Firehall Bistro in Oliver, British Columbia
Firehall Bistro restaurant is located in a small town of Oliver in the Okanagan Valley, known for its many award-winning wineries and wines. Oliver is also known as the Wine Capital of Canada.
Driving down Oliver you can’t miss the Firehall Bistro. It is located right on the main street. The building used to be the old fire station hence the name. After extensive restorations and additions, the old firehouse is home to one of Oliver’s best restaurants.
There used to be a small wine shop as part of the restaurant and I thought it was a great idea to offer local wines to tourists and locals as well.
In summer, restaurant patrons can enjoy the Okanagan sun on a large patio. It is located directly off the main street and sidewalk so if you like to people watch you will enjoy it.
The Firehall Bistro offers a good selection of sandwiches, burgers and salads for diners.
At dinner time, they cater to the most sophisticated palates with a selection of seafood, pastas, steaks, and other more elegant dishes.
I invited my girlfriend and her young son to have lunch with me and give it a try.
I ordered their Montecristo sandwich with Caesar salad. The sandwich was very tasty and perfectly done. The Caesar salad was fresh and crisp with the perfect amount of dressing. However, I don’t think the costumes were made on site.
My girlfriend ordered the Steak Sandwich with a Caesar salad. According to her it was fine. The steak was not the best cut of meat and being overdone didn’t help that.
Most of the sandwiches were under $10.00 and the portions were satisfying.
For the little one we ordered Grilled Cheese Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread with French Fries from the Children’s Menu. The children’s meal did not include a drink and/or dessert and was $6.95. I found it quite expensive, especially after noticing that the grilled cheese on the regular menu is only $6.00. It did not make sense.
I think the best part of our meals was the little pasta salad that came as a bonus with each meal. It was delicious. The 3 of us enjoyed it.
Long story short I would give The Firehall Bistro 7 out of 10 for their lunch. would come back
I also visited The Firehall Bistro for a quiet dinner for two with my husband a few weeks later.
As I mentioned, The Firehall Bistro is considered the best restaurant in Oliver.
We arrived for our dinner date. The restaurant looked very nice and romantic. The fire was burning making it nice and cosy. Nice music was playing.
The place was pretty empty.
I was a little disappointed from the start when the waitress seated us at the small table for two in an almost empty restaurant. My husband is a large man at 6’4″ and looking at him and the table was pretty grotesque.
We started with a glass of house wine. The Firehall Bistro has a great wine selection including many award winning local wines. If you want to try Okanagan wines, this place has a great selection.
It was time to order dinner.
For an appetizer, I think of the Honey Garlic Chicken Wings. The order consisted of 5 flat wings and 5 wings like drumsticks. The flat wings were very tasty and full of flavor. The thigh wings were thick, tough and inedible.
For the main meal I ordered one of my favorite dishes, Chicken Marsala, served with baked stuffed potatoes and garden salad.
My husband chose the Firehall Burger (a friend told him he had to try it) with Poutine.
The garden salad came on a tall narrow plate intended for serving shellfish. The salad was fresh, but it was out of a package. It washed, but didn’t dry properly and by the time I got to the bottom of my plate the rest of my salad was drowning in a puddle of water. The salad was served in a single serving container straight from Kraft.
Chicken Marsala was a huge disappointment. The sauce was very thick and dark brown in color like the sauce. In addition to the mushrooms, it also had pickled pearl onions which gave the sauce a very strange sour taste.
The best part of my meal was the stuffed baked potato. It was done perfectly and was full of flavor.
The Firehall Burger was delicious according to my husband. The meat was tender and done to perfection.
The Poutine however was another disappointment. The fries were covered in a thick dark brown sauce. The same sauce that my Marsala sauce was made from. There was no cheese curds used for the poutine. Just grated cheese.
To end our leisurely dinner for two we ordered dessert.
There wasn’t much on the dessert menu that interested me.
I settled for chocolate cake and my husband went for apple pie.
Dessert portions were small compared to other restaurants. They came in equally small plates to make them look bigger, but that didn’t help.
The chocolate cake was very rich and had a similar texture to a brownie with a fudge filling. It’s not my taste. I ended up taking it home to make a son who quite enjoyed it.
The apple pie was very tasty, but it was also the smallest piece of pie my husband had ever had.
Firehall desserts are made in Oliver by a local person. I think it’s good that they are using local ingredients and some of their items are home made in town.
To sum up our dining experience at Oliver’s fine dining restaurant, I give Firehall Bistro 3 out of 10 for their dining.
I think the cook who was peeking through the kitchen door every 5 minutes during our meal must be more concerned with cooking and making his dishes taste better than seeing who is in the restaurant.