Hope springs eternal. The never-ending quest for a definitive seafood destination leads to Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar.
This swish Yaletown hot spot sparkles with sterling credentials. Part of the esteemed Top Table group that includes West, CinCin and Whistler's Araxi, it recently won top spot in the seafood category at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards for the second consecutive year. Last February, executive chef Frank Pabst took home silver at the Gold Medal Plates Grand Finale.
And now the restaurant has published a hardcover cookbook that's been making me drool late into the night as I pore over its sumptuously photographed showcase of East-meets-West regional fusion recipes.
It's been almost four years since I last visited the restaurant and I had forgotten just how chic it is. Housed in a handsome brick-and-wood-beam heritage warehouse conversion, the spacious room buzzes with a New York kind of vibe. Even on a Tuesday, the place is hopping. Oh, is that Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson in the corner?
I slide up to the long, glossy wood bar and enjoy a delightful Weekend in May cocktail (a blend of vodka, sake, yuzu and Chartreuse with a floating shiso leaf) while watching the nearby sushi chefs slicing and rolling, broadcast on closed circuit television.
When my friend arrives, we start gushing over each other's hair, as some gals are wont to do.
The grinning young bartender seems to appreciate her smooth locks, too.
"I'd like to run my fingers through it," he purrs.
"Right. Okay," she says, burying her nose in the menu.
The awkward flirting dissipates into an equally embarrassing air of dismissal when we move to the dining room. The hostess leads us swiftly past an empty four-top in front of the open kitchen and beyond several roomy (also vacant) booths, then winds back through the centre of the room before depositing us at the worst seat in the house, a small table for two wedged behind a massive old-growth column.
After a lengthy wait, the server arrives and offers us an aperitif. No thanks.
He moves on to mineral water. "Sparkling or flat?" Um, tap will be fine. He returns to fill our glasses and then disappears for what feels like eons.
Blue Water Cafe is really two restaurants in one. There is the Western-influenced dining room, overseen by Mr. Pabst, who boasts a Michelin-starred pedigree from Germany and France. Then there's the Japanese raw bar, run by Yoshi Tabo. According to the new cookbook, the chef left his eponymous restaurant on Denman Street because he was attracted by Blue Water's commitment to using the best, freshest, "all-sustainable" fish. Still, the menu offers various versions of unagi, which environmentalists strongly suggest we avoid.
Still, the sushi here is so divine, we bow to him regardless. Spot prawn nigiri ($3.75 each) is lusciously fresh and firm at first bite, yet creamy on the tongue (similar to lobster). The plump bodies are snuggled against fluffy lozenges of rice and served alongside their lightly battered deep-fried heads, which are scrumptiously crunchy to the last beady black eyeball.
Halibut tataki ($14.50) is thinly sliced and lightly scorched. The glistening flesh is topped with delicate threads of scallion and spicy grated daikon.
We are thoroughly impressed - then everything goes downhill.
"And you'll be sharing that?" the waiter interjects condescendingly after my friend orders her dinner.
Just because we split our sushi and ordered tap water doesn't mean that we don't want our own meals. Where is that young bartender when you need him? I'd rather we be treated like cougars than cheapskates.
Mr. Pabst has earned a reputation as a champion of sustainability with his Unsung Heroes menu, which features such abundant yet underappreciated Pacific Northwest species as mackerel, sardines, periwinkles and gooseneck barnacles.
The tasting menu, alas, is only available in January, the slowest month in the business. Though some may regard this as a cop-out, we do find some unsung seafood on the regular menu, even if it's not highlighted as such.
Red sea urchin mousse blended with Qualicum Beach scallop ($16.50) is the appetizer with which Mr. Pabst won the Gold Medal Plates' regional round. It was a commendably bold choice given that the sweet, briny flavour of sea urchin can be challenging to some.
Now a mainstay on the regular menu, this elegant-looking dish is laid out on a rectangular plate with a tangle of crisply refreshing wakame seaweed salad over a stripe of sake-yuzu jelly in the centre, a dramatically slanted shot glass of cucumber vichyssoise foam to one side, and a yellow puck of ponzu-glazed urchin and scallop surrounded by tissue-thin nori crisps on the other.
Hmm, where's the jiggle? The thickly gelatinized "mousse" has lost all of the airy delicacy that once wowed the contest judges. The texture of this modified version is now almost rubbery.
Not as rubbery, mind you, as the thick chunks of flying squid ($17.50). This other unsung hero, dusted in a coarse coriander-seed flour, is served overtop a tasty Dungeness crab and couscous salad. The chickpeas lend the salad some heft and the harissa vinaigrette adds oomph, but it still seems like an oddly rustic dish for a fine-dining restaurant.
A flinty slab of pan-fried lingcod ($29.50) is entombed in a greasy golden crisp. The "warm" celeriac panna cotta is cold and stiff, more like a mash. And the beluga lentils with caramelized salsify are stranded in an incredibly salty tarragon mustard jus that has congealed into a sticky skin.
White sturgeon ($36.50) is so overcooked it's about as tender as a wet wool blanket. I have to blow on the pumpernickel crust to cool it down before I can even take a bite. We do enjoy the sweet cauliflower purée and red-beet wine reduction, but the gnocchi are grossly gummy.
"Saving room for dessert," the server jokes when removing our half-eaten plates.
Sadly, no.
He nevertheless brings us a complimentary plate of petit fours, which have obviously come straight from the refrigerator. The cinnamon madeleines are ice-cold and chewy.
I've had better meals at Blue Water Cafe and I honestly think the kitchen is capable
of much more. Mr. Pabst
isn't here tonight, but should that matter? Given the restaurant's reputation - and the premium prices it charges - every meal should be excellent and each customer treated like a VIP.
Blue Water Cafe+Raw Bar:
1095 Hamilton St.; 604-688-8078.
Alexandra Gill