2011-09-02 West Coast Buffet @ Bistro 101 (Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts)

1505 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC

604-734-0101

Buddha Girl purchased a Dealfind voucher for Bistro 101, we ended up applying this to a meal with Little Lee for their West Coast Buffet (Fridays only).  Bistro 101 is operated by the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, similar to JJ's Restaurant at VCC.

Once seated, we were informed by the student-server that appetizers and desserts were buffet style.  For entree, we each had a choice of pork or beef.

The Appetizer Station had a mixed range of selections: calamari, cold shrimp, hot shrimp, a cheese plate, duck liver pate, seared tuna, tuna sushi, salmon sushi, potato salad, deep fried fish, octopus salad and etc.  I'm not sure how many items I tried, but there were hits and misses.  While most were hits, such as tuna sushi (very professional-looking) and purple potato salad, there were also misses like calamari (overcooked and breaded with breadcrumbs making it horribly hard and crunchy) and deep fried fish (soggy).  Oh, and the hot shrimp didn't taste fresh, it was soft and mushy.  I do give credits to the creativity and the uniqueness of some dishes.

  
For entrees, Little Lee and I had the Beef (left) while Buddha Girl had Pork (right).  We confirmed that medium-rare was okay for us when asked.  We waited approximately twenty-five minutes and we ended up with everything overcooked.  The beef was cooked to the point of being almost dry.  The pork was tough, dry and chewy.  Both the beef and the pork were cut small and thin, and that was probably a good thing since none of us enjoyed it.  Each entree was served with two scallops and we all agreed that the scallops were cold, fishy, and tasted "off".  The scallops were either not fresh or very poor in quality.  The saving grace was the tasty demi-glace that was able to cover up everything, well, almost.  The manager/host asked about the untouched scallops, when we told her about our concerns, she just shrugged and walked away.

 
The dessert table was attacked next and we quite enjoyed it.  Most of the desserts weren't overly sweet.  Buddha Girl's favorites were the Lemon Sandwich Cookies and Bakewell Tarts.  I really enjoyed the Scone with Devonshire Cream...I ended up eating four of them.

While Buddha Girl and Little Lee enjoyed desserts more than anything, I enjoyed their appetizers more.  I understand that this bistro is operated by students and I do give them credits for trying, but unfortunately, the entrees were a huge miss.  I wondered, considering it's a "West Coast Buffet", could they have served salmon or halibut or some other local fish as entrees?  In comparison to our recent experience at VCC, Buddha girl enjoyed Wild Salmon much better.  For me, it's not quite fair to compare, but Bistro 101 was a bit disappointing.