Black Rabbit Kitchen — Restaurant in Nanaimo

Tonight was a disappointment. It started with getting attitude from the hostess because wee showed up 15 min early to our reservation. I can accept that because I understand the stress that can cause, but then... A walk in showed up after us, and was seated right away. They got a preferable seat against a wall, while my wife and I were at in the middle of the room.

Service was decent, and prompt after that, a little fast for my liking as my wife and I hadn't had time to look at the drink menu, after asking for a few minutes, we were given enough time to determine our drinks, as well as our meals.

The food. Fishers are ment to be shared here, and it's an type of dinning I love. Sharing food with my wife is something I enjoy immensely. We ordered five of their dishes for the evening. The first two arrived together. Because it wasn't an established tasting menu, the flavors were very contrasting and didn't work together at all, I don't blame the restaurant for my choices here, but having the dishes served individually would have been a much better dinning experience. The beef tar tar was tasty, and I enjoyed it a lot. The apple salad was also lovely on its own. Both were smothered under a layer of shredded parm that made them visually unimpressive, but they tasted nice. The third dish was a mushroom tart that was uninspired, visually bland, and severely over seasoned. It tasted like mushroom sot sauce and over cooked tart shell. To say I was disappointed in this $12 tart is a huge understatement. Our 4th dish was there potatoes, they were delicious, perfectly cooked, well balanced, and perfectly seasoned. The dill and other herbs on the plate elevated everything. The white sauce they were served with was delicious. I could have eaten 10 of these and still wanted more. It was also the most attractive dish of the night, even if it was young potato's, a white sauce and some green herbs, it still looked great. Our final dish, the lamb loin, another disappointment. The lamb was perfectly cooked, but to make it look bigger it was stuffed with unseasoned spinach, that was just a mushy block of unpleasantness. It was served with frozen peas, carrots, and crispy fried young potatoes. Once again their potatoes sang, nice and crispy, I really liked them. But they were drowned in their demi glaze, and that was the most disappointing thing of the night. It was clearly made with a convenience powder stock. For $38 I expect a real stock, it's not hard or expensive to make. It really annoyed me that they would cook a pice of lamb so well, and drown it in such a unpleasant demi. All in all this evening was a real disappointment.

I am a chef, I graduated top of my class, and I love food. I love cooking it, and I love eating it. I have no problem with spending big money, on good food. As long as that food is thought out, balanced, and no corners have been cut. Using a stock powder in a demiglaze is unforgivable, and an insult to good food.

(Edit, in response to the owner. I recognize that Valentines day is a busy weekend for restaurants. That's why I made sure to be prompt to my reservation. I have no problem that I would have to wait a few minutes for my table, I was a few minutes early. I do however have issues with the attitude I was given by the hostess for being prompt, and the real insult was that the walk-ins, that showed up after my wife and I, were immediately seated. So clearly there was a table for two ready and available when my wife and I showed up. That wasn't a 'hicup' that was an insult.

Valentine's Day is not an excuse for poor service, it's a reason to have your staff put in extra effort to make your customers...

The Black Rabbit is going to grow on me very quickly. There are some worn spots, but that's a given when you occupy a building old enough to remember the dawn of the telephone age: the floorboards have that grandma's-attic soft-fibered creakiness that renders a trip from the table to the bathroom and back again a bit of a sea-legged affair, pillar-mounted tables listing and wobbling to varying degrees perched atop flooring that forgot it's original shape generations ago; the light fixtures, while pretty, appear borderline anachronistic; whoever installed most of the wall art needs to be informed that levels are a tool that exist. Years of quaternary sanitizer spray and Windex application have turned most lacquered surfaces into spongey look-don't-touch pieces.

However, the skill of the team at the Black Rabbit have managed to turn all of the lopsided, uneven edges of the carriage house into a carriage home. The menu is nothing short of delightful, and risks being branded that exhaustingly over-deployed adjective, "playful". Carrots with sumac spice and chives were a fantastic concoction, despite it's overall lack of wallet-compressing panache. Roasted potatoes with cheese sauce and dill were perfectly balanced, existing to complement whatever they were paired with rather than being a standalone item. Agrodolce pork chop with crispy shallot and more chives was a particular standout. The Black Rabbit has taught me that fried mushrooms go with literally anything. The $49 market price beef dish, while delicious and worth every penny, risked feeling like an overspend as ten ounces of striploin struggled to keep pace with its cheaper, punching-above-their-weight competitors.

I have learned over the years that I am one to hold a grudge. Being a vain, overly-sensitive and somewhat dramatic "foodie type", I still have yet to forgive Nanaimo for letting spots like Figo and Hilltop Bistro go under. While I will be a little sad that I will have to share my dining out budget that has been, up to this point, reserved solely for La Stella for years, I am glad for the change of pace that Black Rabbit offers. If anybody leaves the Black Rabbit with a negative opinion, it's because they went in...

Im very disappointed with what i experienced at this restaurant. I would like to start of by saying this restaurant has a great atmosphere and well crafted menu. And lots of great potential with unfortunate poor service. I called the restaurant ahead of time to ask them if they have vegan options since my friend is vegan and I was told yes, but when we arrived not only did it take about 10-15 minutes for someone to come up to our table (there were only two other tables at this time). But when the man came up to our table i asked him what the vegan options are cause I only noticed one on the entire menu. He said with much attitude “we have ONE vegan option” woulda been nice to know that when I asked over the phone. he also gave me a very hard time for nicely asking if they had strawberries he said no and I didn't say anything after that but he continued to ask “Why??” And I kindly said “oh because then I would’ve gotten a strawberry daiquiri” and he very coldly said to me “yeah so there’s no strawberry daiquiri on the menu” like ok???!!!! And??!! Sorry for asking ??….at that point we had to walk out. no one deserves this kind of treatment especially not for what this restaurant is trying to be. as someone who’s very passionate about hospitality and has worked at many high end places I’m very saddened by what I experienced tonight that kind of attitude is something you'd expect from a customer at work not when you’re just trying to have a nice night out. I can’t ever imagine taking so long to come up to a table on a slow night and then speaking to the customers the way I was spoken to. One of the first most basic things you learn about hospitality is to make EVERYONE feel welcome no...