Bruno: Valentine’s Day 2025
Every year for Valentine’s Day, I get excited to try a special tasting menu ❤️. I know Valentine’s Day can be overhyped and everything is overpriced (flowers, food, tip, etc.), but I am simply a sucker for a tasting menu.
This year for Valentine’s Day, I made a reservation to dine at Bruno, a restaurant in Richmond located inside the Versante Hotel. They offered a special 6-course Valentine’s Day menu priced at $238 for 2 people.
Here is how our experience went!
Bruno
8499 Bridgeport Rd, Richmond, BC V6X 1R7
The vibe
The interior of Bruno is actually quite cool. We parked inside the hotel and walked to the restaurant via back stairways and even in those spaces they had colourful and beautiful mural art on the walls 🤩! I totally didn’t expect that.
Inside Bruno, they have a lounge area and also a dining room area. I would say the space is colourful, modern and artistic. I really liked the fun shapes on the ceiling, the different types of lighting, the high ceilings, and the variety of seating. It gives the space a mixture of posh and vibrancy.
Food review
We opted for their special Valentine’s Day menu priced at $238 for 2 people. This includes 6 courses and 2 glasses of bubbly.
First course: Foie gras pate
I say first course, but the first 3 plates all arrived at our table at the same time. The first thing on the menu was the foie gras pate which also has chicken liver in it and it is smeared onto crostini with grand marnier and a berry compote.
I was kind of surprised that there were 6 crostini total – I was expecting more like 2 😂.
Overall, this was a nice starter and two-biter. The pate tasted slightly bitter and definitely needed the berry compote pairing to balance it out.
Second course: Butter shrimp and chimichurri
The second course is supposed to be scallop crudo, but we asked for a substitution due to dietary restrictions and they replaced it with this shrimp dish.
The shrimp were plump and juicy and the chimichurri sauce tasted amazing with it 👍! Loved that sauce so much.
Third course: Italian salad
The third course was the Italian salad. What you see in the photo is portion for 1 person so they actually brought out 2 plates of this.
This was quite a big salad! It included a generous amount of prosciutto, some tomatoes, banana peppers (a little spicy!), roasted pine nuts and Italian dressing. I think without the prosciutto, the rest of the salad is kind of boring/bland.
Fourth course: Crab & lobster ravioli
Next were our 2 “main” dishes that came out at the same time. The first was this crab & lobster ravioli in a white wine and lemon garlic butter sauce with chive oil.
There is a total of 4 raviolis but these raviolis are huge with a lot of filling inside. We could definitely taste the flavours of the crab and lobster peeking through and the sauce tasted really rich 👍.
Fifth course: Grilled ribeye steak & lobster tail
The main dish of this set menu is this surf & turf entrée, portioned to share.
The ribeye steak is a 12oz of AAA ribeye, but unfortunately we found the steak to be pretty hard to eat 😬. It was chewy and just not that great. I only ate 2 pieces before I stopped because it was too tough. We did ask it to be cooked medium instead of medium-rare, but we wonder if that is the sole reason why it was so chewy.
The lobster tail is split into 2 and baked in thermidor style, topped with caviar and gold. This lobster tail was pretty yummy and the sauce wasn’t too overwhelming so I liked it. Eating it with the caviar and gold also felt very luxurious.
Underneath these two proteins, there is a big hunk of truffle mashed potato – super delicious. There is also some grilled broccolini which had a nice smoky flavour to it.
Sixth course: Dark chocolate soufflé
The last course was dessert and it took a little while to come but that was alright because it is the last course.
It came with two large chocolate coated strawberries, mint, strawberry compote, white wine jelly and a pretty moist chocolate soufflé. It wasn’t like dripping in melted chocolate when we separated it in half, but it was decadent and soft.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
We had a pretty romantic and enjoyable evening at Bruno for Valentine’s Day. The ambiance was really cool even though we were seated next to a loud couple (we just eavesdropped and laughed every time he made arrogant comments to his wife 💀). Our server was also very nice and accommodating.
Food-wise I can’t say it was mind-blowing. The biggest disappointment was how tough our steak was 😣. We felt like that dish was supposed to be the main event but it became our least likeable course. All the other courses were fine.
Price-wise, I think this special tasting menu is reasonably priced because you get some expensive ingredients in here – the foie gras, lobster, caviar and gold, steak, etc. Portions were definitely on the bigger side, even if some courses were designed for sharing.
The highest rating I can give Bruno is 3 stars due to the steak not meeting expectations. I am unsure if we will visit again.
Sincerely, Loewe