Le Crocodile, Vancouver

I recently brought some guests for dinner who where travelling on business from Italy. In an atmosphere of excellent service, the wine expert Robert Stelmachuk suggested a series of B.C. wines, including the stellar OSOYOOS LAROSE 2001 for the main course. Great choice and a tribute to the knowledge of the staff. Every dish was superlative. I am in the food business and am fortunate enough to try many restaurants. The chef and his service team are a winning formula for super meal and a chosen wine.

First of all, I'm French, and I was expecting a very good upper french dinner.
The service was really mellow at the beginning, people there seams swamped where in fact many tables were empty, probably a lack of organization.
I did order a "file de boeuf, sauce bearnaise". with bordeau wine.
The meat and vegetable, I have to say were excellent.

The sauce bearnaise was closer to an industrial one, way to spicy !a shame for a sauce that is suppose to let you appreciate every ingrediants inside it.

Everything else went well, beside a few girls coming talk to you at the end of dinner to find out who you were, your work, position, and finally decide that since you're not a VP they should talk to other people... what a shame a restaurant transformed into a wedding institution ! Respect the food damit !
( I was on terrasse and those girls seams used to take a drink and get some rich guy, I saw them distributing their phone numbers like people would distribute advertisement).

Overall, beside the some lack in the welcome service (real waiters were perfect and very smart), and the pretty average if not bad sauce bearnaise, this restaurant is really good.

I gave a three stars out of six just because of the hype around this restaurant, I was expecting to find what I left in france, taste and refinement (une sauce raffinee en francais).

I'll check other restaurants for good french dinner, however I may check it back a second time for the steak tartare (even if they do not prepare it in front of you !!!).

It has the look of a gastronomic restaurant, the customers, but definitely not the level at which you would expect this kind of establishment to be.

If the restaurants in north america would have a ranking like the michelin, it would help a lot.

Probably a one star, perhaps too if you assume atht I was totoally unlucky.