It’s been two years since I last went for Dine Out Vancouver’s dinner events. Tonight I went to one used to be one of my favorite restaurants - Joe Fortes Seafood and Chop House, with Benny and his friends. Turned out to be quite a disappointment.

We ordered a bottle of red wine, which was average to good. Most of us ordered the same set dinner which included the Oyster Sampler (4 oysters), Steak for the main course, and Molten chocolate cake for dessert. The Oyster was alright, it was fresh but it didn’t have the sort of yummy “oyster” taste, probably was the lack of seawater within the oysters…but it was okay. The steak, well it’s not “bad” but it was just warm, probably was cooked and been sitting there for couple minutes. The taste was okay and the quality of the meat was pretty good, it was cooked really well too, but I expected better stuff from this restaurant - I had really really tasty sockeye salmon two years ago. It came with two tiger prawns too, they were fresh but again wasn’t really that tasty…. It was actually the mash potato that I liked the best…lol. Benny’s girlfriend Janet ordered a regular fully cooked salmon and it was quite bad too.

The dessert was alright, I liked the crispy outer crust of the chocolate cake, and the inside was warm too which was nice, but it was a bit too chocolaty and sweet. Luckily it came with vanilla ice-cream so the whole thing turned out okay.

I’m not sure if I’ll be back for this restaurant. I might, as i really liked it before, so might as well give it a second chance. Overall, it was a disappointment.

Just got home from Active Network’s annual Xmas dinner held at the Renaissance Hotel. It wasn’t too bad, free food and two free drinks. When I got there I soon realized there were wayyy more people that work at Active than I thought - the reception hall was totally packed, and NOISY since everyone was trying to speak to their loudest volume in order to be louder than person next to them…etc. Well I got a free champagne and free photographs (taken by some dude that was smiling so much at us right at the entrance), and then people started to be seated so I just grabbed an empty seat and sat down. Soon my boss and his wife came and we chatted a lot about their son Zacky and some other random stuff.

The appetizer was some artichoke salad and apparatus, which was pretty sour but tasty. Then it came some regular bread and after that the main course, which was some sockeye salmon with some Risotto-like rice - it was just so so, had to put loads of salt to make them a bit tastier. Dessert was pretty good, a chocolate brownie/fudge kind of thing with creamy vanilla sauce on top.

There was a raffle at the end of the party but I didn’t stay for it as we were told that the raffle wouldn’t start in a while…actually I waited for about 30 minutes before decided to leave. Overall it’s a pretty fun dinner and … what else could have been better than a free hotel dinner~

Benny and I (and his friend Linda) had a late night urge for some tapas, we went to bin 942, apparently owned by the same guy (Gord Martin) that owns bin941. It wasn’t as jammed full as 941 but was certainly packed. The space inside is very cozy because of the small space and the decor, with decorations hanging off the walls and ceiling (I love the lava lamp and the paper dolls that are hung up on the wall…you can see from the pics). The service was pretty friendly and helpful.

We ordered the scallop and tiger prawn tournedos, which was pretty good. The mussles taste good but not outstanding, not as tender as the ones we had at 941. Black cod was superb, as well as the Venison Loin, pretty darn tasty overall. Hm…bin 942 is somehow inferior to 941 for some reason, even tho the waitresses were friendlier, the food I think was just okay, about average. I still like the decor though, and the LOUD music..heh. Seats were pretty comfy by the way.

Wine was certainly a must with all kinds of nice food, so we topped it off with this Poplar Grove - Pinot Gris (without skins), which was pretty fruity and had a decent taste. By the point we got to the last dish we were stuffed and couldn’t handle any more dessert … should be a I guess~