Gastropod Restaurant

I love Gastropod. I also love excellent Thai food. So it is with mixed emotions that I just read the latest online buzz that Chef Angus An is going to transition Gastropod into a slightly upscale Thai restaurant called Maenam.
Chef An worked in the past at the only Michelin-​starred Thai restaurant in the world — David Thompson’s Nahm in London. Apparently his wife is also Thai. So this holds a lot of potential.
Apparently Gastropod may re-​open in the future in a different location, but for now Maenam is slated to open in May after Gastropod closes in April.
I don’t know if I should jump for joy for a high quality Thai place (which I’m sure Chef An’s skills and training are certain to deliver) or cry for the loss of what I consider the best fine-​dining establishment in Vancouver. Hm… Tough choice! For now I’ll look at it in a positive light. But this better be damn good Thai food!

I’m been meaning to come to this restaurant since peeking in after shopping on 4^th Ave and its Vancouver Mag award a couple of years ago.
My husband and I decided to try it out as part of Dine Out Vancouver and I’m a fan! Even though it was busy during dine out, the service was wonderful. very friendly, attentive and regular refilling of our glasses and bread to start. Nice décor and music, with a nice amount of background noise. Love the bar area.
I loved my meal, and my husband had mixed feelings on part of it, which is the reason for the 4 rating. I had the sweet onion soup to start, with a nice balance of flavors, creaminess and the aded crunch of some croutons. My husband started with a green salad — the greens were good quality and nicely presented, but the dressing was a bit lemon-​ish plus some other flavors he didn’t care for.
My main was excellent and his was good. I had the salmon wrapped in seaweed/​nori with the light tempura batter and a creamy wasabi sauce on the side, served over a bed of rice and greens. This was amazing — we both loved this. Beautiful presentation, great texture and the sauce went beautifully with the salmon. My husband had a pork shoulder with sides of potatoes and veggies. The sides were great and the meat was very tender with good flavor, but it wasn’t well trimmed.
Desserts were great. The chocolate fondant is their version of the lava cake with a side of rasberry sorbet… delicious! I still prefer the original Jean Georges molten cake, but this one is pretty good (and you don’t have to travel to NYC to get it!). Mine was unique — I ordered the Mexican hot chocolate. I didn’t realize it was actually going to be an ice cream sandwich with some spicy hot chocolate drink on the side. The ice cream centre was just the right firmness and the cookie around it was still nice and crisp. Very tasty.
I would definitely return. I was pleased with this and thought it was especially good value with DOV. I dropped it a star because of my husband’s feedback on his dishes.

Wow, we came here on a Friday night for their early bird $ 35 3-​course meal (offered daily from 5:30 — 6:30pm), and we were blown away. It was very quiet, and the atmosphere was great, and the service was relaxed. They gave us a sampling of beet soup to start, and it was amazing. We knew we were off to a good start. The rest of the food was excellent and very creative. The dessert included a bacon-​flavored ice cream — we thought it was weird, but it was sublime! I ended up licking the bowl clean! (not really)
The chef really brought out the flavor of the ingredients without depending on sauces. The whole experience was very well worth the money!
(We also went to Fuel for lunch the same day, just next door, and the food and service wasn’t as good Gastropod’s)

This might not be fair and will probably piss some of you off, but I cannot resist. Let me start by admitting that I have been considered a pompous, self righteous, arrogant bastard, at times (many times). I do think that for the most part, mine is just a game, not reality (meaning, it’s not the real me). Recently, this past Saturday night in fact, I met some one who put’s my arrogance to shame, and worse than that, BELIEVES IN IT! So, when did a bartender decide he should cockier and more full of himself than Terrell Owens (Dallas Cowboys) or Kobe Bryant (Lakers)? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good bartender and a great drink, I really do. But ranting and raving about how great you are and that every restaurant in town is «begging» you to work for them? It was absurd. No body is worthy of being that imperious. He was nice and made two good drinks, no question. The steak tartar was phenomenal and I wish we would have had more food than just that… but we had to move on. I would return, but might get a table next time (which there was plenty of…) for fear that our ego’s combined could cause some sort of surreal catastrophe.

The Bee’s Knees was truly a great cocktail. We invited the bartender to make drinks for us based on our selected alcohol and I got a Hendricks and honey martini. It was aptly titled and I will try to reproduce the recipe at home for sure.
They served a complimentary beet trio that was terrific (I love beets) and the beef tartarre was in fact delicious — a very original take on one of my favorite appetizers.
So all of that was terrific and the ambiance was nice, though empty due to a few harmless snowflakes. The bartender was — in a word — confident. No, arrogant is the better word. Informative, yes; no doubt he knows the scene and gave us some helpful tips, but he also made it known that he thinks he’s the bees knees too…

After scouring around Fourth Avenue yesterday, eager to see what remained of the summer sales and preview what was to come for fall, my mum and I were left with very little in our wallets but a very loud rumble in our bellies. Luckily, Gastropod had just opened its doors for its early prix fixe dinner.
The décor was modern and sleek without being overly trendy. Crisp white linen and votive candles adorned each tabletop, lending a romantic air to the scene, while Nick Drake played quietly in the background.
The wait staff was very attentive and went through nearly each dish on the menu, explaining the different ingredients, cooking methods and preparation techniques.
On order that night were cauliflower soup, lobster mushroom, squash, beans and pasta dish (me), and a crispy pork belly (mum). The cauliflower soup was lovely. Thick and topped with fresh herbs, it was creamy yet light. The pasta dish, too, was delicious. I’d never had lobster mushrooms before; it had a very meaty, dense texture, almost like chicken, but the flavour was quite seafood-​y. The fruitiness of both the mushrooms and roasted beans kept the meal from feeling too heavy. I can’t speak for my mum but she, also, seemed to enjoy her order and looked thoroughly sated.

Amazing food! Chef An has an amazing palette and executes delicious dishes with beautiful presentation. He includes innovative elements such as «snow» and «foam» to infuse subtle flavors with traditional ingredients. Each dish is unique and the ingredients are so fresh. The service was also outstanding and I love the modern décor. Gastropod is such a gem!