604: Saint Laurent (Vancouver)

Updated: Jul 9, 2021

This year I wanted something different to celebrate my birthday. This pandemic is driving me nuts and I haven't traveled since August!!! I can't even travel within Canada and all I have done this year is trying out different cuisines in town to quench the wanderlust thirst. So I decided to create a theme for my birthday, which is to take Paris to me. Through a foodie's recommendation, I have picked Saint Laurent to celebrate my birthday in the evening.

This place is just two blocks away from East Hastings, but it's not as sketchy as I imagined. Parking was also easy as there are a few meter parking right by the restaurant, and it was not expensive to park there either. It's even cheaper when you forget to pay but luckily the birthday girl didn't get a ticket XD

The restaurant is relatively small but it's very cozy. Our server was attentive but I can't understand his English half the time because he had a heavy English-French accent. This tells me that this restaurant has to be an authentic French restaurant.

During the pandemic, they have changed their menu into a set menu and they changed it up every now and then. You get to choose an appetizer, a main and a dessert from their set. Each category has three choices to choose from. My friends and I strategically chose two from each set so we could share and try a bit of everything. The following was the set menu for June:

For the appetizer, my friends and I had:

Dish: Paris-Brest à la Mousse de Foie de Canard

Description: choux puff ‘Paris-brest’ stuffed with duck liver mousse

🤤 Taste: 4.7 / 5

the outer layer was flaky and the inside were stuffed with some cold meat, liver mousse and aspic (meat jelly made from meat stock and fat)

Dish: Not sure what it's call

Description: Olive with sardine? on pastry sheets drizzled with olive oil

🤤 Taste: 4 / 5

Pretty much tasted like the description written above...quite interesting

Dish: Quenelle de Ricotta aux Herbes & Velouté au Petit Pois

Description: ricotta & herb dumpling with English pea velouté

🤤 Taste: 4.5 / 5

The dumpling "dough" tasted like a mixture of egg and flour, but with a higher ratio of egg. It's slightly pasty but it's light. Inside is a mixture of ricotta and herb. The giant dumpling was drenched in a green pea sauce that's relatively light as well. Since pea isn't very flavourful itself, the sauce wasn't flavourful either; which I think was the main intention so it doesn't overpower the flavor of the dumpling filling.

For the main course, my friend chose their special item for the day which is rabbit meat and and I had the duck breast:

Dish: (not sure what the name of this dish is in French since it wasn't on the menu)

Description: Rabbit meat

🤤 Taste: 4 / 5

Apparently this is a classic French dish and it tasted exactly like chicken meat. It was tender and juicy but compared to other dishes served, it became inferior.

Dish: Canard aux Navets Nouveaux & Pithivier

Description: duck breast with braised duck leg pithier, Tokyo turnips & jus gras

🤤 Taste: (Duck Breast) 4.6 / 5 (Meat Pie) 4.9 / 5

The duck breast was tender and moist and tasted like any classic French seared duck breast. The meat pie was supposed to be the "side" dish, but it was my favourite item from the whole menu. The pie dough had the perfect thickness with some flakiness, and each bite was accompanied by a mouthful of flavourful and saucy shredded meat! The meat flavour was nicely brought out by the red wine sauce (I believe it's red wine sauce anyway).

As for dessert, everyone chose the mille crepes cake:

Dish: Gâteau Mille-Crêpes Chocolat-Café

Description: mille crepes cake with coffee custard and chocolate mousse

🤤 Taste: 5 / 5

BEST CREPE CAKE I'VE EVER HAD! Unlike any crepe cakes I've had, their crepe cakes are chewy. It resembles the texture of the crepes from Bon Crepe on Robson - slightly chewy from the glutinous rice flour added to their batter. In between each layer, it's glued together with a coffee custard, which I wasn't able to taste the coffee or custard flavour. If anything, it reminded me of Nutella spread. The chocolate mousse was rich and smooth, and when eaten together with the crepe cake, it married perfectly together.

Overall, this restaurant nicely executed every dish. They offered a cozy atmosphere, good customer service, and every single dish offered were delicious! Not to mention that every dish had a beautiful presentation.

If you are planning a celebration or a date night, this is a great option!