THE Restaurant - Lumiere Vancouver - The pinnacle of fine dining?

I'm sorry to say that Vancouver's obsession with chichi, drowning in sauce, French food has waned for me. And this, after a recent trip to France even. Some would say that I'm just a spoiled brat and rub my foie gras in my face. They may not be wrong. However, my instincts tell me that my heart may last longer if I eat more of France's counterpoint, fresh and lively Mexican food (La Taqueria, I love you).

Okay, I digress... the point of this post was to show off some of Daniel Boulud's culinary offerings at Lumiere from my recent tasting at that beautiful spot on Broadway. I'm just warning you that I was underwhelmed. Not because the food wasn't excellent, but because I've overplayed my French record and it's beginning to skip.

Highlights:

1. At $115 for a 5 course small plate selection, Lumiere left us burstingly full.
   
2. The sommelier on staff that night (Drew) was, bar none, the best host we could have ever imagined. He even arranged for a tour of the kitchen! And his wine suggestions were excellent. They even looked up the history of the galette for me.
3. The food was artfully prepared, especially the grapefruit hamachi and the melted chocolate poured over the tiramisu trick... go have one then you'll know.
4. Standout - Crumbed quails egg amuse bouche was rad...didn't get a picture sorry.
5. Standout 2 - The signature madeleines pictured below in the flower napkin. I couldn't stop eating them.
   

Lumiere 5 Course Menu

In the end, each dish by itself was so rich, intricate and thoughtful that 7 plates later I didn't even remember what I really liked or why. I was stuffed mentally and physically. It was really fun as a budding Chef to try to disect the billion techniques and ingredients used in each dish. But, I still left feeling that a few more simple, fresh dishes would relax the palate to prepare it for the next pollock painting of a dish.