Foods from The Famous Owl of Minerva
Comments
2018 Mar 1
Went to checkout the Famous Owl of Minerva new to Somerset St. They are located in the former Honey Town at the corner of Somerset and Arthur St (about a block from the arch). They are a chain from the GTA and this is their first Ottawa Location.
I think they are still working out some new location hiccups.They were out of Kalbi (Korean short-ribs) and despite pictures of Man Du on the wall advertising, no dumplings were to be found on the menu. The only drinks available were iced tea, ginger ale, and diet coke. admittedly we were there on a Sunday night an 1.5 before close.
We were served complimentary Tea and our orders were quickly taken. We ordered Bulgogi and Kimchi Jigae. We were also given complimentary Korean side dishes of daikon, kimchi, and bean sprout salad.
When our dishes arrived everything smelled really fresh and spicy at the same time. The Bulgogi (14$) was different then what I'm used to. It had chapchae noodles, rice cakes, fresh veggies, bulgogi beef, and was topped with sesame seeds and green onion. everything was fresh, hot and tasty, but I really felt this dish could use a lot more flavour/seasoning. The Kimchi Jigae (11$) arrived bubbling in a hot stone bowl and was full of bright kimchi flavours with tofu, cabbage, onion, chapchae noodles, enobi muchroom, and more green onion. Very tasty and hearty. The photo of the kimchi jigae is actually blurry/steamy because it was so hot it fogged up my phone camera! We ordered the pork version but it was also available in tuna. Curious to see what that version would be like...
Overall it was very tasty, but I think they might need to up their game a bit to deal with the flavourful offerings across the street at Koreana!
Bonus check out this video of the Kimchi Jigae in all its bubbling glory here:
www.instagram.com
I think they are still working out some new location hiccups.They were out of Kalbi (Korean short-ribs) and despite pictures of Man Du on the wall advertising, no dumplings were to be found on the menu. The only drinks available were iced tea, ginger ale, and diet coke. admittedly we were there on a Sunday night an 1.5 before close.
We were served complimentary Tea and our orders were quickly taken. We ordered Bulgogi and Kimchi Jigae. We were also given complimentary Korean side dishes of daikon, kimchi, and bean sprout salad.
When our dishes arrived everything smelled really fresh and spicy at the same time. The Bulgogi (14$) was different then what I'm used to. It had chapchae noodles, rice cakes, fresh veggies, bulgogi beef, and was topped with sesame seeds and green onion. everything was fresh, hot and tasty, but I really felt this dish could use a lot more flavour/seasoning. The Kimchi Jigae (11$) arrived bubbling in a hot stone bowl and was full of bright kimchi flavours with tofu, cabbage, onion, chapchae noodles, enobi muchroom, and more green onion. Very tasty and hearty. The photo of the kimchi jigae is actually blurry/steamy because it was so hot it fogged up my phone camera! We ordered the pork version but it was also available in tuna. Curious to see what that version would be like...
Overall it was very tasty, but I think they might need to up their game a bit to deal with the flavourful offerings across the street at Koreana!
Bonus check out this video of the Kimchi Jigae in all its bubbling glory here:
www.instagram.com
SushiStevie
I headed across the street, and I wish I had waited it out. There was only one table at TFOOM occupied other than me. I ordered the bulgogi to go. It was ready in about 3 minutes which was surprising. I didn't take a picture of what I received because it was very underwhelming - it was really bland and watery and the green onions in the dish were dried and decaying. I only ate about a third, and the accompanying rice was cold after the 3 minute walk back to my home.
Perhaps this is a one time experience because otherwise the overflowing restaurant across the street vs. only one table at dinner time doesn't bode well for them. The restaurant is already in bad need of upkeep since little was changed when it switched from Honey Town.
The floors up at the front of house were very unclean and in bad need of sweeping. It's clear that furniture hasn't been moved or little effort because of the dust and food food particles behind and under multiple fixtures. The back counter also appears to be a plywood shelf that is falling apart and causes me to question its food safeness.
I think next time I will pass.
UPDATE: I emailed the location this morning to tell them that I was disappointed by my visit and that cleanliness was the main issue and management did reply promptly that they would be reviewing cleaning with staff... Hopefully they will remedy the issues.