Ottawa Foodies

30 minute wait at 3 Brewers, 30 minute wait at Darcy McGee's so we decided to try this place.

An earlier poster mentioned the burger texture. This is clearly frozen patties of hamburger, it has the Harvey's texture and taste at not so much Harvey's prices. The bacon was rock hard.

The waitress either is clueless or lied to me that the fries are fresh.

The beer selection is the usual Keiths lineup, Leffe, Stella, Carlsberg and 1-2 others. 1 beer/drinks menu per table which makes it a chore to order drinks. I had the Tetleys which is one of the more forgettable British beers.

I didn't see a Guinness tap although they had the word Guinness peppered on the menu as if they use the beer for BBQ sauce or meatloaf sauce.

The space is generic mall pub decor. They have this little 'patio' on the mall side, and the door open there so an annoying draft.

Anyway, not stepping back. Lousy so-called pub.

2

Date of Visit: December 5, 2012

The Exchange is actually inside the Rideau Centre, in premises once occupied by the ‘Elephant and Castle Pub’, a place I used to visit quite regularly whenever I was in Ottawa. The new owners must have gutted the old place because nothing is recognizable now. It is much more open and airier, attractively appointed with lots of brick and wood, and definitely more chic. I rather miss the old place, but The Exchange makes a pretty fine replacement…

The Food:
Crispy dry ribs – rated at a 5 out of 5.
Onion rings with beer mustard – rating of 3 out of 5.

Overall
I have to say that I didn’t really enjoy myself at The Exchange but, in all fairness to the place, that was largely because I found the noisiness of the crowd a bit much that night and probably should have gone somewhere a bit quieter. The establishment is obviously popular with its patrons and, despite the uncomfortable chair I was given, it seems to me to be deservedly so. It has good solid pub food, excellent service and an atmosphere that most will find convivial. I will likely go back to try their lamb shank sometime.
Rating 3 out of 5.

Full Pictorial review at: sybaritica.me

@ilikerealfood - I have had this caesar drink. It is okay, but I don't personally find it as refreshing as a regular caeser.

I've actually eaten here twice. I ordered chicken wings one time and they were severely overcooked. However, until this week I've not had any in Ottawa that were not severely overcooked unless they were breaded. Their reasoning was that they wanted to ensure the wings were cooked. Okay.

I cannot remember the other meal I had, but it wasn't bad, however it obviously was not memorable as I cannot recall what I ate.

I think this place is in a great location and I love going there for drinks. I also found the service to be quite friendly the times I have gone. But I am in agreement with ilikerealfood in that I don't wish to eat there.

I don’t have much nice to say about the ex-change other than the décor is really trendy. We went for a work lunch – and almost everybody I work with raves about the place. I will say the menu does look a little bit interesting, in that it is trying to be a ‘gastropub’ in certain respects. To make a long story short, the food is mediocre, overpriced and the service leaves much room for improvement. (in my experience of course) The beer selection is ok. Just ok. Our server for lunch was rather ‘interesting’ to say the least, as it seemed he was hopped up on some kind of stimulant. He kept touching my boss on the shoulder (this made my boss uncomfortable) every time he came to check the table, and his serving etiquette was, lets say, not refined (ei: practically throwing the plates down).

Some of these pictures are horrible, but I’ll post them anyway. For a starter I wanted the mussels. After about 30 minutes of waiting for the mussels, the server came out and said there were none, and suggested I have the bruchetta or the dry ribs, because they were the fastest. He also mentioned the mains were already started. Great 'communication' between the front and the back. Thanks for telling me earlier buddy. So I had the dry ribs.

These are not my cup of tea, very greasy with a prepared sauce (obviously out of a bottle). I had to share half of them because they were way too greasy. These were somewhere around the 10 dollar mark. Meh.

sorry for the horrible picture

For the main, I had special of the day, filet of sole with capers, butter sauce and salad. The fish was most certainly previously frozen. This is not my main complaint though. The filet was tiny, it was swimming in underwhelming sauce and covered with huge capers. I loved the capers, but I could have bought a jar and eaten them at home. The fish was soggy, floppy, and had a disintegrating quality. Not the melt in your mouth flakiness that you want, but that of a poorly prepared frozen filet. The salad was so small, I finished it in like 3 fork full’s. Waste of money. I could have gone to the Whalebone for lunch, for the same price. 14.99.

Other people at the table had burgers, Caesar salad, wraps and sandwiches. Nobody raved about their choices, but when grilled about it, they reluctantly said “oh it’s ‘good’”.

It seems I am always the one at work who is honest about the food. They are not generous with quantities, and they really 'try' to present things nicely. As you can see, this salad does not look appetizing

But that’s about it. Then on top of it, when the bill came, the server arbitrarily put a 15% gratuity on everybody’s bills. I know this is a common practice in restaurants, but this is not cool with me. When I told the server to remove it, he said, well its policy – or some crap like that. At any rate, I left what I thought was deserved, and it wasn’t 15%.

Apparently, they make a really good ceaser drink. I didn’t try it, but two of my colleagues did rave about it.

Moral of the story, much better value, better food and better service to be found elsewhere (that is in my opinion). Being so close to Murry, Domus, Benny’s and Sweatgrass, which offer competitive lunch prices, I’m not sure why people would go to the ex.