Mussel Mania @ The Sandbar- Granville Island

The Sandbar (no the boat is not the actual restaurant).

The Sandbar - Granville Island

http://www.vancouverdine.com/sandbar

I decided to join twitter so that I could find out deals and what not happening in Vancouver. One that instantly hooked my interest was Mussel Mania at The Sanbar Restaurant, located in beautiful Granville island. $10 yes that's right $10 for mussels fries and a pint of Granville island beer. This runs from 3pm-6pm Mon-Fri in the Lounge. I could not wait for semester to be done so I could head over there. Yesterday gorgeous, the sun was shining, it was warm, I knew that after I got done in the gym I had to go to Granville Island.

I head over to my girlfriends house and without asking I told her we were going for food and there was not really any other option. Being the dominant alpha male that I am she cowered in fear and agreed to come.
Normally The Sandbar is not really in my budget but I can afford $10.

I had never been before so I was pretty stoked on this. We walked into the restaurant which looks great inside and walked up to the bar, they said we could sit anywhere. My eyes briefly scanned the `lounge` area and I saw a small table in the corner by the window (score!).
I snapped a couple pictures out the window just to show the great view we had.

View from out the window.

I was very pleased with the awesome atmosphere this place had. I had not even got any food yet and I was already feeling giddy. Looking out the window we could see rowing teams going by, the aqua bus going back and forth, and a little tugboat lugging around some cargo.

The waitress came for our orders and I said we were getting two of the Mussel specials. Now was the hard part we had decide which beer we wanted. I opted for the Granville Island Hefeweizen and I ordered the regular Lager for my girlfriend. I am a really big fan of Granville Island beer, I admit there probably is some bias because I did a tour of their brewery and I feel like an expert now, and partly because they are local.

I snapped a couple pictures of our beer even though everybody knows what beer looks like. I am a little colour blind so I can`t comment on the colour of the beer, I want to say an amber or copper. The Hefeweizen that I ordered is a wheat beer so the colour it`s not as clear. I think a Hefeweizen is a perfect spring time beer, very nice and refreshing.

As we sipped on our drinks the waitress brought out bread, I was not going to eat any now because I knew there would be a nice broth to dip it in when we were done the mussels.

Another note about the Sandbar the wait staff, or at least ours was very friendly and professional.

Enough of the boring stuff, I will continue on to the reason I came here..the Mussels.
The Mussels came with a choice of three sauces, Tomato Provencal, Thai Curry, and Vindaloo. I immediately knew that I wanted the Thai Curry and my girlfriend went for the Tomato Provencal. I honestly do not know what Provencal or Vindaloo sauce is..

Our orders arrived and I was very very...very excited.  A warning, I did take quite a few pictures but I felt it was justified.

First up were the Thai Curry Mussels. What did I think about these? Absolutely amazing, the sauce was so good, not too sweet, very nice coconut flavor, and a nice mild curry. The Mussels were plump, a couple were small but overall very good. The sauce was the big winner for this dish.

I pretty much forgot about the fries because I was too pre occupied eating the mussels. The fries were good tough, they were crispy not greasy at all and I wish I had ate them while they were still nice and warm, gotta figure out priorities I guess.

A close up picture of the fries, I still do not really know how to use a camera very well so I was experimenting with the Digital Macro setting for taking close up pictures.

A  close up picture of the Mussels. Each shell had a Mussell in it so there was no skimping of portions.





Next up was the Mussels in the Tomato Provencal Sauce.

I assume Provencal sauce means there will be sausage in it? The sausage was actually really tasty. The tomato broth was not super strong and my girlfriend ended up trading for my Thai curry, She does not really enjoy the taste of mussels so she wanted a sauce that would cover it up better, I however really like the taste of mussels so I didn't complain, I can be nice sometimes.

You can see in the pictures that these really are generous portions for only paying $10. I expect that at the restaurant they would like you to purchase other things along with this but being a student and on a limited budget I was happy to just enjoy the meal.

Now comes the fun part. With the Mussels finished we were able to dip the bread they gave us into the brother. The bread soaked up the Thai Curry sauce very nicely and tasted fantastic.

"The bread sat waiting in the basket, unaware that it would soon be victim to a viscous drowning in a pool of Thai Curry"
.. I should be a writer.

I did not notice that in this picture somebody decided to dip a fry in mayonnaise and hold it above the pot, I wonder who that could have been. This was a fantastic way to end the meal, the Thai Curry was delicious and I highly recommend ordering this if you decide to come here.

This is a great place is Vancouver, stunning views, great food (from what I had) and a very nice interior. If you are visiting or have never been check it out!!
One last picture of the aftermath.