Pidgin is back for Dine Out Vancouver 2020 with a 6 course menu for $45. The meal is shared family style and they have an omnivore and vegetarian option available. The 6 dishes are shared among a minimum of 2 people. They regular menu is also available during this time.
Omnivore Menu
Vegetarian Menu
Interior
Whether you are with a small or large group, the space is very inviting. In the evening, its dim inside and sets the mood.
Fried Brussel Sprouts
The mean starts off with pickled turnips, miso dressing, fennel and caraway salt, and a brown butter crumb. Very delicious and I just love the miso dressing with the brown butter crumb.
Tuna Tartare
The next dish is paired with pickled mustard seeds, mentaiko mayo, shallots, chives, shiso, and lotus root chips. With all the other ingredients in this tuna tartare, the flavour of the tuna itself blended in the background so all you can really taste was the dominant mentaiko mayo.
Cultivated Mushrooms
This dish was my favourite of the night since I absolutely adore mushrooms and eggs. There is yuzu-soy brown butter, truffle celeriac puree and a ramen egg. It was very delicious with a lot of umami but it was a touch salty.
Sablefish
The sablefish is surrounded by a seafood dashi, side stripe prawns, shoyu dashi, potato, wakame, and enoki. The sablefish was undercooked so the centre of it was still raw. Besides that, the dashi broth was very nice.
Magret Duck Breast
This has a hoisin glaze and it is paired with radish cake and Chinese greens. The duck breast was beautifully cooked and it is a great melding of Asian and French cultures in this dish. The radish cake was a bit on the salty side as well. The duck was well rendered and flavourful.
Yuzu Creme Brulee
For dessert, the yuzu creme brulee also has sudachi pepper, and candied castelvetrano olives. I wasn’t a fan of the candied olives.
Beet Tartare
The beet Tartare replaces the tuna tartare on the omnivore menu. this also has mustard seed, celeriac, mirepoix, and lotus chips. I was very surprised by this and absolutely loved it. Well balanced in flavour and would never have thought it would make a great beet tartare.
Vegetable Oden
This dish replaces the Sablefish in the Omnivore menu. There is tofu, cabbage, squash, enoki, wakame, potato, daikon, and garlic oil. This dish has a lot of different components and it is a nice little oden. Different textures work well together.
Carnaroli Risotto
This dish replaces the Magret Duck Breast on the Omnivore Menu. There are sunchokes, miso butter, pecorino, and spruce tip oil. The sunchokes were delicious and was a pretty decent vegetarian risotto.
Drink Pairings
You can add $40 for drink pairings for all 6 dishes which include 2 white wines, 2 sakes, 1 red wine, and 2 cocktails. Not a bad deal for 6 drinks.
If you love a variety of drinks, this is for you. They take a lot of care into pairing each beverage with the dishes.
Oyster Shot
This is an add on item for $4.50 if you choose to add it to your meal. It has a raw oyster on the bottom and topped with a horseradish emulsion, and celery lime granite.
Beef Tendon Chicharron
A lot of work going into these beef tendon chicharron and it shows. It is then topped with gochugaru citrus spice for extra dimension of flavour.
Daily Pickles
For $5 extra, you can get a tasting of their daily pickles that change regularly. It’s nice to munch on them before the meal begins.
Final Thoughts
It’s great they try to keep it as close to their prix-fixe experience where you get to try a variety of items on the menu. The dishes in the omnivore menu had a few technical issues, but the vegetarian was pretty good. They got creative with the dishes and I enjoyed it a lot more.
What sets Pidgin apart is that you get to try 6 dishes instead of the standard 3 for Dine Out. If you want to add more to the menu, they have such a flexible menu for additional add-ons.
Address:
350 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC
Website:
http://www.pidginvancouver.com/
