ottawa foodies

Fredrik actually just opened a restaurant again at 259 York Street (It's in lower town). The quality is the same, if not better!

That is a serious hit to my foodie heart. I moved to Ottawa from Toronto back in '02, and one of the first things I tried to do was find a decent place to get roti (something to satisfy my Trinidadian roots). Caribbean Flavours hit the spot and then some.

*sigh*

I wonder if Frederick would be willing to cater to one :*(

The vendor is most certainly closed, however the owner (Frederick) was catering at Westfest. So, hopefully it means that he'll just seek out another location, or that he'll operate on a catering basis, or something.

He probably had the phone number transfered to a home line, or something, so that he can continue to do catering and so forth, but the location on Carling has been closed for 3 months now.

The Somerset location of Caribbean Flavours did burn down a few years ago (I watched the sad spectacle from my balcony just a few streets west of it). But Frederick did reopen on Carling (just east of the new Canadian Tire monolith)...I haven't been there since I think around March (2009), but it was open and filled to the rafters. Their phone number is still operational too.

I'll try and take a drive by later this week to make sure, but as far as I know the amazing kitchen creations from this great little spot are still hitting tables and filling tummies....

But if it is truly closed..... o_0 Oh noes!!!!!11!

So sad that they are gone...

The ginger beer was unreal. So good. So good.

Loved the rotis. The dumplings. The plaintain.

It could take an hour or two to get served but was more than worth the wait. I loved it. I miss it already.

Thanks FF and LWB for the clarification! ...But there goes my little sliver of hope :(

Yeah, I don't think they updated their website after their last move (I think the original place had burned down).

And out of date websites are a good indication that things are not well in the business/organizational sense. It's a real shame because I loved loved loved his shrimp in creole sauce!

Fairly certain that as of May 20 (the date the location was reported closed on OF) they were at the Carling location.

So, I believe that they are closed.

Just wanted to clarify the situation with Caribbean Flavours...

Clicking on their website, the first thing that catches my eye is the following proclamation:
"New Location Now Open! 1659 Carling Ave
We have the same phone number as before : 613-237-9981."

So my question is this - is that "new" location the one that closed and they just haven't bothered to update their website anymore OR did the "old" location on Somerset close and now they've reopened on Carling?

Arghh I went there this weekend!! Very painful to see the closed sign hanging in the window. The Roti and Jerk Chicken are two of my favourite meals to eat. Losing two top notch dishes is going to hurt. I hope he gets back on his feet and opens again as it would be a shame for Ottawa to lose such a good restaurant. Pains me to see that a "Montana's" can flourish while this place closes down!!

My goat roti platter ($19.95) was accompanied with veggies, fried plantain, rice and peas (off camera), and a bowl of simple but tasty vegetable soup (off camera). The veggies were pretty good but of course the star was the roti. The roti skin was like a super comfort food -- hearty and satisfying with a nice round (buckwheat?) flavour. The stuffing of goat curry with chick peas and potato was also very nice. Being a roti virgin, I asked for a "mild" level of spice and ended up with something that could have been a little hotter. Still, there was enough flavour that I appreciated being able to eat the whole thing without burning my face off!

Wifey's beef roti platter ($17.95) was strangely spicier than mine, even though she asked for "mild" too. The not so great thing was that the chunks of beef were incredibly tough, almost to the point of being unpalatable. The bigger pieces needed to be chopped up with a knife lest they form an unchewable lump in her mouth. I tried some and it was like leather. The flavour was very good but texture was nasty. Since nobody else has mentioned this I would guess that we just had bad luck with our cut of meat.

Mmmmmmmm Goat Roti.

The Man here is top notch !! I even put him up against any roadside vendor in Jamaica.

But, after the move to the new digs, the Goat Roti went up from $9.50 to $11.95 (25%) and the Goat Roti Platter went up from $15.95 to $19.95 (also 25%). What's a Po Boy gonna do ?

I know .... space out the vists to The Man !!

My expectations were high and I was not disappointed! They brew the ginger beer in-house and as a result it is less carbonated than the bottled Jamaican-style stuff. It was also less spicy than others I've tried, likely due to a lack of artificial non-ginger spicing agents.

This drink is very sweet and is seasoned with cinnamon -- a nice touch.