I swear I’ve walked on this street many times, yet I’ve always passed by without noticing Pidgin. The outside decor makes it look sort of like a cage, while the inside is hip and modern. There’s a bar table since they have a long list of drinks, but there’s also regular seating for those who are ready for a meal. Pidgin is known for their sharing plates. Since we wanted to try a bit of everything, we went with their Prix Fixe menu, which comes with 8 dishes to share for $55 a person.

Sakehitosuji “plum sake” Junbaishi and Kozaemon, Junmai Umeshu

We started off with two drinks which were outside the prix fixe menu. I’m a huge fan of plum wine, so we decided to try both of their Plum Sakes. If I remember correctly, the Kozaemon was pricier, but also much sweeter. Really good!

Daily Pickles and Oyster Shot

The first dish that came were the Daily Pickles. It came with beets, cabbage, and something similar to oshinko. They were all sour but my favourite was probably the beets. The rest were too sour for my liking. To be honest, the dish wasn’t too exciting and was a bit disappointing. On the right, was the second dish which was the Oyster Shot. A mini raw oyster topped with apple horseradish. Super cleansing and fresh!

Cured Sockeye Salmon

The third dish was the Cured Sockeye Salmon. It was plated beautifully with a radish and herb salad. I didn’t really like the salad, but the salmon was nice. Nothing too special again.

Raw Scallops

Next was probably my favourite dish. It was the Raw Scallops, which came with pomegranate, red curry oil, daikon, and julienned green apple. I loved the acidity of the green apple against the freshness of the seafood. Very flavourful!

Mushrooms and Snap Peas

The fifth dish was the Mushrooms and Snap Peas. We were told to mix everything together and dip the mushroom into the soft boiled egg. The dish was also flavoured with soy yuzu brown butter. Pretty good, but I wouldn’t say it was amazing.

Pan Roasted Halibut

Finally, something that seemed more like entree came. It was the Pan Roasted Halibut, which came with a side of pine nut raisin mix and some cauliflower puree. The halibut was moist and I loved the cauliflower puree that it was paired with. Not bad!

Half Duck

The last entree was the Half Duck, which was a huge dish! It came with a carrot cake puree with orange and spices. I found that the meat was way too salty though. This was a huge dish too, and it was almost too much to eat alone, especially since each course comes out one by one. I felt like it needed some sort of a side to go with it. We ended up packing more than half of it to take home.

Meringue

The last course was the Meringue. Again, it was plated really nicely, with yuzu curd, vanilla cream and coconut on the side. The meringue was quite sweet though, and was only good when balanced with the yuzu curd.

Overall, I found Pidgin to be just average. Was the food good? Yes, but nothing extraordinary or memorable. The plating is really nice and the portions will actually get you filled up, but it’s also quite pricey. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the service though.