Life + Love

Girls Night Out: Dinner With A View Comes to Vancouver

Dinner with a View comes to Vancouver! And so well timed while Peggy was in town. Not that we need an excuse to have ourselves a fancy girls night out.

The pop up, luxury dining experience started in Toronto and Montreal last year. Guests would dine inside translucent, geodesic domes set up in a unique outdoor location, partaking in a blind 3 course dinner. Sounds intriguing, non?

Dinner without a view

Vancouver’s event took place at Ambleside Beach. Each of the 20 heated domes was inspired by different ecosystems around the world. Depending on what dome your group was assigned to, the interior decor could be tundra, tropical, grasslands, arid or boreal forest-themed. To add to the cozy ambience was the modern furniture, lights, plants, pillows and blankets.

We had booked the 930pm sitting because the 730pm sitting was sold out. In fact, all of the 730pm sittings for the entire month long duration of Dinner with a View was booked. And who eats dinner at 530pm? We’re not the Golden Girls sitting down for the early bird dinner at Denny’s – yet.

A late seating made for a more magical atmosphere, what with the lights from all the neighbouring domes illuminating the walking path, and twinkly, fairy lights strewn across the trees. Because it was pitch dark and pissing rain, there wasn’t really a view to be enjoyed, but the ambience and the company more than made up for that.

Inside the dome, it was warm, cozy and kind of like being inside a life-sized terrarium. And yes, we all whipped out our phones en masse. It was too pretty not to take pictures!

The blind meal reveal

Our server from Montreal was charming and attentive, going over what we’d be expecting from our locally sourced three-course dinner by 2019 Top Chef Canada winner, Paul Moran.

We started off with sourdough bread with Tofino seaweed infused butter. And before we filled up on bread, the server brought our appetizer which was a play on the classic beef tartare. The beet tartare (more like a beet salad) was mixed with salsa verde and topped with gala apple julienne and crisp sunchokes chips.

The main course consisted of a choice of 3 options: meat, fish, and vegan, which we selected at the time of booking. I chose the fish option: a maple miso yuzu marinated sable fish (aka black cod) served on a bed of forbidden black rice and bok choy in a garlic sauce.

For dessert, we had a bowl of pineapple chunks, marinated in Madagascar vanilla and lime, and topped with coconut mousse. And if that wasn’t enough, we were also given a plate of chocolate truffles.

Don’t burst my bubble

Dinner with a View is an experience. A hella expensive one. The cost of booking the dome was $199. Since the dome seats 4-6 people, the economical thing to do is to find 5 other people to go with you in order to get the cost down as much as possible. Luckily, I was able to get an 80% off dome discount. Then on top of that was the dinner at $109 per guest, not including drinks, taxes, or gratuity.

Ok, so the $64,000 question… was it worth the money?

On the one hand, it is a one-of-a-kind dining experience. A cool concept, especially for Vancouver. It’s like dining inside of a gorgeous snow globe. Plus it reminds me of those glass igloos in Finland. (on my bucket list forever! One day!)

On the flip side, one can say it’s gimmicky and not worth the price. And that’s valid too. I certainly don’t have the money to frivolously throw around like this all the time. But this is not an all the time occasion.

If I felt like that, I would never have dropped a schwack-load of money to cuddle a panda bear, roleplay as a Governor of the Alliance at Secret Cinema’s The Empire Strikes Back event, run around in a mask at Sleep No More, ascend 30,000 feet to the top of Mauna Kea just to look at stars, or go kayaking in bioluminescent waters.

Sure, it might not be (financially) prudent or practical, but it’s an experience to remember. And isn’t that what life’s for? The way I like to look at it is that I can always make more money, but how many times will this opportunity present itself to me?

Closing thoughts

That being said, would I do it again? Probably not, because money. Besides Dinner with a View, I never spend that much for dinner for just myself. First, I’m not a foodie and second, I prefer comfort food over fancy food.

And for all those naysayers who are all negative nellies about Dinner with a View online, I can honestly say that that wasn’t our experience. Views (underwhelming or lack thereof) and price aside, it’s really what you make of it and of course, the company you go with.

All I can say is if you enjoy trying new things or are celebrating something special, in our case, Peggy’s annual return to Vancouver, events like Dinner with a View can be a really enjoyable night out.