ottawa foodies

Gee, my Mom made two calls to Al's Steak House in Bell's Corners well in advance of the night we had reservations (November 6, 2011). It was my sister's 50th, and she had made a reservation for 8 people and explained that we would be celebrating a momentous event (someone turning 50). They told her they would set up the table and and decorate accordingly. When we arrived, the waitress claimed she had received no information about the reservation, and we had to wait for people to leave until a table was ready. There were no decorations or anything. The waitress was not apologetic, nor was she courteous. The food was fabulous, as always, but I was pretty ticked off about the poor service. I asked if "Joe" (a person I was familiar with from other celebrations I had attended there) was present, because when he is there things always go "according to plan". I guess it was his night off. In future, I will always plan to be there when he is working. The prices are high, but you get what you pay for, and regardless of the poor service we received, the food exceeded our expectations.

One thing that Al's has going for it is their house salad dressing. It's in a pitcher at every table, and for good reason. I'm pretty sure I have their recipe kicking around here, but I'm too lazy to look for it. Key ingredients are likely garlic, lemon, creaminess, and a little bit of crack cocaine.

Re the dressing, I dont eat meat, but could live on their salad dressing, I complimented it to our server once and she mentioned that in fact they sell it by the bottle, Ill be picking some up for summer entertaining.

Agree with Monty. The steaks aren't bad, but they're not $30 worth of steak.

Very average food, at best. Better value out there for your money as far as steakhouses are concerned.

I heard this from my friend and I found it funny. My friend's son (4th year at Queens) asked his mom for a steak place in west end. Her mom told him that the only steak place she can think of is Al's Steakhouse in Bells Corner. So, my friend's son went with his high school friend to Al's for dinner (just get together before he went back to campus).

When he came back home, his mom asked "How was the dinner?"

He told his mom: "Mom, service wasn't good. The place was expensive as well, around $30 for a steak dish! So, we just ordered one steak dish and shared that dish with my friend.".

Mom laughed: "No wonder the service wasn't good. What do you expect? One dish shared by two young men. If I was your server, I wouldn't think you guys would give good tips."