Ottawa Foodies

Had dinner here again last week. I tried the pizza for the first time and agree with Marno that it's subpar. I don't recommend it.

The lentil/tomato soup of the day was great though.

So, we tried Caffe Ventuno at Il Negozio Nicastro on Friday night. I've always thought it looked cute, I've often had the sandwiches from Bottega Nicastro in the market, and I've read great reviews here, so I figured it would be a slam dunk.

Not quite. The atmosphere was funky and hip, though not cozy -- no complaints there. Our server was as nice as could be -- again no complaints. But the food... blah. We both started with salads -- I, the mixed, and my husband, the Caesar. The mixed salad was your regular garden variety, nice veggies, barely there rasberry vinaigrette. Wholly bland. The Caesar was a blend of romaine, powdered parmesan, some pancetta bits and croutons. A very nondescript, non-garlicky and without anchovies, salad oil "caesar" dressing. Again, bland.

My husband ordered the orichiette, with pancetta, parmesan, peas and probably some other ingredients. Sounded fab, and the waiter proclaimed it his "favourite on the menu". I ordered a pizza, can't recall the name, but it had goat's cheese, mozzarella, sundried tomatoes and arugula on it. It was a female name.

Anyhow, the pasta was incredibly bland, and sitting in a brothy sauce. I found the lack of quality ingredients, such as a quality shaved parm or a decent olive oil (tasted like canola), inexcusable. It was a simple dish that could be incredible with quality ingredients, but was not.

My pizza was fine insofar as the toppings -- though again, bland. However, I took real issue with the crust. A true Neapolitan pizza, which is what they are clearly striving for, should have a crispy, bubbly, wood-burnt, almost crackery crust. This was a mushy, soft, doughy, floury thin crust. Completely ruined it.

The food was a real disappointment. The only exception was the bread we were served, which was soft yet crusty, seemed freshly baked, and had little cloves of roasted garlic embedded in the bottom -- awesome.

We tipped our waiter generously as he was truly and earnest, honest and nice character. But for sure we will not be back -- truly unremarkable Italian food posing as regional and artisanal, but merely achieving what the local chain might offer -- just in more delicate presentation and surroundings.

I had dinner here tonight and ordered strictly off the special menu. We ordered the zucchini fritters w/ spicy feta dipping sauce to start with the vino novello. The fritters were crisp on the outside and nice and flavourful on the inside, they had grated zucchini, carrot and maybe some onion in there. They were perfectly seasoned, and plentiful for an antipasti. The wine was very fruity, smelled faintly of banana (!), and was very lightly acidic. This complemented my SO's fish stew nicely to offset the spiciness and warmth of the smoked paprika. The stew contained some root vegetables, snapper, fennel, and was a fish broth tomato base sauce which was very rich in flavour. I ordered the pizza with white sauce, mozzarella, chicken, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and sage. All was delicious, and the pizza was probably one of the best I've had in Ottawa since La Pergola went way downhill (are they even in business anymore?). The service was attentive without being intrusive, offering comments on the menu selections we made where appropriate (especially when selecting the vino novello since it's not for everyone). The atmosphere was very cool at night, they had some funky music playing and the lighting was very romantic; a total transformation from it's daytime feel. It reminded me a lot of dining out in Montreal, actually. The portions were generous too, which is unfortunate since they had a cheese plate that I wanted to try as an after dinner treat... but had no space to do so! Oh well. Next time, hopefully.

Highly recommended.

I enjoyed a nice dinner at Caffe Venuto (Westboro location) last Friday with a group of eight. We ordered appetizers as a group and I was able to sample several items: calamari, zucchini fritters (special), sausages and the antipasto platter. All very good. There is enough variety in the appetizers that you could have a satisfying meal without even touching the mains.

I followed that up with a plate of rigatoni bolognese. For some reason I was expecting a rich, meaty sauce but what arrived was more subtle, with the sauce just coating each piece of rigatoni and enough bits of meat to make every mouthful delicious.

The three kinds of bread we were served throughout the meal were all excellent. My girlfriend and I shared a bottle of Valpolicella, the cheapest on the list but it did the trick. I had a coffee with a shot of Frangellico for desert.

I really like this place, the atmosphere especially. It's attached to the grocery store so you can even have items added to your bill when the store itself is closed! A nice little convenience.


(Fresh Foodie, I wonder if Caffe Venuto shouldn't get its own entry?!)

Had dinner at Caffe Ventuno tonight. Very good! I would recommend the calamari; it is nice and crispy and not at all rubbery. I also tried a new pizza they are thinking of adding to their fall menu. It had chili flakes, olive oil, roasted red peppers, goat cheese and kalamata olives on a flatbread-like crust. I liked the flavours a lot and would order it again. mendel had a new potential appetizer (fried fennel cakes) which we both liked, but thought perhaps the fennel could be sliced a bit thinner before breading and frying. He also had a chicken pasta he enjoyed as well.

I frequently pick up fresh pasta and sauce at the Glebe location, when we're too tired to pull out the pasta maker and the dried stuff isn't going to cut it.

The best thing I've found though is the bread. At least the one that I've tried, which is their garlic loaf. Inside the bread is light, soft and studded with roasted cloves of garlic. Outside it is golden, crusty and flecked with parsley. Yum!

They have a wide variety of imported olive oils, even two selections of "bottle your own". I beg fellow Ottawa foodies to blow a little cash on some higher quality stuff to taste the difference, it's incredible.

They have a few varieties here of imported and domestic prosciutto... it's very good quality and they slice it correctly here.

Again, a varied selection of authentic balsamic vinegars. I believe they offer a "bottle your own" version of decent balsamic here as well, to accompany their excellent olive oils.

They sell a variety of italian chocolates here, most notably the Tuscan brand, Amadei.