H Tasting Lounge has a brand new roster of cocktails for easy summer sipping on their beautiful seaside patio. The Taste of Asia cocktail menu showcases a range of beverages with exceptional attention to detail, and rich, complex flavours. I went by on a lovely summer day and enjoyed several delicious plates as well as their new cocktails. Check out my full review of H Tasting Lounge below!
‘Cycles’ from the Taste of Asia Menu
The centrepiece of the new Taste of Asia cocktail menu is Cycles. This is a flight of three cocktails, each made with different varieties of Japanese shochu artfully combined with fruit, spices, teas and other premium liquors. The three cocktails are:
- Morning – Asa showcases rice shochu and a housemade sake vermouth served martini-style.
- Afternoon – Hiro highlights sweet potato shochu, melon and 05 Chiran Sincha served like a Japanese highball.
- Evening – Ban is a take on a hot toddy with aged barley shochu, roasted barley tea, ginger honey and spice, served hot in a ceramic mug over a bed of rocks with dry ice and burning incense.
Another very cute new cocktail to check out is the White Rabbit Hangover Cure ($25.00) is served in a delicate rabbit-shaped ceramic glass. It features White Rabbit infused Hennessy VS, Nocino and Hong Kong milk tea. Another cute cocktail that comes in a ceramic monkey is the Jungle Japes ($17.00) and it features htl 3 rum blend, Campari, rambutan, lime and roasted coconut. Both these cocktails are very strong and is definitely savored in small sips. The Melon Theory ($18.00) is the newest cocktail on their menu and it features Ampersand gin, bitter bianco, giffard melon liqueur jasmine coconut syrup and honeydew. They blow a bubble tableside and it’s so cute when the smoke disperses.
H Tasting Lounge – Small Plates
To go with our cocktails we chose to try the following from the Small Plates menu:
- Warm Sourdough Filone
- Truffle Fries
- Scallop and Prawn Ceviche
- Chicken Wings
The Warm Sourdough Filone ($8.00) is no longer served with the cute candle but comes with churned butter, sea salt, nori and toasted sesame. There really is nothing butter than a hot loaf of bread, however I found this to be quite hard and nothing special. The Truffle Fries ($12.00) are a must order every time I am here. The fries are hot and crispy with plenty of grana padano, truffle oil and truffle on top. The garlic aioli just makes it extra delicious.
The Scallop and Prawn Ceviche ($23.00) features a refreshing lime and chili dressing, pickled fresno, cilantro and crispy taro chips. This was light and refreshing and as always the taro chips were on point and the perfect vehicle for the ceviche. The Chicken Wings ($16.00) are another must order favourite. It features big chicken wings coated in a ginger rock candy caramel, fish sauce, crispy garlic, pickled chili and grilled lime. The chicken wings are some of the best in Vancouver. The caramel make it nice and sticky and the fish sauce gives it such a great depth of flavour.
H Tasting Lounge – Large Plates
For our mains we went with:
- Bao Buns with Char Siu
- Pacific Halibut
The new Bao Buns with Char Siu ($18.00) features Chinese BBQ pork steam buns, dressed red cabbage, spicy mayo, pickles & chilies. This was one of our favourites of the night. The bao was soft and the filling was full of flavour and had a great spicy punch.
The Pacific Halibut ($42.00) features yaki-onigiri, oyster & shitake mushrooms, young bok choi, green onion sauce and yuzu-ginger dashi. I have had this dish previously with sablefish and unfortunately this dish fell flat for me this time. The halibut was cooked into oblivion and it was so dry. My favourite part of this dish was the mushrooms. The overall dish just lacked flavour.
H Tasting Lounge
Address: 1601 Bayshore Dr., Vancouver, BC V6G 2V4
Telephone: 604-691-6962
Website: https://www.htastinglounge.com