Food By Fanta

Attention to detail is one of the keys to the wonderful dishes served at Food By Fanta. 

Relatively newly opened, FBF is part of the group that includes Ban Chok Dee, (Langley and Maple Ridge) well know for exceptional Thai food and one of our favourite restaurants in Langley. It is named for chef Parinya Lopston (Fanta)!

Not exceptionally well signed so far, it is worth your while to find them (you know how street numbers work, don't you?). They are located on the one-way section of Fraser Highway between 204th and 206th. We were seated in the lovely dining room (maybe just a little overdecorated) upon arrival (we had a reservation). I am not sure why the big-screen TVs are necessary (just a very nice scenery loop showing) but at least I was less likely to be looking at my phone.

Admittedly, the timing for our visit had to do with their participation in Vanfoodster's Best Chicken Wing Challenge. Their entry in the challenge are their Ballerina Wings. And this is what I mean by attention to detail!  Two deep-fried wings are served with a sauce of tamarind and palm sugar over a salsa of mango, pomelo and we're not sure what else! Definitely also present are fish sauce and, edible flowers (grown in-house) and shallots. On top of all that, the wings were deboned through the drumette and second section. A lot of work with a delicious result! Upon our first bites, we knew we had tasted the winner of the Chicken Wing Challenge! They were sweet, tart, crispy and tender.

Next up was the Chor Muang Flower Dumplings, another beautifully presented dish. The tasty fillings were eclipsed by the beautiful colours! It might be easy enough to colour pastry without food colouring for red and green (i.e.spinach and tomato) but bright blue? At FBF they accomplish this with butterfly pea flour. I know! I had to ask our server to repeat that a few times to make sure that I had correctly understood! It was hard to dig in and ruin the art but it was worth it. 

For our mains, we chose Fettucine Scallop Pad Cha. The stars of this show were obviously four fat perfectly cooked scallops. Runner up were the house-made fettuccine noodles coloured with charcoal. The charcoal, of course, lends no flavour and I'm not the biggest fan of black food for black food's sake but it made for a striking presentation. Not to be forgotten was the ginger pad cha sauce with Thai flavours including basil and green peppercorns and a final dusting of grated parmesan. A wonderful fusion dish.

Finally, we loved the Artic Char En Croute. It has been forever since I have had anything 'en croute' and frankly it was very nice. I didn't ask if they made their own pastry but considering everything else, I would guess that they do. Arctic char is in the salmon family, a little like pink salmon. The trick is to get the salmon and pastry cooked at the same time without either being over or under done but we feel like they nailed it. There was a green curry sauce in there lending a hand. Again, with the attention to detail was a green side salad with candied walnuts and almonds, pea shoots, microgreens and a raspberry vinaigrette.

Back in April, during another Vanfoodster challenge, we were able to try FBF's Massaman Lamb Shank, which was another treat (and a challenge winner for us).

Overall, the service was great (and very informative), the food was great (see above) and we were very comfortable. Food By Fanta is definitely one of our favourite restaurants in the Metro Vancouver area and we would highly recommend that you make the trip from wherever you are!

Food                     5 out of 5

Comfort                5 out of 5

Service                 5 out of 5

Value                    5 out of 5