Gigi's

I used to live in Coquitlam during the 90's and let's just say it was a black hole when it came to great food.  Things began to improve in the early 2000's and things are heating up as we move into early 2026.  With the rapid development of the city and the addition of the Evergreen Line, there needs to be more services and restaurants to serve the population.  With that in mind, it was probably a good move by the Kitchen Table Group to open up Gigi's in the Tricity Pavilion on Christmas Way in Coquitlam.  The building is gorgeous and has its own parking lot.  It also houses a location of Nemesis.

We arrived shortly after happy hour and the place was hopping.  A few appies were in order including the Calamari Fritti.  I wanted to like this, but as you can see, it was pretty greasy.  Batter was crispy though and well-salted.  Maybe some of the pieces could've been bigger as well.  There was some fried herbs and fennel to compliment as well as a verde aioli, which was creamy and bright.

Moving into a lighter direction, we had the Albacore Tuna Crudo.  This was a competent dish with fresh slices of fish that was dressed in a chili vinaigrette.  I didn't think it was all that spicy, rather it was fruity and tangy due to the orange slices and caper berries.  We also found pickled onions, shaved fennel and fennel fronds.  Hence, there was added crunch, tartness and brightness.

Our favourite appetizer was the Wagyu Beef Tartare.  This featured Australian Wagyu, which I find less fatty (from past experiences).  That was a good thing though as unrendered fat can be rather chewy.  This tartare was not chewy, instead it was silky and buttery.  It was dressed with black garlic mayo and topped with parmigiano reggiano, grainy dijon and shaved black truffle.  This added earthiness, umami, nuttiness and tang.  Nice balance here as it wasn't heavy nor too tart.  Smartly, this was served with the popular cacio e pepe chips that inspired the Miss Vickie's version.

We had one item from the Burrata Bar being the Pistachio Pesto.  Since the burrata is served within 48 hours after being hand-crafted in Puglia, it is pretty much as fresh as it can get (unless you fly to Italy).  Beyond the firm, but thin exterior, the creamy and stringy goodness of the fresh cheese was evident.  No watery mess inside!  That pesto was on point with an herbaceous nuttiness complimented by saltiness of the parm.  We found some extra EVOO on the side and house-made foccacia.

When the Mortadella Pizza arrived, it sported extensive charring and leoparding.  Now there is a growing movement that is moving way from this as Neapolitan-style pizza should only have a few spots.  For me personally, I'm still all for the charring as it creates crispiness and nuttiness.  The dough was well-seasoned and appealingly chewy.  There was plenty of mortadella on top drizzled with pesto, crushed pistachios and pecorino.  Underneath, we had a sauce bianco (white sauce) which was nutty and lightly creamy.  Of course, there was some fior di latte as well.

Onto the pasta course, we had three of them including Alla Vodka.  This employed sedani rigati which held onto the vodka sauce well.  About that sauce, it was quite good with a tomatoey richness that was velvety and balanced.  The amount of vodka used was conservative and it was cooked down properly.  Hence, there was a hint of it, but it stayed in the background.

My favourite of the bunch was the Luigi's Bolognese with rigatoni.  To some, this may be a bit defaultish, but don't sleep on this as it was plenty delicious.  The bolognese was made with veal, beef and pork which made it plenty meaty.  It was creamy enough to take the bite off the tomato and there was natural sweetness.  Along with some parm and al dente pasta, this was a solid dish.

The most interesting pasta we had the Ragu Bianco sporting shredded braised beef cheek.  The ample amount of beef cheek was gelatinous and super tender.  It also had a nice beefiness to it.  Moreover, the creaminess of the sauce created a velvety texture.  With a bit of parm, there was some nutty cheesiness.  The most unfortunate thing was that the campanelle was rather soft.

We had the 16oz Ribeye Steak as our main.  We asked for it to be prepared medium-rare and as you can see, it was spot on.  It was also properly rested with no juices leaking all over the plate.  As such, each slice was tender and moist while mildly-seasoned (with porcini).  There was a decent sear on the outside and it was even on both sides of the steak.

To go with our ribeye, we had the Kale Caesar.  As much as the kale can be poofy in a pile, this was still a rather large portion of salad.  Properly trimmed without the spine, the kale was tender with some chewiness.  It was lightly dressed in an anchovy and caper dressing which was slightly briny with a balanced saltiness.  It was further enhanced by the parm and crunchy pangrattato as well as the focaccia croutons.

