THE CITIZEN FOOD & LIFE 2009 Dining Guide 2009

PART TWO: THE CITY CENTRE Downtown ■ Centretown ■ Glebe ■ Old Ottawa South

BY ANNE DESBRISAY corn ice cream. BECKTA DINING AND WINE hapter two of our 226 Nepean St., 613-238-7063 gastronomic spin around beckta.com $$$$ C Ottawa-Gatineau Cuisine: Contemporary. Food neighbourhoods takes us to its and wine should be the driving centre. interests when considering Some of our oldest and most Beckta. Fresh, local ingredients iconic restaurants are found prepared in winning styles are here, some of its newest too — matched with a top-notch wine and certainly many of its best. list, continually tweaked. These are restaurants I Beckta’s service is also a recommend, some drawing card. unequivocally, others with BENITZ BISTRO certain reservations, but they 327 Somerset St. W. 613-567- are listed here because I 8100 benitzbistro.com $$$ believe each suits a mood, or a Cuisine: Contemporary. demographic, or a budget. Husband and wife team Derek This list is a guide only. It is Benitz and Meghan McManus not a guarantee of what you opened this white-on-white will find. dining room in 2007. You’ll find the colour in the personality of Downtown the well-trained staff and on the plates of French-bistro treats. and Centretown BLUE NILE A’ROMA MEZE 577 Gladstone Ave., 613-321-0774 239 Nepean St., 613-232-1377 bluenileottawa.com $ aromameze.com $$$ Cuisine: Ethiopian. The cuisine’s Cuisine: Mediterranean small fundamental condiments — plates. A Greek-style meze berbere, mitmita, niter kibbeh — (small plates) restaurant with an lend the good flavour to the food impressive wine list to match the at Blue Nile, a new, plain-Jane impressive nibbles. Kataifi Ethiopian restaurant in scallops, melitzanosalata, foie Centretown. gras stuffed Medjool dates. BOCADO ARC LOUNGE 343 Somerset St. W., 613-233- ARC The Hotel, 140 Slater St., 1536 bocado.ca $$$ 613-238-2888 arcthehotel.com Cuisine: Mediterranean. On the $$$ menu, a bit of everything — Cuisine: Contemporary. Italian, French, Spanish, Greek, Retro-chic dining room/lounge North African. This is sturdy food in a boutique hotel offers an un- with big flavours — fish stew, hotel menu to match the look: grilled lamb, roast duck with root lobster-basil panna cotta; lamb vegetables, risotto Milanese. WAYNE CUDDINGTON, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN with pickled grapes and pears; Cathy Dewar, owner of Savanna Café, and daughter Natasha chèvre cheesecake with sweet Continued on the next page serve up tasty Caribbean/Asian fusion food.

