Hidden [Dine Out Vancouver]

Why hello Dine Out Vancouver, I don't think we have previously met, It's nice to finally meet you : )
That's right. I've never gone to a DOV event before, so when Kevin from 604Foodtography invited me to go try out Hidden, I was more than happy to be able to check it out. Chicken and Waffles? Chicken and Waffles you say? And Beavertails?
Love.
 Oh. And it was awesome meeting Kevin for the first time too. Anyways~

Hidden is located within the Westin Grand Hotel, and since I suddenly become completely disoriented every time I enter downtown, it took me much longer than necessary to find. Thus Kevin arrived before myself, and I was left feeling quite silly. Haha. I'm guessing we both read the menu a dozen times, because we were ready to order quite quickly after determining how we'd get to sample the most amount of dishes.

I started off with the Beets and blues Salad -- with roasted chioga beets, crumbled blue cheese, grapefruit and toasted pumpkin seeds. From previous experiences with beets (specifically me ruining them in the cooking process...haha;;), I had learned to be wary of their taste. However, I enjoyed this salad. The acidity of the grapefruit, the creamy blue cheest, the pop of the seeds. I also had never tried yellow beets before, so that was interesting.

The second appie, the Pacific Poutine --with halibut cheeks, qualicum cheese curds, yukon golds and lemon hollandaise, was average I thought. It had a very strong fish smell when it arrived at the table, but the halibut still tasted alright (overdone? maybe? ah well?). The fries were fried too long, and as consequence ended up being soggy with a strong aftertaste.. but put all the elements together, and it was alright.

For mains, chicken and waffles -- fried chicken breast and cheddar waffles with apple/jack gravy. I really liked this. Again, it wasn't so much the individual elements (which were really quite average), but it put together. The waffle was savoury and the apple/jack gravy tied the three together nicely. It did however carry the same strong aroma as the poutine before it.. so while the smell was a little off, I liked the taste.

Fluffy cheddar waffle. Did I pick out cheddar flavour? Nope. Am I highly experienced with foods and flavours? Nada. Did I then probably skip over the cheddar flavour due to all the other notes that were going on? Probably. But did it taste good? Yes.

And even enjoyed the fried chicken breast, which I don't usually due to the breast being dry. The thickness of the gravy helped this though, and with the crispy skin, turned out nicely.

I personally thought my main was less impressive. Smoked and Seared Albacore Tuna -- gorgonzola stuffed tater tots, kalamata coulis and sunchoke chips. Smoked and seared tuna... was really.. quite chewy and salty.... With more salt from the kalamata coulis (it doesn't really help that I'm not a fan of olives though..). The tater tots were really quite doughy (although no where near as bad as the potato dumplings at the Alpen Club)... But again, with all the elements pout together, it was okay. Much preferred the chicken and waffles though.

And just a cross-section picture of the tater tot. It's neutral taste to balance out the salt. : )

Ordered some coffee while we waited for my most anticipated part of the meal...

Dessert! This was the Cinnamom Dusted Beavertail -- Canadian whiskey caramel sauce, house made lemon-sour cream ice cream. Much love for this.

While the beavertail itself was much like a luke-warm dry piece of bread doused in cinnamon sugar (not the wonderfully doughy warm pull-apart oily mess of wonderful that comes from Playlands food stalls or Beavertails), the lemon sour-cream icecream was just lovely, and in turn made all of this just lovely.

The Root Beer, Hazelnut and Maple Icecream Parfait was the other dessert of the night. I liked the sweetness of this. The crunch of the hazelnuts, the sweetness of the fruit and the icecream together made it enjoyable. Would still place the beavertail above this though.

Was very pretty though...

So, while I personally feel that the individual elements of every dish were only prepared average, how everything came together made for a decent night. Although it always helps when you have good company, so.

Hidden:

Food:

• Average, but elements come together nicely

Service:

• We came in quite early for dinner, and it's easy to be attentive when the restaurant is not busy. Still, easy or not, it was very good.

Atmosphere:

• I like the lounge atmosphere