Canvas

Rest : Canvas
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Palladium, Phoenix Mills

Canvas is a relatively new restaurant that has opened in the busy High Street Phoenix Mills area. I was invited to attend the opening night festivities but was busy with my kid brothers wedding.

So decided to jaunt on down and see for myself what the place was all about.

Canvas has been launched by the folks who brought the Comedy Store to Bombay, the restaurant had been in the works for quite some time and should appeal to folks going into or coming out of the shows at the comedy store.

The space is split leveled with a Tapas bar on the bottom and the dining on the upper level. Designed like a boudoir with red lighting and spaced out seating, the look and feel is very loungish.


We started with an amuse bouche of cheddar tomato and basil leaf, onion bread i think and oddly a shot of tomato juice and cucumber with a sort o tzatziki. while we could share two easily, the other two items were much harder to share and made less sense to even have on the table.

Strawberry margarita was excellent. just the right amount of sourness.

my canvas mary was a great idea on paper with fresh tomato juice and peppers, unfortunatley there was a very strong after taste of fennel whcih ruined the drink. they were nice enought to replace with a traditional bloody mary. the second one was not bad but required constant stirring.

The bread basket was okay, the breadsticks were soggy, possibly reheated, one or two of the selections were okay.

Sushi platter was horrible. This isnt a dish one can make and keep for a bit and then present when needs be. the time between production and consumption had robbed the whole thing of any taste whatsoever.

salad was too creamy, not memorable.

the goat cheese appetizer was great, really tasty, hated having to share it.

Red Curry with Jasmine Rice, very average.

The dessert was a sorbet with a capuccino thingy i think. the actual dessert was average, the sorbet was completely off, hard and sour, the little chocolate thingies were unbreakable.

Overall, the space is well laid out and should be able to attract people due to its proximity to the comedy store. However, i am not sure if it will become quite the dining outlet as the food is poor.

The menu was described as Europe meets Asia, which sounds banal if anything. Instead of seeking inpspiration or fusing the two cuisines, they have neatly divvied up dishes to fall into each category which shows a complete lack of imagination.

Their selection of dishes is only slightly wider than that of a five star coffee shop. I can understand that they are trying to appeal to the wide array of tastes with such an ecletic mix of dishes but not finding their own voice means they will not appeal to anyone really.

Freshness goes a long way especially something like sushi will not stand up to being prepped or being kept ready much in advance.

Some cardinal mistakes here, hope they fix it soon as its still early days and some issues initially are forgivable.

The service was friendly, informed and willing to go the extra mile.

Food : 5
Service : 8
Damage : About 3000 for 2 with a drink each.