Restaurant review: Mouth watering luxury at Whistler steakhouse

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Sidecut Steakhouse

Where: 4591 Blackcomb Way, Whistler

When: Open daily for dinner

Info: 604-966-5280

www.sidecutwhistler.com

Don’t be fooled. Sidecut Steakhouse isn’t just a steak house. Its alter ego, of late, is demanding attention.

So while Sidecut remains a premium steak house at the Four Seasons Whistler, it now offers a chef’s menu previously available on a more sporadic basis. Chef Sajish Kumar Das is flexing creative muscle and having fun while taking you on a culinary adventure, engaging with local farmers, and sweeping you off your feet at times. It’s a luxe adventure at $195 per person.

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The dinner requires a lot more detailing from the kitchen than typically seen at a steak house and includes premium ingredients such as caviar, truffles, lobster, uni, and crab. But the showstopper is olive-fed A5 Wagyu beef (A5 is the top grade), a rare and near-impossible to procure product from Japan. Produced in limited quantities in Shodoshima in Kagawa Prefecture, it’s rare in Japan, let alone Canada.

On the chef’s tasting menu, you get a two and a half to three-ounce portion, depending on the cut but it’s also available on the regular menu and — permit me to turn to the overused descriptor — it sells for a whopping $357 for four ounces, $715 for eight ounces, and $1,300 for 16 ounces.

If you’re rich and love food, it’s a Holy Grail, a lovely, silken experience that literally melts at tongue temperature. The olive lees, a byproduct of olive oil production in Shodoshima, increases oleic acid and gives the meat its incredible marbling and that melt-in-your-mouth texture. “I give guests a slice as sashimi and they love it,” says Kumar Das.

“We sell quite a bit,” says Kumar Das. “The last customer was from Japan. They read about it online and that’s why they came here (to the restaurant). It’s the only thing they ate and they first wanted to see the certification.” The olive-fed Wagyu has tracing certification, and there’s even a noseprint of individual cattle for further authenticity.

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Getting the product on the menu took a full year of wrangling with the producer. “They said no, no, no, they didn’t want to sell it outside of Japan and wanted to keep it exclusive, but they finally agreed.” Sidecut staff were trained on how to handle and cook the precious product.

But there’s much more to the tasting menu, with two choices for the starter, seafood, and meat courses. A couple can graze the whole menu by not duplicating choices.

Our meal started with four amuse bouche. A dumpling resembling a delicate samosa was pregnant with local mushroom duxelle. New Zealand Ora wild salmon, brushed with truffle ponzu, sat on crisp nori tempura and was topped with shaved black truffle.

Kumar Das’s creations, including the next amuse bouche, sometimes reveal his Indian background. Tuna ceviche with yuzu pearls was cleverly tucked into a spherical gol gappa fried shell. Gol gappa is a golf ball-size Indian snack usually filled with a spiced potato mixture and served with flavoured water, often tamarind or mint. A final snack was layers of toasted brioche, chicken liver pate, foie gras mousse, apple and mixed berry compote, premium caviar and gold leaf.

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“I want every bite to excite the palate,” Kumar Das says.

A candle made of butter and bone marrow accompanied sourdough bread, the butter softening from the flame — a great match for a starter of hand cut, prime beef tartare with Cabernet Sauvignon balsamic reduction, cured quail egg yolk, caviar and gold leaf. The other starter option was a prawn cake with scallop, dots of sea urchin aioli, yuzu emulsion and caviar.

After a berry sorbet with apple gelée for palate cleansing we moved on to seafood. The tasting menu options were B.C. sablefish, rolled in zucchini ribbons with razor clams and wild shrimp with squid emulsion and seaweed essence, or lobster and king crab risotto with samphire (sea asparagus) and lumpfish roe. The seafood risotto was a flipped version from the regular menu, reversing the 80 per cent rice and 20 per cent lobster and crab content.

The meat course was a no-brainer: olive-fed A5 Wagyu or regular A5 Wagyu striploin. I mean, who wouldn’t want the olive-fed rarity? It was served with Cinco Jotas acorn-fed Iberico jamon, potato fondant with black truffle, and veal marrow sauce. And yes, it was lusciously delicious.

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There was one dessert — a statuesque chocolate Grand Marnier torte cylinder, flambéed tableside with a crunchy cacao nib cap. Alas, I couldn’t complete this chef’s journey and managed only a bite.

If you wish to experience this chef’s tasting menu, call and reserve 24 hours in advance.

SIDE DISHES

WHISTLER OPENINGS

If you’re in Whistler this summer, check out these cool new places.

Flute and Fromage has opened in the former Ingrid’s Village Cafe. The new boutique cheese shop offers 45 to 55 local and international cheeses, along with accompaniments. And if you’re in the mood for some drinks (natural wines, craft beer, local cider) and a light meal (appetizers, salads, cheese, tartiflette for two, charcuterie), there are some tables on the patio.

It’s right up owner Tara May’s alley. In university, she studied food systems and economic development with a focus on local wine production and tourism. The shop’s name was inspired by her skiing Whistler’s high alpine Flute Bowl. At one-time, she’d meet friends for après ski beer and snacks. “Growing older, I just wanted to go home with good cheese and wine after a day of skiing.” Her personal favourite cheeses are Grey Owl goat cheese from Quebec, Le Marechal from Switzerland, and La Tur Triple cream from Piedmont. The shop is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Charcuterie plates and gift boxes are available.

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After a long lead-up, Provisions Whistler is now open, right between its older siblings, Araxi restaurant and Bar Oso on the Village Stroll. The café-coffee bar-retail store has got the Top Table Group swagger with good looks, quality food, drink, and service and even has assists from the more upscale members of the team, as in the Basque cheesecake from Bar Oso. The café offers pastries, sandwiches, salads, rotisserie chicken and a 49th Parallel coffee blend made exclusively for Top Table restaurants.

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