Ottawa Foodies

love the croq w fries & salad (and Gary :)

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I LOVE this place! The Chez Lucien burger can't be beat, topped with cream cheese, bacon and mushrooms. The fries are delicious, the salad is fresh, and the salad dressing is perfect. I always get two - one for the salad, one for the fries and burger :) All for about $10...and I usually leave a little behind (portions are VERY generous)

Chez Lucien, while sometimes overcrowded and slow for service, is a friendly place with fantastic food.

we love Chez Lucien.I have been to this pup since they open but still i'd like to call the name "Gerry's place"
Food is amazing and you can feel healthy. Big picture of James Joyce i adore him. Great atmosphere and nice server.

Summary: Great pub fare.

Despite the place being crowded (Saturday night dinner), service was courteous and fairly prompt. (Patience is always a virtue at places like these.) It also helps to *get reservations* and to arrive early (around 5 PM for a Saturday).

As a party of four adults, we happened to all have the hamburger with jalapeno and monterey jack cheese (I can't remember the name of it...) The burgeres were well done (almost burnt) but had a wonderful flavour. Burgers were served with a salad and with moderate porton of fries. We all ate our fill without being overly stuffed, all for a reasonable price - about $10 per plate.

To sum up: Would go back in an instant; good deal for good food. Not overly fancy, but very satisfying pub fare.

I gave this place a THUMBS DOWN. I'll explain why.

I went to this place with a group of friends on a recommendation of a couple of friends.

Honestly, I don't know what the big fuss is about this place. My biggest complaint is that it has lousy service. The waitress was never around when we wanted something. And she didn't have the decency to return our change to our table. We had to go to the bar to retrieve it.

It has a cozy atmosphere. I'll give it that. And decent fries. But that's it. There are tons of better places with better food and better service.

May be my experience was an isolated occurrence? But that is what happened when I went.

Love it! Go there often. Always great, tasty unpretentious good pub food.

The menu is absolutely consistent from year to year and night to night so you always know exactly what you're getting. Which is, above average pub fare at a fair price. Ambiance is turning back towards government types as the hipsters look for the next spot and the new burly bartender is probably helping that trend. Not a pleasant guy.

Again, the atmosphere really contributes to why I like this place. It feels very low key montreal-ish to me.

The owner (i presume he's the owner) is always friendly and charming. They have a great selection of beers (unibroue is well represented)

The hamburgers are incredible value and taste great. Everything is always very fresh.

I've only ever had one complaint with this place - one of the male bartenders took FOREVER to check on our table in the front section one night. Granted it was on the weekend and he looked busy but not too busy to check on us in my opinion. If he is serving the section than serve it. If not - let us know that unfortunately it's bar service only. Possibly an oversight but still - not nearly attentive enough that night.

Great fries, love them dipped in mayonnaise. Good muussels, good veggie burgers. Great place to sit and drink and talk.

I just love the atmosphere at Chez Lucien...a mixed crowd without the pretenciousness of many of the more "artsy" places in Ottawa. Great menu too - love the protein salad and the burgers! The free jukebox is fabulous!

One of the best burgers in town. Excellent quality food despite the modest setting.

I would love to know what's in that salad dressing of their's!!! All three of their beef burgers are incredible and as Food&Think said, omg those fries!!!!

Both the Burger Platters we ordered were fantastic! "The Man" had the Frida & Diego (jalapeos, grilled onions & monterey jack cheese), while I had the Hambourgeoisie, a more "upscale" burger (premium beef, pear slices, grilled onions and melted brie). The shoestring fries were homemade (still had the skins on) and perfectly cooked, while the house salad of mixed greens and fresh veggies came with a very tasty dressing. Having both fries and salad was a real treat as so many places offer one or the other.

Can't wait to go back and try another of their many Burger Platters.

The burger was pretty good. The fries were awesome -- very slightly coated with a satisfying McDonald's kind of light greasiness. The salad was generous considering it was in addition to the fries (most of it is hidden in this photo).

"The Man" was very impressed by the selection of Beers "on tap". By our count there were four craft beers... Heritage (Carleton Place), Blanche de Chambly (Chambly, Que) and St. Ambroise & Griffin (Montreal). As well as Boddingtons, Kilkenny, and Stella (there may have been a couple more, but we couldn't read the taps from where we were seated).

Unfortunately, they don't have Beau's, I would think that this would be a good location for them to get into though, because management obviously supports craft beers, and afterall Beau's home is half-way between Ottawa and Montreal, so it would be a good fit with the atmosphere at Chez Lucien.

And don't forget the Kilkenny! They have 8 beers on tap, and a whole whack of them in bottles. Beverage prices are shown with tax included, which is very cool.

From memory from my last visit: among some more common offerings, there are a couple from Macauslan (Griffon Extra Pale Ale and St. Ambroise Pale Ale), plus Blanche de Chambly on tap.

I agree with the other review of the CL salmon burger whole-heartedly!

This salmon burger has a huge piece of salmon that is so tasty that the garnishes are hardly noticeable.

There are of course, the delicious CL fries (lightly salted) and a complimentary side salad with fantastic dressing drizzled over it...but the fish itself is the mouth-watering treat guaranteed.

(Just the perfect flavour of tenderly cooked fish that tastes exactly the same every time...)

They have this one down to an 'art-form'.

All of that, for around $12. It is amazing!

I wish I had taken a picture but....I'll explain it as best as I can. All the burgers come with fries and salad with IMO, a very nice and garlicky creamy dressing. The salmon burger said it was served with dill cream cheese on it, which yes it did...the perfect amount too. Sometimes if things are served with cream cheese, they tend to over do it and I'm scraping some off (ahem...Tim Horton's) but not here. For some reason I was expecting the salmon to be hot, like grilled y'know, but it was just about room temp., not cold, but not very warm. Then I thought of course they wouldn't serve it warm/hot because of the cream cheese! It was great all around anyways!

These are pretty standard Ottawa nachos -- a layer of chips, a layer of salsa, another layer of chips, and a topping of cheese. Not what I consider top notch nacho structure but it's normal for this part of the world. At least they load it up with jalapeños.

The thing to rave about here is the price. Six bucks is an awesome price for a plate of nachos. Sure makes you want to drink more beer!

I had the croque monsieur the last trip out to chez lucien. my SO's mother makes really solid croque monsieurs, so perhaps my standards are too high, but i found the ham to be waaaay to salty, and the crossiant was quite soggy.

disappointed at best.

I am absolutely addicted to this meal. Its a soft but crisp croissant with ham, melted cheddar cheese, warm tomatoes and a unidentified sweet white sauce. It all comes together to make a fantastic combination. It (like several meals at Chez Lucien) comes with excellent french fries and a good portion of fresh salad. All for about $8.00.