Judas Goat Taberna

This was more of a mission destination for one item on their menu that I could not find on any other ‘google’ search in this city for: «Culatello» and this was the place that popped up, right on the menu to, and since I asked my cousin what he really wanted to eat, and he said it, this was going to be the destination for the night. Located in Gastown in Blood Alley, this place can be hard to find if your not too sure where this place is, and then you realize how small the interior is. I’ve seen more living rooms and personal kitchens that could be bigger than this establishment, but they have made it feel spacious and chic for this new age of eating.
We had a party of about 6, split amonst the end wall on two little round tables and huddled around, this was how we ate on this day, it was tight, it was cozy and yet it was fine. Some people may complain about this, but as my first paragraph said, this place is small, deal with it peoples as they do a good job on serving the quality of food they do. From glasses of wine flling the tables to plates of crispy chickpeas, charcuterie plate, artichoke and garlic spread, this place is a tapas bar, small sharing plates, cozy environment and a very cool mural in weird funky lettering that kept a few of our tables eyes from deciphering the entire thing with the goats head.
If your not in for small places, and need to stretch your arms, stay away, and be warned if you get one of the metal stools here, your butt may get numb. The washroom is down a hallway, and Judas makes the most of the room they are using, you see everything so you know what is being done to your food, if your like that kind of stuff. My review is on the basis of not eating dinner here, but having tapas. They were a little small, but I guess that comes with the lure of Gastown and these type of places. A good place to mingle with your close friends, and probably a good place to get close with the person your bringing on a date… that’s if your in for that kinda thing. which you probably are… hope the person you bring is too!

Judas Goat is a great place to kick back with friends for a drink and a delicious meal! Excellent service, delicious food, and a great atmosphere! I loved it so much that I am going back tonight with a few friends.

Everything was awesome!
My only complaint is that I paid 7 dollars for a TINY glass of wine. This disturbed me not only because I am cheap, but because I am clearly a lush who doesn’t appreciate quality over quantity. Seriously, drop another thimble of the good stuff in my glass and make Momma happy.
The goat cheese cheesecake was amazing. Amazing! So amazing.

I went here with a friend of mine on a late Thursday night dinner. We have been eating all day, so we weren’t completely hungry. Just note though, if you want to come here for a real dinner with an empty stomach, this is NOT the place to go. We thought there would be a lot of people, so we made a reservation ahead of time. However, when we got there, there were only two tables occupied. Thus, it was not a busy place at all.
My friend and I ordered three things: the bread with tomatoes, meatballs, and the sweetbread. The bread and tomato dish was actually delicious… it was a light tomato sauce with butter smeared on top of several small slices of baguette. It was warm and creamy… super delicious. The meatballs with carrot sauce was not as flavorful as I hoped for. The sauce did not have much flavor, and the meatballs were too dry. Lastly, the sweetbread dish. The sweetbread was lightly fried and plated over a cherry sauce. There was only one piece, and I had to cut it in half to share with my friend. There was also a homemade sausage served with this dish. It was awful. I don’t even know how to describe the flavor… it was absolutely horrible.
Overall, my experience here was not that great. Although the service was great and the waitress was always there to serve water and describe the food being served, the actual food was just mediocre. The dishes were extremely small, and way overpriced. I can get so much better in NYC or Spain.

Stopped by for a quick glass of wine, some conversation and to people watch. The best part is the location– I loved feeling like I was in a small, tucked-​in place in a back alley in Italy. The tapas selections and service are decent.
I have to say (again) the main attraction was the night time european feel of being in a cobblestone alley, sitting on bright yellow chairs, with your back facing the alley (no windows) and you facing into the hustle of the restaurant.

Really cute space but overpriced, slow, and uneven food.
Some insults:
$ 8 for a tiny glass of vinho verde (a really cheap wine that could not, under any circumstances, cost more than $ 12 a bottle). I ordered it anyway bc that’s what I wanted to drink.
$ 4 for bread and olive oil.
That’s right: they charge you for bread. Like, six slices of a baguette, not even warm.
The duck was delicious, though. And the space is perfect for a beer and a snack on a warm day. Definitely not a great spot if you want a full meal.

I’ve been wanting to try this place for a while, and since my BFF back home so generously gave me a gift certificate to the Heather Group restaurants, I came here with a friend to see what the hype was all about. We sat at the window looking out over the Blood Alley patrons who really are an entertaining bunch.
Favorite dish of the night was the lamb cheeks with chard. Second favorite was the beef tongue. The duck confit and foie gras was okay and the arugula with chevre was lacking a little umph in the seasoning. Quite enjoyed the manchego and aged mahon cheese but as expected, you don’t get a lot for $ 4. Soooo good.
Lastly, loved the panna cotta with apricot gelee and sliced almonds. This was wonderful.
I was full after sharing the above and consuming two beers.
Stools aren’t too comfy to sit upon and the location/​view is not ideal, but I’d definitely come here again for some good bites and conversation.

