L’Abattoir: Dine Out Vancouver 2024

Dine Out Vancouver is a food festival where restaurants offer special menus and experiences during a usually slow period of the year. This year, Dine out Vancouver ran from January 17 – February 4, 2024 and menu prices range from $20-65 per person.

The second restaurant I chose to check out this year was none other than L’Abattoir, a Vancouver classic. L’Abattoir is a french-inspired West Coast restaurant situated in Gastown and it is a popular and well-loved restaurant for many Vancouver foodies.

Continue reading to see how my Dine Out experience went. I visited as a table of 4 adults.

Recommended: Read about my other Dine Out experience at Archer, a Canadian/Pacific-north west restaurant in downtown Vancouver.

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The vibe

I’ve actually only been to L’Abattoir to attend a wedding and I was pretty happy with the food I ate there (it was family style sharing). But since it was for a wedding, we were mostly seated in their private dining group/event space.

When I first entered L’Abattoir for Dine Out Vancouver, my initial reaction was that the restaurant seemed very small inside. When you first come in, there’s a small coat check area and then a small bar seating and kitchen window. There seemed to be a hallway into the back of the restaurant, but I couldn’t really see what that area looked like.

We were seated upstairs above the kitchen, which was still a pretty small loft kind of area but they are able to place quite a few tables in here without it feeling too cramped.

Lighting was kind of dim and very romantic, and I liked the brick wall accents.

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Food and drinks review

L’Abattoir’s Dine Out Vancouver menu is priced at $65 per person with BC wine pairings an additional +$45.

Luminous ($19)

They had some special limited-time cocktails just for Dine Out Vancouver. 3 of us chose to order the Luminous cocktail, which uses rum, apple, mint and lime.

I was very pleased with how the cocktail looked – I love it when they use this glass – and it tasted fruity and delicious 👍!

First course: Albacore tuna tataki

One of my friends chose the tuna tataki for his first course. As an appetizer, there was around 6 (or more) pieces of tuna tataki, served with some jalapenos, lime and cilantro.

I didn’t try any of this dish, but my friend said it tasted good. Regular price for this dish is $20 on the al le carte menu, but I’m not sure if portion size is the same.

First course: Sunchoke gratin

The vegetarian option for the first course is this sunchoke gratin. Now I feel like often times in Dine Out Vancouver, the vegetarian option doesn’t get chosen because it doesn’t have any meat in it, but I actually ended up liking this first course the most out of the 3 🤯!

The dish was quite sophisticated and I wasn’t too sure which element was what exactly, but on the menu, it says it comes with a brioche flan, raclette, and an onion consomme. Raclette is a type of cheese from Switzerland and it paired quite well with the flan and the sunchoke gratin. I also really liked the onion consomme, which was like a clear broth – very hearty and gave this dish a lot of flavour despite its small portion.

Regular al le carte price for the sunchoke gratin is $24.

First course: Ocean trout mi-cuit

I chose to order the ocean trout mi-cuit despite not knowing what a mi-cuit is. It basically is a French phrase for “half cooked”, usually with a combination of heat and salt work to ensure that the salmon is not raw.

The salmon was served on a bed of potato escabeche (marinated proten in some sort of pickled sauce, mostly in Spanish or Portugese dishes actually), some olive and fennel. I found the escabeche to be a bit too sour but overall it was ok 😕. I liked how soft the salmon was.

Regular al le carte price for this is $20.

Second course: European sea bass

My friend chose the European sea bass as her main dish. It was presented quite nicely with 3 large pieces of sea bass, some calamari, potatoes and peppers.

I didn’t try any, but she liked it! Regular al le carte price for this is $42.

Second course: Pork and chicken pithivier

The rest of us chose the pork and chicken pithivier as our second course. We weren’t sure what to expect as none of us knew what a pithivier is, but I guess an easy explanation is that it’s kind of like a pie with the usage of puff pastry.

I was very happy because I love puff pastry 😋! The inside filling had one lining of pork and a center of chicken (or the other way around, I don’t remember). It had a similar texture and taste to a terrine, but it was also served with some celeriac puree, winter lettuce on top, and a truffle vinaigrette sauce.

Regular price for this dish is $40.

The third option for this course is the vegetarian choice – pumpkin and ricotta gnocchi.

Third course: Sticky toffee pudding

For dessert, most of us choose the sticky toffee pudding.

It arrived looking scrumptious! You got a decent size slice of a banana flavoured toffee pudding – soft and chewy texture and very decadent. It is served with a scoop of ice cream and a bourbon-infused sauce. It had me thinking of Gordon Ramsey 🥰!

Third course: Dark chocolate ganache

One of my friends chose the dark chocolate ganache as his dessert instead. It was delicately plated with a raspberry sorbet/ice cream, some crumble and an earl-grey sauce.

My friend thinks the sticky toffee pudding was a better dessert.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We had a delicious dinner at L’Abattoir and thoroughly enjoyed their 3-course Dine Out Vancouver menu priced at $65 per person. After tax and tip, we spent around $100 per person (including our cocktail).

L’Abattoir is not a cheap eats spot, so for the price, I think it was worth it. Although, if you scroll through their al le carte menu, you will notice some dishes are a few dollars more expensive than others (many of them being the vegetarian options!).

Out of all the dishes we tried, I liked the pithivier but I also liked the sunchoke gratin the most! I just found it so interesting and unique. I’ve never tasted anything like that before and the fact that it was the vegetarian option makes it even more inspiring.

I am one of those diners that often choose a meat dish over a vegetarian one because I just think a meat dish is “worth more”. In this situation, I feel like L’Abattoir did a really great job on how to make the vegetable the star of the dish 🤩. This also gives me confidence on why some of their vegetarian dishes are priced higher than their non-vegetarian dishes.

I will be back another time to check out L’Abattoir’s prix fix and chef tasting menus!

Sincerely, Loewe