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B/SIDE comfort at well spaced tables. 323 Somerset St. W., 613-567- Price guide ICHIBEI 8100 bsidewine.ca $$$ 197 Bank St., 613-563-2375 $$ Cuisine: Canadian, small plates. Loosely based on a three-course Unless stated otherwise, all Cuisine: Japanese. Warm feeling On the menu are small plates dinner for two, with taxes, but restaurants accept major credit of a neighbourhood pub. Seating and pastas, some conventional before drinks or tip. cards and reservations, and for a dozen at the sushi bar. Sushi, (calamari, crab cakes, ribs), $: Less than $40 many now have websites where sashimi, tempura, noodle dishes some more interesting (arrancini, $$: $40 to $70 you will find their menus and and so on. rabbit rilette, lamb sweet- $$$: $71 to $100 hours of operation. Call about KASBAH VILLAGE breads). $$$$: More than $100 wheelchair accessibility. 261 Laurier Ave. W., 613-232-3737 CAFE PARADISO kasbah.ca $$ 199 Bank St., 613-565-0657 Cuisine: Moroccan. Popular lunch cafeparadiso.ca $$$ and antiques create an inviting GENJI spot for the downtown crowd Cuisine: Global bistro. Simple atmosphere. Most people opt for 175 Lisgar St., 613-236-2880 with affordable noon specials. At bistro fare — roast chicken, steak the ample buffet (lunch and genji.ca $$ night the room takes on a more frîtes, grilled fish — plus crowd- dinner). Cuisine: Japanese. Tranquil space, exotic feel and offers a variety of pleasing appetizers for those who FRIDAY’S ROAST BEEF HOUSE with well-crafted sushi, delicate Moroccan classics. just want to nibble while listening 150 Elgin St., 613-237-5353 tempura, fragile dumplings and MAMMA TERESA to live jazz. fridaysroastbeefhouse.com $$$ fresh fish, well cooked. 300 Somerset St. W., 613-236- CAPITAL DINING ROOM Cuisine: Mainly meat. ‘A HY’S STEAK HOUSE 3023 mammateresa.com $$$ Delta Ottawa Hotel, traditional menu…,’ we are told. 170 Queen St., 613-234-4545 Cuisine: Italian. An Ottawa 361 Queen St., 613-238-2582 Indeed, right down to the crème hyssteakhouse.com $$$$ institution in a brick mansion with www.deltahotels.com $$$$ de menthe parfait. Stick with the Cuisine: Steak and seafood. Men an enduring, conventional menu. Cuisine: Contemporary. A rack of lamb, the roast beef and in suits and hungry hockey If you order the strengths — soup, windowless rectangle of dated don’t stray far. Portions are players come to Hy’s for quality gnocchi, smelts, calamari, comfort but with solidly good generous. cuts of Alberta beef, served in anything with shrimp (they’re food. Scallops in a lime butter good here), veal — Mamma T’s sauce, duck consommé with can be a dependable bargain. confit wontons, wild salmon with Some dishes can let you down. a lobster crust in a yellow pepper MERLOT ROOFTOP GRILL purée. Ottawa Marriott Hotel, CEYLONTA 100 Kent St., 613-783-4212 403 Somerset St. W., 613-237- merlotottawa.com $$$$ 7812 ceylonta.com $ Cuisine: Grill. The menu way up Cuisine: Indian/Sri Lankan. Looks here is a mix of brawny like nothing from the curb, but steakhouse with a bit of bistro — inside the aroma of Ceylon spices a thick porterhouse, veal chop is heady and the south Indian with prawns, slow roasted cooking a pleasure. Addictive urid chicken. Lofty wine list too. dahl cakes, black curries of MYSTIKO various pulses, dosai with curried 281 Kent St., 613-233-3626 goat. www.mystikogreekkitchen.com CORIANDER THAI $$$ 282 Kent St., 613-233-2828 $ Cuisine: Greek. Formerly Cuisine: Thai. Centretown Papagus, reopened with a new restaurant offers the business look, new name, an all-Greek wine crowd at lunch and the list, and the same vigour on the neighbourhood at dinner tasty menu (char-grilled souvlaki, lamb Thai food in a shades-of-blue chops, garlic dips, farm-boy environment. portions) and failings (frozen fish, DON ALFONSO dull vegetables, salty sauces). 434 Bank St., 613-236-7750 $$ OZ KAFE Cuisine: Spanish. You can fill up 361 Elgin St., 613-234-0907 agreeably on paella, or order a ozkafe.com $$$ platter of predictable tapas in this Cuisine: Eclectic. Mostly comfort dated-looking, but welcoming food on the menu of this casual, Centretown restaurant. quirky café. Fresh, bold flavours, EAST INDIA COMPANY some Asian inflections, and some 210 Somerset St. W., 613-567- JULIE OLIVER, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN solid choices for the vegetarian. 4634 eastindiaco.com $ Executive chef Michael Moffatt cooks up fine fare, pleasingly Cuisine: Indian. Lush furnishings served, at Beckta Dining and Wine. Continued on the next page

