Ottawa Bound and need some suggestions [General]

2010 Sep 27
Hello Ottawa,

It looks like my visits to Ottawa will be a little more frequent, so I am looking for restaurant ideas and some feedback on a few I've already located.

I am looking for some awesome pork dishes and bbq. So far I plan on visiting two places.

1) Murray Street Bistro - It appears to have some favorable reviews for the pulled pork.

2) D/S Southern Comfort BBQ - Last trip I tried one bbq place (Lone Star) in Kanata, and it was absolutely horrid. I have some higher hopes for this place since it will be a bit of a drive.

Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks!

2010 Sep 27
Where are you coming from? I am an Ottawa native. Just returned from a BBQ road trip in the Southern US. Murray Street is a great choice for pulled pork and charcuterie but is not a BBQ joint. You will be sorely disappointed if you are looking for BBQ here, depending of course on where you are from and your experience. The Lone Star is a Tex-Mex local chain with good but not great food. It is also the only place I know of in Ottawa where you can get smoked beef ribs. Therefore it is probably the best we have to offer in Ottawa for bbq, which is quite sad. I have not tried this D/S place but I'm intrigued and certainly will try it.

2010 Sep 27
Coming from Colorado. There are some outstanding BBQ places here, but for some reason the really good ones never last. We also have very good mexican, so I am game for that to. I saw a reference to Tapas but haven't researched it yet.

BTW - Any pork dishes are fine, so if there are local dishes/favorites that is great. The pulled pork and BBQ place were the one's I have found so far via search.

I have also tried Moxie's in Kanata. The food was decent but not really my style atmosphere. I found it because it was right next to a huge hockey store.

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming.

2010 Sep 27
Happy Mouth Blog is right on the money with the comment that you'll be sorely disappointed if you come looking for authentic BBQ in Ottawa food establishments.

That said, if you're willing to venture outside the American BBQ category, here are my top porky picks for Ottawa:

* Char Siu (BBQ Pork) at Double Happiness BBQ - get a pound to go; ask them to chop it for you.
* BBQ Pork Chop at Mee Xim - very thin pork chop, very tasty black pepper sauce.
* Pupusa at La Cabaņa - the pork and cheese ones are the best
* Carnitas Burritos at Mucho Burrito - built to order, Subway style. The hot salsa is very hot!
* Bacon and Eggs Breakfast at Ralph & Sons
* Bratwurst at Lindenhof
* Jaeger-Schnitzel at New Dubrovnik

2010 Sep 28
We do have excellent Chinese and Korean BBQ in Ottawa. Take out BBQ pork at Green Fresh Market in Vanier, BBQ duck in Chinatown, and Korean BBQ at Alirang are all excellent.

Pulled pork for takeout at the Piggy Market in Westboro is excellent. However the best pulled pork in Ottawa is here at Chez Happymouth. My husband brines it, smokes it with cherry wood for fourteen hours:)

Hope you have good eats in the capital :)

2010 Sep 28
Have to chime in here.

In my experience, the char siu is best at Wa Kiu in Chinatown, and actually T&T has the best siu yuk (roast pork).

Cheers!

2010 Oct 1
La Cabana is pretty good and they have a grocery store beside the restaurant.
Which is good because sometimes it is slow to get food and the person there might forget you are there.

last time I was there the guy working said it would be slow for orders as it was super busy.
it was a saturday night and he seemed to be the only servery for a packed restaurant.

The time before I had lunch there and was the only customer (it was a weekday) and these two ladies walk in...wait 5 minutes...no waiter to be seen,so they left.
I tried to be nice and told them there was only 1 person working and he would be back soon..but they left anyways.
That day I also had to wait almost 10 minutes for the bill as the server was nowhere to be found.
-oh and there was a chicken bone in my taco that day...

But the food at La Cabana is good, so I'll prob go back sometime.

Emperor's Dining Lounge

Emperor dining lounge is different.
They have fish tanks and you can pick your fish and they cook it for you.
I have not tried that,but your fish would be extremely fresh!
I like the sizzling eggplant in black bean sauce.
They have a cheap night menu after 8pm.