Saturday, March 14, 2015

OCK (Orchard City Kitchen) - Campbell - UPDATED

4/5 stars

Food was outstanding this time around. We came for an early bday celebration with a bigger group so were able to sample more things than our last visit.

We started with the bacon, biscuits, and butter. The bacon was magical. Like candy.


The beets & butterfish blew us away. Salt roasted beets, smoked black cod, horseradish dressing, and blue cheese: we would never ever put something like this together at home. But now, my MIL and I want to try and replicate it someday. Highly recommend this dish. All the flavors just worked together beautifully.


Another winner was the crab & avocado toast (with a delicious meyer lemo aioli) and I was a big fan of the octopus bucatini (castrelvetrano olives, tomatoes, bread crumbs, epcorino, finger lime) though the pasta itself was a tad overcooked.


And the mac n' cheese with BBQ'd brisket was ooey, gooey, tasty.


On the other hand, there were some things we wouldn't order again: lobster dumplings and hamachi sashimi.

The lobster dumplings did not taste as fresh as the crab in the crab & avocado toast. I actually didn't taste much lobster at all. It was also too spicy. The hamachi sashimi was more like a ceviche and the portion size was really, really small. The burrata cheese and pork belly were also mediocre, which is a shame.

Cocktails still need some work too. I loved my Milk Punch, but when I asked to substitute the vodka in the Marilyn Monroe with gin, I was told that the bartenders wouldn't do it. They also messed up my MIL's Manhattan. The cocktails' list is sort of limited compared to the Table. But I will say that I'm enjoying OCK's food a bit more.

Now I just have to try brunch...