Favorite Cheap Eats in and around Ottawa [Food/Vendor]

2007 Nov 19
Cheap Eats. There is a book, but what about my fellow foodies.

Here are my fav cheap eats in Ottawa (and surrounding area):

1) Pho ......many places
2) Alladin Pies (Carling location)
3) Chinese Bakeries (only a few left)
4) Lunch from Sausage Kitchen Sausage Kitchen
5) Lunch from Parma Ravioli Parma Ravioli
6) Sandwiches and pasta from DiRienzo's DiRienzo Foods

2007 Nov 19
German Town! www.facebook.com

2007 Nov 20
- Bowl of laksa from the Singapore Restaurant on Carling
- anything from Ahora
- bowl of noodles and spring roll from Saigon in the Market
- pupusas from La Cabana
- sandwiches or pizza at La Bottega
- chicken shawarma from Marroush (or any of the myriad of places around town)
- smoked meat on a Bagel from Ottawa Bagel Shop

2007 Nov 20
Belle Vista Hawaiian pizza!

2007 Nov 20
- Wang's Noodle House
- spring rolls from Vietnamese Kitchen
- chicken teriyaki from Brown Loaf bakery
- pizza from Bread and Sons
- any of the pastas from Parma Ravioli
- any of the pastas from Nicastros

And of course I would agree with German Town Deli and the Sausage Kitchen.

2007 Nov 20
- "The sandwich" from Little Euro Deli in Kanata. You don't have any choices, but the sandwich they do make is great...and $3.50 with tax!

- Meatball sandwich at the Prescott.

- Vietnamese vermicelli noodle dishes with spring rolls. Pho Van Van on Holland or the one in Hintonburg on Wellington are decent choices.

- Large banana cream pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen. And yes, they do use a real banana in it.

- Ditto to Laksa at Singapore Restaurant, pasta at Parma Ravioli and sandwiches at DiRienzo's.

2007 Nov 20
-Vietnamese subs in Chinatown
-La Bottega sandwiches (with a fresh cannoli for dessert!)
-And of course, pho

2007 Nov 20
-Mello's Coffee Shop (Mellos Coffee Shop) on Merivale (breakfast < $4 taxes in w/ coffee)
-White Horse (White Horse Restaurant) on Tremblay Rd. (again, breakfast < $4 all in)
-Pho/Viet subs (anywhere on Somerset)
-Dirienzo's/Nicastro's/Little Euro Deli/European Delicatessen sandwiches (all around ~$3 or so)
-Restaurant International (Restaurant International) @ Algonquin College (3-course "fine dining" meal + coffee/tea for $20!)
-Wings @ Summerhays (Summerhays) ($.35 wings that are quality unlike most 'wing night' bars in the city)

2014 Jun 2
I thought that instead of complaining about expensive some of the restos are in Ottawa, we should go back to sharing cheap eats!

- Chicken Lababdar Curry with rice at Corner Kitchen in the basement of Place de Ville (can have half chicken curry, half spicy eggplant (pictured) or chickpeas; for $.50, can have half salad, half rice)

- Bowl of beef bulgogi at Go for Sushi

- Lunch counter at Johnny Farina

- Sandwich counter at Sausage Kitchen

- Anything at Corazon de Mais

- Vietnamese sandwiches (Banh mi)

- Lunch at So Good

2014 Jun 3
New additions to my list:

-lunch at Parma Ravioli
-lunch at Ottawa Bagel Shop
-meat pies from Aladdin
-anything from Yang Sheng (but I have become addicted to their garlic ribs)

And who can forget:

-Bap
-Gongfu Bao
-Streat Gourmet
-Angry Dragonz

Okay Streat Gourmet isn't really cheap but I couldn't help but put in a personal plug for my four favourite food trucks-;) (Only three weeks until staycation and I can eat at them every day if I want!)

