Ottawa Foodies

Came here a few days ago for dinner with friend and SO. We hummed and hawed over what I thought were too many menu choices.

I had the mussels with cream sauce (cream, white wine, bacon and cilantro). Very, very yummy, but very rich. The price was right at $10, and $3 for a bottomless basket of fries. Seriously bottomless.

Rainer had the curry of the week, which he described as super spicy, but nonetheless good.

My SO, Andrew, had the standard burger and fries.

All in all, we were impressed with the food, for what it was. The service was not very personable, in fact she was down right cold. But she was very efficient. We'd go back if we were in the neighbourhood.

The food here is so hit or miss, it's actually a bit funny. But we go here so often for drinks, that sometimes we end up staying for appies or a meal.
Last Sunday we were in just for some late afternoon beers which ran into dinner time therefore, decided to order a meal. They always have a curry of the week and a pasta of the week. I went with the pasta which was described as tortellini alfredo and shrimp. Sounded great. The tortellini was for sure the store bought tri-colored kind and the sauce, not sure if it was made there or not, was not bad. BUT...the shrimp that came with it was...wait...deep fried!! Oh man, I couldn't believe it. Very overdone deep fried shrimp to boot! That was for sure a new thing for me, deep fried shrimp with a pasta meal. I don't expect anything less or anything more foodwise from here. Good thing I only go mostly for the beer ;)

I'll simply point out that most of Clocktower's own beers are Ales. See the note I'm about to write under "Beer" for details on their proper serving temperature. Hint : not too cold.

Can you believe that I've gone to both locations at least a dozen times. My (and my friends) largest complaint about the Bank location is the warm beer. The other site gets it right. The attitude of the staff is indifferent towards repeat business. If you complain about the temp of the beer you're dissed and given a weak excuse. My recent visit I caught the waitress adding beer to a glass she was pouring me from a half filled glass that had been sitting under the taps for about an hour. She denied it, but I saw it. I was given another waitress who admitted they do that as a house "policy". I don't have a problem with saving "spillage" but don't serve it to a regular, and never let the customer see you do it!! I have made my last visit there.
On a positive, the Sunday night prime rib is excellent value for the price.
Either the owner dosen't care about repeat business, or isn't a beer affecionado, or figures screw the satisfaction of customers, I'm counting my money...

Second part of my review (see comment under Beer). We were at the Bank St. location.

First, I found the menu overwhelming. I don't know if any of you have seen Restaurant Makeover on Food TV, but I said to my husband that the chefs would probably strike off most of the items. I took me ages to decide what to order, and I was afraid that with all the different kinds of menu items they had, that the food would be mediocre.

I was right. I ordered a side Caesar salad and Crab Cakes with Green Onion Aioli. My husband had the Bangkok Noodle Bowl (after I read about it on this site).

The salad was huge! I thought the waitress had misunderstood and brought me the regular size salad, but she billed a side salad. It was on a main-size plate. And it was nothing special. It had bacon bits, a few croutons and goat cheese.

The crab cakes were terrible. Very mushy. I think they pureed the crab in the food processor with some red pepper until it turned to a paste, then pan-fried it. The green onion "aioli" was just mayo with green onions pureed into it.

My husband was disappointed with the noodle bowl. It had no extraordinary flavours, just sauteed veggies on a bed of noodles with soy sauce.

I'm surprised that we were so disappointed considering the good reviews I read here before going.

For what it's worth, the menu for the one on Bank St has just been freshened up a bit...

The "chippers" are worth ordering despite the blush-inducing silliness of the same. Pretty much just freshly made potato chips -- yum.

I somehow think they do have different menus with some same items....but i could very well be wrong. I'll find out soon though, probably this weekend!

re: the suggestion of separate entries for different locations. Can anyone tell me if they have different menus at each Clock Tower location?

In general, I group restaurants by menu. If they have the same menu they should have just one entry. Of course, if you want to mention the service it helps to also mention which location. :)

And so I went back at lunch today! Got to chat with the new brewmaster Patrick, who said he just started there in January. See my comments under "beer at clocktower" and 'burgers at clocktower" for more.

I have not been here in a couple of years but have to get back soon because they have a new brewmaster, who graduated from a brewing school in Scotland if I am not mistaken. Their old brewmaster was hit-and-miss but fortunately mostly hit. Pub food is very good and I see someone else has had the veggie burger which I used to find very yummy. So many places have blah veggie burgers - not that I don't eat meat or anything but veggie burgers can be awfully yummy when home-made and done right.

Time to get back there to check the place out, I'd say!

I have to agree with Zym: The Kölsch here is a deadringer for the yummy Dom Kölsch which you get in Germany...Köln specifically. Might be my favourite beer. Then again, anyone from Köln will tell you that Kölsh stands alone.

Yum!

Went in for a quick beer and burger yesterday while my kids were in an activity nearby. The Koelsch was a dead-ringer for the ones I've had in Cologne - in particular I'd say Dom Koelsch with it's slight sweetness. For those not in the know, this is the same type of beer that Beau's is brewed after, so anyone who likes that, should love the Clocktower Koelsch.

Just last week I had the ESB and the Brown and I enjoyed both. The ESB was especially flavourful. As far as brew pubs go, it's them and the Draught Horse out in Navan, and that's it to the best of my knowledge. But fortunately a lot of places these days are carrying micros. Click "Beer" on this site for some of my recommendations.

It just wasn't good beer. Not flat to style, but flat as in stale. If you can recommend some good brews they make I'm always willing to give them a chance.

