Black Walnut – A Great Case Study in Restaurants

Black Walnut is a neighborhood restaurant in Vancouver, and I had dinner there last night. It makes for a good case study in what I think works, and doesn’t work in the industry at the moment. Here was the menu that evening:

We started with the octopus and one item not on the menu, the house cured salmon. The octopus and everything on the plate in general was under-seasoned though well cooked. The dill came through, but nothing else. The pickled celery could of been more pickled and though I could see the kimchi gel, I could not taste it in the dish. Plating was a bit sloppy.

The house cured salmon was pretty good, but nothing mind blowing.

For the mains, we ordered the applewood smoked beef tenderloin with whisky jus and scalloped potato. Just like the octopus above, the steak was cooked well (medium rare) but very under-seasoned. I could not detect any smoke flavor and I was craving a crust on the steak. The whisky jus lacked depth and complexity.

The dry aged golden eagle sablefish. Now a recurring theme was developing, the fish was cooked really well (nice crispy skin), but lacked seasoning. The wild rice and brown butter was good, but lacked, you guessed it, seasoning. It had a lot of potential though, and I could detect nice use of lemon and acidity in the sauce, which would of shined with some salt. The croquette was good but was labelled as sablefish on the menu, but tasted more like potato.

Overall, the service was nice and friendly though a bit slow to start. It was obvious that the restaurant knows how to cook, but every dish lacked seasoning. The dishes had some creativity but lacked a competitive advantage compared to other options in Vancouver, especially since the Michelin guide came to the city and has raised the quality of each place. As an example, Black Walnut has four steak dishes on its menu, but it’s not a steakhouse. For the price, and comparing to an actual steakhouse like Elisa, which I consider to be the best in the city, its not even close. At Elisa, you are getting a better quality meat, and cooked with more flavor. So why would you chose this place for steak? In terms of creativity and flavor, again, there are better places like Anna Lena. So where does something like this fit in the scene? I think its a good place to go if you live in the neighborhood, and don’t want to drive somewhere; though I saw other options in the neighborhood while walking to this place from where I parked, which I have not tried, so I can’t say if even that makes it a good choice. I would not go back.