date night: Vancouver

Our last night in Vancouver, Sunday night. Date night for me and Conrad. A day together of driving around shopping/sightseeing. A meal where we could dine well, drink well, and just enjoy each other's company. So of course, we pick what is pretty much our favourite restaurant in Vancouver: ViJ's.

Not familiar with it? Imagine Rick Bayless had an Indian restaurant instead of Frontera. Refined Indian cuisine, no buffets, west coast ingredients incorporated into the mix. Decent wine list. No reservations.

Oops.

We got there at 5:25, just before the first seating. Too late. The line stretched past the sister restaurant and toward Granville. We knew we had a wait on our hands.

Our friend Brian recommends going over to West for a cocktail, and, in fact, you can leave your name and wander off. I didn't feel well enough dressed to try West, though, and anyway, we did get a seat in the bar area (one seat - I let Conrad sit down most of the time). A glass of wine each, waitresses bringing around hot salty snacks. Not a difficult wait. We sipped slowly, then sought guidance on a nice bottle of wine, settling on a LaFrenz red we hadn't had before. Opened it, got started sipping that slowly, and BINGO! A table!



The previous time Conrad and I had been in ViJ's we did a similar thing to this visit: here is the wine, now build food around it. My only caveat - no lamb lollipops. I've had them before, and they're fine, but I wanted something different. The waitress brought over the wine director (whom we'd talked to the time before) and we were off and running.

Appetizers:

• Lamb, beef, and paneer samosas
• Yam, paneer, and cabbage kofta in pureed lentil curry (Brussels sprouts underneath there)

I loved the kofta especially, though I think it was only a moderate success with the wine.





(we loved the wine, I should add)

Dinner:

• Rajasthani style goat curry with lightly spiced vegetables
• Beef tenderloin with ginger, onion, and date chutney on mung bean and sesame seed rice pilaf with ground fennel curry

The beef was marvelous on its own. The sweetness of the chutney was just right. The goat? Best dish with the wine, in fact. I was pleased.

Conrad and I ate very very well. No dessert - we were well-contented. I took a cup of chai, and then next thing we know the wine director has brought us two small glasses of a sweet sparkling wine. Cheers! We shook his hand gratefully when we left, and you know we've got our eye on another meal there next trip west!