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Dining Out: Why Town is tops

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Town

296 Elgin St., 613-695-8696, townlovesyou.ca
Prices: Small plates $6 to $17, main dishes $17 to $29
Open: Wednesday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m, Monday to Thursday and Sunday 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 to 11 p.m.
Access: Easy access, washrooms on main level

“Meatballs,” Marc Doiron tells me, “are pretty much king.”

The chef and owner of Town, which opened almost four years ago, does the tally. Doiron figures that each week, Town sends 600 ricotta-stuffed spheres rolling down its cosy, narrow length toward Elgin Street, two at a time, surrounded by soft polenta and concentrated, rounded San Marzano tomato sauce.

This comforting cocotte has clearly caught on, even at the asking price of $11. Indeed, Doiron says he’s no food snob, that he’s happy to serve folks who want no more than a glass of wine and some meatballs.

But having made two recent visits to Town, I can also vouch — snobbishy so, you might even say — for a slew of other dishes on Doiron’s compact, thoughtful menu.

As well crafted and satisfying as Doiron’s meatballs are, I’ve enjoyed even more other small plates, a few larger ones, and some sumptuous desserts. That’s not to mention one of the best made-in-house breads in Ottawa. Doiron’s top dishes were deeply flavoured, artfully complex and visually striking.

Singling out highlights, I’ll mention two generous and imaginative small plates.

In a lovely raw tuna dish ($17), the vividly flavourful, succulent fish held its own with a bracing orange and fennel salad and even some indulgently good sausage-stuffed olives.

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Tuna small plate at Town.

On another nicely designed plate, crisp and fatty pork belly married well with mellow, skewered octopus, white beans and parsnip purée ($16).

pork belly and octopus at Town

Pork belly and octopus at Town

For belly-meat fans, I’d rate the pork belly/octopus option above the crisp lamb belly coiled over Israeli couscous, mingled with cherry tomatoes, cucumber and grilled scallions ($17), which wowed a little less.

That made-in-house ricotta stuffed in the meatballs is available on a plate with beets and shaved smoked duck ($16), but I opted instead for the ricotta and kale malfatti ($17), a winning concoction of loose dumplings in an deliciously soppable sage brown butter, accented by toasted garlic and pickled jalapeno.

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Ricotta and kale malfatti at Town

Especially spring-like was a fine tagliatelle ($17) immersed in a potent pea purée, perked by lemon confit, slivers of guanciale (cured pig cheek) and Parmesan.

Tagliatelle with guanciale, pea puree, at Town

Tagliatelle with guanciale, pea puree, at Town

I’d recommend Doiron’s long-braised beef cheeks ($29), dark, succulent, and irresistibly sauced, except that they have come off the menu since I tried them. Nearly as good, I thought, was the memorably dubbed “notorious P.I.G.” ($25), a lively plate of pork tenderloin, wee, mustardy du Puy lentils and refreshing matchsticks of apple, among other things.

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“notorious P.I.G.” at Town

While Doiron describes his food as “modern Italian,” that pork entrée, he told me after my visits, pulls from his French Canadian roots too, with a mix of spices from a family tourtière recipe.

Also in Doiron’s background is his experience as a pastry chef. Not surprisingly then, Town’s desserts impressed.

Buttermilk panna cotta with a passionfruit glaze and a coconut macaroon ($6) was good, lemon tart on a bed of toasted meringue, offset by a pistachio-mint-pomegranate salsa and buttermilk granita ($9) was better …

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Lemon Tart at Town

… and Town’s ice cream “Sunday” ($9), resplendent with salted caramel ice cream, chocolate sauce and caramel popcorn, was the nostalgic, inner-child’s choice.

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Ice cream “Sunday” at Town

Weeks after Town opened in 2010, my predecessor Anne DesBrisay wrote that it was serving “very good” food with the verve and efficiency of a place that had “had a year to find its stride.” From what I remember of my off-duty visits there years ago, Town still has that bounce to its step, and then some.

It remains a fun, busy and boisterous neighbourhood place, with friendly, black t-shirted servers who represent it well, knowing the ins and outs of Doiron’s dishes as well as of the wines and other beverages on offer.

