Always Up For An Anniversary…

A quick peruse of this website will reveal that the Insider is always up for a great meal, party or anniversary. So when I got an invite in my email to celebrate a Vancouver landmark restaurant, CinCin’s 30th anniversary with a terrific 3 courses for $30 offering I couldn’t walk up their classy, curvy staircase fast enough.

Kicking off our meal was a fabulous amuse bouche of pea green soup. Normally I avoid soups and salads at most restaurants because they’re usually so gawd awful… But here’s an Insider’s tip, if you’re at a high end place that features a soup or salad prominently on their menu, order it, because it most likely means either the exec chef or the sous chef has spent some time preparing it and it’s usually really good exceptional items you can’t make at home, which is why you order it at a good restaurant. So it was with CinCin’s pea soup… really flavorful and tasty… would have loved to have a full bowl of it!

On to our wood grilled prawn course and once again it delivered. Restaurant crimes against seafood are too many to mention here, but mangling prawns is at the top of Insider’s crimes. Asian and buffet joints that steam the hell out of them so they taste like cardboard or grill joints that grill the hell out of them so they taste like grilled cardboard. But the chef on the grill at CinCin got it just right with a nice, light grill char that left plenty of juice and flavor in the prawn on a rosemary grill stick. Very tasty and fun.

And to finish off our main was a nice, tender wood grilled rare roast beef with some grilled potatoes. Sometimes roast beef can be a little bland, but man, when it’s grilled and rare, it just brings out a whole bunch of flavors to the fore which made for a fine finish to our mains. 

What about dessert? We were served chocolate dipped bomboloni that were way too sweet for me, but the web gal loved them… so till next time enjoy the NSI quiz with Michael Littleford, CinCin’s Assistant Wine Director. Cheers.

What was last night’s dinner? Togarashi grilled pork ribs. And no, (he said with a chuckle) it’s not on our menu, I was at home. (Togarashi is a Japanese hot sauce.)

Favorite music? I like old style folk, like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. I said the web gal can’t stand Dylan, which made Michael give another chuckle. Well, he is an acquired taste, but you got listen to what he’s singing to get it.

Favorite drink? White Burgundy when I can afford it.

Favorite place to eat in Vancouver besides CinCin? Chambar. Gotta love those mussels and frites.

Favorite thing about living and working in Vancouver? Oh man, I just love the outdoors here. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s true that you can go from skiing on a mountain to sitting on a beach on the same day.

What makes a great wine list? It’s got to be inclusive. I’m very proud of our list here in that while it’s mostly Italian based, we got all the bases covered in terms of flavor – everything from the most sweet dessert wine to the driest red you can imagine.

Any wine, restaurant or trip on your bucket list? Well, I’ve been to the Burgundy region in France and the Tuscany region in Italy, so I guess the next would be the Barolo region in Piedmont in Italy.

Any brush with celebrity? Our restaurant team also own the Canucks, so we get a fair amount of the players coming in to load up on carbs, but don’t ask me to name any of them. I wouldn’t know a hockey player if he hit me over the head with his stick.

Final thoughts?? Just stay safe, wear a mask when dining out and we’ll get thru this in the next year.