Mott 32 Vancouver — Restaurant in Vancouver

I must say The Donald isn't my favourite personality but my friend had heard good reviews of this restaurant and expressed a very strong desire to try "Mott 32" ! I agreed, even though it's in The Trump Tower - a hotel I otherwise would not have bothered to visit.

Before the visit we thoroughly studied the menu so as not the find ourselves in the position of having to sell our belongings to pay for the bill. Oh, what to expect?

I called a week earlier to reserve a table. The lady taking the call was very friendly asking if it was a special occasion. I told her we were celebrating a birthday and requested a nice table.

We arrived about 10 minutes early and were treated like VIPs at the reception. We were shown courteously to our table in a really cosy booth. A solid first impression! I'd seen the metal birdcage themed interiors in Shanghai a few years back, but anyway I still liked the interiors. Initially there was a strong smell of cigarette smoke but thankfully that dispersed quickly.

Daphne was our server that evening and did an awesome job. She was friendly and attentive as were the other members of staff we encountered.

The food was good but not great for my 'buds. A little rich but then again what can we expect if you order "Slow Cooked Kurabuta Pork Belly with Crispy Rice Cake". The "Hot & Sour Soup, Assorted Seafood" was pricy but disappointing. The "Stir Fried Assorted Wild Mushrooms, Lettuce Cup, Black Truffle" was probably my favourite dish. For desert we had the "Matcha Cheese Cake, Golden Leaf". Hats off to Mott 32 for remembering the occasion of our visit. The Kitchen staff created a stunning Birthday 'cake' out of the Matcha Cheesecake. Thank you and much appreciated.

One Hundred and Sixty Bucks later I'm giving "Mott 32" 5-stars out of 5. On the night where they may have lacked in the cooking arena they more than made up in hospitality. I'm of the opinion that I'm not going to a restaurant to eat. I have food at home. I'm going for the experience - and we had a great...

Food was definitely the star of the night. The table side presentations at first sound gimmicky, but when they worked, like the duck carving and the crispy rice fish soup, they definitely added new dimensions to the respective dishes. Starting with the duck, it’s clearly well executed. The meat cook to perfect tenderness and juicy scales, which the skin was crispy without being fatty. Seeing the expert carving table side does allow one to fully appreciate the efforts required for this dish to come together. The hoisin sauce (table side prep here feels a bit much) hit the spot to add needed flavor punch and should be used liberally to make it fully sing.

The other pleasant surprise was the crispy rice in fish soup. The server recommended it after some prodding, which in hindsight I would have thought it’s a slam dunk recommendation. The fish soup has umami flavor in spades without tasting like MSG. There plenty of decent size shrimp chucks to justify the seafood label. The crispy rice sounded suspicious at first (how can rice stay crispy in soup???), but it delivered on the promise of that crispy texture element. The whole dish come together beautifully.

The only reason to not give it 5 stars is the price. While being a very satisfying meal, the bill was astronomical compared to other high end Chinese restaurants. It’s not to say Chinese food can’t be this expensive, but compare to other restaurants at this price level, I do think more can and should be expected. Specifically the service was somewhat awkward with many different people floating in and out, yet the soups and rice were self service items (contrast that to the duck, which was perfectly fine as self service with all the complexity). There also some misses like the pan seared black cod and string beans. The duck fried rice was also borderline bland, and only saved by the 30% crispy rice mix that gave it good texture (I highly recommend adding hoisin sauce or asking for other condiments to dial...

Boy, where do I begin. I was already skeptical about this place when I heard many horror stories about how this place is overpriced and many low ratings. My suspicion is further increased when this is the only restaurant that is still available for reservations literally four hours before dinner time on Valentine's Day. To put that in perspective, every other restaurant i checked are fully booked.

I never shy away from trying a new restaurant and to be fair, this is the only one that is available for reservation tonight. When we arrived, they have a pre-set menu which is standard. There was 5 "dishes" and it was suppose to be a "2 hour" meal. It turns out to be more like 2 and a half dish with the portion they serve.

The first dish was a dumpling with geoduck. The dumpling tasted very mediocre but the geoduck was great. The second dish bird nest soup was kind of the saving grace of the night cause it tasted delicious. The third and fourth fish (aka the main course) is the abalone rice with chicken and beef. That was absolutely a disappointment of a main course. The beef was lukewarm at best and it tasted like a $10 set from your average Taiwanese restaurant. When the waiter asked me how was the food and I told him about the situation, he said oh I will check with the chef and never bother to come back. It is weird enough that we also have to share the dish considering the portion can maybe feed a single person at best. Then came the dessert. I was slightly dumbfounded when it came in one tiny cup and we were expected to share that.

Well, what is the damage ? Including a drink (they asked us about five times if we wanted a drink) the damage is $350+. Now, you might say that this is not overpriced for fine dining. I call BS. I've been to 1, 2, and 3 star Michelin restaurants with average cost of $300-$600 CDN. They serve twice as much food and taste significantly better. In Vancouver, Blue Water/Crocodile is a better choice as well....