Blue Water Café – Vancouver

Having spent the past two weeks travelling up the Pacific coast of the US gorging ourselves on some of the freshest, most sustainable seafood in the world, the pressure was on to avoid disappointment north of the border. We needn’t have feared though, as Vancouver was eager to defend its foodie reputation  - serving us up some of the best seafood we’ve ever eaten.

The Blue Water Café is a hell of a lot smarter than it sounds. There’s nothing café-ish about it at all. In fact it’s fine dining all the way, with lovely soft lighting, glam clientele and a perfect view of both the open kitchen and raw bar chefs from every table.

 The menu was quite typical of many we saw in the Pacific Northwest – divided into raw bar dishes, smaller starter-style plates and larger main courses. We ordered a selection of raw bar dishes as starters, including generous sesame-encrusted chunks of local albacore tuna and torch-seared hamachi with jalepenos, ginger and soy. Both types of fish had the subtle flavour and firm texture that only comes with the very freshest fish. The addition of simple Japanese seasonings (and the little leftfield heat coming from the slithers of jalapenos) made these dishes really sing.

M’s main was miso-glazed Sablefish (or black cod to non-Canadians) with Japanese veggies and a delicate dashi-based broth. The cod was incredibly soft and the unmistakable caramel-miso flavour was evident through the entire gorgeous chunk of white fish.

My scallop dish was much more generous than you would see in the UK – when do you ever really even see scallops as a main course option over here? – They were served as perfectly caramelized as the bitter-sweet endive that accompanied them. A very memorable meal indeed.

www.bluewatercafe.net

1095 Hamilton Street

Vancouver

BC, Canada