After an unsuccessful trip to find affordable Riedel glasses at Winners, my coworker and I were deciding which restaurant to go in the Fairview area. In this particular area of Cambie, I would have picked a Chinese place to go like Peaceful Restaurant, that 24 hour Pho place, or one of the sushi spots. But due to his novice chopstick skills, we went with the ‘safe’ choice, which in our case was the Milestones across the street.

Kudos to my coworker though for starting his path to foodism and wine drinking.  But admittedly, there are times when my tastebuds are more critical when it comes to restaurant selections…and there are times when I don’t want to think and just go somewhere convenient;  it was one of those times.  It was a weekday night so the restaurant wasn’t particular busy. The one #winning attribute about this Milestones’ location is the stunning view you get of Vancouver downtown.

After picking our wines, we reviewed Milestones’ newly updated menu. I definitely noticed an increase in the number of vegan and gluten free friendly dishes. One must-have vegan and gluten free friendly guilt-filled thing I usually order is the yam fries.

The Milestones yam fries are usually pretty good but that night it was tasteless and almost limpy. It made me wonder how their Lobster & Crab Yam Frites would fare with lifeless yam fries.

I’ve cooked with brown rice pasta before and, as healthy as it sounds, it’s the most disgusting pasta type out there. Once cooked it has a weird slimey texture to it. With that in mind, I went ahead and ordered the Tomato Basil Brown Rice Spaghettini in hopes that they may have found some magical cooking technique to make it less disgusting.

My spaghettini might as well have been a stew.  It’s made with fresh grape tomatoes sauteed in olive oil with spinach, basil, garlic and finished with pieces of goat cheese.  Unfortunately, the pasta was swimming in the tomato sauce which was too sour and sharp.

My coworker got the Grilled Chicken Pesto Fettucini

The dish was simply made with fettucini tossed in a Reggiano pesto cream with a double breast of chicken. His pasta was the polar opposite of mine’s; it was rather plain and flavourless.

After partly finishing our disappointing meals, we went for dessert and hoped it would be the saving grace of our dinner. Since he has an affinity for apple related desserts, we picked the Caramel Apple Creme Brulee

It’s a house made caramel apple custard, baked and topped with with caramelized sugar paired with chocolate wafer roll and sauteed Granny Apples.

I think I might as well have had a cup of sugar for dessert. An apple based creme brulee seems like a good idea but it was executed poorly. The caramel apple custard with caramelized sugar already shouts super sweet but then to add sauteed Granny Apples and powdered sugar is going to to lead to multiple cavities. They definitely tried too hard with this.

Our meal reminded me why I don’t go to these types of chain casual fine dining restaurants. With its prices, that matches with the nicer independent locally owned restaurants, the food is not up to par. Most of the time, the food is prepared heavy handed or it ‘tries too hard’. I almost suggest they should watch Top Chef where the judges keep emphasizing to be restrained, thoughtful, and ‘less is more’.

The bright stars to our night was a very attentive friendly waitress and amazing nightview of the Vancouver downtown skyline. I don’t mind their brunches so I may make a repeat visit during the summer.

Milestones Crossroads Grill and Bar
2425 Cambie Street