10 - Friday, Murch 28, 1986 - North Shore News ‘SAUNTY DASH OF SAVOIR-FAIRE’ Café provides gastronomic reawakening FRENCH food has become permanently interwoven in the tweed fabric of British West Vancouver. Latest evidence of this move towards adding a jaunty dash of savoir-faire to the area’s otherwise stolidly stiff upper lip is Cafe Au Last at 1735 Marine Drive. ER table hopping by Timoth) y Renshaw The airy, informal French-style diner is the first offspring of the original Cafe Au Lait, located across from corporation row on North Vancouver’s fovr-lane Esplanade strip. The original restaurant services the worldly taste buds of the area’s astute businessman and the discer- ning drydock worker, whose lun- chtime appetites have progressed beyond the deepfry predictability. The new Cafe Au Lait is out to tap the breakfast-to-dinner gastronomic reawakening of the British Far West. Open every day from 9 a.m. to ‘ 10 p.m., Cafe Au Lait serves up a wide assortment of meals petite, cafes, and other foods low in calo- ries, but high in culinary panache and home-cooked substantiality. The restaurant is double the size of its 25-seat Esplanade forebearer. It features a similarly modern interior pastel color coor- dination, high ceilings, rural Michel Delacroix paintings, and a generally informal atmosphere conducive to post-aerobic or pre- lawn bowling Amblesidian activi- ties. Cafe Au Lait menu is a skilful French reworking of soup and sandwich simplicity that is reflected both in revitalized famil- iarity and a price range guaranteed to win the hearts and wallets of the most ardent skinflints. No selec- tion is over $8; most are under $5. Only three bonafide entrees are listed, the most extravagant being Bocuf aux Asperges at $7.95. A standout here is Poulet au Curry ($6.95). The dish combines a candid curry base blended with raisins and coconut, served atop pasta. Under the Maison Special listings, Pan .Bagna ($4.75) is a novel way to dispatch midday or late night appetites. The sandwich-like creation has been a mainstay of southern French ‘lunch xits for eons, featur- ing specia! bread stuffed with flak- ed white tuna, cucumber and boil- ed egg that is presented on a bed of fettuce and garnished with black olives and anchovies — best eaten while wearing a beret and bold striped tank top. The other two Maison Specialities listed are the in- separable and irrepressible Cro- ques Madame and Monsieur ($3.95 and $3.65 respectively). The pair is basically a French version of grill- ed cheese and ham served up on slabs of French bread. Repre- senting the fertility of the sand- wich-going species, Croque Madame is voistered with a fried egg. Elsewhere on the pocket-sized, typed menu is a full range of sandwiches, creative croissants and quiches from Lorraine to Bayonne ($3.95 to $4.75), Because the restaurant's opening culinary rounds are designed to gently cajole rather than brusquely steamroll mid-range hungers, there is usually room for dessert, a wonderfully indulgent gastric tradition too often relegated to the bargain basement of restaurant menus. At Cafe Au Lait, the culinary brilliance of the restaurant's chef and part-owner Katy Haider reaches its most eloquent expres- sion with dessert. Cakes, buns, cheesecakes and Tarte aux Fruits are all displayed at the Cafe Au Lait’s bar behind dessert-hound resistant glass. Most selections are $3, with Gateau Basque ($2.95) leading the list of speciality must samples. Looking like a deflated basket- ball, the Basque is a delicious ren- dition of sponge cake filled with vanilla pastry cream -— best con- sumed with a Cafe Borgia ($2) and light banter. Success of the first two Cafe Au Last restaurants inspired owners John and Kaiy Haider to venture ® across the Lions Gate Bridge 19 open a third restaurant. Official opening of Cafe Au Lait number three, located at 1484 West 11th Avenue, was March 27. TASTY MORSELS In this new capsulized feature, the Table Hopping column will wend its way backward through the culinary nostalgia of the best restaurants already reviewed and those with pertinent changes to ex- isting menus or philosophies. Selections here are made not only for what they serve, but for how they serve it and where they serve it. THE PARK ROYAL HOTEL Tudor Room Restaurant, 440 Clyde Avenue, West Vancouver. This pride of upper echelon res- taurant goers from North to West Vancouver and beyond has once again been awarded the Mobile Travel Guide's prestigious four- Star rating for its distinguished service and overall food quality. The 1986 rating is the seventh Straight for the Park Royal Hotei. “It is an honor we are always proud to receive,”’ said manager Mario Corsi. Following my original critique of the Park Royal, | was lam- basted by devotees of the restau- rant for suggesting its clientele sported elbow length white gloves, monocles and Eton accents. 9am Mon.-Fri. Special Menu 117-260 W. Esplanade Free Parking 986-2228 Mon. Thurs. 9am-10pm, Fri. 9am-11pm Sat. 11am-11pm, Sun. 11am-10pm Neptune or Schnitzel Neptune vegetable, and side salad. 4 921-8161 aa 2 mies north of ay Horseshoe Gay Easter Sunday Brunch LY. “Steck Neptune or Schnitzel Choose elther 6 oz Now York Steak ’ served with rice or french fries, fresh Special from 4:30-9:00 pm daily till April 2, 1986. Open for lunch & dinner from 11:30, Sat. & Sun. from 9:30 am Reservations 987-8812 Reserve Now for way? 130] Lonsdale, North Van Do not, they chorused in solemn agreement, joke about a legend. | stand corrected. The Tudor Room, with its mar- velous river-side Jocation, first class continental cuisine and first rate service, is, in all seriousness, one of the North Shore's and the Lower Mainland’s finest restau- rants. Entrees are in the $15 to $20 range. Caesar Salad is a must. Chez Michel, 1373 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. Another West Vancouver gem. The restaurant’s original Vol au Vont menu, which was expanded to include fish and meat entrees, is undergoing a summer facelift at the end of April. Owner Michel Segur says fish will dominate the restaurant's summer selection. As a preliminary evert to the unveiling of the sum- mer menu, all Chez Michel entrees throughout April will go for $9.95. Written input, whether in agreement or disagreement with Table Hopping critiques, is hearti- ly invited. Letters will be used as grist for an occasional Feedbag Column. UNTIL MARCH 31 LUNCH & DINNER " VALET PARKING AVAILABLE 1184 Denman & Davie 684-5322 ... for lunch ]1am-3pmn A... for dinner © Sun Brunch © open 7 days ¢ reservations requested | Easter Brunch Easter Butfet “The freshest & the best food’’ Dubrovnik West Restaurant $600 & Cypress Inn Catering call us first 922-1014 926-1528 4368 Marine § ff West Van 5 YOUR AD IN 800,000 HOMES! Call our classified department to place your ad in more than 70 newspapers of the B.C. & Yukon Community Newspapers Association. b. et cle one call does i all wnomeconn: 25 WORDS $119 986-2222 Pnorth shor on QUNGAY + WEDNERDAY so mBAY