I’ve never been to Tableau before, even though I’ve worked down the street for the past few years. I was lucky enough to be treated to lunch there, so I had a little taste of Tableau.

This isn’t really a review…just a few pictures and observations. I didn’t feel like I could draw any firm conclusions on this place, so it might be worth it to revisit this place in the future.

That’s a very French blue colour.

Let’s just say you gotta be making bank if you want to eat lunch here regularly.

So settled on possibly the weirdest lunch ever: Steak Tartare and a dozen East Coast Oysters.

The specials. A few people went with the Squid Ink Linguini.

Bread was quite good. Baguettes are my favourite type of bread. It’s hard finding really good baguettes in this city…subject of a future post/rant ^_^

Someone else’s frites. I tried a few and the outside was dry and tough instead of crispy.

The Squid Ink Linguini daily special. I never understood the presence of pasta in French restaurants but whatever. People seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t delve too deeply into how it tasted…it’s irritating enough taking photos of everything my coworkers ate 😛

A dozen East Coast oysters ($4/ea) that I shared with a work mate. I wasn’t on-the-ball enough to get which variety these were. They were out of West Coast oysters ($3/ea).

Fresh and clean-tasting. I love raw oysters, especially at (slightly cheaper) places like Oyster Express in Chinatown. The oysters at Tableau were well-shucked. No complaints on the flavour.

In the battle between West and East Coast oysters, I say eat both if you can afford it!

Steak Tartare with “pomme gaufrette”, which are basically super-thin waffle fries/chips…structurally weak chips that crumbled under the weight of the tartare 😛 so I had to eat it a little delicately. Tartare was just ok. Needed more seasoning or just better-tasting beef.

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Eating this led to a discussion about how it’s impossible to find rare or medium-rare burgers in Vancouver. If restaurants can serve steak tartare, Korean yukhoe (strips of raw beef served with Asian pears) or beef carpaccio, what is functionally different with rare burgers?

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Frankly I’m not in a huge rush to come back here to try dinner. Just not what I’m looking for these days. Not a slight against the restaurant, more of a commentary on how there’s so much to explore in Vancouver these days…