tuc craft kitchen

great mid-size restaurant in a perfect location. trendy industrial decor. relaxed and experienced service. creative food and cocktails. flavorful plates to share.

great food and atmosphere, slow service though. had my birthday dinner tonight at tuc :] atmosphere was great and the restaurant wasn't that busy due to the rain. my friends and i ordered three appies/sides, 2 entrees and one dessert (which was a surprise cake of sorts for my bday). the crispy bacon and egg looked really good but...the bacon wasn't as crispy as i had imagined it to be. the pork belly crackling was to die for - the pork belly basically melted in your mouth and star anise red wine reduction was perfect with it. for entrees, we had the chicken for two and farmer's crop pot. the chicken was delish but the farmer's crop pot was a little on the salty side. we had the wilted kale along with our entrees and it was great as well. for the surprise, my friends had them add a candle to the chocolate mo'chocolate. there were pop rocks on top of the ice cream so it was super cool. loved the blueberry coulis - it was a nice palette cleanser to the heavy chocolate dish.

if you came to the restaurant hungry, expect a bit of a wait between dishes otherwise service was great!

i had the cabernet braised beef cheeks ($22). the beef cheeks were in a red wine glace, and in the same castiron pan were the gratin potatoes, shallots & wilted spinach.

it was kind of weird to have the gratin potatoes, which were like mashed potatoes, in the same pan. they became even more mushy after sitting in the red wine glace. it didn’t taste bad, was just weird to me is all. the meat was very succulent and moist. portion looked small but by the time i finished the starters and got to the entree, i was pretty full so this was a good size.

flavours of tuc craft kitchen were okay, nothing amazing. the ideas are there but they just need to be better executed.

don't understand the hype. i came here a few months ago extremely excited considering all the good reviews. even before the date of this dinner, i had searched up their menu online to see what was on the menu. i was a little disappointed when seeing the menu just because it looked like it was all the same foods just made with a different part of whatever animal they were using. considering i am a big seafood fan, i didn't have too much of an input as to which meat to order. upon arrival, we were seating extremely fast even being early for our reservation. the general mood on a saturday night was busy, a little bit loud, but still quite enjoyable. i found our seat in the middle isle to be a little awkward and quite cold though. my friend and i ordered different entrees but they both (in some odd ways) tasted very similar. this may be the fact that i'm not very good with different cookings with pork. the alcoholic drinks that we ordered turned out to be surprising small in which i probably would have been a little bit happier if they put it in a bigger cup with more soda or something. the bill wasn't too bad, their food isn't that overpriced for their quality i suppose. overall, it was a great experience to try the restaurant but next time, i'd probably come for brunch instead.

k got the vegetable frittata , which featured three free run eggs, swiss cheese, wilted kale, buttered leeks, sweet bell peppers, salsa verde, and toast. the portion was huge! very flavourful and cheesy. for myself, i had the irish stew skillet, which had two free run poached eggs, grass fed beef, yakima valley lamb, roasted button mushrooms, and bc new potatoes. at first, i thought the portion would be too little, but there’s actually tons of meat and potatoes, so it fills you up just right. the beef and lamb were very flavourful, with the potatoes being crispy on the outside. the poached eggs had a runny yolk and mixed well with the rest of the dish. really enjoyed this! based on the dishes we tried, i really enjoyed tuc craft kitchen. i’m looking forward to coming back to try their famous fried chicken and waffles. prices are quite reasonable for a gastown location and service was pretty good. will definitely return! pros: – the dishes we tried were tasted great – friendly service cons: – usually need reservations price range: $15-20 1: terrible 2: poor 3: average 4: good 5: excellent food: 4 service: 4 ambiance: 3 parking: 3 overall: 4

