isn't as adventurous as his predecessor, Frédéric Couton, whose menu often incorporated Asian flavours and unsung species, such as neon squid and sea cucumber. (Some customers come just for his famously robust lobster oil, still served at every table with balsamic and fresh bread.)

But this Japanese-style dish, created by the Fish House's Karen Barnaby, is exquisitely rendered. Using three Beach oysters from Vancouver Island's eastern shores, they are lightly baked in their shell, under a mildly spiked blanket of wasabi mayonnaise sprinkled with pickled ginger and black sesame seeds, to the perfect point where the flesh is plump and the dark mantles are fluffed up and feathery. The subtle sharpness, briny overtones and creamy texture make a sensational palate awakener.

Grilled calamari ($15) dressed in house-smoked tomato gastrique is a generous tangle of tubes and tentacles, lightly charred and toothsomely tender (though the icy-cold roast corn and tomato relish is a bit jarring).

The delicately smoky tomato gastrique, with its subtle hints of pesto and premium olive oil, complements the wine so well we're happy to see it ladled again over the chef's grilled halibut and salmon special ($34). The Ocean Wise-approved Russian sockeye salmon, sustainably harvested by fishwheel, is succulently moist and deeply flavourful. But the end-of-season halibut, though purportedly fresh, is watery and tasteless, as if it's been thawed.

Salmon Wellington ($32) is a Cannery classic that I've wanted to try for years. The plump wedge of spring salmon - smeared with a thick layer of shrimp and mushroom duxelle, baked in golden puff pastry and drizzled with a buttery pinot noir sauce - doesn't disappoint. In fact, I'm still dreaming about this wondrously rich slice of seafood decadence weeks later.

While this may not have been the most memorable seafood meal ever eaten, it was comfortable and extremely satisfying. And when combined with the exclusively stealthy checkpoint entry, the fabulous view and the wine (which almost made us feel like first-class passengers going down with the Titanic), it's certainly an experience to remember.

The Cannery Seafood Restaurant: 2205 Commissioner St.; 604-254-9606