Ottawa Foodies

2

I started going to Juniper when they were in the old location, and have had many great meals there over the years. I wish I could say that last night's meal was a wonderful experience, but although some aspects were very good, things were very inconsistent.

the atmosphere is very elegant, and the service was accommodating. We were presented with an amuse bouche of pork tenderloin and corn salsa to begin. Enjoyed by all.

Several of our party had the green salad with pressed pear, and all felt the flavors were good,but that the pear was unripe and "way too hard". Torchon of Foie Gras was perfect. Beef tartare of the day was excellent, but it was served with a house made bbq sauce that was overly sweet and cloying, and I decided to enjoy the tartare without it. Soup of the day was a winter minestrone, and was good, but not exceptional.

For mains, the fresh pickerel steamed in a banana leaf was beautifully presented and perfectly cooked, but the portion size was very small, and the flavours were pronounced "bland". The sous vide duck breast was outstanding, with a squash and wild rice pilaf and port/fig reduction. One of our party declared it the nicest duck breast he had ever enjoyed. The sous vide pork tenderloin had wonderful flavor, and was well reviewed, but the portion I sampled had an oddly dry texture for sous vide.

Two of our party ordered the Alberta beef tenderloin and this was perhaps the most glaring inconsistency. One portion was about 1 1/2" thick, while the second was maybe 3/4" thick. Since the diners were seated side by side, there was much commentary and comparison. Both steaks were tasty and nicely presented, but the obvious disparity in the size of the servings was an issue, and unfortunately the person with the smaller portion did not want to "complain" so he ate and enjoyed the steak he was served, but left feeling somehow short changed.

Warm apple pie with cheddar crust was popular and got good reviews, ditto the brown butter raspberry cake. But the peanut butter ice cream was very special and the clear favorite among the desserts. Nice balance of fat for mouth feel, and sweet without being overly so. I wanted to take a bucket of it home.

Small squares of tia maria cake with peanut butter frosting were presented with the bill. They were a nice touch, if a bit dry.

Overall the meal was enjoyable, with many hits and a few misses, but it was the inconsistency that disappointed. Once upon a time, Juniper really set the bar in Ottawa. I think that there are so many good restaurants here now, that my expectations have been raised. Our dinner was very good, enjoyed in an elegant setting with efficient and friendly service. Perhaps I was unrealistic in expecting everything to be flawless.

2

A few weeks ago, we took advantage of the 0$ cork fee at Juniper:
"Reservations 9pm or later, any day of the week can bring with them a maximum of 1 750mL bottle of wine and not pay any corkage fee."

Upon our arrival we received the warmest and most genuine welcome from the sommelier. He informed us we were the first ones to use the 0$ cork fee. He was very enthusiastic and even more so when he discovered we had brought along his father in law's favourite wine.

Our server, that night was equally nice and attentive.

We shared Juniper’s Charcuterie
Cured and smoked duck breast – bresola – house smoked ham served with in house condiments
It was delicious, and perfect for sharing.

I had the:
Beef|Sweet|Sour|Salty
Sesame crusted grilled tenderloin with soya glazed short rib with a green papaya kimchi, fried egg noodles and a sweet & sour broth.

I loved everything about my dish.Perfect balance of all the flavours and the beef was cooked to perfection.

My husband had:
Pork|Crabapple|Onion
Bacon-onion-garlic stuffed pork tenderloin with a new potato-pearl onion hash, bacon-mustard sauce topped with a crabapple

We shared a to die for dessert:
Banana-Peanut Fritter served in a chocolate cup with peanut butter ice-cream and caramel drizzle.

We had a fabulous evening; I have nothing negative to say about our meal or the service. We will certainly be back to take advantage of the no cork fee promotion.

Wifey's dessert was the lunch-sized Chocolate Semi-Freddo, with apricot and raspberry sauce (plus a little pile of wild blueberries hiding behind the slice in the picture). I tried some too and it was very nicely done. Rich in flavour, but not rich in stomach.

My wife enjoyed her Beef Striploin|Soba Noodles|Hoisin meal (beef was cooked to order, in this case Medium). I sampled a bit and found it to be pretty good -- the soba noodles were cold, and the hoisin sauce was sweet (as hoisin is). The beef was warm and tasty. As you can see, everything was beautifully presented, with nice little sticks of apple, mango, and cucumber gracing the tasty stack.

We dropped in, on a whim, for lunch today and were quite impressed. The lunch menu is not large, but the options are good (see their website for details). The decor is trendy and pleasant, with good isolation between tables. Service was excellent and friendly.

Extra points for offering us more bread (art-is-in dynamite white and poppyseed multigrain); too many restaurants never do that! I wasn't crazy about the slightly sweet (caramelized?) whipped butter that accompanied the bread, but since the bread was from Art-Is-In there was in fact no need for butter. By the way, almost all the food we had at Juniper leaned toward the sweet end of the flavour spectrum, so if you're a savoury kind of person you might find things a little fruity for your taste. That said, I'm generally not a fan of sweet food but still enjoyed the offerings immensely.

The soup of the day involved ginger, coconut, and other ingredients I can't recall. It was orange, beautifully textured, and absolutely delicious!

