Hawksworth - Vancouver, B.C.

Maybe because we had high expectation from Hawsworth, we didn't think it was as good as people raved. Hawsworth is considered one of the best restaurants in Vancouver so we had to give it a try. We came here on a Saturaday for lunch. They are actually pretty packed and I doubt you would be able to get a table without reservation.  

We got seated pretty much right away. The ambient is very nice and it's quite spacious.

We started out with prosciutto di parma  ($18) for appetizer. Normally, I am not a fan of prosciutto ham because I always find that they are too salty. It might be the type of ham I am eating or what I am eating it with. I was attracted to this appetizer because of the combination of pear and walnut. I was definitely surprised. Everything went so well together. The pear balanced out the saltiness of the ham. Everything was so well balanced and it tasted really fresh and just kept you wanting more. The walnuts added a nice crunch to the dish. The olive oil marshmallow was very interesting. I couldn't really taste the olive oil taste though. Overall, I really enjoyed this dish.

Boyfriend ordered the steak and burger so they brought us mayonnaise and ketchup. These were made in-house as the ketchup tasted different than other ketchup. It's not as sour as the ketchup I normall taste. 

Being Chinese, I had to order tea and this time, I ordered the Earl Grey tea.

I ordered the pacific sablefish brandade ($19) with poached eggs, tomato, chorizo, watercress, and grilled bread. 

I cut into the egg and it was poached quite nicely. I didn't know that sablefish was in the mash. When I first tasted the mash, it was so good. The fish and the mash went to well together and added this earthiness taste to the mash. I just couldn't stop eating the mash. However, when I got to the bottom of the mash, it started tasting quite salty and then it got to a point where it was quite inedible. I had to drink a sip of water everytime I took a bite. 

The sauce at the bottom was very good though. The sausage and tomato went really well together. The sauce was seasoned well and wasn't too salty. I really enjoyed the chick peas in the sauce.

Boyfriend ordered the famous Hawksworth burger with fries. The burger looked sooo AMAZING!!! It's definitely too high to eat in one bite. Boyfriend had difficulty putting the whole burger in his mouth. 

To date, boyfriend has yet had a burger where the patty is the way he wanted. He always ask for medium rare, but it's usually more cooked than that. This time, it was medium rare. Take a look at the patty. He did say the patty was a bit dry though. I think before coming to Hawksworth, we've heard a lot of people raved about it. So we were actually not too impressed with the food. The food was good but it wasn't as good as everyone raved about it.

We were really impressed with the dessert though. I ordered the chevre cheesecake with green apple and walnut. The combination sound very interesting so I wanted to try. First of all, the presentation was amazing. I didn't expect cheesecake would look like that. The cheesecake was super light, the cheese was not too strong which I enjoyed. The green apple slice was super thin. I was really amazed at how they can cut it like that. The apple slice was not just green apple thinly sliced but it was a green apple jelly. The sorbet was really good as well. The walnut and the caramel went quite well with the whole dish. I really really enjoyed this dessert and this was definitely an art piece.

Overall, Hawksworth was very creative in the food they present and the presentation is pretty good but we were super amazed at the food we were eating. Maybe the dinner menu will be better.