Ottawa Foodies

1

Last night, after a disappointing start of the night at another pub in the market, me and a couple friends headed to the Bank and Gloucester location for a "Raise James' spirits night". I have to say, this did save my night. The special they had was a double bar rail for $6.50, which is pretty amazing, and I found the nachos to be really tasty. The service was fast and friendly, and the musician playing wasn't too loud. In fact, I could hear him, and everyone at the table. The Fuller's porter was really good here too. All in all a very nice experience.

1

I tend to go to the Oak on Bank and Gloucester (the "Dirty Oak" is the one on Bank and Gilmour, I gather?) as it's a stone's throw away from my place, and while I don't expect much more than pedestrian fare, I tend to order the fajita chicken wrap with pub chips. Still quite variable (sometimes the chips are, well, nearly cold and hard; other times they are piping fresh and perfect consistency), it's still more than serviceable, a light tang to it (not really spicy), and fills the spot. If I dine in, a hand-cranked London Porter is nearly de rigueur. They might not do a lot very well, but a few things are certainly reasonably worth it - now and then.

But I so miss their old nachos. Now that was a meal.

5

My team goes to the Royal Oak often. I am not a fan.

The fish and chips are mediocre. The spinach and artichoke dip, when I had it, was awful — even the tortilla chips were bad! Dry and HARD. Ditto for the nachos.

The caesar salad was a but sad — the lettuce was not fresh.

The onion rings are not bad.

The downtown locations is better than the one on Bank St. (aka "The Dirty Oak").

2

I'm not going to elaborate too much.

On my quest for a half decent Ottawa burger, the Oak is actually close to the top of the list.

Hold your horses... it wasn't amazing, merely just satisfactory. Still better then Five Guys, Chez Lucien, Works, and Hintonburger... in terms of flavour in the patty.

I believe the Oak uses a very interesting blend of Salt and pepper to season their mince. rolls eyes in sarcasm hahaha... isn't it ridiculous that salt and pepper = a good burger in Ottawa. Kind of sad really.

The side salad was merely there. The burger bun was a bit stale, meh. But I will say the bacon was thick and hearty and the cheese was real and not processed cheese food.

The service that night was absolutely atrocious.

Long story short... it was a half decent burger that I would order again. This is more of an extended commentary on Ottawa burgers then on this merely acceptable burger from the oak.

2

I went to the Royal Oak at kent and slater for a work lunch on Friday. Why does everyone keep having our lunches here? I've never enjoyed my time at the Royal oak.

The food is never great and this time was no different. I ordered the club sandwich with sweet potato fries. I figure, what can go wrong? Well, the fries were cold. And then the waitress forgot the sauce to go with them, and when I reminded her again it still never arrived. The club sandwich was horrible. The chicken was dry and my lettuce had those awful moldy wilted parts to it. I feel like the food is never great.

The service was horrible. I was sitting on a corner and the waitress must have bumped into me about a half dozen times with no apologies. She was short, rude and inattentive.

However, the Guinness was fantastic! Next time we have a group lunch I think I will stick with the beer and skip the food.

3

I just returned from the Royal Oak on Slater after a wonderful lunch with some co-workers. I was disappointed that the Royal Oak was chosen, but my poor expectations translated into a fantastic, impressive lunch. I ordered the Crispy Fish Taco which was served with a side salad. The side salad wasn’t great, neither was the ranch like sauce they included with it. But hey, it’s a simple side salad. I ended up topping it with white vinegar and salt and it turned out nice.

The taco was absolutely fantastic. It was made with a generous piece of fried tilapia, and served with a beautiful, spicy mango chutney/relish. Extremely impressed! The Royal Oak does serve decent food - who'd of thunk it. IMO, this was a far better fish taco then the sidedoor serves. (much, much larger too).

The taco+salad+creemore came to 23$ after tax and tip. My one qualm however, was that - the debit machine prompts you for a 20% tip. HAH! Luckily I’m not a sucker and I chose a different amount. The service was good, not great, but certainly not worth 20%. Not complaining what-so-ever, just an observation.

