La Brasserie – A Reasonable Lunch, A Great Lunch

By George Froehlich

La Brasserie.

This small bistro in the heart of Vancouver’s West End is one of our favourite restaurants.

We like it because it does a number of things well – it serves food that is full of robust flavours, its prices are reasonable, the service is efficient and unobtrusive and the place is small and intimate.

And the city’s restaurant trade loves it.

Last month La Brasserie opened for lunch.

Time to check it out.

Our first course was the soup of the day – a creamy leek and potato soup.

Topped off with a bit of truffle oil, on a piece of shaved Reggiano Parmegano cheese, this was a soup that was sleek, velvety, creamy, sexy and sensuous in taste and flavour.

The suckling pig sandwich was delightfull – served on a crusty bun, inside tender shredded strips of pork, some with a nice crackling, crisp and delicious. And on top of it all housemade sauerkraut.

The sauerkraut was flavoursome – evident by a hint of bacon fat giving it a nice creamy texture and taste.

Thank god it wasn’t the common sauerkraut, vinegary and stringy, the kind you get at your local grocer.

A dab of Dijon aioli completed this yummy creation.

An order of mussels with hand-cut fries and housemade mayonaise was divine. The mussels bathed in a sauce of lemon, parsley, garlic and cream.

For dessert, a lemon tart served with a raspberry glaze and a vanilla bean cream, a trio of wonderful flavours and textures.

The tart had a caramelized sugar shell on top of it – a nice touch. The lemon filling tart, but sweet at the same time.

A flourless chocolate tart was rich and dense and oh! that chocolate – dark and brimming with that real chocolate taste, not obscured by being too sweet, a common affliction of a lot of chocolate desserts.

All in all – La Brasserie, a great spot for lunch.

Obviously, a lot of other people thought so too – the place was filled.

Check out the restaurants dinner or lunch menu with prices.