Ottawa Foodies

I've been to this place several times so far and hopefully I will be able to go many more times in the future. I find the service isn't that great but it's the beers that keep you coming back for more. I've tried multiple types of their poutines and I have been blown away each time (who would have though cranberries, brie, and foie gras went well on a poutine?). The group I recently went with was also very impressed with their onion rings served with a blue cheese dip so delicious that you'd want to eat it on its own. Sadly the main entrees we had were not as well received. The duck burger was somewhat disappointing and the other meals ordered were just okay.

The shining star of BDT is obviously the beer. While poutine and onion rings are delicious and the main meals can be a bit 'hit or miss' the one constant factor is that the beers they produce are exceptionally good. If you have a hard time deciding on what beer to try you can get the Horlage (12 3oz samples) for about $17!

2

ksw pretty much nails it. Their attempts at fancier cuisine is very iffy; I would say do not try at lunch or early dinner, the busy times.

Frankly, I go there for some interesting beers and some great fries and fantastic mayos, period. With friends. Can't mess that up, and comes pretty quickly.

4

Terrible experience at lunch today. Arrived at noon on the dot, seated right away. About 5-6 other tables filled (patio only, there was no one sitting inside).

Ordered drinks and didn't get them for 15 minutes.

Food: I ordered the lunch special of a tuna burger "Niçoise style". When I asked the server what it was, he couldn't tell me other than it was tuna - thanks!

So I am picturing a tuna burger patty with maybe olives, herbs mixed in and other items on top? (eggs, potatoes green beans?).

50 minutes later we still have no food while other tables around us that had arrived at least 15 - 20 minutes after us were already eating.

We called the waiter over and he said "yeah, it's because of the tuna burger". So - why have a tuna burger that takes 50 minutes as your lunch special and why not inform the customer that it takes that long???
Me-thinks he forgot to put our order in n'est-ce pas?

What I got was a dry tuna steak that was WAY over cooked, on a dry bun with arugula and tomatoes on it. How exactly is that Niçoise I ask you?
On the side, some out of the bag greens with 2 cucumbers.
And how much did this cost you wonder? $19.00!!!!

It was tasteless and inedible and I left more than half of it - and I wasn't asked why either.

My companion ordered a cress and shrimp salad that was literally a whole pile of cress with shrimps on top - it really needed some other greens mixed in as the cress was very woody and hard to eat. She said the dressing was cloyingly sweet and did not finish her salad either.

At the 50 minute mark we asked if maybe we could get a complimentary drink while we were waiting, to which the server stammered something unintelligible and left. He ended up comping us each a drink, but would not have done so had I not asked.

Not a shred of customer service and bad food. They really need to stop trying to serve “fancy” foods and stick with the basics. If you don’t have the right chef to execute it, it becomes a disaster.

I will not be back.

1

Beer quality and selection is awesome.

Food so-so both times I have been there.

Great atmosphere and décor though.

3

Excellent poutine - especially the one with chicken and mushroom gravy. Also impressively good nachos with sour cream, salsa and gauc.

Beer selection is impressive and unlike any micro brew in Ontario, they do it right. At least three or four of the 18 we tried on the L'Horloge sampler were exceptional.

The perfect place for a late night après ski.

3

2

I liked being able to watch the kitchen. Especially as it was removed from us - so that the smells didn't permeate.

Fries where gross!
Beer was okay!
Service was just okay.

2

Went this afternoon with my kids (5 and 2). Wasn't sure what to expect as far as readiness for kids was, but figured lunch was a good time to try it out.

Basically, they have boosters/high chairs but no kids menu (or at least it was not offered, and my french is not strong enough to inquire)... which I think is strange. I ordered a lunch main to split between them ($12) and two milks. The milks were free (unknown to me until the bill came), so in the end I felt it was on par price wise with the big-box boys.

As for the food. The beer was great, of course (get the clock!). The fries are quite good. My kids had the croque monsieur (sp?), which was very good. I had the bison burger, which was well cooked but lacked seasoning... which is impressive for a burger that includes bacon.

All in all, I'll be back when I need a beer and I am on that side of the river (i.e. I have just spent 3 hours in the noisy Children's Museum on a holiday/weekend), but I don't think I'll make a special trip out there.

P.S. Not sure if it was because 90% of the gov't is off this week, but for 12:30 on a Thursday, it was VERY empty... just 2 tables.

P.P.S. My server had a very limited grasp on English... about as strong as my French, not complaining, just an FYI for those in the same boat (or those less tolerant).

I dined at Les Brasseurs with a large group (20+) a few months ago, and yes, they had difficulties back then. I went back with a friend and all the problems we had with a big group were gone.

However, I don't think it's fair to fault the restaurant for refusing to serve your cake without having verified with them first that: a) they had no problem serving outside food, and b) if there was a fee. Unless you did and it was missing from the review?

1

Great beer, ok food, BAD MANAGEMENT.

We had made reservations for 35 people on a Saturday night. The reservation was made 6 weeks in advance, they knew it was for a b-day. The servers were really nice but had very little experience...many errors throughout the night (some had finished their main course while others hadn`t even received their appetizers). The cherry on the cake (pun intended) was management`s refusal to serve our own cake. (we had ordered a $140 cake from a local bakery), When we made the reservations, they didn`t mention anything about that...I tried to negotiate with the co-owner (even offering him to pay a lump sum...anything to prevent me from going home with a huge cake...) but no flexibility whatsoever. I had to deal with complaints from my guests throughout the evening...cold food, missing orders, overcooked burger...

