ottawa foodies

Where I come from, we sometimes call these 'The Restaurant Retirement Plan'.

Destroyed in a huge fire yesterday. :(

www.cbc.ca

I went tonight to La Ferme Rouge for the second and last time. The buffet is rather complete ,they have a good selection but lack grately in quality.The items that were supposed to be cold were warm and vice versa.The beef,chicken and pork alternatives were very tough and very salty.A few of my friends took the non buffet options and did not get served after 2 hours of waiting afterwitch they decided to leave.From the building side, it is old and poorly maintained, missing parts of the wheelchair ramp, overcrouded inside with no space between tables , the "sail" over the buffet was unbelievably dusty.

We went there on New Year's day to try it out (the mrs, the kids and I). They told us that normally they don't open on New Year's but made an exception.

We were quickly greeted and suggestions were made.

We all opted for the buffet.

All the seafood was quite good. The buffet had some "canadian" food (a kind of poulet chasseur and some lasagna, etc...) that left something to desire.

The entertainment was what we really enjoyed. The singing and dancing were a big hit with the kids and we really had a good time.

Our first experience was quite nice, we are looking forward to doing it again.

Probably one of the worst experiences I had in a long time. We got there at 7:30 on a Friday night with about 10 in our group; the server came every 30 minutes to tell half of us that didn't take the buffet that our orders would be up in 20 minutes. At 10PM, 2 and a half hours later. Finally I told the server to forget it I'm not interested in eating over priced prime rib at 10:30 at night. No apologies nothing. Others in my group got some of their food around 10:45 and you could tell it sat under a heating lamp for quite some time before being served; it was dry and not that warm. The manager offered us 50% off the orders even the one I didn't get. I thought that that was nice of him to give me half off nothing. The show was terrible and so loud that you couldn't hear yourself think and I think that the name Ferme is fitting since its cold as a barn and just as smelly with seafood that could very well be past its prime. I check after and all the reviews I read said the same thing. Overall I won’t be back there ever again; my group felt the same way. The server was polite but it ends there. Surprised they are in business if they operate like that....

We were a party of 8 on a Saturday evening, arriving at 6:30pm; the place was packed by 7:30. What a great experience! From the outside, one might be somewhat apprehensive, but the inside is very large, yet cozy; it must hold at least 500 people. We were placed near the back in-spite of making reservations 5 weeks ahead; (I'm not sure what that's all about). Even though the waitress was part of the entertainment later in the evening, she was very good and attentive. Some of our party had the buffet, and some ordered from the menu, and no-one was disappointed. The food that was ordered took a reasonable time to to get to our table; no longer than any other busy restaurant. The buffet was some-what smallish w.r.t selection, but the quality of the food was very good. There was ample crab, smoked salmon. shrimp, oysters, salad, chicken, fish and beef. What lacked in variety was made up for in quality. The line up to the buffet was long, but a hostess regularly offered a free glass of wine to those waiting. The entertainment was great; they have some very talented musicians. The music is all 70's and 80's stuff. There are several vocalists, a sax player, a keyboard-instrumentalist, and later in the evening, a trombonist and flutist. It cost us $150 for 6 drinks, the buffet, a dinner, 2 HUGE cappuccino's, taxes and tip. The waitress automatically added a 15% tip, but I gave her more; she deserved it. Not bad for an evening out with entertainment included.