Oola Restaurant and Bar

By Micky Cabarrus
Staff Writer
Reviewed November 13, 2008

My girlfriend and I decided to treat ourselves out to a nice dinner, and we headed over to Oola with high expectations and empty stomachs. On first impression, the place seems to be trying a bit too hard to be one of those trendy, date-y, ambiance-filled late-night spots. The 18-foot glass door is a bit obnoxious, and the expected candles in glass cups were dotted liberally around the room.

The booths are made of black leather, sheets of brown linen are hanging from the tall ceilings, and the walls are covered in “antique”-looking brick. Overall, it was a bit cheesy to me, but hey, we just were there for the food.

We showed up at exactly at 6 p.m., when they start serving dinner, and were seated right away at a table at the back of the restaurant. We ordered a glass of Cabernet to start, which was brought out in an oversized wine glass (surprisingly more fun to drink out of than a normal-sized glass.) We were also given a basket of fresh French bread, which they keep stacked in rolls in the back and cut right before they bring it to your table. For our appetizer, we shared the Butter Lettuce with Roquefort Dressing ($10). It was topped with bacon, apples and carmelized walnuts, and the dressing was creamy, with a Cesar-like flavor, though not as thick. The lettuce was extremely fresh, crispy, and paired perfectly with the large pieces of smoky bacon and crunchy apple. Even though we only ordered one appetizer, it was plenty to share between two of us. The table next to us ordered the oysters served with mignonette and cocktail sauce ($2.75 each), which actually looked really good, and I also assumed tasted good from the “Mmms” we heard (but too bad I don’t like oysters.)

For our entrees, we ordered the Coffee Roasted Duck Breast cooked with port cinnamon sauce on a bed of carmelized pear and confit of fingerling potatoes ($25, verbatim from the menu) and the All Natural Baby Back Ribs with cilantro, ginger and soy glazed with a red cabbage-apple slaw ($26). We also ordered a side of goat cheddar mac & cheese ($7). Our service was pretty excellent up until this point, when our waiter brought out our entrees, placed the Baby Back Ribs in front of me, the mac & cheese in the middle of the table, and a plate of pasta (?) in front of my girlfriend.

The waiter said, “enjoy” and walked away, and we sat staring at the food for a minute, trying to figure out if the Duck Breast dish was somehow hidden in the mound of pasta. We called him back over, and it turns out he brought out the wrong dish. But instead of just taking away the pasta dish, he cleared everything off the table, including my ribs which smelled so good that I had already started to salivate in anticipation of my first bite. Five minutes and several apologies later, he brought everything back out, with the correct Duck Breast dish this time.

Hands down, the best ribs I have ever eaten. There were six ribs total, and every piece was perfectly seasoned and sauced, and the meat peeled right off the bone. The cabbage-apple slaw was just OK and paled in comparison to the delicious ribs. The Duck Breast dish was almost as delicious–the meat was cooked medium-rare and very tender, overall the dish was very good. You could just barely taste the hint of coffee, which appeared at the very end of each bite. The duck was served over carmelized pear and potatoes, which were covered with a generous pool of thick port cinnamon gravy. I actually preferred the duck alone, minus the pear-potato-gravy medley, which was a bit too sweet and heavy for me. The macaroni and cheese was overall underwhelming. Used to the Kraft mac & cheese out of the blue box, Oola’s goat mac & cheese seemed to lack that pungent artificial Kraft cheddar flavor. However, after several bites, it started to like the subtle flavor of the goat cheese, and the crunchy toasted parmesan layer on top added a nice touch, but next time I would go with the truffle fries.

For dessert, we ordered the roasted strawberry panna cotta ($8), which was served as a pairing of strawberry-flavored panna cotta with fresh dried strawberries drizzled in a balsamic reduction. The panna cotta was smooth, light, and refreshing, but with the dried strawberries it was extremely tart and way too sweet. It completely drowned out the subtle flavor of the panna cotta, and we ended up eating the dessert sans strawberry.

Overall, our meal was very good, but I’m not sure we’ll be back, as the financial aid office doesn’t plan for $100 dinners in the budget. Maybe next time, we’ll come for happy hour where the ribs are $3 each or maybe my girlfriend will finally pay for something. In all likelihood I’ll have to donate my body to science, and do a few more pulse ox studies in the Anesthesia department before I get a taste of those ribs again.

Oola Restaurant & Bar
860 Folsom Street
SOMA
www.oola-sf.com

Micky Cabarrus is a second-year medical student.