Review: NOtaBLE
NOtaBLE
http://www.notablerestaurantworks.ca/
4611 Bowness Road NW
Ph: 403-288-4372
Reservations Recommended
NOtaBLE is a highly anticipated new restaurant created by Chef Michael Noble. While the location is rather obscure in the main level of a new condo complex, it is definitely a fantastic place to check out. It is a great addition to fine dining in the NW quadrant of the city. Chef Noble has an impressive resume: http://www.chefdb.com/nm/1734/ and has also competed on Iron Chef America against Chef Morimoto.
Ambience and Atmosphere 10/10
Three of us arrived at the restaurant 10 minutes late for our 8pm reservation. The hostess greeted us warmly and ushered us to our table using the name that we had reserved under. The restaurant is organized into 3 sections. First is a bar area on your right when you walk in the door, second is a chefs table to the left of the open concept kitchen and the third is the dining room. The decor is warm brown and white tones while the kitchen open concept with shining stainless steel and white decor.
The feel to the restaurant is rather casual. There were people in shorts and t-shirts and others in slacks and blazers. The acoustics in the restaurant were quite remarkable. The entire place was packed, yet we could still hear what each other was saying without having to raise our voices. With the open concept restaurants, I have noticed this isn’t easily attainable.
Food: 9/10
We all decided to order different things for the starters and dinner and sample each thing. The server suggested absolutely anything from their rotisserie, while highly recommending the prime rib that night.
For starters we ordered:
Lobster Salad “ Mini Buns,” Chili Garlic Butter; Potato Chips: The half order of this contained 3 mini buns. It was a lobster salad on toasted bread. The flavours were quite simple yet had a note of elegance to them. The potato chips were house made with sea salt.
Tombo tuna tartare, local vegetable “ratatouille:” The tuna by itself was flavoured perfectly. The ratatouille was sweet and when you combined it with the tuna, it made for an entirely different taste to the dish.
Dungeness Crab and shrimp bake, wilted spinach, aged cheddar and toasts: This was full of robust flavour with the aged cheddar and the spinach as the star of the dish. We found that the amount of toasts that came with it weren’t sufficient, but we ended up using the rest of the chips from the other dish to finish it off. Both went equally well with the dish.
I would have given the starters a 10/10 except for the fact that I found the presentation to be a little disappointing. I suppose I had higher expectations for it.
For the main courses:
Prime Rib, 28 day aged: I always order prime rib as an end cut. I find that while it is more of medium well temperature, the flavour is just a little bit better. This is hands down one of the best prime ribs I have had in a long time. For the fact that it was an end cut, it was tender, moist and perfectly done. It was accompanied by fresh grated horseradish, vegetable of the day (green beans, carrots) and mashed potatoes. I could not finish the dish, so the guys both ended up finishing it for me and both were overly impressed.
Wild BC Halibut, Panang Curry Sauce: The portion on the Halibut was perfect at about 6oz, the sauce had a mild kick to it and it certainly made the dish. It wasn’t a typical curry, it was more of a marinade on the halibut. This made it lighter and much more decadent than I had expected when it came out. The vegetable were the same as the Prime Rib, but it also had baked fingerling potatoes instead of mashed. They were perfectly well done.
Galloway natural beef Flatiron steak: While this certainly isn’t the best cut of meat on the menu, it exceeded expectations. It was cooked medium rare and held its flavour very well. I was impressed at the fact that they didn’t over or under season the meat. It almost melted in your mouth. If this is an indication of the quality of their other cuts of beef, I will have to go on the record and say that it will challenge the bistecca at Mercato.
The three of us decided to split their flourless chocolate cake for dessert and we were all impressed. One of the guys described it as “an orgasm on your tongue.” I do believe that says it all
Service: 10/10
I have been reading that for the last few weeks the service at the restaurant has been lacking. Which seems fair considering it’s brand spanking new and kinks generally need a little time to be worked out. However, we did not find it lacking at all. Our server was prompt, friendly, answered every question and even had a few suggestions. He was more than accommodating with anything we had asked for. It’s also worth noting that Chef Noble did come out of the kitchen and made the rounds with each of the tables when he had a few moments. I always think it’s nice to see a chef take the time to make sure everyone is enjoying their food.
Pricing:
3 starters, 3 main courses, 1 dessert, 2 virgin Caesars, 4 glasses of wine and 3 beers came to just under $200.
Overall: 10/10
I strongly recommend NOtaBLE to anyone who wants to get out of the house for dinner. Be it a special occasion or just dinner out. I can say without hesitation that this is now one of our top 5 go-to places for dinner.
Dannie
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