Tableau Bar Bistro

This post is long overdue considering that I came to this restaurant about a month ago. My friend Cory and I decided to try Tableau Bar Bistro for dinner on a rainy Thursday night. The restaurant is located downtown Vancouver, just west of Thurlow Street, on Melville, and is connected to a boutique hotel (Loden Hotel).

Since it was raining fairly hard that day, I didn't take a picture of the entrance to avoid being outside for longer than required.

From doing some quick research on the restaurant, I discovered that Tableau and Homer St. Cafe share the same executive chef - Chef Marc-Andre Choquette. Chef Choquette is well-known for his extensive training in French classical haute cuisine. Seeing that I had a fairly pleasant experience at Homer St. Cafe several months ago, I was excited to see what Tableau had to offer. Unlike Homer St. Cafe's focus on offering upscale comfort food, Tableau's menu features classic French bistro fare prepared from locally sourced and seasonal ingredients.

The interior of the restaurant is decorated with dark tones, wood-framed furniture and black and white square tiles. It gave off a very classic vibe with a hint of French charm (but not so much that it was overbearing). There was an Escargot Special on the day that we went. The dish was only $5, so it was a "must order" for me. I was a little torn on what to order for my entree, so I defaulted to asking our waiter for his favourites on the menu. I find that this always works in my favour. He suggested the Steelhead Trout without any hesitation ... so that's what I went with!

Escargot on special

The escargots were so delicious, to say the least. This was my first time having escargots prepared in a cream sauce ... and I loved it! The sauce was a tomato-based cream sauce that paired very well with the escargots. The dish was served with chopped potatoes, blistered orange tomatoes and BC morel mushrooms (which I thought were sea cucumbers at first) and garnished with a sprig of parsley. The escargots were quite size-able and the texture was soft and chewy. Two thumbs up!

Steelhead Trout

The trout was served over a medley of quinoa, almonds, dill, and capers with lemon yogurt sauce on the side. I'm always reluctant to order fish at restaurants because I've had too many experiences where the fish was overcooked (and we all know that overcooked fish ruins everything). The waiter was not wrong to recommend this one though! The trout was perfectly cooked and the skin was delightfully crispy. The lemon yogurt was probably my favourite part. It gave the fish even more moisture and served as a good "adhesive" for the quinoa mix. I did notice that the trout looked and tasted eerily similar to salmon.

Fun fact (that I discovered afterward): Steelhead Trout actually belong to the same family of fish (Salmonidea) as Salmon. 

Overall, I had a very pleasant dining experience. The service was good - our waiter was very knowledgeable about the menu (he was the one who identified the BC morel mushrooms). The ambiance was charming and comfortable. Since I was here last, I've heard a lot of good things about the restaurant's brunch menu. So, it looks like I'll have to pay another visit sometime soon!