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For the Owl House we had a small Rouletting team of five – all veteran Rouletters. Four turned in their reviews. The Owl House is a place that caters to folks with dietary restrictions, and the majority of the menu is vegetarian or vegan.
We kicked the night off with the Sweet and Sour Tofu bites with broccolini, pickled peppers and onions, sesame seeds, green onion. This was absolutely average. Like, we wouldn’t order it again, but if someone else ordered it for the table, we wouldn’t be mad. On the upside, the tofu was nice and crispy. Unfortunately, it was also pretty flavorless. The scallions and pickled peppers were the best parts of this dish, and the overly tough broccolini was the worst part. Not a single Rouletter mentioned the sauce in their notes, which tracks, because I also can’t remember it at all. ⭐ 3.0⭐
Next up was the surprisingly tasty Cauli Wings: cauliflower, frank’s red hot, vegan blue cheese, celery slaw. The vegan blue cheese was so good that it actually tasted like non-vegan blue cheese, which always pairs well with Frank’s Red Hot. At the end of the day, the small pieces were really nicely balanced and smothered in yumminess. Unfortunately, there were also some really big pieces that were too cauli and not enough buffalo. If they had cut all of the pieces smaller, the score would have gone up. ⭐ 4.1⭐
We need to pause here a moment to reminisce about the Baked Brie: Roasted grapes, pickled mustard seed, candied walnuts, fried rosemary. Served with crostini. It was so divine, that we would all like to eat an entire order to ourselves. We literally ordered a second order of this because we didn’t want to stop eating it. The brie was perfect. We loved the grapes which offered a nice contrast with the richness of the brie. Some of us even hate walnuts but this dish was so good we even liked the walnuts? What witchcraft is this? The perfectly toasted crostini were the perfect vehicle and added such a lovely crispy crunch.
Three out of four of us noted it as a top dish of the night and half of us wanted to rate it higher than a 5 because the scale just seemed to small to recognize its greatness. Ding, ding, ding – we have ANOTHER Shrimp Toast Award winner!! ⭐ 4.9⭐
TheParisian Paradox of the night was theCrispy Polenta Cakes: Miso butter beans and kale, apricot harissa jam. One of us deeply disliked the flavor and the beans while finding the polenta mushy and flavorless. Another found the dish to be average but really liked the apricot harissa jam and the miso butter beans. The third called this an unusual but delicious surprise and praised the butter beans. The final Rouletter LOVED them. That Rouletter found that the miso butter beans and kale to be fabulous and the crispy polenta to be delicious. However, they weren’t crazy about the apricot harissa. Like most Parisian Paradoxes, you might wonder how we were all eating the same dish but came away with such different experiences.
⭐ 3.5⭐
Next up was the Rosemary Fries: rosemary & black pepper, house ketchup. These were really good fries – crispy, potatoey, and well salted/peppered. No one at the table could taste any rosemary, so that caused a bit of a dip in the rating. We think the kitchen might have forgotten to put it on. Finally, the house ketchup was tomatoey and nice-ish but not remarkable. Honestly? It’s a lot of work for nice-ish. Just get some Heinz. ⭐ 3.9⭐
The second highest ranked dish of the night was the BVE Beef Burger: Beef patty, sriracha-strawberry jam, crispy onions, mayo, toasted baker street bun. This was a nicely cooked, well-seasoned burger. The crisply onions offered a nice texture, and the bun was lovely. However, the star of the show was the PHENOMENAL sriracha strawberry jam topping. Two Rouletters had this on their list of top dishes of the night. Note, you can also order this with a chickpea patty instead of beef. ⭐ 4.4⭐
TheClassic Beef Burger: Beef patty, arugula, pickles, ketchup, mayo, toasted baker street bunwas just not as impressive as its BVE cousin. It was a nice burger, cooked and seasoned nicely with some tasty pickles and a lovely bun. But, honestly, most decent places in town have a burger like this. Note, you can also order this with a chickpea patty instead of beef.⭐ 4.1⭐
Whew, let’s talk about the Vegan Mac & Cheese: Butternut squash, mac and cheese sauce, pickled jalapenos, and fried chickpeas, shell pasta, toasted panko. Because, even though we would rather forget it, we must. This tasted like cardboard with some sliced Jalapeño on top – and there is only so much pickled jalapeños can do. The texture of the macaroni was terrible, and the fried chickpeas were a very unpleasant textural addition to an already texturally dubious dish. Plus, it was SO dry.
This tasted like what a meat-centered restaurant might put on the menu to “appease the vegans” and not something that a restaurant with a vegan core would ever consider serving. It harkens back to the days when much of the culinary world thought allergen/dietary restriction friendly and tasty were mutually exclusive. So, anyway, this is weird day, because for the first time in RRR history we have a Shrimp Toast Award Winner and a Bibimbust designation at the same restaurant. Wild. ⭐ 1.4⭐
There are two side options with the burger and we decided to rate both to help round out the experience but we didn’t count them toward top/bottom dish of the night rankings. We start with the Chips: House made kettle style potato chips. These are super solid kettle chips that are nicely fried and seasoned. They should serve the ketchup with them. I say this as someone who dipped these in the house ketchup. See? If they just used Heinz, they probably would have served ketchup with the chips too….⭐ 4.5⭐
The other option is the Field Greens: Lemon vinaigrette. These were nicely dressed but otherwise unremarkable. They were a perfectly fine, if unmemorable, side salad. ⭐ 3.7⭐
Turning to drinks, we start with the cocktails. We LOVED the black pepper martini: London dry gin, black pepper, house olive brine. The Rouletter who ordered this one doesn’t usually like London gin, but the black pepper balanced out the juniper in a great way. The era’s end, bourbon, honey, elderflower, china china, prosecco was also delicious. One note: they put a lot of ice in the glass for a cold winter night. Finally, the drink special was terrific – we can’t recall the name of it, but it had limoncello, elderflower liqueur, sage, and prosecco. If we were just ranking the cocktails, it would have been a 5. However, we had a beer drinker in our party. The draft beer was all IPAs, sours, and stouts with one bock. Even the cans and bottles had nothing on the easy drinking lager or amber side of things. It’s not hard to drop in a non-fruit laden lager from one of our local breweries. Or just have some Heineken or Stella on hand. We got by with a bock but shouldn’t have needed to settle. ⭐4.0⭐
The service was exceptional. It was among the best service we’ve had at any roulette. 100% satisfied customers. When we talked about the beers our server recommended a can but was super clear that she would take it back and off the bill if it wasn’t in that Rouletter’s flavor profile. She also noticed we had like four bites out of the mac and cheese. She asked for feedback, which we offered, and then took it off the bill. Her personality mixed with attentiveness and professionalism really made for a great experience. ⭐ 5.0⭐
The Owl House is known for catering to folks with dietary needs and they do a good job of it. They have seating on two floors with restrooms on each. There is at least one all gender restroom! The parking on Marshall Street is pretty tough as a general rule, so show up a few minutes early as you might need to walk a few minutes from your parking spot. Overall, Rouletters rated their experience quite high – far higher than the average food rating. We attribute this to the service. When we Rouletted Lucky’s, the overall ratings were lower due to a poor service experience. I believe the opposite happened here. Rouletters loved the overall experience, the service, the brie, the drinks, and the attention to dietary needs on the menu. I will note that we worry about the sustainability of having a stellar server and terrific bartender prop up several sub-par offerings coming from the kitchen ⭐ 4.5⭐