Many a new restaurant strives to make its mark with a vibe that’s casual and inviting, along with food that’s seriously good and engaging. Town, it seems to me, has this combination down pat.

phum@ottawacitizen.com twitter.com/peterhum


Dining Out: La Porto A Casa's big flavours, bigger portions

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La Porto A Casa

3500 Fallowfield Rd. Barrhaven Crossing, 613-843-0825

laportoacasarestaurant.com

Price: Starters, $6 to $11.95; Main dishes, $15.50 to $27.95

Hours: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m.to 8 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 9 p.m., Saturday 4 to 9 p.m., closed Sunday

Access: Fully accessible

Normally, I balk at eating dinner at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. But when the early-bird special is your sole option to get into La Porto A Casa, I guess you have to take it.

I should have known not to try booking a table there on just a few days’ notice. A 2007 Citizen review of this Barrhaven mom-and-pop restaurant noted that well-planned reservations were a must. Then, the big draw was heaping plates of old-school Italian food. Now, coming up on seven years later, I wanted to find out if much at La Porto had changed and if it still satisfied.

That early dinner, plus a lunch and even some cannelloni to go, did indeed measure up. For hefty, leftover-generating helpings of vibrantly sauced pastas and the like, La Porto A Casa is definitely among the best in town.

Now, you don’t go there for trendiness, culinary or otherwise. As far as ambiance goes, the restaurant feels as much like 1975 as 2005, which is the year that it opened. The timeless stuff of stereotypes rule, from the red-and-white checkered tablecloths to the photo of Marlon Brando in The Godfather on the wall to Dean Martin and Tony Bennett crooning on the sound system.

“We take a lot of flak for our decor, but this is the way we like it,” says co-owner Caroline Rossi, who runs the front of house while her husband, Ozzie, cooks.

But if you can get past the decor, then big, traditional flavours will be your reward.

Three appetizers — lightly fried calamari ($10, shown below), small, tender smelts ($10) and meatballs in a fine spicy sauce ($7.95, also shown below) — were made with care and good attention to seasoning.

Fried Calamari at La Porto A Casa

Fried Calamari at La Porto A Casa

Meatballs at La Porto A Casa

Meatballs at La Porto A Casa

One of Rossi’s larger dishes that pleased me the most was a massive bowl of linguine pescatore ($20) that was ringed with plump mussels and impressively topped with baby shrimp, clams and crab. Even the barely sauced toothsome noodles tasted of briny goodness.

Linguine Pescatore at La Porto a Casa

Linguine Pescatore at La Porto a Casa

Because La Porto was originally about selling take-home food (the restaurant’s name means “bring it home”), I did porto some cannelloni to my casa. Even after a 20-minute drive, the stuffed pasta was a mouth-watering winner with a deep, potent sauce, perfect pasta and unbeatable veal filling. While I could have done with a little less salt to the dish, everything that did work with it made me want to wolf it down.

Canneloni from La Porto A Casa

Canneloni from La Porto A Casa

With these and other dishes, it seems that at La Porto, nothing is more important the sauce. Indeed, Rossi told me that her husband makes fresh batches of his sauces every morning.

The flavour punch was also big with the sausage calabrese ($20.95), a hearty serving of lean, zesty links, fresh veg and spaghetti. Straightforward simplicity can be excellent, this dish proved.

Sausage calabrese at La  Porto a Casa.

Sausage calabrese at La Porto A Casa.

Of 10 pizzas on the menu, I’ve tried just one, the “poco pazzo” pie of sopressata, asiago cheese, spicy eggplant and prosciutto. It was a little bit sloppy, but a savoury treat just the same, and the small sized rendition ($13.75) was plenty big.

Poco pazzo pizza at La Porto A Casa.

Poco pazzo pizza at La Porto A Casa.

The house specialties I’ve tried were typically oversized platters of some meat (obscured by thickened sauces in various shades of brown) plus pasta (typically with tomato sauces, but also available with an oil-and-garlic sauce on demand for an extra dollar).

Of these, the pork Barolo ($23.75) stood out. The pucks of marinated tenderloin, their pinkness wrapped and made smoky by strips of bacon, were nicely grilled and bolstered with a mushroom-gravy sauce.

Pork Barolo at La Porto A Casa

Pork Barolo at La Porto A Casa

Veal Fiorentina ($24.50) looked a little messy, its veal buried beneath prosciutto, spinach, mozzarella and  jumbo shrimp. Better to put aside yearnings for more finesse and distinct ingredients to appreciate what was there.

Veal Fiorentina at La Porto A Casa

Veal Fiorentina at La Porto A Casa

Osso buco ($27.95) was not bad, although the veal shank could have been a touch more tender, and my preference would have been to have a parsley-and-citrus-zest gremolata brighten the dish rather than the brown sauce that made it heavier.

