Vancouver Good

I joined the ladies from the Downtown Networking Association for dinner last week at Oru Asian Bistro, the main restaurant at the newly opened Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel.

At the helm is Executive Chef is David Wong, who recently represented Canada at the 2009 Bocuse D’or. The idea of Oru is pan-Asian cuisine, but NOT fusion. On the menu, you’ll find classic offerings of Indian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and additional Asian cuisines, all with a West Coast take. The restaurant recommends you share all the dishes with the table, although you can certainly dine a la carte. I sampled a selection of dishes, including:

• Albacore Tuna Tataki, with a fresh, almost frozen slice of avocado on top, a beautiful texture
• Moushou Duck Leg, shredded pieces of duck mixed with Chinese flavours and served with a hoisin sauce and fluffy steamed buns
• Shoyu Japanese Ramen with braised pork belly and house made noodles. A delicate broth and nice bite to the noodles.
• Smoked sablefish in a claypot with Asian mushrooms and snap peas. Beautifully tender sablefish, but a smallish portion.
• Grilled “crying tiger” rib eye steak with maitake mushrooms and curry-style “crying tiger” sauce. The plate is just beautiful with these perfectly cooked thick slices of steak.
• The signature fried rice with caramelized pineapple and a pound of poached Atlantic lobster. As amazing as that sounds, I wasn’t that crazy about that dish. At $35, it didn’t give me the wow factor I was expecting.

Six of us shared the above dishes, and the total came to $32/person, including tax and tip (plus drinks). Pretty good, considering the variety we tried. All the dishes were good, but no one dish stood out. The concept is refined, high-end Asian food. There’s certainly room for this concept, and I plan to return.

The restaurant itself is beautiful with a calming mood. The huge open kitchen works quietly and diligently in the background. Service-wise, the entire Fairmont Pacific Rim repeatedly gives me top notch service. I was at the  Willow Stream Spa upstairs before dinner, getting a tour and having a pre-dinner drink. They took my coat at the spa, and brought it down to the restaurant for me. All valet parking is complimentary if you’re at the restaurant or spa. The hotel wants us locals to come and they’re giving as all the resaons to come.

Next time – a pre-dinner drink in the lounge while the piano plays in the background.

Oru Asian Bistro
Fairmont Pacific Rim
1038 Canada Place (near Burrard), Vancouver
604 695 5500