Ottawa Foodies

Stopped in at Chef Michael's pop-up at Mello's tonight during Nuit Blanche. Had a couple of nice cocktails - Old Fashioned and a fragrant and citrusy Elderflower Martini. No apps, but the Korean Fried chicken was outstanding - crispy, tender, hot and sweet - and served with a sesame coleslaw that was a revelation. Tonight's fresh fish special was Lake Erie Pickerel. It was pan fried, and served with an interesting mix of veggies including bok choy and eggplant. The pickerel was delicious, but I have to say that I was disappointed in the small portion size. 4 bites later, the pickerel was gone. It was a little larger than an appetizer, but too small in my opinion for a main course. It was priced at $18 but I would have much rather paid $22 for a larger piece of pickerel. I thought at first that maybe I received an unusually small portion, but judging from the plates I saw being delivered to other tables, the size of the servings was the same. Food quality was excellent though, and would definitely go back.

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Exactly OSM...in fact we were lucky to have it multiple times with known hours/location.

The concept of a pop-up is basically to generate a lot of buzz via social media and then basically a few hours before opening, use social media to notify ppl of the location. Pop-up vendors may repeat this every few months keeping occurrences low is part of the attraction.

I just hope that this inspires some other chefs around the city to try a similar concept.

With the tight knit community of chefs we have in Ottawa, what would be cool is like a food truck share where some of cities best "share" a food truck and create a menu on a rotating basis one day a week. Do it during summer and keep location a secret until a few hours before. I'd imagine that would do really well.

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Per the whole 'pop up' concept, it was always supposed to be a short-run project as i understood it and the article suggests but i thought i had seen clearly stated elsewhere.

Bummed i never made it.

I guess if he committed to a space and want to open up mid-Oct, that is only 3 months away. Takes a bit to put together a new restaurant.

Uh, ya, Carmichael's Pop Up Kitchen in Mellos closed.

Judging from the article, I would say that only the Pop Up Kitchen is closed

Mellos closed last night, for good. Not good news.

www.ottawacitizen.com

@lemontart,

I think both for variety and the inventory of morel, the morel dish would not have been on the menu for long since it sounded like Chef Carmichael was invited to pick mushroom on someone's property for 1 afternoon.

@ Chimichimi
was the steak and fries still on the menu? The banana dessert looks great but I am still hoping for chocolate or cream brulee..

Am I correct to assume that they shifted to their Sun - Tues evening schedule?

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Stopped by Mellos last night with a group of friends - fun experience, reminiscent of dining out in Toronto, mtl or nyc. The place has a great energy, the chefs are putting out really fresh, tasty dishes. We split the shrimp/fresh water chestnut dumplings, fish taco, sashimi, spot prawn pasta and black bean steak and eggplant lettuce wraps, finished it off with two fried banana in coconut sauce desserts. Everything tasted super fresh, perfect plates for sharing with a group. The only downside, the spot prawn pasta was a little on the salty side, but entirely edible (the plate was clean after we were done with it). The highlight was probably the steak lettuce wraps, the black bean and garlic eggplant that accompanied the dish was outstanding and delicious. All that food, with a beer and tip came out to $105, fairly reasonable! Service was good, definitely recommend checking it out!

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The fish taco are usually on the appetizer menu. Large piece of Cod lightly battered and fried.

Tortilla is bought and does the job but not spectacular with the fish being tasty. Would be nice to be able to have something to kick it up a notch since a few slices of jalapeno was not enough for me.