I feel like everyone has that one dish that they think about from time to time because it was just that good. For me, that dish is the Spot Prawn Green Tea Soba Noodle Salad I had in 2016. This dish was prepared by Chef Kevin Lin at one of his private dinners. It remains, to this day, one of the best dishes I have ever had the pleasure of eating. Kevin and Steph, have just quietly opened their newest venture – Land & Sea. It is the soft open, ahead of their official soft open on September 3. Land & Sea combines traditional Japanese flavours with modern west coast flair. The restaurant is stunning – with an open kitchen, a bar with some very stunning cocktails and an incredible wine cellar. Land & Sea Vancouver located just outside of Kerrisdale is a restaurant you need to check out!
Land & Sea Restaurant Menu – Preludes
From the start, everything on the menu sounds amazing. It was really hard not to go overboard and order everything single item! In the end, we went with – Grilled Belgian Endive, Aburi Pink Scallops and Ora King Salmon Soba. The one dish you must order here is the Ora King Salmon Soba. It will change your life.
The Ora King Salmon Soba ($31.00) features flame finished Ora King salmon, green tea soba salad, creamy sesame ponzu, yuzu tobiko, and ikura. As with a lot of dishes on the menu, there is the option to add uni (go big or go home!). This dish is as amazing as I remember it to be. This was my first time having it with salmon, and it was perfection. The salmon was so unctuous and fatty. Everything just went perfectly together on this dish. The saltiness of the ikura helps to break up the fattiness of the salmon, and the soba was light and refreshing. This dish is the perfect representation of “Japanese West Coast” cuisine.
The Aburi Pink Scallops ($20.00) features wild BC scallops, seaweed & shirataki noodles, tear drop peppers and ikura. This is a pretty dish, however taste wise it falls a bit short in comparison to the soba dish. It is still a very delicious dish, however aside from the visual appeal, I found it to be quite average.
To round out our appetizers, we had the Grilled Belgian Endive ($14.00) with hand peeled shrimp, tobiko, miso Caesar dressing and parmesan. If all vegetables tasted like this, I would probably eat a lot more vegetables! I love the grill flavour on endive and the dressing was so creamy and luscious. The dressing itself is not very miso forward and of all the preludes this dish was the least Japanese to me.
Land & Sea Restaurant Menu – Main Courses and Accompaniments
The main courses are split between “Land” and “Sea”. From the ‘Land’ section we had Yarrow Meadows Duck ($37.00) features yakiniku gravy, wild bc mushrooms, baby carrots and Kabocha croquette. The stand out surprisingly was the Kabocha croquette. It was light, crispy and packed with flavour. The yakiniku gravy was so flavourful and the mushrooms were top notch.
From the ‘Sea’ section we had Unagi Risotto ($36.00) which has Carnaroli rice, tiger prawns, green peas, 63 degree egg, ikura, and mentsuyu butter. This was my second favourite dish of the night. The portion size was very generous and the rice was perfectly cooked. The unagi was positively glistening and every component of this dish went so well together. This is another must order dish for me!
For our accompaniment we went with Mentaiko Waffle Fries ($9.00). I love waffle fries and I love mentaiko, so what is there not to love about this dish? The fries are hot and crispy and the mentaiko mayo adds the perfect salty kick.
Land & Sea Restaurant Menu – Sweets
If the desserts look a bit familiar to you, it’s because Land & Sea is working with Minami‘s pastry chef Nikki Tam. The two desserts on the menu are Strawberry Lemon Panna Cotta ($12.00) and Earl Grey Tiramisu ($15.00). The Strawberry Lemon Panna Cotta features white chocolate namelaka, strawberry shiso compote and salted lemon crumble. The Earl Grey Tiramisu features vanilla cream, earl grey shortbread, espresso kahlua jelly, and orange coulis. Of the two I preferred the Earl Grey Tiramisu, but both desserts were a lovely light finish to an indulgent dinner.
Worth a Try?
Overall I had a great experience. The food was delicious as expected and there was a lot of delightful surprises. As they are still not even in their soft open stage, it was expected that they are still working out some kinks. Our dinner took a little over 3 hours from start to finish with a major delay between our appetizers and our mains. However, I still think this is a restaurant worth checking out! They officially soft open on September 3rd, but reservations can be made now.
My recommended eats: Ora King Salmon Soba, Vongole XO, Unagi Risotto, Mentaiko Waffle Fries and Shiso Wrap.
Address: 1864 W 57th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6P 1T7
Hours: Open every day except Monday from 5:00 – 10:00 PM.