Another Dine Out Vancouver season is upon us, and this year I’ve scheduled quite a few, so look forward to the upcoming posts! I’ll do my best to churn them out as soon as possible so you can try them before Dine Out is over!
Market by Jean-Georges is the first restaurant in Canada for three-star Michelin chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and the signature restaurant of the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver. It is directly across from my office, so when I saw they were offering an unbelievable $25 Dine Out lunch menu I knew I had to try it out.
My friend J and I arrived at 11:30 am for our lunch reservation and it was already very busy. From what I could see, most patrons were here for the Dine Out menu.
Lunch started with bread service which is pretty rare in Vancouver these days. The bread wasn’t anything special but it was warm and soft and the butter that came with it was super airy and light. It was a nice start to lunch.
If you want to stick with the $25 menu, the appetizer offering is a celeriac soup. I’m personally not a huge fan of celeriac, so I decided to upgrade my appetizer to the salad. In my opinion it is worth it. It was a very good salad.
When it first arrived I was underwhelmed as the platting wasn’t the greatest, and the avocado was slightly discoloured, but the soy truffle vinaigrette made up for everything. It really livened up the salad without overwhelming the delicate shrimp.
For the main there are two options – the risotto and their black truffle pizza. Note that the pizza is not their regular size, but a smaller version. I personally would recommend the risotto. It was a very generous portion and there was a decent amount of seafood. You will be getting the most bang for your buck if you get this.
I really enjoyed the fresh dill and the dill cream in this risotto. The mussels were on the smaller side, but very fresh. I personally was not a fan of the crispy bits, but that’s just my personal preference.
By the time dessert rolled around, I was positively stuffed. But I couldn’t leave dessert behind!
The dessert option included in the $25 menu is their signature cheesecake. For $5 more you can upgrade to their Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar. I went with their cheesecake and it was a perfect ending to a great lunch. I loved the preserved kumquats and I could eat an entire jar and be happy. The cheesecake wasn’t too sweet which I appreciated and the overall dessert was a light and citrusy end to a luxurious lunch.
Overall I really enjoyed my lunch at Market. The service was for the most part impeccable (our server wasn’t on top of it for water refills, but that might have been because J and I were in pretty deep conversation). If you haven’t already made a reservation, you should definitely do it soon! This is a lunch menu not to be missed.
