Tournedos Scallops Cafeteria.Laura Leyshon
Cafeteria is not a self-serve dining hall with meals on trays. Customers needn't worry about having to sit next to the glee-club geeks at a communal table.
And if people want to bring their own brown-bag dinner, ha, I dare them to try it. (Make sure owner-chef Andrey Durbach - a.k.a. the Friendly Curmudgeon - is working that night and ask about his thoughts on birthday cakes.)
This new Main Street restaurant isn't really a cafeteria at all, though it does make a few nods to canteen-style eating with its no-reservations policy, continually changing mix of global cuisines and wall-mounted daily special boards in place of paper menus.
However, like many casual new restaurants in Vancouver, Cafeteria plumbs a sweet sense of nostalgia that harks back to simpler times: 2003, to be exact, the year Mr. Durbach and Chris Stewart opened Parkside Restaurant with its "20 Under 20" concept (20 dishes, each for less than $20).
Seven years later, they've sold Parkside (now Adesso Bistro) and moved to Cafeteria, where each dish is still less than $20. Now that's what I call great value, especially when you consider that the portions are pretty much the same size and the robust cooking has only improved with age.
Unlike Mr. Durbach and Mr. Stewart's two other neighbourhood restaurants, the French-centric Pied-à-Terre in Cambie Village and La Buca Italian trattoria in Arbutus Ridge, Cafeteria is not limited to any specific region or style of cuisine.
You may find some classic Parkside dishes - duck confit, venison flank steaks and frites or veal chops with trumpet mushrooms and tagliatelle. Tempting as they are, I suggest you travel with the kitchen to new locales.
To Spain, perhaps, for brandade Piquillo peppers ($10), a lovely multi-textural appetizer. The chewy red peppers are stuffed with a creamy emulsion of salt cod, potato and olive oil, battered and deep-fried to a golden brown, topped with vinegary white anchovies and laid over a chunky olive tapenade. Mmm, that's summer on a plate.
Japan gets a spicy spin with "new style" tuna tataki ($13.50). This is an extremely busy dish with its gingery soy dressing, mango-avocado mash on the side and garnish of fried garlic and sesame seeds.
But, with the exception of one mouth-numbing green serrano pepper laid over top, the flavours work remarkable well. That's because Mr. Durbach - bless his crusty, non-locavore heart - works his spice around thick slices of barely seared, densely fatty yellowfin tuna.
Even though they're not local, yellowfin and ahi tuna are still sustainable seafood choices, depending on where and how they're caught. And no matter what anyone tells you, they're far more hearty and flavourful than our pale, delicate albacore.
Mr. Dubach and his team of loyal cooks really know how to balance a dish. Take the tournedou scallops ($19.50), for example. The kitchen wraps two huge scallops in crispy bacon that's so salty it would cry out for a gallon of water if served on its own. But paired with tomato risotto pooled in a sugary carrot sauce, the salt mellows into a perfect coupling.
Generous lashings of mint on both sides of the ricotta-stuffed agnolotti with lamb ragout ($16) lend this richly braised meat dish a bright, snappy lift.
I've had some disappointments at Parkside and its sister restaurants over the years. But there were no missteps when I visited Cafeteria. A small menu seems to serve this kitchen well.
Even the desserts were impressive. Dulce de leche "panqueque" ($7) is a fancy name for sweet-milk caramel crepes. Served warm with melted whip cream, they were simply to die for. Greek yogurt "mousse" with blueberries ($6) is a more bodacious version of chilled panna cotta.
As at all his restaurants, Mr. Stewart has compiled a wonderful wine list packed with great value and obscure varietals that are difficult to pronounce (think fruity falanghina and muscular aglianico, both from the Campania region of Italy). The wine selection, which is actually larger than the food selection, offers glasses for $5, $7, $9 and $11.25. Only a couple of bottles top $60.
Add a few beer bottles, a couple of bubblies, one grappa and homemade lemon soda, and you've got a tidy little drinks list without much fuss or muss.
The long, narrow room has the same basic, but pleasing feel. Most of the decor - the weathered zinc tables and distressed floor - was inherited from the short-lived Ping's Café, including the annoying bottom-pinching banquette seats. The new owners have opened up the space and made it more welcoming by taking the frost off the front windows and adding clear signage.
But I'm not sure why they felt the need to add a fake brick wall on one side. It makes the room look like a Yaletown pretender, which it's definitely not. Cafeteria has a comfortable neighbourhood vibe all its own that offers great value and no pretension. Kind of like a canteen, I suppose.