We ended up with two desserts including the light and refreshing Roasted Pistachio Panna Cotta with a tangy raspberry coulis and a biscotti crumble on top as well as dark chocolate shavings.  The pannacotta itself was creamy and not overly gelatinized.  It was mildly sweet with some nuttiness.  With a hit of tangy raspberry and crunchy biscotti, there was balance and texture.

The other dessert was the Classic Tiramisu.  Unlike other versions I've had lately (including in Italy), this one was on the heavier side.  Thick and cheesy, the mascarpone cream was nice by itself, but in a tiramisu, it was too dense.  That didn't make the tiramisu bad though as the lady fingers were soaked with just enough espresso.  The dessert wasn't overly sweet either.  However, due to the richness, this was thankfully shared among the 5 of us.  Overall, our experience at Gigi's was decent with a beautiful dining space with fairly good service.  Food was generally good with a few things that could use further refinement.  Pretty nice for Coquitlam, but probably not on the level of Downtown quality.

The Good:

- Beautiful space

- Good service

- Decent eats, especially for Coquitlam

The Bad:

- Some more refinements needed with some dishes

Nomo Nomo

It always seems like there are some cool spots opening up along Commercial Drive.  Well, there is now another in Nomo Nomo.  Consider it a yōshoku izakaya that features share plates with a full service bar.  I would definitely say the place has style and the subsequent lively atmosphere to boot.  It is a cozy and compact place that has about 24 seats including ones at the bar.  We ended up sitting there for our visit and yes, we made a reso.  Highly recommended that you do!

Despite being share plates, these were far from "small".  Case in point, the Kabocha squash was a pretty generous portion, especially with the whole burrata taken into account.  There was a double-dose of squash where the roasted kabocha sat atop a smooth and sweet winter squash puree.  Really enjoyed the heightened sweetness from the roasted squash.  The radicchio dressed in umeboshi vinaigrette really brightened things up and added crunch.  As much as I love burrata (and this was a good one), maybe it wasn't needed?

We had the Hen of the Woods next and it was another fairly generous portion of roasted maitake mushrooms.  They had a dry exterior, yet the inside was juicy and tender.  There was a wealth of flavours in this from the fatty and salty guanciale, tangy pickled shimeji and the sweet corn soubise.  There was a little of everything in this where the pickled shimeji provided that critical brightness to cut through the slight heaviness of the dish.

I really thought the Scallop Crudo should've been served first due to the relatively heaviness of squash and mushrooms.  But in some sense, it could be seen as a palate cleanser of sorts.  The slices of Hokkaido scallops were buttery and sweet while dressed in a ponzu sauce.  We found some pickled radish and sunflower sprouts on top.  This was a pleasant dish were the tangy and slightly salty ponzu added flavour to the dish while the radish offered up crunch and more tanginess.

Although the appearance of the Prawn Toast seemed to be heavy, it was really not.  Set atop a Chinese donut (Yau Tiew), the prawn tiger prawn mousse was light and bouncy.  The donut itself was airy and lightly crispy on the outside.  Unlike other yau tiew that I've had, this wasn't greasy.  However at the same time, I don't mind the grease, as it is part of any fry bread.  On top, we found a drizzle of tonkatsu sauce.

I really enjoyed their take on another seemingly typical item in the Croquette.  Now there was an actual potato croquettes underneath made of potato salad.  Hence, they were creamy and light.  On the outside it had a firm crunch.  To top it off, literally and figuratively, there was some torched king salmon, ikura and unagi sauce.  Nice combination of textures as the crunch from the croquette contrasted the soft buttery salmon.

One of my favourite items was the Tamago Sando.  Again, what was presented was completely different than what I was expecting.  What we found was toasted milk bread with a imitation crab and egg salad with red crab on top.  With a bit of black truffle, there was the usual earthiness and aroma.  Loved the texture of the salad where I found the sweetness of kewpie mayo and a bit of brightness from the chives.

One of the two featured items of the night was the Wagyu Sliders.  Essentially, these were little burgers with two meat patties each.  Served on toasted Hawaiian rolls, the whole concoction had a soft feel to it.  The meat was tender and moist while the buns were fluffy beyond the crispiness of the exterior.  I would've liked to see something crunchy for more texture.  The burger sauce was quite Asian-tasting and was a nice compliment to the beef.

On the menu, there was a Tomahawk Pork Chop, but it was replaced by a Pork Collar instead.  The dish itself was still prepared similarly to the menu description with caramelized apple, apple kimchi and mustard tare sauce.  The fatty collar was prepared closer to medium-rare and hence, was rather flabby and chewy.  That in itself wasn't particularly enjoyable as it was tough to eat.  Flavours were nice though with the tare having a good balance of sweet, salty and sharpness.  Apple kimchi was crunchy while the caramelized apple was intensely sweet.

