The Cannery!!!  Ah….Their closing at the end of March marks the closing of a long time Vancouver favourite.  The unique location of The Cannery makes this dining experience truly Vancouver unique.  The restaurant is situated right next to the water and there is a dock connected to it.  They are closing because they are located at the Port of Vancouver and due to security reasons they are forced to close down.  In order to get to the area, the gate security has to beep you in.  For directions to the cannery, take a look HERE.

The decor of the restaurant consists of mostly wood.  It reminds me of a old sail boat inside.  The lighting is very dim and it made it hard to take nice pictures.  But I think Rockia did a very good job~  We booked a reservation for 8pm but we arrived at like 6:30pm (because ipanda was rolling around early) and they were still able to give us a table by the windows.  It was the most beautiful view of Vancouver….

The first dish is their signiture lobster and balsamic vinaigrette oil and bread.  Many readers have raved about this oil and I was looking forward to trying it.  The bread and oil came with the meal.  I dived right in and dipped the bread into the oil.  With the first bite, I could only taste the balsamic vinaigrette and its sourness.  After soaking the bread in the oil a bit more, we started to taste the strong lobster flavor.  OH MY!!  It was absolutely delicious!!!  I couldn’t stop munching on the bread because of this oil.

As for the bread itself, it was too hard and cold.  This combination would have been unbeatable if only the bread would improve.  By the way, you can purchase bottles of the lobster oil to take home!  The lobster oil is avilable in 375ml bottles for $25 GST included.  This is still avaiable until March 27th.
On to the dinner!!!  We ordered two appetizers.  They are the oyster motoyaki ($14) and the lobster bisque ($13.50).  The oyster motoyaki came in three little dishes.  The oyster has already been removed from the shell.  The creamy tasture of the wasabi mayonnaise was amazing.  However, the oysters were minimally cooked.  Rockia liked that it was a bit raw, but Panda doesn’t like raw foods because they are too slimy….I did have a bite though!  Loved the sauce!
The lobster bisque was huge!!!  I didn’t expect this coming from a fine dining restaurant.  They placed the bowl with a clump of lobster meat in the center and then pour the soup from a pot right in front of us.  The presentation was quite impressive.  I personally LOVE lobster bisque so this was great.  However, not everyone likes the fishy taste because it is very strong lobster taste.  The problem was that I was already a bit full on bread…..so this soup really filled me up.
On to the second course!  We ordered the parsley garlic linguine($26.95) and the restaurant famous salmon wellington ($32).

The plate was topped with lots of seafood (mussels, clams, black cod, scallops).  The linguine was softer and not al dente; however, it was absolutely delicious mixed with the parsley garlic sauce because it was soft and creamy.On to the famous salmon wellington! I really enjoyed this one.  But once again, I was surprised by the size because there were two very big pieces.  So you can expect to come here and be full very full afterwards.  The prices makes a lot more sense when you leave feeling satisfied.
The menu described the Salmon Wellington as: a cannery classic – local salmon, fresh shrimp meat and mushroom duxelle, baked in golden puff pastry, pinot noir sauce.  It’s difficult to bake the pastry without over drying the salmon inside.  But, I didn’t find the salmon dry at all..  It was just right because the fish was still moist, had a light pink colour, and wasn’t tough at all.

Overall impression:

Good:

• bigger portions
• great view of Vancouver
• excellent service and presentation
• good seafood

Bad:

• difficult to find if it’s the first visit

Yummy!  I love Cheesecake Factory.  I always go and get a slice of strawberry cheesecake every time we go on a road trip down to Bellevue.  I’ve tried a lot of the different flavors but most of the others are too sweet or thick for my liking.  I like the strawberry cheesecake because of the three jumbo strawberries it comes with.  After a couple of bites of the cheesecake, the strawberry is refreshing to eat.  They also spray two mounds of cream onto the cake.  I always scoop it off the cake because I don’t like cream, but others like to eat it with cake.  On to the cheesecake!  The best part of the cheesecake is the thick outter layer.  The cheesecake is rich and creamy.  I can taste the egg in the cheesecake and it makes each bite unforgetable.  I couldn’t believe how good it was too.  But YUM!!!! (more…)