Written By Cinda Chavich Food News / Places / Restaurants / Restaurants / Victoria Nov 14, 2019 A NEW ERA FOR AURA SHARE VIA: Facebook Twitter PinterestWhen I sit down with executive chef Takashi Ito, it’s almost a year to the day since Aura restaurant closed for renovations.Though he’s looking relaxed and tanned, it’s clear that the chef is ready to get back in the kitchen, and today I’m getting a personal tour of the new menu, creative dishes his talented team has been working on for nearly 12 months.The wait has been worth it.“The concept is small plates — we are the first hotel restaurant to offer only small plates,” Ito says of the new sharable menu in the Inn at Laurel Point’s sleek new dining room.Though sharing has become the buzz in many pubs and casual eateries, that’s not what you’ll find at Aura. Every plate provides a deep dive into their culinary artistry, pared-down versions of the upscale entrees you’d expect at a creative top table. Ito says he hopes diners will each try two or three plates (instead of the usual single main dish) to get a real taste of his chefs’ talents.“We have so much to offer here,” says Ito as we dig into several dishes featuring an array of local ingredients and elevated techniques. “Our team represents many cultures and much experience. I wanted to explore how could we showcase more.”The menu includes 27 unique offerings, and I know it will take more than one visit to dip into all of the innovative corners. We start with what I am sure will become a favourite for me — little shrimp “lollipops” with humpback prawns, cocktail sauce, pickled vegetables and citrusy lemon gel, the molecular-inspired incarnation of shrimp cocktail.Other comfortingly familiar yet artfully updated dishes follow. There are potato “tots” topped in a rich lamb ragu with blue cheese and sumac-dusted béchamel. The deconstructed “SPAM” sushi features a hearty slice of their version of the luncheon meat on crispy rice, with a soft-poached egg and aged cheddar.Brunch items at AuraSome dinner choices at AuraTheir gochujang chicken breast, pork katsu and gyoza-filled chicken wings take popular Asian food into new territory.Ito has included a take on of “one of my favourite childhood foods” on his menu, too — a prawn and smoked salmon okonomiyaki pancake, topped with a crunchy, deep-fried prawn head, tobiko and togorashi mayo, a version of his 2019 Gold Medal Plates award-winning dish.And for vegetarians, there are tasty ideas including a truffle and celeriac gnocchi plate and a vegetarian Scotch Egg, made with cashews and served with salsa verde.Of course, meat and seafood are sustainable, and fresh ingredients come from local growers. Breads, like the big slab of grilled focaccia, are made in house, and everything on the plate is made from scratch, whether it’s the XO sauce for the BBQ Sambal Skate wing or the house-made prawn and scallop mortadella.Though Ito says he is sad to have lost seven cooks over the much-delayed renovation, many of the young chefs he has mentored here, and who form the backbone of the new kitchen team, have remained. Austin Lu takes over as Aura restaurant chef, while Manpreet Sethi swaps jobs to head up the hotel’s banquets. Pastry chef Kimberly Vy, a master of the sweet kitchen, remains at the helm, and the chance to have more than one of her truly exquisite desserts makes the small plate idea a keeper.There’s nothing simple about her riffs on simple sweets. Take the Banana Mille Feuille, a delicate stack of pastry with miso butterscotch banana cream; her profiteroles filled with subtly salted egg custard, a take on an oozing dim sum bun; toasted brown rice ice cream, reminiscent of Japanese genmaicha tea; or the Bourbon Milk Chocolate Pot de Crème, a more-ish, adult pudding, topped with bits of crunchy tonka bean and caramel.