Vancouverscape, a Vancouver based blog covering travel, tech, and lifestyle

As I entered ORU Restaurant’s modern dining room graced by Joseph Wu’s unique origami light sculpture, I was once again reminded of how lucky we are to have such a fantastic dining venue in Vancouver.

[A sunny corner with a view!]

With a brand new menu and recently-appointed Executive Chef Nathan Brown (at Fairmont Pacific Rim since early March), dishes are beautifully presented using locally-sourced ingredients wherever possible.

[Executive Chef Nathan Brown prepping lunch]

Chef Brown’s worked in Singapore, Macau, Bermuda, Dubai: he headed abroad in 2001 and in his words, “never went home”. The Ontario native has spent over a decade honing his skills at top Asian and Middle East restaurants including five years at the Fairmont Dubai.

[The very tasty, soon-to-be-famous Kennebec frites]

He’s happy to come home to work with the bounty of BC ingredients and enjoys the outdoors, spending free time cooking for family and friends as well as developing his language skills (currently working on Cantonese, Mandarin, French and Tagalog).

An upstairs commissary kitchen allows the team to refine the dishes they continually strive to perfect, aiming for a dependable experience each time a diner orders a particular item off one of the menus.

[Red tuna salad, baby kale, soft-boiled egg, English peas, mint, egg yolk ‘Bottarga’, torn bread]

ORU is committed to the Ocean Wise ethic. I noticed the collaborative menu (chefs Atticus Garant, William Lew and a heavily competitive culinary team) includes several Ocean Wise-sanctioned dishes.

[Lingcod, roasted cauliflower, carrot, asparagus, lemon-chive gastrique]

I much enjoyed a lingcod served atop a slightly-sweet, delicately seasoned lemon-chive gastrique, with a side portion of roasted cauliflower, carrots, and asparagus.

Save room for dessert: the current menu has six offerings from raspberry shortcake millefeullie (with Kalamansi curd and lychee sorbet) to Mangaro lait bombe, a flourless chocolate cake that includes chocolate mousse, white chocolate raspberry ice cream, hazelnut powder and a raspberry gelée swirl.

[ORU Raspberry shortcake millefeullie, Kalamansi curd, lychee sorbet]

ORU’s sister restaurant Giovane is currently getting a menu revamp and will serve up a wealth of new culinary offerings next month at its bright yellow-accented café and wine bar.
 
ORU at Fairmont Pacific Rim serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, weekend brunch and small plates and drinks at night. Find ORU at 1030 Canada Place in Vancouver.

About ORU

“Oru” – a word which has no direct translation but is derived from the Japanese meaning, ‘to fold’ – serves as both the hotel’s signature restaurant name as well as the inspiration for Joseph Wu’s eye-catching 180 foot long by five foot wide origami paper sculpture (designed by McFarlene Green Viggar Architecture Design Inc., executed by Wu) that runs the length of the restaurant’s ceiling and into the main lobby.