Location: Suite 410 – 999 Canada Place   
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6C 3E1

Author: My Husband

Christina and I are generally not fans of hotel restaurants. When we travel, we make it a rule to eat in non-hotel-ensconced places, knowing that by so doing, we would avoid the double-trap of high-priced and mediocre quality food. But rules are meant to be broken sometimes, which is precisely how we ended up having dinner at the Five Sails restaurant in Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel.

Having dinner at the Five Sails was a decision some three years in the making. In 2005, Christina and I went for a prix-fixe dinner at the restaurant during that year’s Dine Out event and she came away with a really good impression of the place. Yes, the restaurant was spacious. Yes, it served decent food. And yes, the service was good. But all that paled in comparison to the bank of large picture windows that provided customers with a panoramic view of Burrard Inlet and the North Shore mountains; it was this view that left an indelible impression in our minds. On a clear night, with the lights of the Lion’s Gate and North Vancouver acting as a sparkling backdrop against the darkly reflective waters of Burrard inlet, the view is simply magical. We’d meant to return for a meal outside of Dine Out season, but for one reason or another, it never rose to the top of our LIST.

Finally, for my wife’s birthday last year, we decided to return for dinner at the Five Sails. The restaurant is not operated by the Pan Pacific hotel; rather, it is run by chef proprietor Ernst Dorfler and his wife Gerry Sayers. The night of our dinner, Gerry was working the front of house, and it was she who showed us to our table.

The first thing that we encountered after stepping into the restaurant was the smell of stale seafood – definitely not the kind of greeting that we’d expected for an establishment such as this. And while walking to our table, I noticed the restaurant was more than two-thirds empty. The fact that it was a miserably cold Monday night – and only several days after Vancouver had dug itself out of a snowstorm – may have had something to do with the empty restaurant. It may also have to do with the restaurant being larger than average for an establishment like this. Regardless, the dull stench of stale seafood that lingered in the air did not do much to reassure me that we had made the right decision to eat here.

But since we had already driven all the way here, we decided to go ahead with dinner. We had a couple of cocktails while waiting for our meal to be served, and they were borderline undrinkable. My mojito was cloyingly sweet and had an almost syrupy consistency; I couldn’t help but wonder if a mix was used in its preparation. Christina’s ice wine martini, served in a champagne flute, was embarrassingly bad for $18. It was a mixture of flavors that did not work together, and it is definitely not something we’d try again.

We were each presented with a complimentary amuse bouche before our starters arrived. It was combo of a vegetarian consommé and a layered terrine. It got the taste buds working, and free food is always good!

Christina started with Foie Gras Yin and Yang. This dish offered foie in two ways, torchon-style and pan-seared. The torchon was wonderful: smooth, rich and earthy, it is everything foie should be. The pan-seared was quite good too, though it had a little more vein that we preferred. Still, the liver worked well both ways with the quince and balsamic reduction, and it was a successful dish overall.

I had the lobster bisque. The smoky lobster stock came through clearly in this luxurious soup. Rich and complex in flavors, I drank it all up and didn’t even mind the foam sitting on the surface. The bits of lobster meat in the soup were a nice bonus.

Christina order the roasted Fraser Valley duck breast for her main course. The duck breast was prepared to just the right doneness, and masterfully seasoned. Each bite was juicy and flavorful. The seared foie gras that accompanied this was of a lesser quality than that of the appetizer, this being grittier and more vein-y. The minced duck meat wontons were interesting, though the wonton-skin was definitely too doughy.

I had the lamb loin and lamb chop. Visually, the doneness of the loin looked spot on, but it was a touch too chewy. The lamb chop was much better, with every bite being a nice mix of peppery crust and succulent meat. The accompaniments of ratatouille and potato galette were not very tasty, though that may have been my predisposition towards disliking veggies…

We are usually full by the time we finish our main courses, but we ordered a dessert – a cheesecake and a mini crème brulee – to share anyway. The crème brulee was pretty good, but the cheesecake was strangely gritty. And the pina colada sorbet was positively vile – it was bitter and had a decidedly non-pina-colada like aroma. We left it untouched after a little taste.

Overall, it was a reasonable meal. The occasion and the view from our table played a large part in making it enjoyable. While most of the dishes were competently executed, none particularly wowed us. One gets the sense that the team in the kitchen has mastered journeyman continental cooking, but hasn’t yet made the leap to the level that Vancouver’s top cheffing teams operate at. Given the multitude of restaurants that exist or that will soon exist in the city, it will be quite a while before we would consider a third visit.