hey guys! once in awhile we all need to search for some comfort food. how about some canadian fare at tuc craft kitchen . is this gastown eatery a great place for a braised pork or should you go deeper into gastown? read on to find out. food: coming here with team dt, i ordered a braised pork with cranberry chutney (with double smoked bacon and roasted nugget potatoes) and split an orange glazed lamb ribs  (with jalepeno pepper). the lamb ribs here were the tender, fall-off-the-bone type delicacies. i loved the orange glaze on top that gave a good citrus boost to the flavour, and it didn’t taste like cheap chinese glaze as i had been warned. the braised pork was also a jy. once again, the sauce was a fruit and this time it was cranberry. this went really well with the crispy bacon and the presentation of this dish was on point. everything on this dish is meant to be scooped up in pieces and eaten together so don’t be intimidated by the half onion sitting on the plate. it tasted really well with the braised pork.  features: this is a narrow and tall restaurant that can seat about 80. the washrooms were pretty nice and akin to what you might find in a milestone’s or moxie’s. tall lamps brighten up the light wood so whatever you’re eating looks amazing. service: service was really good here. our waiter was very kind in his recommendations and had lots of patience for our more indecisive girls . water service was also very frequent in their tall glasses and splitting the bill was a cinch for a table of 7. one-liner:  hearty canadian bistro fare highlight: braised pork with cranberry chutney recommended for: hungry pork lovers in gastown would i go back? yes. 

i’ve had a number of friends recommend tuc over the last couple months raving about a number of their dishes. i’ve been trying to find an excuse to go but for one reason or another it just hasn’t worked out but that all changed on saturday evening. oracle was in town on business for the weekend and in typical fashion he wanted to go out for drinks and make bad decisions, or as he’d put it, “get polluted”. i suggested we start with a proper dinner which he happily agreed to since his company would cover all the expenses anyway.   unfortunately this was a last minute decision and so we arrived around 6:45pm hoping to get lucky and score a table. looking around the room there were plenty of empty tables but it turns out they were actually booked solid through to 9pm. fortunately for us a couple at the bar were in the process of settling up their bill so they informed us that if we’d wait 5-10 minutes we could get a seat at the bar. done and done!

  if you read my last post about acme cafe, you'll know that i started a tradition (with myself lol, how lame is that?) of having brunch in gastown/downtown/chinatown on sundays!! so last week i decided to continue the tradition and go for a "proper" brunch at tuc!!   i wish i could go for brunch everyday. oh waitt, i do (in a sense) since i've been skipping breakfast lately lol... these days i've been waking up around 9:30 and by the time i get around to eating it's already 11! soo technically i eat brunch everyday. which is great for my health, i know ;)   but lately i've been eating skyflakes in the morning (does that count as breakfast?) and they're so darn addicting!!        i haven't had skyflakes in forever, they're a filipino classic! but the box is so hard to open! is there some kind of magical method of opening the box that i don't know about?! i had to literally cut open the box with a kitchen knife to get to my crackers!! (it was worth it.)  (click to enlarge) i am so coming back for their chicken and waffles hehe ;) i wanted to order their crispy bacon & egg but for my healths sake, decided against it since i was already having 2 eggs with my lamb haha!! :d their lavender latte!! lamb & eggs free run eggs, slow braised yakima valley lamb shoulder, argula, parsnips,cranberries, bc new potatoes $13 3.5/5 stars   this was pretty yummy! it was served piping hot, and the iron skillet kept it hot for a long time! the lamb was really tender, and flavourful without being aggressively salted! the parsnips and argula kept things interesting by adding texture and flavour! the potatoes were well seasoned and layered between pieces of succulent lamb. the eggs were nice and crispy, and the yolk was perfectly runny!    pork belly crackling $4 w/ star anise red wine reduction & coarse salt 4/5 stars   omg, this was awesome!! i mean, it's fried pork belly. with a star anise red wine reduction dipping sauce. need i say more? ;)   the pork belly was oh so tender on the in

simply don’t have anything negative to say about the food at tuc craft kitchen! all the dishes we got were finely crafted, bold in flavours although mostly savory, and well matched with their carefully selected beers and wines. and it definitely takes some tremendous passion and amazing talent to design such a menu, showing their modern interpretations of classic cooking techniques, understanding of quality ingredients, and setting up no nonsense prices. our waiter was extremely attentive and knowledgeable on food and beverages, making the meal much more enjoyable. basically, they just know how to run a restaurant properly! crispy bacon and egg ($4) is an example of a sophisticated dish with simple ingredients. inspired by scotch egg but tasting much lighter with the use of tempura batter and bacon, the egg could not be more perfectly cooked. the egg yolk is barely cooked through and allows only a couple luscious drips slowly running down on the plate. and it was delicious in my mouth and i was taking my time to savor it! crispy bacon & egg @ tuc craft kitchen when parsnip and smashed potato fries ($7) arrived, i totally thought the chips were parsnip, and the skinny curly fries were potato. but how are those little fries made from smashed potato? i puzzled. the fun part came in when i bit into a curly fry and realized it was parsnip. and the chips are indeed thick potato wedges blanched, smashed flat, and deep fried. i never had parsnip fries before and i just love how incredibly light and tasty it is with its mild sweetness and earthiness. parsnip & smashed potato fries @ tuc craft kitchen mussels and clams ($13) has a very generous portion. but what impresses me is the sauce, which reminds just me a recipe from my the french laundry cookbook. simply add the juice extracted fr