Pictured here is the Scallops | Summer Corn | Peppers | Sweet Potatoes dish that I had. The server warned me that it was a light portion, but I was okay with that because I was having soup. The 4 scallops were quite nice, although I found the Cajun-style treatment overpowered any delicate flavour the scallops might have had. The crispy sweet potato strips were an interesting garnish and were lightly salted in a pleasant way. But what really wowed me was the fantastically delicious and generous corn and pepper "salad" that provided a bed for the scallops. The mix of avocado and tomato-chili drizzles were spot on, to the point where I found myself scooping up traces of them and sucking them off my empty fork.

My dessert choice was the Nutella Butterscotch Crème Brûlée, which consisted of a Nutella base layer, a nice mild butterscotch "crème" layer, and a good enough (but slightly too thick) sugar crust. The delicious gianduja flavour of Nutella really works here and it speaks well of whomever is making decisions in the kitchen. This dessert was accompanied by a little triangular biscuit containing dried cranberries that I found to be somewhat dry and uninteresting.

One note: They were offering a combo sandwich special, in which you could have soup ($6), sandwich (~$10), and dessert ($6) for the great combo price of ($15). The quality of such a three-course meal is good enough that fifteen bucks is a bargain. Strangely, the restaurant was only about 1/4 full. Get the word out!

My husband and I finally made the trek to Juniper last night. For whatever reason, growing up we always went to restaurants that were not in walking distance, so living at the end of the block of Juniper made it somewhat counterintuitive to want to try it.

We were warmly greeted by one of our favourite servers from Stoneface Dolly's who remembered us.

We hummed and hawed over the menu and the server was okay with the fact that we were indecisive. He recommended an excellent Californian wine for Andrew, while I had the Gewuertztraminer, which was sweet but well-bodied. Their price for 3 and 5 ounce pours are fairly reasonable, IMO.

We were served an amuse bouche of cucumber with smoked pineapple salad. Andrew quite liked it, but all I could taste was the smoked flavour--reminded me of smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches...

For appetizers, Andrew had the mushroom gyoza which had funny, fried crispy goodness on top and a very nice teriyaki sauce. My beef tartar did not disappoint. The beef tartar changes on a daily basis, in terms of what is served with it, which is a nice feature (and which gave me hope after Pej's comments). This one was served with a horseradish sourcream and a deep-fried artichoke heart. The deep-fried artichoke was a most interesting flavour/texture combination. It was almost like halibut in texture and reminded me of fish and chips, but tangy and salty. The beef tartar was excellent, as were the crisps that came with them--they seems to have a bit of cheese in them but I couldn't make out what kind.

For mains, I had the cornish hen, while Andrew took the duck. The duck was super tender and very flavourful. It was served with some of the best sweet potato that either of us had ever tried. The hen was pretty good. Nice and crispy and with a grilled flavour to it. It was served with a goat cheese-pistachio polenta, which sounded good in theory, but in practice tasted like my mother-in-law's stuffing. (Don't get me wrong, I love her stuffing, my point is that neither the goat cheese nor the pistachio was a defining flavour)

We passed on desserts, but were brought a little post-dinner yumminess in the form of a cardamom pudding with chocolate syrup. It was served on a spoon, which begged/begot the question: Is it okay to lick your spoon if it's actually the serving plate? I will definitely try to recreate this at home!

All in all, we both enjoyed ourselves and could see going back. The only flaw in the evening was that our server disappeared at one point and was replaced by someone who was far less personable who cleared our plates and so forth. There was no mention by either of them that they were trading off for dinner breaks or to clean the front of house (it was getting close to closing). It was a small flaw, because it led to some confusion amongst Andrew and I.

(The other thing that was a bit bothersome, and this might just be my mother coming out in me, is that the plates were cleared and stacked in front of us. I've always been told that this is rude, but it also just feels really awkward).

smoked trout with green tomato-apple chutney sandwiched between two fillo crisps on a line of cider syrup. tasty smoked rainbow trout served cold was done in-house according to the server. the accompanying chutney was also cold making this entire dish... COLD! i think to make things a bit more interesting would be to serve the chutney warmed up and spiced up a notch to offer better contrast in flavor and temperature against the smoked trout. again this is subjective. visually appealing dish that's for sure!

green tea marshmallows and citrus salad. another interesting home-made desert @ juniper. three cubes of marshmallows spiked with green tea. the taste of green tea hits your taste buds after the marshmallows have melted in your mouth, so wait for it! the pairing with citrus salad was overly extreme. the strong acidity and flavor of the peeled red grapefruit, oranges and dressing overpowers the marshmallows so i suggest you eat these accompaniments separately or they will cancel out the subtly taste of green tea in this dish. interesting dish however.

beef tartare made with capers, shallots and chives along with toasted crisps. this app waws quite minimal taste-wise compared to many beef tartares offered around town. perhaps a few more items such as a sauce or cheese that goes well with rare beef can make this dish made for royalty. suggest: grainy mustard and/or a parmesan crisp!

passionfruit ice cream on pineapple crepe and topped with fresh pineapple and garnished with caramel. i'm not a desert guy but juniper does have some interesting deserts done well that are quite flavorful. here the ice cream matched well with the warm crepe filled with thinly sliced warm poached pineapple. this whole desert worked well and was composed just right.

I had an amazing Lychee Martini here.. not sure if it's still on the menu but can highly recommend.