Breve - Restaurant Review No.7
My first visit to Breve was a baffling experience. Actually, the bafflement started before I even got there.
And I wasn’t the one who was baffled. It was the employees.
It started when I called to make reservations on a Friday night. The first employee I spoke to wasn’t sure if they took reservations. When I asked if she could check, she seemed hesitant and unceremoniously handed the phone off to someone else. Yes, as it turns out, reservations are preferred. Great, I said, but it’s probably a good idea to let the employees answering the phone know that, too, huh?
I thought it would be smooth sailing from there on in, what else could be hard about making a reservation?
A lot. Apparently. First, I had to select which side of the restaurant I wanted to eat dine in. I already knew I wanted tapas, a young vibe and cocktails. The Veneto Bistro should have been where I ended up and it was what I asked for. Instead, when I arrived the hostess let me know my reservation was in the Breve Bistro.
The fact is, I’m not a fussy diner. I don’t keep a checklist of things I expect and I take each encounter as it comes – I’m a big believer in happy accidents. So, I rolled with it and decided to give the Bistro side a fair shot.
Breve Bistro was good. Not smack-me-in-the-face-this-food-is-amazing, but still, really good. And at a very fair price. I went with the prix fixe dinner option, as did my companion. We also selected three drinks from the tasting menu. (Gotta love that tasting menu!)
My starter, a wilted spinach salad, was serviceable; but it was also pedestrian. The lamb shanks in my main course were braised in wine and cooked until the meat fell off the bone – in other words, perfect. The sauce for the shanks was rich and fruity, yet simple. But the risotto it was nestled on should have been a no-brainer. Instead, the arborio was a little hard in the centre and while I could taste a good amount of cream and butter, I didn’t get the full mouth texture you get from a really creamy, well-made risotto. And not to split hairs, but it also lacked that level of subtlety you get when it’s made from a better than average table wine. The old adage, “if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it” definitely applied here.
Dessert with the prix fixe was simple. And bang on. Three different styles of handmade chocolate truffles, all of them well executed.
Along with a faulty reservation process though, my companion and I also found the serving experience lopsided. For the first part of our meal, we had a young and inexperienced server, when asked details about how the food was prepared she didn’t know. That’s okay, but she didn’t seem too interested in finding out, either. When asked about the wine selections she was hesitant to make a recommendation and when we inquired about the gluten free cooking techniques that she assured us were in practice, she wasn’t able to elaborate.
I suspect someone with more experience must have heard her struggling with us (I swear we are not high maintenance!) because after we placed our order, a more senior server with a great knowledge of the menu and beverages took over and it was smooth sailing from there. She was able to chat wine, she was up front about the kitchen’s capacity to handle a gluten free request (here’s a tip: don’t guess if you don’t know!) and she was proud of the menu and had strong likes and dislikes of her own. In other words, she was confident in Breve’s ability to please, and that translated into a better dinner.
Could I braise lamb shanks and make a mouth-watering risotto at home? Sure. But the fact is, I paid to have someone else do that for me, and part of the draw of dining out is and always will be about the diner’s experience of service. A restaurant that is passionate about service strives to create an experience where the diner feels like they’re whisked away- all the little details, from the moment they arrive to the minute they depart, are well thought out. Breve hasn’t mastered that yet. Let’s hope they do soon because the menu is solid, the location is good and with a little more effort on their part, the service could be, too.
Breve - Hotel Rialto
653 Pandora Ave
250.383.4157
Submitted" February 4, 2010
by Brooke Finnigan Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Brooke is a journalist and freelance writer. She currently spends her 9-5 working for the man and enjoys sharing her passion for the arts, wine, food, culture, fashion and being fabulous.
