With another week left for the official Dine Out Vancouver (on until February 5), there’s still time to book a few restaurants for the $18, $28 and $38 three-course menus.  Over at Raincity Grill Chef Jennifer Peters is cooking up the Dine Out menu at $38 until February 12, giving you another week to enjoy her special take on eating local.

Raincity is situated downtown in English Bay with window views to the beach.  The room is cozy and is divided into several subsections, each with a different feel.  Along with Peters kitchen skills, manager Terry Hayashi and sommelier Kyle Garlan-Close keep the front of the house under control.  Garlan-Close is responsible for the well-thought out wine list, which is Pacific-Northwest focused with many of the wines sourced from boutique BC wineries and rare enough that you won’t likely taste elsewhere.

We tested out the Dine Out menu along with a few substitutions and were once again impressed with this restaurant, able to deliver even during this rather busy time.

The bread at Raincity Grill is freshly baked and comes with unsalted butter along with some salt for those who require. It’s details such as this that keep patrons coming back.

The Dineout choices include an ENDIVE SALAD with shaved apples, walnuts, fennel, apple cider vinaigrette, ‘THIESSENS’ DUCK PARFAIT with pear jelly, and brioche toast, or ‘NORTH ARM FARM’ SQUASH SOUP with toasted pumpkin seeds and herb creme fraiche.  We also sampled the BEETROOT SALAD,  with ‘north arm farm’ beets, farmhouse goat cheese cannelloni, and hazelnut crumb.  Peters has a knack for sourcing local produce and fancying it up, without loosing the core flavours of the feature ingredient.  The details are never missed; for the duck parfait, time was taken to dress and serve a side of tossed watercress and arugula salad, and the pear jelly was made from not one, but two different types of pears, and cut into small multi-coloured cubes. On the beet salad Peters poached a romaine lettuce leaf and carefully wrap it around Agassiz goat cheese, and all plates come out looking like pieces of colourful art.

A Chef’s Creek Oyster, breaded and fried made a surprise, and welcome appearance.

For mains, WILD BC SALMON with organic green lentils, smoked bacon, braised celery & chard, HONEY & HORSERADISH GLAZED PORK with pomme puree, red cabbage, carrots & parsnips, pork jus gras (pictured above), or PEMBERTON MEADOWS BRAISED BEEF with onion brulee, glazed beets, potato rosti are options. My dining companion adored her pork, the pork belly was an added touch.

One of my favourite fish is ling cod and I couldn’t resist the ECO-TAGGED LINE CAUGHT LING COD, side stripe shrimp, leeks, fennel & watercress risotto, roasted music garlic & herb butter.  The risotto was rich and creamy with the flavour of the fennel, garlic and herbs just noticeable enough with the tender fish sitting atop and almost melting into the dish.  This worked well with the Cedar Creek Pinot Noir, proving once again, fish doesn’t always require a white wine.

CRANBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE SEMIFREDDO with blueberry compote or WALNUT CAKE poached pear, mascarpone mousse, carrot & pear sorbet are the Dine Out dessert options, but we tried something a bit different,  Macarons, Ice Cream, Biscuits, Choc Hazelnuts and a Caramel Swirl and a local cheese plate along with Sumac Ridge Pipe and Inniskilin Ice Wine

The wine pairings work well, but there’s also a many others by the glass should you with to try something different.  Our wines are listed below.

2007 Blue Mountain Brut Rose
2009 Dunham and Froese Pinot blanc
2010 La Frenz Rattlesnake Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
2008 Cedar Creek Pinot Noir
2009 Charles Smith ‘Boom Boom’ Syrah
2006 Sumac Ridge Pipe
2007 Inniskilin Ice Wine