Since Lent started over a month ago, I've been challenging myself to find meals that do not include any of the following: anything that walks on land with four legs (so poultry & seafood are fair game), pasta (including pho and ramen), rice (which excludes sushi) as well as fast food (so no more Sausage McMuffins). This seemed daunting at first, but I've found it to be surprisingly easy! Here is one of my more memorable meals at The Oakwood. Stay tuned for more in the next few weeks.
Before taking a look at the menu, the cocktail list caught my eye (there's a reason I didn't give up alcohol for Lent!). I love all things tart, such as Sour Keys, Lemon Meringue or Key Lime Pie. So when I spotted the Passion Gone Sour cocktail, I had high hopes that it would bring on a serious pucker, in liquid form. It didn't disappoint! The cocktail is dark rum based, sweetened with mezcal, passionfruit & orange syrup, add a strong sour note from lemons, and made velvety with egg whites. Delicious and addictive!
We started with the wildly popular Warm Kale Salad, and I can see why. In addition to kale, there are also cauliflower and brussel sprouts, and some buttermilk fried onions for crunch. All the veg is then topped with a light lemon parmesan dressing. The various textures and slightly tangy flavours almost make you forget that you're eating a superfood.
Having been a fan of petit verdot wine since my first exposure to the Pirramimma Mclaren Vale, I was eager to try this offering from Siren's Call (a nod to Green mythology), a wine from the Okanagan. I thoroughly enjoyed this and paired well with our next few dishes.
Some people aren't fans of salmon skin, but I am, and the best part of any Pan Roasted Sockeye Salmon is the skin, which was well-seasoned and slightly crispy. The veg that accompanied the salmon included peewee potatoes, daikon, oven dried tomatoes and melt-in-your-mouth confit shallots. The sauce is quite reminiscent of a Chinese ginger and green onion sauce but was actually a charred scallion & ginger concoction.
Since I'm allowed to have poultry, we decided to share the Seared Duck Breast. It was a perfect medium and came on top of some smoked lentils and brocollini. Commonly paired with a fruit-based sauce, such as berries, orange or even plum, this duck was served with a cherry gastrique. A black garlic puree (made from garlic that has been heated for days or weeks) dots each slice of the breast and a snowfall of brown butter powder completes the dish. This was the highlight of the dinner for me.
Now I'm not one for desserts but I am during Lent. I needed something to round out the meal. The first plate was a Cardamom Chocolate Ganache, with a bit of tartness from the orange gel. The sesame praline crisp was tasty, jam packed with sesame flavours, and the earl grey ice cream balanced out the rich ganache nicely.
Now, honestly, I didn't plan on having a second dessert, but who am I to complain? This next one is the Coconut Custard, its mild sweetness is cut by the blueberry ice cream. A bite of the pink peppercorn meringue crisps imparts a slightly spicy crunch, the macerated strawberries and blueberries give the dish some freshness too.
Although I had been to Oakwood years ago as part of Dine Out, I'm sure glad I came back to give this place a try. And once Easter has come and gone, I plan to come back and sample their 48 hour slow cooked beef short rib and burger 2.0. The plates are meant to be shared so bring a group and you can sample as many dishes as you like.
For this year's Dine Out Vancouver, we purposely chose restaurants that were new to us. The first was Fishworks in North Vancouver, and the second was Saucisse, also in North Vancouver. And this is our third one, Oakwood Bistro in Kitsilano with Yaletown L'Antipasto being the last. Many restaurants are only serving the Dine Out menu during this time and it's a shame, because I tend to order a la carte even if Dine Out is going on. But nevertheless, we managed to find something to please our palate from the Dine Out Menu. For our appetizers, we tried the Pork Ravioli. The sauce is an apple wasabi butter which I found a little too bland. The pork was plentiful in the ravioli and it had a pulled pork-like tenderness. However, I have to say that I think the pasta was a bit undercooked. If you took away pasta, and just concentrated on the pork this was good. The pork rinds were a fun touch, but unfortunately, they were more chewy than crunchy. Our next appetizer was the Albacore Tuna, mixed with a white bean puree and served with charred crostinis. Mason jars are totally overused, being a vessel for food, dessert and even cocktails, but putting that aside, this tuna was really good. We could have used a few mores slices of bread as we dug deeper into the jar. The texture was creamy and the tuna itself was nice and chunky. It is part of the regular menu and I would recommend giving it a go.
As a meat lover, I was tempted to add the $15 to the Dine Out menu and go for the 16oz rib eye, but my principles just wouldn't let me. Why not serve an 8oz (already more than the recommended serving by Canada's Food Guide) and not charge people extra? It felt opportunistic and I didn't want to fall into the trap. So instead, I went meatless and got the Maple Smoked Sable Fish. I have to say, I was really happy with my choice. The fish was seared perfectly on the outside and flaked off cleanly on the inside. The two cod brandade croquettes accompanying the dish was light and fluffy, but with a distinct flavour of fish. The other accompaniments were pretty but honestly didn't add much to the dish. sAnd as a meat lover, I then had to try the Sous Vide Lamb Shank. I love my lamb but I'm so used to having grilled lamb that I honestly didn't know what to expect from a sous vide shank. The dish was rounded out with a confit mash, tomato sauce, and topped with some pickled cabbage. Well I have to say, the knife that the waitress brought over was pretty much untouched. The tenderness of this lamb was amazing. Talk about falling off the bone! And the mash was just rich enough to pair up with this lamb. And lucky for you, this is part of their a la carte menu, available outside of the Dine Out timeframe.pAnd because we thought we didn't have enough food we went ahead and ordered a side, Brussel Sprouts and Cauliflower, these are deep fried and should have been really good. But I think the oil just wasn't hot enough and we ended up with a soggier version than my favourite place for this dish, Tudor House. So coming towards the end of dinner, the two choices both seemed interesting so we opted for one of each. The first to arrive was the Nanaimo Bar Custard. Yes, not a Nanaimo Bar per se, but a custard version. This was way too sweet for me, with an overly sweet vanilla custard and a rich coconut walnut ganache. The crust was barely there and the coconut flavour was overpowering.But the second dessert was amazing, the Apple Crumble was light and fresh, with a plentiful amount of both gala and granny smith apples. The crumble was nice and crunchy, all topped with a vanilla cream.
And in case you can't believe how tender and falling off the bone the lamb shank was, here 's a pic!
Take Note:
From their Dine Out Menu, the Tuna, Lamb and Apple Crumble are on the a la carte menu as well
Tables are fairly close together, get ready to make friends with your seatmates
Chef Michael Robbins is only 28 and from East Vancouver
