Elisa: Wood fired grill steakhouse in Yaletown
Elisa is a fancy steakhouse in Yaletown, featuring a Grillworks Infierno wood-fired grill. Their menu boasts a large selection of meats and steaks, as well as seafood options and cocktails.
We came here to celebrate a friend’s birthday back in April (I know it’s been awhile since April… I have quite a long backlog of places to review ๐ ).
I will start off by saying I am not a big red-meat person (i.e. I don’t like steak that much… * runs away ๐ฑ*). I usually prefer seafood but every now and then I do love myself some wagyu. Anyways, I just wanted to provide context if you are looking for a review that is based off of someone who knows a lot about steak and different cuts of meat. I am literally just here to see it tastes good and if it’s worth my money.
The vibe
We are a table of 5 and seated in the back area near the kitchen, where you can see dishes come out. Half of our table has booth seating (very plush), and the other half has stand alone chairs (also plush). The overall look of the set up has a very classic steakhouse feel with the white tablecloths and a giant bar by the entrance.
Also, the place smells really good! Definitely mouth-watering.
Food and drinks review
Here is everything we ordered for 5 people (we shared everything).
Corcelettes Estate merlot ($68)
We order a bottle of red wine because we know we will order steak. Elisa has an extensive wine list whether you order by the glass or bottle. You can also bring your own bottle of wine if you want (limit of 2 bottles and the wine you bring cannot be on their list), and you will have to also pay a corkage fee of $45 per 750ml bottle.
Bread (free)
I love me some free bread. The bread is served warm with a side of butter and olive oil. The bread itself is crusty and has a harder/more chewy texture.
Tartare tasting trio ($68)
They have 5 different tartares to choose from! I am a fan of tartare so I was pretty excited to order the tasting trio, where you get 3 kinds of tartare – the classic beef tartare, signature beef tartare, and the veal tartare.
It comes in 3 small plates and a really tall stand ๐ฎ but don’t worry, they actually remove the plates from the stand after it arrives at your table (I guess it’s just for presentation ๐ ). So after it is actually placed on your table, it looks more like this:
The top 2 in the photo are the classic and signature beef tartare. The classic beef tartare uses caramelized shallot aioli and crunchy onions (regular price is $22). It has a smaller portion size than the signature beef tartar. As a classic beef tartare, it tasted above average to me and I really liked the texture and flavour of the crunchy onions on top.
The signature beef tartare comes with a quail egg yolk and uses easter egg radish, gem lettuce, and barbeque sauce. out of the 2, I preferred the signature beef tartare more because it had a bit more of that smokiness from the barbeque sauce.
Lastly, the veal tartare has albacore tonnato, lemon, capers, and olive oil in its mix. I did notice a different taste since it is veal and not beef, and I am usually not a fan of the gaminess of meats like veal, but I found the lemon and tuna sauce kind of masked it up well. In the end, I still preferred the 2 beef tartares over the veal, but it was fun and unique to try the veal.
They also provide a variety of different choices for you to eat your tartare. We have thin crostinis, potato chips, and taro chips. My favourite was the crostinis because they were stronger (can hold more tartare ๐) but I also liked the taro chips as a fancy touch.
Seafood plateau ($67)
Wanting to try some seafood as well, we order the seafood plateau over the seafood tower, which is $195. The plateau is kind of like just 1 plate of the tower and comes with kusshi and beau soleil raw oysters, a shrimp cocktail, some tuna tartare, cured hamachi and spring salmon.
Overall, I found the seafood plateau to be disappointing. My main gripe is the portion/what you get for $67. The oysters were ok (not the sweetest or freshest I’ve had, and even the small oysters looked really small). The shrimp cocktail was refreshing, but nothing special (just a cold shrimp). I liked the cured hamachi (light and refreshing) and the spring salmon (BC has the best salmon!), and the tuna tartare was just average.
Overall, I don’t think it was worth comparing it to the tartare trio, which is almost the same price.
Beef tomahawk ($225)
All 5 of us decide to share the prime beef tomahawk, which is a whopping 50oz!
They presented us with the beef tomahawk on the pan before bringing it back cut up into smaller pieces for us to eat:
I love the huge bone! Looks like a steak from cartoons.
Some pieces of the beef tomahawk were more fatty and some were more lean. I preferred the more fatty parts ๐. Most of the pieces I had were juicy and very savoury. We asked for medium rare and I didn’t find it tough (not overcooked) and not too wet/raw.
I found the 50oz portion to be just enough to feed the 5 of us (we had 2 females and 3 males – a total of 5 hungry adults).
Sides: Fries ($13) + Onion rings ($13) + Brussel sprouts ($13) + Mac & cheese ($19)
We add on 4 sides with our main large cut.
The french fries are triple cooked (braised, blanched, fried) and so I had to order it. They were extra crispy!
The onion rings were a popular side, we saw a lot of other tables order it as well. They are buttermilk fried and comes in a small stack, along with a side of ranch dressing.
The brussel sprouts were our attempt to include some form of vegetable in our meal ๐. But really they are not healthy because they are also fried and topped with parmesan – delicious!
And lastly, the mac and cheese for Kelvin because he is a sucker for mac and cheese. It is just a few dollars more than our other sides, but comes in a larger portion and has some summer truffle on top!
Cinnamon sugar doughnuts ($14)
Entering into the dessert portion of our meal, the guys all wanted these cinnamon sugar doughnuts (not my top choice from Elisa’s dessert menu). It was actually pretty good because it has this nice fluffy warm filling and it lowkey melted my black heart ๐ค. I also liked the chocolate whisky toffee sauce it comes with, but too much of it and it can be too sweet.
Basked alaska ($23)
No steakhouse dinner is complete without the classic steakhouse dessert… a baked alaska! Here is our birthday girl Irene enjoying her birthday dessert (not complimentary in case it’s not obvious, but they did provide a candle and a happy birthday in chocolate writing).
Elisa’s baked alaska uses caramelized banana rum ice cream, which goes really well with all the other components on the dish like the banana purรฉe and the peanut butter crรฉmeux. The cake itself is a brown butter cake and there are also some candied chunks of peanuts on the plate.
I don’t really like banana compared to all the other fruits out there, but I liked this dessert! A very classic pairing of banana and PB. Presentation was also beautiful.
Candy (free)
Even if you don’t order a dessert, they give you these candy jellies at the end of the meal, which is also a nice touch.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ
I know – “Loewe you don’t even like steak so how can you give a steakhouse 5 stars?” Well it’s because I don’t like steak I feel like I can give 5 stars to Elisa because I actually liked the beef tomahawk we had here.
Again, I don’t know anything about steaks but all I know is that I liked it. It tasted good and it looked amazing. Between 5 people, I think $255 is a reasonable price to share.
All 4 sides were great – a little pricey – but great quality. And there are a lot of sides to choose from as well.
The tartare tasting trio I would say is a must order because it is so fun and you get a lot of tartare out of it. I would likely opt out of their raw/chilled appetizers based on how I felt about the seafood plateau. I think in general, you should come here to eat meat since it is their specialty.
Service was excellent. Our server was really nice and helped us decide the right amount of food to order and share. He also explained a lot about how all the steaks in Elisa are cooked in the wood-fired grill, making them more unique and undergoing a more tedious and special process. It really felt like he actually cared about our food.
I recommend coming here if you are a meat lover and if you are on the search for the best steak in Vancouver. It is an expensive restaurant so if it’s not in your budget to dine here regularly, I recommend you come for a special occasion or date.
Definitely a must-try restaurant in Vancouver!
Sincerely, Loewe