Surrey`s My Shanti sparkles

Saturday, January 10, 2015 | BREAKING NEWS: VANCOUVERSUN.COM
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SPOTLIGHT
Restaurants
Surrey’s My Shanti sparkles
Vikram Vij’s sequined suburban eatery one of 2014’s most notable
Mia Stainsby
Vancouver Sun
T
he opening of a destination restaurant in Surrey marked 2014.
Yes, one worthy of a drive from
restaurant-rich Vancouver.
You can of course, have a comparable experience at Vij’s in Vancouver because My Shanti (“my peace”)
is run by Vikram Vij.
The restaurant announced its
arrival in Surrey with a shimmering Bollywoody headband on its
exterior wall, featuring hundreds of
glittery silver metal sequins. Inside,
it’s exotic but more low-key. But the
food, most importantly, has to sparkle for the inter-urban trip. Indeed,
the all-important spicing is orchestral without sharp, harsh edges or
muddy flavours. Dishes often come
with a couple of gorgeously hued and
wonderfully delicious chutneys.
The year 2014 otherwise continued
in the post-recessionary mode to
which the city’s grown accustomed
— good food in budget restaurants
with chefs who, pre-recession, might
have had delusions of bewitching
and luring a first Michelin inspector
to Vancouver.
The only new restaurant where
wearing a suit or heels wouldn’t
be over-dressed was Boulevard at
Sutton Place Hotel, elegant with
superior service, but not imperious
enough to snub chicken wings or
burgers.
Cafe Medina, which isn’t entirely
new, reinvented itself at a new location in bigger, better digs. The hourplus waits to get a seat should be a
heads up that urban lifestyles appreciate a good breakfast and brunch. If
it’s as good as at Cafe Medina, hipsters will put aside sidewalk rage to
wait to get in.
I’ve been wondering when the
Ottolenghi Effect would hit Vancouver. Yottam Ottolenghi’s Middle Eastern food establishments in
London have shown the world what
fools we be for ignoring the cuisine
for so long. Jamjar, a Lebanese restaurant, stepped up with hearty
homestyle dishes. (And no, I haven’t
forgotten about Tamam, a popular
Mark van Manen/PNG
Vikram Vij, centre, keeps diners Taryn Zimmer and Tom Lewis entertained inside My Shanti in south Surrey’s Morgan Crossing last summer.
Palestinian restaurant which has
been around for a few years.)
The year 2015 is off to a good start.
Uwe Boll, whose day job is film producer, director and screenwriter
(fantasy, thriller, horror) has hired
Michelin star chef-restaurateur Stefan Hartmann from Berlin to head
Bauhaus, a modern German restaurant in Gastown. Hartmann has
done a tour of duty of Michelinanointed restaurants around Europe
and Bauhaus general manager Tim
Adams has worked at Kensington
Palace, Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace, hosting high-profile royal and political guests.
A high-end German restaurant?
Who would have thought? Well,
exactly. That’s why Boll is opening
Bauhaus.
“The problem is how German food
is presented outside the country,”
he said when I talked to him a few
months ago. “It’s not sausage and
meat. Germany is now the No. 3
country with the most Michelin
stars. The cooking is completely
different from here. It’s not culinary school cooking — it’s through
apprenticeships for a few years
at two and three Michelin-star
restaurants.”
The food will be “real,” he said. In
other words, no science experiments
or paintings on a plate.
“Not just a few spoonfuls but real
portions,” he said.
David Hawksworth, the reigning monarch of modern cuisine in
Vancouver, is in expansion mode.
I reached him by phone as he was
walking his dog in Whistler earlier
this week.
“I’m a ski fanatic,” he said. “I
almost became a ski instructor but
it didn’t look like the best career
choice.”
His new restaurant in the University Club at 1021 West Hastings
won’t be as high-end as Hawksworth, his flagship restaurant, but
so much the better because we won’t
have to blow our monthly allowance
for Hawksworth food. He anticipates it will be open by fall and it has
a name, but he’s keeping it mum for
now.
And Saturday he’s gone out of
bounds, staging a pop-up Hawksworth restaurant at Steeps Grill on
Whistler Mountain with a threecourse lunch for $59 involving
choices such as crispy Asian duck
salad, winter squash ravioli and dark
chocolate fondant. A $29 apres ski
charcuterie is on offer, too, as well as
a kids’ menu. (Call 604-905-2379 to
see if there’s any room at the table.)
And Vancouver’s healthy, sustainable, vegetarian side of things won’t
be ignored. Brian Skinner, former
chef-owner of Acorn, the best vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver, will
move on to something new in vegetarian cuisine, he says. We’ll just
have to wait and see, he says.
Meanwhile, let’s take a look at
what 2014 brought us in the way of
best new restaurants.
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Blog: vancouversun.com/miastainsby
Twitter.com/miastainsby
Vancouver’s best new restaurants in 2014
Au Comptoir
Boulevard
Jamjar
You’d swear you’re in France. Au Comptoir captures not only the look but the
feel of the real thing. Even the diners
are in on the act with animated conversations and close-knit seating. The
food wasn’t consistent upon a couple
of visits but when it’s good, it’s very,
very good. The roasted pheasant and
chestnut pithivier with coffee carrots
comes to mind.
