ottawa foodies

Went to MacLaren's to catch a hockey game on one of their many TVs, and was very pleasantly impressed with the atmosphere. The staff are all very cordial and professional, and the bartenders in particular are keen to provide fast and efficient service. They have an excellent selection of beers on tap, and while their menu is already quite good for a pub type establishment, the actual quality of their food is far superior to expectations. I had a chicken ceasar salad, and it's one of the best I've had anywhere. On a previous visit I was in the mood for a pizza, and their meat lover's pizza was mouth watering. Their meat dishes are also sumptuous. All in all, I highly recommend MacLaren's.

MacLarens is great for two main reasons, but I'm sorry to say neither of those reasons involve food.

It's great for playing pool, and for watching the sports game of your choice. I've always had fun at MacLarens, but the food is pretty dismal; cheaply recreated renditions of pub fare standards.

I've tried sandwiches with fries, soups, bruschetta (particularly jokey), salads... one thing I haven't tried is the pizza, and that actually looked decent so you might have some luck there. The wings were average at best.

I highly recommend this place, but only after you've eaten elsewhere first! And there are several superb restos on Elgin very nearby.

I stopped by to watch the game today, and decided to grab a beef dip sandwich. The sandwich had a TINY layer of very bland beef, and the fries were absolutely terrible. The beer was also very expensive for the area.

I love decent pub food, but I definitely wouldn't stop by here again to eat.

My partner and I went to MacLaren's to play some pool, have some drinks and get a bite to eat. The food was somewhat lacking, but the drinks were very tasty and fairly cheap. My SO got a Cosmo which was quite sweet, and I ordered a Caesar which was nice and spicy. We split a poutine, however, the gravy was more like a packaged 'sauce' so it wasn't the best flavour. I did enjoy that it was made with real cheese curds though. The fries were baked and tasted pretty good (for frozen), I would just order a plate of plain chips and save the extra few bucks.

A great place to hang out and play some pool (10$ for 1 hr).