Goldfish Pacific Kitchen (web site, map, 1118 Mainland Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604 689-8318) is an upscale restaurant in Vancouver’s downtown Yaletown neighborhood, that offers fine dining in a trendy, lively atmosphere.

In a previous dinner time visit, I enjoyed their ling cod ($22). Since then I’ve been back three times for lunch. Goldfish offers daily lunch specials which are $10 plus tax and tip. These specials really showcase the talents of executive chef William Tse.

Flat Iron Steak (on Thursdays) is served with mushrooms, snow pear, and mustard green salad. On Fridays, their special is the seafood fricassée (pictured below), with mussels, fresh fish, thai basil, coconut, and fresh chiles.

The flavors in the fricassée were fantastic, expertly crafted into bringing out the freshness of the seafood, with a rich broth that went with the rice perfectly. The fresh chiles were extremely spicy but our helpful server warned us about them, and thankfully they were served on the side. Another popular lunch choice from our table was the Shanghai Noodles, which can be ordered with beef short rib or chicken.

Many food fanatics (or “foodies” as they are affectionately known) love Vancouver because of the remarkable East-meets-West fusion that happens in the kitchens of our many talented, daring, and masterful chefs. As a port city we are fortunate to have some of the freshest ingredients arriving in our markets from Asia and the Pacific Northwest. Chefs like William Tse and restaurants like Goldfish are setting the stage for Vancouver as a world-class food city.

Please visit the Gold fish restaurant’s web site if you’d like to browse their menu or see some photos of the room’s cool decor.

Seafood Fricasse from Goldfish Pacific Kitchen restaurant in Yaletown, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Amuse bouche, a little complimentary appetizer created by their chef.

I had lunch at Cactus Club Cafe (web site, map, 855 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone 604-682-0933) and enjoyed their Westcoast Pocket ($4.00) and the Prawn and Scallop Spaghettini ($20).

The Westcoast Pocket (shown in video below) is made with wild smoked salmon, avocado, seasoned rice, pea shoots, tofu and tobiko, and is one of my favorite appetizers that Cactus Club serves. For another photo of the Westcoast pocket please view my review of their Yaletown location.

The prawn and scallop spaghettini is a specialty of Cactus Club’s celebrity chef and Iron Chef USA winner, Rob Feenie, and is made with pan seared prawns and scallops, roasted tomato sauce, garlic and parmesan crostini. I was really impressed by the size and taste of the scallops, which were generous in number and hidden throughout the pasta.

I made a little video of the dishes, which you can view by clicking here, or use the player below.

Westcoast Pocket from Cactus Club

White Spot Restaurants (web site, map, 580 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-662-3066) are a family-friendly Canadian restaurant chain with many locations around the Greater Vancouver area.

I went for lunch at their location at Georgia and Seymour in downtown Vancouver, and enjoyed the Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla with Caesar Salad (pictured below, $10.99 before tax). The restaurant gets quite busy at lunch, and I think the chef didn’t have very much time for presenting the dish, because it wasn’t impeccably styled like you might find at a high-end restaurant. But the quesadillas tasted great, really satisfying, and I liked the home-made black bean salsa that they used (which had some corn niblets).

The chicken, chipotle mayo, black bean salsa and cheese were accompanied by an amazing sour cream cilantro sauce and some ordinary salsa. It was good value to get a half Caesar salad included in the price. I’ll definitely go back and order this again!

The restaurant is conveniently located within walking distance of Vancouver’s sports stadiums (GM Place Stadium and BC Place Stadium), as well as the Vancouver main library downtown and the Queen Elizabeth theatre. It is accessible by either the Stadium skytrain station or the Granville skytrain station.

White Spot is open for breakfast starting at 6:30am, and is popular for brunch and dinner as well.

For more info, check out my previous reviews: Part 4 – Kitsilano Location, Part 3 – BC Ferries, Part 2 – Salmon Burger, Part 1 – Chicken Gai Yang.

Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla & Caesar ($10.99) from White Spot restaurant in Vancouver.