KALAMAZOO -- Try the new menu at Oakwood Bistro. Ryan Soule, who has been chef for several years, bought the restaurant this year and the new menu puts his personal stamp on the place.
Oakwood Bistro
Address: 3003 Oakland Drive.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Will be open on Sundays in the fall.
The bill: Dinners range from $14.99 to $26.99.
Access: Full access.
Restrooms: Roomy and clean.
Contact: phone, (269) 344-5400; fax, (269) 344-5456.
Etceteras: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, all accepted; full bar; nonsmoking atmosphere; excellent vegetarian selections.
You'll find southern fare like seafood and grits ($17.99), big, eclectic flavors like blackened tuna with watermelon salsa ($16.99) and an increased emphasis on local foods.
Something as seemingly straight-forward as a blueberry crisp had more dimension than we expected during a recent visit. The tops of crisps are usually soggy at restaurants and that's why my companion initially tried to steer our daughter, Ava, away from getting the crisp. But Ava wanted it anyway and was rewarded with a freshly baked crisp to our elation -- it took the kitchen 10 minutes to bake it, evidence that someone sure cares about crisps in the kitchen.
And beyond the tasty ginger-snap crumb topping, we noticed that the blueberries inside were not soupy as is customary but instead thick and luscious causing us all to wonder how the chef did that.
Even a dish from the children's menu, chicken tenders (we got the grilled chicken breast instead of the fried chicken fingers, $4.99) was attractively presented and carried great flavor.
It'd be easy to drop a lot of money at Oakwood Bistro as the entrees range from $14.99 to $26.99. But, we kept costs down -- so we could have lots of desserts since they do them expertly -- by selecting the most popular appetizer as a light entree to share, the Thai Lettuce Wraps ($10.99), a pizza to share, the children's meal and one entree that our server guaranteed would be a knockout, the Seared Sockeye Salmon ($18.99).
The pizza, which the girls were initially excited about -- as if they don't get enough pizza at school, home and parties -- was our least favorite selection. The lettuce wraps provided unexpected joy. The chicken was flavorful and the wraps, which one filled with coconut curry noodles, bean sprouts, shredded carrots and red onions, were light but had bold flavors. The sauces used for drizzling on the insides or dipping were adventurous and exotic. There was a sweet red chili sauce, a Thai peanut sauce and a soy-wasabi sauce.
The salmon, topped with a Maytag bleu cheese butter and heirloom tomato and tarragon salad and served over Maytag grits, was a good example of how Soule works with grits. He molds them like polenta. They were slightly crusty and in the form of triangles. The blue cheese flavor was unexpected but surprisingly pleasing with the salmon. The grilled asparagus also was exceptionally good, and if I could have received seconds of anything, it would have been that.
Oakwood Bistro was so good that we have put it in our top-five restaurant list.
Contact William R. Wood at bwood@kalamazoogazette.com or (269) 388-8549.