ottawa foodies

Nice!

Love their sandwiches.
...tho i concur on the meat shift.

Prosciutto, spicy capicollo, spicy pickled eggplant, tomato, lettuce, mustard, mayo and mozzarella on Focaccia bread. Would maybe go with a leaner meat to go with the prosciutto next time.

Provolone, pastrami, pickled eggplant, tomato, lettuce, mustard, mayo?

Another amazing sandwich. It always makes going to the ByWard Market enjoyable.

Not a great photo but was a great sandwich. Proscuitto and hot capicollo on Focaccia. $7 total and considering how expensive proscuitto and capicollo are as coldcuts and how much meat was on the sandwich it was a bargain. There was also 3 slices of mozzerella cheese which was generous. With great delis like this around it really puzzles me why anyone goes to places like subway.

I dropped in for a solo lunch last Tuesday and had a wonderful time sitting at the bar watching all the cooking bustle in the tiny kitchen! I loved that they took a little time to interact with the customers between flurries of activity.

The lunch menu features a handful of main dishes, pastas, and pizzas plus soup and salad. In addition, there are a couple of daily specials. In honour of it being Pi Day (3/14), I went for the daily special pizza ($13): pesto sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, prosciutto, and arugula. At wood-fired crust-centric pizza restaurants (Tennessy Willems, Roberto, Anthony's, etc) I usually choose the Margherita for maximal enjoyment of the crust, but I knew La Bottega was not that kind of place so I decided to focus on interesting toppings.

What a delight! The crust is good enough, but what really shines are the excellent toppings. Perfect pesto, tasty mushrooms, and the best prosciutto I've ever enjoyed on a pizza. They drizzled truffle oil over the arugula and then offered me a bottle of chili oil and some ghost pepper powder to sprinkle on top. (The ghost pepper powder was really flavourful and I'm assuming they sell it there. Must pick some up!) I savoured every bite and finished with a fully belly.

It was clear that many customers were regulars and I totally understand why. The food here is like the best kind of home cooking, served with kindness and no pretense. I can't wait to go back and try other things!

Maybe I went on a bad day... My salad had no flavor, my sandwich flavors were mismatched... I think the only person who enjoyed his food at the table was our 19 month old. He had goat cheese pizza.

Simply put; I want a cot in the back.

My go to spot for all things Italian. The selection of prosciutto is positively dizzying. Love the narrow aisles and shelves upon shelves of things that make me dream of Rome, Milan and Tuscany.

I have been known to be so stupefied by selection at La Bottega that I cannot make a decision and leave with nothing. (I know!)

Maybe it's the smell of food that does it.

Yet to try the cafe, mostly because it's always packed. These are a few of my favourite things...

More photos and info on my blog: www.foodgypsy.ca

This is one of my favourite shops in the Market. They have a great selection of cheeses, pasta, olives, coffee, deli meat and European treats, and those sandwiches! Mmmm... I'm getting hungry just thinking about them.

The only thing I'm not fond of is the homemade pasta sauce. I've tried several varieties, but they were all too salty and oily for my taste.

The perfect spot if you're looking for low prices and delicious food in the downtown area. When my brother moved to Ottawa, this is the first place I took him. We loved it :)

First time trying one of the salads here and I was really impressed! The Francesca ($12) involved a massive pile of arugula, tuna, white beans, and grape tomatoes, all tossed with a nice olive oil and some lemon.

It tasted great and made for a super healthy light lunch. 😍

Damn you, I need one of these at my face rtf now.

An amazing turkey and spicy salami sandwich on a soft panini with mustard, mayo, lettuce, onion, eggplant, banana peppers, tomato and mozzarella cheese. Fantastic and should have been enough for two meals but I ate at it all. This is definitely a good place to wear your mask, although they have directional arrows in the aisles, social distancing here is as difficult as anywhere I've been so far.

Loved the seriously craveworthy Porchetta Panino ($14)! Gorgeous chunks of lean-tender and fatty-crisp porchetta on warm ciabatta with provolone and giardiniera, accompanied by a nice salad.

In the meat on bread category of meals this knife and fork platter is top notch!

The Crostini appetizer ($10) works really well as a light meal. These are two slices of lightly toasted bread on a bed of arugula, topped with a layer of ricotta, a generous pile of perfectly sauteed rapini (with some chili flakes), and a final coating of fluffy grated parmigiano. Delightful!

Seriously!

Oh, the price has skyrocketed to $6.20+tax = $7. Still a bargain.

A new favourite! Italian ham with mozzarella on a delightful 'everything' bun. This particular bun isn't always available, but there's always something yummy on offer.

Totally worth waiting in line for 3 minutes! 😉

It's hard to beat the pleasure per dollar value of the sandwiches here! $6.50 tax-in for this Rustic Ciabatta sandwich, loaded with prosciutto and roast turkey, mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, olives, spicy eggplant, and mustard.

