Tonight we are going up Eagle Mountain in Coquitlam to check out Jess’ Sky, a restaurant at the Green Tee Country Club in Coquitlam. It’ll be a bit of a food preview, since we’ll be back here next week for a wedding.
Now in my experience, golf course restaurant food is one of those things that looks like it’s going to be great but often fails to live up to the expectations of a premium dining experience. The facility is usually posh, and the “Country Club” moniker gives it an air of exclusivity, but the food itself is often mediocre at best. Plus you often have to deal with drunk golfers at the 19th hole.
But like a lot of Country Clubs, the setting didn’t disappoint — we found a nice restaurant and bar with a beautiful view of the valley below. Let’s see if the food lives up to the setting.
It was very quiet when we got here, no one else was in the restaurant. That did change over the course of the next 2 hours, but other than the seven or eight drunk golfers that came in for half an hour, the restaurant was quiet and had a nice ambiance.
I’m not sure if it’s just because of a limited menu selection, or because we were all feeling like seafood. Either way, all but one of our party ordered halibut in one form or another. There was just one holdout who doesn’t like fish, so she ordered a chicken club.
I started with Wagyu Beef Gyoza before my halibut.
Steamed and fried dumplings with a miso mayo, pickled radish and sesame soy. Very tasty. Nice texture from the wrapper with a delicious filling. Couldn’t tell it was Wagyu, I doubt anyone could. Unless it’s an A5 steak, I don’t get too worked up about anything that says Wagyu. But what matters is the taste, which was great. The sauces complement the dumplings nicely. It was quite a large portion so anyone around the table that wanted to try one was able. And everyone around the table liked them.
Merilynn, like 3 others in our party, decided on the pan-roasted halibut.
The halibut was good, made better by the lime crema. Best thing on the plate was the carrots of all things. Don’t know why they were so good, but they were fantastic. Merilynn loved the raspberry vinaigrette on the salad — it was creamier than most vinaigrettes I’m used to. I’ll have to work on recreating that one myself.
I chose the other version of the fish, halibut and chips.
The first problem with my meal was the size of my piece of fish versus Wayne’s piece. His was noticeably larger. Not a good sign from the kitchen. The second problem was it was overcooked. And not by a little bit. The third problem was the soggy chips. They clearly sat on the plate too long. The fourth problem was the pickles in the coleslaw. Just horrid.
So not the best fish dishes tonight. But the gyoza were excellent. You can’t win them all.