Chambar: Dine Out 2020

Dine Out Vancouver is a food festival with over 200 participating restaurants. These participating restaurants offer 3-course menus at different price points: $15/$25/$35/$45. It’s a fun way to try different restaurants in Vancouver that you may not normally go to.

The third Dine Out I try is Chambar. Chambar is a chic restaurant in Vancouver focusing on Belgian cuisine. They won “Best New Restaurant” in 2004 and is right next door to Jam Cafe. Sometimes I end up at Chambar when I don’t want to wait 1 hour for brunch (lol).

Read my review of my 2020 Dine Out experience at The Rise Eatery.

Dine Out menu

Chambar’s 2020 Dine Out menu is $45 per person and you can choose from the following appetizers, entrees and desserts:

Appetizers	Entrees	Desserts
Carpaccio de betteraves	Pot au feu aux legumes d’hiver	Le gateau au chocolat
Curry de crevettes	Moules frites ‘congolaise’	Dates et noix de coco
Tartare sauvage	Thon aux trois poivres	Les fromages
Foie de Canard “Villa Lorraine”	Boeuf mijote

Most of these menu items are in French, so I will give you more information on the items we did not order and why.

Carpaccio de betteraves is the vegetarian option. They plate it to look like beef carpaccio but instead of using meat, they use marinated beetroot instead. They add miso and tahini, pesto, parsnip chips and roasted pistachios. We basically did not order this because we are not vegetarian.

Foie de Canard “Villa Lorraine” is a spiced foie gras terrine with port reduction, kriek granita and truffled brioche French toast. Foie gras is a stuffed fatty liver of a duck or goose and can be very rich and overwhelming. There is an additional cost of $8 for this appetizer, which is worth it for foie gras (as it is an expensive ingredient), but the additional price is what deterred us from ordering it.

Pot au feu aux legumes d’hiver is the vegetarian entree. It’s actually a very colourful and beautiful dish comprised of butternut squash and brussel sprouts. They also have other sesame roasted root vegetables, mushroom and a miso broth. Again, we didn’t choose it because we are not vegetarians.

Moules frites ‘congolaise’ is the classic mussels and fries. They use a tomato coconut cream soup base with smoked chili, lime and cilantro. I’ve tried Chambar’s mussels before on their regular menu so we did not order this because we want to try some other dishes.

Les fromages is a selection of cheese with crackers. We originally order this thinking it might be a good pairing for our bottle of wine, but in the end we switch it to the chocolate dessert.

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Interior

I have only ever dined on the top floor of Chambar, so I am surprised when they take us downstairs to a dining area I have never seen before.

Our reservation is early (5:15 pm), so it is quite empty when we first arrive but the space fills up really fast as we approach 6:30 pm.

The area we are in is very romantic and has warm lighting. I find our chairs to be comfortable and the table to be large enough to fit all our dishes and sharing plates.

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Appetizers

Curry de crevettes

Curry de crevettes is a prawn appetizer. They spice it with tamarind curry and add confit purple potatoes, Belgian endive and lotus roots. The presentation is quite beautiful with different colours.

I like this appetizer because I like the tamarind curry they cook the prawns in. It is not spicy at all but gives it a savoury taste. The prawns are large and there are about 4 in this appetizer.

I also really like the purple potatoes (yams). They are soaked in the sauce and are juicy – doesn’t even really taste like potatoes.

Tartare sauvage

This tartare is bison tartar, which makes this appetizer a little more interesting from the regular beef tartare. Tartare is basically grounded raw meat and often served with egg yolk and other accompaniments. For the other accompaniments, Chambar adds a celeriac and watercress salad underneath the tartare, parmesan and proscuitto crisps and a tomato and onion jam.

I like this tartare dish. The bison tartare doesn’t taste any different from a beef tartare in this aspect, but I like the crunchy and refreshing salad underneath as well as the parmesan crisps – cheesy and crunchy! The prosciutto crisp is interesting – it looks like a big strip of dried bacon. While this element is eye-catching, I did find it weird to eat my tartare with the prosciutto crisp and not some sort of a chip/bread/crostini.

Entrees

Thon aux trois poivres

My friend orders the Thon aux trois poivres, which is seared Ahi tuna, polenta fries with aioli, roasted eggplant, pea tips and a peppercorn sauce. They present it kind of like a steak dish.

We lol at the pea tips because our Chinese mothers always tell us it is an expensive ingredient.

Unfortunately, I am not a fan of this entree. I find the ahi tuna tasting a little weird and not very flavourful. The middle part is very red and raw-looking, and the sear on the outside doesn’t seem to do much to add to the fish.

The polenta fries are interesting but I don’t really like polenta. I see polenta as kind of a corny mush. With the polenta fries, it is still corny mush on the inside and it is not very crunchy on the outside (I don’t know if polenta can be crunchy lol).

Boeuf Mijoté

I order the Boeuf Mijoté, which are braised short ribs. The dish also includes farro and swiss chard, cauliflower purée, and a rum and lemongrass demi-glace.

The strange thing about braised short ribs for me is that my mom often makes this and I find that all good braised short ribs kinda taste like the ones my mom makes. The braised short rib at Chambar is soft and doesn’t require a knife for the meat to fall off. It is yummy but again, strangely just makes me think of my mom’s cooking.

What I really enjoy is the farro and swiss chard! I don’t think I have ever eaten this as I have zero idea on what a chard is. I thought these were lentils at first. The chard is kind of crunchy but also soft and has a light and delicate flavour. This is a good pairing to the short rib, which has a very saucy taste. The cauliflower puree also tastes great mixed in with the chard. I find the actual cauliflower bits kind of sour, which is different from how I usually like my cauliflower (roasted).

Desserts

Le gateau au chocolat

My friend orders the chocolate cake. It is a thin slice but also comes with poached pears, spiced namelaka and meringue.

My friend is not in love with this dessert – I think it is the spiced namelaka that makes it strange for her. But I personally think this is a very refined dessert. The spiced namelaka almost gives it a spicy Mexican chocolate vibe. Despite the cake looking small, it is very sweet and is enough given the portion sizes of the appetizer and entree.

Dattes et Noix de Coco

I choose the coconut tonka custard. There is a layer of mandarin jelly on top and two big chunks of sticky toffee pudding. My favourite topping is the ginger caramel crisp.

I really like this dessert because it is not overly sweet. The mandarin jelly gives it a tangy flavour and the ginger caramel crisp is the perfect crunchy texture with all the soft textures in this cup. The toffee pudding is also yummy to pair with the custard.

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Final thoughts

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I enjoyed Chambar’s Dine Out menu for 2020. For $45, I think the menu is worth it. We also ordered a bottle of spanish wine for around $60.

I would only not recommend the ahi tuna entree. As a suggestion, I think you should order classic French/Belgian dishes as this is what Chambar specializes in.

Service was excellent and the food came fast after we finish one course. Our cutlery was always changed. We never felt rushed even though the restaurant was very busy throughout the whole night.

Sincerely, Loewe