Riviere Modern Banh Mi

Riviere is an asian fusion restaurant in Midtown that serves up all sorts of unique twists on banh mi and other dishes! We stopped in for a late lunch not too long ago to try this place out. Moving from Seattle, which is practically the asian food capital of the west coast, we knew it would be challenging to find all of the delicious asian dishes we love! We hoped that this place would bring us closer to the food we love and miss dearly.

We started with an order of their Gangnam Style Fries ($12.25). This starts with fries topped with juicy bulgogi, beer cheese fondue and scallions – you can also add a fried egg or kimchi to step up your fry game. The bulgogi on these was pretty good – tender, sweet and spicy, but the beer cheese was a bit much. Overall the dish was really heavy and needed something to lighten it up. I don’t think the beer cheese paired very well with the bulgogi – I think ditching the cheese and opting for a spicy mayo would be a more rounded choice. I would give these a 6/10. I was more hopeful for the banh mi and opted to try the Churricane. This comes with grilled flank steak, pickled carrots, cucumbers, jalapeno, cilantro, aioli and a side of their asian chimichurri sauce. The chimichurri sauce was really good and helped add so much flavor, but on its own, the banh mi was seriously lacking. It was dry and the steak didn’t have much flavor. The pickled carrots were also pretty bland and lacked that crunchy acidity you need to balance all the flavors. I would also note the balance of meat to veggies was a bit off and more vegetables were needed for the freshness it was missing. I would give this a 6/10 as well. My husband got the Banh Fire – it comes with crispy buffalo chicken, pickled carrots, cucumbers, jalapenos, cilantro and aioli. The chicken was so crispy and tender with a spicy buffalo sauce. While the chicken was much more juicy than the steak, the above comments regarding the pickled carrots and vegetables remains the same. I would give this one an 8/10 though.

Overall this didn’t meet my standards coming from Seattle – so I either need to adjust my standards back down or continue looking for the best of the best in OKC! I would still go back to try their other dishes like their vermicelli or rice bowls and pho! Check out their menu here.