Gambling with dinner – Niwa

Niwa is yet another addition to Vancouver’s growing culinary scene. The dining options have grown significantly since the launch of the Michelin guide in the city. More on that later. This had me thinking during dinner last night, about how the culinary scene is evolving, and of course, I applied some finance analysis to it. First, the addition of another restaurant with an opinion/mission/vision, to the scene, is positive. In Niwa’s case, their stance is: “our farm to table approach ensures that every dish is made using fresh, seasonal produce sourced from nearby farms”.

So why the title of this post? The title doesn’t apply specifically to Niwa, but to the situation facing most cities overall. Here’s my take. Some of the logic is a continuation from the post I made last week “15 Years of Food Travel Led me to Ebisu Sushi Kumakura in Tokyo“. When I started travelling with a main focus on food, the choices were fewer and the info more sparse. I remember eating my way through San Sebastian’s three starred restaurants almost 20 years ago, then returning to Vancouver, craving the same experience, only to find ONE restaurant in the entire city offering a tasting menu.

Lets look at it from a probability standpoint. If you are looking for an A+ dining experience, and there are only 5 “chef driven” restaurants in your city, then you have a 20% chance (fairly good), of finding that A+ dining experience. However, as the number of choices goes up, because more restaurants are opening, the chance probability starts to go down. For example, if there are 100 “chef driven” places, now you only have a 1% chance of finding the “best one”. Of course, this is an overly simplified example. Competition, in general, is positive, as it keeps everyone on their toes and should lift general quality in general, but its still gets harder to find the best because of the sheer number of places you can try.

Lets look at another example. According to one news source I read online, the state of California, pays the Michelin Guide $600,000 a year to include it in the ratings. I asked ChatGPT how many fine dining places exist in SF and LA combined and it estimated 1,900. Assuming the entire $600k is spent sending inspectors to all these places, that’s a budget of $315 per restaurant. Given that inspectors visit a place more than once, it doesn’t seem likely they will be able to get to every single one.

This brings us back to Niwa and the reason for the title of this blog. I feel like when I visit a new city now, given the huge number of options and info overload, it becomes increasingly more like a gamble to eat out trying to find the holy grail of dining. With an average check of hundreds of $s (some some now in the thousands), this becomes an expensive gamble. What I think will happen, and what I find myself doing because of this, is heading back to places I KNOW, I have had a good meal at in the past. I still love trying new places, but it does increasingly feel like a gamble.

Lets talk about Niwa. Niwa has a kind of minimalist Japanese interior with an open kitchen.

Here was the menu when I went:

I decided to go with the omakase. I had one question for the server “would we get items from the menu or a combo of that and unique items”. She said “both” so I went ahead. My fear was that because the restaurant is a mix of a la carte and tasting, it would be a long meal. I was right. Service started out at a good pace, but stalled when the hot food started. I think restaurants should only focus on one or the other, or ask guests when they book to chose which style they will be doing. Then the kitchen can prep accordingly. Anyway, the meal started with some amuse.

True to their statement, most dishes had ingredients where they were able to explain the about the source. For the amuse, they served some very lightly pickled veggies (one with house made yogurt), some head cheese which was good, radish, and a kind of tuna poke. Everything was fresh and simply prepared, letting the ingredients speak for themselves. Next, a miso duck broth soup:

The soup was also lightly and delicately flavored. After that, a salad, again, very lightly dressed. Fresh and crisp ingredients.

At this point, the meal slowed a lot. It was almost an hour into the meal and we were only at the salads. The next dish, would be another half hour. It was a duck breast and celeriac cooked in wagyu fat:

The duck itself was perfectly cooked. The center was a nice rare to med rare, and the skin was crisp. The problem is that it was, again, too simple. I felt like after a few pieces, I started to get fatigued by the taste. It needed some sort of sauce. There was a spicy condiment that came with it, but it was a tiny portion and an actual sauce would of been better (or a play on Peking Duck or something not so simple). The celeriac was good.

The last savory dish was a bowl of Japanese rice and pork stew. Again, well cooked, lacking punch.

The meal ended with kinako frosted carrot cake with miso syrup. I did not like this. Kinako is one of my favorite tastes but this was not done well. The cake was way too dense. I like light fluffy and moist carrot cake.

Overall, service was ok, but very slow. Food was good but too simple for me. I like lots of umami and savory (or sweet). The server was right that a few items were not on the menu so that was good. One thing which ruined the night was two guys sitting by the window, super loud, saying some questionable things. The staff didn’t seem to care and they were probably regulars from how they were being treated. I would not go back or recommend. This is an example of a gamble that didn’t pay off. Its not bad, in fact its good, but its not a homerun. There are better options that are safer for the simple fact that I know I will get a good meal. For a really good tasting menu that is more creative and flavorful, and they focus only on tasting menu format so the service is on point, I would recommend Anna Lena. Its always consistent.