Ottawa Foodies

I realized today that the Carling location is likely so popular because the cashier is drop dead gorgeous and she has a pleasant manner. And to their credit, the guys dishing out food are affable too.

Such are the non-foodie factors that can spell success or disaster for a food vendor! ;-)

The hummus here is particularly top notch! Creamy and rich, with a perfect balance of lemon and garlic. I had an order for a light supper before a movie. They offer you 1 or 2 pitas with it -- 2 is barely enough even if you scoop big. I can't imagine someone eating all that hummus with only one pita. You'd need a spoon!

This place is just around the corner from me and for some reason I never have enough time to head down for a good cup of coffee.
La Brulerie is a charming little coffee shop in Hull accross the street from Theatre de L'Ile.
The coffee is very fresh and their lattes are amazing. I love stopping in just for a minute to unwind.
There is a lovely little caged bird in the corner that will chirp to you in the morning, it always makes my day.

As well, la brulerie is also a coffee shoppe, if your bodum breaks or you need a new coffee maker (or anything else coffee or tea related) this is a great place to go.

To see a full review head over to www.harringtons.ca .

Great question!
I was too focused on the food to remember the flooring. I remember looking outside a lot and thinking the neighbourhood needed work to match the restaurant.
The atmosphere did feel a little 'cottagey', no sexy dim lighting, or elegant curtains or anything. Comfy though.
The food distracts you I guess!

I went here on Canada Day. The place was just a little over half full, which was good because I wanted to get away from the crowds downtown.

Dishes ordered were the shrimp rice wraps, shrimp spring rolls, a seafood rice noodle pho and a beef rice dish.

The food was average for a Viet place. Nothing bad at all, but nothing mind blowing -- good broth if a bit on the mild side. The soup bowls are a bit smaller than some of the places that have those giant vats (that I love so).
The quality of the beef, although nicely flavoured, was sub-par. Not sliced thinly enough and tough and gristly in spots.

Service was a bit lacking: no water refills unless you flagged someone down.

Stuff did come out quickly though, which was a plus.

Now that I've been here twice, I know my preference is Pho Bo Ga, just a few steps away on Lebreton.

To do ribs at home, I suggest heading over to Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn's website:

www.amazingribs.com/

This ex-weed smoking 'Hedonism Evangelist' has helped me take ribs (and Pulled Pork) to a new level.

He is a regular judge at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue.

He has written hundreds of articles about food and drink for consumers as a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, and scores more for Restaurant Hospitality magazine.

He hosted the Food & Drink Network on America Online for nine years, and has taught at Cornell University's famous Hotel School in Ithaca, NY, and at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago.

HE KNOWS HIS STUFF !!

OMG...this has to be the worst restaurant in Ottawa !!! We went for lunch on a saturday. The waiter brought water in dirty glasses. We asked for clean glasses and he came back 20 minutes later with new glasses that he said that he cleaned himself....they still had lipstick all over them. The food was garbage and at an outrageous price. The service was terrible. The "salad bar" with 6 items was also terrible. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY !! There are too many good restaurants to choose from.

Does anyone know the scoop on the Eclectic Noodle? Did they close to renovate and then open under a new name or is it a completely different restaurant now?

This is one of my favourite Vietnamese eating spots.

I was introduced to this restaurant by a vienamese co-worker about 2 years ago He recomended the fried noodle dish. #42 on the menu.
I never fail to order it every time I go.

When on Elgin street I have gone into the Mayflower Restaurant. The decore is small town kitsch but not off putting.

On Canada Day we went into this restaurant to get a simple meal for our family in a quiet environment. The food was adequate and the service was quick and friendly.

However when the bill came we found that we had been overcharged because they tacked on many things that were represented to be included in the meal.

Also $3 for a child's Cranberry Juice is excessive.

When talking to the manager garnered no results it soured the whole experience.

I will not be back.

Renamed this from Roses Cafe to Diwali Indian Cuisine.

The thin crust was reminiscent of Pizza Hut thin crust, or 'Edge' pizza. It has an almost cracker like crust with slightly less sauce than a regular pie. I'd order this again over the regular crust style.

