Society Dining Lounge Yaletown – Unpredictable or Awkward?

To view this post on my new domain, please go to http://victoriasfoodsecrets.com/2009/11/society-dining-lounge-yaletown-unpredictable-or-awkward/

Tuesday was a fun and crazy night in Vancouver – and the fact that I was able to eat a meal at a new place didn’t hurt either! It’s a bit late for me to be putting up this post, but I figure I have a pretty good excuse since I’m still trying to recover from my boyfriend’s big birthday bash that he has every year. Those who have been to one of these parties at any point in the past will know exactly what I’m talking about…

Anyway, we started the night out at the new Society Dining Lounge in Yaletown that’s run by the Glowbal Group. There, we had the entire upstairs lounge area to ourselves, and were able to enjoy a dinner with a variety of the comfort food that they serve. Mind you, comfort food to me is more Asian style fare (see my Congee Noodle House post), but I’m always willing to give something new a shot.

Since we had a larger group filling the place up, we ended up doing a set menu buffet-style arrangement so we would have the chance to taste a variety of appies and desserts and other menu items.  This was a great way to be introduced to the food at a new restaurant in town, and wish I could do it everywhere I go.

Here’s what was brought out (in a great, quick way – thanks to all the staff there that night for the prompt and friendly service!):

Appies:

• Mixed Leaf Salad – with a light vinaigrette dressing – a little bland for my tastes, but I’m also not huge on salad in general
• ‘Mac and Cheese’ Balls – these were essentially macaroni and cheese in a deep-fried shell
• Forno Baked Nachos – loved the whole black olives on this one!
• Poutine, with cheese curd and chicken gravy – a good way to carb up in preparation of a big night of drinking (or at the end of the night before bed)
• Smoked Salmon on flatbread – this was definitely my fave of the night.  The salmon didn’t taste overly strong or smoky and wasn’t fishy at all.

Main:

• Loaded Prime Rib Burger – I really could taste the distinct flavours of the caramelized onions.  Not really my favourite – I love prime rib but prefer it on its own instead of in the confines of a burger.

Dessert:

• Junk Food Platter – everything from cotton candy to caramel corn to a delicious ice cream sandwich milkshake. The doughnut holes, filled with warm, white chocolate were soooo divine. I heard the rice crispie squares were also pretty tasty. I love dessert, no complaints there.

Photo Credit: Mark Kinskofer

In my opinion, the upstairs lounge at Society has a great atmosphere and I really liked the deco and the comfortable open seating.  It was really great for hosting a larger party and turned out really well for our group.  However, when I was downstairs walking towards the bathroom, I noticed that the dining room seating was a bit crammed and am not sure I’d really be into having food in that kind of setting.

All in all, I’ll for sure go back to Society for the upstairs lounge atmosphere, drinks and friendly service. The team was definitely accommodating and did an excellent job of ensuring our large group could eat and drink and stay on schedule for the rest of the night’s agenda. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really a fan of the comfort food and the servers in white tank tops and jeans.  Maybe this needs a bit more fine-tuning so it feels a little less awkward and more like their goal of ‘unpredictable.’

What did everyone else think?

Society Dining Lounge
1257 Hamilton Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604.629.8800

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Give it to me Straits

Rating: A fun resto-lounge for a decent meal and drinks. Skip the oysters.

I love family-style dining: ie. share plates for everyone!  This comes from the Asian side of me – but it also means that I get to try more food and what can be any better than that? Wherever I go, even if it’s the type of place where you order your own entrée, I still prefer to share and split meals with whoever I’m with if they’re up for it (and even when they’re not, as my boyfriend would know. I think he’s getting used to this now and has finally just given in).

Last night, I tried another new place after I had gotten my fill from shopping.  So, I wandered over to Santana Row which is kind of like two streets of shopping and restaurants (the Yaletown of San Jose?). There, I met up with a co-worker and we wandered up and down the row to try to pick our fuel for the evening. We wandered past a couple Italian places, some really Americanized looking Japanese restaurants, and quite a few other options before we walked all the way back to the first place we stumbled upon: Straits Restaurant – Santana Row.

It was really busy when we walked in around 9 pm, and there was a DJ playing some fairly loud music in the corner. Apparently there are quite a few hockey fans down here as well, since there was a huge crowd in front of the big screen tv behind the bar, watching the Sharks play. The ambience was great – kind of a resto-lounge feel with a lot of lively people, and it was all decorated in time for Hallowe’en.

We started off with a half-dozen oysters – big mistake!  Remind me to not do that again when I’m outside of Vancouver unless it’s in a world-reknowned place for these types of mollusks. A couple of them tasted kind of milky to the point where we were joking around and hoping that we wouldn’t be stuck in the bathroom for the rest of the night.  We also tried the Murtabak, which is basically roti stuffed with some spiced meat and a curry flavoured dipping sauce.  This one was actually pretty salty, and I almost wonder if they accidentally spilled a bit too much of the spice in while cooking. The best of the small plates was the Vietnamese Beef Carpaccio. I loved the flavour of the dressing on the veggies on this – it tasted very fresh and was so delicious! There was a bit of cilantro, some mint, capers (I love their little salty-goodness) and the flavour combination left me wanting more.

Now on to the larger plates: the Origami Seabass was the overall winner here.  I loved the texture and could be biased (this is one of my top favourite types of fish behind sablefish). There were longans (kind of like a mini-lychee nut fruit), red peppers,  shitake mushrooms, and a rice wine sauce and it was served in a neat paper box that kept all of the steam inside.  We had this with a massive bowl of Nasi Goreng – coconut fried rice with prawns and a mixture of veggies. Sometimes I still need to adjust to the sizes of the dishes down in the U.S. because I tend to over-order (and overeat) while I’m south of the border.

The drinks here were also quite tasty. We tried the mango soda which was perfect as it wasn’t overly sweet, and the lemongrass mint soda which was pretty good, but would’ve been better if there was a bit of alcohol in it. It basically tasted like a fresh mohito without the rum. Next time I go back, it’ll have to be when I don’t have an early morning meeting and can try more of the non-virgin options.

I noticed that this lounge has two other locations in California (San Francisco and Burlingame) as well as one in Atlanta, Georgia, should you venture in those cities as well and want to give Straits a try.  Overall, the flavours were fresh, the lounge was bustling and the decor was festive. I will be back.