Vault in Cloverdale

Looking through my Entertainment Book, I found Vault restaurant. I’ve been wanting to go here for a few months to make use of the coupon, so I finally brought my parents here for my mom’s birthday. It’s in Cloverdale just off of 176 St. We went at a really good time when there was lots of street parking (5:30PM). When we got there, it started getting really busy and there wasn’t very much parking left when we left.

We were greeted by the hostess, and a few waitresses were there too. Everyone was really nice. We were served and treated really well here. They have live jazz/bands playing but only after 8PM on I think Thursdays and Fridays, so we were a bit early. It was a wood structured building, and for some reason there was a motorcycle propped up on one of the walls (see the picture).

We first ordered our drinks, and I was happy to see they had a long list of beers domestic and international. I saw San Miguel, and I instantly ordered that. I haven’t had this Filipino beer in a while. The beers came out ice cold in extremely chilled glasses. Cold beer is so awesome. Perfect.

We started with Yam Fries ($6.99), and Dry Ribs ($8.99). And later on I added the panko chili chicken ($8.99). Nothing out of the ordinary here, as you can get these at many restaurants. The Yam fries were served in a bucket, and there was quite a bit of them. They were extra long. The ones in the center of the bucket were less crisp as the ones on top. It came with a garlic aioli that just had a hint of garlic. The Dry Ribs were a bit disappointing. They had good flavour, but it was cooked a little bit longer than I would have liked. The meat was pretty dry. I kind of reget ordering the Panko Chili Chicken because we had our bread, 2 appetizers, and our entrees waiting to come out. But the water cress aioli tempted me. We got just 3 chicken strips with the standard sweet thai chili sauce on top. The water cress aioli again wasn’t too flavourful. I probably could’ve done without the dip. This meat was a bit over cooked as well, as the breading was pretty dark, and the chicken was a bit stringy.

For my main, I ordered the 8 oz. striploin ($23.99) medium rare. I ordered this steak because I wanted to try the butter sage sauce. The steak was flavourful, topped with peppers and seasonings, and for some reason parmesan cheese (which really didn’t add anythin). The butter sage sauce was a bit of a disappointment. Also, the steak was closer to medium than medium rare. Maybe it’s the cut of meat, but it was a bit tougher than I like. The garlic mashed potatoes were very garlicky, which is something I would do at home.

My dad got the curry prawn penne. I watched him eat it and he had to de-shell the prawns as he ate. The curry packed a bit of heat to it as well. My mom ordered the seafood penne which was loaded with a bunch of different seafood – fish, prawn, scallops and mussels.

Although the food was just OK, the service was good, and it seemed to be a really popular place to go to in Cloverdale. I’d go back to check out the live bands that play later at night, and snack on a few appetizers or pizzas.

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