Salt Tasting Room

Back in July, during our little restaurant-finding adventure, we nearly made it to Salt Tasting Room, but we eventually ended up at L'Abattoir. Last night, the stars aligned, or should we say, the afterglow of the solstice lunar eclipse held sway, and we stepped into the sleek interior of one the most popular restaurants in Vancouver. After nine o'clock on a Tuesday evening, with the Canucks already in Detroit preparing for their contest against the Red Wings, we were seated immediately.

Having come from an festive and fun holiday cocktail party across town, we were in a jolly mood. We let our server choose our tasting plates, which he was happy to do. After we expressed our desire for a salad, he suggested that one of us get the Full 3 Course Meal, which we quickly agreed to.

The Autumn Salad was a truly seasonal medley that featured pear, carrots, parsnips, celeriac root, with a butternut squash puree. Our server brought two glasses of a nice Austrian white that worked really well.

Naturally, we ordered two wine flights to go with our tasting plates.

our wine flights

Our server carefully explained which wines went best with which cheeses or meats. Keeping the pairings in mind, we started with the cheeses. All three came with just the right condiments, especially the quince paste together with the Prestige, an ash-covered goat cheese from Quebec.

cheese plate

The Le Rote Vernaccia, a dry white from Tuscany, paired beautifully with the Mahón cheese.

Mahón with pickled onions

The Pentage Rosé, made from Okanagan gamay grapes, held up well with both the Prestige and the fabulous Spanish blue cheese, Valdeón.

Valdeon Blue with Silmilkameen honey

The meat plate held, from top to bottom, Fig Toscano, a clove and cinnamon salami from Moccia's Italian Meat Market in east Vancouver; Mike Vitow's famous corned beef, out of Cultus Lake (but also available at Granville Island); and a spicy Portuguese sausage from Oyama Sausage Company (also at Granville Island).

butcher plate

We had just enough rosé left to savour with the Portuguese sausage. The pickled Pipparas peppers (say that five times quickly) were there to take the edge off the spiciness of the sausage (!). Fortunately for us, we love spicy food, but it wasn't really very hot.

The Nichol Syrah, from the Naramata region in the Okanagan, would have been wonderful to drink on its own, but its pairing with the corned beef and Fig Toscano made it even more enjoyable. Of course, the Guinness mustard and Medjool dates were beautiful accompaniments.

corned beef with Guinness mustard

Clearly, we were more than happy to avoid making decisions about our food, and given there were only two desserts on the board, you already know what we did.

chocolate terrine with pear compote

apricot blue cheese cheesecake

with hazelnut praline

Okay, okay, you caught us. You saw the Tokaji and the Port in the backgrounds of the photos above. Seriously though, did you think that we would have skipped having dessert wines?

the board

The brick, the wood and the metal in the decor lay a base feeling of rawness, a perfect foil to the sophistication and syncopation of flavours and textures that you see exhibited on the serving plates but mostly that you enjoy on your appreciative palate.

Quasi-interesting tidbit: when we sat down, I was struck by a sudden and intense caffeine headache. As soon as we successfully explained the situation to one of the serving staff, a cup of espresso was brought quickly to our table. Plus, they never even charged us for it, even after we reminded them. Now that's customer service!