Teeny tiny little place in blood alley.
Perks:
–It’s cute
–Friendly staff
–Tasty food
–Solid drink list
Things that made me go «meh»:
–Kind of pricey for what you’re getting
–Made reservations over a week in advance, and still sat at a stool at a communal bar by the window. The place is busy. And small.
–Went for dine out and was super disappointed when I realized the menu was virtually identical to the Irish Heather. C’mon…creativity people! Exact same starters. Exact same desserts. Some variation on the mains. Tiny portions. Loved the root soup. The lemon sponge was nice, although a bit tart. And for the main I had the vegan cauliflower dish which was «meh» at best (and almost cold by the time I got it).
Would I go again? … I’d give it a shot for some small bites and a drink or two.

I am a fan of this place. We were introduced to it last night by a new client. The young lady who tool care of us really knew her way around both the wine list and the menu. So much so that we just let her and the chef create plates for us. She made the evening smooth and relaxing. The atmosphere had excitement in it which made the evening a very positive one.
Although this place is a bit on the pricey side, I felt it was worth every penny. It isn’t often that you can be pampered without giving direction, but on this point they were masters.

This place is loud. Not in an enjoyable, its packed and everyone is talking and I feel a part of a good party. It’s small, very small and the acoustics are horrible. So it’s like you’re on the inside of a ringing bell or something. The seats are also uncomfortable. I’m a small, in shape dude, so I’m not complaining because my butt is too big to sit on a smaller bar stool, these things just sucked. They are metal and the place where you can usually put your feet is a little awkward. You also need a giant key to go to the restroom, which I can’t decide is fun or weird.
I love tapa’s, so I was pumped to try this place. If you’re just trying tapas for the first time, and you’ve chosen to come here, don’t let this be the only place you ever go to. Tapa’s restaurants in the US I’ve been too are 20x better. Usually you can order anything, and it’s great. Bring out a pitcher of Sangria, and you’re having a good night or start to the night. I read the Unilocal reviews and people talked about the meatballs… I don’t get it. They are dry, yet covered in a sauce. That was actually the most notable thing we ate. I guess I just have my bar raised so high by Andina in Portland that anything else is bad by comparison, but I couldn’t help but be pretty disappointed.
They share some of their specials with Salt next door, and since the ambiance at Salt is better, I would say go there if you are really bent on trying one of these two.

It’s a tiny space, probably great for dates, and it’s just something different.
Keeping to a simplistic black and white décor, an open kitchen and bright yellow chairs bring out the fun in this place.
Specializing in small plates, their menu is inspired from Spanish tapas.
Food is in extremely small portions. You should really have a real meal elsewhere before coming here.
If you haven’t been, you could come here to grab a glass of wine and for the atmosphere, although its really not too special considering all the other choices available in Gastown.

Great spot! Very small place so you better hope they aren’t busy when you try to go. The service was great, they explain everything to you when you sit down and check on you often. They have a small beer and wine selection. The food is very high quality. We had an order of the marinated olives, they were decent, just regular Greek olives. We had the braised lamb collar with radish, mint and celery leaf. This was great, wonderful flavors and the lamb melted in your mouth. We also had an order of the beef brisket meatballs with rustic tomato sauce. This was our favorite dish. The flavor was amazing and the meatballs were so soft you could eat them even if you didn’t have teeth.

Cool, fresh, tapas capitalizing on the success of Salt and the Blood Alley effect.
Plates are small; prices are high.
Service is good. Atmosphere – just okay.
Meatballs were great. Salad was tasty but non-​memorable.
Tables are small; no privacy here. But that’s part of the «look» right?
You will spend a lot here and will still leave slightly hungry, especially after imbibing in the wine.
But…
Fine to try once if you love this sort of thing, (and usually I do!) but I would not go out of my way to return due to the pricing; it’s just not worth it for what you’re receiving, even if you factor in the «coolness» of the «alley» view.

