Wild Rice, opened by Andrew Wong (pictured) in 2001, remains Vancouver’s most innovative Chinese restaurant. Its special Dine Out Vancouver menu is one of the annual event’s best bargains, our critic says.

Credit: Doug Shanks

ON THE PLATE: Wild Rice still sets the standard for Chinese cuisine

Wild Rice
117 West Pender, 604-642-2882, WildRiceVancouver.com
Food: 4 stars / Service: 3 stars / Atmosphere: 5 stars / Value: 5 stars

Regular readers of On the Plate will remember that Dine Out Vancouver and I have never been the best of friends. When I used to work as a waiter, the annual, two-week-long, bargain-priced eat-a-thon that is Dine Out would leave my tip envelope fat but my feet sore and my patience with humanity worn fruit-leather thin. As you’ve no doubt noticed since this year’s edition began January 14, the over 180 participating restaurants are crazily busy. But that insane onslaught of business, as well as Dine Out’s customary prix-fixe menus, means customers rarely get the full expression of a chef’s capabilities. As such, I’ve always avoided it like the plague.

But, as I wrote in last week’s column, this year’s Dine Out serves a greater purpose than simply combating the industry’s usual January doldrums. Our local dining scene is in a spot of trouble as a consequence of the severe economic downturn, and it wouldn’t be alarmist to suggest some places might not have survived the month without Dine Out. If it behooves you to get out there and support the city’s restaurants, then it does me, too.

So, after re-reading my column from last week, I took my own advice and went to Wild Rice on the first night of Dine Out. I even hit it up again the following night, ostensibly to measure its consistency, but really just to afford myself the chance to again savour almost exactly what I’d enjoyed so very much the first time around.

Wild Rice is, and probably always will be, one of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver. This doesn’t make it any easier to rate, of course, and reviewing a restaurant during Dine Out feels an awful lot like playing badminton against a brick wall. And yet, what struck me most about my experiences this past week was how the high-ceilinged, multi-level, modern-Chinese-themed restaurant had evolved into one of our most iconic rooms. It has aged remarkably gracefully — with nary a nick in its long, stunning aqua bar top, and with a soundtrack that’s always grooving (when the speaker wires aren’t intermittently being savaged by Gremlins), it remains blessed by an atmosphere that time has consistently failed to rob of its cool factor. After eight years sitting somewhat awkwardly off the beaten track, near the northwest corner of Pender and Abbott, nothing needs changing. Indeed, if I could alter anything about it, I would only move it next door to my house.

The food has been an adventure from the beginning, and I’ve always been at a loss as to why more restaurants haven’t tried to imitate it. Chinese cuisine, as translated into a vernacular that is palatable to Westerners, is a bankable product in Vancouver (witness the popularity of Hon’s). But what Wild Rice does it entirely different, amping up the style quotient and marrying wine and cocktails to its food, and leading the way in terms of sustainability and the sourcing of local product. It also has always been dairy-free, and many of the dishes are either vegan or vegetarian.

The inaugural chef, Stu Irving, has since moved on to helm his own restaurant, Gastown’s Latin-themed Cobre (also recommended last week). But rather than outsource for a new toque, owner Andrew Wong promoted from within: Todd Bright, a young journeyman import from Australia, spent a year on Wild Rice’s line before stepping into the big shoes. While it’s not uncommon for a restaurant’s reputation to ebb and flow with the comings and goings of different personalities, Wild Rice’s has been very stable over the years, consistently delivering a level of quality that evidences great talent and steadfast trust in the original concept.

Each of the three Dine Out starter options were soups, and two of them were excellent: a piping-hot and restorative broth dotted with chopped green onion and blanketed by three soft and delicious wontons that were plump with pork; and a hot-and-sour vegetarian number swimming with tofu cubes and broad slices of flower mushrooms (I’d never had these before; fabulous texture with a mild, earthy taste). Only the side-stripe-shrimp congee disappointed; weakly flavoured and with no discernible shrimpitude at all, I found it inedible. (My dining companion ate the whole thing without complaint, but I’m very glad to have only suffered a single stolen spoonful.)

For my main course on both evenings, I was doubly smitten by the Kung Po chicken (made with free-range bird from Abbotsford’s Maple Hill Farms). Served steaming hot in a bowl mounted with “twice-cooked” peanuts and mildly-spiced, Sichuan-sauce-soaked broccoli on jasmine rice, it was a huge meal in itself. It’s been on the menu for as long as I’ve been coming here (albeit with rice noodles instead of rice), and I fear a cleavage in the space-time continuum would destroy us all should Wong ever entertain the thought of taking it off.

For dessert, I munched on crispy dumplings stuffed with berries, and drank long on a bottle of Phoenix Gold Pilsener (brewed on Vancouver Island), all the while remembering what a cool restaurant Wild Rice is — and, given that it’s never taken reservations, an ideal one for Dine Out. On both evenings, my party was seated immediately.

The cost for three courses, beer and taxes? Just over $25. No wonder I went twice.