tuc craft kitchen

tuc craftkitchendefinitely makes a great stop for a cocktail crawl, with an awesome list of both classic and original cocktail recipes catered to different tastes. i was pleased with all 3 original creations this evening, with the”flowers for algernon” being the gin perfection and my favourite. the”coffee & cigarette” also makes a fun and whimsical choice. there is a good selection of small plates to go with your drinks and i think the crispy bacon and egg would go well with almost anything.

tuc craftkitchenin gastown has been regularly named as one of the top spots for brunch in the city.  inspired by the british term “tuck into your food,”  tuc craftkitchenserves up some canadian seasonal comfort food backed by french-style cooking that’s so good you’ll want to line up for it for a weekend brunch.

polly, whitney and i went out for dinner in downtown vancouver on a spring week day. it was nice to go out in the evening when the sky is still bright. whitney made reservation at tuc craftkitchenat 6:15pm. unfortunately, polly arrived late due to her meeting at work. so, whitney called to postpone our reservation twice from 6:15pm to 6:45pm and then to 7:00pm. on the second call, the restaurant told her that normally they do not allow that but just for this time.

tic craftkitchenis located at gastown.

we want to try more dishes for two people, so we went for the happy hour at 5 pm. they have happy hour from monday to friday from 5-6 pm.

you will not be disappointed! we definitely will go back for more.

food: 4.5/5 delicious food
services: 4.5/5 amazing service
special features: crispy bacon & egg, parnsip fries, mussels & clams

tuc craftkitchenis an adorable little rustic cafe tucked away in historic gastown, vancouver. we had some amazing sunday brunch at tuc craftkitchenand i was delighted by how wonderful our server was. she noticed that i was not feeling really well and brought over some hot water with lemon and honey. a total sweetheart who absolutely made my day! even through my nasty cold, i could taste the fabulous flavours in the shashuksa! i loved breaking the poached egg to mix the runny yolk in with the stewed tomatoes. mmm just amazing comfort food that definitely helped making my tummy feel happy! 
i am most definitely going to be returning when i am feeling better for their waffles and berries as well as the eggs wrapped in crispy bacon.

tuc craftkitchenis no doubt, one of my go to for brunch spot in vancouver. a great new addition to gastown.. i love stopping by on a weekend, browsing through the local shops along the area after my meal. it's a great way to digest the million calories i've just consumed in one sitting and gastown is home to some of my favourite shops and coffee ever.

this post is on 2 separate visits to tuc craftkitchenin gastown within merely 3 days. based on some fond memories from last year's visits, i decided to host my birthday dinner at tuc. although i tried to keep it small and intimate, i still ended up inviting 20 people. 3 days before my dinner on a friday, i took justine for a happy hour visit and showed her a little preview of what they would offer.

the 7-dollar happy hour cocktail list definitely pleases the gin lovers like me. comparing gin to vodka, to me it is a matter of getting the extra floral flavours from an aromatic booze vs. having just plain boozy booze. let's say i would rather enjoy an exotic and exciting meal than just plain meat and potato, unless there are a heck of other tasty stuff added to that meat and potato dish. lets not ignore all the health benefits from drinking gin - it is packed with lots of antioxidants, comes with less calories, and is much easier to digest, and it was like medicine in england back in the old days! my favourite drink of all time to date is hendricks gin and soda with cucumber.

we went to tuc for a celebratory dinner last night. it's a good thing the food was good, because the service was not.

we got there, ordered wine (white) and were served a warm bottle. the server put it in a cold ice bucket (without ice) and left it for 30 minutes. still warm. she put some ice in it. 30 minutes later (this is now one hour that we have not been able to have any wine at our celebratory dinner) it is still warm. i asked her to put it in their freezer. somehow she suddenly found a cold bottle and brought that to us.

we had the clams and mussels as a starter and they were great. there was lots of yummy broth left so we asked for some bread to soak it up with. thirty minutes later we were told that the bread was being toasted. why would you put toast in the broth? anyway, we were served toast, not bread, and it was all too late. the formerly yummy broth was cold.

our meals were good -- the ling cod, the steelhead salad and the farmer's summer. very nice.

i had phoned and emailed the restaurant to make sure they could accommodate the vegan in our party and was told they could. when we looked at the menu and asked the server, we were told they didn't have anything vegan. *sigh*  perhaps we had an inexperienced server? thekitchenmade it right and our vegan was happy with her meal.

the server repeatedly apologized for the warm wine incident, saying she would make it right. i was surprised when the bottle of wine showed up on our bill. i wonder what she meant by making it right?

i won't be back.

i was at tuc craftkitchenover a year ago, and the menu has changed a lot. fortunately still on the menu are the orange glazed lamb ribs (was $9, now $11), which are still three ribs per order, and still very delicious by all accounts of people who had them. i passed this time and tried curious-sounding things instead.

fascinated by

panissa, weird pudding bread

at tuc craft kitchen.

overall i liked the flavours of the 3 items i ate for lunch and have definitely have tuc craftkitchenon my “need to go for dinner” list. 

the oxtail rillettes was full bodied and hearty. the olive and pickled carrots help offset the richness of the rillettes. it was a very excellent appetizer.

the steelhead salad was a great light lunch entree (it’s available at dinner as well).

plus, did i mention tuc craftkitchenhas air con?

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

hey guys! once in awhile we all need to search for some comfort food. how about some canadian fare at tuc craftkitchen. 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. 

  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 akitchenknife 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 craftkitchenwhen 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 craftkitchenmussels 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

tuc craftkitchentuc craftkitchenhas 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 thekitchenand 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.