Ottawa Foodies

Went for a birthday dinner during the week. Service was absolutely wonderful with an entertaining waiter who knew what to recommend for people who were unsure of what to order. Cupcakes were brought as a dessert and they were kept in the kitchen until the appropriate time. There were no extra charge for bringing in our own dessert.

It's a shame that the food wasn't as good as the service. It is possible that what I ordered wasn't their forte as everyone else enjoyed their dinner. I ordered the calamari as a starter and the linguini carbonara as a main.

The calamari was plentiful and came with a cocktail sauce. However, the calamari was mushy and the coating kept felling off. The cocktail sauce was surprisingly spicy, which was a positive for me but overall the mushy calamari was disappointing. The linguini carbonara was average. There was a lot of bacon. I was a bit surprised that it wasn't pancetta. The pasta was overcooked and it was coated in this really oily buttery sauce. Overall, not bad but not great either.

My neighbours ordered pizza, caprese salad and beef tenderloin. They all enjoyed what they ordered and I regretted not ordering the beef tenderloin as well. I might try it next time and skip the pasta altogether.

Went for lunch during the week. We chose this place as opposed to a restaurant downtown as it was during the week and we figured the parking would be less of an issue. The parking lot of the complex was FULL, so we just parked on the street behind. The lunch menu has a wide range of items and price points. I had the pizza (Vittoria $17 Fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella, prosciutto, Bermuda onions and goat’s cheese) which was extremely thin crust and very delicious. I wouldn't think to put prosciutto on a pizza but it was great(although a bit hard to cut properly). The coffee is nice and rich, possibly made to order... The other patron had soup to start and then a salad and a veggie sandwhich (Veggie $9 Grilled Porobello mushrooms, zucchini, roasted red peppers and brie served with tarragon mayonnaise) I had a bite and had to agree that it was delicious too. We have made these at home before but these were way better than homemade! I like the atmosphere of the restaurant, and the service was excellent. Only one humerous problem, I thought the oil (can) she put on the table was extra coffee for some reason and poured it into my empty coffee mug, it was very funny. It was basil infused oil, but I think she must have brought it at the same time as my coffee and some reastaurants serve tea like that!

I told my friend about this place and they came here for a family dinner on his son's birthday in May. She told me that she was very pleased with the dinner and the dessert. She likes the restaurant environment and she also likes the air inside the restaurant (likely because of high ceiling). She told me that the waiter recommended Cave Spring's Riesling to go with their food and they quite enjoyed the wine.

My friend invited us for dinner last Friday (the whole place was packed on Friday night). Four of us had a great time and my friend ordered the Cave Spring Riesling for us to try (quite good!)

We ordered Caesar Salad ($8), House Salad ($7), Calamari Fritti ($9) to share before our entrée. We also like the warm breads (very fresh and yummy bread).

For the entrée, I had the Tilapia ($23) again. My friend had the veal ($24). My husband and her husband both ordered their Fettuccine Pescatore ($18). We enjoyed the food very much.

I was quite full after the entrée. So I shared the Tiramisu with my husband to complete our meal.

My Second time here and another enjoyable meal! (Sorry! no photos since I forgot to bring my camera.)

I think this was the Strip Steak ($28) that one friend ordered. I thought it was beef ribs.

This was their oven baked Salmon ($24) topped with dill creme fraiche, also served with a risotto croquette and snow peas. My husband told me it was very good.

Many of us ordered fish.

I ordered their Tilapia filet ($23), served with a risotto croquette and snow peas.

Their version of croquette is quite different than the ones I tried in other restaurants. The chef didn't use meshed potato for the croquette. Instead, the chef used rice. I like the cruncy shell outside. But one girl friend found it too hard for her teeth and didn't like it very much.

Our group of 8 went here for dinner in early November (too busy to submit my review). This restaurant was recommended by one of our friends in the group. He has tried both the downtown and Riverside locations and preferred the Riverside location (roomier with higher ceiling providing better air and comfortable environment). In addition, he came here very often for a quick takeout lunch (he told me a big sandwich only costs him $10).

Our dinner went pretty good. We enjoyed the food, the services, and the relaxing environment. With a bottle of red wine, the cost of the meal was about $60 per person. Very reasonable.

I have recommended my other friends to try this place for dinner already.

P.S. I forgot to mention that our waiter brought us a bottle of balsamic vinegar for dipping our bread in addition to the olive oil. We enjoyed our bread with balsamic vinegar very much.

Went there for lunch and was mucho impressed-o (I think that's Italian for "quite impressed.")

I agree with SteffQC's comment below: the wall of wine is a great focal point of the room, and I spent more time than I should have checking it out.

Good bread to nosh on, and the rosemary-infused olive oil they served it with for dipping was a winner.

About half of us got sandwiches, either "pollo" or vegetarian, and those that did (myself included) thought that they were delicious.

