Joe Fortes Seafood Restaurant

777 Thurlow Street, Vancouver

Food: 2.5

Service: 4

Price: Expensive

About a week ago, Chow Times posted a invitation for readers to join them for dinner as they had a $50 gift card from Lets Go For Dinner.com. They have chosen Joe Fortes and suggested to try the 3 tier seafood tower on ice, apparently enough for 6 people.

It is described as marinated mussels, cold poached shrimp, grilled & chilled calamari, marinated scallops, albacore tuna tataki, manila clams, dungeness crab, local oysters, Nova Scotia lobster and Alaska king crab. Priced at $145.

With that description and the chance to meet other people who are passionate about food, how can I pass it up. We arrived at 5:30 and met Ben and Suanne and another reader Anita. So apparently it was just the 5 of us. We were first seated at the main level near the entrance to the kitchen. It was a very tight and busy area, so Ben asked them to move us somewhere else. They moved us upstairs, and it was much nicer and had great lighting. Also we all heard about the rumor that Joe Fortes sit you according to the way you dress, but maybe it wasn't true, as we saw some families in polo and shorts.

We told the waiter we wanted the 3 tier seafood tower on ice, they said it was enough for 6-8 people, and suggested that since it was only the 5 of us, we shouldn't order anything else. We took their word for it, and just ordered that.

Of course, first come the bread, then came the camera. As Ben whipped out his nice DSLR with a great lens and the professional looking lens hood, I shyly took out my point and shoot. So bare with my ever so simple photos. Maybe it's finally time to dig out my DSLR and master the art of picture taking, so I can make my blog more enjoyable to read. But I find lugging around a DSLR is too heavy and attracts too much attention or maybe I am just lazy ;). Anyways, I am off topic... back to the food. Well, all I can say is bread is bread, it is as simple as that. It comes with a side of butter, which was nice and soft.

We waited another 10-15mins, and here it is 3 tier Seafood tower on ice. It came layer by layer and assembled in front of you. However it was only for display purpose, because they wanted to take it apart immediately in fear that the top layer would fall easily. But since we told them we would like to take some photographs, they stood back and waited.

So this is the first layer, and the most impressive layer. It came with fresh oyster, 1 small lobster, 3 Alaska king crab leg, prawns, scallop and squid. Everything was cooked, except the oysters. It is clear that the main attraction on this layer were the king crab legs and lobster. I thought the lobster was bland, and a bit over cooked. They also did not provide any butter for dipping. You only have a choice of tar tar sauce, shrimp cocktail sauce or some vinegar/soy sauce (I am not entirely sure what the last sauce is). The king crab legs were better, as they actually had some flavor, however they were a bit too salty.

On the bottom 2 layers, everything pretty much is repeated, of course without the lobster and king crab. They also added mussels, clams, crab legs, tuna sashimi on these layers. Here is a summary of what I liked and disliked.

Likes: Prawns (fresh and sweet), mussels (flavorful), Oysters (fresh and sweet)

Dislikes: Squid (too rubbery), crab leg (bland, and not that fresh), tuna sashimi (not very fresh, mushy), scallop (usually my favorite, but this one is definitely overdone, not soft or tasty), clams (very small size, not much meat)

So as you can see, there were more dislikes than likes, so I must say I am disappointed with this meal, as the seafood wasn't all that fresh. As we were finishing our meal, we saw some other dishes people around us ordered, we notice that their prawns were HUGE, it make me think they picked out all the smaller, not as fresh seafood and stuck it on this ice tower. Also they claims it's enough for 6-8, but in truth, it was barely enough for the 5 of us. Despite the lack of quality and quantity in food, we still had a great time chatting about molecular gastronomy and Ben's attempt to try the menu of El Bulli on his upcoming trip to Spain.

Service was good, as expected for a fine dining restaurant. Price here are not cheap, but with the $50 gift card that Chow Times has generously donated to this meal, it came out to be around $24/person including tax and tip.

Even though, food quality and quantity was definitely not at par, but I still enjoyed this dining experience, as the company we had was good. :)