The Rise Eatery: 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 second Dine Out I try is The Rise Eatery, an Asian Fusion restaurant in Kerrisdale, Vancouver. If you’ve been reading my blog, you may know that I have already written a review on this restaurant before (read it here). Last time, we tried their 3-course prix fix menu at $42 per person and we had the best squid ink pasta ever! It was so yummy that we decide to come here again for Dine Out for a double date with my 2 best friends.
Read my review of my first 2020 Dine Out experience at The Victor.
Dine Out menu
The Rise Eatery’s 2020 Dine Out menu is $35 per person and you can choose from the following appetizers, entrees and desserts:
| Appetizers | Entrees | Desserts |
| “Chicken seoul good” | “Uni-versal pasta” | “Luv u so matcha” |
| “A curve ball” | “Golly squash!” | “I care-amel about u” |
| “Fryday meat-up” | ||
| “Ode to abobo” |
All of these items have a punny name so I will give you more information on the items we did not order and why.
The “Golly squash” is a slow roasted kabocha squash with sauteed kale and a medley of mushrooms. Sauces include smoked marinara, pepita pesto and crispy tempeh. This is the vegetarian/vegan option. As our table did not have anyone vegetarian or vegan, I think this entree did not sound as attractive as some of the other choices.
The “Fryday meat-up” is a grilled 7oz sterling flat iron steak with miso gravy, togarashi compound butter and fries. It comes with a spicy vegetable jardiniere. If you are a value-driven person (as in you want the best bang for your buck), you will often choose a steak option for Dine Out. However, I have heard from other people who ordered it that this dish was a little salty. My main reason for not ordering this is because I just love their squid ink pasta so much.
Drinks
Geisha rita ($10)
They have a cocktail special for $10. The Geisha Rita is usually listed on their cocktail menu for $12. The drink is comprised of lychee liquor, sake, rose lemonade and togarashi. There is sea salt on the rim and interestingly, there is a strawberry pocky stick (lol??? My boyfriend thought it was a straw) with a piece of lychee fruit attached to the end.
The drink is very fruity and doesn’t taste strong.
Appetizers
“Chicken seoul good”
Most of us choose the “Chicken seoul good” for our appetizer. It is Korean style fried chicken with wild mushroom cream, truffle oil (!!!) and grated parmesan.
I’ve eaten a lot of KFC (aka Korean Fried Chicken) in my life so far but this appetizer is interesting because of the cream and the oil they use. I have never seen fried chicken paired with a mushroom sauce before, perhaps because you risk the chicken getting soggy. The mushroom sauce is delicious – creamy and hearty and with the addition of the truffle oil, it is quite rich! You may look at the photo and think that’s a small plate of fried chicken, but with this sauce pairing, it is actually the perfect amount.
The chicken meat is moist on the inside and the outside is coated with a rich and creamy taste!
“A curve ball”
This appetizer is a vegetarian/vegan option. It is a spinach and mushroom arancini (fried risotto balls) stuffed with a house vegan cheese. The sauce that comes with it is a masala pumpkin seed romesco sauce and sun-dried tomato chutney.
Now I don’t know anything about vegan cheese except that it doesn’t taste very good to me. My friend asks what type of vegan cheese they use and our server lets us know it is a cashew type, which apparently is one of the better tasting types of vegan cheese (and probably more expensive). Because of this cashew type vegan cheese, my friend orders it and I was able to try this appetizer! Something also cool to note is that they actually make this vegan cheese in-house.
The plating is quite pretty even though there is only one arancini. I really like the red sauce they use – you can definitely taste the vegetables and an earthy simple flavour. The vegan cheese tastes just like normal cheese to me so maybe I’ve only been eating the cheap not-so-good vegan cheese.
Entrees
“Uni-versal pasta”
The uni-versal pasta is probably The Rise Eatery’s most famous dish and it’s the #1 reason why we chose to come again for Dine Out. The pasta is black from squid ink, but you will not notice a significant difference in taste. They don’t just dump squid ink on top (your lips and tongue will not turn black) because the squid ink is actually just used to colour the pasta noodles.
The sauce for the pasta is this amazing sea urchin cream with a free run egg yolk and flying fish roe. Once you mix all that up, the pasta is creamy and very similar to a Japanese style mentaiko pasta. You are able to add real uni (sea urchin) to this dish but unfortunately, The Rise Eatery was out of uni on the day we went.
The prawns are sauteed in a house XO sauce but it is not spicy at all. In fact, I like to mix this sauce along with everything else for the pasta. On the shrimp, there are also a few pieces of toasted seaweed.
Usually, my boyfriend and I like to order different things so we can share and taste more variety, but in this case, we both order the uni pasta separately.
“Ode to Adobo”
This entree is a duck leg confit with Filipino sausage and edamame (peas) cassoulet. It comes with a pomme puree and is a gluten-free option.
Again, the presentation is very nice. My friend describes this dish to have a sweet sauce with the duck meat cooked well and not overdone. She also likes the pomme puree.
Desserts
“Luv u so matcha”
This dessert was a part of our last prix fix menu so we do not order it, but our friend does. It is a matcha green tea cheese tart with raspberry coulis and crispy white chocolate pearls.
Compared to the last time we ordered it, the tart is much much smaller than before. The server already informed us that the tart is made bite-sized and not for sharing, but if you wish to upgrade it to the original larger tart, you can do so for an additional $5.
The matcha cheese tart is still yummy and the tart filling is packed with green tea flavour and cream cheese. Still a very yummy treat!
“I care-a-mel about u”
This is a salted caramel creme brulee with pecan praline and a brown butter quinoa crumble. It is served in a cup but it’s still a reasonable portion size.
I’ve heard that this creme brulee is too sweet, but I find it delectable. Since they use caramel, it is sweeter than your average creme brulee but it is delicious. The top is hard and fun to crack and the quinoa crumble gives it a nice texture to contrast the smooth filling.
Final thoughts
I really like The Rise Eatery! Their dishes are always changing and evolving based on seasonality and I think that is just so fun to try different dishes. Sometimes because of Dine Out, restaurants get much busier and the quality of food decreases or the service decreases, but we did not find this to be the case. Our server was attentive and was able to answer all our questions. Different servers asked us how our meal was doing and our glasses were always refilled before we asked.
The food is bomb and interesting. I think The Rise Eatery really lives up to their fusion reputation and tries different things. Since they usually do have a 3-course menu set at $42 per person, I find their $35 Dine Out menu to be very worth it. Side note that if you come on a regular Wednesday, I believe their 3-course menu is only $33.
The food was delicious – every single course. Not a single disappointment at our table and we left feeling full. I highly recommend you all to give this restaurant a try whether it be during Dine Out or after.
Sincerely, Loewe