Guest Post: Delectable Dine Out Vancouver at Forage

I was struck down with a case of some kind of terrible flu that took me out for a weekend. I won't go into too many details, but there was some puking, pain, an inability to remain awake and for me, the most shocking symptom, a total disinterest in food and loss of appetite. I was housebound for an entire weekend. When Monday came around, I was starting to feel a bit better but I was still queasy and struggling to consume a bowl of soup. And unfortunately, Monday night came along and I was scheduled for a highly anticipate group dinner for Dine Out Vancouver. We were booked at a fairly new restaurant, Forage. I was so looking forward to this- and had been looking forward to this meal for a long time. Especially since I tried their Award-winning seafood chowder in November at the Vancouver Aquarium's Chowder Chowdown event. Fortunately my friends are awesome and agreed to take photos and send me their thoughts on the restaurant and the menu dishes. Just to re-iterate: they are absolutely amazing and their descriptions made me sad to miss out on the meal, but eager to plan a dinner or brunch at Forage.

The Appetizers:

Kale and Okanagan Apple Salad, candied hazelnuts, quince dressing, aged Golden Ears Cheddar. Pretty good, some richness from the shaved aged cheddar and hazelnuts, but light and refreshing. 

BC spot prawn and seafood chowder, soft-poached egg, smoked chicharrón, pork hock -This was the most popular choice with our group. It smelled absolutely amazing! They didn't skimp on the prawns and the soft poached egg on top was an appreciated touch.


The Mains:

Pacific Provider Salmon, red wine and  balsam fir cure, kelp pasta, roasted squash puree. It was delicious. The pasta was nice and the squash puree along the side of the bowl gave it a nice sweet flavour as well. The salmon was cooked to perfection and the flavours all worked together well in a subtle harmony.

Gelderman Farms pork belly with crackling, celeriac pomme puree, ambrosia apple, braised cabbage. This dish got a thumbs up.

Foraged and Cultivated mushroom wheat berry "cassoulet", confit celeriac, savoury biscuit. This was ordered by the party's resident "biscuit expert" and she enjoyed this dish. 

Dessert:

Agassiz Hazelnut Macaroon, raspberry caramel. All of the ladies went for this dessert options. It was delicious. Their server also went the extra mile to bring the table a serving of the other dessert option (Summer Berry Preserve Frozen Parfait Meyer Lemon gel, Toasted meringue) - a gesture they all LOVED. But they all agreed that the chocolate dessert was the best. Although one diner noted that the cake ratio was a bit too much raspberry and not enough chocolate.

Restaurant Experience:

Overall, the consensus was that the portions were pretty much perfect for a 3 course meal. They were all satisfied but not stuffed to the point of discomfort. They all really enjoyed the food and felt like they were really eating quality dishes with quality ingredients and wonderful flavours..

The service was quite good for the most part, although the table wasn't ready when they arrived for the reservation and they did feel as though they were being "upsold" on some items. The decor of the restaurant was nice,  decorated in a modern way, but not cold. The music volume was playing at a pleasant level. 
The chef came out to talk to the party and thanked them for coming and asked them for feedback in an enthusiastic and genuine way. They all thought that was charming and a nice touch.