Frequenting brew pubs in Montreal Boston and Toronto for the past decade and a half I had high hopes for Ottawa. Are there any other brew pubs in Ottawa I can try? Localish breweries whose products I love are Millhouse, McAuslen, Heritage. From the New England area, Harpoon, Sam Adams, Dogfish. I lean towards complex hopped beers.

Just curious which beer you had Shamus. If it was one of the cask beers that would explain the flatness since cask beer is often flat (by design)

Have I just been unlucky? Some of the worst pub brew I have ever had has been here. I've tried the location in the Glebe and in new Edinborough and both times the beer was almost undrinkable - flat and flavourless. I am a huge supporter of crafted beer and really wanted to like the Clocktowers offerings but sadly I cannot do this.

Been there a few times the last few weeks since my son is in an activity around the corner. Went for lunch today. $3.45 is the regular price for their own brewed beer! Glass is at least 500ml if not a British Pint (even bigger). Wow! And apparantly Tuesday nights are wing night and beer is half priced!

Their Festive Porter on tap right now is absolutely fantastic! A very drinkable beer even for people who think they don't like dark beer. Smooth, almost toffee-like flavours with no harshness at all from the roasted malts.

We just came back from having supper at the Clock Tower. We were looking forward to having a beer at our first brewpub in Ottawa (we lived in Montreal before, so we were used to great brewpub beer).

Out of their 5 beers, they only had 2, and this is on a Friday night. I had the Classic Vienna Cask Brown and my husband had the Bytown Brown. We were disappointed. Neither beer had any aftertaste - they both cut "short". The Bytown Brown was terribly flat. I don't know whether it was the bottom of the keg, but we don't remember having had beer like that! The Vienna Cask Brown was a bit better, at least it had some carbonation.

We finished those and I ordered a Stella Artois and my hubby a Guinness. We were so happy after the first sip, which is pretty sad considering we were in a brewpub.

Went for lunch today and had a few beers as well. Or rather, I believe I had some lunch with my beer :-)

Got to chat with brewmaster Pat - he has some big plans in store for the place including a beer education program for patrons. So definitely stay tuned to the Clocktower! They'd been having some real quality issues according to the lads in the brew club, and I believe Patrick is just the guy to clean it up! In fact I believe he already has! Kudos to the owners for recognising they needed a new brewmaster!

The Koelsch - well - they shouldn't be calling it that! I know it's not a protected name in Canada but just out of respect for the brewmasters in Cologne. But it was a very good beer. Not quite to style but I'm having trouble placing what's off so I'll obviously have to go back and sample more so I can figure it out. I believe the finishing gravity is perhaps a bit too high so it's not dry enough on the finish. That's probably it.

The Wishart's Bitter was very tasty, and while I've never had a Bitter in the UK I do believe this to be very true to style at least to my understanding of the style. Would be very easy to drink a lot of this.

Finished up with the Brown Ale. As my friend who was with me commented, "it has nothing that people who say that don't like dark beer wouldn't like". In other words, if you think you don't like dark beer this just may change your mind. Slightly sweet, balanced well with the hops. Very drinkable.

Keep up the great work Patrick! I believe I will now officially start taking the family here twice a month instead of the Royal Oak.

Absolutely perfect! Served on a scrumptious kaiser bun with pickles, lettuce and onion. Big burger, and very flavourful. Tough to imagine a better burger.

Once again a very wonderful burger!

Had the "Black and Blue" for lunch today, with blue cheese on it. Mmmmmm, stinky cheese! Everything about it was great except I'm not sure if this was the "black" part or not, but the burger was charcoal black on the outside. Luckily it did not taste really burnt so it was still yummy. I'll try it again next time I'm there and hopefully it won't be so charred. Yummy pickle on the side, served with lots of onion and tomato and lettuce.

Had a very nice side tossed-salad with my burger today, instead of fries. The veggies were all fresh. They had a choice of maybe 5 different dressings, I chose the blue cheese which was delicious.

I'll order it again.

Another 2 strong thumbs for their fries. Perfectly crisp on the outside, tender on the inside.

Had fries (w/a burger) here on Friday and I'm still thinking about them -- they were very good. Home-cut fries are so rare these days.

The home-cut fries I had yesterday were absolutely perfect!

Was back at lunch today and this time had the fries with my burger instead of salad. They appear to be home-cut and were very yummy. Nice and crisp on the outside and tender inside. Good job clocktower!

Best wings in the city.
Cheap on Tuesdays...

Today is Tuesday, allllllllright.

I am excited to announce that the Clocktower (on Mackay) has changed/added to their menu! As a frequent customer to this pub, I pretty much have their menu memorized and stick to the same old, same old.
So, here is the tuna...I don't think I have the name right but it's the only 'tuna' item on the menu. This was the first time I've actually had a tuna steak, so I really have nothing to compare it to but I really, really, enjoyed it. They serve it on pumpernickel bread (grilled, I think) with some nice wasabi mayo. Such a nice treat having unique choices at a pub. They serve it with either fries or salad...I got the salad which is their standard salad that goes with all the dishes...mixed greens, red onions, grated carrots, chunks of tomatoes, and a honkin' pickle. Dressing is usually on the salad, but I get it on the side!

Can't wait to try the other new items! I'll let you all know of course....

Fresh Foodie: Do you think there should be two separate tags for each Clocktower location? I'm pretty sure that zymurgists' reviews are from the location on Bank, while mine are from Mackay.

There are 2 types of veggie burgers : those that try to look and taste like a hamburger, and those that don't. In my experience the ones that do try are often pretty terrible, while the ones who do not try are often pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, this was one of the ones that tried to look and taste like a hamburger, and while it was not terrible, it was not very good either. I certainly won't be having another. It tasted like soy sauce. Yuck.