Ottawa Foodies

This is one of my favourite places in the entire city. The service is laid back and the style of ordering is difficult to get the hang of the first few times you go. On the restaurant side; you first pick what you want then go to the cafe counter and order, give your name and sit down. Then the food prep guy/girl calls your name and you go get whatever utensils you need and your food. Its more a Montreal style of restaurant. If you want there is a water jug at the side counter that you can get up and serve yourself. On the grocery side you just go up to the front cash and order what you want.

The service is laid back, but that is part of its hippie charm (on more than one occasion my order guy has been high). I love the quality of food and the healthy aspect. It doesn't sacrifice flavour for health which is a problem at other health-food stores (The green door). My personal favourites are the El Oaxaca and the Wild Card. If you don't like cilantro make sure to tell order person. I also recomend the cafe au lait (not so much the cafe latte) or the cappuccino. My spouse loves the Mango Lassey smoothie with any form of crepe.

Warning: Rant Below!
Last night we were in the Glebe to pick something up and then were on our way to go skating. Mr. KSW was starving so we decided to go into Wild Oat to get something to eat. We figured: fast, cheap and healthy right?

We have been into Wild Oat many times before but only to the take out side where we have bought bread and grocery items, so this time we wander over to the restaurant side.

The menu board is located at the back of the room right above and behind the station where the food is prepared. We walked over and were looking over the menu and then asked the guy preparing the food if we were to order from him or sit down and someone would serve us?
Before the poor guy said a word, to our right, a guy near the cash rudely interrupted me and said in a very sarcastic voice something to the effect of "Hello, you are supposed to order over here, that's why I am standing here!"
To which I replied "Obviously, we don't know what the procedure is since we have never eaten here, otherwise I wouldn't have asked him...."
Seriously - if we were regulars, would we need to ask what the drill was? So instantly I was on edge and a little pissed. But we gave our orders anyways (two grilled sandwiches with salad) and went to sit at a table. No further procedural instructions were given so I assumed they brought your food to your table.
After watching the prep guy organise a few plates, I noticed he would put them up on the counter and call out the name of the customer whose order it was and then that person would go up and get their food. I remarked to Mr. KSW that no one had asked us our names.
After about 20 minutes we still were not called up and there were only 3 other tables full in the place and they were all eating. Then the prep guy started walking around, wiping the counters, stirring soup. We thought that was a bit strange.

Then two more people came in, ordered their food and sat down and in about 10 minutes their food was called. Then I realised something did not make sense so I went up to the food prep guy (Mr. Sarcastic was not around) and told him that we had been waiting 30 minutes and had not gotten our food. He looked at his order papers and asked what our name was - I said that the guy had never asked our names!!!! He did not look pleased, apologized and asked what we had ordered. I told him - veggie pate sandwich with salad and roasted beet sandwich with salad. He wrote them both down and then repeated them back to me and said he would make it right away.

Mr. Sarcastic then comes out from the back, Mr. Prep points to us and they have a discussion and then Mr. Sarcastic comes over to our table to apologise and say that it's his fault as he guesses he forgot to give Mr. Prep our order (WHAT??) and then proceeds to offer us a free beverage. We each accept one and wait for our food. By this time Mr. KSW looks like he is going to kill and eat the next living creature that walks by our table.

Finally Mr. Prep brings us our food (because he still never asked us our names). On each of our plates are a tiny sandwich and a miniscule pile of salad. We paid $10 each for this plate of food. The final insult comes when I open my sandwich and there is NO veggie pate in it. Only lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrots and red onions and some tahini. At this point I could not be bothered to say anything so we quickly ate the food (which was good) and left.

One of the WORST experiences I have had in a while and we will certainly never eat there again.

I have had a wide array of experiences at the Wild Oat - from good to downright awful. Good experiences such as the sweet smell of cinnamon buns in the morning, awesome greek pizzas at luch and yummy rice milk latte's. The bad though is sooo bad. I have developed food allergies after eating there regularly. There is a particular taste in all their food that a lot of people agree you just can't ignore after a while. One head baker didn't believe I was getting oral hives from eating their hazelnut spread so on one occasion asked me to close my eyes and open my mouth. Much to my delight I had a mouthful of hazelnut spread in my mouth and had to endure 3 hours of hives! I also have found the sexual harrassment at the restaurant rather discomforting as well. Upset female staff members, over the top flirting, all while trying to order a latte. Well, I'm finished eating at the Wild Oat. Eating out shouldn't be a traumatic experience!

It was almost 1 in the afternoon and I happened to order the Japanese Breakfast. It comes with a huge bowl of colourful greens (and purple), hearty brown rice at the bottom and your choice of tofu or eggs all combined with sautéed onions in teriyaki sauce. It came with miso soup, which was unfortunately too watery for my liking.

I only wish I had a camera with me to show the bowl because it was just so colourful! My only complaint was there was too much of the salty sauce and the bowl was too small to do a mixing of the ingredients so the balance of the less-flavoured rice and greens contrasted much against the sauced tofu and onions.

I like how they also have a "next door" bakery as if they say, "If you like our lunch, buy some of our products for dinner!" I bought their olive bread of which I am eating right now...scrumptious.