Refuel

I've wanted to try Refuel's famouse Polderside fried chicken for awhile now, so when we found ourselves on a Friday night without dinner plans, this seemed like the obvious solution given that it's only available on Fridays.  

 We were seated immediately even though we arrived without reservations.  

After placing our order of two appetizers and two entrees, we were informed that one of the appys would take fifteen minutes to prepare and were asked if we wanted to have some bread while we waited.  It came with olive oil, but my girlfriend wanted butter, so we got both:

Paul's Ciabatta Bread - Olive Oil

$2.50

The olive oil was surprisingly flavourful which my girlfriend didn't care for, but I loved.  The bread tasted very fresh.  NOTE: the bread at Refuel is not free, the charge $2.50 for it, but it is quite good.

Next up were our two appetizers, Sungold Tomato Risotto:

Sungold Tomato Risotto - italian parsley, back bacon

$10.50

and something I'd never tried before, roasted bone marrow!

Roasted Bone Marrow - celeriac, capers

$13.50

This was unbelievably good.  The waitress described it as 'meat butter' and that's exactly what it was.  It's made from veal bones in this case, and the marrow is soft and full of beefy flavour.  I thought the texture might be off-putting but it wasn't.  Some of the bread was slightly burnt, but otherwise this dish was amazing.

Our entrees were sloping hill pork:

Sloping Hill Pork - roasted brussels sprouts, potato puree

$22.00

and the famous fried chicken:

Polderside Farm's Buttermilk Marinated Fried Chicken - 

coleslaw, jalapeno biscuit, gravy

$18.00

The pork was excellent, very tender and juicy, and the brussels sprouts were perfect, not a hint of bitterness.

The fried chicken was quite good but maybe not as good as I was expecting.  There was a thickness to the batter that I didn't quite like, and the breast meat had very little flavour.  The wing and drumstick were really good though, and the coleslaw and jalapeno biscuit were excellent.  The gravy was unlike any I'd tasted, but complemented the chicken nicely and made the blandness of the chicken breast bearable.

Overall Impressions: The service wasn't especially friendly, but the food was all quite good.  If you haven't tried the bone marrow, definitely give it a shot!

Refuel Neighbourhood Restaurant & Bar

1944 W.4th Avenue

Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604-288-7905

http://www.refuelrestaurant.com/