Ottawa Foodies

Great food, great service!! My duck with foie gras was cooked perfect. The braised radishes are worth going there for alone!! Some of the best food ive had in ottawa yet!!

I took my mom to Domus for a late supper on Mother's Day. I would say we were satisfied overall, but not wowed. I've eaten at Domus in the past, I lived in Ottawa briefly six years ago, and at that time I was wowed by their food and service.

My mother had their stacked tomato salad with mascarpone. It was lovely, inspiring a (vain) attempt to recreate it myself the following week. I had the appetizer wild mushroom risotto. The presentation was stunning on a huge gorgeous white plate (I ended up buying smaller version of the same plates at CAParadis a few days later), but I found the risotto itself disappointing. There's no other way to say it: it tasted like Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, and was on the mushy side. Souper rice--o! childhood comfort food--how out of place you are in fine dining.

We both had fish for our mains, I had the tuna, my mother the daily selection (halibut? I can't remember). We were both a bit quiet in the first few bites and then both asked Is yours cold, too? Mostly it was the side vegetables that were cold, my mother's fish was perfect and mine was, well, cool. I mean, I know rare tuna isn't exactly scalding, but this was cooler than I would expect. Regardless, the waiter apologized and had the kitchen prepare us new sides (I didn't bother asking for new fish) which arrived super quick and were oustanding. Three spears of asparagus, wild mushrooms, and sauteed spinach. Really, the vegetables, once properly prepared, quite outshone every other aspect of the meal for me at that point.

I had their lemon quartet for dessert, lemon curd, lemon cake, lemon sorbet and lemon pannacotta, each a little miniature, but together on a lovely rectangle plate packing a terrific lemon punch. The variety of intensity, from the subtle creamy lemon of the pannacotta to the puckering zing of the sorbet, was delightful, and it felt deliciously sinful to get to eat "four" desserts. I also had a raspberry dessert wine, which was a foolish choice, since once the lemon had seared itself into my taste buds I couldn't taste much of the wine. My mother had vanilla crême brulée and pronounced it fair to middling, while characterizing the coffee (decaf to be fair, it was close to 10) excruciating.

I have a few complaints. First, we looked at their menu online when I made the reservation and were surprised when we got to the restaurant to see an entirely different menu than the Early Spring 2008 they still have on their site. I was particularly disappointed there was no duck at all, since my fondest Domus memory is of an outstanding duck main.

Second, obviously the problem with the room temperature main course.

My third complaint was a lot of repetition in the menu. It seemed like every main had the same vegetable side, which meant if I wanted the risotto, like it or not I was having wild mushrooms twice in the meal. Now I like wild mushrooms a lot, and I really wanted that risotto, but I would have liked the option of not having them again in my second course. There were other repeats, too, which slip my mind now, and the online menu isn't what we were offered, so it's hard to be specific. It felt like maybe the edict of market and local was getting in the way of a fuller menu--it is still spring after all, we've got a few months before the local bounty overruns with variety.

The service was polite and affable, if a little over-attentive. The waiter re-filled our sparkling water glasses every time he passed the table, whether we'd sipped or not, so that as the meal progressed our glasses got fuller and fuller, which was a litle weird.

Overall, as I say, the meal was satisfactory, but not outstanding. And honestly, it was a gift to my mother, and the meal cost $175 (no alcohol other than my dessert wine): for that price on a special occasion, I feel outstanding was warranted.

Domus has been on my wishes list for a long time. I kept delaying to try the food there, partly due to the snow and partly due to the review of my friends although the foodies here gave very good reviews to Domus.

What my friends said
A friend told me that Domus’s food itself was good; but for the food price they charged, he expected something more unique - basically, a restaurant with a character (for example, something like Sweetgrass, vendor 914, where you can understand the culture from the food). Interesting way of looking at food!

Another friend's colleague made the comment that Domus's wine list contains a majority of good Canadian wines and the food itself was good. Overall, for the price, his colleague indicated that he could have done better elsewhere.

My review
I have finally tried their lunch on a Saturday. To be honest, I had an enjoyable lunch there although I have to agree that their lunch menu price is a bit more expensive (about $50 per person without wine or drink). Considering the fact that Domus is located in the Byward market (i.e., higher rent) and the minimum wage has just been increased, I guess that many restaurants will increase the menu price accordingly. I notice that Domus has increased their menu price by about 10% for the mains when I had my lunch there few weeks ago (their website was not updated with the new price when I went there and now they have already updated their website’s menu with the new price.)

Service
We arrived at 11:30 AM and were seated promptly (At that time, the place was very empty, only 2 tables were filled). The place was filled up very quickly and was full at 12:30PM.

Service was not bad, but it is not like the same restaurant class as Le Baccara, vendor 466. Still very good though.

