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.
6 Comments
I agree with this review. I was so disappointed with our dome which we paid in full price. Our view was a white fence, parking lot and a car. Our dome was probably the worst! I was seated in an uneven bench and our decor was so mediocre! Not even a place mat for our table. I paid for an experience to dine at Per Se in NYC and I am willing to pay for that but not for this. Never again! I could have bought my own dome and have it right at home for what I paid for lol
On behalf of our party of six, we could not disagree more with the rather negative review/comments of ‘dine with a view’ . We had dome #2 with spectacular views of the ocean and could see the lights of the tall apartment buildings in the distance of the village of Ambleside. From the time we entered the venue and taken to a tent set with cocktail tables – could enjoy a cocktail, wine, or non-alcohol beverage while awaiting our dome to be ready – we were then escorted by staff to our dome. Every staff member/server were beyond friendly/knowledgable about the event and what we could expect …well organized in every regard with everything from start to finish.
Domes #1/2/3 all have the views over the ocean, the other domes do not have unobstructed views, not sure if you can specifically request those domes, but probably is on a first come/ reservation basis and we reserved well in advance.
Our dome was warm, comfortable chairs, blankets provided, nice lighting.Our sever, Claudia was amazing, took pictures from every angle for us whenever we asked (which was often). The explanations of the courses were explicit …no one in our group had the vegetarian option, each one of us thoroughly enjoyed the choices of chicken and fish. The sourdough bread and infused butter was so good we ordered another (you do have to pay for extra which we did not mind at all). The wine choices we ok , we would have liked sparkling wine on the menu and were happy the still and bubbling water were large 750 ml bottles.
We were ‘doted’ on throughout with various staff, but never felt they were intrusive as the had to ‘zip up/down’ our dome every time they entered.
We were grateful to have a chance to meet and chat with chef Paul Moran who visited our dome before we left. He was so friendly and answered our many questions. After a busy night cooking, we appreciated he made the effort to visit as we so enjoyed every minute of our experience.He truly IS a champion chef.
We did drive by the day before to see what the venue looked liked, it was pouring rain, couldn’t see much and did notice some domes close to the road. We did not have any expectations other than knowing even is we did get a dome and it was raining we would make the best of it -being with good friends. Not only did we have the bonus of good weather and could see the sunset as we entered our dome, people passing by on the seawall next to us questioned what was going on thinking it was a wedding or such. We told then to google the venue and check it out!!
Yes, you certainly could go to a restaurant and expect a nice dinner for the same cost, but that you can do anytime. This was truly a unique experience , we loved it !!
What a horrible experience!
We purchased the tickets for the dome and 4 dinners for January 15, 2020 7:30pm Vancouver event. We arrived early at the event site around 6:40pm because we were told by the customer support that the event would proceed in all weather conditions and we just needed to spare more time to find parking because of the snowy condition.
We were not able to find the site. The entire environment was really dark. At 6:44pm, I received a general email from Dinner With a View Team telling me that event had to be rescheduled because they had a power outage at 4:53pm. We were offered an opportunity to reschedule our reservation, for the same seating time (subject to availability), for another date at the Vancouver activation. I was not sure if I should thank them for the offer. In the email, we were told to email manager@dinnerwithaview.ca to reschedule the reservation, not that they would be reaching us promptly instead because they failed to provide service. We wouldn’t be able to reschedule because our out-of-town friends would be leaving soon. I emailed and requested a full refund instead.
After one week from the original event date, I finally received reply from the manager (no name). He/she neglected my refund request, continued to explain the power outage situation and their revenue lost due to that. He/she again offered me to move my reservation to another date. I explained once again clearly that I was not able to move my reservation as my invited guests were leaving. I would just need the full refund back since the party were not able to provide the agreed service at the scheduled date and time.
I then received another email from manager. He/she stated that since it is a ticketed event and once the tickets are purchased they are non-refundable. They refused to refund my prepaid tickets. Once again, they offered to reschedule my reservation to another date.
I have never had such ridiculously bad restaurant experience before. I totally understand that weather and power outage is totally out of control; therefore, I never requested any compensation for the dinner loss, travel time to the site in snowy weather and the very late notification about the power outage and dinner cancellation on that day. However, they were the party that breached the agreement and were not able to provide service as agreed. Now they refused to give me a full refund due to their own operational issues.
I had high expectations before the dinner. Even without having the dinner, I am extremely disappointed with how the manager handled this entire situation. What they basically did to us as customers when I arrived at the restaurant was, “Hey we now have a power outage and we can’t serve you now. I know you had paid for the dinner but no we will not refund you the money. Arrange your vacation and come back in few weeks, see if we have availability and we will serve you then.”
I definitely will not go again and I am now disputing the charges with the bank. This was a dinning experience that has already failed before dinners were served.
Couldn’t agree more!!
Please do not waste your hard earned money on this event!!!!
We were also booking in for that night that was cancelled with NO notice! They had no power for hours without notifing us! Instead waited until we parked at the Very Dark venue to get informedit was not on.
Two we later we did revisit Dinner With A View.
There was no view, just a done full of condensation!! (I think they must have been watering the plastic plants inside the dome!) Definitely not what ya see on Instagram!!!
Dinner was, good we all enjoyed……basic food you would hope to expect at any fair priced restaurant. Definitely not a Top Chef Bla Bla Bla, seriously, make an efford plating……Jesus christ! Its CHICKEN! Ya gotta do Something to charge $180 per person!!(Drinks NOT Included)
Keep your Cosco Chocolate Truffle at the end, its actually bigged us more!
Forget experience, this is robbery….. you could go to many other great or 5 star restaurants in Vancouver and have a far better meal for less money. Dont waste your time or money, PLEASE!
Went to dinner with a view in West Vancouver last night with 3 friends. Unfortunately this event is a total scam and money grab. First of all there is no view ( how ironic is that). There are only one or two domes that would actually be able to see the downtown of Vancouver and there is no way to know or choose which dome you will be seated in. Some of the domes are beside the parking lot and all the people coming in and waiting for their dome. There was a new Volvo car parked in the center of them and I was told that my view would be of the car……..really? You can’t see anything out of the domes anyway as they are covered with raindrops and fogged up. The domes themselves were comfortable inside with heat and blankets provided. The food was really good, although for what we had to pay for this event you could do MUCH better at any good restaurant and go home with a bunch of extra money in your pocket…….We were only notified about a beverage menu a few days before the event and that this was not included in all the money we already had paid. All the beverages, alcoholic and non-alcoholic were ridiculously overpriced ($16.00 for 1.5 oz. Drink?) and not a cup of coffee to be found.
We were really disappointed with the whole experience and how much of a cash grab it was.
There are no refunds once you pay and the whole thing is very carefully setup to keep you in the dark about everything until you’re sucked in.
Definitely not recommended………..
I went with a small group of people. The light up dome is really for people who like taking pictures and posting it online. My friend loves taking pictures and she didn’t take that many because there’s not much else to take. the food was made with fresh and organic ingredients. however, the taste was mediocre at best. definitely not worth the cost. alcohol and any drinks are extra and very expensive. the service was really friendly. the tip is very expensive considering how much each person pays. overall, absolutely not worth the money.