Although I have beers at the Oak with some frequency; I have now been assured that decent food can be found at the Oak.

2

Went to the Royal Oak on Wellington and Holland on a Monday night. I ordered a chicken sandwich and my boyfriend ordered a burger - our buns were stale. They weren't rock hard stale, but the top of my bun was dry to the point where a piece of it just fell off, and my boyfriend's bun was dry enough that he only ate half of it and had the rest of the burger sans bun.

Unfortunately when we told the waitress, she tried to assure us that sometimes the kitchen toasts the buns. Although that may sometimes be the case, and I'm sure she was just double-checking, we ended up assuring her that we knew the difference between "toasted" and "stale."

I was surprised we weren't offered some sort of compensation, even if it was just something small. Instead, our bill remained at $36 for two pop drinks and a burger and sandwich with stale buns.

I met up with some friends for dinner last week at the Royal Oak at Bank and Gilmour. This location has a tavern style atmosphere and lots of activities planned - a dart board is available and the night we were there was trivia night. It's a great spot for people watching!

The rest of the group settled for beverages and appetizers (fries, zucchini fingers, etc.) however since I just came from work I ordered dinner. After reading the reviews on this site I decided to go for the beef and stilton pot pie. The stew was perfect - melt-in-your-mouth beef, nice thick gravy prepared to the right consistency, a thin layer of stilton covering the beef, and flaky puff pastry to top it off. The pot pie was definitely delish however there was a little too much stilton for my liking. Stilton has such a pungent flavour IMO that just a little bit crumbled on top of the beef would have been perfect. I had a choice of sides - baked or mashed potatoes or fries. I chose the fries option and they were a little on the soggy side. I really wish they would offer a side order of veggies. With the pastry and choice of potato on the side it is an awful lot of carbs and I would have preferred a healthier option.

They have a nice selection of beers so I settled for a Guiness on this visit.

I had a late lunch at the Royal Oak on Hunt Club on the way to the airport.

I would say I experience was quite positive. The set up for this location is nicely spaced out. I suppose this strays away from the quaint atmosphere that most pubs have but I appreciated it.

Service was a little slow but I think because we were there after they cut most of the lunch staff and before the evening staff head in. The server/bartender had quite a number of tables but was managing them.

This was my first actual visit for food at any Royal Oak location. The menu seems to cover a variety of options, none of the options seem particularly healthy. I wanted to start with something because I was fairly hungry having not had anything to eat all day but I couldn't bring myself to order any of the grease-bomb appetizers. I would have liked to see veggies and dip or something. Event their salads were loaded with calories.

I managed to order off their summer special menu- a salad with stilton, pears and walnuts with grilled chicken. I got the dressing on the side but didn't even bother with it because the cheese gave it enough zip. My boyfriend grabbed a piece of chicken and commented "rubbery." I think what it was were those pre cooked, sliced chicken breast pieces that one can buy. I don't mind them but they definately differ from freshly cooked chicken breast. I was just happy to see "grilled" rather than the fried chicken strips that top some of their regular menu salads.

There wasn't an outrageous amount of blue cheese, which I was perfectly happy with as I am not a huge fan. However, a true lover might find the amount a little stingy.

The pear was rock hard which was a let down. I ate only one slice and didn't bother with the rest.

The salad was quite tasty over all and a huge portion, which made the price fair at $12.99.

My boyfriend had a Kilkenny and a plain burger and fries. He loved the burger- it came with fresh lettuce, tomato, onion and a pickle. The server brought ketchup, mustard and relish to add.

I notice that the server didn't bother to ask what side he wanted with the burger and as default ordered it with fries. Fortunately, this is probably what my boyfriend would have ordered.

The fries were those frozen ones that try to look like home cut fries. I didn't taste them so I don't know if they were good or not. He did managed to eat them all, so.....

