Acre Through The Seasons: Anniversary dinner
Acre Through the Seasons is a new restaurant located in the same building as the boutique hotel Versante Hotel in Richmond (really close to the airport and literally across the street from the Richmond Night Market). They are a part of Club Versante’s restaurant brands like Bruno and Cask whiskey vault.
Acre Through the Seasons replaces the previous Oo La Cha seafood restaurant, which I believe wasn’t open for very long. Their whole concept is farm-to-table sensory fine-dining (if that means anything to you ๐ตโ๐ซ). They source ingredients locally and have their own lavender farm and greenhouse on Cortes Island.
Our friend recommended this restaurant so we decided to come check them out for our anniversary dinner this year in June.
Recommended: Read my review of Robba Da Matti, an Italian restaurant downtown. We had our anniversary dinner here in 2021.
The vibe
I really liked walking into Acre Through the Seasons. The look and feel of the interior is kind of similar to Botanist, actually. They have greenery throughout, a very pastel/muted grey and white colour palette, and very ambient lighting. Overall, it made for a very cool vibe that is both modern and more on the girly side.
Tasting menu ($98 per person)
It is important to note that Acre Through the Seasons doesn’t have an al le carte menu. This means if you come here, your only choice is to order their tasting menu if you want food. You cannot order individual dishes.
Their tasting menu is $98 per person and has around 6-8 courses. Their menu changes seasonally and is designed to celebrate different aspects of BC. They also offer a vegetarian tasting menu that is also $98 per person.
Sparkling rose (complimentary)
When we first arrived, we were each given a complimentary glass of sparkling rose, which I enjoyed very much. I am not sure if it is complimentary for everyone, or if they saw it is our anniversary on our reservations. Regardless, I liked the welcome because I am an alcoholic ๐!
Green elf ($10) + Garden of acre ($10)
To start off, we each order a cocktail from their signature cocktail menu. On this menu, they have 4 cocktails and they are all 2oz and $10 each, which I think is a steal. Spoiler alert: we end up ordering all 4 ๐.
I thought both cocktails looked quite cute. The green elf cocktail had aviation gin, cucumber, lemon, mint and club soda. It tastes refreshing and fruity, similar to a mojito. The garden of acre cocktail uses spiced rum, hibiscus, St. Germain and lime. Out of the 2, I preferred the garden of acre (red cocktail) more, but that may simply be because I like rum. Both were tasty.
Sweet & nutty ($10) + Rose-mary ($10)
Here we have the other 2 cocktails – sweet & nutty and rose-mary. They also gave us another complimentary glass of sparkling because one of our courses was taking a long time.
The sweet & nutty cocktail uses bourbon, cinzano and frangelico. We were originally hoping for something like a bourbon sour, but this one is more of a “man” drink and falls along the tastes of a negroni. I didn’t like the taste of it very much and found it to be quite strong.
The rose-mary I was hesitant to order because I hate tequila and this cocktail uses tequila blanco, rosemary, lime, cranberry and sparkling wine. Even though the overall taste of this cocktail is fruity due to the lime, cranberry and sparkling wine, I could still taste that hint of tequila so I didn’t like it as much as our first 2 cocktails. BUT look at this rose-shaped glass ๐! Like ???? Beautiful. I want to buy one for myself to take home.
Course 1: Snacks
The first course is very attention grabbing – snacks! You get 4 very small bite-sized snacks to try. They are presented in this large tray of rocks, grass/moss and dirt. The idea is you have to kind of “forage” for your food through the forest. Our server recommended an order to which snacks we eat first, to which I have continued to write this review in the order we ate, but you can obviously eat in whatever order you want.
Foie gras
The order is basically from lightest to richest, so to start we have this foie gras snack (it’s like a cream) on a very pretty and dainty leaf tuille and a sea buckthorn berry. I thought the leaf was the coolest part about this snack because it really looked like a leaf and it was thin and added a nice crunch to an otherwise very soft and smooth item.
Truffle mushroom donut
I thought these were so cute ๐! They are little balls (looks like a very mini cream puff) that is filled with a truffle mushroom cream and black sesame. On top, they also sprinkle some truffle and cheese. This is a one-biter that I just popped into my mouth, but it had a nice truffle flavour and mushroom is such a classic pairing to the truffle.
Bison heart tartare
Next we have the bison heart tartare, where the raw bison heart meat is mixed with a charcoal aioli. I did notice it had a nice smoky flavour to it, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried a charcoal aioli before. This snack also uses nasturtium (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ), which I looked up on Google and it is a plant with edible leaves. It is served on a thin slice of radish.
