Connelly: Uneven, pricey, pretentious dining at Trump Tower-Vancouver A review of the very good and not-so-good fare at Mott 32

The Opium Room. The opioid crisis has hit Vancouver hard. It claimed 922 lives in British Columbia last year, the bulk from Fentayl, an opioid 100 times as potent as heroin. The photo's caption on Instagram notes, "This room is artistically designed to incorporate Opium pipes into the lighting fixtures blending the old world with the new." less The Opium Room. The opioid crisis has hit Vancouver hard. It claimed 922 lives in British Columbia last year, the bulk from Fentayl, an opioid 100 times as potent as heroin. The photo's caption on Instagram ... more Photo: Instagram.com/mott32van Photo: Instagram.com/mott32van Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Connelly: Uneven, pricey, pretentious dining at Trump Tower-Vancouver 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

During a drop-dead gorgeous Vancouver weekend, we were the first customers welcomed to the enclosed outdoor patio of Mott 32, the elaborately designed, very upscale Chinese restaurant at Trump Tower-Vancouver.

It had not been easy to land a companion for a food reviewing assignment at the 63-story digs bearing the moniker of America's 45th president, and managed by the Trump organization. A former provincial cabinet minister refused flatly to set foot on the premises.

The welcome was beyond obsequious, Canlis' on steroids. They asked for my first and last name and wrote it down. I was thenceforth addressed by my first name. Asked directions to the men's room, I was escorted there.

The restaurant, the work of interior designer Joyce Wang, is designed to impress. An abacus hangs from the ceiling: Mott 32 features bird cage lamp fixtures. One of its private dining rooms is christened the Opium Room.

The Mott 32 menu is intended to shock and awe, in imported ingredients as well as prices. The whole suckling pig goes for $495 (Canadian), and the whole braised and fried abalone will set you back $220. A Mott 32 signature dish is the apple-wood roasted Fraser Valley Peking Duck priced at $95. The list of teas tops out at $30.

"We truly believe Mott 32 is going to elevate the already reputable fine dining scene here in Vancouver by providing amazing dishes and a unique dining experience that guests have not seen in the city before," Malcolm Wood, a partner in Hong Kong's Maximum Concepts, explained to a Georgia Straight interviewer before the restaurant opened. .

Haute cuisine or high pretense?

In variety and quality, food in Vancouver runs far beyond "reputable." It includes small family-run Italian, Indian and Chinese places: Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin, once put a little Cantonese place in Chinatown, the On On Tea Garden, on the map. The renowned restaurants of Umberto Menghi serve up delicious food along with a delightful dining experience. Never, in 35 years, has Umberto served this reviewer a sub par meal.

The ultimate test of a restaurant, the acid, final test, is its ability to deliver memorable meals and do so with consistency.

My companion on Saturday was a young Squamish-based geologist who works at mining exploration, as well as being an avid mountaineer and enthusiastic hunter. A buddy of his fishes commercially for sablefish (black Cod), which he describes as the "finest fresh fish in the North Pacific."

We ordered the black cod -- fulsome praise for my choice -- along with scallops, eggplant, and sauteed string beans with diced Australia Wagyu beef. I was briefly tempted by the Bird's Nest Soup with chicken broth, Yunan Han, but put off by its $60 pricetag.

The scallops came first and were quite acceptable. The eggplant proved delicious. After that, the meal had all the pleasure of descending the Grouse Grind. The string beans were overcooked -- the flavor was cooked out of them -- and mushy in texture.

The black cod was awful. It had the outward appearance of tandoori chicken. It was covered with sweet breading that smothered flavor. We had trouble tasting the fish. My reviewing partner treated it as an act of desecration.

The renowned Seattle sushi chef, Shiro Kashiba, once gave my table a brief talk on preparing black cod. The message about this fish boiled down to a culinary equivalent of what Theodore Roosevelt said about the Grand Canyon. Do nothing to mar its sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it.

Instead of giving black cod the "chicken wing treatment," my reviewing partner talked about what he could have done with the black cod and a little bit of butter.

He was now quite disgruntled. On a trip to the bathroom, the hostess showed him the Opium Room with pipe shaped light fixtures. Mott 32, named for a 1850's Chinese business in New York, is showing its tone deafness. The opioid crisis has hit Vancouver hard. It claimed 922 lives in British Columbia last year, the bulk from Fentayl, an opioid 100 times as potent as heroin.

The Opium Room nomenclature was a jarring note, a sign of disconnect from the city. We came away wondering if Mott 32 is really of Vancouver, but instead a spot designed for an ultra-rich clientele from Asia... a place for the rich to be rich.

They're welcome to it. I'd pick the meat loaf at Mar-A-Lago over the black cod and sauteed string beans at Mott 32. And I'd return only for people-watching, namely if the @realDonaldTrump is on the premises, directing a bombing mission overseas. I am still wondering about the $18 Hanami cocktail.

As to my companion, he was emphatic: "I would not come back even if the name of this place were the Bernie Sanders Bar and Grill."

If you wish to stay at the Trump Tower, incidentally, my Whidbey neighbor and travel writer Sue Frause reports that room rates start at $319 (Canadian) and go up to $3019. A 90-minute massage at the spa designed by (White House aide) Ivanka Trump goes for $270. Indeed, this is a place for the rich to be rickh.

I've promised to make amends on a future visit by taking geologist friend out East Hastings to Da Mario, my latest little neighborhood Italian place. The scanpi and calamari are to die for. So is the gnocchi. The bill won't kill you.