ottawa foodies

You're right, butwhoami. The last time I was in a Royal Oak, I scanned the menu, got up and left. Then, I went down the street to Daniel O'Connell Irish Pub and felt much better served by the prices.

Was at the Centrepointe location recently, which was surprisingly full on a Wednesday night.

Can't believe how expensive the menu items are here-- they have a couple $5 small snacks but none really appealed, and everything else seems to start at $14-16. Thought for sure I could get some chicken fingers, wings, or some other app-y thing for less than that, but maybe I'm out of touch with current pub pricing?

Had the individual-sized veg nachos ($11), which were alright-- plenty of cheese and came with sour cream. They weren't at all layered though, and the majority of chips were bare. There may have actually been too much cheese, as the ones on top were pretty soggy by the time I was about halfway through.

Also had a pint of Mill St.'s 100th Meridian ($7.25), which is an underrated beer imo. Wasn't terribly impressed by their beer selection otherwise.

With tax and tip, $24 for a pint and a small plate of meh nachos is asking a bit much.

Stopped by for wing night again not bad..Prefer the wings not breaded much better.

I stopped in at the Orleans location Monday night for a beer and the bartender mentioned it was wing night. Eight chicken wings (1lb) for 5$ I gave them a try weren't bad.. nothing special.

Thanks very much Royal Oak for your generous contribution to the Connaught Public School Stone Soup fundraiser!

Last night, after a disappointing start of the night at another pub in the market, me and a couple friends headed to the Bank and Gloucester location for a "Raise James' spirits night". I have to say, this did save my night. The special they had was a double bar rail for $6.50, which is pretty amazing, and I found the nachos to be really tasty. The service was fast and friendly, and the musician playing wasn't too loud. In fact, I could hear him, and everyone at the table. The Fuller's porter was really good here too. All in all a very nice experience.

I tend to go to the Oak on Bank and Gloucester (the "Dirty Oak" is the one on Bank and Gilmour, I gather?) as it's a stone's throw away from my place, and while I don't expect much more than pedestrian fare, I tend to order the fajita chicken wrap with pub chips. Still quite variable (sometimes the chips are, well, nearly cold and hard; other times they are piping fresh and perfect consistency), it's still more than serviceable, a light tang to it (not really spicy), and fills the spot. If I dine in, a hand-cranked London Porter is nearly de rigueur. They might not do a lot very well, but a few things are certainly reasonably worth it - now and then.

But I so miss their old nachos. Now that was a meal.

My team goes to the Royal Oak often. I am not a fan.

The fish and chips are mediocre. The spinach and artichoke dip, when I had it, was awful — even the tortilla chips were bad! Dry and HARD. Ditto for the nachos.

The caesar salad was a but sad — the lettuce was not fresh.

The onion rings are not bad.

The downtown locations is better than the one on Bank St. (aka "The Dirty Oak").

I'm not going to elaborate too much.

On my quest for a half decent Ottawa burger, the Oak is actually close to the top of the list.

Hold your horses... it wasn't amazing, merely just satisfactory. Still better then Five Guys, Chez Lucien, Works, and Hintonburger... in terms of flavour in the patty.

I believe the Oak uses a very interesting blend of Salt and pepper to season their mince. rolls eyes in sarcasm hahaha... isn't it ridiculous that salt and pepper = a good burger in Ottawa. Kind of sad really.

The side salad was merely there. The burger bun was a bit stale, meh. But I will say the bacon was thick and hearty and the cheese was real and not processed cheese food.

The service that night was absolutely atrocious.

Long story short... it was a half decent burger that I would order again. This is more of an extended commentary on Ottawa burgers then on this merely acceptable burger from the oak.

I went to the Royal Oak at kent and slater for a work lunch on Friday. Why does everyone keep having our lunches here? I've never enjoyed my time at the Royal oak.

