100 Mile Menu at Raincity Grill

The 100 mile menu at Raincity grill consists of all BC ingredients that have been found within 100 miles of the restaurant. They were one of the very first restaurants to embrace the movement. It features sustainable and seasonal meats and seafoods. Sean and I decided to check them out. Sean is a fan of Raincity…

Mary Sheridan

November 5, 2011

2–3 minutes

100 mile menu, bistros, sustainablity, tidal

Sean and I decided to check them out. Sean is a fan of Raincity Grill, and you can check his previous lunch review here.

We purchased a Groupon for their 100 mile menu. I’ve always been a fan of tasting menus, as you get to sample a larger variety of the restaurant’s cuisine and is more affordable than purchasing each dish a la carte. The downside? smaller (and in this case, much, much smaller) portions.

The Groupon was $80 for two people and we opted to have the wine paring as well for an extra $40 per person.

We started with the North Arm Farm Beetroot Salad It came with a small goat cheese cannelloni, and hazelnut mulch. The beets were perfect, and the nuts gave this dish a satisfying crunch. We had the Sumac Ridge brut with this dish. Delicious!

Secondly we had the Salt Spring Island Clams in a garlic, white wine and celery sauce. For an extra $6 we ordered the french fries, and I do recommend getting them. Sean chose the butter squash soup instead, it was deliciously creamy.

Following that course, we had the Fraser Valley Duck Proscuitto with endive salad in an averill creek blackberry gastrique.

The duck is cured in-house, and it taste just like proscuitto.

For our main dish we had the Fraser valley Roast Pork with smoked potato fondant, braised red cabbage and apple-chardonnay jus. This was my favourite dish of the night, and I would highly recommend it! The pork was juicy and tender and very flavourful.

The potatoes were cooked to perfection and the sweetness of the apple-chardonnay jus was a delightful combination. Great dish.

We also had the Farmhouse Cheese Platter with cheddar and alpine gold cheeses. Now the menu said this dish was for two. But really wasn’t – there were two small pieces of cheese, barely enough for one person.

For dessert, we had the Plum and Apple Semifreddo. This is a semi-frozen Italian dessert made with whipped cream and gelato. yum, so good.

Overall, I think everyone should experience the 100 mile menu at least once.

Would I try another tasting menu here? probably not. The portions were much too small, and even with the Groupon discount, our meal came to about $160. The wine pairing was touch and go, some of the wines were perfect with our food, some completely missed the mark.

The RainCity Grill is Zagat rated – you can check them out here.

One response to “100 Mile Menu at Raincity Grill”

Bryan

November 26, 2011 at 10:15 am

My wife and I went there, did that…… totally disappointed!

We mentioned that we had this groupon for the 100 mile menu when we reserved our table and were looking forward to our introductory visit to this restaurant.

On arrival we were seated at a small table for two, one of four in a row that were squeezed so close together that I was closer to the guys on either side of me than to my wife across the table.

We were presented with menus and after a few minutes our waiter introduced himself and we mentioned the groupon. In a flurry the waiter took the fancy menus from us and advised that we would not be needing them and rushed off only to return with a sheet of paper for each of us and announcing that this would be our menus, which to our embarrassment became the focus of attention for the couples next to us.

The 6 course menu is fixed (one optional choice on a couple courses are offered but at extra cost), just hope that you like what is offered. Being a tasting menu we expected smaller portions but because there would be 6 courses we thought it would be sufficient for us, but the tiny portions were ridiculous (the main course pork was maybe 2 oz with 1 tiny (1/2 inch) roast potato. We laughed at the size (the photos posted here must have been taken with a macro lens ;) they should have shown a fork for perspective. Anyway, the food was just ok, not great, the ambiance diminished by the crowding of tables while the service was indifferent.

This dinner would be comparable to a 6 item appetizer, we left hungry (my wife weighs about 100 lbs and is a very light eater).

We felt ripped off and got the impression that this was just a money grab.

This deal was definitely not worth the effort and we will not visit this place again.

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Mary in Vancity