The Oakwood Hardware Food & Drink

Hello friends! I know it's been a while - it's so hard to write updates now that I'm back at work and I can't just blog during my son's naps! Thanks to those of you who are sticking around (all...two of you?); hopefully I can catch up on my posts at some point! Anyway, back in July (only a month ago!), my husband had been talking about trying Oakwood Hardware for so long so I agreed to give it a shot.

Restaurant: The Oakwood Hardware Food & Drink

Location: Wychwood

Meal: Dinner

Day: Saturday

Son's Age: 15 months

It's actually technically in Oakwood Village but there aren't really a lot of restaurants in Oakwood Village so I'm just grouping it into Wychwood. Also I'm not sure what the theme of the restaurant is because it seems to be trying to do a lot of things at once, but I suppose that could be a good thing if you are with a group of people who have diverse tastes. Plus the place is run by Chef Anne Sorrenti, who is a Chopped Canada champion, so that boded well. 

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐

The restaurant certainly touts itself as family friendly. There is clearly room for strollers to come in, and they have several high chairs as well as a kids' menu and crayons. 

The washroom, unfortunately, has neither a change table nor counter space. In fact, the sink looks like one big tub. 

The good news is that it is in the back (ie not down the stairs) and it is quite large, so I'm confident that you could fit a stroller in here. If your stroller reclines, at least you can use that in a pinch!

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The staff was extremely friendly and clearly accustomed to dealing with children. They came to check in on my son and gave him his own cup of water as well as his own plate (although I opted to bring his baby cutlery). They were very helpful with menu selections and they were cautious to keep hot plates away from my son.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I must say, the food was quite good, albeit confusing, as I said upfront. We started with drinks because we heard the cocktails were good here, and they have their own specialty cocktails.

I ordered the Pisco de Mora, which is made of Chilean Pisco, rum, sweet vermouth, blackberry and mint compote, lime, and egg white. This was such a refreshing drink with just the right amount of sweetness. I can't remember what my husband ordered but he really liked his drink too. For food, we started with the Oakwood meze.

This is obviously a Mediterranean inspired dish, served with fried cauliflower, naan with za'atar and cheese, baba ghanoush, and tahini. If you are unfamiliar with a meze, the description in he menu could mislead you to think the cauliflower was the star of the dish, when it was actually just a small portion. Everything here was delicious, though, and my son was a big fan of the naan. Mom tip: if your kid is like mine and just really loves bread and nothing else, remember that hummus has chickpeas and baba ghanoush has eggplants, so it's an easy way to sneak in some protein and veggies. With this particular dish, one watch out is that those little red pickled things are small chilli peppers and not mini tomatoes - luckily I tried one before my son got to it but he was definitely getting ready to eat one. Anyway, for my main, I ordered the lentil shepherd's pie.

This meal had stewed lentils, shiitake and cremini mushrooms, carrots, and celery, topped with mashed potatoes and cheddar and jack cheese, with a side of salad. It was such a comforting dish, and very filling, considering that it's a vegetarian dish. It's also a bit jarring to go from a Mediterranean appetizer to a British classic, but probably not as much as my husband ordering the KFC Korean fried chicken.

This was served with kimchi fried rice and sautéed vegetables. If you've ever had Korean fried chicken, you know it's way better than North American fried chicken, and I think this dish captured the distinct quality of the Korean version. It still catered to the local palate (I'm pretty sure I never saw sautéed vegetables in Korea), but the inspiration was evident. Overall, the food was all delicious and certainly a great introduction to different flavours, but I rated it as four stars because in trying to do a bit of everything, the food wasn't quite the best at anything.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The place is rather baby friendly, and I found the service to be more than accommodating. The food is definitely worth trying, especially if you are craving different flavours at once. It's definitely one of the best restaurants in the area, so if you're bringing the family, this is worth a try.