Thoughts From My Belly

Just two nights after a spectacular meal at Cabana I took my wife out to celebrate six months of marriage at Vernon’s newest restaurant, Ora. Located in the Prestige Hotel, Ora opened on Monday March 2^nd, just four days prior to our visit.

The décor at Ora is very well done. It would remind many of something along the lines of Joey’s, but a little more hip. Lots of chocolate brown leather and wood is mixed with light blue and crystal white accents to give the restaurant a great feel. The lighting is also very good throughout most of the restaurant, dark enough to give the feel of intimacy, but without being so dark you start to worry about what they’re trying to hide. My only complaint would be the back section of the restaurant. The lighting was far too bright in that section, and the large wall was completely devoid of any art, which made the space feel unfinished. The restaurant had just opened, so maybe they were still waiting for some of their art to arrive.

On first look, I was impressed with the menu. There seemed to be lots of dishes that interested me. It was a good combination of tried and true classics (steak, et al.) and some more creative offerings (butternut squash risotto cakes). We opted to start with the Panko Breaded Goat’s Cheese with sautéed greens and apple chutney, followed by Grilled Sirloin for myself, and Ora Chicken for my wife.

Our server was very friendly and the restaurant seemed to be very well staffed, which I think is extremely important when you are charging in the $20-35 range for entrees. At that price it is very important for a restaurant to start paying attention to all of the little details. That’s what makes the difference between fine dinning and an overpriced meal.

Shortly after taking our orders the server brought us our wine along with the bread service. The bread was quite nice, but there were a few small things I found rather disappointing. First, the butter was cold, which made it rock hard and impossible to spread on the nice fresh bread. At a restaurant purporting to be fine dinning I would expect to be served a nicely herbed or otherwise flavoured butter, and at the very least plain butter that is warm enough to spread without ripping by bread to pieces.

The first thing I noticed when our appetizer came out was how nicely it was plated. Proper presentation is so important for good food. It certainly doesn’t make bad food taste good, but it does make good food taste even better. The panko-breaded goat’s cheese was very nice with the apple chutney, but the sautéed greens are what really made this dish. The added a slight bitterness that gave the dish its depth of flavour. It would have still been good without them, but they really took this appetizer to the next level.

My sirloin steak continued, what was a roller coaster ride of impressions that night. I had ordered it medium rare, but it came out a very obvious medium. As unimpressed as I was with my steak being overcooked, I might have even been more unimpressed with the cut of meat that was selected. It was a very thin and slightly grainy sirloin, certainly not what I was expecting at that price point. The garlic-mashed potatoes were good, but certainly nothing special. The vegetables, at least were very good. They were obviously fresh, and steamed to the perfect level of tenderness. I was particularly impressed with the bok choy, because it is a vegetable that is really difficult to coax the proper flavours out of. It can be very bitter when not prepared properly, but the chefs at Ora did a very commendable job with it.

Obviously I was disappointed with my steak, but my wife’s chicken breast (which is generally harder to prepare well than steak is) was fantastic. It was extremely tender and moist, easily among the best chicken I have ever had in the texture department. The Brie and Pear Stuffing was a perfect compliment to the flavour of the chicken and the scalloped potatoes had a great zing to them.

For desert, my wife ordered the Crème Brule Sampler, which consisted of an Orange, a Blueberry, and a Chocolate Crème Brule. The tiny bit that I was allowed to try was quite nice and the three flavours the chefs at Ora selected worked very well with each other. My desert was a Strawberry Spring Roll with Vanilla Bean Cream. This was absolutely, without question, the best desert I have had in ages. The cinnamon and sugar coating on the spring roll complimented the sweet jammy goodness of the strawberry filling and the vanilla cream added richness and freshness to the mix. If my main course had been half as good as my desert I would have been thrilled with the experience at Ora.

In my mind Ora still had a number of kinks to work out. Most of them were small details, like the lighting in the back and the rock hard butter, but serving a steak like the one I had was inexcusable. Hopefully it can all be chalked up to new staff at a new restaurant working their first weekend shift with new equipment. Only time will tell.

Ora did do some things very well though. As I mentioned, their desert was phenomenal, but what impressed me even more was the staff. The servers were attentive and well mannered, but I was more impressed by the chefs. The head chef took the time to go around to all the tables and see how everyone was enjoying their meal, something that is FAR too uncommon in most restaurants. When I inquired how my desert was prepared, our waitress quickly sent out one of the other chefs who gave me a fantastic step-by-step how to, along with a few ways he was hoping to improve the dish (something that in my opinion isn’t possible). Again, this great display of accessibility may just be a function of Ora being a new restaurant, but let’s hope that they keep it up.

Before you read the grades, please know that this was a dinner, and my grading reflects the increased expectations that come along with a dinner, compared to those with lunch. A 3/5 dinner is a better meal than a 3/5 lunch, but you should expect your dinner to be better than your lunch if you’re eating out.

Total Bill: $98 before tip (1 appetizer, 2 mains, 2 deserts, 2 glasses of wine)

Ambience: 4/5

Taste: 3/5

Value 2/5

Overall: 3/5