The food is never great and this time was no different. I ordered the club sandwich with sweet potato fries. I figure, what can go wrong? Well, the fries were cold. And then the waitress forgot the sauce to go with them, and when I reminded her again it still never arrived. The club sandwich was horrible. The chicken was dry and my lettuce had those awful moldy wilted parts to it. I feel like the food is never great.

The service was horrible. I was sitting on a corner and the waitress must have bumped into me about a half dozen times with no apologies. She was short, rude and inattentive.

However, the Guinness was fantastic! Next time we have a group lunch I think I will stick with the beer and skip the food.

While they do have a decent selection of imports, most of them are considered fairly "mainstream" these days amongst the local beer geeks. Though I still go here often because they are good beers, and the food is pretty decent as well. Fuller's ESB and London Pride find their way onto my table fairly often. Would be nice to see them carry some Ontario Micros, though.

kmennie, the downtown Oak is the only one to go to. Just not for the food. Sketchy patrons are all part of the fun (think of it as street theatre), and the service is usually good there, although I haven't been in a while. The food sucks, as it does at all the Oaks but there is nothing wrong with the beer.

I do not want to send anybody to the original Oak in Centretown; it's filthy, in more ways than one, but.

The one in the Glebe is quite nice nowadays. The Guinness even comes with a 'shamrock pour,' a bit gimmicky, but certainly appreciated after getting half a pint of foam, etc, at other places.

And my god, my pictures are awful. But. Good beer.

We've been going here once a month lately and I've had one of the burgers every time. Contrary to what many people say it is possible to screw up hamburgers. Fortunately these guys actually make a really tasty one.

I was with friends at the Oak in the Glebe when one of them decided to order the fish and chips. I assumed that they were going to be good since they have a flyer in their menu saying so.

When they arrived they looked thick and nice on the outside but as soon as he started tearing it apart it looked like a fish doughnut.

The batter was thick and spongy and when I asked for a sample it tasted very much like doughnut batter. The crispy, airy and flaky crust you expect from fish n' chips was nowhere to be found. Although he did eat the fish which he said was ok and because he was hungry, it was still the worst fish and chips I've ever witnessed.

You know, I had an experience similar to yours last Friday. I was also craving fish (wife can't eat it) and, the waiter had to gall to say that the fish and chips was one of the best in the city. So, my friend and I both ordered the fish and chips. She didn't finish hers, and the only way I could was to smother the fish in tartar sauce. My fish wasn't battered all over, so I had pieces of fish that had touched the oil, which makes it very tough and not tasty.

we decided to stop and have a bevvie while waiting for the Pretoria Bridge to finish it weekly weekend gyrations and head over to my fave lil spot on Elgin

well, against my better judgement, and not being able to ignore the roars coming from our stomachs, we decided to give in and open the menu

having a craving for fish (YES! again! seems that's all I crave lately), I figure any pub can fry fish and at least it's haddock and not cod(shudder!)

I was wrong.... not just any place can fry fish
the SINGLE piece I received was aweful
the fish had obviously been twice fried
the batter should never shatter, bounce or explode when cut into

when asked by the server, if I was enjoying my meal, I bluntly said "no"

and after discussing my view of the piece of haddock, no apology was offered....nothing was offered

while, it's around the corner and the beer selection is good, it's not enough to bring me back

Tried the veggie burger this weekend. I was happy to see that rather than listing "veggie burger" as a separate burger, it now states that "vegetarian patties are also available", so basically a substitution can be made with any listed beef burger.

We ordered one smokehouse veggie burger each with fries. To our surprise, the burger was actually a veggie patty, not a veggie burger. Not a bad thing - i've been trying to stay away from all that frankensoy stuff. The patty was flavourful and worked real well with the chipotle sauce. The burger also was topped off with 2 onion rings and cheese. Overall, the burger was good! But like LittleOwl on Nov 2, the bun was stale! I don't understand how that could be, I'm sure Royal Oak serve tons or burgers so that they don't need to worry about buns getting stale. Everything was decent for pub food.

The beer menu has a good amount of beers but I would appreciate seeing more local and microbrewery beers.