Prestons Bistro
Last week we had lunch at Prestons in the new Coast Coal Harbour Hotel on Pender/Hastings (depending on which way you enter). We only had an hour as we were in between meetings but were assured that the food service for lunch was fast, and indeed it was.
The décor of the room could be described as ‘urban’ but laid back and reminded us a bit of Joeys in Bentall One. The restaurant appears small from the street and the entrance is equally small but there is a larger seating area in the back that is not readily seen. The smaller room at the front has four or five booths (comfy for at least 4), an 18-foot long communal table, constructed from a solid piece of New Zealand cypress down the middle and a bar with small bar area and two flatscreen TV’s. The room itself is quite nice but the view of Canada Revenue Services across the street is not the best, so it is better to sit facing away from the window or in the interior of the restaurant. The hostess, the servers and the manager all greeted us warmly.
Menu of Choices
The menu consists of Mixers, Mids, Bowls and Mains and while not overly large had lots of intriguing choices. One feature that we liked was that all of the Mids were the same price at $13 and all of the bowls were the same price at $15. There was also a fresh sheet that included a soup and two lunch items. Tara chose the Wild Mushroom Ravioli with dried grape tomatoes and caper berries which were very unique and very good (once at home of course Tara looked up the Caper Berry on Wikipedia and found out it is the result of a caper bud not being picked and allowed to flower and produce fruit – who knew?). Jeff had one of the daily specials the three cheese melt which was a very cheesy (provolone, swiss and mozza) grilled cheese on a nice thick seven grain bread with some fries.
The wine list had several good choices for either white or red by the glass and the menu had man other items that we would like to try. Lunch was good and fast. And while it might be awhile before we return (because we have so many other places to try) we would recommend it to anyone.
Leave a Comment