Sweeney’s of Yaletown
I walked past Sweeney’s of Yaletown a few weeks ago, and my friend told me they have an awesome Duck sandwich. Beipas want there a few days before our visit and confirmed that the duck sandwich was amazing. She didn’t bring her camera that time, so she wanted to go again, and brought me along this time.
We arrived at Sweeney’s for dinner, and it turns out most of the sandwiches aren’t on the Dinner menu. However, we asked if we could still order lunch items, and after the waiter checked with the chef, we could! Obviously, I ordered the Crispy Duck Confit sandwich, but also ordered the Mediterranean Pasta Salad. Our friend ordered the vegetarian “meatballs” grinder, and Beipas just ordered a dessert, the Lemon Tart with Raspberry Coulis.
The duck sandwich came on a toasted sesame seed bun, with an Asian slaw. The duck was cooked perfectly, and the slaw added a nice fresh crunch with a bit of acidity. I think a little extra something was missing though, or it was just really overhyped by my two friends that I was disappointed that I wasn’t wowed. It needed some extra flavour or saltiness. The bread was a bit over-toasted for my liking as it was quite hard and too crunchy, but it allowed for the sesame to get warm and release some aroma and flavour.
The Mediterranean pasta salad came with rotini pasta, artichoke hearts, olives, tomatoes, and some greens here and there. I think the salad would have been better with out the leaves. The leaves seemed out of place to me, as everything was bite sized, but the leaves were fairly large, and there wasn’t that much of it. The basil vinaigrette was light, and fairly mild. It let the feta cheese and other ingredients be the star, which I enjoyed. Although already full, I made sure to finish eating the pasta and most of the veggies and cheese because I couldn’t stop eating it.
The vegetarian meatball grinder was pretty good too. My friend liked it a lot. It came with vegetarian meatballs and smothered with provolone cheese and tomato sauce. Overall, I found the meatballs to be a little mushy in consistency, but understandable as it’s not meat. It was a good attempt to get this close to the texture of a meatball. The taste, however, was quite meaty and excellently seasoned. The bread was quite soft so the meatballs didn’t squeeze out after I took each bite.
The tart was also good as it had a crunchy creme brulee top. It had a lemony custard that was creamy and a little bit tart. The raspberry coulis added an extra sweet, berry flavour. I think the crust should have been baked, as it was pretty pale, but maybe that’s how it was intended.
The staff was nice, and was happy that they were still able to server us food on the lunch menu. I was expecting an amazing duck sandwich, but was kind of let down. Other than that, everything was good overall, but was not amazed.
Sweeney’s of Yaletown
1091 Hamilton Street
Vancouver, BC V6B
sweeneysyaletown.ca
