Oro Dhaka — Restaurant in Dhaka Metropolitan

I have been seeing reviews about Oro all over social media and you bet this was one of the place I wanted to try for a while. So I went there with my friends and we picked the dishes that stood out the most to us and that was the their Oro holey burger, French toast and the chicken fideau. Firstly the ambience of the place is absolutely beautiful and you can feel the relaxing environment the moment you walk in. The décor of the place is minimalistic which also adds to the relaxing mood of the restaurant. The servers are very professional and helpful. Now, the big question, how’s the food? I will give an A plus for the decor as every dish were presented beautifully. However, I was very underwhelmed when it came down to the taste of the food. Other than the burger, which I frankly enjoyed as it was a decent burger, it still made me ponder, was it worth the 800 taka price tag though? It was a decent burger yes, but that’s all it was. And when reaching to the middle of the burger while eating I noticed some parts of the patty were incredibly salty which perhaps could be due to not properly mixing the ingredients during preparation. The french toast looks glorious of course but it was again super basic and nothing extraordinary for the amount it was being charged (600+). Now coming to the last and definitely the worst dish lol, the chicken fideau. It was basically fried noodles with four small pints of that white creamy sauce and some chicken cubes. My friend took this dish and while eating, to our unfortunate surprise, she found a strand of hair in the fideau. I mean none of us mind a hair or two in food at home but hey, given the price and location of the restaurant, a proper hygiene should’ve been a given right? Anyways my friend chose not to make a fuss about this, and I will not be cutting a star off my review for this either. But yes the chicken fideau, how did it taste? It reeked off seafood. None of us could figure out what could’ve been the reason for the awfully fishy smell coming off it but well we aren’t fideau experts so it could’ve been an essential ingredient required to make fideau? Basically what I’m saying is if fideau go to Oro (don’t mind my pun), you might want to skip this dish. Take the burger, it is incredibly pricey yes but like I said it is decent and maybe a good treat to give yourself once in a lifetime while you internally cry about your financial choices. Overall, I will still recommend the place if you want to experience the fine brunch or dining life. Will come back again for the “wallet friendly”...

The expectations about this place was much higher than what we have received.. their menu changed from what was available online and some of the items we wanted to order from the previous menu was not there anymore.. some of the looks and sides of a few items are now different than before..

The scallops with mushrooms was absolutely amazing. It is the only reason I'd even go back to this place. The quantity was plenty for 2 people and even good enough for 3 people and we thoroughly enjoyed it.. there's no recreating this dish.. the snowfish with miso was also excellent, but felt greasy and the sides can be either more or none at all.. the seafood carbonara lacked seasoning but is still good choice for those who are into good cheesy pasta.

The rest of the meal was ranged everything between good to poor.. the salmon tartare was okay; the quantity they gave is quite a lot again, and very highly appreciated. The look of the steak tartare changed for the third time, it used to come with a side of bone marrow then double steak tartare and now it comes with a rather sad sides of chips/crisps and grilled potatoes.

The key lime tart was the worst thing ever on the menu.. they should take it off the menu if they can't give the proper thing.. it was bitter, there was just too much lemon zest and it was anything but a dessert.. I wanted to send it back to the kitchen.. the drinks also felt overpriced because none of them were any signature drink.. I had the lemon mint; there was no mint and it was bad enough to not be able to finish..

The servers,, some are good, some aren't.. the one who took our order was a good guy,, he advised well and was helpful,, but later the people who came by did not give hospitable vibe.. so it's a bit of luck..

Overall,, I'd come back just for some of the starters and order them double if need be.. definitely no drinks...

A beautiful space, with beautiful dishes that deliver on flavour and technique. However, consistency of flavour and textural execution could use some improvement in certain areas.

I’m back in Dhaka after a few years and have been told by many friends that ORO is one of the best restaurants in the city. However, I’ve also been warned that there are only specific dishes to order, as some are underwhelming in flavour or overpriced in terms of value.

In the end, for 3 people we ordered 4 apps and 2 mains and found it to be the perfect amount of food. The star of the show were the scallops - perfectly cooked with a cream sauce steeped in a deep mushroom flavour. The snapper ceviche was refreshing and delivered on acidity and textural contrast. The shrimp gambas however was overcooked, and was saved only in part due to the flavour-packed sauce. The mushroom stir fry dish is beautifully cooked and plated, with a sauce that has touches of sweet and soy driven saltiness.

The remaining dishes of the mountain salt chicken and braised sea bass were tasty, but did not match the depth of flavour of the appetizer dishes. By all means though, the cooking technique was spot on (crispy skin on chicken and tender flesh on fish).

The biggest let down of the evening were the fries, stale in texture they tasted as though they had been par-fried several hours ago, only to be heated up again for us when ordered. Definitely not fresh, and not meeting my craving for a salty crunch bomb. They LOOK much better than they taste.

All in all I enjoyed my meal at ORO, but would explore a few more restaurants in the city first before returning again, and when I am back, I’ll likely order two servings of...