Osetra

One of the newest restaurants in Downtown Vancouver has opened up on Georgia Street at Homer.  Osetra (yes, the same name as the caviar) now occupies the former location of Bar Haifa.  It has a focus on coastal cuisine that features fresh seafood.  Now with a name like Osetra, you might have guessed they have a love for caviar as well.  That they do and we even got some randomly during our meal!

Before we got to the caviar, we had the Scallop Crudo.  This was doused in an apple and coconut nage.  This was plenty creamy and aromatic.  There was also an avocado vinaigrette which added even more richness as well as some acidity.  I wasn't completely sold on the serranos on top, but it did make things pop.  As for the chopped scallop, it was buttery soft, fresh and clean-tasting.  I enjoyed eating this with less of the sauce, since it was rather heavy.  Flavours were good though and the seasoned crisps were perfect vessels for the scallops.

For our Caviar appie, it featured a crispy buttermilk and chive waffle that was lightly sweet and a bit nutty.  We found some smoked crème fraîche and chives occupying 2 squares on the waffle while there was a toasted pepper and egg yolk gel settling in 2 of the other squares.  However, the most important ingredient was the dollops of caviar in the remaining squares.  I thought when everything was combined into one bite, there was a good balance.  If you are familiar, you'll notice that they re-imagined the typical condiments served with a tin of caviar, such as the egg yolk, crème fraîche and chives.  Quite clever really and in general it worked.  Possibly the only thing I would've changed was the waffle itself.  Something thinner would've helped highlight the brininess of the caviar more so.

It was suggested we order the Grilled Sourdough to accompany the Squid Plancha.  Great call on that as the nutty, smoky and crunchy sourdough mopped up that delicious sauce beautifully.  There was a nice dousing of single origin olive oil on the bread itself, where it ate well without sauce too.  The little bites of squid nestled in the n'duja & confit tomato sugo were tender and buttery.  I found the sugo to have a mild tomato flavour while exhibiting some spice.  Some preserved lemon provided the acidity and a balanced saltiness came from the manchego espuma.

Two of our vegetable sides came out next in the form of the Oyster Mushrooms in a rendang sauce and the Potato Pavé with pecorino and kimchi powder.  Really enjoyed the mushrooms as they were seared nicely.  The rendang was creamy and earthy with the usual coconut aromatics.  As for the pavé, it was not pan-fried.  Rather, it was deep fried which created a uniformly crunchy exterior that was also buttery and nutty.  Inside, it was still tender and revealed the multiple layers of potato.  I didn't notice the kimchi powder as much as I wanted, but it did provide a slight bite.

My favourite item of the night was the Dungeness Crab served in its own carapace (or head shell).  They de-shelled the whole crab and mixed it with a ginger & scallion emulsion.  I found the crab meat to be excellent being fluffy with a slight bounce.  It was naturally sweet and a bit briny with the emulsion complimenting rather than dominating.  We had some acidity in the form of lemon and the whole thing contained a good amount of crab.

Now we had crab, so the next would be Lobster right?  This was a half-lobster with diced meat that was mixed with a motoyaki mayo sauce and baked.  It was also topped with chives and ikura.  The result was tender morsels of sweet lobster that were lightly bathed in a mild-tasting sauce.  Underneath, we found some watercress gomae that added some freshness and texture.  The pops of brininess from the ikura was a nice break from the creamy sauce.

I thought the Carrots was probably the best veggie side dish we had.  They were aggressively charred which made them smoky and heightened the sweetness.  That honey mustard toffee on the bottom of the plate was richly sweet and buttery with a slight sharpness from the mustard.  Adding texture and nuttiness, there was puffed rice  was strewn across the plate.

Had to end the meal with caviar right?  So we had the Fior di Latte & Lemon Gelato topped with Osetra caviar and drizzled with single origin olive oil.  Creamy and sweet, the gelato benefited from olive oil with extra silkiness and of course the flavour of the oil.  Of course the caviar on top provided a "je ne sais" quality to the dessert that was only in the background.  Overall, the food we tried at Osetra was good.  There might've been a few things that could've been refined a bit more (such as the scallop crudo) and possibly the plating on the squid was a bit flat, but nothing outrageously deficient.  Atmosphere and decor fit the Downtown theme and pricing was okay, especially compared to Aquafarina across the street.

*All food was complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Good Downtown vibes and atmosphere

- Food was generally well-prepared

- Fresh seafood

The Bad:

- Some dishes could use further refinement