There are some very good steakhouse here in Vancouver. World class in fact.
Recently we had a Gordon Ramsay Steak restaurant open locally and of course we had to try it out. Top notch food and service, as you’d expect from a Ramsay restaurant. You can read my review here.
We have a local chain of steak house restaurants here called The Keg. While the Keg isn’t considered a top tier steakhouse, it is very serviceable. I’ve rarely been disappointed there.
At that top end of the scale we have Gotham. I haven’t been myself, yet, but always heard good things about it. Price not withstanding. i will get there at some point.
And somewhere in there fits Black and Blue. I have eaten here a few times over the years, and in my mind Black and Blue is closer on the spectrum to Gotham than the Keg.
Today is a beautiful day in July and we are sitting on the rooftop patio. The glass ceiling is open, a slight breeze is blowing and the temperature is perfect this evening. An absolutely amazing location.
To start our evening we have a bottle of red, a Chateau Roix Mouton Bordeaux Superieur.
This is a pleasant, approachable, medium to full body fruit forward red from the Lugon region on the Ile de Carney. Its comprised of mainly Merlot with some Cabernet Franc.
I immediately took a liking to it, I am a Bordeaux fan after all. It opened up well in the glass and paired perfectly with our steaks.
We decided to start our meal with the Calamari appetizer.
I’m no calamari expert, but I didn’t think it was all that good. Calamari is hit or miss at be best of times. This was a miss. It was very bland. Did no one bother tasting the product before it left the kitchen? A bit of salt could have easily fixed it.
Now a good quality slab of meat? That’s another story.
The biggest question of the evening was going to be what steak to order. The regular Angus tenderloin or am I going whole hog and getting the Japanese Wagyu filet?
It’s not as easy a choice as you might think. The 8 oz Canadian Prime is 80 bucks. The Japanese Wagyu is $38. Per ounce. Minimum 6 ounces. After you do the math that’s a difference of $140.
Could the Wagyu possibly be three times better than the Canadian Prime?
Doubtful.
But let’s answer that question. Well I’ll happily spend more than the average person will on good food I’m still not one to normally order a $230 steak. So I came up with what I thought was a good compromise to be able to try both.
My buddy Jason and I decided to get one of each and split them 50/50. That will give us the opportunity to try each one side by side. Fortunately we both like our steak medium rare.
So they make a big presentation out of it when you order a $230 steak. It comes out on a small cutting board for your approval.
What am I gonna say? No like it’s a corked bottle of wine? Just cook the damn thing so I can put it in my stomach already
Look at that marbling though. That’s a beautiful chunk of dead cow. Sorry all you Vegans out here.
It was very interesting to try them side by side. It was pretty easy to determine which was the more expensive steak, the Wagyu being both more tender and more flavourful.
But they were both great in their own way.
Is the Wagyu three imes better though? We both agreed no. We both would happily eat the Canadian Prime Filet and save $140.
There actually is even a higher quality steak on offer, which is Kobe beef. I wonder if it’s worth six times the price? I doubt I’ll ever find out the answer to that question. I would end up divorced if I came home and told Merilynn I spent $400 on one steak.
To complete our steak dinner we also shared a Lobster mashed potato.
Not what I was expecting. When I’ve had lobster mashed potatoes in the past the lobster has been mixed into the mashed potato which really imparts the flavor of lobster throughout. This is just a chunk of lobster stuck in some mashed potato. Okay it’s Lobster. But it certainly wasn’t anything special.
Dessert on the other hand certainly was.
My only complaint about this was the size. It was just too much.
Who needs that much creme brulee? The fresh fruit, not something you see often on a Creme Brulee was a great touch. Nice presentation. The custard itself was excellent.
The cherry on top of all this wonderful food was a perfect latté.
Great food, an even better locale and awesome company with friends made for an overall excellent experience.
Black and Blue, especially the rooftop during the summer, has got to be one of Vancouver’s prime dining experiences.
9/10