Last week we went with our family to the new "Fuel" restaurant on 4th. I had high hopes but they were dashed. This seemed like one of those restaurants that is again trying way too hard. Just because you put funky decor and a bunch of food buzzwords on your menu doesn't mean you should get rave reviews.
Service was slow and painful. It took 35 minutes to get our food order in. Then, the servers identified every item on the plate. But they were soo painful at it, I wanted to beg them to stop. In real restaurants, the servers describing the food make you want to beg them to stop because you want to dive into the food right away!
Food is this new trendy but silly style of combining two completely different flavours. I had the highly touted risotto and smoked tuna. Right. Think super creamy rice with a slab of fish. The two tastes didn't go together at all. It's like modern mathematical music done in food. There's no pleasing quality about the combination. One reviewer called this dish "subtle". I guess subtle is reviewer-speak for "You won't enjoy this unless you try really really hard and will like every pretentious restaurant around". Then my rib-eye steak was super fatty and gristly. For $35, I felt ripped off. They should have done tenderloin for $40. At the Maple Leaf in Banff(which was excellent, 3.5/4) , I had the bacon wrapped bison, which was much better and $39.
Wine menu was very lengthy and decent. The only problem I had is the pricing and selection on the "low" end. They are above 200% markup on BCLDB prices. I'm a huge fan of Kaesler Stonehorse GSM. That's $28.99 in BCLDB, and $90 at Fuel. We had the same bottle in the Maple Leaf restaurant in Banff for $50. I know much of that is because of the difference in provincial taxes but come on! I have a real problem close to or over $100 for a bottle of wine at a restaurant. I ought to be able to get a bottle that costs about $30 in a liquor store for about $75 in a restaurant. $65 markup is getting a bit excessive.
Hopefully Gastropod or Bistrot Bistro will be better.
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