H Tasting Lounge

Winterlust at H Tasting Lounge

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It was my best friend’s birthday so I treated her to an afternoon inside the Winterlust domes at H Tasting Lounge.  Here’s how it went:

When we arrived we were led toward the back of the restaurant through doors to get outside.  We saw the domes and we were in awe.  My friend and I maybe instantly got a bit carried away taking a few photos before we entered our dome and put our stuff down “messing it up”.  Our server, Jennifer, was so patient and once we were seated told us how she’s pretty used to that reaction.

The domes are gorgeous.  They are decorated so elegantly.  They are luxurious, but also give you cozy winter vibes at the same time.

A little tip – we booked our reservations for a Monday at 2:30 p.m.  If you book for an evening setting, there is a minimum spend I believe of $400.  It should be pretty easy to hit with a large group, but with it being just the two of us, we opted for the weekday afternoon slot with a minimum spend of $200.00.  However, we found more perks than just this for the 2:30 time slot.  The biggest being that we got to experience the domes from day to night.  They are two different vibes.  When we arrived it was still daylight, we saw all of the details of the domes and how they were decorated.  The views of the water and boats in the day were calming.  Then when night fell, H Tasting Lounge turned on the fireplace border and all the heat lamps and Christmas lights went on – just stunning.

H Tasting Lounge has some incredible cocktails.  I had a cool pink one with a smoke bubble that popped, one that came in a can with an apple slice on top, and another tropical one.  I wish I could remember what they were called, but they were yummy and strong enough to give me a good strong buzz.  The menu doesn’t offer these cocktails currently as they’ve switched over to their Christmas cocktails, but those sounds equally fun and super festive.  I’ve been to H Tasting Lounge several times (although this was my first time in the domes) and I’ve never met one of their cocktails that I didn’t like.

For food we had a dozen oysters and the carmelized onion and cheese dip to start.  The oysters were fresh and delicious.  The onion dip was one that I was hesitant about, but my friend was interested in trying it and our server also highly recommended.  It was so good and addictive!  I would order it again and again.

For our mains, my friend had the vegan rice bowl and she added chicken to it.  She enjoyed it.  I had the smash burger and fries and it was delicious.

I did wish that they had a smaller steak option on their menu.  After the oysters, I wasn’t quite in the mood for more fish.  I wanted a yummy steak, but I wasn’t starving after our appies and cocktails.  They had an option of a 10 oz or a tomahawk steak that I’m assuming by the $200-something price tag was probably massive.  I would have loved a 5 or 6 oz steak or a surf and turf option.  I opted for the burger and it was more casual then what I was going for, but it was yummy so I was happy.

The service we received was absolutely incredible.  We loved Jennifer.  She was fantastic from beginning to end.  She was friendly, down to earth and personable.  When she learned we were celebrating my friends birthday she brought out welcome birthday cocktails to start our experience and a birthday cake with a candle to end our experience.

Winterlust was just magical.  From every little decor detail, to being able to adjust the heat inside the domes, to being given an ipad to play any music that we wanted in our domes – they literally thought of everything you could need.  There was even a surprise in the middle of our meal where they made it snow for us and it was such fun and festive moment.  We had so much fun that time flew by and we were pretty sad that it was time to go.  We loved it so much.  If you have a chance to check it out, you should!

https://htastinglounge.com/winterlust/

H Tasting Lounge

By in Eateries Tags: , , , , ,

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I had seen posts from H Tasting Lounge on social media and it piqued my interest so I convinced my husband that this is where we should go for our wedding anniversary.  A little background – this is the lobby lounge in the Westin Bayshore Hotel.  It’s inspired by aviation genius Howard Hughes.  To anyone who hasn’t heard of Howard Hughes, he was an eccentric and wealthy record setting pilot.  The Leonardo Dicaprio film “The Aviator” is based on his life.  He’d spent some time in Vancouver in the early 70s and is said to have been a guest at the Westin Bayshore Hotel.

I reached out to H Tasting Lounge by email from their website once and by phone twice for a reservation weeks prior to our celebration and unfortunately I didn’t receive a response.   I really wanted to check it out badly, so I tried yet again and reached out to them via instagram.  This time they got back to me right away.  They made my reservation for me and asked that I email the manager to provide my contact information.  The manager was kind, apologetic and promised to make it a special night for us.

So Saturday arrived and we made our way over to the restaurant.  Wow, to say we were impressed is an understatement.  The lounge interior has an art deco inspired design.  It’s just so beautiful.  I could be bias because I happen to love 1920s/1930s style, but they happen to do it really well.  Outside the entrance they have a vintage Porsche parked out front.  It sets the mood for what you’re walking into.  The hostess was dressed in Gatsby type clothing and greeted us with great enthusiasm.  She led us to the back of the restaurant to the best table in the house.  It was a booth in the corner with views of everything happening in the restaurant.  Our server, I believe her name is Melissa, came over and greeted us.  She said that she understood it was our anniversary and presented us with two glasses of champagne.  It was a nice touch and it was a great for us to start our evening out with a toast.  One of the things I really admire about this restaurant is how they completely commit to their theme.  Waitresses are wearing little gold airplane pins, the retro design is everywhere down to the cutlery, the cocktails specify what part of the world each one comes from, the menu is separated into sections such as “taxi”, “take-off”, “in-flight” and “landing”.  So freakin’ cute!  I ordered the “House of Faberge” as my cocktail.  It is art in it’s own right.  Gorgeous to look at.  They serve the liquid in a breakable egg.  I encourage you to watch the video posted so you can see what I mean.  Cool, creative and fancy, plus it was delicious and went down smooth and easy.  We ordered some oysters for our appetizer and they were fresh and great.  Now on to our mains – I had seen postings of the lobster mac and cheese on social media and it had made my mouth water.  This is perhaps one of the main reasons I wanted to come to the restaurant.  I could not find it anywhere on the menu and we were told that they recently changed it.  I’ll admit, I was majorly disappointed and don’t really understand their decision to remove it from the menu.  Perhaps it changes seasonally, but I was sad lol.  I was looking really forward to it.  I ended up going with the striploin and Chris ordered the wellington.  Not only were the plates pleasing to the eye (Hello, they carved my potato into a star!), but they were so good!  Yum!

The lounge offers live music daily and the musician was quite good singing songs of everyone from Eric Clapton to Taylor Swift.  It added to the ambience.

I decided to order another drink, and they had one on their menu that sounded like a vacation (beachy waves) and I ordered it without realizing that it was a mocktail.  The waitress pointed this out to me and offered for them to add rum to it.  It tasted like a tropical beach cocktail and it made me feel like it was summer.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get even better…I asked for a dessert menu and Melissa told us there was already a dessert coming out for us.  I felt they’d already done so much for us with the champagne that I wasn’t expecting anything else.  They were going above and beyond and we felt so grateful.  They brought out a baked alaska and flamed the peaks of the meringue in brandy table-side.  This was my first time trying baked alaska.  I’d seen it as a challenge on Master Chef before and I always wondered what it was like.  Ice cream covered in meringue.  It was lovely and unique.

Chris and I both agreed that there was nothing negative that we could say about our experience.  We had such a great time, the food was amazing, service top-notch (they really made it feel like a special night for us), and it was a wonderful ambience.  I have seen that they offer a girls night menu on Mondays and high tea as well and I just cannot wait to go back!