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| 4-Course Summer Gourmet Picnic at VanDusen Botanical Gardens organized by Truffle Fine Foods |
The Experience
Our reservation for two is at ten in the morning. We arrived just in time at Gate 3 (37th Avenue and Hudson), the designated entrance. There's a person who will ask for your name, ask you to register and point you in the general direction on where to go.
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| Gate 3 |
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| Truffles Find Foods Summer Gourmet Picnic at VanDusen Botanical Gardens sign. |
We walked where the signs lead us and end up at this picnic area. It was hot. Thankfully, there are umbrellas on top of each picnic table, and there is some breeze.
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| Picnic Area |
Our server walked to our table and asked us if we had any drink orders or wanted to get started. We told him that we already ordered our drinks online. He came with a crate with our 4-course meal labelled and packed in compostable containers (at least most of it). He asked if we want him to bring out the food and put it on the table or if we want to do it ourselves. To minimize contact and to phase our meal better, we did it ourselves. Plus, it was fun to open each box to see the food inside.
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| Plate and Plant on each table |
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| Crate with your meal |
The Food
As the name implies, you get to enjoy four courses (meals) inside VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
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| Compostable Boxes |
1st Course: Canapes
We both ordered Regular Canapes. They're all delicious, but I would like more of the Tuna Crudo Cucumber Cup. Oh, and the grilled sourdough on the miniature BLT was tough. I didn't enjoy that bite.
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| Regular Canapes from left to right: Prosciutto melon bite, miniature BLT on grilled sourdough, and tuna crudo cucumber cup |
2nd Course: Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Salad
It's a delicious salad. Although, I wouldn't recommend putting a lot of the vinaigrette. It made the whole thing oily.
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| Heirloom Tomato & Burrata Salad Organic local greens, fresh basil, and white balsamic vinaigrette |
3rd Course: Entree
Both entrees were served with grilled vegetables. It seems like their vinaigrette recipe has a lot of oil. It was very oily.
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| Porchetta Sandwich and Tuscan Grilled Chicken Breast with Caper & Parsley Salsa Verde |
Porchetta Sandwich
This is the best part of our meal. The sandwich on a ciabatta bun was delicious. I love the lemon-caper mayonnaise.
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| Porchetta Sandwich Slow roasted pork with fennel and herbs, lemon caper mayonnaise and arugula |
Tuscan Grilled Chicken Breast with Caper & Parsely Salsa Verde
I enjoyed the grilled chicken breast and would have preferred it over the porchetta sandwich, but the middle of the chicken was kind of cold which is unfortunate.
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| Tuscan Grilled Chicken Breast with Caper & Parsley Salsa Verde Free-range chicken breast marinated in lemon & fresh rosemary |
4th Course: Dessert
They only have two dessert options, and we got both. It comes inside a mason jar which you can take home if you're full. We took ours home, and it melted on the way because of the heatwave. So I hurriedly put it on the fridge as soon as we got home. I'll update this post if the desserts are any good.
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| Left: Vegan Chocolate Mousse swirled with Okanagan cherry compote. Right: Peach & Almond Tiramisu (layers of mascarpone, fresh peaches and amaretti |
Drinks
When we were placing our order, the only non-alcoholic beverage available is orange juice and apple juice which is what we got.
Walk around VanDusen
After the meal, you are free to walk around VanDusen Botanical Garden for as long as you like. Because of the heatwave and when our desserts melted, we only took a 30-minute walk around the park.
Is it worth it?
The whole meal plus drinks, entrance, taxes, and 15% service charge is $211.58 for two people. The food was good, and it was an experience having a picnic inside VanDusen with all the food prepared and served, but I don't think it's worth it. If the food was spectacular, then maybe I'll have a different recommendation.
Will I come back for the experience? Most likely not.
