Ottawa Foodies

Had brunch there on November 2nd. It was my first time there, and may I say I was impressed.

The service was not pushy, and overall very nice.

I ordered French toast. Not your typical French toast, though. It was three slices of egg-battered cranberry bread, accompanied by a spoonful of peaches preserves. Beside it was a nice rosti potato and some smoked pork belly. Add maple syrup to the mix and some cappuccino, and I was sold. The French toast was so good by itself, you did not need the syrup.

Before my meal, my server brought me two tiny "timbits". Wow. Hot from the kitchen, rolled in sugar, they were fantastic.

The server offered to top off my cappuccino when I was about halfway done. How thoughtful.

Plate was $12 and $3 for cappuccino. A great brunch. I will be back!

We sat in the rear patio which was really nice. Covered in grape vines and all that as mentioned in previous reviews.

I had the poutine to start. Very tasty with the shredded duck, beef chili, roast duck gravy, 3yr old balderson cheese. Very tasty but the spatzle instead of potato fries kind of makes it not poutine. And you really do need fries to soak up all the salt...

My wife had the beets which were good for beets. They're still beets though. The spiced pecans were very nice.

I had the charcuterie which people rave about. The elk salami I chose were fantastic! I can't remember which cheeses I picked but they were good. They actually have Benedictine Blue here which is from a monastery in Quebec but hard to find in Ontario. An excellent mild blue. (We didn't order it though because we stockpiled it from our last trip to the eastern townships.) Both the smoked duck and smoked ostrich took a little getting used to for me but my wife loved them. The plate was missing nuts and dried fruits which go really well with cheeses. But the olives were REAALY good and perfect for both the cheeses and meats.

My wife got the beef short ribs...oh my god!!! Melt in your mouth. The best thing we tried so far.

For dessert, she had the chocolate espresso pudding and I had the maple pie. Both were fantastic! The pudding was very rich, dark, just the right amount of sweet and bitter. The maple pie had birch syrup custard which was excellent! Was there any maple in it though? Can't remember.

We would definitely go back for the last 3 items I mentioned (they were outstanding). Service was attentive and friendly.

I had a great meal here last week with my wife. We shared a charcuterie plate to start, I had the Duck confit and she had the poutine. All the food was done really well, excellent crispiness on the confit. The service was very friendly and enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the ingredients in the dishes. I'll absolutely be going back soon.

For some reason the post I put here last week isn't displayed...anyway, I wanted to comment on the excellent service at this restaurant. I likened our servers to those career servers in Europe: they are as knowledgeable about the food as the kitchen staff, and as excited and passionate about food as the patrons are.

The food was also fantastic as others have stated. No additional comments required on that front. Excellent charcuterie as an appetizer. LOVE IT!!

Bravo Murray Street for a fantastic experience on both recent occasions that we ate dinner at your establishment. We will be seeing you again...

We dinned with another couple a few days ago and unfortunatley, although the waiter was really nice and helpfull with our food and wine pairings he kept forgeting about us and our orders.
We ordered to charcuterie to start, and the pate and cheese and the three accompanying sides were delicouse! Absolultey amazing, I will go back just to sample more of the platters.
I ordered the poutine as my appetizer to be a little adventurouse (and to spoil myslef) and the flavours were remarkable. Hats off to the chef who said, " Lets make a poutine with Old Quebec Chedder, duck gravy, duck and spaetzle".
We all ordered the Cornish Hens and although me and my partner did not enjoy the two sides at first, they easliy became delicitable after a few bites. The desserts were amazing, the Expresso Pudding and the Lemmon Merengue just hit the spot after a well rounded meal.
ALl four of us will return to this restaurent and theonly complaint we had was the service was a little laking. Like I said, he was really helpful and nice but he kept forgetibng about us and some few items we had requested.

Finally tried Murray Street. Awesome.
Wife had the charcuterie platter and loved it. The rilette terrine was a standout, as was the head cheese. I had the confit, and it was seriously one of the best I have had. I had to keep reminding myself that I was still in Ottawa. It blew away the last confit at L'Express in Montreal. Paired with the Lailey Cab Franc it was perfect. The sides of beets, fresh green beans and that tasty stuffed onion were just as good. Service was good, attentive but relaxed. All in all very impressed.

so i spoke to a friend of mine today who also went to Murray Street for lunch the same day we were there for dinner.

she said when she walked into the restaurant, it smelled bad. and she said the it smelled _burnt_!!
that's how most of our food smelled like burnt or distasteful -- the vegetarian dish, the lentils and the cauliflower in the mariposa duck.

so it is just not us who tasted the burnt in the food that day on july 25th.

hemm, now i wonder what other patrons experienced that particular day?

should we get a refund?? haha!

i told my friend the second time for us was much better. she would give it a try again.

