Torafuku: Dine Out Vancouver 2023
Dine Out Vancouver is a food festival where participating restaurants offer 3-course menus at a set price. This year it is running from January 20 – February 5 and menus range from $30 – $65.
For my 4th and final Dine Out this year, I took my parents to Torafuku. Torafuku is an Asian fusion restaurant nestled in Chinatown, Vancouver and their Dine Out Vancouver menu this year is $62 per person for 5 courses.
My parents are notorious for being quite picky with food. They prefer traditional Chinese restaurants and my dad is very lactose so I rarely take them to eat any cuisine with lots of cheese or cream (no Italian, French, etc.). They also don’t like raw foods so sushi is also not a favourite for them. I was hoping since Torafuku is Asian fusion, they will be able to try some new flavours and dishes.
Food – Dine Out Vancouver 2023
Torafuku’s menu is designed to share between 2 people, so for every pair, you can choose one item for courses 2-4. Since we had a total of 4 people, we were able to try 2 dishes for every course.
First course: Bread
For the first course, you get 2 different breads (no choice). These are steamed buns (like man tou) from Baker’s Breakfast Joint and are made fresh daily. The 2 versions are plain and green onion, served with butter.
First of all, I appreciate the quenelle scoop on the butter – makes me feel fancy lol. Also like the dim sum baskets it came in – cute.
The plain bread is plain so I don’t have much to say about it. The green onion one added a bit more flavour but still mostly it was plain, albeit light and fluffy.
My personal thoughts is that I don’t like starting with such a big bread (fills me up). My mom’s thoughts is that this type of bread is usually served with dishes so she thought it was a little strange to just eat it as a first course by itself.
Second course: Roasted mushroom and beets
The second course is vegetables, and we select the roasted mushroom and beet salad as one of our choices. It came in a very pretty presentation – lots of warm red and orange colours. In the dish, we have roasted mushrooms, beets, bitter greens, and candied walnuts in a sweet soy glaze. They also have some burrata in the middle!
Now you know me and Kelvin love our burrata. We usually like to eat it with tomatoes and some veggies with balsamic vinegar, so it was interesting to eat it in this salad. The burrata was light and creamy but I still prefer it with tomatoes vs. what was in this salad.
Candied walnuts were nice and beets were cooked really well and sweet. Wish there was actually more roasted mushrooms because it didn’t feel like there was enough when it is called a mushroom salad.
Second course: Brussel sprout salad
For our second choice, we choose the brussel sprout salad. I’ve had this before al le carte and it is one of my favourite salads at Torafuku! It contains brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, crispy chick peas, roasted soy bean and a balsamic garlic black bean vinaigrette.
I love how the vegetables taste roasted and full of flavour, and the chick peas add a fun crunch in texture. My mom also preferred this salad over the mushroom salad.
Third course: Kanpachi crudo
I chose this dish even though I knew my parents wouldn’t like it because it is served raw. But the other choice was mussels and my parents don’t really like that either lol so I decided to go with the kanpachi crudo because it is lighter and more unique.
Kanpachi is yellowtail fish and crudo is like Italian sashimi, also served raw. The kanpachi here is from New Zealand and it is served with a ginger white soy dressing, radish and some lime. As expected, it was light and I actually really liked the ginger white soy dressing it was in because it tastes a little different from other crudo I’ve had before (an Asian twist). Presentation was also beautiful!
Third course: General Tao’s Chicken wings
For our second choice, we chose the fried chicken wings doused in a General Tao sauce. Garnishes included some grilled broccolini, radish and cilantro. Presentation is pretty decent for fried chicken.
I found the chicken to be quite juicy inside and it is fried well, however we all did think the sauce/flavour was really strong – it made me think eating one piece was enough. My mom found it to be overly salty because of this.
Also at this point, I would like to say that we were already feeling kind of full and I fully blame the baos from the first course for this.
Fourth course: Sea Bream
I believe we didn’t actually get sea bream on the day we went, they replaced it with another fish but it is cooked the same. The whole fish is fried with garlic prawns and a Thai chili tamarind sauce. They serve it in a big bowl where you can see the whole fish – something that does resemble the Chinese restaurants my family goes to. Then, a server kindly removed the major bone/spine in the fish before we ate it.
Even though he did that, there was still a lot of bones so be careful! We kind of picked at it.
Really liked the chili tamarind sauce – a little bit of sweet & sour and went really well with the fried skin texture. The prawns were also a nice touch. For 2 people to share, I think this would be a large main.