What a cool little spot! I’d called to see if they were busy and guess my name popped up as the super bubbly server guessed it was me when I walked in and used my name. She was really helpful at guiding us through the menu and portion sizes.
Three of us went and shared a bunch of tapas and a bottle of Las Rocas. Everything was beautifully made and presented. I’m still dreaming of their empanadas…

Judas Goat was our July pick for our monthly dinner club. We went into this knowing that the portions would be small, shareable and not meal-​sized. First off, our waiter was awesome. He was really friendly, coached us with the menu and even ran back and forth from Judas Goat to Salt to go get us the wine we wanted. The four of us were there for 4 hours — they didn’t hurry us at all, granted it was a Thursday night but still… the pace of the meal was good. We’d eat a little, drink a lot, eat some more, drink a lot more… haha.
The sangria was a delicious summer drink — chock full of fruit and quite boozy but not overpowering. It also had that great clove taste to it to give it that bite.
The food was great!
The bacon and egg bite was a good way to start the evening. The quail egg was perfectly cooked — the yolk popped in your mouth and the richness of the egg and the salt of the pancetta and the crispiness of the bread was a winning combination.
There were 2 dishes I had issues with when it came to portion size and value for the price. The pieces of cheese were tiny and they charged about a dollar an olive. The bright side of those dishes was that the olive oil they served was very flavourful, lots of fresh floral notes. The salami plate, again the meats were good but at $ 18 the price was steep for a few slices of cured meats.
The brisket meatballs were tender and the tomato sauce was hearty. The maple sugar sablefish was plump and we all could have eaten one each. I also really enjoyed the fried polenta salad. It was delicious with big pieces of fresh corn and herbs with a nice arugula salad on top. The beet salad was a little on the bland side (needed salt) — the beets were bland and the goat cheese on top was good, just too mild for the dish. The foie gras on toast was massive. It’s enough for 4 people because it’s like an ice cream scoop of foie gras that is extremely rich. Good but huge. The mussels and clams were good too — lots of flavour and the meat was tender.
We finished with liqueur 43 and the dolce de leche mousse. For all of the food and booze we had this was a great end because it was light. They threw in an extra scoop too!
Overall, this is a fun place to go if you want to kick back with great friends to enjoy a good wine list, great sangria and lots of different food bites.

I really like the idea of Judas Goat and I think that along with Salt the location is pretty cool; the view outside is really unlike anything I have seen in Vancouver and I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way — it’s quite pretty looking at the old brick buildings across the street at night. Quiet and kind of eerie.
Anyway the restaurant is very small; I estimate it seats about 20 and there is a time limit on eating there (they kick you out after 1.5 hours). I looked at the alcohol selection and it wasn’t badly priced and the food selection looked quite good at first glance but was a bit of a disappointment.
First, likely because the kitchen is apartment-​sized the selections for every table are cooked at the same time. For example, if you order the pimento marinated short ribs you may not get them for ½ hour because they don’t cook when you order them but when enough tables order them (this was my impression because when they brought our orders of each item out they had orders of the same for other tables too). The food was really unfortunately quite flavorless and needed salt and the olives tasted quite funny. The cheese selection was excellent though.
All in all the atmosphere is really nice but I can’t say I recommend the food at all and I won’t be returning for that reason. Sorry, Judas Goat!

Little nosh on way home. Kronenbourg with a banana finish was great. Having my Bacon and Quail Egg Bocadillo, Marinated Beets with shaved Manchego and aged sherry vinegar and the Foie Gras with Rhubarb Foam.
Now I can go home feeling good on a cold rainy night.

Mixed feelings. First of all, don’t expect anything particularly Spanish about this «taverna.» Next, the portions at Judas Goat are definitely tiny, as other reviewers have commented. While we relished the delicious pork belly, lamb cheek terrine, and squash salad, the other items were not extraordinary enough to warrant what we felt was a high price for a nibble. We did not feel compelled to try other dishes, but instead thought about where else we might hit up to finish off our dinner.
The menu is divided into different sections: Bocadillos; Hot; Pessed, Potted or Cured; Salads; Condiments; and Sweet. Like on an all-​you-​can-​eat sushi or dim-​sun place, you just write down how many of each item you’d like to order. Here’s what we sampled – and you really feel like you’re just sampling:
[BOCADILLOS: meh]
Not sure why these qualify as bocadillos. My concept of a bocadillo is the iconic Spanish sandwich made with a slit-​open short baguette-​like bread. These were just little bites, like hors-d’oeuvres; nothing at all to do with a sandwich. We tried the BACON AND EGG ($ 3), which consisted of a miniature slice of brioche topped with a fried quail egg topped with crisp pancetta morsels. Sort of like your breakfast in a cute little stack. While it looks cool, it seems rather expensive for what is, after all, a very familiar taste. The MANCHEGO AND FIG ($ 2) consisted of a cube of cheese on the same toothpick as a portion of dried fig. That’s it. Manchego is one of my favorite cheeses, but I could hardly taste it next to the concentrated fig.
[HOT: hit or miss]
The SABLEFISH ($ 9), slow cooked in smoked paprika & lemon with Israeli cows cows, was tender but not particularly flavorful. The BRAISED PORK BELLY ($ 6), on onion purée with pine nut and orange gremolata, was much better. Soft and tasty, it melted perfectly in my mouth; the gremolata provided the perfect textural counterpoint.
[PRESSED, POTTED OR CURED: more interesting]
The FOIE GRAS with rhubarb foam ($ 9) came with a toasted brioche slice on which to spread the foie gras topped with the pink cream. The flavor was nice and subtle, though it would’ve been nice to have a bit more rhubarbness. Much more satisfying and interesting was the WARM LAMB CHEEK ($ 8) with savoy cabbage and white truffle oil. It was pressed down, probably into a terrine and sliced. Very cool. It looks great on the plate and both lamb and cabbage were super soft. Definitely one of the highlights.
[SALADS: nice, but still just salad]
Both the salads we ordered were very nice. The CRISP PROSCIUTTO WITH SQUASH, ARUGULA & MANCHEGO ($ 8) was the best one: all components were tasty and perfectly prepared. The ENGLISH PEA WITH PECORINO ROMANO, MINT & LEMON ($ 8) was nice and green, very refreshing with the mint and lemon. The only issue was that some of the peas were slightly larger than the rest and had that unpleasant «raw pea» taste.