Of the home-made desserts, I’ve tried the very respectable cannoli ($4.50), available only on weekends, and the whopper of a tiramisu ($5.95), adorned with chocolate sauce. Given how much food had come before it, I wouldn’t have minded a bit of restraint with that dessert.

Cannoli at La Porto A Casa

Cannoli at La Porto A Casa

Tiramisu at La Porto A Casa

Tiramisu at La Porto A Casa

But then, holding back is not La Porto’s style, and I suspect its legions of regulars wouldn’t hear of it.

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phum@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Simple Jamaican pleasures at Lil' Negril

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Lil’ Negril

261 Centrepointe Dr., 613-226-7575, lilnegril.com
Open: Monday to Thursday 8:30 a.m.  to 9 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Prices: Mains $12 to $19
Access: No steps to restaurant, washrooms

Back in January, when the polar vortex raged in Ottawa, I was lucky enough to spend a week in Jamaica. Food-fixated even on vacation, I made a special trip beyond the resort for some top-notch jerk chicken.

Since then, I’ve been a few times to Lil’ Negril, a modest Jamaican restaurant that opened six months ago in a Centrepointe strip mall.

The jerk chicken there didn’t deliver the smokey satisfaction and Scotch bonnet-driven uppercut that was a highlight of my winter getaway. Lil’ Negril’s jerk chicken ($14.50) was a pleasantly bronzed and moist dish with some of the requisite spicing, but the dish was mellowed and even surprisingly sweetened by its sauce and accompanying mango salsa.

Still, I’d advise heat-obsessed eaters to look beyond the gentler take on an emblematic dish. (Plus, on other visits, I’ve been able to get a fiery hot sauce on the side.)

The good news is this clean and humble place of 25 or so seats does make some tasty, unpretentious dishes that are also very reasonably priced.

Respectable main courses for $14 make me take notice, especially after I’ve elsewhere had some off-the-mark small plates that were more pricey.

The simple dishes here pleased us the most. Fried chicken ($14) was succulent and not greasy, and the meat played well with a gingery sauce served on the side.

Tropical Fried Chicken at Lil' Negril

Tropical Fried Chicken at Lil’ Negril

Better still was a generous order of barbecued pork ribs ($14) that delivered tender meat coated with a sweet, sticky sauce.

Ribs at Lil' Negril

Ribs at Lil’ Negril

While the restaurant’s menu aims a few wee items at children, the pre-teens with us attacked the ribs and chicken with gusto, shooing away the adults who wanted to steal some of the meat away.

Not that the adult who had ordered the jerk pork ($14) needed extra meat. This was a sizable portion that was less than tenderloin-tender but still yielding, and its seasoning and flavour had more oomph than the jerk chicken tried on a previous visit.

Curried, stew-like dishes did the trick, whether they featured bone-in goat ($15) or chicken ($14.50), thanks to mellow, warming flavours and a good selection of veg.

Goat Curry at Lil' Negril

Goat Curry at Lil’ Negril

With each main course came a small but welcome serving of salad, fresh and delectable fried plaintains and bowls of rice studded with beans.

Only a pan-seared salmon fillet ($19) — a little flavour-deprived and over-cooked — let us down, along with the pedestrian vegetables on the side.

Pan-seared salmon at Lil' Negril

Pan-seared salmon at Lil’ Negril

At Lil’ Negril, the roti are served “bust up shut,” which is a more colourful way of expressing what a food snoot might call “deconstructed.” With the enjoyable shrimp roti ($15), a loose pool of curried filling was flanked by sheets of soft, doughy roti bread (“busted up shirt?”), which could be used to get the rest from plate to mouth.

Shrimp Roti at Lil' Negril

Shrimp Roti at Lil’ Negril

The same smaller-sized shrimp came deep-fried in crisp wrappers in a buck-a-shrimp appetizer ($3), made for dunking into a “lava sauce” that had been perked with some Scotch bonnet-spiked hot sauce.

Dessert choices here were scant and hardly fancy. But it was hard to complain about the slice of chocolate cake, given its $3.75 price.

Chocolate cake at Lil' Negril

Chocolate cake at Lil’ Negril

So, Lil’ Negril is not an eatery that will set your world (or mouth) on fire. But the best dishes struck us as solid, approachable bargains, while the friendly service and reggae soundtrack sparked happy memories of the island.

