Tuesday, June 9th - Burgoo Restaurant

Tuesdays has now become D's beach volleyball night. Once in a while, they decide to go to dinner. Not often. Unfortunately, they play in a vacant lot behind the Bus Terminal in an industrial zone. There is no where to eat nearby. Add to that, that during the summer the team wants a patio. For some odd reason, last year, the started to be regulars at the ghastly Red Robbins family restaurant on Broadway and Spruce. The drinks are terrible and the food is worse. The only good parts are 1) empty patio and 2) chunky fries are good and refillable for free.

I said that if that's where they were going, I'd soon sit at home and maybe go get noodles for myself. I suggested Burgoo on Main and 12th. I've wanted to go there for a while and haven't found occasion. See they have a nice patio but only useful in nice weather. HOWEVER, their menu is hearty comfort food which sorta clashes with warm weather. They don't take reservations BUT BUT what they don't tell you is that you can call ahead, day of, to hold a table. Grrrr. Since I wasn't playing I offered to ride my bike over to squat on the patio. It was full so we had to go inside. Not too bad but with the food, it was pretty intolerable.

Burgoo
3096 Main St
Vancouver
www.burgoo.ca

Burgoo is a south american (Kentucky) slow cooked stew.

We shared a FONDUMENTAL, (emmenthal and gruyere) cheese fondue. They serve it in a small, chocolate fondue sized fondue pot with bits of bread, grapes and grape tomatoes. SERVICE IS SLLLLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW. The cheese sauce was a bit watery. No protein stringiness :-(. I don't know what they added to water it down. It didn't have that pungent nuttiness that is normal with those two cheeses. I had a J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon. Nice.

For a main, I had the Ratatouille and D had a Burgoo with Dumplings. The servings are very hearty and served piping hot. The ratouille comes topped with bread crumbs and goatcheese. Nice. However, it was a 'quick' ratatouille so I could identifiy the canned tomatoes. The eggplans and zuccini were great. Over all a tasty dish, I think mostly because of the topping. One of the guys on D's team, C asked which came first, the cartoon or the dish. We all held back but he was dead serious. Oh my oh my. Ratatouille is a traditional french peasant dish. It is a vegetable stew of veg of the marrow or berry family (zuccini, squash, eggplant) and tomato base. Simplicity and full of flavour if allowed to stew together. In a restaurant, harder to achieve.

D's Burgoo came with two herbed dumplings. Nice. They sort of tasted like the biscuites you get a an Olive Garden but heavier. I am not happy with the limited selection for non meat eaters. I mean, a vegetarian tagine would be so easy but the menu added two things just to sort of appease the tree huggers. Strange though. I can understand how they got away with that up in Lonsdale but in Mount Pleasant??

I wouldn't have their fondue again which was weak and watery. I would have the ratatouille again. I really wish the tagine had a non lambed version because as others ordered it and it walked by, it smelled awesome. Overall, 3 maples on 7.