Lesson learned...I will avoid this place from now on...especially with large groups.

Oi! I noticed when I was there the other night that way down in the basement they had huge oak casks with fermentation bubblers in them. I asked around and it turns out that the tour I missed the other day included some comments on the oak casks - yes indeed they do use them for some of their beers. The tour guide said it gives the beer a certain (kissed his fingers) - I say this has to be why the ones I've had were so mediocre. Fermenting in wood is a risky business at best and is highly prone to infection. It is a nice, romantic notion of the old days, but some things are done differently today for good reason.

If someone from BdT is reading this, I would strongly recommend you nix the oak and just work on the beers themselves without wildcard variables like this. The couple of British beers I've had so far definitely need some work, and this could explain it all right here.

In addition to the 12 beers they brew on site, they also have 1 "guest beer" from another microbrewery in Quebec. So I started off with a Pale Ale from Dieu du Ciel in Montreal, and it was absolutely incredible! I wanted to follow it up with their own Pale Ale for way of comparison, but there was a mixup with the waiter and he brought the Nut Brown.

The mixup was kind of interesting in that it had to do with something I'd noticed right from the start - the waiter spoke perfect English without the slightest accent, but he did not seem to understand it very well and in particular did not know their English menu very well. It was a bit off-putting and a bit funny too. It reminded me of a girl I used to know while living in Germany, who grew up in Italy with an English father. She was the same - spoke perfectly without the slightest accent, but still did not understand English very well.

The Nut Brown was disappointing. It was a good beer, but just good. Not absolutely fantastic like the one from Montreal. They've got some work to do on their British beers.

BTW, they guy was saying that they are so busy they are turning people away on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, so if you are going then, make reservations! I just made some for the family for tomorrow evening :-)

They brew their own beer and have 12 different ones on tap at the moment. I tried 2 of them - the ESB and the Belgian Blonde (I forget what their brand names are for them)

The ESB was OK but not great. Given that Quebec brewers are very strongly influenced by the Belgian brewers and not so much the British, my take-away lesson is : "don't go to Quebec for beer and buy a British style". Rightly or wrongly.

The Belgian Blonde on the other hand was absolutely spectacular!

They have a full industrial license one of the owners was telling us, and hope to be selling their own bottled beer by year end. They are already negotiating with other establishments to get their beer on tap there.

Blue Cheese Poutine.

'nuff said.

There were 3 different specialty poutines on the menu, each ringing in at about 12 bucks which on the surface is a bit on the expensive side for this dish. One of my friends was unable to finish his huge portion so dumped a generous amount onto my plate. It was very different from any poutine I'd ever had before in that the gravy was some wonderful concoction with the same mesquite flavour that I was so fond of in my hamburger.

To. Die. For!

Really and truly! Definitely taking the wife and kids back here for poutine!

We started off the evening with the appetizer plate of local artisanal sausage. I was not really sure what to expect, and when it came to the table it ended up being an assortment of dry-cured salamis and such - all of which were extremely yummy. There was also a dab of dijon on the plate, and a good 3 or 4 tablespoons of a really interesting pickle/chutney. At 10 bucks a bit pricey for the amount you got, but we were celebrating and decided to splurge :-)

1

Here comes the extremely disappointing part of the experience - my wife and son both had the fish and chips and they were absolutely terrible. Now, as the grand-daughter of a fisherman, my wife can be pretty particular about her fish and chips, but these did not even pass muster for me - they were just plain soggy and not the least bit crispy on the outside. The way the best, crispiest fish-and-chips in the world get when you put the leftovers in the fridge overnight and eat them the next day.

In fairness, the place was extremely busy and maybe they sat out or who knows what. And when I was here the other day one of the guys had fish and chips that seemed to be perfectly crispy on the outside. But honestly my wife was almost in tears about it (OK, she is pregnant and emotional). I did consider sending them back, but my instinct against wasting food proved far stronger, especially with the boys there I did not want to be setting an example for them where food gets wasted.

Variability seems to be a problem here in general, based on my limited experience.

1

My burger had the choice of Fries or Salad on the side, so I chose fries because I'd never been here before and wanted to see what theirs were like. Absolutely perfect, that's what they were like!

I was agonising over what to have for a main - the Joe Montferrand was so incredible the other day that it won out in the end so I got another one - only to be disappointed that it was nowhere near the same incredible hamburger I had the other day. There was hardly a hint of mesquite in it. It was still a good burger, but just a bit above average, not mind-blowingly incredible like the other one I'd had.

I think they have some work to do on consistency.

1

Was flipping through the menu and saw the "Joe Montferrand" burger, and immediately knew before even reading more about it, that I had to order it! How could you not order a Big Joe Mufferaw? C'mon!

Wow! Easily the best hamburger I've had in 10 years, and I'm not an easy win on that front. The bison is raised locally, and fed with draff (spent grain) from the brewery. Symbiosis at its best! It had a wonderful mesquite flavour and was absolutely to die for!