Ottawa Foodies

1

Worst steak salad ive ever had. steak was tough, I got about 4 tiny pieces and it was FREEZING cold- as in out the fridge cold. they were also out of avocado - meaning the steak, tomato and avocado salad was actually tomato a bit of lettuce and steak. it was also small for the amount. given that there were only 2 of us in the restaurant at the time i would have thought a little more care could have been taken with our meal! my friend had a panini which did look amazing however.

3

Great place to visit for a coffee house beverage and a treat! The quality is good and the staff are super friendly. It's a comfortably airy space.

2

d) in my own experience I can vouch for the fantastic food! I had a smoked trout and guacamole sandwich, which came with sweet potato chips and an amazingly delicious pickled green bean. The sandwich melted in my mouth. It was made with Whalesbone sourced fish, a really well seasoned quac and beautiful bread. It was quite simply an amazing sandwich. The trout was the only menu item I tried, but I wouldn't hesitate to try anything else on the menu, as they all looked fantastic. (Much of their offerings are in a display window)

My sandwich, with a few pops was like 20 bucks, and worth every penny. Seriously though, a fine restaurant could have charged $20+ just for that sandwich.

Highly, Highly Recommended. And gentlemen.. take note, fantastic date spot to bring your lady for a casual Saturday lunch.

1

The Sunday waffle brunch is evil and must be stopped before it takes over the world!

And i mean that in an entirely positive way.

The waffles are made on the spot, the changing toppings are nicely diverse and the two i've tried so far (cherries/whipped cream and chicken croquettes) were delicious. And evil.

Good self-refill coffee too.

Will be back. Will send others. At least, until they are stopped...

1

I had a chance to experience lunch chez Pressed Gourmet Sandwich. So the key question: was it good and would i come back? Yeah, it was good and sure I would come back, but no huge rush since it is a bit out of my way. I had the prosciutto parmesan arugula pesto sandwich - the arugula pesto was different, unique and a very nice flavour to the sandwich. I do wish there was some actual leaves of arugula in my sandwich... needed more veggies. My sandwich came with a side of sweet potato chips - yum and healthy!

Noteworthy is their wood rustic comfortable decor and their warm and friendly customer service... there's something different and special about the customer-owner interaction that makes me want to come back.

So, 8/10 for food and 10/10 for customer service.

I do agree with the other reviewer, to a certain extent, regarding prices, seems a bit expensive even though their food is good quality.

1

I’ve previously raved about Pressed, but my opinion has changed. The food still tastes really great and the space / design / aesthetic is very nice, but the value and wait for food has turned me off of this otherwise great spot.

I’ve had 4 different sandwiches here as well as the waffle brunch and it all tasted excellent. The serving size is small but there is a lot of tasted packed into these little guys. Like I wrote earlier, the big issues are price and wait. The cheapest sandwich at Pressed is the grilled 4-cheese with vegetables. This is a small vegetarian sandwich that costs $7 before taxes. The other day I ordered the wild boar - it tasted like an excellent pulled pork sandwich, but cost (get this) $11 before taxes. That works out to $12.43 for a sandwich (or 2.5 DiRienzo sandwiches). I’m not sure how much extra they are paying to use boar instead of pork, but I’d argue that the same taste can be achieved for a much lower price. A supermarket pork shoulder is the same price as a small sandwich here! The smoked chicken and goat cheese sandwich is $8.50. And so on. I didn’t think there were more expensive sandwiches in the area than those offered at Morning Owl but I was wrong.

At least at Morning Owl your sandwich is made in a reasonable amount of time. Most if not all of the sandwiches at Pressed are made fresh that day, but not as you wait. You can see the sandwiches and pick out which one you want from the glass case at the front. So then why is it OK to wait 10-15 minutes for a sandwich? Each sandwich is pressed in a panini press, which is great, but they have to get more presses or get more people working or something in order to cut down on wait times for customers who have already paid a premium price for a sandwich. I’d expect quicker service to be included in the high price. And I should note that the long wait has not only occurred on busy days but also on days when I was the only one in the restaurant.