We ordered the only option for dessert on the menu being the Cookies and Ice Cream.  Crispy and light, the chocolate chip cooked acted as a serving vessel for the matcha gelato.  It was fairly smooth and was topped with strawberry & red bean coulis.  I found the coulis to be tangy and mildly sweet.  Overall, I found the meal to be decent with some highlights as well as some things that could've been improved.  I liked the Prawn Toast, Tamago Sando and Mushrooms.  The Kabocha was fine but the burrata didn't need to be there while the Pork Collar was too chewy and undercooked.  I am open for a return visit and would like to see the evolution of the restaurant as time goes by.

The Good:

- Creative spins on their dishes

- Excellent service

- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:

- Some refinements needed

- Not the most spacious of places

Niwa

Recently, Air Canada released its list of the best new restaurants in Canada.  One of the places mentioned is Niwa out on a strip of great restaurants on Powell Street near Victoria Drive.  After great meals at other nominated restaurants such as Le Violon, Elem, June, Linny's and Pancée, I was excited to check out Niwa.  Viv and I went to celebrate her birthday with their Chef's Menu for a reasonable $85.00.

Our meal began with a few snacks including Assorted Pickles, Seiglinde Potato Salad and Country-Style Berkshire Pork Pâté.  These were pretty standard items in many tasting menus I've had as of late.  The pickled celery and radish were crunchy and punchy, but we thought the carrot was a bit bland.  Potato salad was creamy with crunchy onions and pops of roe.  Pate was firm with light meatiness.  It came with a small dollop of mustard and a slice of gherkin.  

One last snack was the Sablefish served as a cube of reconstituted meat.  It was fluffy and tender with a wasabi kick.  We added the Uni Shooter supplement and it was served with seaweed and ponzu.  For mine, it was bright and sweet, but Viv's was funky and not as fresh.  Our last supplemental dish was the Fife Bread.  It had a crunchy crust with a soft and chewy centre.  It was served with a squash compote that had sweet and earthy melon vibes along with a pork butter that was melty and baconesque.

Onto our next course, the Tofu Pocket was stuffed with mochi and mushrooms.  It sat in a dashi that was smoky and had the essence of dried orange peel.  We enjoyed the texture of the chewy tofu skin pocket, but the mochi in the middle was too soft and a bit slimy.  We would've liked to see it firmer.  As for the mushrooms, they were flavourful with a great texture.

We moved onto a salad of sorts with the Kohlrabi dressed in black vinegar and chili oil.  Combined with Asian pear, there was a mix of hard and soft crunch textures.  We had some natural sweetness, but with the black vinegar, it was the most dominant flavour.  There was a bit of spice for the chili oil, but it was muted.  This was fairly pleasant and light, where we were leading up to the next item.

That next item was our favourite dish of the meal, the Golden Eagle Sablefish.  Although we felt the dish could've been seasoned more aggressively, the overall execution was good.  Each large piece of sablefish was buttery and soft while barely cooked through.  The fish itself could've been salted more, but the preserved matsutake sauce had enough umami to make up for it.

As a side for the sablefish, we had the Crawford Farms Turnips with sweet onion.  This was quite good with soft turnips that still had a bite.  Of course there was some natural earthiness here and it was complimented by the fermented saltines of the miso on top.  Furthermore, the charred Ailsa Craig onions added both crunch and natural sweetness.

At this point, we thought our meal was over, but then came the Stewed Pork Shoulder Rice with seaweed.  This was a pretty rustic dish if you can imagine.  It was served over chewy sushi rice.  In general, this was a hearty and comforting item with tender and fatty pork.  Mixed in with the seaweed, scallions and chewy sushi rice, each bite was meaty and filling.

Finishing off the Chef's Menu, we were presented with the Brown Butter Ice Cream Puffs.  I enjoyed the creamy, nutty and sweet ice cream.  It was further enhanced by the Irish whiskey caramel which was pretty sweet.  The choux pastry was decent having an airiness to it while crispy on the outside. Overall, the Chef's Menu at Niwa was decent, but not particularly impressive compared to the other best new restaurants nominees (as per Air Canada) I've visited in 2025.  I do think the Chef's Menu is a good value though and I'm curious about the evolution of the restaurant as it moves into 2026.

The Good:

- Fairly good value

- Attentive service

- Nice atmosphere

The Bad:

- Food is decent but not memorable

- Pretty dark in there