Onion tart
Lastly, we eat the onion tart. They use caramelized onions, RCC Cristal caviar and soubise sauce. I like the little tart cups as they were thin and held everything perfectly, and it had a pretty decent onion taste in the sauce/cream part. Caviar was a fancy touch but I am not a big fan of caviar and can never really tell when I eat it with other stuff.
Course 2: Steelhead gravlax
For course 2, we are presented with a cold salmon dish. Our server told us to imagine ourselves ice fishing. I know this is their concept but it is a little funny to me and Kelvin because fine-dining is always a little funny to me sometimes ๐. We joked about how the ice was real and how we felt “cold”.
Anyways, this dish was pretty cool. The steelhead is cured for a certain number of hours/days (they told us but I don’t remember how long). It is presented on top of a rock and a bed of ice. On top they have some caraway rye crumbs, birch syrup, and some smoked trout caviar.
I thought the breadcrumbs were pretty interesting because I haven’t eaten it with salmon before. The cured salmon also had some extra umami flavour vs. if this was just a regular salmon carpaccio dish (it is also cut much thicker than if it was a carpaccio dish).
Course 2: Bone marrow bread
Course 2 has a second dish and it is bone marrow bread. The 2 dishes did not come at the same time though and we didn’t eat the salmon with the bread so I wonder if the bread should have been part of the snack course (since it is quite small) or if it can be a bigger portion and a course on its own.
Anyways, the bone marrow bread came in a neat presentation – on top of an empty bone marrow. There is a little bit of cheese on it and the bone marrow is stuffed inside the part where the bread folds in half.
Now the bread was delicious – very rich brioche type – and for those who have never tried bone marrow before, it can taste quite rich also and fatty, so together it is 2 bites of rich fattiness, but I still wish there was more bone marrow. It was difficult to take photos of it because I couldn’t see that much as it is a thin layer. But when we order bone marrow at other restaurants, we can usually slather on a lot more bone marrow on our crostinis.
Course 3: Beetroot
This course is vegetarian even if you order the non-vegetarian/regular tasting menu. This was actually the course that took awhile and we were then offered complimentary sparkling due to the wait.
Once it arrived, the presentation was very unassuming because it looks like a thinly cut layer of beet (and it came in a cool white bowl). But under this dish, there’s actually a lot of things including quince (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ Google says it is a fruit), hazelnut, and a decent amount of goat cheese mousse.
I don’t usually like goat cheese, but I actually really liked this dish because I found the balance of flavors to be very unique and tasty. For example, the goat cheese mousse gave it this ice cream-like texture and creaminess, the fruit and the beet gave it sweetness, and the hazelnut gave it some crunch. I was expecting the beet dish to be something more like a salad, but it felt more like a dessert to me.
Course 4: Stinging nettle risotto
The manager brought out this course to us and told us it was his favourite dish on the tasting menu.
Stinging nettle (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ I swear this review has me googling almost every ingredient) is a plant that is traditionally used to treat painful muscles and joints, eczema, arthritis, etc. But it can also be cooked and tastes kinda like spinach, giving this risotto this bright green colour, similar to a pea risotto.
In the middle of the risotto, there is a cured egg yolk. The egg yolk is not super soft so it doesn’t break and swim all over your risotto when your spoon touches it. It’s got a bit of density to it and you can eat it kind of like a hard-boiled egg.
The dark sauce that surrounds the risotto is tare (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ). Tare is a multipurpose glaze and dipping sauce consisting of soy sauce, sake, brown sugar, and sweet mirin (Japanese rice wine). We thought this was super unique because we’ve never tried or even thought about mixing soy sauce into a risotto sauce, but we really liked the combination! The sweetness of the tare sauce also has some saltiness in it because of the soy sauce and it just made the risotto more Asian-fusion.
The dish is finished off by a crispy chicken skin, a salty crunch you can mix in between bites of risotto.
Course 5: Dry aged goose
We are now moving onto the heavier meat dishes of the tasting menu. Course 5 features dry aged goose, which now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve eaten goose before. It is presented and looks very similar to a duck dish in the way there is some sort of reddish-brown sauce and the meat is cut into thin slices.
The goose meat and the sauce again taste very similar to a duck a l’orange dish. The orange sauce holding the brown sauce inside is made of gooseberry. The little log on the side is burdock bark with some citrus fruit, and the grey blob (๐ ) is sunchoke puree.
Overall, I thought this dish was ok but the meat was similar to duck in the way that some parts are not very tender.