To attempt some balance I should mention that their sides / soups / chili are excellent and reasonably priced. The spicy potato salad is especially delicious. I do not drink coffee but I’ve heard that theirs is also very good.

Anyways, to summarize - small, unreasonably expensive sandwiches with long wait times, but delicious sides and great space. Staff are super friendly as well.

Southern style BBQ pulled pork sandwich with apple kale slaw.

1

Decided to check out Pressed after reading about the brunch on Apt613.

I went with my boyfriend and ordered two waffles and one tea. Tea drinkers beware.. Coffee or juice is included in the price of breakfast, but a bag of Red Rose will set you back an Extra $2. Our total was $29.89. They also have a station to fill up your own coffee cup, but unfourtunatly they only had one caraf brewing and my coffee drinking boyfriend had to wait untill after our breatfast was served to get his fix.

The waffles were great but came with a small supply of what tasted like low quality maple syrop.

Overall we liked the venue and the decoration, but found it to be pretty expensive for what we recieved.

2

Visited for the first time on Saturday afternoon. We'd heard only good things, and we were excited that they seemed to have a nice blend of local/vegan/GF options.

I was a bit disappointed in the selection. There weren't any sandwiches I was super jazzed to try...they all looked okay (should have gone on the house bacon/guac/goat cheese day!) I ordered chicken with garlic aioli, goat cheese, and roasted peppers with a side of macaroni and cheese. The sandwiches are pre-made and are in a display case.

I certainly can't complain about the quality of ingredients. The chicken was roasted and pulled into nice chunks - juicy although not really flavourful, bordering on bland. I was peeved that the aioli was essentially non-existent (perhaps the result of the pre-making and sitting). I think I had two bites that had detectable aioli. Same with the goat cheese - I estimate a scant ounce on the whole sandwich, and there were a grand total of three thin pepper strips. I (grudgingly) went on a search for salt, which is in a tiny bowl with a tiny spoon on the serving counter. Pros: fresh high quality ingredients, nice crusty ciabatta, nicely grilled. Cons: bland, not enough of the flavour-adding ingredients.

The sandwich was served with some really yummy house-made sweet potato chips and two (AWESOME) pickled brussels sprouts. I had never had them - a delightfully strong pickled flavour.

The mac and cheese sucks you in with the description of cheese curds in the mac and cheese, but overall it was just ok. For $3.50 you get a 2.5 inch square of reheated mac and cheese (1 curd in my square), flavour is nice but it's quite dry and not really cheesy.

Hubby had the "sweet potato chili bowl" which is...chili in a bowl with a side of half a ciabatta, not toasted. It was pretty bland with HUMONGOUS chunks of carrots and hardly any beans. It was...fine. Again, quality of ingredients and freshness were there, but they skimped on the flavour and heartier ingredients.

The environment is funky (especially the collander lamp!), service is friendly, but for the cost ($26 for everything) we'd definitely go somewhere else most times.

1

The "Benedict" breakfast waffle consists of 2 waffles, 2 poached eggs, 2 slides of thick homemade bacon and Hollandaise. A very good breakfast option, period.

I wished it came with a little side of syrup because I am French Canadian by marriage so I love syrup and I also ran out of Hollandaise sauce for the last half piece of waffle.

1

This is the "Hangover Waffle" -- slow cooked brisket with curds and gravy. It sounds pretty awesome, but I didn't try it so I can't really comment.

2

They offer a selection of unique waffles as part of their weekend brunch menu. I had the one pictured here -- with chicken croquettes and sour cherry compote.

It was a cool idea, but I found the croquettes (made with mildly seasoned ground chicken) were very boring without the included hot sauce. And the cherry compote added a nice tang to counter the heaviness of the fried stuff but the combination just didn't work for me. YMMV.

I ended up eating this dish kind of separately: chicken croquettes with hot sauce as an appetizer, and waffles with maple syrup as dessert. It works!