I bought the Blue Water Café cookbook at Costco for a couple of reasons; I like the restaurant and I like cookbooks with pictures. Start the peanut gallery comments but I like to see the finished dish before I start to cook it. The photos and food looked outstanding and it became pretty darn obvious pretty darn fast that I had to go back and eat there.
Blue Water Café is one of the best, upscale Vancouver restaurants. A huge space, a bar where you come just to be seen and were the beautiful people hang out. OK, no more peanut gallery comments about what I was doing there.
And a much talked about (read expensive) sushi bar headed by cut master Yoshi Tabo . I didn’t have any sushi, but it sure looked good coming out to other tables.
The overhead for this place must be huge and that often worries me sometime on the price side. And yes, this place is expensive but they deliver. I haven’t had a bad meal or for that matter a mediocre meal here yet.
There a re few things I tend to order 90% of the time when I see them on the menu. One is ceviche.
Here the Mixed Ceviche, cucumber, grapefruit, ginger, fresh coriander was outstanding. In fact I just saw it on a list in Vancouver Magazines 101 things to eat in Vancouver before you die. I have to agree on this dish. There were some other questionable choices in the mag. Nobody ever asks me.
braised fennel, artichokes and green olives, veal jus with roasted garlic and anchovy did not blow me away. Not to say that it was mediocre, but you sometimes expect a bit more from a place like this. Sorry.
Overall the BLue Water Café is the Type of place that I wouldn’t hesitate recommending and visiting often.
Check them out at: www.bluewatercafe.net
