*Photos by Chris Jensen
Originally published in the VC Reporter 12/30/2010
Big Buddha Lounge
530 Ventura Ave.
Oak View
$2-$10
Driving up to Big Buddha Lounge in Oak View felt almost illicit. I was simultaneously flooded with memories of the Hilltop Bar that previously occupied its building since 1945, and terribly curious about the huge black Buddha head by the front door. It felt exhilarating to drive to Oak View as a destination to visit this new, chic, furniture-lounge meets restaurant, wine-and-beer-bar experience.
Inside, the lounge is island exotic, filled to the brim with Balinese furniture, wooden lounges with throw pillows and a variety of chairs and tables. A bar to the right features carved wooden barstools shaped like large cupped hands. The walls are hues of green, and twig ball pendant lamps cast subdued light as surf music and blues twang over the speakers.
On pretty days you can sit on the huge porch outside that wraps around the back of the building, where the owners are planning to host a dozen or so larger music shows each year. Otherwise, smaller acts are being featured in the intimate funky interior.
All the furniture and accessories are samples of what they sell on their website, so if you are hungry or thirsty or needing furniture, or particularly if you desire all three, this might just be your lucky location.
The drink list is ever-evolving but ours featured fresh juices, including coconut water, served in the shell; wines like Pillsbury Wildchild Crop Circles Blends and Casa Baranca’s Pink Moment Blended Rosé; and a selection of beers from a variety of destinations like Thailand, Mexico, Hawaii, Tibet and Colorado. The drink menu isn’t large but it’s varied and intriguing.
Similarly, the food menu is small but fun. There are salads, flatbreads, skewers, coconut rice and one dessert.
Everything is reasonable to the point that you’ll want to try a few options and share. My favorite part of the menu is that each entree skewer comes with a different salad that complements it, so by ordering all three skewer entrees, we also got to sample all three salads, dipping sauces and coconut rice for $30, which equals about 90 percent of the menu.
Our drinks arrived and we first tried a Lhasa, the first beer allowed to be exported out of Tibet.
We both loved this all-malt lager and the art on its label, but I’ve since discovered some are boycotting it. Google if you, too, are intrigued.
We also tasted the Red Nectar Pale Ale from Paso Robles. It had a sweet, caramel/fruity scent and first note, then a strong bitter finish. Our mouths were just starting to wake up as our food arrived.
Each plate looked beautiful and simple, and the shrimp were skewered on flat pieces of sugarcane. Each dish came with a pristine mound of subtle, tender, white coconut rice sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds, a unique dipping sauce (made in-house) and a bowl of salad.
The shrimp had a chili-lime dipping sauce and was accompanied by Big Buddha’s Pacific Caesar salad, which has a wee wasabi kick to its dressing.
The four large shrimp were well-seasoned and perfectly cooked. The chili-lime sauce was sweet and tart with a slight hint of fish oil. The romaine Caesar with toasted flatbread croutons was cool and crunchy, and the wasabi presence was just enough to lightly notice.
The chicken satay skewers featured flattened grilled chunks of tender chicken and a smoky, spiced peanut sauce. The chicken was also perfectly cooked, very tender and more mildly seasoned, which gave us the excuse to use more sauce. Its Uluwatu salad (named after a Balinese temple), of fresh mixed greens, diced tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, shallots, cilantro and coconut flakes, was tossed with a sesame dressing. The light coconut sweetness and the sesame dressing gave this salad a delicate sweetness that complemented the chicken satay. This was my companion’s favorite salad.
Finally, the beef satay skewers were served with the Big Buddha salad and a teriyaki dipping sauce. In contrast to the other dishes, the beef was tough and chewy. The teriyaki sauce was delicious, and the Big Buddha salad was by far my favorite. It had fresh mixed greens, diced mango, green onion, slivers of jicama, napa cabbage and crispy noodles served with the in-house green goddess dressing, featuring avocado. It was such crunchy fun and had so many different flavors; I almost forgot the chewy beef. The tender coconut rice was very subtle and combined well with each of the dishes.
We also sampled the Pineapple Express flat bread and the Monkey Forest banana rolls as our two sweeter items. The flatbread looked intriguing – Christmas-colored triangles of red and green with hints of yellow pineapple.
It was crunchy and thin. It featured pesto, pineapple, Thai basil, cilantro, roasted red peppers, mozzarella and smoked Gouda. For me, the idea of the flavors was, on the whole, good, but the way they layered tasted sludgy. The pesto was heavy and not very flavorful and sank into the flatbread, making it dense. The smoked Gouda also lent a heavier note, and the roasted red peppers just sort of squeaked around the fresh chunks of grilled pineapple. I think this dish should be reworked.
Unfortunately, I feel the same about the official dessert of the menu — Monkey Forest banana rolls.
It was billed as banana chunks wrapped in spring rolls that are grilled and drizzled with hot chocolate. But the bananas weren’t even warm, the spring roll wrapper was just a hard shell around them with a couple of grill marks, and the cup of chocolate dipping sauce tasted like Hershey’s out of the can. Disappointing and far from what the fun decadence I imagined when I ordered.
Our meal was fun, and the adventure of driving to Oak View for the new hot destination made it an adventure. As we left, a younger crowd looking for beer was filtering in. I applaud the conceptual aspect of this furniture lounge/restaurant that is starting slow with a small, select menu, but I want that small menu to be a home run.
If they can work out the kinks and build on their strengths, it could be a little go-to getaway full of fun and ambience. I look forward to watching how the exotic future of Big Buddha and Oak View unfolds.