my husband and i dined here twice within a fortnight.

so the first time around, our total experience can be graded as C-

to start off, we ordered q-cumber cocktail and beau's beer. they were very good. the beer was excellent.

for apptzr, we had the poutine with duck gravy. i am never a fan of poutine (usually is too salty to my taste) and duck either. but i wanted to be adventurous that night. and it turned to be really really good. this was no chip wagon poutine. it was gourmet poutine. no french fries but spaetzle and the most tender duck meat. it was $12.

so we really looked forward to our mains.

after going back and forth, my husband decided on the vegetarian. he was intrigued by the description. meanwhile i wanted to try something beyond chicken or fish. so i decided on the pork (st.canut farm porcelait).

the vegetarian dish was a disappointment. the eryngii mushroom was tasty but dry, the curried quinoa was bland and had bitter taste to it. the worst of all was the wheatberry-- the sauce, more like a broth was too strong in flavour, almost bitter like some sort of chinese herbal medicine. the wheatberry also tasted burnt.

my pork never came. i got mariposa duck instead. it was the server's mistake. but he offered to have it changed. since i wanted to be adventurous, i had the duck.

i was a bit fearful-- i was afraid i might dislike the taste. but it turned out to be good. the duck was so tender, the skin was crispy. the meat just fell off the bone. the lentils and roasted cauliflower were mediocre. they didn't add to the duck at all. i ate them anyways, didn't want to waste them.

our server was very serious looking, not friendly and cold. maybe because we had changed our seats two times upon arrival. the first time was due to cigarette smoke from an adjacent diner and the second time was due to the baby car seat (our 5 month old baby was there too) took up too much space on the bench. finally he sat us down at a table for 4. the server tried to be polite to us at first but i thought he got annoyed with us eventually because we were slow at deciding our order. we were busy chatting with the people at the next table. we just wanted to relax. he came back a couple times and we weren't ready to order. and i think he had with us at that point. he was nice about changing the duck for the pork but no apology. he should have repeated our order before walking away.

anyway, we weren't sure if we were going back but we loved the patio so much that we were willing to give it a second try. plus many people raved about it and we thought we were just unlucky that evening.

so we will be back with part 2.

Agree with Momomoto that this is a great new restaurant. We went as a group of 4 on a Friday eve at 8 pm. Sat on the patio which is cosy and one of the best patios in the city. They even use the grapes on the vines in the duck recipe:)

We also started with the charcuterie - 4 of us shared 3 cheeses - the Riopelle (soft cheese, great flavor, definitely would repeat), Allegretto (hard cheese, very mild and probably would have been better if eaten without bread), and Back 40 Lanark bluecheese (in honour of the Highland Games on this weekend, wonderful, not overly 'blue' with complex herby flavours I could not identify). Also had 2 meats - the venison-hazelnut terrine was sublime and will always be repeated, and the elk pate met mixed reviews. I found it too rich and pasty but others liked it. Enjoyed all with a reisling from Lailey, in Niagra-on-the-lake, which was gone by the time we finished the appetizer.

The mains selection has already changed slightly from the earlier post. The server, who was very friendly and happy to tell us a bit of the history of the chef, owners and food selections, said the menu can change daily.

I had the Mariposa duck...agree, one of the best confits I have had and so tender you did not even need a knife to eat it. Came with a side of stuffed red onion with wild rice and goat cheese...very creative and could have licked the plate:)Others all enjoyed their choices also.

Portions were a nice size (I think some people might find them too small if going for 'quantity over quality') and we like to have room for dessert. We shared 2 of the 'lemon meringues' between the 4 of us (Frozen lemon bavarian, burnt marshmallow, gingersnap crust)..again divine. The only thing I did not love was the coffee. I think they use a dark roast and we found it a bit too bitter and I had to ask for extra hot milk for my capp to tone it down a bit.

With a second bottle of wine for the main meal - Carneros Pinot Noir from Waterstone,another hit, the bill before tip, was $70 per person....well worth the price. We will be visiting them again many times I am sure.

And, finally, the Porcelait: pork loin with espresso BBQ sauce, crispy smoked confit pork leg, apple jelly, and potato gnocchi "pasta salad".

This is the one that I ordered, and that espresso BBQ sauce is *killer*. I wasn't too taken by the gnocchi, but I think that's a product of it being in a "pasta salad". It wasn't so off-putting that I'd never order it again.

So food for five people, with a charcuterie plate, three small plates, five mains, and drinks aplenty, ended up being about $70 per person after tax and tip. I can hardly wait to go back. I could eat nothing but charcuterie and duck confit and be one happy panda. I can't guarantee everything that I tried is going to be on the menu when you go, though. They're still putting recipes through the paces.

Thus concludes my spamming of the "Buzz" section. Happy trails!