Winston on Lonsdale in North Vancouver is a farm-to-table restaurant with brunch during the day and share plates at night. One of their signature offerings is their $50 Dinner Roulette. This features a 5-course Chef’s selection from the current menu. I think this is a great way to try new dishes featuring the freshest ingredients of the day. Everyone at the table must participate and they can make adjustments baised on dietary requirements. Check out what I had on my visit to try the Winston Lonsdale Dinner Roulette!
Winston Lonsdale
Winston Lonsdale serves up brunch and specialty coffee during the day and farm to table share plates and natural wine at night. They partner with the highest quality local suppliers to create unique and delicious food. In addition to sourcing the most quality ingredients they also feature a wide range of natural wine. Natural wine begins with organically or biodynamically farmed grapes, which are grown without pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals. At Winston they aim to find the best of these low-intervention wines and bring them to North Vancouver.
Winston Lonsdale – Dinner Roulette Starters
The dinner roulette menu is constantly changing, so what I had may not necessarily (most likely) will not be what you will get. However, I am confidant in saying that all the dishes are spectacular and you will have a great experience.
To start we had Organic Brioche Milk Buns these delectable soft buns were toasted and served with an everything bagel seasoning butter and a marmalade. A fantastic start to the meal – the butter was heavenly.
BBQ Softened Eggplant was next on the menu and it features eggplant, Vietnamese pesto, and taro chips. The eggplant was wonderfully soft and the Vietnamese pesto was full of strong lemongrass flavours. It went really well with the soft eggplant. The taro chips were very crispy and was the perfect vehicle for the soft eggplant.
Following that we had Kohlrabi Gomae with a house made sesame & ginger dressing. Kohlrabi cruciferous vegetable, just like cabbage, broccoli and kale. Its texture and taste is similar to a turnip or radish. The star of the dish however was the sesame and ginger dressing. It had such a delicious concentrated nutty sesame flavour. The lotus root chips added a nice delicate crunch. With the blander kohlrabi it really allowed for the sesame to shine. This was my favourite dish of the night.
The Tuna Tartare was next and it features delicate cubes of tuna with cucumber in a Green Goddess inspired dressing. It was served with corn tortillas, but they were neither soft or crunchy. This was the only miss of the night. The tuna tartare itself was fabulous however the corn tortillas didn’t really fit with the dish.
Winston Lonsdale – Dinner Roulette Main
Next to arrive was Sunchokes on Egg. Sunchokes are tubular-shaped, thin-skinned root vegetable of the sunflower plant family. The taste and texture is similar to a potato. They didn’t have much flavour on their own but when it was eaten with the crispy curry leaf and smooth creamy duck egg it was exquisite. This dish really reminds me of the Salty Egg Yolk chips that are all the rage right now.
To finish the night we had Beef Shank on Sticky Rice. The beef shank was very tender but the overwhelming flavour on this plate was turmeric from the sticky rice. The sticky rice was also slightly overcooked and therefore mushy. However, it wasn’t a bad dish overall, but given all the dishes before it, it did fall a bit short.
Worth a Try?
YES. I cannot stress enough how enjoyable and delicious this dinner was. The dinner roulette concept was genius because it really let me try a lot of new dishes and ingredients I wouldn’t otherwise order on my own. I love that most of the dishes have an Asian spin to them, and that the Chef doesn’t shy away from bold and bright flavours. For $50 per person, this is a great deal. We didn’t leave stuffed, but we were comfortably full. Which honestly is the best way to be, because you can finish off your night with an ice cream from Earnest Ice Cream just down the road.
