The Firehall Bistro is located at 34881 97th Street in a small town of Oliver in the Okanagan Valley known for it’s many wineries and award winning wines. Oliver is also known as the Wine Capital of Canada.


Driving through Oliver you can’t miss the Firehall Bistro. Is is located right on main street. The building used to be old firehouse hense the name.


I wrote a review about my dining experience at FIREHALL BISTRO in February 2010 on EzineArticles.


Few months later I received this comment from the owner/chef: “hello, I would like you to remove your old outdated review of my bistro,and invite you to come back and check out our new menus and staff, as everything you said in your review has been changed, come have a meal on us and see!!!


I responded the following day and took him up on his offer…..I never heard from him again….


Last night I decided to give the Firehall Bistro another try….if you read my review you know that I did not give Firehall Bistro bad or damaging review….I always express my honest opinion in the most positive and respectful way I can





Honestly, I was little taken back…..the original wine bar & grill featuring local wines and produce kinda turned into burger & beer place (there is nothing wrong with that).


I did notice few changes….$6.95 Children’s Menu now includes bottomless pop and little dessert.However I was disappointed to see that if you are a health conscious parent and don’t like your small children drinking pop you must spend $3.00 extra to order milk or juice offered as extras on Children’s menu.


The menu at Firehall Bistro didn’t change much….they added few more pub & family favorites and kept most of their more sophisticated dishes like Pork Vol au Vent….Seafood Neptune….Escargot


We started our meals with few appetizers…..Caesar Salad….Potato Skins….Escargot


Caesar Salad was fresh, but little small for $9.25. The menu stated that it was made with homemade dressing which I was not a fan of, but my kids enjoyed it.


Potato Skins (usually one of my favorite pub foods) were very dry with a thick burned bottom layer.I could eat only one. My starving teen finished most of them while saturating them in sour cream and salsa to get some taste.


Escargot were the best dish of the night….I didn’t share any….I ate them all and almost licked the baking dish…definitely a winner.


After the appetizers my always hungry teenager ordered Double Patty Firehall Burger with Fries….it was huge….delicious…done to perfection and great deal for $10.95


My little one ordered Fettuccini Alfredo from the Children’s menu….it was bigger portion then I expected….he enjoyed it very much (took half of it home). The best part of his meal according to him was his dessert….Worms in Dirt (his favorite eating out dessert).


I decided to try Pork Vol au Vent (medallion pork tenderloin sauteed with fresh mushrooms and garlic with white wine & cream demi glaze sauce served in a puff pastry shell). Pork was tender and juicy, but the sauce was very salty (I love salt) and the puff pastry was soggy and not very flaky.


Overall our dinner was pretty good…..1 very bad dish….2 mediocre dishes….3 excellent dishes.


The service was a huge improvement from last time we visited Firehall Bistro….our waitress was very friendly, helpful and fast.


I will definitely go back to The Firehall Bistro, but next time I will stick with the pub favorites oppose the more sophisticated dishes.


One more thing….I appreciate your time to read this post and I hope you will come back, but I also love COMMENTS like everyone else so go ahead and let me know how am I doing. I would love to hear from you.


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UPDATE:
Few hours ago my girlfriend treated me to a lunch at no other then The Firehall Bistro. Against my better judgement we ordered Potato Skins ( I believe in second chances) and ……they were fabulous…..just the way they should be. It’s amazing what a huge difference a cook makes.

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