Hart House: Prix Fixe Menu Two in Burnaby

Hart House is a tudor-style house from 1906 (!) that has been turned into a restaurant. Located in Burnaby, it is a popular venue for weddings due to it being in the middle of Deer Lake. Since 1906, the building has been renovated into a restaurant and opened its doors in 1988.

My boyfriend’s family held a 60th birthday party in a private dining room at Hart House with the prix fixe menu two at $65 per person.

Menu

1st Course

Wild mushroom & leek soup

Most of us ordered the soup, which had porcini powder on the rims of the plate, truffle pecorino and micro arugula. I’ll have to say that I didn’t lick the powder on the rim of the plate so I’m not sure why they had it plated like that.

When the soup arrived at our table, most of us commented that it looks like gravy. I think we were all expecting our mushroom soup to be white. The texture was thick and portion size was very generous for a soup appetizer. It tasted decent but presentation was slightly lacking.

2nd Course

AAA Beef Tenderloin

The steak was definitely the “value” option and again, the portion size didn’t disappoint. It was prepared sous-vide (medium rare). It came with gruyere & chive smashed potato, seasonal vegetables and red wine jus. In our instance, the seasonal vegetables included carrots and mushrooms and a big scoop of mashed potatoes.

I’m not a big steak lover, but from the bites I had it was nice and tender.

Seared Steelhead

The seared salmon was what I chose for my second course. It came with seasonal vegetables and fregola in a tomato cream sauce.

The salmon was soft and not too many flavours were added to it, allowing a very natural BC salmon taste. I had no idea what fregola is, but apparently it is a type of pasta. It resembled more aesthetically round and dryer risotto. Not a lot of seasonal vegetables in the fregola mix, but it was a new partner for a salmon dish.

Roasted Chicken Supreme

The roasted chicken included a drumstick and a breast on a bed of beluga lentils and more seasonal vegetables. As a table of Chinese people, many of us have not eaten lentils before and we found that it tasted fine, almost non-existent in a way if you don’t eat it with any sauce.

The people who ordered the roasted chicken commented that it was not dry at all and very moist, which makes a good roast chicken.

3rd Course

Chocolate Hazelnut Marquise

This chocolate cake is a chocolate crumble with candied hazelnuts and gelee. It was very sweet, as expected from a layered chocolate cake and the presentation of this dish was more on par with what I was expecting.

Espresso Creme Brulee

For some reason I thought this was a normal creme brulee so I was surprised at the strong espresso taste. Because of the espresso flavour, the creme brulee was a darker brown colour, which actually reminded all of us of the soup from the first course.

They could’ve left the cinnamon biscotti out of this dish as it didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose. They could replace it with something else instead – not fruit or jam though as it doesn’t go that well with coffee flavoured items.

Final thoughts

A quick summary on the food is that it’s yummy, but doesn’t look as yummy as it tastes.

Service was kind of meh. Although our servers were very nice, there were constantly little things off here and there. For example, one server kept spilling champagne as they poured it into champagne glasses. Another example is that some people ordered coffee or tea after dessert and the servers who brought them in didn’t know who ordered one so they would place them down randomly to people who didn’t even order one.

Hart House has strict rules on bringing your own liquor or cake fees but the private dining room was huge. I can’t say much for the view since the table isn’t very close to the window, but lots of room for decorations (no using tape though).

The building itself is not in a bad shape considering it’s from the 1900’s. They try to make up for a slightly older infrastructure with fancy supplies such as thick washroom napkins.

The aesthetics of the restaurant are not my preferred taste. To better explain this, I just mean that it’s not trendy or modern. Hart House isn’t going to be a restaurant featured on Instagram with photo-worthy areas or good lighting. In fact, the lighting was very dim as per their desired ambiance. But even things like the paintings on the wall and the old school carpets all lean towards a more traditional feel. There are fireplaces and wooden furniture everywhere. It kind of feels like you are walking into an old rich man’s house.

Another random and strange thing was that they played pop music (quietly) in the background, including song covers and rap songs by Drake. We thought they would be playing jazz or classical.

All in all, it was an interesting and nice experience. If you are planning a wedding or a party for an older individual, this venue could be a very appropriate choice. They are able to personalize the menu for your event and accommodate for vegetarian options.

Sincerely, Loewe