Modern Asian at Flying Tiger

My great eating pal Jobin and I were wayyyy overdue for a dinner meet-up. He knows I'm frugal and like a deal, so he mentioned he had an Entertainment book filled with restaurant coupons. We made plans to meet up at his place, review the many many many coupon/restaurant options in the book, pick a place and go for it. This book was jam packed....it was pretty hard to decided. Eventually, out of hunger, laziness, and desire to sit in the sunshine on a patio, we decided on the nearby Flying Tiger, just a few blocks away from his Kits beach apartment.

When we arrived at 6:30pm it was dead but over the course of our meal, other diners started to trickle in and give it a busier feel. There is a small patio with a few tables out front facing out to West Broadway. Inside, there is a narrow dining room with limited seating painted in a warm colour, with dark furniture, dimmed lighting and a dark wooden floor which gives the spaces a cozy, intimate feel.
Flying Tiger's menu is labelled as "Modern Asian Street Food." Essentially, they've taken traditional Asian dishes and given them a modern makeover and presented them in a tapas, sharing plate style. There are options from Thailand, the Phillipines, Vietnam, India and Korea. It's not a huge menu- there are about twelve regular dishes and when we were there, they were offering two daily specials.

We were disappointed because we ordered the Local Sablefish with Yuzu Soy and Watercress salad and sadly they let us know they had run out of a few of the key salad ingredients. It would have been nice to know before we had spent time deciding and selecting that salad.

Instead we ordered the Pulled Duck Confit Crepes ($19). Duck confit, Phillipine lime, jicama, chayote, Thai Basil, cilantro, vietnamese mint, thai basil, cilantro, sesame oil crepes. Wow- this dish was so flavourful. I loved the richness of the shredded duck meat balanced with the fresh, bright herbs and vegetables. It was a fantastic balance of heavy and light flavours and juicy, soft texture with crisp and crunch- especially the shredded Jimaca and Chayote. Jimaca is a sweet root veg with a texture and taste similar to water chesnuts. Chayote tastes the a mix of a crisp pear and a squash. We split this dish and both enjoyed it although I thought $19 was wayyyy to steep for a fairly small tapas plate.

We also shared their daily special The Flying Tiger Beef and Lettuce Wrap ($14). Aged beef, lemongrass, sambal, garlic, lemon, orange juice, aparagus asian slaw, served with leaves of butter lettuce. I thought the beef was cooked nicely and the dominant flavours were hoisin and lemongrass, Based on the menu description, I did think there would be a bit more dimension and bright citrus flavours. The slaw was pretty bland and and a weird overly sloppy yogurt feel.

We were able to use a two for one OR $14 off coupon from the Entertainment book.  I don't feel like this is a place to go if you've got a big appetite or are super hungry. Portions aren't very big and I feel like it was priced a bit high. The Pulled Duck Crepes were stand out, but overall, service was pleasant, the food was good, the restaurant had a nice feel.