ottawa foodies

Came here on the weekend and had the burger again. It is definitely not worth it. $17 for a smaller than average burger that was dry - I can't help to reminisce about the $7 juicy burger I had at Hintonburger the previous week. The patty is made with hormone free beef from a local farm and comes with a small slice of pea meal bacon from Perth. Fine. It can be tastier and juicier nonetheless. The fries were fine but did not justify in themselves the steep price. They do have a nice selection of local beers and wine which is a good thing.

Thanks very much for your generous contribution to the Connaught Public School Stone Soup fundraiser!

I have gone to HPH about 4 or 5 times in the past year and a half and every time I go I get more and more disappointed with the food and service. I started out being very satisfied with my first visit for pub snacks and charcuterie. My wife and I had a full meal the second time, and thought this would be our haunt. Since then, the menu has been simplified and seldomly changes. While the beers are always excellent, I have become more and more disenchanted with the 17 dollar burgers and fries and the 10 dollar poutine served in a cereal bowl. Wjile the food tastes good, the menu is far too rich for what you get. New ideas are needed to make it shine again as it did at the very beginning. The service has also taken a hit starting out as knowledgeable, courteous and attentive to apathetic when explained my wife's disappointment. I don't harbour any ill will. I wish them a seasonal revue of their menu and genuinely professional service. fundamentals.

Went pretty late, sat at the bar had a bunch of very good local beers, all of the bar snacks, and a ploughman's plate. The spicy beer nuts are really, really good.

I really like this place, but every time I've gone at night it has been packed to the brim and everyone there seems to wear plaid. They don't take reservations for small parties so be ready to go elsewhere if they're full or if you dislike being near plaid people.

Stopped here for drinks and snacks on Saturday night and managed to grab a table for two at 7:15 pm. Service was fine, but pretty inattentive. The wine list and beer list are excellent. We ordered the Ploughman's platter which was uninspired, but I liked the feel of the bar and would return to try other things.

Recently made it out for a lot of beer and a lot of snacks. Tried a bunch of the apps on the late night menu and was pleasantly impressed.

In particular, the chicken liver is awesome - one of the better things I have had around town in the last few months. I strongly recommend this dish.

The burger. Good but not the greatest as one of my friends claim.

I was here for dinner earlier this week, and to be honest, I found the experience rather... meh.

The beer listings on menu were out of date; they no longer carried either of the first two that I tried to order. Most of the remaining beers on the list were on the darker side, which I don't care for, so I finally ended up with a Beau's Lug Tread. It seems like everyone else around here is crazy about Beau's, but I just can't seem to like anything they brew, and this was no exception (that aftertaste - ugh!). Oh, well.

I decided to go with the fish & chips, and it was so-so. The fish itself was fine, but I found the coating too soft, bordering on mushy on the inside. The fries earned points for being perfectly cooked, but then lost them again for being way, WAY oversalted.

So yeah, it's a cute place in a "we just raided the St. Vincent de Paul across the street" kinda way, and to be fair, some of the other dishes on the menu looked great, but I was decidedly underwhelmed on this particular visit. I'll probably end up going back at some point, but I'm not in a hurry.

Visited last Sunday for lunch. My dining companion and I both ordered the burger.
First let me get to the fries....hands down the best fries I've ever had in a restaurant. Perfectly cooked. Their housemade ketchup was good, although I wished it had a thicker consistency.

The burger was also excellent and perfectly cooked, although I found the russian dressing on it was lacking in flavour.

Also..in reference to that seating debate that went on here a few weeks ago...I noticed they now have a 'Please wait to be seated' sign posted at the door.

My buddies burger was cooked medium and was a nice red hue inside. That and the fish and chips seemed to be popular that evening.

The beer selection is not huge but it is very good - clearly there was some thought put into it and they made some good choices that include 2 local micros on tap and other Ontario micros in bottles. Well done.

Thought we would give HPH another try, this time for brunch (we had first tried it at supper and found the food average and the restaurant to be very loud). Arriving around 11am on a Saturday, there were only a few patrons so the loudness factor didn't come into play.

The morning we were there, there were eight different brunch options ranging from breakfast-y things to more lunch-y things. We both chose from the breakfast offerings (each $10):
- A plate with scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of toasted white baguette with two (smallish) sausage rounds on top, and a very large mound of fried grated onions. It came with a little dish of jam and I was offered ketchup which the server was quick to point out was house made and therefore would not taste like bottled ketchup (actually tasted more like bar-b-q sauce - not really to my liking)
- Four large pieces of French toast covered with a raspberry sauce with pieces of bacon balanced on top – the comment on this dish was that it was quite sweet but still tasty

By the time we left there were only a few empty tables left. This experience has changed my mind about this place, at least for a meal earlier in the day. I would definitely return to eat brunch here again.

@zym: Could you provide more detail on where you heard that they grind their own meat on site? I was in for a beer last weekend and when I asked if they grind their own meat in-house I was told no, it is ground by their butcher.

I always try the burgers whereever I go because it is the mark of a truly good establishment if they can make a good one. And wow, they sure have done that here - one of the best burgers I've had in years, hands down. They grind their own meat on site which must have something to do with it.