UPDATE 3/10/2021 – The menu has been condensed to 14 dishes (changing seasonally) and is now $49 per person.
ARC Restaurant inside the Fairmont Waterfront has just launched their latest concept – ARC After Dark. This concept will be available Thursday to Saturday and features bottomless small plates and lo-fi music featuring DJ Remsta. ARC offers simply inspired and handcrafted fare in a beautiful space. There are stunning views of Canada Place and the Convention Centre as well as gorgeous views of the water. There are 18 different dishes to choose from for $35 per person. Check out what I thought of their brunch rendition.
I went on Saturday and it was fairly busy even though ARC After Dark has just been announced – so get your reservations in! I found service to be very smooth. You let your server know which dishes you want and then they bring it all out at once to you. The wait time isn’t too long and everything is made fresh to order. The plates are small, but you can order as much as you want.
ARC After Dark – Must Order Dishes
The Crab Cakes were fantastic. The dish features three small crab cakes, watercress, poached egg, and Béarnaise sauce. The crab cakes were full of crab with no filler. The Béarnaise sauce had a lovely citrus flavour and was smooth and creamy. The egg yolk with the sauce and the crab cake in one bite was an absolute flavour explosion. This was a table favourite by far – we had 6 plates!
The Crispy Chicken Wings, Steak and Onion Rings and Baby Brie were also table favourites:
- The Crispy Chicken Wings are honey and ras el hanout spiced. They are crispy with a delicious sweet flavour. These were incredibly addictive! However, I would say the majority we got was drums than wings.
- The Steak and Onion Rings was definitely the pièce de résistance. This dish features grilled flank steak, smoked onion rings, shishito peppers, and red chimichurri. The steak was a perfect medium rare every single time we got this. The onion rings were the only downside of this dish. They were too hard and chewy. The shishitos had a great char and went well with the steak.
- The Baby Brie has a very flavourful pistachio pesto accompaniment and went well with the Raincoast chips. However, I was basically eating the Brie with a spoon – it was that tasty!
Other Delicious Dishes Worth Trying
The Mussels Escabeche, Sweet Onion Tart Tatin and Smoked Trout Salad were good to try but necessarily worth a reorder.
- The Mussels Escabeche are cold and made with pickled peppers and a cumin onion dressing. The mussels were plump and fresh and the slight acidity was great.
- The Sweet Onion Tart Tatin was very interesting and not something I’ve tried before. This tart features vidalia onion, goat cheese, and frisée salad. I really enjoyed the goat cheese and it went so well with the sweet caramelized onion. The frisée salad was an unnecessary component.
- The Smoked Trout Salad has cucumber, frisée, onion, and dill sour cream. The salad was a nice break from all the heavier dishes. The dill sour cream was my favourite.
Dishes I Would Pass On
To save stomach space I would pass on these dishes – Charred Fermented Carrots, Spicy N’Duja Mussels, and Kennebec Fries.
- The Charred Fermented Carrots features skyr yoghurt, birch syrup, and savory granola. It sounds very intriguing on the menu but the carrots were extremely hard and crunchy.
- The Spicy N’Duja Mussels has salt spring island mussels, calabrian salami, velouté, tomato, and fennel. The broth had a very strong alcohol flavour. Additionally every time we got this dish about a third of them were unopened.
- The Kennebec Fries are made with garlic, rosemary, and parmesan however these were just plain fries. This was the biggest dish and just a filler item.
At the cost of $35 per person, this is an absolute steal for some top notch food. Everything was fresh and well made. Overall I had a really great experience. The service was friendly and all the dishes came out at the appropriate temperature. Masks are required at all times (except when eating). This is a great deal and I highly recommend it! Please note that the entire table must commit to this menu. If you’re not a dinner person they have a brunch version!
