A (B) for Bacchus Bistro

Review Snippet
Overall: Worth the bite if around the area
Food: French
Price: $30-$45 Ambience: A home-y vibe, but lacks the charm present in other foreign (ie australian) vineyards
Service: Slow


Bacchus Bistro
1064 216th St.
Langley, BC
Tel: (604) 530-9694


This is one of our backlog posts from the month of May. At the time, we wanted to try a restaurant at a vineyard close by, as well as to celebrate my birthday and my dads' return from Singapore. Basically, i couldn't decide on where to go, so i took up my sister's suggestion, the restaurant/vineyard in Langley.


The three of us ordered ala carte, while my dad took the set course, consisting of the duck rillette, the rock fish and the strawberry upside down cake(which we chose) .

Duck rillette

Startled , upon seeing this on the menu, i did a double take and knew that we definitely had to try it! After having fallen in love with its counterpart, pork pate, at the french stall in Singapore, i was continually in search of other species of this wonderful appetiser. This version was not too bad, rather tasty, but paled in comparison to the one we had in singapore. The upside is that this is less oily, they were generous with the gherkins and the bread accompaniment was grilled to perfection.

Lamb Shank "Aux Épices

Thereafter, came the main courses, shown above is the lamb i had ordered. They were generous with this serving of lamb, however, i felt that it was not as tender as it could have been( Fall-of-the-bone). The curry flavour and spices was also not particularly that exciting, it was quite watery and did not go that well with it.

Beef Bourguignon

Sara ordered this dish and it very much reminded us of a similar dish in Singapore. The broth for this was quite thick and flavourful, we felt that the bacon cubes were a little too big for our liking. The beef was also a little disappointing as it wasn't the "fall of the bone" kind of tender.

Duck Leg Confit

My mum had this and she felt that she had eaten better duck at the seasons in the park restaurant at queen elizabeth park. It was not as crunchy or as fried as she'd thought, it lacked the "oomph" factor of crunchy duck or chicken skin. The accompaniment of lentils was a turn off because we hardly ever take it ( perhaps maybe once or twice in our entire life) and are not accustomed to its texture and feel. The cranberry sauce went well with the duck and gave more flavour the duck.

Rock fish with spices

The rockfish was an interesting one as i've never tried it before, there was a satisfying portion of it,  tasting pretty soft, slightly rubbery and it's pretty similar to black cod. According to my dad, it was the best main of the four and the tomatoes surrounding it complimented the blandness of the fish well. The spices and tomato made this dish really flavourful.

Strawberry upside down cake

This, having been the recommendation of the waitress, was pretty good. The cake was light and fluffy, but slightly dry. The sourness of the strawberries in the cake overpowered its sweetness, so the vanilla ice cream which came along with it balanced it out well. Besides, you can't go wrong with vanilla ice cream. Initially, i thought that there was an artificial fruit atop the ice cream. To my surprise, it was a real gooseberry from Colombo. It was pleasantly sweet and fresh. Apparently,  after enquiry, according to the waitress,  it cost 50 cents.

The food was sub-par and the service was really slow. We waited for about 20 minutes for our appetiser, the mains took about 10 minutes to arrive and the desert took an extra 10 minutes. By the time we'd finished lunch, it was already 3.  Last but not least, the ambience of the vineyard was not particularly charming, perhaps it may have been the farming equipment on the side which may have been a sore eye, but it may also have been due to the lack of greenery in the area. The charm of this vineyard certainly paled in comparison to those in Australia. Although this place may have been a let down, we wouldn't mind giving it a second try, perhaps if we're ever in the area. -Isabel