The Oak Bay Bistro opens today, replacing the venerable albeit creepy, Blethering Place Tea Room. Having spent several years of my life drinking coffee under a cloud of cigarette smoke at the Bleth, it's a little sad to see it go. That said, I'll be happy to not to see servers in oppressive looking petticoats trudging up Oak Bay Ave on their way to work. I love a theme, but there's something humiliating about making people dress up in serving wench costumes. The Blethering Place was the first restaurant I ate in when my family moved to Victoria in 1985. My father sent the lamb back for being overcooked. I was embarrassed and it made me think he shouldn't have ordered anything medium-rare in a British themed restaurant.
I'm always happy to have another restaurant in the neighbourhood. Oak Bay Bistro promises a middle of the road menu to balance out the Oak Bay dining scene, with a bottomless bowl of soup for the local cheapies (of which there are many, it's Oak Bay after all). It's too bad that the Oak Bay market needs another conventional dining experience, but I think it's probably true. While the concept doesn't sound mind bending, they do express a promising commitment to quality ingredients and scratch made cooking. It's hard to imagine they will actually make sour cream and mustard, like they was stated in the Times Colonist newspaper, but I guess I'll have to go and see. Given the culinary pedigree of the owners, I'll put my faith in their chef, recently of the Wick in Tofino. That said, with the owners' history as successful restaurateurs, we can expect the Oak Bay Bistro to stick around for awhile.
In any case, it'll be nice to have a little more competition in the neighbourhood. They impressively already have 25 votes and an 88% like rating on Urbanspoon.com, pretty good considering they've only been open since 730 this morning.
Once they've had a chance to settle in, I'll be heading down for dinner.