I have a lot of respect for someone who can take a 300 sq ft place in the middle of a urine-​soaked alley and turn it into a trendy, foodie-​bound money-​making machine. While I haven’t been tempted to try out Salt, my love of tapas drove me venture into Blood Alley for this experience — I did indeed feel like I was following a Judas Goat.
And, I’m glad I did — the foie gras with rhubarb foam borders on genius. While the foie is rather bitter on its own, hence likely duck and peppered with salt — when paired with the slightly sweet, slightly sour rhubarb foam (more like a cream) it makes for one decadent taste experience. (The foie is a terrine/​pâté). Easily their most successful dish of the ones I tried.
Also enjoyable was the lamb cheeks with savoy cabbage and white truffle oil. Brisket-​like lamb wrapped with cabbage resembling a terrine and drizzled with white truffle oil. Not bad — but to be picky, the lamb could have been more tender and the cabbage was an interesting, bitter pairing. There was also a too generous sprinkling of salt on this dish.
The braised pork belly is suitably unctuous, soft, meltingly fatty and nicely paired with an onion purée. If you are a fan of pork belly, you won’t be disappointed at this dish for $ 6. One of the better valued items in my opinion.
The saltimbocca, veal sweetbreads with brown sage butter were tasty little circles of glandy goodness (could have been heart). A gentle introduction for those unfamiliar with sweetbreads. For some reason, it worked a lot better paired with the accompanying frisee salad.
As for the misses, the beef brisket meatballs weren’t memorable, nor were the chorizo bruschetta. A bit better luck with the stewed mushroom bruschetta.
The experience once inside is such a juxtaposition of refined dining in such a crummy location. And that’s what impresses me the most.

Pay no mind to the bros waiting in line for the Blarneystone who seem to think Blood Alley is their own private urinal. Conceal yourself!
I look past this public display of disgusting and venture through the door just east of Salt for a little slice of Europe right in the heart of Vancouver. If you sit at the bar facing the window, and squint, you’ll be transported to Vancouver, circa 1890. The cobblestone, the lit rooms and fire escapes. The only thing that will bring you back is is the shopping carts that occasionally roll through. If you don’t grab a seat windowside, make sure you face the side wall. Robert Chaplin’s mural is entertaining if you can read it… if not… you can read the tale painted on the wall right here:
Aptly named after the goats that lead cattle to slaughter, this tiny tapas bar serves up big flavoured share plates. Ticked on our order and brought to our cozy little high top table:
–Beef Brisket meatballs
–Potted Prawns
–Bruchetta: carmelized onions, chorizo and dark chocolate; sardines
–marinated olives
–quails egg and potato salad
Brought in water glasses: one baby beer. I’ve never been served a beer so small, outside of Spain. A lovely touch to go along with the small bites. I’m someone who is happy to pay for high quality bites, but I would say, if you’ve got some major hunger brewing, you best step across to Irish Heather for a more filling meal.
A few minor tweaks for my taste buds, and Judas Goat would be an easy five star!
–The potted prawns could come with more bread. Especially when all four slices we were served had large holes down the centre. Is it possible to serve the spread at room temperature? Its spreadability would have been increased 10 fold.
–Diving through olive brine with a regular fork or fingers made for a sloppy task. Next time, drained olives for me, please.
–And the sardines on the bruchetta were well flavoured, but there was so much of it. Perhaps I need to be schooled in fish schools, but I found that two sardines on one small piece of toast was almost too much.
There’s no doubt I’ll be back to sample the rest and give into the cravings I already have springing up for the potted prawns and meatballs