Mistral French Bistro [Dine Out Vancouver]

After trying the $18 DOV Hidden menu, I wanted to give a $28 DOV menu a try. And since my friend was craving French Food, we settled on Mistral French Bistro. Truth be told, I've never been to a purely French restaurant in Vancouver before. This would be a first. But I truly fell in love with this place the moment I set my eyes on it. It's really quite beautiful. Put me in a great mood.

We arrived a bit earlier than other diners, and it was a lot quieter initially than I thought it would be, probably due to hockey. I had actually read that the game started at 9pm, which is why I reserved the time I did, only to realize that I had read the eastern time.. Bwah! No hockey for us. Hopefully the food would make up for it.

Since there were three of us, we had a chance to try every part of the DOV menu, great! They started us off with some warm crusty bread and whipped light butter.

Then it was the "Marinated and slightly seared salmon, beet salad with green onions", our first appetizer.

I love when salmon is prepared seared/rare/tataki style. All too often, when salmon is cooked to well done, it'll just flake apart and die. This salmon was just warmed through, lightly seared, and wasn't texturally unappetizing in any way. Really a quality cut of salmon.

Since they advertised green onions as part of the elements of this dish, I was expecting a little more of them, but no worries.

And there was just enough cream sauce to cover the  beets (which were cooked until softened, but still had a little bite), which I thought paired well with the salmon both taste wise and texturally.

The capers did wonders as well in bringing everything together.

The second appetizer was the "Warm Goat Cheese salad on crouton, mixed organic greens and prosciutto". I apologize for the terrible picture, the greens almost completely hide the two enormous rounds of goat cheese. And yea, these were two truly large portions. I was expecting it crumpled, but instead they came on two very crunchy croutons, topped with kalamata olive puree.

While this was our least favourite of the three dishes, I still thought the quality of the ingredients were very good. The prosciutto had a wonderful marbling, was slightly moist, and not over-salted by the prosciutto process.

While both my eating companions hate goat cheese and think it tastes like plasticine, they had to admit that, put together with the rest of the dish (as it should be!), it was alright. Because I loved goat cheese, I loved it.

And the greens were just lightly tossed in olive oil, not drenched in sauce. Major plus.

The "Organic Green pea soup, fresh mint foam" was our favourite of the three appetizers. A thick soup, yet not heavy, with a airy mint cream foam that just paired so nicely with the soup. Usually, I don't think much of soups at restaurants because it seems like you can get soup easily (and have it taste good) from a can. This however, would be worth paying for.

On top of that, we couldn't even finish half of this. Don't let the picture fool you, there was quite a bit of soup.

Moving on to mains now, this was the "Coq au vin – red wine Chicken stew with fresh Fettuccini pasta", served with carrots, pearl onions, squash and mushrooms. Wow. The first thing I noticed upon taking a bite of this dish was the red wine. It's definitely there. Not any of that cop out "we'll tack this name on it and you won't taste it at all" business. It's pretty strong. Excellent. My friend made a joke on how the wine "swaddles" the underside of your tongue with it's after taste... as a good thing. Although how he came to that description, I have no idea... haha;

The chicken was tender and moist (even the breast pieces!), and was well executed. And while the fettuccini was only average, the red wine and the chicken made this a good dish. While my terribly underaged palette has yet to truly appreciate wine, if you like wine, you'll like this.

"Fresh Ling Cod with Ratatouille, capers and olives, potato crisps". While the main part of this dish, the ling cod, was only average as the texture was not as buttery as it could have been, I thought both the ratatouille and the potato crisps made this dish wonderful. The slight acidity of the ratatouille paired well with the cod, and the potato crisps were impossibly thin and crispy. I don't even like potato chips, and these were great.

I don't think any of us that night had a favourite main, but if we had to choose, it'd be a tie between the cod, and this, the "Grilled AAA Alberta New York steak, creamy green peppercorn sauce, house fries".

The fries were thick cut, fluffy potato goodness. They could have done better with a little more crisping, but now I'm just being picky. I liked them. Especially dipped in the peppercorn sauce. It really reminded me of poutine, especially because the peppercorn sauce was as salty as it was.. Just add cheese curds, and bam.

The steak itself was thin, so it was not as rare as I would have preferred, but they still did a good job.

And~ For the desserts. "Mistral Mousse au Chocolat". Wow, this was a fairly hefty mousse. Personally, I've never really enjoyed mousse, and I prefer lighter desserts, so this was definitely was not to my tastes. That being said, I still ate a large amount of it, just because it was that good.

"Fresh strawberries and pineapple in sirop, lemon sorbet". While I liked this, there was nothing impressive with this dessert. The lemon sorbet was far too frozen to actually scoop, and I didn't feel the sirop added anything to the fruit.
But. I like fruit. : ) So I liked this. A lot.

Finally, the "Warm Belgian Waffle, vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate sauce", definitely the winner of the night. : ) While the belgian waffle was on the chewier side (many prefer crispier), I didn't mind this at all. They also added pearl sugar to this dessert, which gave it an added textural element. Topped with the almond slivers, I adored this.

Not a bad price, not a bad price at all.

Especially considering all that we had to take home!

The service was attentive throughout the whole evening, despite the fact that the restaurant was packed half-way through our meal. They constantly replaced cutlery so that we would have fresh silverware, and because we indicated that we would all be sharing the dishes, they kept our plates fresh as well.

And they put up with us wanting to pack up everything throughout the night. : P

Thumbs up. I like this place. : ) Will be back!

Mistral French Bistro:

Food:

• I thought the DOV menu was amazing (beats out Hidden. For sure.. Then again, it should, as it is the $28 menu)
• quality ingredients
• While small parts may have been just a tad lacking, dishes as a whole were stellar.

Atmosphere:

• The atmosphere alone makes me want to come back here for coffee and a lunch.
• Clean lines, natural lighting, a little bit tight on space, but I personally don't mind.

Service:

• Amazingly attentive 
• Packed dishes away all through the meal (as we didn't want to become overly full off appetizers and mains alone).