Levykh Loves Wines at Bistro Pastis; Gill Investigates Spot Prawns; Stainsby Gets Poetic at Basho

At the Westender, Anya Levykh celebrates 15 years of frites with Bistro Pastis at a special anniversary dinner which united past chefs including Mamie Taylor's Tobias Grignon and Wagon Rouge/Red Wagon's Brad Miller with its current chef Spencer Watts. The wines served draw raves "truly outstanding" but some of the dishes served "lacked flavour and failed to do justice to the libations" apart from "Miller's terrine de champagne with celery remoulade and Grignon's boudin noir "cabbage roll" with seared scallop."

Over at the Globe & Mail Alexandra Gill files a report this week on the soaring price of spot prawns - and how these costly crustaceans are driving Vancouver chefs out of the market.
The Vancouver Sun's Mia Stainsby manages to elbow her way to a table at ex-Heatmap residents, Basho Cafe and finds coffee "luscious with caramelly creme" and a pleasing matcha with "only a hint of sweetness — it wasn't made into a confection like it often is." Stainsby tries two dishes from the three-item menu; salads are "very nice" portion sizes "generous" and the pulled pork is "so shredded, you could mistake it for a dish of noodles."
· Bistro Pastis Celebrates 15 Years of Frites [WE]
· Basho Cafe Like Homespun Haiku [Van Sun]
· Pricey Prawns Forcing Vancouver Chefs to Make Tough Decisions [G&M]