CILANTRO'S

slice of Ciianiro’s in the new West Vancouver restaurant.

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nir

Cilantro’s Restaurant, 2168
Marine Dr., West Vancouver,
926-5590. Visa and MasterCard
accepted. Open Tuesday to
Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to
midnight. Take the kids or cali
a babysitter? Call a babysitter.

Tonight's menu:

*Antipasto for two: $10.50

*Hot appetizer: $6.95

*Smeked Duck Breast: $6.95
*New York Tex Mex: $18.95
*Chocolate Mousse: $5.95
Phi Carolina Special Reserve:

IGHT I suggest

donning black cat-

suit and beret,
gatherin together that old
sheaf of f beat poetry and
spinning some vintage Bix
Beiderbecke?

Timothy Renshaw
TABLE HOPPING

reasonable late-night snack, or
better still, a late-night dessert
topped with chocolate mousse
and swimming in some tart fruit
coulis.

The restaurant’s owners, Donna
Rusk and Dennis Krawchuk, have
already carved ‘out a good piece of
the sweet-tooth business pie in
Vancouver's West End with their
Crumble’s Pie Co., and being
North Shore types, decided to
bring their wares across the Lions

éé lt has much potential for the
growing cafe-noir crowd ....99

And might | further suggest

securing a table for two in the
_ interesting new Cilantro’s restau-
rant in West Vancouver?

Good, Because that’s where the
ever-hep Table Hopping crew is
bound with well-thumbed vol-
umes of On the Road in hand and
promises of a sultry jazz at-
mosphere in West Vancouver,
which has not thus far, according
to Table Hopping research, been
much associated with beatniks or
free-form poetry.

Though, from all reports, the
place seems to have gone tem-
porarily coffee mad.

Cilantro’s opened in early March
in the location formerly occupied
by the West Vancouver Seafood
and Grill, in an area populated by

pleasant folk who like to turn their
lights off early on most nights.

The ownership of Cilantro’s is,
however, hoping to change those
sensible nocturnal habits and
perhaps attract members of the
rumored nether worla of West
Vancouverites who secretly slip
out of their comfy homes after 10
p.m: to wander local streets in
search of adventure or at least a

Gate Bridge.
* But they have brought much
more than pies.

Cilantro’s is a dramatic depar-
ture from the West Vancouver
Seafood and Grill, which
specialized in cool green interiors
and good fresh seafood.

The new restaurant features a
striking black interior punctuated
with bald pastel wall etchings of
jazz musicians and brightly col-
ored napkins and fixtures.
Nouveau bohemian.

its menu, too, is far more exper-
imental, tt has the bright, clean
West Coast fee! pioneered by
Vancouver's Raintree restaurant,
though the selection at Cilantro’s
is not nearly as diverse.

Still it is interesting, and Cilan-
tro’s owners promise that it will
change each month.

On a recent Friday night it in-
cluded everything from Wild
Mushroom Salad ($5.75) to Smok-
ed Pasta of the Day ($8.95) to
Mahi Mahi Fillet ($12.95) and
Cilantro’s Feature ($20.95, fora

whole roasted chicken stuffed with.

35 cloves of garlic for those
wishing to exorcise Nosferatu or

jazzes i

~ NEWS photo Mike Weketield

FOR TWO... Chef Jean-Marc Caissy and restaurant owner Donna Rusk present a

any other vampire relations).

Appetizers range roughly from
$5 to $7. A seven-piece pasta sec-
tion runs from about $9 to $14,
and Cilantro’s entrees range be-
tween $13 and $21.

Desserts are a Cilantro’s
speciality. The list is long and rich.
Prices go from $4 to $7. Calories
have yet to be tabulated.

The restaurant’s wine list is rela-
tively small, its selections are
primarily in the $16 to $30 range,
though a few bottles run beyond
into the opulent $40-plus zone.

Our Santa Carolina provided
stimulating accompaniment for
our Cilantro’s meal.

The hot appetizer featured
three prawns grilled in blue corn-
mea! served in marinated
tomatoes and topped with
gorgonzola cheese. It promised
more than it delivered.

The prawns were somewhat dry
and the price was somewhat high
for only three pravens.

The Sinoked Duck Breast,
meanwhile, was sliced and pres-
ented beneath a piquant pistachio
dressing.

My main New York Tex Mex en-
tree featured a 10-ounce strip loin
topped with julienned red, green
and yellow bell peppers. The plate
included a side of slightly spicy
guacamole, roasted potatoes
finished with herbs and Parmesan
cheese and carrots sauteed in but-
ter and tarragor. ti was decorated
with signature sprigs of cilantro.

The dish was visually interesting
and the meal satisfying, but it
could have used a more daring
guacamole or a hot-blooded pep-
per sauce to make the tastebuds sit
up and take notice.

Again, the price tag was some-
what rich for the portion size.

Our dessert, however, was first-
rate. The feather-light white and
dark chocolate mousse were sur-
rounded in 2 strawberry coulis and
topped with a sprig of mint. Rich
but not overwhelming.

Service was friendly, but
overlooked details such as the
replenishing of wing glasses, sug-
gesting inexperience.

Cilantro’s atmasphere, with its
mysterious black walls and hot-
colored interior, flourishes and its

* steamy jazz soundtrack is unique

in West Vancouver. -

It has much potential for the
growing cale-noir crowd in the
no-longer-decaffeinated western
reaches of the North Shore.

445 13th St., W.Van

eee iin

926-8922

Flavour <

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