ELEM — Restaurant in Vancouver

TLDR - continuously served allergen items to the table, food was mediocre, bad service, go spend your money elsewhere there are tons of fantastic restaurants in Vancouver and ELEM is not one of them

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We recently decided to try ELEM for my friend’s birthday dinner and boy were we disappointed. While I understand it’s a new restaurant still working out the kinks, after reading reviews from several weeks ago, it seems others have had similar experiences, which makes me question whether they are addressing any of the feedback.

Upon arrival, the initial impression was underwhelming, tacky and the ambiance feeling somewhat unrefined. The waiter attempted to explain the concept behind ELEM, citing elements such as "exposed copper in the kitchen," "glass surrounding the bar," and even encouraged us to feel the curtains behind us. However, when we reviewed the menu, which referenced the elements of air, water, earth, and fire, the connection between the concept and the presentation felt disjointed and lacked cohesion. I also looked at their website after our experience to which they mention sustainability and how it is important to them but non of that translated in the experience.

Before we came to the restaurant, we confirmed with the restaurant that they could accommodate my friend's gluten and peanut allergies, to which they said they could. Our waiter kindly verified the safe menu options, and we opted for the "Let Us Cook" experience, as he assured us the chef would create a gluten and peanut-free menu for the occasion. We were actually really excited about this, since not many places are able to do this (which we understand, so we were willing to pay the extra $). The first dish, a tartare, arrived with crackers that the waiter then confirmed were not gluten-free, despite our prior discussion about allergies. The next dish, pasta, was clearly not gluten-free either. We expressed our concerns to the waiter, who apologized but blamed the mistake on the kitchen, saying they had reminded them of the allergies but there was a miscommunication. Shortly after, another staff, possibility a manager, approached and explained that the chef actually wanted the non-gluten-free diners to sample other menu items, which contradicted the waiter’s reasoning of why were were receiving allergen items.

This was particularly frustrating as we had chosen the "Let Us Cook" option to ensure my friend could safely enjoy all the dishes on her birthday. They also repeatedly referenced the wrong allergy, stating the meals would be free of both nuts and gluten, requiring me to clarify that a peanut allergy is not the same as a nut allergy. We also quickly realized that the “Let Us Cook” menu was actually just items from their à la carte menu and not actually something special/curated.

The rest of the food was mediocre. The sea bream, which had received much praise, was overcooked, with the presentation falling short of the vibrant photos on their social media. The red sauce overwhelmed the delicate flavour of the fish. The lamb skewers and steak were decent, but the broccolini it came with was bland and undercooked. As for drinks, they were hit or miss. I tried the "Duck Fried Rice," a food cocktail, which didn’t impress—other nearby bars offer similar concepts and execute them much better. When serving, the waitstaff would often attempt to explain the dishes and provide a story, it was so long that they barely could remember all the information and there was a lack of genuine engagement, it all felt overly pretentious.

When it came time for dessert that was included in the “Let Us Cook”, it was what was listed on the à la carte menu, there was nothing unique. To make matters worse, they served us two pieces of shortbread, which were not gluten-free, and placed our receipt directly on top of the crumbs at the end of our meal.

Overall, ELEM failed to deliver on both food quality and service, leaving us thoroughly disappointed. We paid $400+ for the meal but there are far better dining options in Vancouver that we wished we...

Food was excellent. Our party of 4 had the "Let us cook for you" and our hostess, Sam, picked great dishes for us Elem first-timers. In my opinion the $ value for this experience was great as we ended up eating most of the menu. Atmosphere is top-notch, although I would say it might not be for everyone since it doesn't seem to follow a more typical Vancouver dining experience, re: hip and cozy, warm tones and some kookiness. The interior is quite austere and ultra-polished which I actually found to be refreshing. 5 stars for ambiance and food.

Now onto the service. As mentioned, our main hostess, Sam, was ultra-hospitable; she explained the menu, concept, the drinks, and gave us a tiny bit of backstory, just enough to whet our appetite. She's clearly done this before. Our porters and servers on the other hand showed a bit of what seemed like a lack of experience and/or communication and in the case of one specific server, condescension and disrespect. More on that.

