604 Foodtography

I’m not a huge fan of Dine Out Vancouver. It’s lost its purpose in the last couple years and it’s so hyped up that restaurants kind of forget the reason why they’re participating in this great event. Some restaurants have smartened up and either withdrew themselves (ie, Chambar which took out an ad last year in the Georgia Straight declaring their withdrawal) or offer their own prix-fixe menus independent of the DOV/Tourism Vancouver branding…but I won’t ramble on, I’ll just refer you to a great post by food and tell that sums things up quite nicely. However…it’s not to say that I will completely rule this event out, I’ve done a couple in the past, such as Cobre and The Point, both of which are restaurants that are more off the “POPULAR” radar, both of which I enjoyed.

Anyways, acting upon a great DOV suggestion post from Vanfoodies, I was sold on hidden as soon as I saw “pacific poutine”, “chicken & waffles” and “beavertail”. Just look at the ridiculous $18 steal of a deal menu they were offering! Another reason for trying this place out, I had a willing companion, Yen from OMNOMics. Just like the name says, it’s hidden inside a hotel on Robson. Ohhhh you love my wit.

I feel like a dick for not posting this earlier because that meant you as a reader would have had a chance to visit hidden, but there were other reviews posted quite promptly so I don’t feel as bad.

So it’s a lounge type environment, just a bar w/tv when you see the hostess, and the dining area is a mixture of round tables, couches, and more intimate two-seaters by the window. Their beer list is respectable and had a couple of my own personal favorites on it as well! It was mighty tempting to get a chocolate porter while I waited for the late one to arrive.

The big benefit of online menus is that you can know what you’re getting into before you even step foot into the restaurant..so because of this, I already knew what I wanted. The only problem now was what Yen wanted. We just ordered the opposites and shared.

So..appetizers first! When it came, it had such a strong fishy smell..but yet the halibut itself was perfectly fine. Perhaps it was the oil they used to fry the fries? They were overfried slightly as you can see by their color. That was just a slight imperfection though, everything balanced out, crispy fries, melt in your mouth cheese curds, a creamy acidic lemon hollandaise that just dripped from each fry…completely satisfied me and more.

Pacific Poutine with halibut cheeks, qualicum cheese curds, crispy yukon golds and lemon hollandaise.

The other appetizer was a salad and was light and refreshing. I never knew there were orange beets! I’m very grateful that the blue cheese did not overpower anything on this plate, as it has a tendency to do if not used properly. The grapefruit could have been cut up smaller to match the proportions of the beets..but really I’m just being nitpicky here.

Beets and blues Salad with roasted chioga beets, crumbled blue cheese, grapefruit and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Chicken and waffles is a dish that you will normally find in USA, especially in the southern states, and is something I’ve always wanted to try. A bizarre combination and marriage of two opposites can be..wonderful.

Chicken and Waffles – fried fraser valley chicken and cheddar waffles served with an apple/jack gravy.

A quarter of a cheddar waffle was placed on the plate below a crispy piece of chicken, topped off with an ample amount of slightly fried apple julienne strips and green beans and drizzled with gravy.

It was really hard to share this….it was SO. DAMN. GOOD. Juicy fried chicken, savory waffles, abundance of gravy and apple strips..weird combination but a flavour explosion in your mouth. I’m happy to let you know that they offer this on their regular menu, though it’s offered with a watermelon relish instead. Should still be good though…in fact it rounds itself out even more.. fried chicken, waffles, watermelon.. har har.

I feel bad that Yen had to get this, but at least I shared the pain with her. The tuna was so salty, I felt like I was eating ham instead. It didn’t help that the olives underneath were also salty, but at least the tatertots offered some blandness to counter it all. Sorry to say, but I didn’t enjoy this much and I recall commenting many times about how …salty it was.

Smoked and seared albacore tuna with gorgonzola stuffed tatertots, kalamata coulis and sunchoke chips.

Of course, the lady always gets her dessert and she got to pick first. Beavertail! The beavertail itself was not as good as the one from Beavertails, that’s for sure, as this one was quite dry… crunchy almost. Was it overfried or was there just not enough batter? The house made ice cream was delicious though, I need the recipe for it.

Cinnamon dusted beavertail with Canadian whiskey, caramel sauce and house made lemon-sour cream ice cream.

Before I left the house, I had just read meplusfood’s post about Hidden, and my curiosity was piqued when I saw how this particular parfait was assembled.

Root beer, hazelnut and maple ice cream parfait.

I was really disappointed when there were no jelly cubes of root beer in my glass….just a small smattering of liquid at the bottom of the cup. I wanted to ask the server but decided against it.. it tasted great but would have been a lot cooler if it was presented the way I had seen.

hidden is new so I don’t fault them for experimenting and tweaking things on their menu..I’d give them a bit of time to find their groove and finalize things, but from what I saw that night (the place filled up quickly!) I think they’re doing just fine.

OMNOMics post about hidden.

If you go, I hope you enjoy as much as I did. Just make sure you keep this place a secret