With more than a year having passed since we wrote our inaugural Superior review, it was time for a follow-up. Patty made the reservation. He hung up the phone and said, “That was weird.” Patty thinks a lot of things are weird, so I didn’t question it and it wasn’t until I learnt that the person who answered the phone had used a funny voice and pretended to hand off the phone to a second person, who was in fact the same person. The ‘voice’ accepted our 830 reservation, but told us that we might have to wait. This peculiar beginning to our evening was clearly an omen.

We arrived to find another group of friends waiting to be seated, having made an 8:15pm reservation and also being told they would have to wait. Why not just suggest a later time if everyone was to wait. Despite arriving later, we were seated first. The server was quick to take our drink order, but slower to bring it.

The bar list is an odd one. I somehow struggled to find anything I wanted and finally settled on a glass of sparkling. Patty was disappointed that there was no beer on tap. I was disappointed that the server couldn’t advise on any of my wine choices. She simply had nothing to say about my sparkling, but then when I inquired about the red wine list she was truly ill prepared. There are eight wines on the list, two are blends, both blends are obscure Using the advice of the menu to ‘ask my server,’ I inquired as to what grapes were in these wines. She look startled and waited for me to give up, I suggested she ask. After long time, she came back with one of the bottles, explaining that there was no information on the label and that the other bottle was even less helpful. There are so many problems with this scenario. If you sell something you should know what it is – bottom line. It’s not snobbery to ask what you’re buying. Second, in the event that no one in the building can tell me, how about offering me sample so I can figure it out? I think it’s pretty balsy to ask me to fork over $50 for a bottle of wine without giving me any hints as to why I should order it, or what I should order with it. I picked one of the mystery wines, based on the recommendation that ‘lots of people order it,’ and decided to google it when I got home. It was obscure, but I only had to go to the winery’s website to find out.

We ordered a charcuterie plate ($16), which claimed to be a selection of homemade charcuterie and local cheeses. Not a value plate – two slices of fairly pedestrian pate and about 5 oz of cheese, a lot of crackers about 1 cup of pickled onions and some grainy mustard. The cheese was under ripe and the pate was boring, not bad, but boring. The portion was much to small and the selection inadequate. I felt ripped off. It wasn’t just me – my friends who were sitting at a nearby table, brought a sample of the pate over for me to identify, while making a scowly face about the price.

To accompany our charcuterie plate, we ordered the Japanese Cowboy ($12) and the Belly Love ($14). The Japanese Cowboy was a portion of sashimi, dusted with chilli powder and served with ponzu and a mountain of green onion. It was ok, but the chilli powder was expectedly overpowering. The Belly Love was great and certainly the winner of the evening. Crispy pork belly, served on mash potatoes with a nice rich demiglace – you can’t go wrong with that.

We skipped dessert and got the bill. It felt expensive.

The space is attractive and funky and I like listening to live music played at a sensible volume. I take issue with the toilet that is so small that my feet stick out the bottom, but all is all, I like the ambiance. There’s no excuse however, for a restaurant with a mini-wine list to have not trained its servers better (or at all). The food is pretty good and you can tell that there’s skilled people working on it, but it feels like they need a little more direction and that the dishes need a good vetting before they hit the menu.  

Value of food 58/100

Quality of food 75/100

Wine and beverage 56/100

Service 55/100

Ambiance 82/100

Average 71/100

reviewed May21, 2007

I was excited to check it out, because the space it occupies, formerly, an exclusive antiques shop, has always intrigued me. The restaurant conversion of this 1912 brick building is beautiful and a wonderful use for the space. High ceilings, lots of artwork and sophisticated design touches, it's a very comforting space to visit.

I arrived at 8pm and the was restaurant busy, with live music (the Sonny Sham trio) playing at a talking level volume. Having just come from an exhausting hot yoga class, the server was quick to supply me with water and some bread (I was a little light headed). Upon catching my breath my attention moved to the attire of the staff - absolutely hideous florescent paint splattered chef's jackets, ewww! They reminded me of a period in the mid-eighties, when florescent paint splatters were all the rage - I thought I'd left that behind. Perhaps if the restaurant was of more minimalist design, they could have worked, but on this night they were not working.  One of my guests Debbie, who was in a fairly cranky mood on this night (see photo) suggested, "they look bloody."

So on to the good stuff - the menu is fairly brief and orientated to a tapas style. Lots of variation and I didn't struggle to select six dishes for our table of 3. The Purple Pom Pom ($7) was one of my favourite dishes and excellent value. A seared scallop on top of fried bananas and a lovely creamy pasta. The Asian Pork Cakes ($7.5) were tasty, but not exceptional, although I did like the dressing on the accompanying rice noodles. Debbie responded to the pork cakes less favourably, complaining they were too porky (?!). The Beef Wasabi rolls ($7.5) were less value orientated, but were tasty. Rare beef (not exactly carpaccio as described), rolled with wasabi and presented on a skewer with dipping sauce. The Salad Nicoise ($8.5) was a bit of a snoozer - classic in presentation, it was just too much like I make at home. The Liberace flatbread (pizza) was great, with caramelised onion, marinated figs, chevre, and prosscuito. Debbie again grumbled about the Crispy Chicken Thighs, complaining they were too crispy and she didn't like the oyster sauce dressing. Admittedly, they were a little too crispy, but acceptable considering the description in my opinion, and certainly, if you don't like oyster sauce this dish isn't for you.

We finished with a lovely and rich Sacher torte, which our resident dessert expert Ryan proclaimed a success. 

The wine list was one area that I think could use some work. The 'all BC' and inexpensive motif is fairly routine these days, but for a fairly elegant restaurant, I could have entertained the idea of a couple higher-end wines. The selections were all acceptable, but were extremely similar to one another and there were only five of each red and white. We had a bottle of the Tinhorn Creek and the Red Rooster Pinot Noir, very nice wines, but if you only have five on the menu two pinots is a bit lame (especially when the other selections are a gamay and a cab-merlot). The whites were slightly more diverse.

The booze list also included a selection of micro brew beer, which is always appreciated and a selection of sake. The sake seemed a little out of place, but I like sake so no complaining here (note: I recently learnt sake is technically a beer not a wine or spirit.)

The service was excellent and the ambiance a treat.  The Superior has a few kinks to work out, but I was more or less delighted by the experience. The owner was present and making the rounds throughout the evening, which encourages me to think that the corners will be rounded soon enough.

 Value of Food: 8/10

Quality of Food: 8/10

Service: 9/10

Ambiance: 8/10

Wine List: 5/10

 Reviewed: November 4, 2005