Dine Out Vancouver 2011 Au Petit Chavignol

Located on East Hastings street, an area with not a very great reputation, I was surprised that this nice looking restaurant would be there. Very easy to find seeing as the store beside it has a big illuminated sign that says "cheese" that you can't miss. I wasn't super keen on the menu at first but my girlfriend wanted to try it
and I never really turn down the chance to go get food. We were sat at the bar since we had no reservations, which was fine with me. This place had a really nice atmosphere and the wait staff were very friendly.

Prosciutto di Parma

The Dine out Menu came with two options for starters: Butternut Squash and Apple soup with gorgonzola fritters, and Prosciutto di Parma - 12 month old - Italy. I chose the Prosciutto and my girlfriend ordered the soup. They sliced the prosciutto in front of us, since we were sitting at the bar and served a nice portion on a plate with a basket of crackers and bread on the side.

Butternut Squash and Apple soup with gorgonzola fritters

I really enjoyed my dish and greedily ate it all up,
I shared a little bit. My girlfriend sort of enjoyed the soup, but is not a fan of blue cheese and the Gorgonzola kind of overpowered the rest of the flavors. I took the Gorgonzola fritters out and

ate them so that she could enjoy the rest of her soup. The bread soaked up the rest of the soup very nicely as well.

The choices for mains included a Four Cheese Macaroni, and the Fromager's Plate:
St. maure caprifeuille, gorgonzola, pecorino pepato Duck rillettes, cornichons, spiced quince preserves.  I ordered the Fromager's Plate, having no idea what any of the items listed were, and my significant other got the Four Cheese Macaroni. They refilled my basket of bread and crackers so I was guessing that I would be using it again for my next dish. The macaroni came out first and I was beginning to get impatient.

Four cheese Macaroni

I sampled a bit of the macaroni and I really liked it. There was a bit of blue cheese in it but it was not overpowering and just added a nice little kick to it. The waitress must have seen the sadness and hunger in my eyes and took pity on me since my food was taking a while she offered us a free drink, score! I thought that was pretty awesome that they did that for us.

I thought it was interesting that I could actually see the chef preparing my meal since it involved slicing bits of cheese and what not which was done behind the bar.

Fromagers Plate

I really did not know what to expect with my meal to be like and I wasn't quite sure what to think when it came out. They told me what everything was when the served it to me, and I immediately forgot. By tasting everything I came to the conclusion that the top left cheese was a goat cheese, which I loved. The top right one was the Gorgonzola which if you are not a fan of blue cheese you will not be able to eat. I was able to choke it down. The middle cheese was a Parmesan and the triangle thing was a duck pate sort of deal. The red jelly was preserves which went well with the duck spread on crackers and the little pickles were just there to brighten my day. I won't lie and say I loved this dish, but I enjoyed eating it, a little more interactive than a typical meal. I was able to spread whatever cheeses and add them together on crackers or bread and it was fun to eat.

After we finished both our meals, dessert was to come. No option for this, the dessert was a half dozen mini chocolate cookies. We also got some ice wine for our free drink to go along with the dessert. The ice wine was the recommended dine out wine pairing. I hate sweets, so I only had one of my cookies and we packed the rest up. Chocolate lovers would really enjoy them they were freshly baked and the chocolate was very gooey. The ice wine was really good as well. After my trip to wineries in the interior of British Columbia I am pretty much an expert on wine and can say this one passes my standards.

Cookies and Ice Wine

The Good:
- You can see them slicing the meat and preparing some of the dishes right in front of you
- Very friendly service
- Gave us complimentary drinks because the entrees took a little while to come out
- Prosciutto was excellent
The Bad:
- If you don't like blue cheese order carefully
- Neighborhood is sketchy (restaurant is nice)

Check out there website if you're interested in going here

http://www.aupetitchavignol.com/

It's different and I liked that about it.