One dish jumps out at Yaletown’s new tapas-style restaurant — rigatoni with slow-braised short rib Bolognese
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Anna Maria Gale and Jim Romer enjoy a meal at Flite in Yaletown. He has dry aged steak and mexican white prawns and she has divers scallops with a lobster risotto cake. Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
I’m feeling like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Wasn’t I here before? Didn’t I eat this before?
Rooms and menus are starting to blur like the dividing line between appies and entrees. That’s what I’m feeling when I sit down to another small plates menu at Flite, a new tapas-style spot in Yaletown.
But one dish leapt out at Flite. The rigatoni with slow-braised short rib Bolognese was a carnal experience. Not perfect, mind you, as the noodles weren’t seasoned properly. But the meat sauce was a perfect 10. And it was a decent-sized dish.
Pastas, it seems, are the strong point at Flite (there are three). Other dishes I tried did not shout victory.
But I’m jumping ahead.
Flite is so named because it offers flights of wine, which come in groupings of three small pours or reds or whites (on a terribly flimsy rack). The wine list, though, is typical of many mid-range restaurants — you’d think there would be a multitude of offerings by the glass since they seem to be emphasizing wines.
Flite takes over from Lucky Diner, which Sean Heather of Irish Heather and Salt ran before heading back to his Gastown businesses. Owner/chef Rick Momsen added dramatic elements to the former stripped-down space, bringing in curvy booths, glittering glass and chandeliers. There are front-row seats to the kitchen, which the server referred to as the ‘chef’s table’.
Momsen has worked at Bin 941, as well as La Terrazza, and he had a brief stint at CinCin. The Italian influence served him best — of the eight savoury dishes tried over two visits, two pasta dishes were the only ones that made me pat my tummy and smack my lips.
For the rigatoni with braised short rib Bolognese, Momsen braised the meat in a red wine sauce over two days until the meat is completely broken down. I thought I tasted hints of chocolate. Prawns and asparagus linguini with oven-dried tomatoes was a simple but nicely seasoned and focused dish.
Actually, there was another winner: The Saltspring Island lamb medallions with caramelized fig and port wine jus was perfectly cooked.
There were problems with other dishes — a prawns and 40-day aged beef dish featured nice prawns but the beef was leathery. The prawns were “ocean-wise” but were transported from Mexico; and the beef might have been aged, but it was ruined in the cooking. Organic tofu did not pair well with stilton cheese polenta, smoked potato and black olive tapenade. Pan-seared crusted oysters were very tasty but overwhelmed with too much going on — baby spinach, sweet potato chive cake and hard bits of pancetta.
A pear tart, baked a la minute, started out well, except it was topped with a firm quenelle of creme fraiche, which I thought was vanilla ice cream to sweeten the fairly bland pears, but the creme fraiche tasted like butter. I did like a chocolate trio dessert, a plate with mousse, handmade chocolates and ice cream. Dishes cost $8 to about $18.
The servers compensated for the lacklustre parts of our meals. “Jason,” our server on both occasions, was positive, chatty and welcoming. One night, the hostess levitated about the room in a red dress and patent red stiletto heels and was able to be friendly and helpful at the same time. I’d say that’s quite a feat. Or should that be feet?
FLITE
Overall: 3
Food: 3
Ambience: 3
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
1269 Hamilton St., 604-687-1269
www.fliterestaurant.com
Open for dinner Monday to Saturday. To open for lunch and week-end brunch starting Feb. 1.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008