A taste of heaven for hungry parents
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Rachel Dempster, owner of Munch, samples some vegetarian pesto linguine on the restaurant’s patio in North Vancouver.
AT A GLANCE
Munch
Where: 1233 Lynn Valley Rd., North Vancouver, 604-980-3287
www.munchmunch.ca
Open daily for breakfast, lunch, early dinner; brunch on weekends.
You buzz yourself in through the security gate. A meal might be punctuated with piercing shrieks and occasional sobbing. It’s not unusual to see customers lying on the floor, babbling to themselves or staring at you.
It’s heaven! For parents of small children, that is.
At Munch, a state-of-the-art play area mesmerizes the little ones while parents treat themselves to a date night with a meal that’s definitely an improvement on the family chain restaurants.
It used to be a less ambitious cafe called Baby Eats but proprietor Rachel Dempster changed things up a few months ago, beginning with a name change. Munch is now a full-on restaurant with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a liquor licence (wines are nicely chosen). The name Baby Eats was a dad deterrent. They all thought it was just for babies and stayed clear. With the renovations, Dempster installed some booth seats (clad in soft brown leather) as well as muscular communal tables for large family groups.
When I visited recently, a dad ate his dinner in relative calm, while two young daughters scampered around the playhouse after their meal. Beside us, a young couple ate while their toddler son had his quick meal then ran to the play area. And if that’s not enough child care, Munch offers nanny service on Fridays and Saturdays.
“When the weather’s warm, the parents can book a table on the patio and the nanny will look after the children inside in the play area. It could be a date night,” says Dempster. The nanny service is free between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays if you eat indoors and $5 if parents dine on the patio.
The restaurant is in Lynn Valley Village and looks like a pleasant public square. The patio, with chic outdoor furniture, looks quite appealing.
You have to be accustomed to kid cacophony but if you go after 7 p.m. for dinner, the kids are all at home brushing their teeth and getting into their pyjamas.
There is, of course, a kids’ menu (meatballs with tomato sauce and brown rice pasta, mac and cheese, free-run chicken and rice, grilled cheese sandwich, mini-bison burger, grazer plate) but dishes for adults would stand up with some high-ends downtown.
Dinner dishes are mostly under $20 except for the charred organic beef tenderloin which sells for $23. Produce is organic and much of the meat is, too. Seafood (only one a day) is Ocean Wise.
Chef Garrett Laffan was installed as part of the change. He cooked at the Banff Springs Hotel and for Toronto celebrity chef Mark McEwan before he moved to the West Coast.
Salads are harbingers of the food to come. A watercress and spinach salad with toasted nuts, orange, strawberry and lemon ginger vinaigrette was lightly tossed, fresh and had a nicely balanced dressing. It was a generous helping, as was a “cup” of soup. A carrot and cucumber mezze with focaccia bits was overly meek and mild, though.
But the organic bison burger was nice and assertive, as was a flavourful grilled (organic) beef tenderloin; penne chicken truffle with cremini mushrooms, asparagus and Parmesan was how I like the pasta, with reins on the sauce. Creamy, slightly truffled (from truffle oil) and the chicken bits were not overcooked. The dinner mains are $14 to $23.
Dempster says they’ll be offering wine pairings with lunch. “A lot of moms aren’t sure about having wine at lunch. We’re going to say go ahead, and offer them for $5 a glass,” she says.
Desserts are homey, too homey, really; I was looking forward to something more exciting than banana bread and chocolate cake, although the latter was very good and nicely presented.
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