Oceana
It was a cold, blustery Monday night when we arrived at Oceana for dinner but the warm interior colors, multiple fireplaces, copper tiles, and wood floors and tables make you feel comfortable and at home right away. I’m not so sure about the leopard prints on the chairs!
Oceana is located riverfront in the former location of La Caille, and has a fairly large selection of seafood, salads, steaks and pasta. This being said, you may think the menu is too large to do well, however, the dishes we had were all prepared very nicely. This is the second location for Oceana. They closed the last location in July 2006, where they were for 7 years, to relocate and open in September 2006. Obviously the location is one of its most attractive features, especially when the patio is open and you can enjoy an evening looking out onto the river. The patio will only accommodate 40, so make sure you reserve before you go.
There is an extensive selection of appetizers, however most notable to me were the Mussels Saganaki ($12), which are mussels in a marinara sauce, white wine and feta cheese. They have these also with blue cheese instead of feta and if you are a fan of either cheese you’ll enjoy them. It’s a wonderful variation to the usual mussel dish to the point that you’ll need plenty of bread for dipping into the leftover sauce.
The menu has a long list of fish and seafood. If you’re not a seafood lover then you’ll find a few steaks that should work for you. We chose the Chilean Sea Bass ($32), Seafood Brochette ($21), Seafood Bouillabaisse ($20) and Steak ($29-36). All the seafood was delicious. The Bouillabaisse sauce was extremely yummy with just the right spicy kick. The only complaint was that there could have been a bit more shrimp, crab, and scallops instead of fish on the brochette and in the bouillabaisse. The steaks were tasty and perfectly prepared even for the one person who ordered theirs blue rare.
The main courses are served with your choice of roast potatoes, rice, French fries and market vegetables. It would be nice if they prepared the sides to compliment the individual dishes. This is probably one of the reasons why they can deal with such a large menu..
The wine list isn’t extensive but there’s enough of a variety and price range to find something that will suit you. If you prefer wine by the glass then there are six white and six red wines to choose from and all reasonable priced.
The dessert choices seemed fairly average: crème brûlèe, cheesecake, gelato, sorbet and five layers fudge cake. A few in our group decided to have the molten lave brownie. Now how can you go wrong with that? It goes without saying that there were no complaints. One nice touch is the flambées, which we didn’t try but sound delightful.
Service was no problem even though we had a table of eleven. Perhaps this was because it was a snowy Monday night and there was basically nobody in the restaurant. I definitely will go back on a warm summer day to enjoy the patio and some more fine seafood.
101 7th Street S.W., Calgary
403-345-8787
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