We visited Watermark restaurant for our much delayed Anniversary dinner. What a wonderful night and meal. It gets a solid 4/5. Food was excellent but needs some slight improvements, service wasn't that great, wine list was excellent and the pricing has to be some of the best in vancouver. I think it is now my favourite waterfront restaurant in vancouver because it's the only one that doesn't rely on it's location by deliverying excellent food and wine at good value.
I had the chilli tossed calamari with curry almond dip and D had the lobster dumplings in ginger soya sauce for appetizers. They were both excellent and there was even too much of the calamari for me! The dip was fabulous. The one slight negative is that the calamari were slightly too greasy. For mains we had the excellent new york steak and seared scallops. Again all were great. One slight negative on the scallops was that they weren't quite what was described in the menu and they were slightly doughy. We finished with the fabulous chocolate desert.
The service wasn't that great in that the server didn't really describe or know the dishes well, basics like whether the scallops were pan-seared or grilled. I know it's very difficult in vancouver to hire and retain staff, which is I expect what they are struggling with. The wine we had was amazing and amazingly well priced. It think this is the best restaurant I've ever been to for markup on a wine. We had the Mer Soleil Chardonnay for $85 and loved it. Afterwards, I found it at the liquor store for $50. They are only charging a $35/70% markup. That's simply amazing and worth at least a star on it's own. Compare that with stupid Fuel/Gastropod that are charging $85 for $27 bottles of wine. Why on earth Fuel etc. get regularly hyped for poor food, service, selection and price and Watermark and Rare get overlooked is beyond me.
I highly recommend Watermark as a place to go. It's definitely on my top list. You'll need reservations well in advance because it's very popular.
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