Monday, May 31, 2010

Elements Tapas Lounge in Whistler

We celebrated Ivan's birthday over the weekend with our friends Aryn and Rob, with a fun trip up to Whistler to partake in this crazy adventure course called Monkido...its a really awesome and challenging course that you do up high in the trees..there are ropes, nets, ziplines, and a lot of laughs. Highly recommended for a very unique and fun afternoon...you can check it out through Wild Play who also hosts Zoom, the crazy fast and high zip lines. There are so many cool things to do in this province that you just don't know about!

The course took approx. 1.5hrs and we were all feeling pretty good about our Indiana Jones type efforts (or not so much), so we rewarded ourselves with a lovely cocktail in the lounge at the Fairmont Hotel...their martinis are fabulous...served in ice cold glasses - the way nature intended! Ivan ordered this amazing spicy mandarin martini with a slice of jalapeno...it was delish. Prices are a bit ridiculous...so always be sure to stock your min bar with your favorites upon arrival!

We popped some bubbles in the room and nibbled some cheese and appies before heading out to eat. We went out for tapas to a place called Elements We started off with the chicken satay with a mole sauce. Sauce was good...chicken was a bit on the dry side..next was the coconut curry prawns, which were nice, but nothing spectacular...plus it was served with a pool of dipping sauce on the side, but not enough substance to dip...perhaps a little garnish of rice or nan on the side would have made it feel more complete. Next was the pistachio stuffed mushroom caps..Rob, Aryn and I enjoyed these, but Ivan thought they tasted like they were stuffed with peanut butter (aka...bad). We carried on to the heavier courses starting with the duck sausage which was the highlight of the evening...this dish was excellent, and the sliders (mini beef burgers)that followed were pretty good as well.

The last dish was recommended by the server..called the Butler Steak...it was a flank steak done to perfection...but the shavings of Parmesan and the surrounding sauce didn't go over too well with my fellow diners. We made a motion to try dessert to celebrate Ivan's birthday. Actually we made Ivan go to the bathroom (against his will) so we could order him a free birthday dessert...he thought we were all a bunch of chumps...which we were, but whatEVER, its free dessert! Rob was DYING to try the peppercorn cheesecake, which sounded pretty awesome, so we asked the opinion of our server. TIP: if your server doesn't immediately respond to your "how is the...." question with a confident positive remark..but instead recommends just about EVERY OTHER item on the menu...you can safely assume your pick is crap. But...having drank way to many wobblies, sometimes your judgment can be a little clouded....so we proceed to order the cheesecake. How do you think it was??? SHIT is how. Serves us right for ordering it...and Ivan hates cheesecake, so he thought we were a bunch of real selfish sons a bitches....oh well, lesson learned.

Our server was kind enough to take the shit-cake off of our tab...but the restaurant was still expensive for what it was...definitely not a Bin 941/942 experience to say the least (which are two excellent places for tapas in Vancouver). Rob equated Elements to eating in Disneyland....it all looks good, and pretty, but they overcharge for a substandard product...not only that, but we were all still starving when we left.Good thing I had snacks waiting at the hotel! Personally I think, if you never get a chance to go to this restaurant, your life will still be utterly complete.

The night ended with a fabulous robe party (don't get any sick ideas) we were all wearing our posh Fairmont robes, snacking on chocolate covered strawberry's, brie, and spiced gourmet nuts, while sipping bubbles and laughing till snot came out over a 2hr game of TABOO don't have the game....GET IT and...

Enjoy!

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