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phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

 

Dining Out: Aylmer's L'Aubergiste serves small, pretty plates

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L’Aubergiste

58 Principale St., Aylmer, 819-557-3858, facebook.com/laubergistebistro
Open: Tuesday and Wednesday: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 11 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m.
Prices: small plates $5 to $16, mains $21 to $24
Access: two steps to front door, one step to washroom

By my casual tally, the culinary wave that is small plates dining has washed over most of the nation’s capital. Restaurants from Kanata to Preston Street to Elgin Street to the ByWard Market to Hull are dedicated to those tiny, gussied-up versions of what once were appetizers.

One of the last parts of the region to have been small plates-deprived was Aylmer. That is, until L’Aubergiste Resto-Bistro opened about six months ago.

There, owners Pierre-Louis Poulin and Simon Prud’homme, who are both 30, give or take a year, converted a heritage property into a woody 40-seater that puts its diners at high-top tables, on tall stools with thankfully cushy seats. (Since I’ve eaten there, an equally large patio has opened.)

In keeping with the bar-like ambiance, the menu’s 15 small plates tend to feel like gastropub dishes that have shrunk somewhat, with much less starch but more greens on the side that add volume to a plate that might otherwise look too bare.

During my two visits, there were some memorable successes of flavour and texture, and even a commendable playfulness to some dishes. But there were some little flubs too that provoked a wee wince.

That’s the danger when it comes to small plates. The room for mistakes is proportionally small. When there’s a gaffe, it really sticks out, given the dearth of components.

But let’s get back to the dishes in the win column, starting with the before-dinner, on-the-house crostini that arrived with a compound butter that had been tinged with onion and maple syrup. From the start, we felt the meal was on the right track.

Plates began to land very quickly thereafter. (While the place was full on that recent Friday night, the kitchen was strikingly efficient — perhaps overly so for eaters preferring to graze and gab.)

Of those plates, I can recommend anything that involved pulled duck confit. It appeared in a flaky pastry ($11), bolstered by a wine and fig sauce.

Pulled duck in flaky pastry at L'Aubergiste.

Pulled duck in flaky pastry at L’Aubergiste.

The ingredient made a good impression too on a puffy little bun, in a mini-burger that made you wish for a duck quarter-pounder. The other slider in the mini-burger duo ($12) was made with meatloaf, and was almost as interesting and good as it ducky companion.

Mini-Burgers at L'Aubergiste (Chris Mikula / Ottawa Citizen)

Mini-Burgers at L’Aubergiste (Chris Mikula / Ottawa Citizen)

Foie gras crème brûlée ($12) was a savoury-sweet treat, with diced pears at the bottom of the ramekin providing a closing surprise.

Foie gras creme brulee at L'Aubergiste

Foie gras creme brulee at L’Aubergiste

Seafood options abounded on the menu, and while they weren’t bad, they also weren’t quite the treats that we hoped for.

With two, the small plates seemed too small. Well-prepared seared scallops swam in a bowl of punchy red Thai curry, but for $16, three of them seemed insufficient.

Scallops in curry at L'Aubergiste

Scallops in curry at L’Aubergiste

Shrimps tasted better than their mango emulsion and radish salsa accompaniments, but for $10, just three pieces of seafood felt stingy.

Shrimp with mango reduction and radish salsa from L'Aubergiste in Aylmer  (Chris Mikula / Ottawa Citizen)

Shrimp with mango reduction and radish salsa from L’Aubergiste in Aylmer (Chris Mikula / Ottawa Citizen)

Salmon ($12) was smartly offset by a crisp fennel and green apple salad. However, the fish was a touch overcooked, and we didn’t detect the “sambuca flambée” mentioned on the menu.

Salmon and Fennel Salad  at L'Aubergiste

Salmon and Fennel Salad at L’Aubergiste

Long-simmered and then grilled octopus ($15) was sufficiently tender, but the citrus segments on the plate threatened to overwhelm the mellow meat. Also, the fried rice noodle puck in that bowl was inedibly hard.

Grilled Octopus with grapefruit, orange segments, arugula at L'Aubergiste

Grilled Octopus with grapefruit, orange segments, arugula at L’Aubergiste

For larger appetites or those not inclined to share, L’Aubergiste lists a few nightly specials on a blackboard. A tuna tartare plate ($24) delivered two kinds of raw fish, both tartare and seared slabs, and either way they were fine-flavoured and spot-on texturally. Avocado purée added unctuousness, while a wonton cracker and fresh salad made the plate well-rounded.

