Dinner with A View is a highly anticipated dining event in Vancouver. Guests get to dine for 2 hours in a clear dome in an outdoor setting right by Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver. Dinners get to experience a 3-course blind tasting by 2019 Top Chef Canada winner – Chef Paul Moran.
We were invited for to experience Dinner with A View in Vancouver to show you what they have in store for you.
When and where is it?
It is on now until February 16th with 3 seating every evening – 5:30pm , 7:30pm, and 9:30pm. It is located near The Boatshed on Argyle Avenue. You will see the glowing light of Dinner with a View so as long as you follow the light, you’ll find it.
How much is it?
You pay a fee to book the dome for your party, which is originally $200 per dome, then each person pays $109 for the 3-course dinner. All reservations require a minimum of 4 guests and can have a maximum of 6.
If you want a good discount, TravelZoo has a $29 deal on booking the dome for your group, rather than the original $200.
Are drinks included?
Drinks are not included, not even water. You can purchase drinks from the server in the dome or at the bars on site. All alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages will cost extra.
Where to park?
There is free parking along Argyle Street or adjacent parking lots if you decide to drive.
The Dome
The dome is like a translucent beehive with lots of hexagonal pieces bolted together to create the dome. There are 20 domes in total with a maximum of 6 seats inside.
Each dome is inspired by a different region of the world and you’re essentially in a terrarium-like environment. It is warm and cozy as long as the door doesn’t open too much. There is a heater inside as well. Our dome has a lot of cactus, so it wasn’t as lush and green as some other domes.
The View
None. We looked around to see if there were any good views as it was in-between the parking lot and Ambleside Beach, so there was no nice views from any dome.
Sourdough with Tofino Seaweed Butter
Love the inclusion of the Tofino Seaweed as that’s where Chef Paul Moran is from. The produce is stellar and you can really taste the infusion in the butter that does with the bread. A good start to the evening.
Appetizer
The appetizer to start is a beet tartare, a vegetable forward dish that replaces the classic beef tartare. You have the beet mixture below with the crisp sunchokes that added a nice texture. This really was more like a beet salad rather than a tartare. It was like eating a whole beet.
Fraser Valley Chicken (Meat option)
The chicken has some nice rendered chicken skin on top and it was flavourful. It is brined overnight, so the flavour infuses inside. We did find that some of the chicken dishes were more tender than others.
The chicken is served with a smokey and sweet mustard and tarragon. There is also German fingerling potatoes, heirloom carrots, celeriac, morel mushrooms, and a sabayon sauce. The mushrooms were even foraged by the chef himself. It does take quite a lot of effort and patience to clean these mushrooms, so it’s always a treat. I did find the seasoning and flavour of the vegetables to be quite lacking. The sauce didn’t add too much to the dish.
Miso Maple Yuzu Marinated Black Cod (Fish option)
The black cod sits on top of forbidden black rice, sesame and yuzu emulsion, and bok choy in a garlic sauce. Then there is also some sesame seeds. Can’t go wrong with black cod, but we felt the sesame yuzu emulsion was super super salty. The bok choy was a touch salty too.
Crispy Ginger and Soy Tofu (Vegetarian option)
No one at our table ordered the vegetarian option, but our server was able to let us know what it would have been. The crispy ginger and soy tofu is also served with forbidden rice, morel mushrooms and bok choy in a garlic sauce. Then topped with sesame seeds.
Dessert
The dessert is pineapple marinated in Madagascar vanilla and lime. It is topped with a coconut mousse and crumble. Then dusted with blackberry dust and mint to finish. I really liked the coconut mousse. It was a very light dessert to end the meal which doesn’t leave to too heavy.
We also got chocolate truffles as a last taste of the evening. As the dessert was light, the truffle really stuck to our throats, which some of us didn’t like.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a fun experience to dine with friends outdoors in the dome, but for the price you are paying, the food doesn’t live up to the expectations as each person can be paying $100+ without beverages. For that price, you might as well go to a nice high end restaurant downtown.
Since they did bring in a Top Chef winner, I had high expectations of the food, but because of having to accomodate a wide variety of allergies and dietary restrictions, the dishes fell short and was either too salty or lacked any flavour. We found major flaws in each dish.
Even when it’s called Dinner with a View, the view was severally lacking. All we could see from our table were other domes, the washroom, and the parking lot.
I wouldn’t pay regular price for this experience as there are so many discounts for Dinner with A View. If you insist on going, TravelZoo has a $29 deal on booking the dome for your group, rather than the original $200 price tag. But of course, that doesn’t include the price of dinner per person.