Here is a picture of the roast beef sandwich with onions and provolone with a side of salad. Me too, I have never been able to get a seat or go there when the restaurant is open in the back until yesterday. It was delightful. The sandwich was just heated enough (grilled) and the salad was fresh and dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I was happy to also have a can of blood orange San Pellegrino with my meal.

I have never had the chance to experience the little cafe at the back of La Bottega. It seems that it is always either closed or completely full.

That being said, their sandwiches at the deli counter are fantastic. My go-to La Bottega sandwich: foccacia bread, proscuitto, spicy salami, spicy capicollo, provolone, pickled peppers, pickled eggplant, mayo, lettuce, tomato. Fantastico! Great sandwich for a great price.

Best bang for your buck in terms of sandwiches in O-Town. I always end up eating them on the move and inevitably spill some (usually on my shirt). A testament to how deliciously overloaded these puppies are.

While picking up a few groceries one day, I couldn't resist getting a sfogliatelle pastry ($2.50) from the coffee counter. This is a crisp-crunchy layered pastry with an orange-scented ricotta filling. Delicious!

The coffee counter is right next to the sandwich counter and it is similarly fast-paced. You can get your coffee for here or to go, but there's really nowhere to savour it in the store. So be prepared to inhale it at the counter standing up, European style, or take it out in a paper cup. Illy coffee is a relatively harsh (but iconically Italian) product. $2 for one shot; $3 for two. Sugar recommended. Complimentary amaretto cookie greatly appreciated!

Unfortunately, if you also get one of the delicious pastries then you'll have to eat it standing up too, an activity that strikes me as decidedly non-European. I decided to carry it out on a napkin and enjoy it amongst the melting snowbanks of George Street instead. This was a delightfully chewy (meringue base?) biscotto slab containing almonds, pistachios, white chocolate, and dark chocolate. Well worth the $2.50 compared to what you'll find at other coffee houses in town! They source these specialty biscotti from heavenlytaste.ca in Montreal.

The coffee counter guy writes your order on a card and you take that to the cash up front to pay.

la bottega serves illy coffee - regular, decaf and dark roast. i tried the dark roast and i was very impressed!

They have the nicest dark roast decaf. We love coffee but can't do the caffeine, that normally means bland, tasteless, or even worse, instant! We buy the bulk decaf from the bin for the same price as all of their other coffees. (Don't buy the kilo bag of beans, it is the same stuff but more expensive) Delicious.

Not able to find the delicious Bündnerfleisch (Bindenfleisch Swiss air dried beef) in Ottawa anymore, I was happy to discover that La Bottega carries the Italian version known as Bresaola!

$5.99/100g, this meat must be sliced super thinly. When I emphasized this, the gentleman behind the counter winked and said "Yes, Bresaola cut," so I guess they know what they're doing here. 😂

The quality was very good. Not dried or aged quite as much as Bündnerfleisch, this is a fresher tasting and milder product. The wonderful leanness and pleasant saltiness is pure joy.

Pizza prices have risen to $14, but that's a pretty good deal considering the amount of prosciutto on the Pietro Pizza! This was topped off with a delightful “salad” of arugula and shaved parmigiano dressed with a drizzle of olive oil.

It's tricky to eat as the serving plate is a little too small for cutting on and the prosciutto is a little too chewy for biting through. Yet somehow we still managed to eat every crumb!

The lunch special pizza was Genoa salami with mushrooms, Brie, and arugula ($13). Really great! What sets the pizza here apart from everywhere else is the quality of the deli meats they put on top. With chili oil for the crust, this is one of my absolute favourite lunch options.

La Bottega sells L'Aspromontano virgin olive oil. It has a high smoke point so I can use it for stir fries and it is much more flavourful than grape seed oil.

Their boneless, "skinless" chicken breasts are quite tasty and are consistently a reasonable price (regularly $5.99 lb, occassionally only $3.99/lb). However, I have been known to complain about how much fat and skin there is left on the breast--you jsut have to be a bit picky with whomever is serving you.

La Botega in the market sells Harissa right next to the tomato paste tubes.

For those of you who love Italian chocolate like me, la bottega sells, for time to time, the famous Gianduja (Gianduiotto) from Turin.
The best brand is Caffarel.
Expensise (~$20) but so yummmmmmy.

Anytime I buy sundried tomatoes anywhere else I usually regret it. Bought them at La Bottega a few weeks ago and nothing else has compared.

I agree that the prices and selection of cheese are wonderful at La Bottega. I just enjoy browsing and choosing different ones each time. Very friendly staff and deliciously fresh cheeses, will go back again!

We have found that the prices and selection of cheese is excellent. John, the certified cheese guy is very knowledgeable and more than willing to assist. Living in the Market there are plenty of cheese stores to choose from, but we have found that LaBottega never disappoints.