Course 6: Wild boar
Our second meat dish was a plate of black when it arrived. The wild boar meat is not totally burnt to crisp ๐ but actually crusted in ash (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ first time eating something crusted in ash) and finished off with a black garlic glaze, causing the dish to have such dark colours.
As you can see, once I cut up the meat, it is actually very tender and fatty with a nice light pink colour.
The wild boar didn’t taste gamey at all, and I actually really liked the black garlic glaze because it went quite well with morel fricassee (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ). Morel is a mushroom and fricassee is like a stew so the light brown/greyish sauce and chunks of mushroom is the morel fricassee (under the pieces of meat).
Course 7: Sheep milk kefir panna cotta
After the wild boar, we still have 2 desserts but they are no longer listed as courses. This is why I said the tasting menu is 6-8 courses because some are labeled as courses, while some are not, and within courses sometimes there is more than 1 dish.
Anyways, the first patisserie/dessert is a panna cotta. The manager says this is a “free” dish. It is very small so maybe that is why they are including this and not have it be a course on its own.
The panna cotta is made from sheep milk kefir (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ). Kefir is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt. It tastes a little different from regular panna cottas, but it still has that milky taste (just slightly different due to the fermentation). They add some edible flower petals and spruce tip mead, and almond granola for some texture. Overall, this dessert is quite light.
Course 7: Campfire
This is the last and final course of the tasting menu.
Campfire is exactly what it sounds like. You are given a rosehip (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ) marshmallow. Rosehip is part of the fruit that grows on the blossom of a wild rose called Rosa canina. Anyways, it tastes like a regular marshmallow but it has a faint pink colour to it.
The “campfire” is created from a chocolate tart covered in shards of chocolate and chunks of brownie. They added a very thoughtful chocolate plague that said “Happy anniversary”, which was a nice touch. They then pour a whiskey chocolate sauce that can catch fire so you can actually roast your marshmallow and then dip it in the sauce ๐คฏ! The fire died by itself after a short time but it was such a fun idea and the execution was flawless.
We asked our server about the portion for this dessert. We had a hard time finishing it as 2 people since it is a very sweet and decadent dessert, and as Asians we usually prefer our desserts to be “oh! not too sweet”. The portion is also quite big, but I think if you came here alone or possibly as 3 people, you would still get this chocolate dessert in the same size.
On the menu, it says there is also huckleberry and candied reindeer lichen (?? ๐ตโ๐ซ) in this dish. I have googled reindeer lichen and Google is literally telling me Santa’s reindeers eat this so I don’t know exactly how it was incorporated in this dish but I have had enough googling stuff to write this review ๐.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญโญโญโญ
Wow, I am exhausted from writing this review because there are so many ingredients that I am not familiar with ๐ . I suppose this goes to show how unique the tasting menu is – even the meats were not regular duck and beef, but goose and bison.
For $98 per person, I find the tasting menu to be a reasonably priced fine-dining experience. The experience was quite fun with quirky ideas like the campfire or the foraging for snacks. I think to enjoy this and to think it is worth it, you have to be a fan of food and experiences such as this. Sometimes fine dining can be very pompous and make no sense (like wash your hands in this soup and then drink it ๐ตโ๐ซ). Kelvin and I are not fancy rich people so for us there needs to be a balance between an interactive experience and good ol’ grub in our stomachs. So we liked the tasting menu at Acre Through the Seasons and think it is worth it, even though we poked fun at the tray of rocks and dirt or the “ice-fishing” imagination, but the campfire was so fun.
You will be full by the time you finish all the courses, even though the snack course is very small and each dish by itself is also not large in portions. I think the richness of the food is what fills you up (the bison, chocolate campfire, etc.). Otherwise, the most filling portion is probably the risotto and then bison.
Service-wise, I would have to say it was excellent. I appreciate stuff like the welcome sparkling, giving us alcohol if things are taking long, and the happy anniversary message on our dessert. They also explain all the dishes to you, which I think is kinda needed when the dishes are unique.
However, I did think it was a little weird that our beetroot course took so long. For a restaurant that only has a tasting menu and no al le carte options, you would think the restaurant/kitchen has already been optimized to only make these 8 dishes on time every day.
Again, these types of negative feelings were dismissed by my free bubbly ๐. I would say we were a little tipsy after our 2 cocktails and 2 glasses of bubbly. You can also order a wide selection of cocktails and whiskey options from their sister restaurant groups like the Cask whiskey vault, which is just down the hall.
Would I bring my parents here? No ๐.. They would be so confused. But I would recommend you come to celebrate an occasion or with a foodie friend who is into stuff like this.
Sincerely, Loewe