A ceviche-esque plate, was served to us and the sauce was explained incorrectly, which, thankfully, a very pleasant tattooed lady staffer, not Sam, came and corrected before we had a chance to be surprised. No harm done, maybe a bit of miscommunication. Restaurant is new. On another occasion, a different server didn't know what one of the ingredients was when asked but no harm no foul as he said he didn't know and would return with an answer. He even returned with a sample of the ingredient on its own for us to try. The ingredient was Kewra by the way. I guess we could've googled it but he was right there and didn't think it would be out of line to ask. We had the grilled bavette which was described to us accompanied with asparagus, but there was no asparagus, just broccolini as written on the menu. These cases were fairly minor in my books but noticeable. It didn't negatively affect our evening and meal.

On the condescension and disrespectful server. This was an experience I've never had before. When delivering his first 1 or 2 plates, he took entirely too long to explain the plates, not because of verbosity, but because of umms and uhhs and other filler words. When delivering the chicken plate, he told us to, "let me summarize the dish before you ask any questions," and to, "manage our expectations" because there was a piece of chicken breast, which he meant could be less moist. I found this particularly egregious and, to me, came across as disrespectful to both diner and kitchen. It also came with a, now, unwanted story of how he texted his friend in Taiwan to see if this kind of chicken was authentic. He asked us if we were ok to reuse a cutting knife from another dish or if we wanted the clean one...in his hand. We were taken aback. When my friend answered, "Yes, we'll take the clean one." He jokingly said there would be a $2 surcharge. Maybe his attempt at being charming but our patience was wearing thin or gone in some cases.

By dessert time we didn't want to see him again, unfortunately that wasn't to be. He delivered the churro dessert. He mentioned to us that he had to point out where the churro was because, "other tables had asked and it was getting on his nerves." Wow, now you're disrespecting other tables by telling us they got on your nerves. Unfortunately I did not get his name but I hope you don't have the misfortune of being served by him.

If you've made it this far I applaud you. TL:DR, food, ambiance, value, our hostess, Sam, were excellent, 5 star experience. Some hiccups in communication and/or remembering the plates. That one server was condescending and disrespectful. Despite that I would come back...

Book NOW I'm telling you!! It's the 3rd day of ELEM ( short for Element) and this place is incredible already. First of all the thoughtfulness behind everything from the menu , the elements of cocktails, the different element rooms in the restaurant, the owners the chefs and the staff.....it's literally like the cool kids with phenomenal talent reside at this newest Vancouver establishment. Before I go over the food, I would like to commend the owners for thinking through and taking into account a zero waste goal with as much local and sustainable foods as possible. Now to the food ....the $92 per person taking menu where your server bring out dishes is a great way to try almost everything. All dishes I can confidently say are bright with flavours that make you say ooh and ahhs and maybe an expletive here and there.

My highlights were :

The bread and butter....my *%@# ... just get the warm clouds of goodness and thank me later...it's worth the calories.

Yellowfin Tuna Bhel....reminds of street food of India, but then you add delicately cut and fresh ingredients like yellowfin tuna and the vibrancy of a cilantro-mint addition wirh puffed rice bits and lemon. WOWZERS

Now can we talk about the grilled lamb skewers...I'm not a huge lamb person but this lamb was not gamey...it was such a vision....the date glaze was delicate but glorious and the colour's of the labneh contrasting the flowered vegetables on top was a vision.

Dungeness crab Toast - 🦀 😋 Fancy but so cool. The flavours of the fresh crab over this sweet bread and then the sauce....back to that no waste idea.....they simmered the shells of these crustaceans for 6 to 8 hours to create this silky liquid gold that the sweet bread gently placed on. Seriously!!!!

Friggin rabbit and chestnut Cavatelli.....this was my favourite dish. The rabbit was tender and shredded and tested like fancy chicken with the little hidden treasure of the chestnut ...the pasta was light but full of flavour and richness to it.

Loong kong chicken....even better than my grandmas 👵🏼 but don't tell her . I already feel guilty 😔 writing it. Silky, tender, flavourful...I love bone in!!!!

Dessert

Hands down the sweet potato churros....$#%@&((×÷$% gooooodddd

I dont really love churros .....but this was crispy but moist ...kouign amannyyyy with cereal crumb.....again just get it.

Thank you, Chef Vish, for realizing your goals of being a restranteur....cause of your goals, we are now are able to taste flavours that I have never tasted before and done so well. Thank you for bringing some international recipes and making it even better for us to...