Whistler: Zog's, El Furniture Warehouse & Elements Tapas Bar

I've never been boarding out of California, only to Mammoth, Tahoe (Nevada side doesn't count), and crappy spots in SoCal, so my excitement level once we got to Whistler was at the highest!  It seriously was a winter wonderland there!  It snowed a lot so that meant plenty of fresh powder and even got to board down the Blackcomb Glacier!  That was pretty damn cool.

Whistler is more like a small village, with the village serving as the base for all the hotels, restaurants, and shops.  Of course, such a popular vacationing spot would have several good eats, and let's just say all the places we tried in Whistler, they all beat Big Bear's bread bowl soup :P

First day of boarding!  Constant snowfall!  We took the super early bus to Whistler so after we checked in, we got ready and went out for a day of boarding.  Ending up only doing two runs because the place is just huge!  And of course, after a day of boarding, we had to stop by one of the most popular spot, Zog's, for some poutine!

Zog's Dogs

4340 Sundial Cres RR 4 

Whistler, BC V0N 1B4

Canada

Zog's.  Pretty much just a fast food stand serving popular Canadian snacks and hot dogs.  Most people come here for poutine after a day of riding since it is literally the first thing you see walking back towards the village.  People eating outside when it is still snowing.

Classic Poutine, with fries, gravy, and cheese curd.  You get all this for around $7 CAD!  It's pretty funny though since they take the cheese curd out of a single-serving package, and I'm pretty sure the gravy is from a mix, but who cares!  Poutine is seriously so legit after a day of boarding.  It did get a little gross once the wind chill got to it and made it cold haha.

We also went with the Bolognese Poutine, which is fries topped with meat sauce and shredded mozzarella.  Luckily I know where to get something like this at home cause this was bomb too.

Calvin & Alice never tried a beavertail so we got one to share.  This is the cinnamon sugar one, that's perfect with a squeeze of lemon.  We got a chocolate hazelnut one too but forgot to take a pic of it.  Just the same as the regular beavertail except it is smeared with a Nutella-like spread instead of dusted with sugar.

In fact, we liked it so much, we went back to it on the second day!  Weather was much better haha.

The outdoor grilling station.  Lots of people getting poutine and hot dogs.

We got the classic poutine again, but this time we topped it with some caramelized onions! Zog's is exactly like those beach stands that sells food.  Easy to make items, but so damn tasty.

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That night, we decided to go somewhere a bit nice and found this tapas place called Elements Urban Tapas. Made a short trek there and found the place to be completely empty except for one other table.  We were a bit worried since it was a Friday night, but we were hungry!

Elements Urban Tapas

4359 Main St 

Whistler, BC V0N 1B2

Canada

wildwoodrestaurants.ca

A look inside the place, with the open kitchen.

Menu, mostly using fresh ingredients from BC.

Wine list had a few bottles that were quite reasonable so we went with the Burrowing Owl Pinot Gris, which is from this wine regrion, Okanagan Valley, Canada.  Never tried Canadian wine except for ice wine so this was a first!

Bison Petit Threeway.  This was probably what I looked forward to the most since it was bison served in three ways, jerked, as a tartar, and grilled.  In the front, is house-smoked bison jerky and right behind it is the tartar.  Bison is leaner than beef and you can definitely tell from the jerky.  As for the bison tartar, I'm a huge fan of beef tartar, and you can barely tell that it is bison. They probably did a good job seasoning it.

Grilled bison medallion with romesco sauce on the bottom.  Very tender and grilled to a nice medium rare.  The potato chips are actually dusted with almond salt!

Lemon & panko crusted wild BC salmon.  We actually didn't eat this dish since we didn't order it and they made the wrong thing.  I was hoping they would just leave it with us, but instead they took it back... should've taken a bite before we told them haha.

This was what we actually ordered: Wild BC salmon and ahi tuna tempura roll, with tobiko and sweet ginger soy.

Not bad for Asian fusion!  Not enough though.  Boo.

This was definitely my favorite tapas: Porcini gnocchi.  The dish is just earthy all around: gnocchi is flavorful from the porcini mixed it, tossed with some wild mushrooms and a truffle butter sauce!  There's also shaved white grace peasant cheese, which is pretty similar to a young parmigiano.  This was also probably the best cooked gnocchi I've had.  Perfect texture.

Calvin was super excited for this: slow cooked pork belly, soft poached egg, savory bread pudding, and maple glaze.  Pork belly?  Super soft & tender.  Poached egg?  Perfect runny yolk.  Savory bread pudding?  Somehow it works!  Maple glaze?  C'mon it's Canada!

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I did a bit of research before I came to Whistler and found that there was this gastropub that sells all their food items for $4.95 CAD!  That's an awesome price anywhere, let alone a place like Whistler, where it is mostly fancier restaurants, so after dinner at Element Urban Tapas, we decided to stop by for a few drinks and more food!

El Furniture Warehouse
4314 Main Street Suite 24
Whistler, BC V0N
Canada

Passed by the Olympic rings on the way there.

Snow and lights everywhere.  For once, it felt like Christmas around the holidays.  

Outside.  $4.95 for evey food item!

Logo.

Of course, with such an affordable menu, the crowd is much younger, and at night, that means alcohol's flowing!  We decided to get some drinks: some local beer with a shot of applejack.

Onion rings.  Nothing too crazy, but for around $5, that's a good amount.

We wanted some more poutine so we got their version, which comes with fries, gravy, cheese curd, and maple bacon!  Better than Zog's, so much cheaper, and there's bacon!  Maple bacon!  I thought about ordering another after we killed it. 

Mini donuts with spiced chocolate sauce.  Awesome mini cake donuts!  Every bar, pub, and gastropub should serve donuts.

We actually wanted to go back for lunch the next day but the place had a line out the door... I would've been down to wait just to eat more poutine and try out other items, but we were in a time crunch since we had to catch a bus ride back to Vancouver!

Whistler, I'll be back.