ottawa foodies

From Mr. Pretzels in Billings Bridge mall.
This is the parmesan herb one.
The dough is more like a soft bread dough, and not the kind of pretzel that is brown, shiny and has rock salt on it.

Shoppers sometimes has a brand of pretzel that is in a yellow box and solf frozen. Used to buy them at the Walkley and Bank location.

Also I used to buy Zoglos frozen pretzels at Independent.
They were made in New York and come with a big bag of rock salt separate and cost around $5 a box.
I always have some in my freezer, except not at the moment.

I had a couple Swiss Pastry soft pretzels today and left unimpressed. It was 'ok', but not much better. The texture was, for me too bread like, and the crust was not 'shiny chewy'. The bread was fairly flavourless, although the salt bits were nice (not overdone).

Swiss Pastries--both the Carlingwood location (still open!!!) and the Westboro location (across from the LCBO) sell the most divine pretzels you can get in Ottawa on Thursdays. So stock up!

I wonder if it'd be worth it to convince the German Town Deli to sell them....

I had one yesterday at Lesplanade Laurier. It was not hot but still tasted good.

Budapest deli in the Byward market used to carry them, maybe they can tell you their supplier? About a year or so ago i found them at the deli next door to Aubrey's butcher in the market (on rare occasions).
I sometimes ask the wood oven bagel people in town if they will make them (since Fairmont Bagel in Montreal makes them). Maybe with more requests they will give in?

Carlingwood used to have a pretzel place but I just checked the website and it seems to be gone.
Some theatres have Wetzels Pretzels but other than that I don't know of anywhere.

Great minds think alike FF! We stopped here on Sunday driving back to Ottawa and picked up pretzels as well and I agree, great shell with a soft, flavourful interior, just like I've had in Germany. The plan was to get a half dozen and have them with some Weisswurst from the Sausage Kitchen but alas they were out of these wurst so the pretzels were happily devoured on their own as well as with some sweet Bavarian mustard :)

We also tried their sausage rolls and tourtiere and both get top marks as does their Linzertorte that a neighbour shared with us, although the Kirsch Amaretti was too sweet for my taste.

I was excited to try the soft pretzel here and it lived up to my expectations. It is less salty and more fluffy than other pretzels I've had in North America. The interior has a beautiful tender-chewy cloud-like texture. So good. $1.

The pretzel was larger than I expected, which explains the bold $8 price point. Served with a selection of local mustards, this is an excellent shared starter. Nicely salted, tender-chewy. The dough is a little sweeter than I like it but it's totally enjoyable.

Mmmm. Pretzels. One of my favourite foods. Stopped by Swiss Pastries at Westboro this morning for a pretzel to take to work. Made an interesting lunch of pretzel, soup and hard boiled egg.

Figured I would save the best until last with the pretzel (mmmm), until I opened the bag, ripped it apart, and it was stale.

Sorry, Swiss Pastries, but how is it you only sell these once a week and yet they are stale? I'm disappointed. This might resulted in my making my own from now on.

Only available on Thursdays, the soft pretzels are pretty good, perfectly salted and relatively chewy (although, as Pete in Ottawa mentioned, they don't have the shiny, crispy sheen to them). I usually bring home a few to serve with dinner (sliced meat, cheese, salad).