Foo… I’ve crossed paths with this place many times. I’ve heard about this place from friends many times. I’ve even been in there once or twice but didn’t order anything. I’ve heard them rave about it. It was time to try it.
My friend that I haven’t seen in a while phoned me out for lunch and I thought it was a great opportunity to finally order something from here! Foo presents a relaxed, casual posh ambiance that is inviting. The menu is pretty diverse to the point where I dare say – adventurous; especially to those who are not accustomed with east/south east asian cuisine. With that being said, being the son of a chef, I have extremely high standards when it comes to East Asian cuisine. That’s what happens when you live and breathe it everyday since you’re a toddler. For this reason, any Chinese type restaurants I generally try to avoid especially around Victoria – it simply doesn’t meet up to my standards.
Foo was intriguing for me since it was fusion, which I like and appreciate. I dig the east meets west concept and really look forward to what new dishes can be brought out.
I’m somewhat really watching what I eat due to my training regime, so I decided to stick with something healthier. Or so I thought. I picked the Octopus Salad and I have to say that I’m extremely surprised what I got. I actually expected a cold dish, with octopus that was presented sushi style – light, refreshing but still satisfying. Instead, I got deep fried octopus in a VERY salty teriyaki sauce. It was a little watery, so it all settled down to the bottom of the take out container. To be honest, I was quite taken aback by it. A dish like this should be subtle with light flavours to compliment the salad. I would expect something fragrant, not heavy and in your face. The texture of the octopus was somewhat an interesting tenderized texture, but at the same time, a bit overdone, and a bit stringy. It was okay at best. Perhaps I’m too used to eating the Japanese sushi style octopus. The salad was a mixture of shredded iceberg lettuce, bean sprouts and some thai basil. Everything in the container was trying to fight each other for my palettes attention.
For the $9 that it cost me, I was actually quite disappointed. I felt the ingredients were not used to their fullest potential to bring out out their natural subtle flavours. Instead it felt like a mishmash of stuff, attempted to be salvaged by a sauce – a very salty one at that. The sauce in asian cuisine (gross generalization here) is to help compliment flavours, not drown it. Also, since it was deepfried, it wasn’t entirely *that* healthy either in my opinion.
I realize I might be a little biased… but I am willing and shall give it another try on another item menu sometime. But definitely not soon. Perhaps you guys might have better luck than me?
Foo – 769 Yates St. Victoria, BC
