Burgoo - Main Street

After buying wool in the Main Street area for Shane's sweater, we decided to stop by Burgoo for lunch. I used to frequent its first location on West 10th Avenue when I was a student at UBC years ago, so I have quite a soft spot for this place. The restaurant is a niche restaurant of sorts, specializing in comfort food (stews, soups, sandwiches). Since its early days, Burgoo has expanded into Main Street and North Vancouver. We'd been to this Main St. location before, and weren't blown away the time we were there, so I wasn't expecting too much.

The Main street location is as cute as a button on a teddy bear's nose, especially considering it used to be an old Subway restaurant back in the day. The exterior looks a like a little cottage, with wooden shingles and stone walls.

The interior is just as inviting, with rustic wooden tables and chairs, large windows, and large wood ceiling beams. We arrived at 11:30, and were one of the first people there; later on, the restaurant got really busy.

Shane ordered a pint of R&B Raven Cream Ale ($5.50), one of his favorites, and I saw mead on the menu and my curiosity was piqued. The mead in question was Middle Mountain Alphenglow ($6), which promised cinnamon, clove, and cardamon flavours. I'd never had mead before and had visions of large cups of golden liquid (from reading Beowolf as a teenager, methinks), so I must confess I was a little disappointed when I saw the petite glass of something that looked like rosé wine. It was different than what I expected and tasted a lot like wine. It did have a nice aromatic sweetness, but I'm very stupid about wine.

To start, we shared the Burgoo biscuits ($4). These came in a cute, flowerpot-like vessel, and were very good. The biscuits had a nice cheddar flavor, and a surprising peppery kick. Really good, even on its own.

Shane had the macaroni and cheese ($9), and this golden and overflowing cheesy mound arrived still bubbling in a French onion soup pot. This looked spectacular, this mountain of melted and browned cheese. I was a little jealous. This was probably the best macaroni and cheese I'd tasted (and Shane agrees). The flavour is very cheesy, rich, and utterly sinful. The portion is big enough to feel a little gluttonous, but not so much that you feel sick after eating it.
I opted for the Ratatouille Provencale ($13), which is roasted eggplant, onion, and peppers in a tomato sauce, and topped with bread crumbs, and chevre cheese. This arrived in a square casserole pan, and was huge. The dish was wonderfully aromatic, and it was very tasty too. The tomatoes and sauce had a beautiful flavour--rich and not too tart, nor too sweet. The vegetables were tender and had its own distinctive flavour which went wonderfully well with the sauce.
Burgoo has really good desserts, so we had to get something despite being incredibly full. After much thought, we went for the Sticky Toffee Pudding ($7), which was a layer of spiced cake, caramel, and a large ball of vanilla ice cream. This was delicious as well. The warm cake was moist, with fruit and Christmas-y spices, and the ice cream was incredible with this. The contrast of the cold and hot was utterly wonderful.

This meal made us incredibly happy. Everything was exceptional, and the food fed our bodies as well as our spirits. We were blissed out.