Had some people over for Canada Day celebrations and decided to try out the new Domino's on Merivale. This was my first experience with the chain, save a slice of pepperoni I had once as a child on vacation (my foodie memory bank at work). We ordered 2 pies - one thin crust vegetarian, and one italian sausage/onion on regular crust.

Italian sausage/onion pictured on right - I liked the ample toppings and cornmeal crust. I wasn't fond of the tomato sauce. I know it's chain pizza but man was it ever fake tasting and really sweet.

When summer is here in Ottawa, it would be difficult to get a table at Chu Shing or Yangtze on the weekend. This is because most of the wedding banquets take place in Ottawa's biggest Chinese restaurants.

So, it is nice to have a good Chinese restaurant in the Kanata area.

The dishes we ordered last night were all consumed by my boys. My young son also asked me the name of the dishes so that he can bring his friends here for dinner and try out Chinese food.

The service here is always excellent! The server is experienced and this makes the difference!

We normally like to order the salted and spicy shrimps. Good dish to go with rice.

Also a good job on their crispy deep-fried chicken! This dish is normally ordered when my boys are having dinner with us. Who say "No" to crispy chicken!

Again, this crispy beef with sesame seeds was excellent! Good portion size. I should say that this dish is one of their chef's trademark dishes. Thumbs-up!

I don't know why I went back to this restaurant for lunch again. I think there were two reasons: (1) my friends told me that they tried their dinner few times lately and were quite pleased
(2) I wanted to give them another chance (I understand that restaurant has its good or bad day).

Well, after today's lunch, this restaurant has been taken off my list.

Service
We normally don't expect good service at Chinese restaurant. But the restaurant only has one server for the whole dining area. She didn't know the menu. She can't make any recommendation. She was rude and made us feel that we owed her money. She didn't refill our teaspot for hot water. We laughed when a Canadian customer got up to pick up the menu herself.

The food
The food was terribly tasteless and bland. We ordered the following dishes:
1. Fried Noodle with Shredded Pork, Chicken, Mushroom and Bean Sprout (三絲炒麵)
2. Fried Rice Noodle with Beef in Soya Sauce (干炒牛河)
3. Noodle in Soup with crab meats (鴻圖窩面)
4. Yang Chow Style Fried Rice (揚州炒飯)
5. Braised Deep Fried Noodles (干燒伊面)

I have to tell you that none of the dishes ordered were good. They tasted terrible! My sons told me that my food at home tasted better than each of the dishes and asked me why we came here to waste money.

The Fried flat rice noodle was lumped together (a good chef's #1 technique on this dish is to make sure that the flat noodle are completely separated). Don't know if the dishes were cooked by their appentice chef.

The shredded pork in #1 dish was like some leftover meat.

The Char-Siu in the fried rice was definitely some leftover cut from the edge. The owner really know how to cut cost.

The #3 noodle in soup was a real joke. I never know you can put some crab/corn/egg white/corn starch sauce mixture on top of a noodle soup. I can live with sauce on top of rice. But not on soup noodle. This was my first time to eat noodle soup like this! Worst, the broth for the noodle was clear water. (Chicken bones are cheap and the chef even didn't bother making any broth for soup noodles.) I do feel that the chef failed to deliver what Chinese food is about.

Anyway, most of the dishes we ordered were not consumed. However, I saw some of the non-noodle dishes ordered by other customers did look good. This led me to wonder if the noodle dishes were cooked by the appentice chef and not the chief chef.

A group of us dined at Trella this weekend. The calamari are out of this world. The salmon tartar is excellent (some avocado and pear served with it). great pizza. Lamb is so tender. Very enjoyable evening.

It is the best bread by far. I absolutely love the black olive bread. Just lightly toast it and spread a little butter, and have a cuppa of coffee with it---- it makes me feel like in Paris!

I try not to consume so much white flour but this one is hard to give up.

The cheese bread with chives and something else(was it jalapeno?) is good too!

I am craving for it now but the nearest store where i usually get it from is closed today.

Does anyone have a full list of where else i can get Art-is-in Bakery bread (especially in the Ottawa East area)?

Thanks in advance.