Tuna Tartare at L’Aubergiste

A striploin steak ($21) was tender and seasoned Montreal-style, and it came with good, if overly salted, fries, much salad, and a thickened brown sauce.

Steak frites at L'Aubergiste

Steak frites at L’Aubergiste

For dessert, a warm brownie ($7) perked by fleur de sel and a mascarpone-caramel mousse sent us home happy from dinner.

Warm brownie with mascarpone caramel sauce, at L'Aubergiste

Warm brownie with mascarpone caramel sauce, at L’Aubergiste

After our lunch (L’Aubergiste serves lunches most days too, with the same menu in effect), a lavender-and-lichee crème brûlée ($8) was ample and shareable. More refreshing were two scoops of the day’s sorbet ($7), a rustic but balanced concoction of strawberry and basil.

Strawberry Basil Sorbet at L’Aubergiste

Overall, this likeable place fills a gap in Aylmer and appeals with its mix of dishes, its well-pitched ambition and friendly service. From our experience, just a bit more care with the cooking and some razzle-dazzle accompaniments in place of so much salad could transform those little winces into wows.

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phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

Dining out: For soups, sandwiches and more, the Rex rules

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The Rex
40 Adeline St., 613-695-9739, therexottawa.com
Open: Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5:30 to 10 p.m.
Prices: Sandwiches, with soup or salad, $12; three-course dinners for $35
Access: Steps to front door

Patience, Ottawa food-lovers. Hopefully one day the Rex will grow into the restaurant you and I want it to be.

The cosy, nine-month-old restaurant on Adeline Street is usually open just a few hours a day, targeting federal public servants toiling in Rochester Street’s office towers. Those who work in proximity to the Rex have easy access to soup-or-salad-and-sandwich lunches on weekdays for just $12. Every Friday and Saturday, chef-owner Cody Starr serves a three-course dinner that changes weekly, for just $35.

As Starr told me last week, he’s waiting until the demand is there to expand his business, with more dishes on more nights. After eating Starr’s food over the last few months, all I can do is drum my fingers until those hordes arrive.

Like many a recently opened Ottawa restaurant, the Rex means to offer refined, well-crafted versions of familiar, comforting food, keeping its prices down as it goes. That could be just what his lunch crowd craves. It’s certainly to Starr’s tastes. “I love sandwiches. I could eat sandwiches every day,” he says.

Either way, the Rex, as per its name, is one of the rulers in Ottawa’s upscale sandwich-based eatery scene. Almost everything that I’ve eaten from Starr, a 31-year-old who previously was chef de cuisine at the Urban Pear in the Glebe, has been finessed and big-flavoured, with succulent, slow-cooked meats offering the feeling of a splurge at non-splurge prices.

From the compact blackboard menu, I’ve enjoyed Starr’s sandwich of roasted wild boar shoulder and crispy belly, a pork-two-ways treat that could have been too rich if it hadn’t be offset by fennel slaw and mustard aioli.

I’ve also eaten as much of Starr’s signature Reuben sandwich, made with his short-rib pastrami, as a fellow diner would let me steal. It was next-level deli food, topped with smoked gruyere and sandwiched between Starr’s Beau’s Lug Tread bread.

"The Rex Reuben" sandwich at the Rex. (Wayne Cuddington/Ottawa Citizen)

“The Rex Reuben” sandwich at the Rex. (Wayne Cuddington/Ottawa Citizen)

Beyond sandwiches, there was Starr’s shepherd’s pie, more short rib meat, slow-braised overnight to top-notch tenderness and studded with corn, packing a punch beneath a blanket of brown butter mashed potatoes.

Shepherd's pie at the Rex.

Shepherd’s pie at the Rex.

Mac and cheese with roasted broccoli, served like the shepherd’s pie in a small cast-iron pan, was simple and right on the money if you prefer comfort to meaty thrills.

Mac and Cheese at the Rex.

Mac and Cheese at the Rex.

I’ve always opted for the full flavour and luxurious mouthfeel of Starr’s roasted cauliflower, potato and leek soup to go with my sandwich, not that his duck-prosciutto-bolstered salad hasn’t tempted.

Roasted cauliflower, potato and leek soup at the Rex.

Roasted cauliflower, potato and leek soup at the Rex.

Each Wednesday, Starr puts his weekend dinner menu on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve seen him keep things meaty and traditional with steakhouse-, Tex-Mex- and beer-themed dinners, and venture a bit further with Greek-, New Orleans- and World Cup-themed menus. In every case, two appetizers, two mains and two desserts figured on the menu, making it perfect for date nights.

A month ago, we ate the Father’s Day menu. The fare was definitely Dad-friendly: salty-sweet confit chicken wings with a blue cheese dip or a mini-grilled cheese with more of Starr’s short-rib meat to start;

Confit chicken wings at the Rex.

Confit chicken wings at the Rex.

Short rib grilled cheese appetizer at the Rex.

Short rib grilled cheese appetizer at the Rex.

a brined pork chop on maple sweet potato mash or a hanger steak topped with a Hollandaise-sauced fried egg and served with hash;

Pork chop main course at the Rex.

Pork chop main course at the Rex.

Hanger steak main course at the Rex.

Hanger steak main course at the Rex.

and a peanut butter milkshake with a piece of brownie or some fried doughnut holes with a coffee sauce to finish.

Peanut butter milkshake and chocolate brownie at the Rex.

Peanut butter milkshake and chocolate brownie at the Rex.

Doughnut holes dessert at the Rex.

Doughnut holes dessert at the Rex.

The steak, while maybe a little too rare, had more going on than the pork chop, thanks to the spurt of egg yolk, a streak of Hollandaise sauce and some assertively salted mushrooms. The doughnut holes were a little wet and underdone, but the milkshake and brownie were exactly as much dessert as I wanted.

That warm June night, the air conditioning was broken, and the wine was too warm. But there were apologies, in keeping with the warm, attentive service.

But for $35 for three courses, served in a straightforward, uncomplicated bistro setting with cloth napkins on the dark wood tables, these are quibbles. I’ve heard others complain that the portions could be larger at lunch and dinner at the Rex. Me, I’ve always left feeling full and happy, if not stuffed.

Maybe next year, there will be Sunday brunches at the Rex. When condos open nearby, there might be dinners on other nights too, says Starr, who is in the kitchen each day, with one other cook.

“I’m in it for the long haul,” says Starr.

So until then, we wait.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Bistro CoqLicorne serves tasty bargains in Hull

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Bistro CoqLicorne

59 Laval St., Gatineau (Hull sector), 819-205-4344, bistrocoqlicorne.ca
Open: Monday and Tuesday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: Main courses $16.95 to $18.95, small plates $4 to $13
Access: Steps to entrance

The Vieux-Hull restaurant Bistro CoqLicorne takes its name from a mythical creature that artist and Hull native Jean Dallaire created seven decades ago — an odd, fanciful beast that’s half-rooster, half-unicorn.

But there’s nothing imaginary about the Laval Street eatery’s affordable, approachable, well-made food and its convivial francophone atmosphere. Formerly Fleur de Sel, which catered to vegetarians and fish-eaters, Bistro CoqLicorne opened in late 2012. Like more than a few recently opened Ottawa-area restaurants, here we have another eatery serving more small and snacking plates than main courses in a casual setting, relying on products from local farms and businesses.

Much of Bistro CoqLicorne’s menu stresses simpler fare such as sandwiches, soups, nachos and cured meats and fish. But the kitchen has ambitions and standards beyond turning out basic crowd-pleasers. It sources beef from Brylee Farm near Thurso, chicken from Ferme aux Saveurs des Monts in Val-des-Monts, and fine-grained sausages from the Québécois producer William J. Walter. It gets coffee from Hull’s Cafe La Tierra Coop, tea from Tea House Cha Yi next door and beers, bottled and on tap, from some leading Quebec micro-breweries.

The bistro’s dining room is an old, wood-floored place with art for sale on the red and white walls. It seats about 30, more comfortably, I’d venture, on the retro black leather chairs than on the wooden bench at the front table. With summer here, the large patio beside the restaurant is probably the most appealing place to dine and drink.

At a dinner some few weeks ago, charcuterie choices were fine and clearly flavoured. A daily-special jar of rich, meaty duck rillettes, perked with whisky and topped with candied nuts, served with a swoosh of berry mustard and a sweet compote ($9), disappeared quickly once slathered on crostini.

A jar of duck rillettes at Bistro CoqLicorne.

A jar of duck rillettes at Bistro CoqLicorne.

High marks as well for the similarly decked-out boards that included either the house’s smoked trout ($12) or its smoked bacon, duck breast prosciutto and slices of beef tongue ($13).

A trio of smoked foods (beef tongue, duck breast and bacon) with berry mustard, apple compote and candied orange zest with coriander at Bistro Coqlicorne.

A trio of smoked foods (beef tongue, duck breast and bacon) with berry mustard, apple compote and candied orange zest with coriander at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Served on a splayed blob of glass, three mini-tacos of pulled pork ($7), dubbed “Les 3 amigos,” had some spicy kick.

Pork tacos at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Pork tacos at Bistro CoqLicorne.

“Le chant de sirènes” ($10) was a big bowlful of greens topped with butter-poached shrimp, slices of fennel, grape tomatoes, orange supremes and seasoned sesame seeds.

Butter poached shrimp with greens at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Butter poached shrimp with greens at Bistro CoqLicorne.

A serving of Brylee Farm short ribs was very generous for $18.95 and filled with grass-fed beef flavour, if just a little dry. The meat was mounded with asparagus, mushrooms and fingerling potatoes and lots of salad.

Beef ribs at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Beef ribs at Bistro CoqLicorne.

“L’Oiseau jongleur” ($17.95) featured two skewers of grilled Ferme aux Saveur des Monts chicken and a third of veg, served on rice. It was fine, if a bit more pedestrian.

Chicken brochettes at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Chicken brochettes at Bistro CoqLicorne.

From the blackboard’s list of daily specials, a smaller, lighter, option had shrunk a paella of shrimp, mahi mahi, mussels, chorizo and snap peas into a $14.95 bowlful.

Paella special at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Paella special at Bistro CoqLicorne.

We were five that night, and after all that shared food, there was no room for dessert.

At a later lunch, a dining companion and I were a little less impressed with a smaller sample of unshared dishes, me by a turmeric-boosted chickpea potage ($4.50) and ordinary Caesar salad ($6.95)

Chickpea soup and Caesar Salad at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Chickpea soup and Caesar Salad at Bistro CoqLicorne.

and he by an underseasoned but not overcooked daily fish special of grilled halibut ($18.95).

Grilled fish main course at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Grilled fish main course at Bistro CoqLicorne.

We had room for dessert this time, which allowed us to try a lime ice pop ($3.95) and a chocolate ice cream sandwich that concealed some good, if overly hardened, almond ice cream ($5.95).

Ice cream sandwich with almond ice cream at Bistro CoqLicorne.

Ice cream sandwich with almond ice cream at Bistro CoqLicorne.

But while the lunch wasn’t as admirable as dinner had been, it didn’t much diminish my take on Bistro CoqLicorne. At this amiable, unstuffy gastropub-type bistro, more often than not, tasty bargains both large and small land on the table.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Comfort by AJ's a keeper in Kemptville

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Comfort by AJ’s

115 Sanders St., Kemptville, 613-258-5115, comfortbyajs.com
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 5 to 9 p.m.
Prices: $29 three-course table d’hote, mains $18 to $21
Access: accessible, including wheelchair-accessible washroom

For the longest time, I’ve had few if any reasons to make the 30-minute trip from Ottawa to Kemptville.

But that changed recently, thanks to Comfort by AJ’s, a cosy, welcoming restaurant in a small strip mall near the bottom of Saunders Street.

The 30-seat eatery’s best, made-from scratch, generously made and served dishes — a sandwich heaped with oh-so-satisfying pork rib meat; a bright, well-executed bowl of seafood pasta; a notably above-average Caesar salad — make me ponder what other activities I could schedule nearby so that an AJ’s meal would be the next logical step.

In the kitchen at AJ’s is Phil Carswell, 33, a self-taught but experienced cook who, in May 2013, made the jump from being the chef at AJ’s catering in Metcalfe to being a chef/restaurateur in Kemptville where he lives.

AJ’s front of house is Carswell’s wife Jessica, most nights all by herself. During my two visits she was always sunny and attentive. Hers is the kind of service where, if the coffee arrives late, it’s offered on the house with an apology.

She presides over a pretty room that seats 30, plus a patio that holds 20, weather permitting. Maybe I’ve eaten at too many deliberately casual places recently, but I was struck by AJ’s white tablecloths and dark cloth napkins, touches that seem to say that comfort food can still be special.

The most striking sight in the dining room is the ceiling-to-table-height menu on one wall. It lists AJ’s tightly contained menu, which consists of three starters (a soup and two salads), five or six mains (of which one can be swapped out every few weeks), and a few desserts.

Generally, you do best to arrive hungry at AJ’s, because the best deal is a $29, three-course table d‘hote that, by the way, can involve a massive main course that will generate leftovers.

