The Eaten Path: A stunning five-course prix fixe lands in a most unexpected Fraser Valley location

Chilliwack Airport Restaurant isn't just a place to fly for pie anymore

I ate a meal last week at a location so incongruous to the quality and presentation that I almost feel like I dreamed it.

Eating a top-quality five-course prix fixe at a place known around the Lower Mainland as a fluorescent-lit diner with 30 types of pies makes zero sense. It is hard to believe, but the Chilliwack Airport Restaurant’s Friday and Saturday bi-weekly prix fixe served in an oddly early three-hour window each of those days is mind-blowing.

Anyone from the Eastern Fraser Valley who has been here for at least a decade knows about the legendary pies served up at the diner at the Chilliwack Airport Restaurant. Many might even remember the drama when the previous owners, the Good sisters behind the iconic ‘I Fly for Pie’ diner, protested the airport leaseholder’s plan to remove the patio and its trees by duct-taping themselves to the trees.

Soon after that, and after 36 years in operation and a long and contracted dispute with the airport’s management company, the Good sisters were kicked out. Their last day was Feb. 28, 2017.

New owners took over and the restaurant carried on in a similar vein, and still does so, serving deviled egg sandwiches and beef dips and, of course, lots of pie.

But like Clark Kent or the Scarlet Pimpernel, that previously white-walled, brightly lit diner adjacent to a hallway that looks like a bus terminal isn’t always quite what it seems. It has a secret identity. For six hours a week it is transformed by Chef Mahindan into a culinary spectacle.

Airport metaphor-free

On our visit, there were literally only two other tables served the entire time so I hope this ongoing prix fixe is sustainable, but frankly I’d be surprised. 

With only two choices for three of the courses and three choices for the main, we were able to test everything on the menu except one.

First was a creamy sweetcorn soup with ribbons of sour apple at the bottom and sliced almonds on top, a great start.

Second was a fluffy beef ragu yorkie with a creamy au jus, almond crumbs and a pickled shallot salad. The other was a crunchy turkey pecan potli with a sumptuous beetroot mayonnaise artfully painted on the plate, both underneath carefully crafted coral tuile garnishes.

For mid-course we again shared both choices on offer: tuna tartare with droplets of mango cream and guacamole hover above sprinkles of crunchy puffed rice, which offered a pleasant crunch with the soft fish. This was another dish with an elegant tuile on top. Then there was a palate-cleansing pile of sweet and sour vegetables – asparagus, radishes and one mystery one – with burrata foam and tomato jam.

This is all just pain-stakingly plated with attention to detail but also, and importantly, perfectly prepared and delicious.

For a main there were three choices, the bourbon chicken breast being the only plate we didn’t try. The seared pork gyozas were tasty in a soy vinegar, but the pièce de résistance was the oven-roased tomahawk pork chop with crushed potatoes perfectly paired with a sharp mustard apple compote.

I was picking the dregs off the tomahawk bone with my teeth like a caveman it was so good.

For dessert there was, you guessed it, pie. A choice between mud pie and crème brûlée.

Not every meal is ever going to be perfect and with this many elements, surely there had to be something to complain about? Not really. All I can come up with is that there was a thinly sliced large root vegetable in the mid course that we couldn’t identify, taro maybe? The server insisted it was a large white radish of some kind but it was flavourless like cardboard, which is a minor complaint at most.

The only other criticism was that the crème brûlée had too much crème and not enough brûlée.

All this is prepared by the chef who our server told us came from a previous job in Whistler. His name is Mahindan and when I asked a server over the phone today to clarify his last name, she paused. I asked to clarify, "Do you know his last name?" She paused again and said, “I know it, but he likes to go by Chef Mahindan.”

OK, cryptic but that's fine. Mystery Chef Mahindan makes damn good food, both beautiful and delicious. (There is a Chef Rahindan Rajah on LinkedIn listed as head chef at Hy's of Canada and there is a Hy's Steakhouse in Whistler so that's my guess, but I don't now if that's him.)

The menu listed above started June 13 so last week was the last one, which means a new menu is on tap for this weekend and next. Check the Chilliwack Airport Restaurant Facebook page for the new one. It wasn’t posted this morning but I’m told it should be up there soon. 

It’s an unexpectedly fabulous meal and all for $52 per person, which is remarkable for what it is. They have a decent wine list and you can even bring your own for a corkage fee.

*End note: I wrote all of the above and used no airport metaphors, which took a lot of restraint on my part. So let me get them out of my system now: There is no boarding pass needed, it’s a short haul from both downtown and Sardis. Tell the tower it’s time to take off on a direct flight to this YCW prix fixe. Ladies and gentlemen, make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position, and get ready for a flight of dishes you’ll will love to store in the overhead bin that is your mouth. 

Sorry.

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Paul J. Henderson
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