Fourth course: AAA Striploin
For our second choice, we chose the AAA striploin. We found it interesting it was served with mapo tofu and green onion on top because we have never imagined that combo. The striploin is quite large and already sliced into ready-to-eat pieces so I appreciate that.
I’m not the biggest steak lover, but I did find the steak to be a little dry/not that juicy. The mapo tofu and green onion didn’t taste that strange as a pairing, but it also didn’t pack as big of a punch as I thought it would (also even though it says it is Szechuan, it is not that spicy).
Fourth course: Kick ass rice
For the fourth course, they were all served with a bowl of kick ass rice (for every 2 people, so we received 2 bowls of this). It is a simple fried rice and egg dish, but it was nice to have it with the fish and steak – especially the fish as it was saucy and you were getting smaller pieces of meat each time by picking at it.
Fifth course: Chocolate ganache
For the dessert course, you actually get both desserts so since we have 4 people, we received 2 of this chocolate dessert and 2 of the second dessert. By this time, we were quite full and already had to pack some of our fourth course because we couldn’t finish it. So I was glad the chocolate dessert was not that big actually! It was cut in a sophisticated long rectangle with hazelnut feuilletine, crumbles and berries. Since it is chocolate, it is quite sweet but it was nice to eat it with the berry sauce and crumble.
The candle actually kind of has a funny story. I wanted to book my birthday dinner at Torafuku with my family last May, but Torafuku cancelled my reservation because they had an event booked that day for the entire restaurant. Fast forward to Dine Out this year in February, our server saw this history/note in our reservation and thought it was my birthday so they put this candle on, but when the server asked us whose birthday it was, we didn’t know what to say because it was nobody’s birthday lol. We just randomly pointed at my mom and we even sang her happy birthday HAHA.
Fifth course: Panna cotta
The second dessert you get is the citrus panna cotta with fruit coulis. It is like a pudding with a light and sweet flavour, and the fruit coulis on top gave it more flavour.
I preferred this dessert over the chocolate one because I prefer lighter desserts and I was really full!
Fifth course: Basque cheesecake
Going back to my story about my cancelled birthday reso, they gifted me the basque cheesecake on the house, which would usually cost +$18, so we ended up having 5 plates of dessert!
Out of all the desserts, I liked the basque cheesecake the most – it was so yummy and had a fruity tang to it. We couldn’t finish all of this, so we packed almost the entire cheesecake home.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall, we had an enjoyable dinner at Torafuku and really appreciated the service and how they tried to make up for cancelling my birthday reso last year – was surprised they would even know or remember it.
Some highlights from our meal:
- Second course veggies: we all preferred the brussel sprout salad over the mushroom one, but both were refreshing and unique
- Third course: I preferred the crudo over the fried chicken. I felt it was more sophisticated and fine dining.
- Fourth course: definitely preferred the fish! Very Chinese-like and makes me think of the fried fish served at Kissa Tanto. A more unique option.
- Fifth course: the basque cheesecake > all the other desserts
Some not highlights:
- First course: not a fan of the baos. I feel like they could have removed that completely.
- Third course: less sauce on the fried chicken maybe? As it was a little too strong for me even
- Fourth course: the striploin felt a little dry
- Pricing: I think $62 per person is a steep price for this Dine Out. I know there is a lot of food but it is sharing style. I think if they lowered the portions or removed the first course or didn’t give both desserts, the price could be possibly lowered and more worth it.
I am also comparing this Dine out to our previous experience at Torafuku, where we tried their 7-course omakase for $45 per person. This was back in 2020 so there’s inflation and everything, but for $45 we had 7-courses and were really full also. I just feel like that omakase was more “worth it” than this Dine Out. The omakase is still available but it is now priced at $65 per person.
Recommended: Read my review on Torafuku’s 7-course omakase from 2020.
I don’t run a restaurant so I don’t have experience coming up with menus or pricing them. I understand inflation has been crazy in Vancouver, but I find this year the $60+ dine outs are unappealing since I can spend that amount on a regular day (ex. I can just get their regular omakase for $65 per person instead of coming during Dine Out). I have also seen restaurants increase their prices after the recent Michelin awards and recommendations come out too.
Overall, I still really like Torafuku and their unique dishes but their Dine Out menu may not be the best bang for your buck. In total after tax and tip, I spent just under $300 for 4 people. My parents enjoyed trying some new dishes but still prefer their regular Chinese restaurants (no surprise there).
Sincerely, Loewe