ottawa foodies

The Large Caesar Salad ($10) was generous and fresh, perfect for sharing between two as an appetizer. Tender Romaine lettuce with a very light and lemony dressing. Deep fried capers were awesome. The crostini on top were generously anointed with oil -- a nice alternative to croutons. The anchovy population was represented by two whole fillets nestled deep within the salad. Very cool!

Caesar close up. Notice the coarse crate on the parma. Nice touch.

Pour deux.

Double smoked bacon, house croutons, fresh crisp lettuce, hint of anchovy, lightly dressed.

usually the best caesar salad in Ottawa...dressing prepared fresh in front of you! The lettuce is always spectacular to boot. I would love to hear of a better caesar salad in o-town!

This is the Caesar Salad I ordered ($8.50). I added grilled chicken to the salad for $6.00 extra. Portion was just right. The taste was good. No complaint.

This unimpressive plate of whole romaine leaves drizzled with dressing cost an equally unimpressive $14. No bacon or parmesan cheese here.

Wifey dramatically declared this to be the worst caesar salad she had ever had. I think I've had worse, but only at fast food places and mall food courts. The server told us, "it's really good" when we ordered it and we were starving when it arrived so we should have been easy to please.

The romaine was on the tough side (sure, it's the middle of winter but many grocery stores sell better lettuce than this). The dressing was more "sharp garlic" than "tasty garlic" and was just kind of boring. I think Kraft's bottled stuff has more pizazz. And, for goodness sake, never ever serve a caesar salad on a *warm* plate!! If it's still hot from the dishwasher rinse it with cold water before putting lettuce on it. :P

The redeeming part was the tasty little herbed crostini in lieu of croutons.

so-called AYCE caesar salad @ ESM. PSSSST: new secret protocol for chain restaurant modus operandi factoid: delay processing. AYCE salad served just 2 mins prior to arrivals of main dishes to minimize refill orders and optimize profits. and the large crowds fall for it over and over again....

ESM's for a top notch caesar salad?? I think not...very average, which is not the worst thing in the world.

No anchovies in the dressing, so -- good for vegetarians. Kudos to them for the large bowls; the aesthetics aren't fantastic, but it beats those prissy little plates everything falls off of.

That said, the lettuce should've been crisper. Not terrible. But.

Freshly grated parmesan. Bland croutons.

Very tasty with a nice tang to the dressing, although the parmesan cheese looked very much like the dried shaker-style stuff. The bacon was top notch. Portion size was kind of meager considering this was a Large.

The Carmen Caesar ($13) was quite a feast! The portion felt significantly larger than what I had during my previous visit during their menu testing.

This salad features Romaine lettuce, baby kale, and generous cubes of pancetta, all tossed in a cashew Caesar dressing. It is then topped with a boiled egg, quinoa-parmesan crisps, thick shards of pecorino, roasted broccoli, and a caramelized half lemon for squeezing. An optional (no charge) slice of bread with a cup of olive oil for dipping nicely rounds out the meal.

The ingredients were of top quality as you would expect. Due to the moisture of the salad and perhaps the humidity of the day, the parmesan crisps were chewy rather than crispy; that said, they were delicious! My only real quibble was with the roasted broccoli—it was dry and chewy, unlike any roasted broccoli I've ever had. The hack I found was to chew the broccoli along with a cube of pancetta... amazing!

All in all, this was a good choice and an enjoyable lunch. It's filling enough that you may not want the bread unless you're really hungry.