Chambar: Belgian Cuisine in Vancouver

It’s been a while since my last visit to Chambar for dinner. Usually I come in the morning to get a waffle and a lavender latte. Today was special occasion as it was my sister’s bridal shower. What better restaurant to indulge in? They are one of Vancouver’s top restaurants specializing in Belgian cuisine. We made a reservation for dinner and the service was superb.

Interior

The interior is absolutely stunning with the beautiful furniture, cool lighting and rustic wooden accents. Tacofino has similar lights too. I love the look of it.

Drinks

We had a mysterious friend call Chambar ahead of time to buy us our first round of drinks. Pretty awesome and surprising! Our server was tight-lipped about who it was.

Lind’s Lemonade

The cocktail menu is a good size and you can also request drinks that aren’t on the menu too. I went with Lind’s Lemonade, which has Matusalem Platino rum, housemade limoncello, hibiscus, fresh lemon, Talisman Pale Ale, and thyme. It was delicious and refreshing. With Summer coming quite quickly, this is perfect.

Poulpe

The dish is composed of octopus tiradito, chimichurri, tamarind, and chipotle. Very good sauce to go with the octopus. The best part of this dish was the super tender octopus.

Le Bison

This has a line of Buffalo tartare, “vichyssoise”, fried leek, quail eggs and crostini. This was our favourite appetizer. The tartare was very fresh and the vichyssoise balanced so well with it.

Calamars Farcis

We have veal stuffed calamari, taro chips, with a chili aioli. The squid was tender and delicious with the stuffed veal.

Foie De Canard “villa Lorraine”

This has a spiced foie gras terrine, port reduction, kriek granita, and 2 pieces of truffled brioche french toast.

Canard et Gnocchi

The dish has spice rubbed duck breast, gnocchi, goat cheese, celery and apple salad, hazelnuts, and sauce bigarade. The duck was delicious but the gnocchi was starchy and gritty compared to other gnocchi we’ve had in the past.

Fletan aux Trois Façons

There are 3 tasters to this dish:

Roasted Halibut, black garlic coulis, nori
Halibut beignet, coconut jalapeño rémoulade
Halibut and fine herbes mousse, tomato & curry leaf sauce

The concept sounded great, but when we dug into it, we did not like it. The tastes of all 3 items fell flat. There were 3 of us that ordered it and it was definitely not a hit. We all wished we got the mussels instead. None of us would recommend this dish.

Congolaise Moules Frites

There are 3 types of broths that go with the mussels. The Congolaise Moules Frites has a hot pot of mussels and a broth made of tomato coconut cream, smoked chili, lime, and cilantro. The size of the dish seems to have gotten a bit smaller over the years.

It’s delicious and what our friend did was take the extra sauce home. She wanted to reuse the sauce to make some pasta for the following day. That was her pro tip to share with everyone.

Desserts

They knew we were celebrating something special, so they put together a plate of petit fours at the end of the meal. A very nice touch.

Mama Rizk

This is beautifully presented and has caramelized honey custard, orange chiffon, and pistachio ice cream.

Final Thoughts

Chambar has changed a bit since my last visit several years ago. Some food items are a hit and miss especially the Fletan aux Trois Façons. The staple items like the Moules Frites are always on point. The service is still fantastic.

We rate Chambar: