Oru

My co-workers and I decided to visit the new Fairmont Pacific Rim that just opened in February. The hotel is in a gorgeous location right near the new Vancouver convention centre; the building has a beautiful view of the water. I was pretty excited to try Oru, the new restaurant because I was told that the restaurant is a 'Pan-Asian' restaurant, not meaning fusion, but with actual dishes that were authentic to the dishes' respective cultures.

The restaurant itself is on the mezzanine level of the hotel, and is a huge room with crisp white tablecloths and shiny glasses and silverware (and bright orange chopsticks). The service was polite but a little slow, but always befitting a fine dining establishment.

We were asked if we wanted a 'bread basket' and we said yes. So two of them actually arrived, with maybe six quarters of naan bread and a pappadum, which were accompanied by a green mint chutney. The bread was warm and delicious, with charred parts that indicated that it had been cooked in a tandoor oven. However, at $8 for a basket, the price was a huge surprise at the end of the meal. Ouch.

I had checked out their menu online and was excited to try their ramen, which was raved about by the Georgia Straight magazine a few weeks prior. However, we were informed that the menu had recently changed, and that the ramen (along with a few other dishes) were off the menu.

A bunch of us tried the banh mi subs instead ($14-16).

meatball sub

tuna sub

I had the lemon grass chicken banh mi, which I forgot to take a picture of...! The bread was absolutely wonderful - warm and crispy crust, with a soft interior. However, the rest of the sandwich was just ok. The chicken itself consisted of dark meat, but did not have any lemongrass flavour or that nice charcoal taste at all. Plus, there was too much mayo in the sandwich (mayo...really?). It was all bland. The matchstick potatoes served as the side was ok--a little salty though. But what I found weird was the amounts of the potatoes each person got--some of our containers were half filled, some overflowing....

That being said, my co-workers liked the tuna and meatball sandwich quite a lot. The shrimp one looked a little disappointing, because there didn't seem to be a lot of filling there.

shrimp sub

Another co-worker ordered the murgh makhani ($16), a chicken curry with rice, naan, and chutney. This was merely okay. He would not get it again.

My other co-worker ordered the caramelized beach scallops and spot prawns ($22). She was really disappointed in this dish. It arrived cold, and she didn't enjoy it at all.

All in all, the visit was a disappointment. It did not live up to the hype, I would say. It is very overpriced for what you get, considering you can get a good bahn mi in Chinatown for less than a third of the price being charged here. For this price, we all were expecting really good ingredients, but this did not happen.