Ottawa Foodies

I have a mixed bag of British Isle roots--but mostly at our house it was about the presentation--"scones" were a big round marked out in sections (kind of like a pizza) and biscuits were rounds--either cut out or dropped depending on which grandmother made them! They were all delicious but in one extended family they varied alot! They came in sweet/savoury with various added ingredients. As a note--I tried cheese biscuits at "Pat's Sweet Temptations" at the Carp Farmers Market--very good, but grandma & gramma (irish & welsh!) just were better (they probably used lard or bacon fat to achieve that ultimate lightness!)

I spontaneously picked up a sandwich scone today. This is the poached salmon and cucumber on a herb and onion scone. It came to over $5 which I thought was a little high for the small size of it but I don't mind paying for deliciousness!! The salmon was perfectly cooked, the cucumber was thinly shaved, and it was made with a little mayo and mixed greens. I knew I wasn't going to be dissappointed here and I definitely wasn't! Yummy yum...can't wait to try other sconewitches.

Finally got to the Scone Witch on Crichton this morning....the square scone is Cheddar and the round scone is Lemon Poppyseed (wanted to try one savoury, and one sweet). They were very flaky and light, a little different than the ones the bakery I work at make....but still yummy all the same. On their menu, they had 3 or 4 savoury selections and about 5 sweet. I was dissappointed that they didn't have Herb and Onion, Feta, or Vanilla Cream, so I had to re-choose. :(

I asked the lady if they were calling this location the "Scone Witch Takeaway", she said no but they still are tagging it this way so people don't arrive and think they can get a table and sit down like their location downtown. It is very tiny and if anyone remembers Delish that used to be there, it is renovated now and looks a little different.

Scones are wonderful - rich and crumbly, with raspberry, blueberry, strawberry or cranberry added. They usually don't make it home from the store.

Quite nice, and good for the price ($5.95 with a pot of tea), but served with canned whipped cream instead of the Devon cream you get with the $40 "high tea" at Zoe's lounge vendor 1073.

Hands down the best scones in town. Not much choice, but blueberry is my personal favorite. They are huge and cheap!

Almost like a cross between a biscuit and shortbread, these were different from the texture I'm used too, but very, very tasty, especially with a pot of earl grey tea.

Hi - I bought rasperry-scones from swissly two weeks ago: that was 2die4!! try that - really a different to the usual scones from anyone! Art-is-in was before that buy my favorite - but now: they are moved to the second place!

Monty - it's the truth, the baking powder/soda mix is unique to the scone (wiki should be updated!) And anyone who says otherwise should be tossed to a pack of rabid, feral Brits at high tea! ;)

hehe... I know Chimichimi can take it because I have nothing but respect for his knowledge! :-)

We had the scone vs. scawn debate here: ottawafoodies.com/forum/646

psst... it's "scawn" ;-)

FF that was a righteous burn on chimi, but I'll have to admit I had NO IDEA that a scone and biscuit were considered one in the same.

A quick google for recipes does yield results indicating that scones have baking soda added, but boy was I surprised to see those wikis!

Here's a better debate - is it "s'cone" or "scawn"?

Foodie: I think the major difference is that a scone contains a baking soda/powder combo, where biscuits (to me, anyway) just contain baking powder. This results in a different taste and texture. Minor differences are that scones are sweet or savoury, where biscuits are typically plain or savoury.

Martha: I definitely agree that these are probably the best commercially available scones in Ottawa, along with Scone-witch. I just would have preferred some more berry in my scone! :( I think I got a bad one, since my raspberry scone was packed with berries

Well I am by no means a scones connoisseur so my review is not very legit! These are probably the first scones i've had in a few years! Nonetheless I was very pleased with them! Chimichimi, after reading your review, thinking back they definitely weren't buttery but I was told that art-is-in bakes their stuff with a lot of oil and less butter. I guess it's just a matter of taste? Anyways, this isn't really a review but I just wanted to comment back. What makes a scone a good scone? What a weird name.

Chimichimi, to help me understand your comments can you tell me what do you consider to be the difference between scones (en.wikipedia.org) and biscuits (en.wikipedia.org)? Thanks. :-)

I had some scones from Art-is-in as well, and it's really hard to judge since my partner makes the best scones... ever. While I found the scones to be good, they were maybe a little heavy on the baking powder/soda, and not as flaky/fluffy/buttery as I like them to be. Also, the berries weren't plentiful enough in the blueberry scone I had. Overall though, very good and I'd say better than Scone-witch scones (I almost find their scones to be like a biscuit?! Am I nuts? Still good, nonetheless)

I bought the blueberry scones today from the farmers market at Lansdowne. They are to DIE for!