L'Abattoir

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Gastown, so I looked forward to showing my SIL this place. As my SIL was still recovering from a bout of diverticulitis, I didn't order a bottle of wine and we had to limit our food order. I had two wines by the glass, and we shared a few dishes.

We started with their fabulous bread service, then a Dungeness Crab salad, an Artichoke tart and their Terrine of Fois Gras. Our "main" was their Agnolotti. I had a glass of 2022 Garnier et Fils Chablis with the salads and a glass of 2016 Synchromesh Pinot Noir from Storm Haven Vineyard in Okanagan Falls, BC with foie gras and agnolotti.

The Artichoke Tart was half salad, half egg custard tart with pieces of artichoke between the two. It was a light, refreshing dish.

The Dungeness Crab Salad was a visual surprise ... the crab was placed between thin slices of radish and decorated with green leaves. It was interesting; perhaps a little too subtle in flavor for me.

The foie gras terrine came with two thick pieces of brioche. The square of terrine was decorated with squares of wine jelly, a halves of cherries. The terrine was soft and silky and the brioche so buttery.

The star of the evening was the Sweet Corn Agnolotti. Pillows of mascarpone pasta were covered with pieces of sweet corn and a generous helping of sliced black truffle. This dish was "to die for" and I wanted to order a second plate.

I love the food at L'Abattoir and dine here every time I come to Vancouver. I was sad to see they no longer offer breakfast on weekends. I miss their Full English Breakfast.

This place is simply out of this world in terms of attentive service, quality and tastiness of their dishes and ambiance. You will want to go often!

The server and manager noticed my wife did not eat much of her fish, and went to great lengths to make sure she was satisfied. Outstanding!

L'abbatoir- loved everything about the place. Early prix-fixe dinner ($80 CAD) with wine pairings ($35 CAD) is a steal. Started with the gorgeous, melt-in-your-mouth albacore tuna with a coconut jalapeno sorbet and nuoc cham sauce- light and full of flavor. Sablefish entrée was just as good served with two triangles crispy dough stuffed with Dungeness crab. Desserts were big enough to share- both the banoffee and chocolate parfait with raspberries and candied beets were delicious, just the right amount of sweetness. The staff was amazing, and their beautiful descriptions of the wines and dishes just added to the experience. Highly recommended!

I came here while visiting Vancouver specifically to try the desserts. So, I'm glad my friend and I were able to walk in without a reservation, sit at the bar, and enjoy them. We tried the Rice Pudding and Banoffee. They were both stunning and delicious. Although I'm not a big banana fan, the Banoffee was my favorite with its different textures and components. It's a modern and upscale space, but the bar feels a bit more chill. Service was friendly and attentive at all times. I'd love to come back and try some of the food next time, which looked really good!

My first experience with dine out vancouver was at L'abbatoir in Gastown. For this event, each person can select one entree, main, and dessert ($65/pax). P.S. Funnily enough, we all ordered the same mains. True to the stereotype of the French dousing everything in butter, each dish might look small but pack a punch due to how rich and decadent they tasted.

The dishes we got are:
1. Bread service
2. Tuna tataki
3. Ocean trout mi-cuit
4. European sea bass
5. Sticky toffee pudding
6. Dark chocolate ganache

Overall verdict? While everything was scrumptious, I won't be in a hurry to come back. It was a very enjoyable experience, but nothing stood out except for the bread (slide). If do come here, make sure you order the bread ($7). Super flakey, buttery, and served with their house made butter, it was well worth the extra charge (and calories).

Very professional service without being overbearing. Place was surprisingly casual and a little bit noisy.

Many people love this restaurant for different reasons - the ambiance, the food, the service. But what I absolutely love most about this place is the complimentary bread. It's made in house and it's probably the generous amount of butter that they use that give their bread the most fragrant, delicious, and fluffy characteristic that makes me ask my partner to ask for more bread because I am too embarrassed​ to ask for myself. After every meal here, I honestly remember more about the bread than the dishes that I've had.

The service and other dishes are also quite excellent and I didn't have any issues anytime I've been here. Highly recommend for a night out with good company.

I struggled with this review. So let me start by saying the good. The server and the hostess were fantastic. I unfortunately do not have our servers name but the young lady was extremely polite, attentive, and helpful. The ambiance was nice. No complaints there.
The problem is, although the food presentation was creative, it just truly lacked flavor. When you are paying those prices for dinner, the bread service should not be the highlight, but this was the case. I ordered the steak Diane and it was tender but bland. The additional sides were the same. My wife had the pork chop, which was supposed to be a staple, and her thoughts were the exact same. I intended to order the lamb and they ran out...no one's fault but just another sour note. Finally, one of the wine servers was in the
Corner tasting their own wine alone in the corner and gargling it while we ate.
I say all of that but want to reiterate, we enjoyed our time overall. We just wouldn't likely return.

Not sure why it took me so long to get here but my only regret is I hadn't gone sooner!
Great space, sat at the bar for a bit of a featured set menu.
All the food was cooked to perfection and the kitchen and chef clearly know their ingredients, flavours et al.
For this, there was a reasonable optional wine pairing. The som was very informative without being pretentious on the wines. They were all local, outstanding and paired extremely well with the food.
Service was also top notch.
Will definitely be returning soon!

A special shout out to Zanib Bajwa who was handling front of house this Friday evening. My wife and I showed up thinking our reservation was for this evening when in fact it was for the following day. Completely our fault.

Zanib handled the situation with incredible skill and not only accommodated our reservation but was able to seat us at our favourite table. An amazing feat on such a busy evening and done with such diplomatic grace.

Our meal was exceptional - we highly recommend both the sablefish main with the French curry flavours and the milk poached pork tenderloin. The service was exceptional!!

Looking forward to our return! David & Sandy

Came here one night for a birthday, we made reservations for the chef's menu, however upon being seated we were informed that they had already sold out of the chefs menu for the night. This was very disappointing because the chefs menu was the purpose of our visit, especially being for a birthday was a large disappointment. I don't really understand the point of the reservation system and requesting the chefs menu upon the reservation if they are going to sell out and not reserve it.

We ended up ordering a la carte. We got the bread service, baked pacific oysters, terrine duck foie gras, sablefish, and steak diane. We also requested a wine pairing for each course from the sommelier. The bread service was phenomenal, it was like a croissant but had thin slices in it so its was very crunchy and it was accompanied with a very tart berry spread that was a delightful pairing. The baked oysters were not to my liking, it was very creamy and just not what I am used to for oysters. The foie gras was also a let down, it was very fruity and didn't really highlight the foie gras. It also came with a bunch of weird jellies and things that felt disconnected. This dish was primarily focused on presentation and not flavors. The sablefish was good but nothing special from any other restaurant. The steak diane was good, but it was served with 3 different types of sauces which again lead to a confusing, not cohesive dish.

Overall this place was just OK. My favorite dish was the bread service. Everything else fell flat. The sommelier was very pleasant and chose great wines for us. Again, was very disappointed with the miss on the chefs menu reservation. The restaurant made zero attempt to make up for not being able to deliver on our reservation. With all that, I don't really have much desire to revisit L'Abattoir. At this price point I expect much more.