The special of the day (penne with chicken and spinach and some other things, I think?) was enjoyed by those who ordered it, and I heard no complaints from the people who ordered pasta or pizza. All-in-all, pretty good food.

The service was a bit slow, but friendly and conversational.

Since we were a party of more than six, they added a 16% tip onto each of our bills when they came out. This isn't my favourite tactic and, to be honest, I probably would have tipped a bigger percentage than what I did (I rounded up to the nearest dollar) if we didn't have it tacked on automatically like that. Maybe there are more crappy tippers out there than I thought, though!

I'd love to come back when I have a bit more time to sit, relax, sip a glass or two of wine, and really enjoy myself.

For workday lunches, though? It may be difficult to convince people to try to come back given the time it takes for us to get there and the time it took for us to eat.

I have been to Vittoria Trattoria in the market a few times, but i had never tried the Riverside location.

Upon entering, i noticed it was very nice, and the wine "wall" is very impressive. I know Vittoria has quite an extensive wine list.

Now i don't want to sound "bitchy" in this review, but one thing that i like in restaurants like this one (non-family / non fast-food) is polite and good service. I got the good service, but i got a big "hey guys! wassup?!" from the waiter when we came in. All through the time we were there, the waiter was talking to us as if we were one of his beer buddies, which is not the kind of service i like. I don't ask for a red carpet or anything, but just the basic level of client service. I don't even expect the "surfer cool" talk in fast food joints (and usually don't get it, but won't mind if i do). :)
Other than that, the service was good. (got our water, menu, bread, bill, all in good time)

The food?

Well the appetizer i had was the artichoke dip. Basically, it's a spinach and artichoke dip, served with bread. I'm forcing not to criticize prices, but 9$ for a dip can be a bit much. Still, it was very good so i don't mind it much.
The friend i was with had the "freshly diced plum tomatoes tossed in garlic herb scented olive oil on toasted bread". Maybe it's because i'm french, but is it "freshly diced" or "fresh plum tomatoes"? not sure. I had a bite and it was good. We loved both appetizers. :)

Main course:

We both went with Pasta courses. I cannot comment on what my friend took (Linguini bolognese) because i didn't taste it. He found it "average" and didn't finish the plate.

I ordered "Fettucine Natasha". I liked the sound of "smoked salmon and baby spinach in a citrus vodka cream sauce". I love smoked salmon, and i like the other ingredients, so i figured: hey, should be good!

Well it was average. It's rare that i won't finish my plate, i didn't finish this one. I found that the flavors didn't go well together. The white cream sauce did not go well with the smoked salmon. Speaking of that smoked salmon, i don't know when they smoked it, but even on its own it was so-so.

We didn't have dessert as we were going to the movies and were already a bit stuffed from the bread and half plate of pasta we had.

Now i'm not going to say this was a bad experience, because it wasn't. It was very average. But i hate going out of a restaurant and feeling like i just spent way too much on an "average" experience. The appetizers were good, the main course was so-so, the glass of wine was good, and the service was good (to a point), but i just felt like i got jipped.

I've had good experiences in the Market' Vittoria Trattoria, so next time i might just go back to that one.

Excellent food and wine. Nice decoration and good service.

I had their soup of the day which was chunky chicken soup ($7). I have to tell you that it was very very good. (The broth I tried at Murray Street restaurant just can't compare. My review of Murray Street will come when I get a chance.)

We are brought up to be very picky on soup. This chicken soup was quite like the soup we make at home (long hours of simmering the chicken bones and pork bones). I let my friend try it and she told me that my chicken soup was better than the Minestrone soup ($6) her husband ordered.

Inside the soup, there was lots of chicken meat as well. I enjoyed this chicken soup very much. Highly recommended.

We ordered few dishes from their Antipasti menu. I forgot what we ordered. Glad that I have this photo to refresh my mind.

We tried their Spinach and Artichoke Dip servied with Italian flag bread (I think it was $9 for this appetizer). It was pretty tasty.

I remember my friend once told me (via her colleague in the cooking club) that each restaurant makes money from their appetizer menu and not from the entree menu. I have to agree. For $9 (I think the price has increased to $10 in December), the profit margin is quite high.

When we go to an Italiant restaurant, our must-to-do is to order Tiramisu. Their version of Tiramisu was not bad at all. The only complaint we had was that we didn't taste any liquor from the Tiramisu. But we will still order this dessert again when we are here for dinner next time.

Both my friend's husband and my husband ordered the Fettuccine Pescatore. They told me they enjoyed the pasta very much. (Glad that the price remained to be $18).

Two friends ordered their Fettuccine Pescatore ($18), mixed with tiger shrimp, scallops, mussels and red peppers in a garlic and red wine tomato sauce.

It looked good. But I forgot to ask them for their comments.