Grub
4328 Main
604-876-8671
GrubOnMain.ca
Open for lunch and dinner, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 11:30am.
Open for dinner Saturday and Sunday, from 5:30pm.
When chef/owner Ling Zheng first opened Grub on Main Street in 2007, it was a mic drop for the neighbourhood. The casual eatery offered up vegan- and vegetarian-friendly food that also allowed room for carnivores, and dishes like the pescetarian platter (gravlax, smoked trout, poached prawn in tomatillo sauce, and various salads) were worthy of multiple visits.
Unfortunately, a fire gutted the room almost two years ago, and it was 18 months before the restaurant re-opened this past June. With the new space came a bright, new aesthetic and a completely new menu.
That menu is largely influenced by a partnership with a family friend, who owns farming land in Langley. “It’s a working farm, but they weren’t using part of the land. We made an agreement about the kind of things we’d like grown,” explains Zheng over the phone. Her weekly visits for pick-up also show her what’s ready for use in the kitchen. “More than 95 per cent of our produce comes from the farm right now. In winter, that might drop to 60 or 70 per cent.”
Custom-grown produce is pretty fly, and Zheng’s results are fairly delicious. Mushroom salad ($15) is a warm, diverse mix of local ‘shrooms over a plate of rocket, decorated with grilled fennel, local goat cheese and parmesan, and drizzled with a mushroom emulsion. I paired it with the $4 bread plate, one of the few things not made in-house (the bread comes from the excellent Swiss Bakery). The latter is massive, a dinner plate loaded with grilled focaccia and sliced, grilled baguette, along with a large slab of butter. It’s crude and magnificent. Vegetarians will enjoy the asparagus crepes ($16), a starter that could equally work as a main. The thin pancakes are stuffed with housemade herbed ricotta and perfectly grilled spears, and the whole sits on a bed of lemon cream. It’s incredibly rich and satisfying, and the bit of aged parmigiano gives it some much-needed sharpness.
Mains like the arctic char ($26) are solid, paired with housemade gnocchi that are pillowy soft and served in a smoked trout and saffron cream. The cream contains small bits of the trout as well, and the avocado-orange salsa cuts with a hint of sweet quite nicely. A pistachio-dusted pork chop from Paradise Valley ($27) was another winner, although combined with the bacon-studded scalloped potatoes and caramelized onion reduction, it made for a rather heavy dish. This was my only complaint when it came to the food; the unrelenting richness of even the vegan and vegetarian dishes. With the cool weather already here, however, these types of dishes will do well for at least another half-year.
Service is friendly and knowledgeable, although sometimes a bit slow (my drink took 20 minutes in an otherwise empty restaurant one night), but this will even out with time. And, if the nightly crowds are any indication, Grub has been eagerly welcomed back by the locals.
All ratings out of five stars.
Food: ★★★
Service: ★★1/2
Ambiance: ★★★
Value: ★★★
Overall: ★★★
Listen to Anya Levykh every Monday on CBC Radio One’s On the Coast. Find her on Twitter @foodgirlfriday and Facebook.com/FoodGirlFriday.
