Oceanique

Hello Everyone,

My girlfriend celebrated her birthday this week and I decided to take her to Oceanique in Evanston.  I have heard good things about it and I bought a groupon for it a while back so it was the perfect opportunity!

Since it was a Wednesday evening, we didn’t have any trouble getting a seat immediately.  It took me a while to figure out what to order and the waiter was very patient with me.  I ended up deciding on the seared day boat sea scallops as our appetizer, my girlfriend had the rack of lamb with turnips, and I had the bouillabaisse Oceanique.  And since it was her birthday, we each ordered a glass of wine as well.

The first thing that came out was the Japanese Breakfast, smoked salmon wrapped around a seaweed salad, which was complementary on the chef.  I LOVE free food!  It also doesn’t hurt that it was delicious.  I, for one, am a sucker for salmon.  The salmon tasted fresh and it reminded me of eating sushi, except the seaweed salad added a unique texture compared to rice.

Next were the sea scallops.  They were served with orange, haricots verts, red onion, and yuzu marmalade. I have never had a dish where the scallops were the main focus so I wasn’t too sure what to expect.  The texture was really nice and it was very tender.  I would definitely go back for some more.

After the scallops, the waiter brought out a sample of chicken liver pate which was prepared with port wine, manchego cheese, and poilane toast.  It was rather small and I just popped it into my mouth.  You can definitely taste the chicken liver which is a unique taste that not everyone is going to enjoy.  Personally, I don’t mind the taste.

This time they brought out a sample of their wild yellowfin tuna with bacon and chanterelles.  This wasn’t as memorable as the other dishes we have tried.  What I do remember was that I was getting worried that if they keep giving me food to eat that I would be full and not be able to enjoy my entrée as much.

The next dish has to be the entrée right?  Nope, they provided a sorbet to help cleanse our palate.  It was refreshing.  There was nothing special about it, but it was the perfect dish to lead up to the entrée.

Finally a dish we paid for!  The bouillabaisse Oceanique is a fish stew served with skate, halibut, char, shrimp, scallops, mussels, and squid with parsley aioli.  The main reason why I ordered this was because I wanted seafood and couldn’t decide on what I wanted.  This way, I get a wide variety of seafood in one dish!  The broth was amazing.  It wasn’t very rich and went very nicely with bread.  Everything was cooked perfectly; I just wish there were more spices.

My girlfriend got the rack of lamb.  She is a big fan of red meat.  The lamb was served with eggplant, leeks, and a plum-pomegranate maostarda.  She said the lamb was juicy and well spiced.  She was also a big fan of the presentation of the dish.

For dessert, we were having trouble deciding between the day and night cake and the napoleon.  We ended up ordering the napoleon, but the waiter brought out the day and night cake instead (with a candle too!). We were not going to complain because we have had great service and complementary food all night and we almost got the day and night cake anyway.  The waiter later realized that he brought out the wrong pastry, so he brought out a napoleon as well…on the house.  Talk about getting a great deal!  I liked the napoleon better than the cake.  I thought the cake was really good, but a little too sweet and chocolate-ty.  The napoleon was sweet and subtle, more of the dessert I was looking for.

Overall, we had a WONDERFUL experience at Oceanique.  Parking in Evanston is never a problem and they have valet service as well.  Our dinner came out to be 130 dollars (not including tip and the groupon).  I would have been okay paying that for our dinner; add on the groupon and all I can say is that we got a great deal.  They are also running a promotion right now, if you go to the website and print off their homepage and bring it, you will get $25 off your bill.  I recommend Oceanique to all my friends, especially those that live in Evanston and looking for a nice place to eat.