Dinner In The Grill Room At The Fairmont Chateau Whistler
Before the holiday season gets in full swing, you’ve got a smidgen of time to escape up to Whistler and enjoy the festivities before hotel room prices spirals upward. If you’ve got just one night, we’ve got the agenda for you! First up, take the bus from the village to Vallea Lumina, a stunning winter walk through light-filled woods on Cougar Mountain, then head back and stroll amongst 5,000 strings of lights, enjoy Whistler’s Festival of Trees, and proceed onwards to the skating rink where you’ll work up an appetite so you can fully enjoy a decadent meal at Fairmont Chateau Whistler in the Grill Room.
The Grill Room is Whistler’s only AAA/CAA Four Diamond rated hotel restaurant, and there’s a reason they’ve earned those ratings. Entering the Fairmont Chateau Whistler at any time of year just feels special, and during the holidays it’s even more so. In the stunning Grill Room you’ll fine soft lighting, a custom-built stone fireplace, chairs that your could easily sit in for hours, and a huge wine cabinet that reveals their stellar wine collection, provide a calming atmosphere, signaling you’re in for something special.
This is the place where you want to think beef, in particular the dry-aged ribeye. The cattle come from the nearby Pemberton Meadows, where they’re raised roaming the land freely and fed hay, barley and oats. They are then dry-aged for a minimum of 35 days by North Vancouver’s Two Rivers Specialty Meats and the chef brings a slab tableside so you can choose your cut. It’s absolutely divine!
We also ordered the beef tenderloin, with a butter poached half Atlantic lobster tail, asparagus and sauce Béarnaise, because we couldn’t resist adding a little surf to our turf.
To start we decided we wanted more than just dinner, we wanted the dinner theatre, so we ordered up the steak tartare which is prepared tableside. We paid close attention to the steps with thoughts of replicating at home, knowing full well we’d be unlikely to prepare it as well. The service throughout the meal was exceptional, the server managed a casual approach, while maintaining extreme professionalism, reading the needs of his tables well.
Great Bear Scallops with candied pork belly, celery root purée, pickled chanterelle mushrooms, celery root salad jumped out at us and they came perfectly seared. The Grill Room executes it’s seafood very well, don’t think the only do exceptional steaks.
A meal is never complete without sides, and since we were in full diet-starts-Monday mode, we didn’t hold back. Carrots, mushrooms, asparagus and potatoes completed our meal and we made a serious dent in the dishes, and had enough to pack for snacks the next day.
Should you want wine, the list has a great selection of boutique BC Wines, so why not keep it local and support the Okanagan wine industry? The Stags Hollow Cabernet Franc is a great example of how great Cab Franc from BC can be, and the Meyer Pinot Noir is divine.
As we’d gone a bit crazy with our dinners, we opted to pack the dessert to go and choose wisely, with the Double Chocolate Bear, a black bear chocolate cremeux, brown bear chocolate ganache, and caramel hazelnuts. If there’s caramel and chocolate together in a dish I just can’t resist it and it was devoured mostly by me later that night in our room.
Book quickly and grab one of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s Fall Deals and give yourself a pre Christmas treat.
