Story by Melanie Votaw,
Photography courtesy of Glowbal Restaurant Group

 

Sanafir Restaurant & Lounge
1026 Granville Street
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
(604) 678-1049

Sanafir is one of those restaurants that you won’t forget. Located in downtown Vancouver at the border of Yaletown, its menu and its ambience are unique and sexy. The word “Sanafir” is Arabic for “meeting place,” and the restaurant’s décor, with amber urns and rich Moroccan colors, evokes images from the Silk Road and the Arabian Nights.

The main dining room is dark with high ceilings, and there is a bar that seats 12. There is an upper level with beds decorated in richly colored linens, but you pay a high price for reserving space in this area. You have to have a certain number of guests in your party, and you need to reserve well in advance if you hope to get a “dining bed” of your own.

Sanafir is a tapas restaurant, but it isn’t focused on Spanish cuisine. The menu is set up with “tapas in trios.” These trio plates represent flavors from North Africa, Asia, India, the Mediterranean, or the Middle East. The trios are matched based on your choice of calamari, beef, lamb, chicken, sablefish, or prawns. So, for example, you could choose prawns for kanafa-wrapped tiger prawns with watercress crème fraiche, jumbo vindaloo tiger prawns with grape tomatoes and sugar snap peas, and prawn salad roll with mustard greens and lemongrass peanut sauce. Or you could choose the lamb trio with goat cheese stuffed lamb kibbeh with pistachios, caramelized onions, orchid beans, and baby spinach, milk braised leg of lamb with cauliflower-cashew curry and mint raita, and seared rare lamb loin with crispy Asian slaw age-dashi tofu.

Alternatively, you can order entrée plates that feature Indian, Asian, or Mediterranean dishes, such as pumpkin seed-crusted sablefish with lentils, Moroccan spiced vegetables, and saffron beurre blanc. You can also order a “platter to share” made for two people. There are options for vegetarians as well.

For lunch, there are rice bowls, such as Goan braised lamb and cashew curry with basmati rice, papadum, lime, and cucumber yogurt or grilled naan bread wraps with such specialties as BBQ blackened wild British Columbia salmon with rocket lettuce, red onions, herb roast potatoes, and watercress crème fraiche. The lunch menu also includes soups and salads, such as fatoush salad with Turkish figs, dried apricots, toasted almonds, and honey herb vinaigrette or charred tomato and du pui lentil soup with goat cheese ravioli and thyme oil. Sanafir also maintains a special late night bar menu and an impressive wine list.

I tasted a number of small plates, and everything was flavorful and creative. I especially loved the tapas dessert, which gave me three different tastes, such as baked cardamom yogurt and chocolate fruit sushi roll. Try one of the restaurant’s daily special cocktails, too, such as a mixture of vodka, cranberry juice, and peach puree.

It may seem trite to call a restaurant like Sanafir “exotic,” but that’s the most appropriate word for the experience. I ate at several restaurants while in Vancouver, but Sanafir is the only one I will be sure to visit again the next time I’m in the city.

 

 

 

© July 2010 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.

 

Issue:
January
2012