db Bistro Moderne

When I found out that Feenie's and Lumiere closed down a more than a year ago, I was very upset. They were my favorite restaurants in Vancouver! So when I heard that db Bistro Moderne opened and reopened Lumiere, I was very eager to try it out. Rumor has it, the Chef is supposed to be better than Rob Feenie. Well, he's NOT. Not only he's not better, he's no where near Rob Feenie.

I was disappointed from pretty much the begining with db Bistro Moderne. I didn't like the design of the restaurant to begin with. I don't know how to describe it really. The whole atmosphere just didn't impress at all. It seems like they're trying to be classy, casual, modern and classic all at the same time. It's not a big secret that if you're trying to be many things all at once, you're probably going to be quite unsuccessful at achieving any of it. That's the feeling I had for this restaurant. The only part of the restaurant that I liked, was it's private dinning room. It's separated from the rest of the restaurant by tinted glass panels, and can seat up to about 20 people. It's nice that you feel that you're still in a part of the restaurant while having the privacy of not having everyone overhearing your conversations.

After I got seated and had the chance to look at the menu, I was, once again disappointed. Usually, when I go to a nice restaurant, if I haven't had a particular dish in mind, I'll be very indecisive. There will, usually, be at least 2-3 items on the menu that I couldn't decide on which one to get. Unfortunately, when it came to db Bistro, I couldn't decide on what to get at all, because nothing was appealing enough. Well, at least for the main course that is.

Appetizer was easy enough for me, as nothing other than the Country Duck Terrine appealed to me. Out of all the appetizers (ranging from $9-$23), almost half of them were salads, and then many where similar things with a different name or ingredient. Not much of a choice there, really. I'm sorry to say, but there really isn't a diverse selection there. Thankfully, the terrine didn't disappoint, but that was pretty much the only thing that I'd go back to db Bistro for.

Main course was difficult. I don't think I've ever taken so long to decide on a main course, even when I get indecisive. There was really nothing on the menu that was appealing. I end up ordering the Original db Burger for 2 reasons. One, I didn't know what else to order, and two, I wanted to compare it to Feenie's Burger. Well, there was nothing to compare, because the db Burger was simply not comparable to the Feenie's Burger. Not only is it not comparable to Feenie's Burger, it's not comparable to Moderne Burger's burger just a block down the road, and it's not comparable to the burger at Market by Jean-George at the Shangri-La either. And guess what? The Original db Burger is $28, whereas if you go to Market for lunch, you can get a 3 course meal for the same price. Go figure why on Earth db Bistro have the nerve to charge $28 for a burger like theirs.

My mother ordered the Seafood Bouillabasse for $28, which was larger than the one over in the Blue Water Cafe, but of significantly lower quality in taste. And my father ordered a special that day, consisting of various pork products from 8 different parts of the pork. Forgive me for forgetting the name of the dish, but it was mainly because it wasn't memorable. Now it is a German-like dish, so that maybe part of the contributing factors to why we were not impressed at all by it. At the same time, let me say that I've definitely had better German food.

We didn't order dessert, as I pretty much stuffed myself with fries and everyone in my family is a small eater, so I can't really say if they have a good pastry chef or not. But I'm really not about to going back to try that either. The restaurant was just disappointing for me on average, and I certainly wish that they don't claim that they're better than Rob Feenie. I'm actually very hesitant to go to the new Lumiere right now, as I believe I'll be spending a lot of money for nothing... You know what, I think I'll go to the Cactus Club Cafe, maybe they'll have better food there, with Rob Feenie as the Food Concept Architect.

DB Bistro Moderne 2551 W. Broadway Vancouver, B.C. Tel: 604.739.7115