If I'd known how good Araxi was, I'd have saved up my pennies and eaten there every night. This is a keeper folks, a must-do on your Whistler itinerary. The exterior is drab, but that makes the amber- and rust-toned interior even warmer.
If you've been wondering about BC's wines, this is the place to satisfy your curiosity. Their award-winning selection of 13,000 wines (many offered by the glass) offers ample opportunity to sample your way across the Pacific Northwest. Wine also shapes the décor, with bottles stored in honey-brown wood cubes lining the upper walls. Ask for a table in the corner dining room, separated from the main room by a wall of these bottle-filled cubes.
You know you're in good hands when the bread is fresh baked and served with white ramekins of olive butter. At a nearby table, a couple tried to hold hands around a skyscraper-sized seafood tower. The tower is one of Araxi's specialties, and can be ordered with two tiers or three. Both include oysters, shellfish, smoked fish, caviar, and sashimi. The three-tier buys you a lobster, prawns, and crab legs. Vegetarians are in for a treat! Araxi specializes in local organic produce and regional farmers and fisheries, but would you believe there is an entire vegetarian menu? I wanted to have mine framed!
Let me get the one dud on the menu out of the way so I can get back to singing its praises. The Dungeness Crab and Shrimp Cocktail sounded harmless, but the clamato and vodka frappe it was served in had a fishy, briny taste. Other appetizers were fantastic, like simple celery soup with sour cream. Tempura of Pacific Prawns was quite tasty - a relief given that its accompaniments of "jellyfish ceviche" and "kaffir lime emulsion" had the potential to be terrifying. A classic Caesar salad was just that, classic, and my architecturally arranged tower of polenta with roasted peppers, grilled radicchio, fig confit and pesto was near perfection. I found the fig business a bit too sweet but I could have sat there eating the polenta until my stomach burst.
Entrees were equally fabulous. Albacore Tuna Sashimi came with a crisp nori roll on the side. A cassoulet of Alberta Lamb Shank served with an "orca bean" stew, merguez sausage, and duck confit was the hit of the table.
My Pemberton Pumpkin Ravioli was a religious experience. Pemberton is a nearby farming community, but the ravioli was from another world. Served with toasted hazelnuts, sage, curried pumpkin seeds, and shavings of Pecorino cheese, it was about as close to heaven as you can get without your heart stopping. Yum!
Despite our groaning bellies we shamelessly ordered an assortment of local chocolates and biscotti for dessert, served with blood orange slices and an orchid. Kudos to executive chef Scott Kidd, who does all that cooking AND finds the time to be one of Canada’s top doubles squash players!