“Instead of one dessert, you can have two for the same price — or six or seven to share for the table,” says Vy of the dozen miniature creations on the dessert menu, between $5 and $9 each.The new restaurant has a new entrance (behind the new lobby that was still under construction when I visited). Once the federal government finishes its work remediating the Inn at Laurel Point (also a year behind schedule), the hotel will have its harbour views, walking paths and parkade back. There’s even a new private dining room overlooking the water.It’s been a long road to recovery for this iconic hotel and dining room, but surely the original owners and architects would be pleased with the artistic results.AuraChefsFoodrestaurant opening SHARE VIA: Facebook Twitter Pinterest Written By: Cinda Chavich ... Read More You may also like City Eats / First Look / Food Events / Food News / Food Shops February 28, 2022 City Eats March|April 2022 More vegan options are coming to our fair city! Frickin Delights Donuts is a vegan donut shop opening at 632 Yates St in March. They will ... Read More City Eats / First Look / Food Events / Food News / Food Shops January 3, 2022 City Eats Jan|Feb 2022 Superflux Cabana has opened upstairs at 804 Broughton St (the former location of The Livet). Featuring lots of Superflux beer and a menu that ... Read More Events / Food News / Places April 28, 2021 CITY EATS May|June 2021 At press time, restaurants, pubs, bars and food courts remain closed for indoor dining. One silver lining is that the weather is warming up and more ... Read More EAT Magazine News / Food News January 28, 2021 CITY EATS February | March 2021 If you haven’t yet taken advantage of Victoria’s free local delivery program, Downtown Delivers, you have until February 15 to try it ... Read More Food News / Pantry / Review January 28, 2021 Some Like It Hot — A Hot Sauce Tasting Party A Hot Sauce Tasting Party Gillie Easdon gathered 15 local, house-made hot sauces and four brave souls to taste-test them. It was a mid-October, late ... Read More EAT Magazine News / Food News December 7, 2020 EAT’s 2020 Gift Guide EAT’s 2020 Gift Guide. Not just for the holidays! Bolen Books Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi ($45.00) Cat’s Meow Trivet ($6.95) Book Seat ... Read More Comments are closed.
City Eats / First Look / Food Events / Food News / Food Shops February 28, 2022 City Eats March|April 2022 More vegan options are coming to our fair city! Frickin Delights Donuts is a vegan donut shop opening at 632 Yates St in March. They will ... Read More
City Eats / First Look / Food Events / Food News / Food Shops January 3, 2022 City Eats Jan|Feb 2022 Superflux Cabana has opened upstairs at 804 Broughton St (the former location of The Livet). Featuring lots of Superflux beer and a menu that ... Read More
Events / Food News / Places April 28, 2021 CITY EATS May|June 2021 At press time, restaurants, pubs, bars and food courts remain closed for indoor dining. One silver lining is that the weather is warming up and more ... Read More
EAT Magazine News / Food News January 28, 2021 CITY EATS February | March 2021 If you haven’t yet taken advantage of Victoria’s free local delivery program, Downtown Delivers, you have until February 15 to try it ... Read More
Food News / Pantry / Review January 28, 2021 Some Like It Hot — A Hot Sauce Tasting Party A Hot Sauce Tasting Party Gillie Easdon gathered 15 local, house-made hot sauces and four brave souls to taste-test them. It was a mid-October, late ... Read More
EAT Magazine News / Food News December 7, 2020 EAT’s 2020 Gift Guide EAT’s 2020 Gift Guide. Not just for the holidays! Bolen Books Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi ($45.00) Cat’s Meow Trivet ($6.95) Book Seat ... Read More
Correction / EAT Magazine News May 16, 2022 Correction — May|June 2022 The article on L’Apéro in the May|June issue should have stated Chef Andrea Maiolo staged at The Courtney Room and Zambri’s and that he held the ... Read More
2022 Issues / Drink / EAT Magazine News / Food / Magazine May 6, 2022 May|June 2022 May|June issue on the stands. Read ... Read More
Food Pairings Sep 24, 2014 What to DRINK With That : Modern UK Gastropub Fare DRINK editor Treve Ring asks local wine experts how they would approach pairing dishes and flavours. Heading into fall, we’re thinking comfort ... Read More