C|Prime: Dine Out 2019

Dine Out Vancouver is a food festival with over 200 participating restaurants that 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 fifth Dine Out I went to was at C|Prime, an Italian steakhouse inside Century Plaza Hotel. We were also there to celebrate a friend’s birthday so there were five of us in total. It was very posh and quiet inside, but granted it was 8:30 pm on a Sunday night. Their bottles of wine menu is on an ipad, if that give you a notion of anything.

C|Prime’s Dine Out 2019 $35 menu is as follows (you choose one of the following for each category):

Appetizers

We started off with some free bread, which was actually really good with the olive oil and balsamic sauce. I’m not a fan of olives but it was a nice touch for those who did, and we appreciated the cute little spoon for salt.

For appetizers, most of us ordered the calamari and one of us ordered the stuffed portobello.

The calamari was quite basic in my opinion – not the best I’ve had and not the worse. Just your basic salt and pepper squid with some lemon aioli. Portion size was average.

The portobello was stuffed with spinach and goat cheese, paired with marinara. It looked savoury enough, but value wise I didn’t regret choosing calamari.

Entrees

All of us ordered the wagyu sirloin except for my one friend, who accidentally ordered the squash gnocchi.

The wagyu sirloin was probably the prime (haha) reason we chose to come to C|Prime. For a $35 menu, having wagyu seemed like a very worth-it meal. It was a 6oz wagyu sirloin with oven roasted vegetables and a sweet potato puree. You could only choose between medium rare or well done.

I can’t comment much on how it was perfectly medium-rare because it wasn’t (I’m no steak expert but I can tell that much), but it was still delicious and 6oz is a perfect portion size for me. The vegetables were mostly meh, even the potatoes I feel like could’ve soaked in more juices. I had olives on mine but my other friend didn’t. Unfortunately I don’t like olives so I left them.

I had a little piece of the squash gnocchi and it was actually delicious – a validation of what I have always assumed about the vegetarian options during Dine Out (that they may be more delicious than the meat choices).

Desserts

For desserts, I ordered the cheesecake. It had blueberry compote (which is a fancy word for random accompaniment) and a scoop of blueberry gelato. As you can see in the photo, the blueberry compote comprised of some blueberry sauce and a little bit of crushed blueberry.

Again, the cheesecake was nice and decent portion size but it wasn’t anything special. Value-wise, it was a good choice from the menu. Another one of my friend ordered the chocolate mousse cake, which was in half a sphere and it looked really nice.

Final thoughts

In total I spent around $42 after tax and tip. I would have to say it was mostly an average meal with the sirloin being kind of a winner in terms of value.

If you’re a Dine Out fan, you’d notice that almost every restaurant has these two options listed as their entrees: some sort of steak and the arctic char. So out of all the participating restaurants, I am sure there are a bunch of better steaks out there you can choose from, even if it’s not wagyu.

Ambience was nice – quiet but you can be loud if you want, lots of space and comfortable seating. Service was great – they were attentive but not too in your face and never rushed you to order or leave.

Sincerely, Loewe