Odd Couple is relatively small and usually busy, so I'd highly recommend making a reservation. Four hours before our 8:15 reservation, while we were still at the first venue on the crawl, we got a call from Odd Couple letting us know the menu would be changing. That immediately impressed me. They weren't waiting until we showed up to spring it on us. We had plenty of notice to adjust our expectations before we even walked through the door.
Ryan was our server and it was immediately apparent she knew the menu inside and out, including the gluten-free options. No disappearing into the kitchen to consult the ancient texts. Just answers, which I appreciate.
The space itself is deceptively cool. I would also like to know who cleans all the windows and mirrors in Saskatoon, because the mirrors at Odd Couple make the relatively small room look significantly bigger than it actually is. Combined with the lighting, the whole place has this weird optical illusion where your brain keeps insisting there's more restaurant than there actually is. After walking into a door at the hotel earlier, I was apparently already primed to distrust my surroundings.
We started with the Thai Basil Gin Sour, which was exceptionally well balanced. Nothing was trying to hijack the drink. Then came the Local Lotus, part of their seasonal rotation. Remember getting shit-faced off Combat Juice in early 2011? Leave it to Saskatoon to come up with the bougie version. Also, has anyone ever noticed how lychee and elderflower somehow taste exactly the same? I'm convinced we're all being lied to.
For an appetizer, we went with the Vietnamese spring rolls, and they were absolutely fucking delicious. Crispy, flavourful and exactly what I wanted them to be. They disappeared considerably faster than I would have preferred, which is generally a good sign for an appetizer.
When it came time to actually eat, I ordered the drunken noodles in memory of the old Original Joe's menu. Sometimes nostalgia wins, and sometimes nostalgia comes with noodles. Nat went with the lime green curry with chicken, which was probably the more sensible choice. The curry was packed with flavour and the chicken worked well with the sauce, while my drunken noodles scratched exactly the nostalgic itch I was going for. I regret nothing.
The homemade chili oil deserves its own paragraph, though. It is fucking delectable. This is the kind of chili oil that makes you start looking around the table for things that could reasonably be improved by adding more of it. There probably aren't many. That won't stop me.
Then we got into the cutlery situation.
The cutlery may not be autism-friendly. In my house growing up, my sisters and I all had a favourite spoon. My sister Angela and I had two that were almost identical, and somehow those two spoons were responsible for an unreasonable number of childhood arguments. If you got the wrong one, the rest of the household was sure to know about it.
So if you have a favourite fork, spoon or knife at home, this place may test your ability to let go. The handles are long. Johnny Sins long. If you're sensitive to the weight, shape or feel of your cutlery, you may have some thoughts. I started wondering if the fork was deliberately trying to piss me off.
And this isn't even entirely a joke in my family. Last Christmas, my family and I all took an autism screening test after some recent diagnoses in the family and the likelihood of a genetic connection. Granted, a few of us had already had a few wobblies by that point, but several family members came back with results that made us look at each other and go, "Well, that explains a few things."
So if you're sitting there thinking, "Why the fuck do I care this much about a fork?", there is actually an autism screening questionnaire available through Autism Canada (https://embrace-autism.com/autism-tests/). It's a screening tool, not a diagnosis, but autism can be difficult to identify and getting a proper assessment isn't always straightforward. So if the fork has you questioning your entire neurological wiring, at least there's a legitimate place to start.
The drinks kept getting weirder from there. The Hidden Dragon does NOT taste like tequila, which is impressive considering tequila is actually in the damn thing. The White Fox followed, and by this point I had stopped trying to predict what the next drink was going to taste like and just accepted that Odd Couple was going to keep fucking with my expectations.
Odd Couple is a small room with a lot going on. The cocktails are creative, the food has personality, the chili oil deserves its own fan club, and Ryan knew her shit.
Make a reservation. Come hungry. Bring an open mind, and if needed, emotional support cutlery.