Sunday, April 29, 2012

Café Salade de Fruits


Step into France with Café Salade de Fruits – a true hidden gem in Vancouver. This little treasure provided me with the best dining experience.  It is a local favourite and everything in this restaurant is homemade! Even the mayo that came with the fries, which was delicious! This is not an upscale French restaurant; it is a casual French bistro. The service is one of the finest in the industry. Each waiter is very knowledgeable and friendly with a personality. You do not have a waiter designated to your table, so you may approach each and every waiter, who all are always willing to help and are all very attentive to each table. There was never a time I had to wait for more than 10 seconds to grab a waiter’s attention.

Interior of Café Salade de Fruits
The decor of the restaurant promotes a fun attitude, so don’t get too dressed up for this French cafe. This is a small bistro, so be prepared it to be noisy. We went on Saturday evening, arrived at 6:45pm without reservations, which is not a good idea. Luckily, we only had to wait 10minutes. Those who came after us had a much longer wait, as the restaurant was packed and booked. When we were seated, we were provided with the menu. It was all in French with no English description. My French skills were limited to high school Grade 11 and so were Meko’s French skills. We were able to decipher 50% of the menu and the other 50% was kudos to Mr. Google to provide the answers to us. When we were ready to order, the cheery waiter offered to answer any questions we had regarding the menu. We ordered the escargot to start and share:

Escargots à l’aïl ($7.99)
This delicacy was baked in butter, garlic, and other seasoning. A simple dish well made!

Moules et frites ($20.99)
It came in regular and large. The regular is $17.99 and is ¾ pot full. The large is $20.99 and is 1 pot full. We opt for the large, since it takes a lot for us to be full. For those concern with health, they also have a ‘moules et salade’ option as well. These mussels are cooked in a white wine sauce; tasted perfect with the mussels. The sauce had a light, milky texture with no oily taste. The flavour was rich and Meko was actually able to taste the white wine. The fries were amazing. It is homemade with their house mayo. The waiter warned us that there will be no ketchup served with their fries. The reason being many of the customers are accustom to the ketchup from the grocery stores, which uses ingredients and processes that you are unable to do in the kitchen. With the numerous complaints regarding their homemade ketchup, the chef got angry and just eliminated the options of having ketchup with fries. I was disappointed with this decision; I really wanted to try their homemade ketchup. But none the less, the mayo was very tasty. I usually dislike the mayo, but this mayo was different. For mussels lover, this is the dish for you! The large was very generous. You may consider a regular if you are not a hippo eater.

Filet de boeuf ($24.99)
One word: awesome. Thick and juicy, this steak is the perfectly made. I ordered a rare, and this is one of the few restaurants who actually perfects is ability to cook a rare. Many other restaurants tend to cook my steak medium-rare, which was okay too, but I still prefer a rare. It was accentuated with a thin layer of sauce that wasn’t too heavy and did not take the original steak taste away. Furthermore, the filet de beouf was actually sandwiched between two pieces of pan-fried foie gras. The combination just simply brought me to heaven. On a side note, they also had the filet mignon roti, which was what I initially tried to order, but the waiter advised me that the filet mignon is actually pork. If I wanted the beef option, I should opt for the filet de boeuf. I appreciated that warning, since I did not know it was going to be pork.
 
Crême brulée ($6.99)
Smooth texture and is a great dessert to share with a friend. Not too filling and is quite tasty, but not a highlight of their menu.

Throughout the entire course of the dinner, they have served us bread (slices of baguette). It was so good! I couldn’t stop eating the bread. And we realize that once the bread plate was empty, the waiter instantly refills it with more bread. We had over 4 servings of bread... It is one of the only restaurants who will refill your bread without you requesting it, which I really enjoyed, because I’m a carb-addict.

Entrance of Café Salade de Fruits
Why is Café Salade de Fruits a hidden gem? One of the best meals I have had in my life. Highly recommended by Hippo!! Also, it is located on West 7th Avenue and Granville, just right off the Granville Street Bridge if you are coming from Downtown. You need to drive towards the residential zone to find the restaurant. It is actually located within the Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver. You need to go into the cultural centre to access the entrance to the restaurant. There is paid meter parking outside the centre ($2.00/80minutes). But if you are dining in the evening, there is actually free parking underground after 6pm.

Food: Amazingly delicious! A 10/10 for the food we ordered. The best French bistro in town!
Service: Friendly and approachable with personality. Very good!
Price: The total came to $68 with tax for two people. For the portions and flavour, it is a very well priced restaurant.
Will I come back? YES! I will definitely be trying the remaining of their menu very soon!

- Hippo


Café Salade de Fruits
1551 W 7th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 604-714-5987

Café Salade de Fruits on Urbanspoon

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