Ottawa Foodies

Dined at Play last night with a group of six. This is my fourth visit to Play, and I must say the reason I came back a fourth time was because I admire Stephen Beckta's cuisine. My first impression over a year ago was that the food was good and well presented, but I was not a fan of the decor. Found the baby blue walls and black furniture unappetizing. Just a personal opinion. As well, I was struggling with the small plates concept. I found some plates were easily shared and others not. Small plates that are not easily divisible can really only be shared with an intimate dining companion. It is more awkward to say to your boss "Can I have this last shrimp or do you want to cut it in half" for instance.

Anyways, last night at Play, they offered a new option that they never presented before. Our waitress (who was exceptional, friendly, knowledgeable about both the food and the wine, on the ball, and happened to have amazing green eyes) said you can choose, OR we can feed you. Sold! And feed us they did, plate after plate of beautifully plated food which they made sharable into six easily shared portions. We got to try most of the menu. The hangar steak, scallops, trout, steak tartare, and pork belly deserve special note. I would give the salmon a miss next time as it was dry and overcooked. We moved on to a cheese plate ( which had an amazing and powerful blue that was not for the beginner), then desserts and port. Our waitress was very good at observing and making sure we had enough but not to much. There was so much food I was worried about the bill. I was shocked that with wine and cocktails the bill was less than $75 per person.

Letting the restaurant feed us was a great way to experience their offerings in a small plates setting, especially with a large group.

We enjoyed another lovely evening at Play Food and Wine last night. We had two terrific bottles of wine - the Silver Oaks Cabernet that is on the menu, as well as another (I can't remember what it was) that the server found for us "in the back" after concluding from our conversation about that we enjoy fine wines.

We shared four of the small plates - the beef tartare, the wild trout, the grilled romaine, and the hanger steak. All were delicious, and served with the interesting touches that we have come to expect from Play. The trout, for example, was served over a cucumber salad that included capers and almonds - an unusual combination that worked extremely well. The hanger steak is a regular for us, and was once again excellent. My pick of the night, though, was the beef tartare, served with capers, taro chips, spicy dijon, and a bacon aioli. Delicious.

The service was, as usual, friendly and professional.

We'll be back.

The wine and cheese menus change fairly regularly and, in my experience, are both really good. There always seems to be something for everyone.

I should couch this, however, by pointing out that I've never gone for only wine and cheese, which means that I can't comment on how well the two complement one another.

I have been to Play three times now and each time the quality of the wine pairings has been flawless. Keep up the good work and the excellent food.

Hello,

I would like to do a wine and cheese tasting sessions.. I was wondering if anybody had any comments regarding the wine and the cheese menus?

thanks

Hi Mark:

Thanks so much for the review and the great feedback! I'm really happy that you enjoyed most of your dinner. I'm really sorry about the ginger side dish. We definitely owe you a good one on your next visit! Hope to see you soon,

Steve

To clarify, they did come with the tamarind sauce but their sogginess made dipping undesirable. I can imagine the texture would be fun if they were somehow crispy. To achieve that, I'd imagine the pickled ginger would need to be dried on paper towels beforehand. Ah well, it's only a side! :P

Huh! That's too bad that the pickled ginger tempura didn't pan out for you. I wonder if it's a matter of the crispiness? By the sound of it the ones you got were way soggier than the ones we got.

The combination of crisp batter, intense pickled ginger, and nummy tamarind sauce was what made them work for us. I agree that you probably couldn't eat too many if they were both soggy and unsauced.

This photo shows the Mixed Charcuterie Plate that friends of ours enjoyed. You can also make out the Scallops in the background.

For dessert, we really loved the Chocolate Pâté -- nicely balanced chocolateyness with enough garnishes to keep it interesting. The "honeycomb" mentioned on the menu is a nicely made sponge toffee (e.g. inside of a "Crunchie" bar). Highly recommended.

The Hazelnut and Maple Baklava with Gelato was quite disappointing. To me (and my wife) the best part of baklava is the aromatic honey/sugar syrup soaked through the phyllo and nuts. Well, there was no detectable syrup in this baklava! The nuts and phyllo had good flavour but the small scoop of vanilla gelato was insufficient to counter the drying effect of the syrupless baklava. The portions were larger than bite size and our only tool was a spoon, so we had to pick them up with our fingers. No stickiness ensued! Don't order this one unless you have something with which to wash it down.

The other miss for me was the Pickled Ginger Tempura that Momomoto recommended (assuming by "killer" he meant good). Anyway, it was exactly as I expected it to be. Soggy batter and no flavour aside from pickled ginger. I mean, what else could it be -- I was curious and ordered it to find out. If you love eating pickled ginger by the forkful then you will like this dish but why not just eat pickled ginger? The deep frying doesn't do anything for it.

BTW, kudos for keeping the online menu up to date with the ever changing menu. :-) (P.S. check spelling of "prosciutto")

Another enjoyable visit to Play Food and Wine. Service was fun and effective, drinks were nice, and food was pretty good although not as awe-inspiring as we remembered from our previous visit.

Halibut with King Eryngii (pictured) was quite good. The morsel of fish was delightfully seared on top and was mildly seasoned to allow enjoyment of its flesh. The mushrooms were thick and soft and also mildly seasoned to accommodate their mild flavour. Overall the dish was really nice, but very mild! ;-)

Scallops with Avocado and Pickled Onions were delish! Perfectly cooked scallops matched well with the soft tangy-sweet onions. I wasn't nuts about the soft rich avocado with the soft rich scallops but the avocado was easy to ignore. I'd get this one again!

Grilled Hanger Steak was as tasty as we remembered it from last time. The portion seemed just a little tinier and noticeably more dry than before. The flavour was all there, but the succulent moistness was not. Again, very good, but the details may be variable across visits.

Play's sommelier, Grayson, is the nicest guy. He always goes the extra mile to make us feel welcome, and is extremely adept at providing excellent wine suggestions. He's also quite the comedian, which makes the experience that much more enjoyable.

My friend's pavlova. I tried some and thought it was excellent!

The cookies I ordered for dessert. They were good, but I prefer crispy-chewy cookies. These were very shortbread-y. As Fresh Foodie always says "my problem, not theirs" :)

From left to right - lemon poppyseed, chocolate chunk, lemon sugar.

I'm a big chocoholic as well so wouldn't have complained if there were more chocolate chunks in the chocolate chunk one ;)

My french toast.

I had no idea that Play does brunch, but there you go. Went on Sunday with a friend and was really impressed! The prices are reasonable, great atmosphere in the middle of the Market, and the food was amazing. I spent $30 with tax and tip and got:

a large pot of tea
fruit & yoghurt parfait with homemade (delicious cinnamon-honey) granola
banana bread french toast with homemade nutella
SIX cookies

Everything was amazing, but I have to say my friend's pancakes won the morning hands down. I don't normally eat pancakes (find them mushy and tasteless), but these were crisp on the outside and had the most amazing buttery flavour.

Attached - picture of the omgyum pancakes.