2014 Jun 3
I will add another vote for Aladdin/Farhat's Bakery/Al Noor Bakery meat pies and cheese pies. Bonus points for meat pies as they are sourced from local beef from the butcher at Al Kalaa (beef is from Navan). Ask for spice and lemon! $1.75 I believe. All places have a very similar product, and all are delicious!

2014 Jun 4
My go-to cheap lunch haunt for years has been the German Town Deli on Slater Street. I always stop here to pick up a couple of hot salami sandwiches when I'm flying or driving long distance.

After this would be a spicy panini with eggplant from Luciano's at Preston/Somerset (not sure why anyone would be fussed about Dirienzo's after stopping here).

Parma Ravioli for their meatball sub with salad.

A bowl of spicy saté soup at Huong's Bistro and Corazon de Mais.

As far as food trucks go it's hard to beat the price and quality of Relish at the UofO campus.

2014 Jun 4
Sausage Kitchen. Pure bang-for-your-buck goodness.

2014 Jun 5
The whole roasted chicken plate at Les Grillades on Holland that comes with salad, rice, pickled turnip, garlic sauce, hummus and pita. That's 4 good-size portions, or two large portions for dinner and two smaller ones for next day's lunch for $30. You can call in your order too.

2014 Jun 5
Take Out Buffet at Ceylonta or Aahar.

If you pack those containers correctly, you can eat for a week

2014 Jun 6
Oh man, yes to Ceylonta. Be sure to ask for 'soup' containers in addition to the regular container, you can fill them with whatever you like and they'll only charge you a buck or two extra. Easily an extra meal.

2014 Jun 6
Shwarma king
Greek Slouvaki house
AYCE Sushi

2014 Jun 10
Pizza and a pint-15$ at The Grand at lunchtime!

2014 Jun 10
Shawarma Palace. One fully loaded platter can serve serve a family of four, possibly a small village.

2014 Jun 11
Can you get any cheaper than Costco ?

$1.50 for a jumbo hot dog and toppings, togehter with a free refills fountain drink.

2014 Jun 11
Has anyone been able to finish a platter from Shwarma Palace ? The one downtown gives the largest portions, not that it matters. They do a lot of business too, so it's always fresh.

2014 Jun 11
Shawarma Palace Hunt Club gives nice portions as well - as long as you get a regular that is working behind the counter. The new guys just dont seem to understand the philopsophy.

And yes - I have finished a few platters in my time. Generally, the completion varies directly with the amount of garlic sauce remaining.

2014 Jun 11
My wife and I were at Shawarma Palace on Carling a few weeks ago, and we both finished our platters. Nice little snack. :P

2014 Jun 11
I have finished the Palace platter, but that's not a frequent occurrence. Frequently I'll skip the rice and (with difficulty) the (awesome) potatoes, in which case you still get a mass of fresh salad and pickled veg and hummus. which is a tiny bit easier to mow through.

2014 Jun 11
Vietnamese subs and chinese buns with the filling baked in are cheap eats too.

I'm like Vietnamese subs, made extra spicy. $2.50 each and if you buy 4 you get one free or something like that. I can't eat them all but I bring the rest home and later I can put them in the toaster oven, and they taste even better.

2014 Jun 12
One more location I have to add is the Rice Pea lunch special. It varies but an appetizer, main and beer for $10! Pretty awesome if you`re a booze hound like me and would have ordered a beer anyways.

2014 Jun 13
Burrito Borracho in the Market has a deal like that in the summer. around $10 for a beer adn a large burrito. Their vegetarian burrito is one of the best I've tried. It's tasty and filling. They have chicken and beef and pork burritos too.

2014 Jun 13
Tutti Frutti on the Quebec side will give you 10% off if you have a CAA memebership. They are breakfast place like Coras, but they give you more fruit and the salads are really fresh.

2014 Jun 19
IKEA - 4 average hot dogs, a drink and a cinnamon bun for $3.25

2014 Jun 25
Dairy Queen kids meal.

You can get chicken strips , small fry, soft drink or slush and the treat is a ice cream sandwich or dilly bar..all for around $5.50

I can't drink a lot of soda so usually get a strawberry slush and ice cream sandwich and then it seems like 2 desserts with my meal!