Fleuri at Sutton Place Hotel was
abandoned in the 1980s and needed
rebranding or a whole new life. Boulevard came in as the latter, all modern
and sparkly, compared to Fleuri’s bland
carpeted interior. The Boulevard message is elegance, but the menu chafes
at that and sneaks in down-market
dishes like the chicken wings which
I think might be better than Pok Pok
chicken wings. (Pok Pok restaurant in
Portland, Ore., or New York is where
you’ll find those gnarly and delicious
wings.) An oyster bar features the
fast-fingered Bob Skinner, a two-time
oyster-shucking world champ. For dessert, I was blindsided by the red velvet
cake which I thought might bore but
was tremblingly good.
Let’s hear it for Jamjar for showing
us how to love, love, love hummus.
It’s sooo good here. The Lebanese
restaurant is also a step in the right
direction to fill the Middle Eastern food
void. Chicken yakni, a chicken stew in
a tomato sauce, was the highlight for
me. Check out the daily catch — It was
a delish snapper one evening.
2278 West 4th Ave.| 604-569-2278
Info: aucomptoir.ca
The Abbey
This gastro pub opened on the heels
of another, The Fat Badger. This one’s
run by Andrey Durbach and Chris
Stewart, adding to their collection of
Sardine Can, Pied-a-Terre and La Buca.
The Abbey wanders off course into
fine cuisine, but you will encounter
dishes like Toulouse sausage with
spring onion potato mash and Lancashire hot pot with lamb shank.
17 West Pender St. | 604-336-7100
Info: abbeyvan.com
Blacktail
After opening with the ironic name
Blacktail Florist early last year, it went
through a rebrand with a new chef,
new food — a redemption, really. As
BF, some dishes were home runs while
others were crudely composed and
some fell for trendy items like pop
rocks. Now, it’s dispensed with Florist
(no more walk-ins for flower arrangements) and dishes are simpler, more
cohesive and the focus is on flavour.
332 Water St. | 604-699-0249
Info: blacktailflorist.ca
845 Burrard St. | 604-642-2900
Info: vancouver.suttonplace.com/
restaurant_bar.htm
Bufala
Pizzerias, like sushi shops, proliferate
like pansies. Bufala, in the heart of
Kerrisdale, is a cut above with a rustic
crust and fresh flavourful toppings.
Side dishes aren’t just cliché fillers —
there are dishes like seared squid and
sausage with caponata and watercress
and a kale salad with good bacon and
a poached egg.
5395 West Boulevard | 604-267-7499
Info: bufala.ca
Cafe Medina
This wonderful breakfast-lunch spot
shows how deeply we can fall for
assertive Middle Eastern spices and
hearty dishes when they’re done right.
It’s so done-right here that people
wait with extraordinary patience for a
table. The harissa pain plat, a layered
2280 Commercial Dr.| 604-252-3957
Info: jamjaronthedrive.com
My Shanti
Steve Bosch/PNG files
With dishes like roasted pheasant and chestnut pithivier with
coffee-roasted carrots, Au Comptoir brings France to Kitsilano.
affair with grilled pita, beef, Manchego
cheese, tomato salsa, fried eggs
with hummus and greens is but one
Moroccan-style breakfast dish.
780 Richards St. | 604-879-3114
Info: medinacafe.com
Canyon
Over 30 years ago, Scott Kidd was a
leading-edge chef, cooking in kitchens
such as Sooke Harbour House, Le Gavroche and William Tell. He’s now running
this neighbourhood bistro with Caitlin
Hall, former chef at Pied-a-Terre, putting
out straightforward dishes, all on point,
pitched to more conservative palates.
3135 Edgemont Boulevard,
North Vancouver | 604-987-8812
Info: thecanyon.ca
Cinara
When Lucais Syme parted company
with Adam Pegg and divvied up
restaurants, Pegg took La Quercia and
Syme got La Pentola, the more formal
of the two. Cinara, in the 117-year-old
Victorian Hotel, showcases Syme’s food
in a more affordable way. The menu is
short and changes frequently. In the
latter part of last year, Cinara opened
for lunch as well as dinner.
350 West Pender St. | 604-428-9694
Info: cinara.ca
The Fat Badger
Neil Taylor is known for his fine but
rustic cuisine, first at Cibo then at his
own restaurant, Espana (Spanish tapas).
With Fat Badger, he shares his Englishness. It’s a very good facsimile of an
old-fashy English pub with dishes like
black pudding, Yorkshire pudding with
roast beef and a killer toffee pudding.
Back in England, he says, people go for
pints. It’s the equivalent of going for
coffee in Vancouver.
1616 Alberni St.| 604-336-5577
Info: fatbadger.ca
I’ve already rhapsodized about Vikram
Vij’s suburban foray in the accompanying story. It’s fab! Living closer to Vij’s,
the flagship is no reason to ignore My
Shanti. The menu is completely different with dishes inspired by Vij’s travels
around India. The samosas are perfection. Calicut beef shortribs bathed in
saffron coconut cream curry (so tender
you don’t need a knife) is amazing.
15869 Croyden Dr., Surrey | 604-560-4416
Info: myshanti.com
Temper
You might think you walked into a
Thomas Haas patisserie shop. Steven Hodge worked for Haas for four
years, as well as in a Gordon Ramsay
three-star kitchen, and Wolfgang
Puck’s Spago before moving back to
Dundarave, his boyhood home. The
chocolates and pastries are lovely and
he’s no slouch in the sandwich and
quiche department. The meats are
from nearby Sebastien & Co., known
for excellent products.
2409 Marine Dr., West Vancouver |
604-281-1152
Info: temperpastry.com
Mia Stainsby, Vancouver Sun
E3