Recently I was invited to join a group of friends for a nice dinner out at Coal Harbour’s own Aqua Riva. Located in the bottom of the Province building (Suite 30 -200 Granville St.) the most obvious feature of the restaurant is the view, which is a pretty spectacular view of the harbour and North Van.
The next thing I noticed was the menu. The menu at Aqua Riva is a mighty tome indeed and really covers all the bases. From prime rib to pasta to foie gras it’s really all there. A large menu is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and I’ll tell you why: it’s a design flaw. A large menu is an overload of options and tends to make choosing your dinner actually much more difficult. There’s also the fact that a very large menu causes one to question whether the chefs can really make all of these dishes to the standard of the others.
I turned in my PETA membership to the server and ordered the Seared Quebec Foie Gras with wood grilled pear salad and honey lemon jus. I have to say it’s probably the best appetizer I’ve ever had. The searing on the Foie Gras gave a wonderful contrasting bitterness to the incredibly rich natural flavor which was again offset by the pears and accented wonderfully by the jus. It really came together well and aside from perhaps improving the plating a bit, this was the perfect appetizer.
I was somewhat less enthused by the entree of sablefish, which I normally love. It seemed under-spiced and none of the accompanying vegetables really seemed to work well with the flavors and textures. It seemed like my large menu hypothesis was proving true.
For large groups, such as the one I was with, Aqua Riva remains a solid choice. The large menu means there will be something for everyone, it’s certainly a large enough venue, and the location and service are both very impressive. Consistency among the menu items should not be expected however.
Aqua Riva
Lunch Monday to Friday, 11:30 AM-2:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday Lunch: CLOSED
Dinner Sunday to Thursday, from 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Friday & Saturday, from 5:00 PM - 10:30 PM
P:604-683-5599
Photo Credit (and Apologies): Quentin Muhlert
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Food/Restaurants, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Good post big man — I’m stoked about checking this out after my next Guu evening just around the corner. We should have a staff party or something…