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RESTAURANT JOY FLIPPERS 315 Somerset St. W., 613-231- 819 Bank St., 613-232-2703 $$$ 6333 restaurantjoy.com $ Cuisine: Seafood. Glebe-view Cuisine: Korean and Japanese. A restaurant on cheery upper level mix of Japanese standards, of Fifth Avenue Court. Large cooked and raw, traditional portions of fresh seafood. Korean dishes and a bit of Asian FRATELLI fusion. Good gyoza, bulgogi, galbi, 749 Bank St., 613-237-1658 chicken katsu. fratelli.ca $$$ SAVANA CAFE Cuisine: Italian. This is the Fratelli 431 Gilmour St., 613-233-9159 that started the five-strong chain savanacafe.com $$ of handsome, colour-rich eateries Cuisine: Caribbean and Asian dotted across the city, each with fusion. Since 1987, “Ottawa’s similar menus (pizza, pasta, veal) original fusion restaurant” and admirable wine lists. presents a short menu of LIGHT OF INDIA Caribbean and Asian dishes — 730 Bank St., 613-563-4411 kalaloo soup, jerk chicken, pad lightofindia.ca $ Thai, tempura shrimp — in a Cuisine: Indian. Solidly good colourful old home in downtown Indian food in a comfortably dated Ottawa. room. Strong starters — samosas, SOM TUM shami kabab, begun bharta on 260 Nepean St., 613-781-8424 puri — superior dishes from the thaitaste.ca $$ tandoor and the curry pot. Cuisine: Thai. Opened in 2007, SACRED GARDEN another Thai restaurant for Art 1330 Bank St., 613-733-8424 $$ Akarapanich, who introduced Thai Cuisine: Vegetarian Thai. A new food to Ottawa 30 years ago. Thai restaurant for Old Ottawa Strengths are in the well-made South and the first vegetarian classics, but also in those dishes Thai restaurant in the city, housed and ingredients less often seen on in a pretty, tranquil space. Thai menus in this city. SIAM KITCHEN SUISHA GARDENS 1050 Bank St., 613-730-3954 $ 208 Slater St., 613-236-9602 PAT MCGRATH, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Cuisine: Thai. Ottawa’s first Thai japaninottawa.ca $$ Som Tum owner Art Akarapanich introduced Thai food to restaurant, now 30 years old and Cuisine: Japanese. Hordes flock Ottawa 30 years ago. not much changed. The room is for the noon specials. At dinner, dated, but the food is fresh and you can sup on a predictable flavourful. lineup of Japanese dishes, either THE SCONE WITCH bar feasting on pristine TAJ MAHAL perched at the sushi bar or seated 388 Albert St., 613-232-2173 $ oysters, seafood chowder, 925 Bank St., 613-234-1280 $ downstairs beneath the water- Cuisine: Café/bakery. Golden- ethically sourced fish, plus a Cuisine: Indian. A first-rate Indian fall in one of Suisha’s private topped, layered and yielding, meat dish thrown in for good eatery in offers rooms. scones are available in a variety of measure. traditional northern Indian dishes THE BUZZ flavours, either straight-up, with marked by complex flavours and 374 Bank St., 613-565-9595 cream and jam, or split and filled Glebe and generous spicing. thebuzzrestaurant.ca $$$ with lunchy things. URBAN PEAR Cuisine: Eclectic. The best of the VIETNAMESE KITCHEN Old Ottawa South 151 Second Ave., 613-569-9305 small plates is the polenta with 478 Bank St., 613-593-8991 $ CARMEN’S VERANDA theurbanpear.com $$$$ ricotta and roasted red peppers. Cuisine: Vietnamese. Very yellow, 1169 Bank St., 613-730-9829 $$ Cuisine: Modern Canadian. A More substantial fare includes a very plain, owned by a kind family. Cuisine: Eclectic. A short, sophisticated but neighbourly good steak-frîtes well priced. Sizeable Szechuan section of the seasonal menu in a colourful, space with a short, seasonal Open late for drinks and noshing. expansive menu makes it a bit retro room of mismatched chairs, menu of adventurous food. THE MANX different from the pack. formica tables, fish tanks and Albacore tuna with cranberry 370 Elgin St., 613-231-2070 $$ WHALESBONE OYSTER HOUSE cacti. Salads are bright, gastrique, scallops with a blood Cuisine: Pub. It’s more than an 430 Bank St., 613-231-8569 sandwiches satisfying and the orange compote, sumac crème extensive whisky and draught thewhalesbone.com $$$ pizza is excellent. brulée. menu that draws them down to Cuisine: Seafood. A small and this basement pub. Food is solidly whimsically decorated seafood good too, service is kind and pub, run by a boisterous staff, Anne DesBrisay is the author of Capital Dining: unaffected, vegetarian diners are where you crowd around A Guide for Dining Out in Canada’s Capital. treated well. cramped tables or at the Check out her website at www.capitaldining.ca.

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