was let down. hmmmm. maybe it was just the night but i left let down. was so looking forward to this place based on all the great reviews.
i will say that the egg/bacon/batter was good as many have said and we did enjoy a nice bottle of wine. that said i felt all the other dishes tasted the same and there is not a lot on the 'fresh' menu to balance out all the rich proteins. also thought the lighting was a bit bright for a late evening dinner. i don't think i would go back or suggest it to friends :(

this was the lamb and eggs which consisted of two sunny side up eggs, braised lamb shoulder, arugula, parsnips, cranberries and potatoes was served on a hot skillet. i just had a bite of this and the lamb was succulent, well braised in small pieces and very tender. the dish was on the small side though but it reflected the price ($13).

food not bad, but bad service. i came here for brunch on a saturday, front of the house staff was friendly and welcoming. however, our server was a different story, she seem to be going by the motto "always prove your customers wrong". our food took a long time to come, we were seated for about 40 minutes already, the server told us the food would be out in 1 minute, we waited for another 5min and asked when the food was coming. she told us another minute, came back and brought our food but also to tell me i was wrong , that i only waited for 30 min not 40min, no apology just a snarky comment. she came back 5 minutes later, to reconfirm with me that the food usually takes 20/25 min and ours was only 30 minutes wait. again, came back to remind me that i was wrong once again and she's right. i found it unprofessional and unnecessary for those snarky comments especially twice. very rude.

food was not bad, but needless to say i can find other dining locations with better food and better service. will not be returning.

genuinely very impressed. i'm usually wary about taking friends (there were 7 of us) to a restaurant i've never tried but from the moment i booked the table through the meal and on to dessert, everything was spot on. the menu is small but everything we tried was delicious, perfectly seasoned, served hot and well portioned. i had the beef cheeks and although the portion looked on the smaller side when served, it was rich and flavourful, more than enough and super tasty. i would happily eat it again and again. a friend had the lamb chop appetizer, which i tried and it was sooo good (definitely get this if you like lamb). we were still talking about it the next day. we also shared the donuts for dessert and our server (who was excellent, btw) recommended we get the ice cream as well to combine with the hot donuts and he was absolutely right. they were the perfect end to a delightful meal. also of not is that their wine prices are surprisingly cheap for a gastown restaurant (or any restaurant, for that matter). overall an excellent evening, good value, delicious food and top notch service. i will most definitely be back. highly recommend!

tuc craft kitchen tuc craft kitchen has only one vegetarian main dish for dinner: the farmer’s crop pot. it consists of lentils, butternut squash, spinach, béchamel and potatoes. it’s pretty much a shepherd’s pie (a tasty shepherd’s pie, mind you). besides that, i always get their delicious parsnip fries and their smashed potatoes fries.  the farmer’s crop pot is the only vegetarian dinner main that they’ve had since opening, so i don’t frequent this place because i like variety and want to try different dishes. when i asked the server if they do off-menu items, he said, “absolutely not”. he went on to explain that when they’re busy on weekends (i went on a saturday night), that they work like a “factory line” in the kitchen and everyone was ready to go. i was told that they will be changing the vegetarian item this week. i’m interested to see what it is.  they do the few vegetarian dishes that they do offer well, but i would definitely come here more often if there were more options for me.   i was there for brunch in the summer. they had a nice summer harvest skillet with beans, veggies and eggs, however, it’s off the menu now. they still have two vegetarian options for brunch: a frittata and waffles.  my meat loving friends have loved all the dishes they’ve had their. my friends are particularly fond of the chicken and waffles for brunch and their seafood dishes for dinner. during the multiple times i’ve been, the service has been a mixed bag. overall, they’re pretty friendly, and, then, they’re pushy and rude at times. the ambiance was casual and modern, yet rustic at the same time. at night, it’s quite dark in a hip and possibly romantic way, so it could be a good place for a date.