Refuel

Looking for some Pacific Northwest cuisine, we decided to try Refuel (between maple and cypress on 4^th avenue). We have heard that Refuel uses great seasonal selections on their menu and prepares their dishes with care.

Roasted bone marrow - celery root and capers

I have always wanted to try the inner core of the animal bone that we call bone marrow. When we saw the item on the menu, we just couldn’t resist but to order the roasted bone marrow. The gelatinous marrow acts like a spread for the bread, and with a pinch of salt on top the roasted bone marrow was just luscious. On the other hand, we didn’t find that the celery root added anything to the bone marrow. Furthermore, we found the celery root to be  difficult to eat, as it was quite bland. We were really surprised with the buttery and rich flavours from the bone marrow and we are looking forward to our next encounter with this ingredient.

Wild arugula salad - orange and walnut pesto

For us, one of the big draws of this dish was the walnut pesto, which unfortunately did not live up to our expectations. The walnut pesto did not have walnut or pesto flavour that we thought would add a great flavour profile to the salad. Secondly, the salad dressing was neither sweet nor sour enough to counter the natural bitter flavour of the arugula; therefore, the salad as a whole was left rather bitter. The scarce pieces of oranges did help with the bitterness but personally, we thought that there were too little of it to make this salad a success.

BC spot prawns - wild nettle ravioli, brown butter and lemon

Seeing that Refuel has been hosting prawn boil events on a regular basis this spring season, I thought the BC spot prawns dish on their menu would be a good choice. However, on my first bite I realized that my choice was a mistake. The biggest problem I had with the dish were the overcooked prawns, which lost its natural flavours and textures. The wild nettle ravioli were not bad but they were not great either. I did enjoy the thin ravioli skin and filling but it was not anything spectacular.

Ricotta gnudi & duck confit - fresh herbs, green apple and radish

We were definitely surprised by the preparation of this dish. We did not expect the duck meat and ricotta gnudi immersed in a broth. In our opinion, the abundance of broth diluted the flavours of the duck and made the ricotta gnudi soggy. It was just unpleasant. Secondly, the sourness green apple did not pair well with the duck. Ultimately, the biggest downfall of this dish would probably be the disintegration of the many components and the broth just didn’t work.

Warm rhubarb crumble - whipped vanilla creme fraiche

The first few bites of the rhubarb crumble were pretty satisfying as the warm granola on top was sweet and crunchy. However, as we dug deeper into the rhubarb crumble the sourness of the rhubarb became too overbearing. If only it was vanilla ice cream that accompanied the dessert instead of creme fraiche; then, the ice cream would melt into the dessert and counteract the natural sourness of the rhubarb.

peanut & chocolate parfait - honeycomb and vanilla ice cream

Compared with the rhubarb crumble, the peanut and chocolate parfait was much sweeter. It was no surprise that the chocolate and peanut components of the dessert worked so well together. The addition of the layers of vanilla ice cream gave the parfait a little more depth. The thin layer of frozen chocolate on top of the ice cream added some new crunches that reminded me of eating chocolate dipped cones when I was little.

We did enjoy some of the dishes like the bone marrow and the peanut and chocolate parfait. At the end of the day though, the general impression of the food were disappointing and probably subpar at best. I thought that the ingredients were fresh but some of the combinations in the dishes were a bit off. Overall, I would give Refuel a 5.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

Oliver