And yet another reason to love Dine Around? A bona-fide opportunity to get out there and try a new restaurant you haven’t visited before. Yeah, I know – there’s much reluctance to waste hard-earned dollars on an untried eatery but c’mon – it’s only $25! For three courses! You can afford to give a new place a go. And that’s exactly what I did – at Vintage Wine Bar & Grill.
Billing itself as “Victoria’s only Wine Bar”, they offer 50+ wines by the glass, and many more by the bottle. Even more, you can choose from 3, 6 or 9 (!) ounce pours, allowing you the opportunity to create your own flights of fancy. We’ll have to return another night just to get into the lengthy wine list – tonight we were here to focus on the food – namely, the $25 menu. The room was smattered with cheery diners when we arrived early in the eve. A very friendly host escorted us to our clubby booth, and while sipping a couple of innovative martinis, we perused the menu.
I started with the grilled asparagus, 5 thin spears with shaved parmesan and lemon. Sweetie’s starter completely dwarfed mine – a large pile of grilled Parmesan rosemary flatbread with a trio of dips: artichoke mousse, tomato-olive tapenade and red pepper-feta. Good thing I’m not shy about reaching, because it took two of us to dent the dish.
For our mains, I tucked into prosciutto wrapped Cowichan chicken breast, alongside spring vegetables. Sweetie’s choice was the Metchosin lamb shank, braised spoon-tender, with risotto and root vegetables. Both the chicken and lamb were quite moist, and as our dishes were more than ample in size, we had little room for dessert. When has that stopped us though? So we shared a vanilla crème brulee – thick, burnt sugar crust, and a small triangle of fudgy flourless chocolate torte. By this time the room was full of Dine-Arounders and wine tasters, so we gave up our choice booth for another Vintage couple.
—The Secret Diner
Vintage Wine Bar & Grill
2915 Douglas Street
(250) 385-6731
