Ottawa Foodies

We arrived late on a Sunday afternoon, shortly before a scheduled Teen Coffee House was to perform (they have a regular stint a couple of Sundays a month). Points go to Greenfields for hosting an event that is good for community out-reach, (albeit noisy for the rest of us). Since renovating in 2007 Greenfields has been making a name for themselves as a music venue, now hosting musical acts 2 or 3 nights a week (Fridays and Saturdays typically), and Karaoke on Thursdays.

We sat ourselves, and were soon after greeted by a member staff. Asked for a wine & beer and 2 menus. The menus were brought immediately. Greenfields seems to have a fairly extensive menu, the usual pub grub, pizza and some main plates. Another member of the staff approached our table, to take our order (no drinks in hand). We explained we had ordered drinks, and were waiting for them… he apologized, but the first individual had ended their shift, and had neither got our drinks, or passed on the info. Ok, this wasn’t a good beginning. But we were understanding, and reordered our drinks.

Got the drinks in good order. “The Man” had a Beau’s, and I had a red wine – a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile (they have a couple by the glass). Our food order came quickly as well. “The Man” ordered the Greenfields Signature Burger that came with fries. “The Man” said everything was good, except that the fries were a tad overdone (oil was dark). I ordered the Chicken Curry, unfortunately my meal had various issues. First I didn’t receive the starter salad as advertised in the menu. Turns out I had an “old menu”, and the dish had been changed to NOT INCLUDE a starter salad. But, the server was good about the whole thing, and recognizing that the mistake was theirs, and not mine, quickly returned with a salad. Known as a bundle salad, it had an interesting presentation, a lot of greens that was wrapped into a bundle with a sliver of cucumber cut longwise. The plate also had tomato wedges, red onion and alfalfa sprouts, served with balsamic vinaigrette on the side. Unfortunately, the greens weren’t the freshest… they were a lot of wilted ones. Crisper would have been better. The Chicken Curry was very tasty and served on a bed of rice with toasted naan points (this dish alone would bring me back).

Generally we found the food tasty (although there were some issues as noted above). The service was definitely iffy. We haven’t determined if they are now more focussed on being a music venue or if they still intend to be a music venue part of the time and a restaurant the rest of the time. We may try again just to see if they were having an off night when it comes to food & service, or if this is now the norm.

After a very long day, decided to drop in here late on St. Patrick's Day for a drink (and to meet my favourite Leprechaun ;-P )

The place was packed with Barrhavenites out to celebrate the Green. I had a glass of the House Red Wine (so-so). But I noticed there was lots of Green Beer to be had by the Pitcher and "The Man" was happy to discover they had Beau's on tap.

Since sometime in 2007, Greenfield’s has renovated and added a stage complete with a professional sound system, so they now host weekly musical events. (Evidently they expanded into the area of the mall that once housed the LCBO).

For St. Patrick's Day they had a 3 Band line-up. As we arrived so late, we were only able to see one, the "Lyon Street Celtic Band". They were very good. And the music wasn't deafening like other places so you could actually have a conversation (and hear yourself think!)

Didn't have a chance to try anything off the menu, but I think I will check out their musical line-up in the future and perhaps drop by again.