Dockside Restaurant

Hey Everyone,

My first post on this blog so this is pretty exciting for me! I've been to several restaurants on Granville Island but I haven't tried Dockside yet so this was totally new to me.

First impressions of the restaurant were that it was very nice considering it was part of the Granville Island Hotel. You are greeted with a nice flame and fountain feature outside the hotel entrance. The restaurant is located at the back of the hotel lobby so it's not difficult to locate.

Since it was a nice and sunny day, we had lunch out on their very large patio. The patio consisted of a large cabana-like structure in the middle with several tables underneath, with many other tables around it, most with their own umbrella to provide shade. We were seated at one of the tables with an umbrella.The view and location really speak true to the name of the restaurant, as our view was spectacular from the patio overlooking False Creek.

Now onto the food! Our party ordered almost their entire appetizer list plus one pizza, which can be found on their menu online. We were very hungry!

Vegetable Spring Rolls $12

Don't mind the hands cutting into the spring rolls! (We were starving and couldn't wait to dig in) These were not bad, just your typical veggie spring rolls. Nothing special here, just a decent appetizer. Don't think they're worth $12 but most of their appetizers were around this price point.


Legendary Chili Squid $12

Originally we weren't going to order this, but the waitress strongly suggested this as their best appetizer of all time, so we gave in! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, these had a little bit of spice to them which gave it a nice kick. It's a pretty good appetizer and definitely could be considered as one of their best. Very good overall flavour and worth the price in my opinion.


Albacore Tuna Poke $14

Fairly decent amount of tuna pieces to go on top of fried taro chips, not nacho chips! The tuna is cooked nicely and is quite tender. In my opinion, there could have been a tad more taro chips to go with the tuna, but then again this allows you to load up each chip with more tuna pieces instead. The avocado pieces with their sauce compliment the tuna quite well. Considering the amount of tuna you get with this dish, I'd say it's worth the price. 


Grilled Chicken Thigh Satay $16

Pretty expensive chicken satays, but the flavour in the chicken is very nicely done. The chicken is cooked through perfectly and is very juicy. The sauces available have a bit of spice to it but they go well with the satays. They include half a lime with almost all of their appetizer dishes, and we did squeeze the limes on all of our dishes. There was a decent amount of chicken, so there was enough to go around for our 6 person party, but only if you have several other appetizer dishes to share. This was one of the better appetizers that we ordered.


Grilled & Chilled Sugarcane Prawns $16

The prawns were also one of the better appetizers we ordered, along with the squid and chicken. They were very delicious with lots of flavour. They're cooked through very well and only the shells of the tail ends were left on. Very good dish but also quite pricey. 


Dockside Crab & Shrimp Cakes $16

We had to cut these in half to split it amongst ourselves since there were only 3. They had a very good flavour throughout the crab and shrimp cake, but considering they only give you 3, you might want to consider ordering a different appetizer if you want more bang for buck. 


Wild Mushroom Forno Pizza $17

This pizza was very delicious! It's made by their own house whole wheat dough. The sauteed BC forest mushrooms and fresh arugula go very nicely together to make a very nice pizza. The hand tossed pizza is baked perfectly with slightly crispy crust and base. I would definitely order this pizza again. 


Now onto the entrees:

I had the Pork and Shrimp Bahn Mi Burger $17. 

Bahn Mi in a burger form? That's right! It's a pork and shrimp patty inside a burger bun topped with the typical toppings you would find inside a bahn mi, or Vietnamese sub. This was quite the interesting dish so I had to try it out. The size of the burger is quite small, but the flavour was very reminiscent of a bahn mi which tasted pretty good. The fries are house cut fries served with ketchup, as well as a slightly spicy sauce which our party was trying to guess what it was. It tasted like a sesame sauce but had a flavour that was very similar to this jarred tofu that Chinese people like to eat with congee. This was pretty decent dish overall to try it once, but it's not something I would order again as it wasn't an amazing burger and the size could have been a bit bigger for $17. The jalapeno pepper on top was not used by the way...despite my recent efforts to eat more spicy foods. =]

For drinks, I had a Gin Martini, which I suspect is The Classic, with Beefeater Gin $9

I also had a mojito (of course), which was supposed to be peach mojito, but it tasted just like a regular mojito to me, which either meant they forgot to add the peach flavour, or their peach mojito really isn't any different than a regular mojito. Their mojito is pretty average at best, nothing close to the better mojitos I've had. It's a single so the alcohol level is quite low in this drink. $8

And now, photos of the entrees ordered by the rest of our party:

Local Fish Papardelle Carbonara $22

Shaved Prime Rib Dip $20

Roasted Beets and Arugula Salad $14

Flat Iron Steak 6oz $20

The food was very tasty and satisfying, and the atmosphere and service were excellent as well. Our server was very attentive and provided great suggestions for us since it was our first time at this restaurant. This is definitely a restaurant that I'll revisit with Jess, as I've heard the patio is very nice in the evening as well when they have fire pit features throughout the patio.

Service:
4/5

Food:
4/5

Price:
$$

Overall Rating: 4/5

That's all for this post! I hope you've enjoyed reading my first blog post! Looking forward to writing again for Domo Is Craving =]

Enjoy!
- Phil