Note on Parking
With an increase to on-street parking rates to $3 per hour , it is best to park your car in the parking lot at the corner of Dalhousie and St. Patrick ($5 for the whole day).

Domus Café has great food, great presentation, great service, great atmosphere! Last time I went was for Valentine's day (evening menu is almost twice the price as the lunch menu), I had seared foie gras (one of my favorites).
If you want to try it out on a budget, you should go there at lunch time ;-) Try the soup of day, it's always very tasty!
(A similar place with similar prices is the bistro at the French Baker on Murray too, only opened at lunch time).

I am ashamed that it has been several months since posting a comment even though we haven't stopped dining out. Too busy after our trip to France (wow....LOTS of GREAT dining to be had there!!). I digress....

Had a fabulous meal here several weeks ago (or was it a couple of months ago...can't remember, too much wine!). We were a group of 6 and the service was superb as well as the meal, wine and atmosphere.

I don't remember the specifics but will definitely go back again (maybe after the holidays) when I'm looking to spend a few bucks and be sure to get a satisfying experience!

Agree that this is one of the best bistro places in town. Foie Gras to die for. Beef tenderloin also very good... and saucy... mmm

Have heard that Anne Hardy thinks it's worse than Black Cat next door....

must try the latter...

I went to Domus and was amazed by all the delicious food that that they served. I left nothing on my plate! The white asparagus soup was beyond amazing and the Goat cheese tart was just was yummy. Dessert was truly a treat! Not one complaint about the food, atmosphere or service from the staff. The best meal i have had in a long time!!

Domus got 4.5 star rating (out of 5) by Ottawa Magazine (the July/August issue). Any one read that review yet?

The secret to the taters is the massive amount of butter they use ;)

And here's the gorgeous maple tart he had for dessert :)

We want to try their "Crazy Good" Warm Chocolate Cake originally. However, we were told that this will take about 20 minutes preparation time.

So, we changed our mind and tried their Carrot Cake ($10) instead. Delicious as it looks!

I'm still thinking about this chocolate truffle cake.

Sure. I posted it in the Forum.

Care to share that recipe with us? :)

I remeber being in charge of the desserts the first night I was there, and I must say that the Creme Brulee was hands-down the most popular item. It's almost as good as my Chocolate Banana Strawberry Creme Brulee ;)

Desserts here are made-to-order, as should be expected from a restaurant of this caliber. I ordered the vanilla creme brule, and my husband ordered a cranberry and white chocolate tarte. My creme brule had the perfect amount of 'crust' on top. His tarte had a lovely, flaky crust. Both were wonderful and beautifully presented.

I asked our waiter to recommend a robust red wine, and he immediately suggested a Cabernet Sauvignon. Well played, sir - it was absolutely to my taste (delicious!) and I thoroughly enjoyed every drop :) Next time I may order a bottle of something and just ask them to bring the food slowly throughout the night so I have a chance to finish it!

Domus offers one of the best Canadian wine list in Ottawa downtown. Here I realized that the quality of many Ontario white wines is improved a lot. I match my fish selection (scalopps + mushrooms+ spinachs) with a Canadian no-oaked Chardonnay from Niagara region. It was crisp, with a refreshing acidity, well balanced with hints of citrus and floral notes with a medium finish.
My girlfriend had a good Sauvignon Blanc from the same region. It was very complex with aromas of tropical fruits and grapefruit, full body and with a long finish. It was very crisp. Those wines were good choices for our fish selections. Even the ice-wines list was wide with many good labels.

Like a few other restaurants in Ottawa, Domus tries to focus on local and Canadian cuisine. This is also true with their wine list, which features some wonderful bottles from all over Canada, focusing most on Ontario (and therefore the Niagara region).

I drooled over the first page of the list, which was rare/'last call' bottles of various vintages. We might have been celebrating my birthday, but we also didn't want to drop $70+ on a single bottle of wine, no matter how delicious it might be. Instead, we turned the page over to the local reds choices, and went with a Stonechurch Cabernet Franc. It was a balanced wine with flavours of blackberry and fresh pepper, and a hint of vanilla. Probably not the best choice for my salmon dish, but paired nicely with the risotto and my husband's duck.

I can see why they have won wine awards.

The bread arrived on our table hot with smoke! Fabulous bread. I gave 5 stars for their bread! (I forgot what it was. But very filling and tasted like homemade.) Too bad that I didn't take the photo of their bread.

This was the Daily Market Soup I ordered. I forgot what it was. A little bit sour. Good to start! Isn't it beautiful!

The server also asked me if I wanted to have another slice of bread to go with my soup. No doubt about it.

This was the Endive Beet Salad ($14) my friend ordered.

Because we got a window seat, the picture turned out pretty nice with natural lighting. I think this is the best food photo I have taken.

This was their house chowder ($25). Not too rich and this was what my friend wanted.

This was their Warm House Smoked Ontario Rainbow Trout ($22).