Restaurant Review: Don Francesco
860 Burrard Street | 604 685 7770
The Good:
• For fine dining, portion size was good
• Well-prepared proteins
• Upscale feel
The Bad:
• Pricey
Sherman Chan
Special to The Post
I recently received an invite for dinner at Don Francesco’s.
I was all game since I've actually never been (to the shock of many).
Once again, I must remind everyone that there are a lot of restaurants in Vancouver and really, there will be ones I've never been before. Shocking but true.
Since this was mainly a print media event, I was a fish out of water where the only other person I was familiar with was Michelle from The Georgia Straight.
We ended up sitting in a large square table situated in the upscale dining room complete with live entertainment.
Michelle and I shared our appetizers and mains. I also ended up sharing my main with Daniel (from Sing Tao), who was sitting on my other side.
We were started with some Ciabatta buns accompanied by butter and olive oil. Nothing out of the ordinary, but a nice start to the meal.
For my starter, I had the Beet & Burrata Salad with cranberries, walnuts and watercress. Despite being flown from Italy, the burrata still retained a creamy butteriness with an appealing stringiness. The slices of beet were quite Earthy with a noticeable level of sweetness. The balsamic reduction helped add a touch of acidity, but in the end, the dish was mostly sweet (including the cranberries). I was able to sample the Lobster Bisque which was comprised of lobster meat, tomato stock and creme fraiche. Noticeably thin and lacking in a lobster hit, this was decent bisque if not a bit ordinary.
It could've used more creme fraiche and booze (whether it be sherry or cognac).
Onto our mains, I sampled Michelle's Sablefish with Saffron Risotto baked with basil, saffron, lemon juice, white wine, onion, garlic and tomato.
This was a winner as the fish was flawlessly prepared.
It was moist, flaky and well-seasoned complete with crispy skin. The risotto could've been cheesier, yet each grain of rice retained a bit of chewiness. There was also a nice saffron essence which added to the overall enjoyment of the dish.
For myself, I went for the Roasted Rack of Lamb encrusted with rosemary, garlic, Dijon mustard, herbs and pistachios. This was finished with a Parmesan crisp, potatoes and demi-glace.
Served a beautiful medium rare, the meat practically needed no effort to chew. It was properly seasoned and the demi-glace was a nice compliment with a sweet red wine hit.
Daniel had the Veal Porterhouse rubbed with rosemary, lemon juice and EVOO. This was also served with a demi-glace which enhanced the meat flavour. I found the meat to be a touch more well than I would've liked, however, the meat was buttery soft.
Lastly, for dessert, we were served a trio consisting of Tiramisu, Chocolate Ganache Cake and Creme Brulee.
I found the tiramisu to be very rich where the marscapone was more firm than creamy. I did enjoy it as they were light on the sugar and not shy with the espresso and alcohol.
As much as I liked the ganache cake, it was very rich and chocolatey. I did notice bits of un-melted chocolate (which I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not). It didn't degrade the dessert though.
The creme brulee was well-prepared with a nicely torched thin sugar topping which revealed a creamy semi-sweet custard.
From the items I did get to sample, it was well-prepared and food I wanted to eat. Except for the bisque, there was not much that I didn't enjoy.
Sherman Chan is the #1 ranked food blogger on the Vancouver portal of Urbanspoon.com. Read more of his reviews at www.shermansfoodadventures.com.
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