A Drink at Oui Bistro

I had initially written off Oui Bistro altogether, since it is a Wow! Hospitality venture(*). But, when a friend (and culinary arts grad) hipped me to the fact that the chef at Oui has done an apprenticeship at the French Laundry, I wrote it back on, and added Oui to my list of restaurants I should probably try, at some point. Unfortunately, its high-ish prices had thus far kept me away, not to mention the fact that when I want French bistro food, and I feel like shelling out $$$, I go to Bistro 7 1/4. And now, the Oui space is making changes, bringing in a new menu, with a new name and a new concept(**). So, when a friend suggested the Oui lounge for a drink, I thought, well, at least I'll set foot in the place before the menu changes.

The bar side of the space itself is lovely: high ceilings and lots of exposed brick; didn't make it over to the restaurant proper. We weren't dining, but decided to order a bite to share, and settled on the macaroni gratin, with chanterelle mushrooms. The chanterelles were easily the best part of the dish: flavourful and vibrantly coloured. Unfortunately, the rest of the dish was extremely lackluster, especially for such a simple, essential preparation. It was bad enough that the gratin was soupy and under-seasoned, but to make matters worse, it wasn't really a gratin. A gratin must be topped with a browned crust of SOMETHING; this is what makes a gratin a gratin. The cheese on the top of the dish was melted, but was in no way browned. Simply put: boooo.

So, Oui gets written off, once again, and just in the nick of time, before it disappears forever into the mists of the past. I have to ask myself, am I making a mistake in judging a restaurant so harshly on a single dish? Maybe. But, really, in this case, if a French bistro can't get a gratin right, what chance do they have of getting anything else right? Whatevs, it's already gone.


Location, website, etc: The past, man. In the past.


*Is this self-explanatory? Hopefully. If not: I'm of the general opinion that Wow! Hospitality's restaurants are soulless corporate bullshit. Hu's on First mini-review: middling, confused Asian-I-guess.

**Seasonal food, and Peasant, respectively. Is it just me, or does this concept (as conceptualized through the Wow! Hospitality lens) seem a bit vague and tired?