Overall, there are worse places you could eat. It also makes a good pit stop if you want to avoid rush hour and are heading to the airport.

black & tan onion rings @ royal oak. interesting rings in which the batter was dipped in dark and tan stout beer. very subtle but neat flavor. comes with a house ranch dressing which i suggest you don't dip to enjoy the funky beer batter thang they got going on. and no ketchup needed as it would completely mask the flavor. good to wash down with an ice cold beer on game nights.

now get back to the gym...

While they do have a decent selection of imports, most of them are considered fairly "mainstream" these days amongst the local beer geeks. Though I still go here often because they are good beers, and the food is pretty decent as well. Fuller's ESB and London Pride find their way onto my table fairly often. Would be nice to see them carry some Ontario Micros, though.

kmennie, the downtown Oak is the only one to go to. Just not for the food. Sketchy patrons are all part of the fun (think of it as street theatre), and the service is usually good there, although I haven't been in a while. The food sucks, as it does at all the Oaks but there is nothing wrong with the beer.

I do not want to send anybody to the original Oak in Centretown; it's filthy, in more ways than one, but.

The one in the Glebe is quite nice nowadays. The Guinness even comes with a 'shamrock pour,' a bit gimmicky, but certainly appreciated after getting half a pint of foam, etc, at other places.

And my god, my pictures are awful. But. Good beer.

We've been going here once a month lately and I've had one of the burgers every time. Contrary to what many people say it is possible to screw up hamburgers. Fortunately these guys actually make a really tasty one.

1

Tried the veggie burger this weekend. I was happy to see that rather than listing "veggie burger" as a separate burger, it now states that "vegetarian patties are also available", so basically a substitution can be made with any listed beef burger.

We ordered one smokehouse veggie burger each with fries. To our surprise, the burger was actually a veggie patty, not a veggie burger. Not a bad thing - i've been trying to stay away from all that frankensoy stuff. The patty was flavourful and worked real well with the chipotle sauce. The burger also was topped off with 2 onion rings and cheese. Overall, the burger was good! But like LittleOwl on Nov 2, the bun was stale! I don't understand how that could be, I'm sure Royal Oak serve tons or burgers so that they don't need to worry about buns getting stale. Everything was decent for pub food.

The beer menu has a good amount of beers but I would appreciate seeing more local and microbrewery beers.

I was with friends at the Oak in the Glebe when one of them decided to order the fish and chips. I assumed that they were going to be good since they have a flyer in their menu saying so.

When they arrived they looked thick and nice on the outside but as soon as he started tearing it apart it looked like a fish doughnut.

The batter was thick and spongy and when I asked for a sample it tasted very much like doughnut batter. The crispy, airy and flaky crust you expect from fish n' chips was nowhere to be found. Although he did eat the fish which he said was ok and because he was hungry, it was still the worst fish and chips I've ever witnessed.

You know, I had an experience similar to yours last Friday. I was also craving fish (wife can't eat it) and, the waiter had to gall to say that the fish and chips was one of the best in the city. So, my friend and I both ordered the fish and chips. She didn't finish hers, and the only way I could was to smother the fish in tartar sauce. My fish wasn't battered all over, so I had pieces of fish that had touched the oil, which makes it very tough and not tasty.

we decided to stop and have a bevvie while waiting for the Pretoria Bridge to finish it weekly weekend gyrations and head over to my fave lil spot on Elgin

well, against my better judgement, and not being able to ignore the roars coming from our stomachs, we decided to give in and open the menu

having a craving for fish (YES! again! seems that's all I crave lately), I figure any pub can fry fish and at least it's haddock and not cod(shudder!)

I was wrong.... not just any place can fry fish
the SINGLE piece I received was aweful
the fish had obviously been twice fried
the batter should never shatter, bounce or explode when cut into

when asked by the server, if I was enjoying my meal, I bluntly said "no"

and after discussing my view of the piece of haddock, no apology was offered....nothing was offered

while, it's around the corner and the beer selection is good, it's not enough to bring me back