Ottawa Foodies

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" 10 Things I Hate About You.

My partner & I went to Village Cafe tonight, and we were just that--whelmed. We chose here after looking at the Gastropub's "sample menu" (online) and him deciding that he didn't like anything on the sample menu, and my not making it clear that it was just that, a sample menu.

Anyway, our servers were not very attentive at all: She did not ask my partner if he wanted anything to drink at any point during our ordering, and assumed that because I had ordered my drink with my meal that him saying nothing meant he didn't want anything.

The roasted red pepper and goat cheese soup was really good, and well worth its value, but servers ought to know better than to add pepper, cheese, or anything else that's not on the course already without asking the customer. My waitress went ahead and dumped pepper on it...what was I supposed to do? Send it back? Ugh.

My main was the crab salad, which was more crab than salad, however a very small portion. I'm not sure if it was meant as an appetizer size, but it was priced as a meal. The watermelon and avacodo made for a good combination of textures with the crab and lime vinegarette...but there was hardly any greens to be found, despite the menu's promise. Additionally, the menu said nothing about red onion, which I usually love, but it was cut up in such small pieces that it all sunk to the bottom, where my last few bits became nothing but crab and red onion (reminded me a lot of pickled herring to be honest!)

He had the Toscana linguini--linguini tossed in garlic infused olive oil with prosciutto, sundried tomato and all the fixings. However, garlic-infused oil is never a good plan, since it never really tastes like garlic. Otherwise there was little flavour to his pasta, and he claimed that our homemade stuff (complete with roasted red pepper, hot pepper and homemade sundried tomatoes) was better. I concured.

Both meals were served with a very white, very subpar bread, for which I was thankful there was soup and about 1/3 a cup of oil left in the bottom of his pasta dish (gross...but useful for tasteless bread).

Not once in the entire meal did either of the two girls serving us (they sort of tag teamed) ask us how the meal was.

All in all, I might come back for the lunch menu...but likely not.

Blech.

Ate here a couple of months ago and overall had a good experience. I won't comment on the details because I can't remember but will make another visit so I can give a proper review.

Nice atmosphere and very accommodating service when another couple called to join us for drinks/dessert halfway through our meal, the server had no problem with us moving tables. Since we had already begun eating, she had to set the other table. She got a large tip!

My partner and I had lunch here on Saturday. I had the vegetarian burger with dijon mustard. It came with the house salad with a nice balmastic vinegar dressing. Very plain but satsifying. I'm really happy I ordered it with dijon as I think the mayonnaise would have tasted funny with the burger. Also you need a strong bread with this. I had the foccacia. My partner had the Royale sandwitch which he also enjoyed. He thought the combination of turkey, pancetta, provolone & pesto mayonnaise worked well.
The service was okay. A little too informal and unattentive for me.

I like The Village Cafe, and will give it a thumbs up, if only for their delicious creative sandwiches. The only downside is the absurdly priced desserts, which don't have a menu so you can't see what the price is ahead of time without asking. I can't remember what I had, but I certainly remember the $8 on the bill. This place is good, but not $8 dessert good like Juniper down the road is.

I used to be a big fan of this place until a couple of years ago some friends and I stopped in for dessert and coffee late one evening. We were basically told to get lost because we didn't want to order dinner. It was after 9pm. I have never been back. Good food cannot make up for incredibly rude service!

Went with a group of 8 people for Sunday brunch. We had actually intended to go to Baker Street Cafe, but it was full. Service was generally good with one or two minor exceptions for small things that were forgotten (cream for coffee, extra bacon). Most people ordered either the eggs benedict or the mediterranean omelette, with one person getting the pancakes.

Everyone was happy with their food, but I didn't hear anyone blown away by the flavours. I only say this because for $12 eggs benedict I would normally expect a little more than just standard eggs benny done well. For quantity, everyone but me seems to have been satisfied, but I'm a notoriously big eater so I think the general population would be happy with what they get.

All in all, a good breakfast with good service, but I'm not sure if it's worth the slightly inflated prices.

A filled crepe.

Surprising (mild) complaint: "too much meat."

From the same diner who had the platter-o'-animal here ottawafoodies.com/vendor/620 , hence "surprising"...

A 'mediterranean' omelette.

Top marks for a good combination of veg.

Deductions for the tiny amount of feta.

And no toast to the toast. It was so dry as to be melba, and no butter ever showed up (neither did anybody to ask until the end).

Strawberry juice was great, though -- not the bottled sugar water most places with "strawberry juice" on the menu are flogging.

I love the food at The Village Cafe, but their desserts are hit-or-miss. Like many places, they bring in their desserts from a local baker. I've found they are generally either too sweet or too dry (or both!). One specific warning: the icing on the carrot cake we had (June 2006) is really gross, like eating crisco!