We arrived on time for our reservation at the Pacific Restaurant in the Hotel Grand Pacific and were promptly seated. We were happy to see our Dine Around menus waiting at our table as opposed to some Dine Around participating restaurants who have seemed to want to steer us away from Dine Around and to their more pricey regular offerings. The Pacific Room is large with an expansive bank of windows looking out towards the Inner Harbour. The décor is authentic hotel traditional, the clientele a mix of hotel guests and families.
David, our server, arrived with a basket of warm buns and iced water. The accompanying butter included one that was deliciously flavoured with fennel and red pepper. We were asked if we’d like something from the bar and chose the suggested Mission Hill Chardonnay VQA pairing—a delicious chard that is a food-friendly wine with a nice, understated balance of fruit, acidity and oak.
We all chose from the $35 menu, which offered three choices in each category. The starters arrived after a brief interval. All three were superb. The Albacore Tuna Carpaccio came as a large plate covered with thinly sliced raw tuna, drizzles of a good olive oil and toast; the beet salad was substantial for a salad with plenty of sliced beet imbedded throughout and an innovative dressing of tiny French lentils and chevre goat’s cheese. The Carrot Bisque, which was also pronounced good, was thick with flavour and spiced with a zing of ginger and a zest of creamy lime crème fraiche.
Main courses were equally fine. My Alberta Ribeye steak was grilled medium-rare, was fork tender and tremendously beefy and flavourful—much ¬more so than the steak I had had several days earlier at the Keg off their Dine Around menu for the same price. My guests both went for the Cowichan Chicken Breast, a large portion, which was slow-roasted, tender and accompanied by hazelnut gnocchi and a natural jus of the chicken’s juices. Excellent.
For dessert, the hotel’s signature Molten Chocolate Cake was a must have and didn’t disappoint. Although nearly an antique by today’s fast-moving restaurant food trends, it still exciting to cut into the cake and see the hot gooey chocolate ooze out. The Cinnamon Maple Crème Brulée by comparison was a bit of let down, being neither creamy nor all that interesting—although there was nothing really wrong with it.
Throughout dinner service was excellent, always timely and friendly without being intrusive. Refreshing in fact to see a waiting staff that was not only up to the task but not overworked which can often be the case in these labour-challenged times.
All in all an exemplarily Dine Around experience. Kudos.
- The Secret Diner
T: (250) 380-4458 463 Belleville St.