Or there is the $6.00 meal special with 3 chicken fingers, fries, drink and small sundae.
-there is also some burger special for $6.00

-the chicken strips are also made w real chicken breast and are at least decent!

Riverside Hospital Cafeteria- they usually make one homemade dish every day and Fri they have homemade fish n chips.
The fish, the fried one is cod and made from scratch (I spoke to the person who makes the fish). Fries are the frozen kind.
Just the 1pc of fish is under $5 w tax and pretty big.

Other days they make different fancy paninni like Veg (with eggplant,zuchinni),or homemade pizza and soups.
Also grilled fish and tilapia.
Cafeteria closes at 2pm and not open weekends.

-last week they had small red potatoes roasted w rosemary for around $2 as a side order. They were really good too!
My container had at least 14 small potatoes in it....

2014 Jun 25
My inductee into this thread is Kothu Rotti, a little take-out place @ 408 Dalhousie: $5.99 for a 3 veg curry on rice. Photo'd (poorly, sorry) is the $1.00 upgrade that includes all veg curries on hand. Probably rotates, my take-away included chickpeas, lentil, potatoes, green beans, squash - each distinctly flavoured, reminiscent of Ceylonta's veg thali take-out. Friendly proprietor also tossed in a couple popadams.

In the interest of research and keeping up w/ up-thread bravado, i ate the whole damn thing... and promptly passed out (rice-overload). A very good deal imo. Other menu items inc. other s. Indian / Sri Lankan goodies - Idly, Dosai, String Hoppers, etc.: www.kothurotti.ca

2014 Jun 26

That looks good, if I am in the area I will try it!

Basmati at Bank/Somerset has some good Naan sandwiches for around $7 and they are very filling.
They make the Naan while you wait, so that is the really nice part.
You can get chicken- they use chicken breast that they already cooked or else the Veg version is random pakora or whatever..."fried vegetable" things they make.

You then add lettuce, tomato and whatever fresh vegetables.

I have only gotten sandwiches or the Naan pizza here as I tried one vegetable dish and it was allright, but they had put raw green peppers (the regular kind) on top of my eggplant dish...so that was kind of different I guess...

Printable Harvey's coupons $4.99 combo.
-if you get the side salad, that is huge and like a whole other meal!

www.harveysoffers.com

2014 Jun 29
I'm going to have to add World Burger to this list. It's a great value.

2014 Jun 29
Nicastro's on Bank st is not the same ownership as the one downtown I was told.
(found out as I had won a Nicastro's Bank st GC in a photo contest a couple years ago :)

The Bank St store the sandwiches are all different prices, they have some pre-made sandwiches but you can ask for them to make you a fresh sandwich and depending who is there they might charge extra for some kinds of cheese or if u want the house roasted turkey over the cold cut kind.

Also there is just 1 kind of bread they use, so no choices there.
Also not that many pastries at Glebe location.

They do have a lot of fresh produce and used to have some frozen pizzas for discount.

An advantage of the Glebe store is you can ask for cheese samples and they do not mind just selling you a sliver of cheese or a 50 gram portion (I do not eat much cheese, so tiny pieces are better for me).

*Farm Boy if you go right before closing they discount the fried rice and roast potato and chicken.

Paid $1.50 instead of $3 for Thai fried rice and $2 for "parisian potatoes" inst of $4. Best before on both is Jul 3rd.

Ten Sushi, I kind of like and hate for some things.
But takeout is quite cheap.

Tofu pocket (Inari sushi) is just $1 per pc, tempura eggplant 8 decent slices is $3.99 and they are made when you order. Grilled eggplant is $3.50

They also have some vegetarian sushi set with 18pc for $11.95 and I'm sure it is better than the refrigerated stuff at Farm Boy.
Had to wait under 10 min at most for my food for a walk in order, they are quite quick.