Land Tasting Menu at West

I had heard that the tasting menus at West was worth a try, and although I've been for brunch, I've never actually tried their tasting menu. So last month, we decided to head over and give it a try. They have three, Sea, Land and a Vegetarian one. Not thrilled with all the options of the Sea one, so we both opted for the Land. Not your average baguette slices here, instead it's a combination of Olive, Caraway and Pumpkin seed rolls with some butter and oilve oil for dipping. I love that the crusts are little bit crunchy, and also liked that fact that this was served warm. Oh, check out the plate that the bread is on...very cool. The first dish to come out wasn't part of the "Land" tasting menu, rather just an amuse bouche. It was a Tuna confit, done in a croquette style with a dollop of lemon emulsion on top. Really crunchy and hard to believe how much flavour they packed into this thing...it was just about the size of a ping pong ball. Our first dish from the tasting menu was the Foie Gras Pate, but I believe it is now done as a Chicken Liver Pate. Done in a mousse like fashion and shaped into a loaf, we each got generous slices of this. with some freshly baked warm brioche. The pate was surrounded by some apple jelly and topped with some apple slices. The jelly was amazing and totally reminded me of apple pie, complete with the cinnamon and nutmeg flavours. The pate had a very creamy consistency and was served cool. The toast points were warm and the pate spread quite easily. I found this to be a big portion of pate, and given the amount of bread, we piled our pate on quite high. It's not something you can eat on its own.

 

The next Land item was the Grilled Thiessen Quail. I am not a huge fan of sliced beets, so I was really happy that these beets were served in a puree, almost tartar like style. The tarragon vinaigrette was very tangy and definitely helped cut the sweetness of the beets. But the best part of the whole dish was the quail, crispy skin on the leg was great. After two courses, this third course was the "Pasta" course, and it was the best on so far. The Foraged Mushroom Risotto with Veal Tongue. As a kid, I'd eaten "baked ox tongue with rice" quite often and expected it to be similar. Boy was I wrong on this one! The risotto was creamy, smooth and very mushoomy! The veal tongue was sliced so thinly it practically melts in your mouth. And the feathery parmesan melted easiy onto the whole plate. If this is available a la carte, get it. And now for our final savory dish, we got the "Meat and Potatoes", or rather, Peace Country Elk with Potato Gratin (this has now changed to potato pave).

 

I know the elk looks a little under, but it's not, it's the meat, it's just that red! Also, the meat itself doesn't have much fat, so cooking it more than this would really toughen the meat. And the crust is made with blackberry, although you couldn't taste much of that.

 

The one thing I found disappointing on the plate was the potato. It was just weird, a little rubbery and gummy, and rather bland. And I'm pretty sure I only got one smoked shallot. Oh well, the smallest thing really, but seemed off compared to the excellence thus far.

 

For our "pre-dessert", we were treated to a palate cleanser of Pineapple & Passion fruit Sorbet with a segment of Grapefruit. Super fresh and fruity. The pink grapefruit was great for colour as well.

 

Our main dessert was a Chocolate Cake with raspberry ice cream made with condensed milk topped with a caramel sauce. A tiny chocolate wafer completed the dish. This was a great contrast of hot and cold. In fact, I think the chocolate cake was the hottest thing we had all night.

Rounding out the meal were some homemade truffles, and assortment made with hibiscus, rhubarb and almond too! If you are shopping on Granville and in the mood for a fancy dinner, give their Tasting menu a try. However, they do have more casual plates available too, and the bar scene is quite big here. It was standing room only when we left around 10pm.