My hosts, Lou and Ken, had arranged for dinner at Hawksworth in The Hotel Georgia. Hawksworth has been recognised as one of the best restaurants in Canada, so was really looking forward to it!

Photos courtesy of www.hawksworthrestaurant.com

Whilst it is an upmarket restaurant, they don’t have a formal dress code (thankfully). It is also not a big place, so booking is a must. The menu is not huge, but it is interesting and was more than enough for me!!!!! The wine list was interesting, had a few surprises on it, one of which I selected for the table (thanks Ken for letting me do at least something!).

The Food

Entrée

For entrée we all had something different:

Beet Salad

• With macadamia, rhubarb, berries, sunflower brittle.

It looked amazing

Seared Foie Gras

Pink Oysters

• From Prince Edward Island

We were all very happy with our entrées, I had the oysters and, whilst they were not as flavourful as my favourite Coffin Bay Oysters, they were very tasty and the house vinaigrette and shaved horseradish enhanced the flavour.

Great bread basket, every piece was very good especially the bat-wing (not sure what else to call it).

Main Course

For our mains Ken and I decided to share the Lamb Rack and Lou had the Duck

Yarrow Meadows Duck Breast

• With umami glaze, black garlic, Brussel sprouts, roasted onion jus.

I think it must have been pretty good, definitely looked it, as there was one small wafer of skin left on Lou’s plate, think she did that just for appearance sake. If you are lucky enough to dine at Hawksworth and have the duck, suggest medium-rare, as it was cooked to perfection.

Yakima Valley Lamb Rack

• With rosemary fingerling potato, olive crumble, mint chimmichurri, onion lamb jus.

WoW this was the best presented lamb rack I have ever had as well as one of the tastiest. Definitely a dish that I would recommend at Hawksworth. There is ample for two, it would probably work well for three. I am getting hungry as I write this. YUM!

The Wine

Name:       Mitolo 7^th Son
Vintage:    2012
Region:     McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia
Varietal:   56% Grenache, 40% Shiraz, 4% Sagrantino
Alcohol:    14.5%
Colour:     Youthful Deep Crimson
Aroma:     Bouquet of cherry, plum, blackberry and a hint of mint aromas
Palate:      Medium-bodied, balanced, smooth
Tannin:     Silky
Finish:       Medium-Long

Comment: I was really impressed by this wine. Whilst still relatively young, it was very good, but it did need to be double decanted to open up (we did not have to ask for this the lovely sommeliers knew what was needed). Definitely a wine to try again with more age or even drink more of now!! Sounds like I need to buy a 6 pack so that I can make sure!

Hawksworth

Is it the best or one of the best restaurants in Canada, no idea, but it is definitely a very good restaurant and worth at least one try! They also have a decent bar, we did not try it as we had a long drive home and a 1939 Para Port awaiting us.

If the rest of the dinners on this trip are half as good as this one, I am going to be very happy!

Hotel Georgia

The Hotel Georgia looks pretty nice! There is a bar downstairs called Prohibition, which I did not try, that sounds very interesting, something to do next time I am in Vancouver. We were also lucky enough to visit on the day that they opened their rooftop bar, which was nice for a pre-dinner drink. Will be a good spot when the weather is warmer.

Next up is the Bluewater Cafe in Vancouver