ottawa foodies

As non-seafood eaters it took us a while to get here, thinking that there wouldn't be many options on the menu for us. We were right, but what was available was still good. One theme through the night was heavy-handedness in the flavouring, though.

We started with the kale salad w/ caper vinaigrette, manchego cheese and bacon, which was mountainous and generous and absolutely drenched in that vinaigrette. I like it that way, but not all of us did. Made it a fair but heavier than you'd expect from a kale salad (not necessarily a complaint!), though the cheese and bacon did their part, too.

Then had the fried brussel sprouts, which were at first gratuitously and then unbearably salty-- to the point that we wondered if it was accidental rather than intentional, but assumed the latter based on the how the kale salad came. This was a seemingly bottomless bowl of sprouts that we did our best to work through. They were good, but with that amount of salt, just a handful of them would have been the right amount to handle.

Capped off with pumpkin and goat cheese ravioli served with pecans (I think? or another nut..), which was incredible and redeemed the entire meal. The ravioli were served with two pockets in each, one filled with pumpkin and the other goat cheese. Eaten individually or combined, they were perfect. Great texture on the noodle, too. We mostly avoided the few brussel sprout morsels scattered around the pasta.

Appreciated their beer selection-- can't remember exactly but I know I ended up with a local microbrew that I don't often see on menus (maybe dog and pony?), but they also offered a taste of the Nickel Brook Cucumber Gose.

I finally managed to get here. The geography/no lunch thing was always a challenge. My deal. We had the kale salad (awesome), the scallops (awesome), squid ink rigatoni (awesome), and the salmon (confit?) pasta with brown butter sauce(awesome). It really was an experience of a chef who does the texture/sweet/sour/ salty thing that foodies rave about. I really got an appreciation of textures and flavour. Seriously good.

We used the awesome DINR app (getdinr.com) to get a table here on a Friday. I'm happy to report that this is still a great place to come for dinner! They have a formula that works and they're sticking to it.

Here's the rundown:

* Cocktails: very good -- especially my Gung Ho (pictured top left)
* Parker House Rolls: addictively chewy-tender. They were happy to bring more to soak up truffle oil from our tuna plate. So nice to see a restaurant still offering bread!
* Tuna Crudo: raw fish plates are a strong point here. This was lovely in every way. (bottom left)
* Kale Salad: another signature gem, which they will never dare take off their menu and for good reason! :-)
* Clams with chickpeas in tomato-pepper sauce: this was the only flop. The acidity of the sauce overwhelmed the dish. A piece of advice we've heard about S&D is to stick to the small plates and pasta dishes. Sounds good to me!
* Ravioli Doppio: glorious pasta pocket pairs, stuffed with ricotta and peas, in a light butter sauce with chanterelles, plump peas, and pea tendrils. Beautiful and delicious. We were glad we had the full order! (top right)
* Eton Mess: this jaw-droppingly large dessert was epic both in size and flavour. It would be a good one for sharing, but my wife had a (disappointing) chocolate cake dessert so I was on my own. Had to bring some of it home with me. Highly recommended. (bottom right)

This is one of my favourite places to grab dinner in Ottawa - skilfully prepared house made pasta, salumi, and seafood. The service is always great, and the owners try to accommodate everyone - we have brought our toddler here for dinner and were welcomed without issue. Buck a shuck Sundays are fantastic, enjoy some economical oysters and split a pasta main for an enjoyable night out. I've particularly enjoyed their scarpinocc, squid ink pasta, pickerel with smoked potatoes and cabbage, in house grilled sausage, etc. The ambiance is quite lively and can be a bit noisy at times, if you want a quieter meal, reserve an early seating. Accessibility may be an issue for some with washrooms in the basement. Highly recommend.

Wait... hold on... you've been there "several times" before and "loved". Four of your dishes were "great" or "enjoyed... very much". You personally like the atmosphere.

Against that... one dish was burned but apparently you didn't send it back. You infer that someone else had a problem with the atmosphere, and the service on a busy night wasn't lightning quick..

So based on that you anon`d onto a foodie site to declare your future boycott of the restaurant.

Wow.

Maybe go elsewhere in the future to share your opinions too.

We had been to this restaurant several times over the years and had loved the food, atmosphere and service. However, all three were short of the mark tonight.

Our waiter was less attentive than we would have liked. Even before the restaurant filled up, service was rather slow. The oysters were great, the kale salad was great, and the beet salad great. The brussels sprouts were burned and vinegary and we were greatly disappointed. Dad enjoyed his chicken very much. Not enough chocolate on offer for dessert.

The lighting was very low and atmospheric, which is nice, but I came with my parents, who have trouble seeing, so this restaurant doesn't seem to be very senior-friendly.

Perhaps S and D has had its run. We'll go elsewhere in the future.

I had made a reservation for dinner here this evening, and I will not go back.

We arrived 10 minutes before reservation. WE were seated, and there were two other tables there, and several servers. We got our menus, and that was the last time we spoke to our server. After 15 minutes of being ignored, we left. The final straw was, after sitting there fr 15 minutes, we had drained our water. A server came over, refilled without saying a word or even looking at us, like we were an after thought. We honestly felt like we were a bother to them, and were being shunned. We ended up going to another restaurant down the street where we actually received service.

Long story short for all those who don't want to read the chunk of text. We demanded Service, but we were not supplied in.

Dropped by last week to share some plates with a group of friends. The meat was good but not to die for. (The seafood I sampled on my 2011 trip east remains unparalleled.) My favourite of the meats was the tuna crudo; really quite tasty. I found the wait time a bit on the long side, and the kale "salad" was more cheese than kale. But my dessert (lemon creme de pot) was delicious. Not often you get a truly good lemon–meringue combination, but this one hit the spot.

The ambiance is sort of hipster–chic, which I don't go for, but it's not bad. A bit noisy due to the size of the room, so don't expect intimate conversation. No complaints about the service though. (I didn't try the oysters, so I don't know how they compare with Whalesbone's.)

Was here on a date night with my wife. Excellent food and service. I had their bourbon cocktail and it was very tasty. Oysters, tuna crudo, kale salad were our staters - all were excellent.

My main was surf and turf, which consisted of octopus and chicken thigh, served with rye berries. The octopus was sous vide, then grilled. Very nice flavour, and not at all chewy. Chicken was nice, but did not add much (could go with surf and surf!).

My wife had sausage on polenta with various grilled peppers. It was very rich, and super flavourful. There were at least 4 types of peppers included.

This place continues to put out really solid food and drink.

Eton Mess dessert (British dessert) It was good but nothing to rave about...