Au Revoir Le Crocodile by Chef Michel Jacob

A meaty Dungeness crab cake with a red pepper mousseline

It was announced in early February that beloved Vancouver French restaurant Le Crocodile will close at the end of April, as chef-owner Michel Jacob will retire after over 43 years. 

He has sold the business to one of his early apprentices, Iron Chef winner Rob Feenie, who has been a consultant chef at Cactus Club for many years and most recently had a pop-up at Bacchus at Wedgewood. Currently Feenie is biding his time at the Vancouver Golf Club -- in Coquitlam.

Calm before dinner service at Le Crocodile

There's some skepticism that Feenie can pull off "Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie" as he intends to call it -- which is why diners are heading to Le Crocodile now for one last taste of Jacob's food. Since the news broke, reservations have been snapped up until April 30 and I managed to get a table tonight.

We arrived for 6pm and were seated off to the side by the bar, which is a nice, quieter area. For starters I had the Le Crocodile classic of tomato and gin soup that arrived piping hot topped with whipped cream. It was so comforting to have the soup, the creaminess tempering the acidity of the tomato, and yet it wasn't too rich either. 

The Dungeness crab cake was a thick puck-shaped portion choc full of crab meat that was fresh and flaky, topped with salmon roe and dressed with bell pepper mousseline and a side of greens. Another classic is the Alsatian onion tart full of umami flavour served with an endive salad with mustard dressing.

My favourite tomato and gin soup

The bread basket was so good we couldn't help ourselves but ask for a refill! We paid for it later as we barely finished our mains.

Mine was one of the four specials -- duck confit featuring two legs that were so tender they literally fell off the bone, together with a vol-au-vent with a savoury custard inside with citrus fruits on top, and a salad on the side. The duck skin wasn't crispy at all, but rather braised and moist. The vol-au-vent was small, but still crispy and held up the custard inside. The citrus fruits were a welcome counterpoint to the savoury duck. 

The pan-seared Haida Gwaii scallops were huge! Not having read the menu I thought they were from Hokkaido, but no they were on British Columbia's front step. They were cooked perfectly, meaty and subtle in flavour with a beurre blanc sauce.

Lovely pan-seared Haida Gwaii scallops

Meanwhile the grilled tiger prawns were quite large too, decorated with swirls of thinly zucchini spaghetti and in the middle some angel hair pasta in a lobster veloute and Pernod sauce. The sauce was not to one of my companion's liking, who found it a bit on the sour side. 

By now the dining room was filling up and becoming noisier, and a couple seated next to us celebrating their wedding anniversary. We got a mini pre-dessert, a small scoop of pear sorbet. It was so divine I could have eaten another.

We ordered a Grand Marnier souffle and it looked lovely, like a mushroom with a muffin top sprinkled with icing sugar. The server generously poured in creme Anglaise, a vanilla custard that made it quite wet at the bottom. Nevertheless, the souffle itself was very light and airy.

Duck confit with vol-au-vent and citrus fruits

Our second dessert was sunburnt lemon meringue tart with passion fruit sorbet. The presentation was dramatic, the lemon tart decorated with frilly piped meringue that was torched. Also a nice light, tart finish, though we could have had more passionfruit sorbet! Lovely finish.

We thanked our server and asked him to pass on our gratitude to the chef. He said the new owner plans to keep the restaurant as it is, but even he is not sure if it will change and urged us to try it under Rob Feenie.

There are too many memories in this restaurant, as we have eaten here many times over the years. The best part of it is the quality and consistency over four decades, not an easy feat. The landlady lives upstairs from the restaurant and we've heard she dines here regularly. So there will be expectations to keep it pretty much the same... we can only hope!

Lemon meringue tart with passionfruit sorbet

Le Crocodile

909 Burrard Street #100

Vancouver, BC

604 669 4298