We went to L'Abattoir for dinner last Friday night to celebrate our first two months of marriage (because why not) and because my husband had still not yet been to this Gastown gem despite all of our foodie adventures.
If you're looking to mark a special occasion, note that you'll definitely want to make a reservation at least 2 weeks in advance - even during the pandemic! My hubby made the reservation and was shocked that finding a table would be so difficult, but I assured him it was worth it.
It's the perfect venue for an intimate, cozy, and fun dinner whether it's date night, a night out with friends or coworkers, or showing visitors the best of the Vancouver restaurant scene.
We were seated in the back space which is a glass enclosure facing the inner courtyard of Gaoler's Mews, complete with twinkle lights and exposed brick walls.
Andrew was our server for the evening and provided impeccable service from start to finish - extremely knowledgable, attentive, and welcoming without being intrusive. We were extra lucky as he's also (one of?) the sommeliers, so he was able to give us suggestions on wine pairings based on other wines we liked and what we were planning to eat. He was a joy.
On to the food!
We started with a round of the Paper Seaplane cocktails (Woods amaro, Boulard calvados, Cocchi americano rosa, tart orange, avocado pit and oat orgeat, bitters), which we both loved. It was woods-y, and citrus-y goodness without being too sweet despite the calvados.
We then ordered the starter of pan-fried veal sweetbreads on toast (pickled shallots, sauce gribiche with veal tongue in it) - it was delicious and the presentation was beautiful (really). As the name indicates, it's one piece of toast fully loaded which made sharing a little difficult if you're hoping to preserve the presentation. Regardless, it was excellent. If you're a fan of sweetbreads (or have just been curious about 'em), I would recommend starting here. It smelled amazing and so we dove in immediately, and forgot to snap a photo before we were half-way through the toast (not so beautiful) but it's a popular dish so check out the other photos for reference.
Their famous bread basket was also delivered to the table and included 3 different types of carb-y goodness, including a cheese and bacon roll; a sardine twist pastry, and a homemade cracker loaded with seeds and spices. The twist and cracker were our faves.
For our next starter, we ordered the chilled marinated octopus (saffron emulsion, chili, crispy potato) and it was the food highlight of the evening for me. Again, the presentation was well executed and all of the flavours and textures worked perfectly together (see photo).
It was then time to move on to wine so in perusing the list and bouncing some ideas with Andrew, we opted for a French Malbec (can't resist teasing our Argentinian friends). We had the Château Les Croisille '19 Malbec which was pleasant - juicy fresh raspberry, pomegranate and blackberry fruit with a smooth and supple finish. Easy to drink, though not particularly interesting or memorable.
For our main, we shared the Thiessen Farm quail with smoked and grilled foie gras (stone fruit, Tokyo turnips, escarole). Once again, the presentation was gorgeous (see photo) and the flavours were bang on - the little parcels of foie gras were divine and melted in your mouth. This was my husband's food highlight of the evening. The quail was succulent and paired perfectly with the bright fruit flavours.
Ultimately, we were too full for dessert but Andrew surprised us with a celebratory glass of bubbly each to help mark the occasion. A perfect end to a perfect evening - thank you to Andrew and the entire L'Abattoir team for making the evening so special for us! We can't 'til our next visit. read more