Hawksworth

I was in an elevator last week with David Hawksworth and all I could think of saying was, "I really enjoyed my dinner at your restaurant for Dine Out Vancouver". He answered with, "Thanks. You should come again before the next Dine Out". This was answered by a nervous giggle from me. I really have no level of cool. At least I wasn't lying. I really did enjoy the Dine Out menu at Hawksworth, even if it didn't quite end up being a $38.00 night...

Photo from Hawksworth website


We (Sarah, Toby, Big M and I) started the evening in the lounge area and some award winning cocktails. They have a really lovely cocktail menu. I chose my drink based on the name and one of the ingredients, noilley prat. I had no idea what it was, but the name is awesome!

raquet club cocktail #2 circa 1891 $12
gin, noilly prat, benedictine, bitter truth orange & chocolate bitters



I will again blame the boozy cocktail for not taking a picture of the menu. I didn't realize that the Dine Out Vancouver site would take all the menus down.

The dining room is beautiful. It is all white leather and chandeliers. Check out their website gallery for pictures if you haven't seen it.

Three of us chose the Trout Salad for an appetizer.



The salad was very fresh and light. The sauce worked really well with the fish and I liked the bits of citrus.
Big M was a bit more adventurous and went with the sunchoke veloute with crunchy sweetbread and hazelnut oil.



I have a special place in my heart for sunchokes, as the first time I had them was at our wedding, but I am still a bit gun shy with sweetbread. Michael really liked the soup and thought the sweetbread was really interesting.

For the main, Sarah and I chose the pasta option- chestnut and truffle casconcelli with kale, brown butter and pecorino. All of the mains come with an "add on" for some extra money. The pasta's add on was fresh shaved truffle for $10.00. I can't say no to truffle and we both added truffle. We are fancy like that.



I really liked this dish. First off, kudos to the prep chef- look at how perfectly square all the veggies are. Brown butter sauce may seem simple, but it was delicious with the chestnut filling.

Michael went with the Fraser Valley pork press with celeriac, de puy lentil and pickled apple ribbon. His add on choice was fois gras, which he went for.



He loves pork and enjoyed this dish. He said the pork was tender and seasoned really well. I loved the colours on the plate.

Toby went with the salmon dish. His add on offering was scallops, which he went for as well.



The salmon dish seemed to be the smallest plate, to me. The addition of the scallops made it a more complete meal.

For dessert we all chose either the panna cotta or the chocolate mousse





Both desserts were amazing. The panna cotta was my favorite.

We all had a great night at Hawksworth. Our server, Matt, even laughed when I told him I chose wines based on how cute the animal is on the label. Turns out, they don't have any wines with cute animals on the label. Weird. We let Toby chose the wine...

In the end, our $38.00 meal was a bit more than that:

(I also loved how they split the cost of the bread and wine between the four of us. Best $1.00 bread I have had!)

Completely worth it. David, I will come back during a non dine out night and I will work on my conversation skills so I am will not be the nervous/weird girl in the elevator next time.