Ottawa Foodies

I see now that they've changed their category on the Taste of Winterlude website from $30 to $45, so I guess the prix fixe at $39 is supposed to be a pleasant surprise, not a disappointment.

Went last night for their Taste of Winterlude prix fixe dinner. It was advertised as being $30, but they had jacked the price up to $39. One of the entree options for the prix fixe was pad thai, which only goes for $18 on the regular menu - I don't think you could have hit $39 if you added the most expensive appetizer and dessert, so be aware - not all the options are a great deal.

Tom Yum soup was good, Pad Thai was good, but the fish special smelled and tasted a bit overly fishy.

Overall, mixed results. And I was ticked off at the change in the price of the Taste of Winterlude special.

A little late in posting this review. We had dinner here on Friday Oct 12th before going to the NAC for a show.

We have been to Santé 3 times before, but have not been for about 2 years.

We were seated in a window seat and left to look over the menu.

We ordered a half litre of white wine (can't remember what).
For our starter we ordered the Yum Cha Platter for 2. This was two chicken satay with satay sauce, two spring rolls with spring roll sauce, two Thai shrimp rolls and two shrimp dumplings. There was a third sauce which was a sticky/sweet type of ponzu sauce or something.
Everything on the platter was delicious except for the sauce for the spring rolls - it was virtually tasteless.

We were then served a granité as a palate cleanser.

For our mains, I ordered the:
Siam Shrimp - giant shrimp, vegetables, spicy citrus sake, tabasco, rice ~ 21

I was not crazy about this dish. The shrimp were of the tiger variety (a plus) but the veggies were just julienned carrots and turnip. No other veggies (kinda boring) and there was WAY too much sauce. The dish was swimming in it. I could have filled up a water glass with what sauce was left when I was done. The taste was ok at the beginning but became overpowering.

Mr. KSW had:
AAA Angus Beef Tenderloin - aged to perfection, patti pan, asparagus, shallots, broccoli, herb roasted mini potatoes, cognac ~ 32

He enjoyed his meal but felt that the tenderloin was more rare than medium as he has requested. No other issues with his dish.

For dessert they did not have the dessert we wanted (not my favourite thing when that happens) so I had the crème caramel and Mr. KSW had the chocolate pecan pie.

The experience was enjoyable overall but not as enjoyable as previous experiences for several reasons:
1. Service was not as polished as it had been on previous visits. Our server tried hard but something was missing.
2. Food was also not as good as on previous visits.
3. Don't like it when restaurants are "out" of things - I find this very tacky.
4. Heat was being blasted from the floorboard heaters (as if it was -40 out) and I nearly died - apparently someone else complained because all of a sudden the heat went off - thank heavens!
5. Could be my imagination but the menu used to be longer and had more choices. You opened this menu and there was a page glued to one side with starters and another page on the other side with mains – that’s it, that’s all. Does anyone know if this is a new shortened menu?

Maybe it was just an off night so I will return and give it another chance. But only one more :)