Friday, June 5th - Fuel Restaurant

Hallelujah it's Friday. This has been a horrible week work wise. I chose to be a professional, yes. I also chose not to be a banker or consultant where I'd have to work the hours I did this week so I can have the life I like and that includes the outdoors, eating well, and being social. The bulk is behind so now it's back to regular hours TOUCH WOOD TOUCH WOOD TOUCH WOOD.

We went to Fuel Restaurant on 4th Ave with some friends. I have been thinking about this dinner since Monday! Isn't that terrible? The chef at this restaurant won best new chef or some such magazine type award. Course that's not why we're here. It's because we walk by their kitchen all the time. The restaurant is set up in a way that their kitchen is the front of the house in a fish bowl. Nothing to hide but the the good food!

We started with a La Frenz Semillon which was really surprising and lovely. Very grapefruity and hints of lemon. With it, I had the baby arugula salad with grilled spot prawn. Funny thing was that the two girls had the salad and the boyz had the fois gras. The salad was sooooo nice. The prawns were barely grilled so the sweetness still came through. They cut the prawns in half so it was easier to grill and easier to eat.

Mains were varied and I can only remember mine and D's really. I had the fish of the day which was a Ling Cod. It was served on a bed of Wild Nettles with Spot Prawn with potato croquettes. The original dish came with a rice cake which I would have preferred but it had chorizo in it. The server had said that they could do it without but in the end, they gave me potato croquettes that came with the pork dish. Alright I guess. The fish was lovely, the nettles were interesting but by the end of the dish...a bit too much.

D had the 'Polderside Farms' Redbro Organic Chickenswiss chard, trumpet royale mushrooms leek pain perdu. I had a taste of his Pain Perdu. It was UNBELIEVABLE. Soooo good. He was disappointed by the chicken. We both expected Fuel to be a bit more down to earth and everything was a bit more fussy than we expected. The chicken was a roulade instead of a roasted chicken. D didn't really rave about it.

Oh... additional goodies. You are treated with a nice little shot of a cold squash soup topped with a fresh potato paprika chip. mmmmmm We were given a little slate of sweets, of fresh nougat, agassiz hazelnuts, chocolate and vanilla jelly. The slate was slightly warm so it softened the nougat and jelly nicely but melted the chocolate. It was a good thing we were all friends as we nibbled the bites because they cleared all the cutlery before we got the sweets so we couldn't cut them.

We had a Nicolas Potel Pinot Noir with our main. It was lovely. No dessert. We were so tired after this week. We went home and had a bit of cognac before hitting the hay.

I'd recommend you try it for the creativity of combinations and freshness of the ingredients. I would suggest you ask how something is prepared so you don't end up with a roulade if you're expecting a roasted bird. The wine list is fantastic. Really, varied, comprehensive... great!

The service was great, the decor comfy and the kitchen in the front was reassuring. It is a jewel on the edge of Kits to be sure.