JJ's Restaurant - Vancouver Community College (250 Pender Street West, Vancouver BC)



This is my first time trying out food at a culinary school. The restaurant is located on the third floor of the building. We made a reservation for 6:00pm as we did not know if there were going to be lots of people. Servers were fast to act when we entered the restaurant and was warmly welcomed to our seats.

The first thing I noticed when walking into the restaurant was a television. It displayed a live footage of what was going on in the kitchen.  The restaurant itself was cozy and spacious. The interior of the restaurant felt warm with its dark colour scheme.

The restaurant had a 3 course summer set dinner for $24.00 which is reasonable as it is cooked by aspiring students becoming chefs.



DRINK:

To start off the night our drinks were taken and we had a caesars and a glass of white wine. The price for the drinks was not overly priced as it was about $5 each.








APPETIZER:
 

We were given a complimentary appetizer to start with. This was a wrapped roll which consisted of diced shrimps and scallops. It tasted very light as we had our first bite into it.

For my appetizer I started off with the Summer Stew.  Inside this dish had prawns, scallops, leeks and potatoes served in a corn broth.
The seafoods were just about cooked probably around 90% which wasnt too bad as it tasted very nice.  Even though it was a cold appetizer each bite makes you feel warm. 

My friend chose the salad to start off with.  Its a typical salad you see in other restaurants where there are the greens, nuts and croutons.  The star of this dish was the Sherry Truffle Vinegrette. This dressing was a good balance where it did not taste too strong.

MAIN:

I ordered the Moroccan Spiced Lamb Sirloin for the main dish. The lamb was served with a side of cous cous, cauliflowers, and a yogurt sauce. This was my first time trying out cous cous. I didn't really like the grainy and nutty taste of the cous cous. So this is probably my last time to getting it. On the other hand, the lamb was cooked to perfection. Ask for a medium rare and thats what I got. Taste was pretty mild in flavour without the overpowering taste of the lamb taking over as some places will.



This olive oil poached salmon was not over cooked. The meat itself was very moist and smooth. It was served with a tomato risotto which tasted good when eaten together with the salmon. Plated nicely and was served with a good portion of risotto and salmon.

 



DESSERT:





I chose the poached pear with a sweet milk icecream served with a shortcake. Even though I don't prefer eatting desserts the ice cream was sweet to my liking. The poached pear in my opinion tastes like ones u have preserved for selling in stores.  Maybe that's what it tastes like poached?







For chocolate lovers the dark chocolate ganache cake was very chocolately. For some it may be taste too heavy with all the chocolate.

 To end the meal we were served a complimentary dessert.  This was a lemon cake topped with drizzle of dark chocolate and an almond cream. The cake itself was packed with lemon taste. I really liked this cake because of that.





VERDICT:


This was a pleasant experience for us for trying JJ's Restaurant.  Service was ealt with in a professional manner.  Food came out reasonably fresh except for my lamb which was a bit lukewarm. Overall it is a good place for a cheap dinner to eat if you are near VCC. I will definately go back again when they have the fall menu out.


Service: 5/5
Food: 4/5
Ambiance: 4/5
Overall: 4/5