Before any starters arrive, there’s Carswell’s pillowy baked-fresh bread. I’ve had two cheese – and spice-infused versions and both were hard to resist.

Of the starters, I’ve most enjoyed a crisp, clean-flavoured Caesar salad with a bang-on, anchovy-accented dressing, real lardons and big shavings of Parmesan. It put to shame many Caesars I’ve had in Ottawa.

The garden salad, prettied up with edible flowers, was almost as commendable. While Carswell switches up his soups, I’ve twice had a finely pureed gazpacho that got its fundamental flavours right, but would have been a bit fancier and diversified with a garnishing puddle of olive oil, a coarse chop of vegetables, or a crouton.

Garden salad with lemon vinaigrette at Comfort by AJ's.

Garden salad with lemon vinaigrette at Comfort by AJ’s.

The main that made my carnivore companion swoon was a mammoth rib sandwich, which Phil told me takes the tender, flavour-packed meat from a half-side of ribs that had been cooked low and slow in an oven, tossed in his tangy barbecue sauce. Fresh, assertive slaw and good, traditional potato salad came on the side.

Rib sandwich at Comfort by AJ's.

Rib sandwich at Comfort by AJ’s.

I’ve enjoyed Carswell’s seafood twice paired with a bright, simple, tomato-and-white-wine sauce. One night, there was a moist halibut filet served on the sauce, with snap peas.

Pan-seared Halibut at Comfort by AJ's.

Pan-seared Halibut at Comfort by AJ’s.

 

More recently, Carswell concocted a “cioppino” of mussels, shrimps, scallops and catfish, mixed with that sauce on top of his toothsome home-made fettucine. A true cioppino might have had a more complex broth in its make up, more aromatics and brininess, but the AJ’s rendition did hit the spot.

Cioppino: sautéed scallops, shrimp, mussels and haddock in a white wine tomato sauce, served on fettucine.

Cioppino: sautéed scallops, shrimp, mussels and haddock in a white wine tomato sauce, served on fettucine.

Flautas consisted of heavily sauced rolled tacos filled with flank steak and looked a little down-market, but its flavours and craft didn’t lie, especially in the sauce that was more perky and finessed than expected. Plus, there was so much of it.

Chicken Parmigiana impressed first with its plate-covering size, but the slab of chicken was thick, juicy and bettered by breading that held up to the dish’s clean tomato sauce, good homemade fettucine.

Chicken Parm at Comfort by AJ's.

Chicken Parm at Comfort by AJ’s.

AJ’s gnocchi — termed “mac ‘n’ cheese” on the menu — are atypical. Carswell freezes his large potato dumplings and deep-fries them. The resulting dish might be his menu’s heaviest, not only because of the frying but because of the thick, salty, bacon-and-cheese sauce that fills the bowl that’s already loaded with dumplings. My preference would be a lighter bowl, but I might be in the minority, as the Carswells say their gnocchi is a favourite of regulars whose demand has kept it on the menu since Day One.

Desserts, by Jessica, have been home-style creations stressing sweet, seasonal, familiar satisfactions over creativity and flourishes. I’ve tasted pecan pie, strawberry rhubarb pie and several varieties of cheesecake, which generally topped the pies, which could have been a little better crafted.

Strawberry Cheesecake at Comfort by AJ's.

Strawberry Cheesecake at Comfort by AJ’s.

But with three tasty, filling, courses at under $30, courtesy of a kind couple whose hearts are in the right spots, it’s hard to get too riled about any shortcoming, and easy to wonder, “When can I next scoot to Kemptville?”

phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

Israeli brewer takes in some lessons and some suds in Ottawa

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In town for the National Capital Beer Festival, Israeli brewer Ori Sagy says the market for craft beer in Israel is in its infancy but he believes it is poised for a boom.

Sagy, who founded and runs one of the small country’s biggest microbreweries, called Alexander Brewery, said he has watched as the world has embraced craft beer and believes that while Israel isn’t a big consumer of suds today, that things are quickly changing.

“If you look at Mediterranean countries like France, Italy and Greece, which are wine cultures and really have no beer culture at all. The beer culture is increasing and they are all drinking more.”

In Italy, wine consumption dropped 3.6 per cent in 2012. In 2013, it fell a further 6.5 per cent, according to researcher Wine Monitor Nomisa. This is happening at a time when more than 551 breweries have popped up across the country, almost double the number that were operating in 2011, and Italians under the age of 54 have identified beer as their primary drink of choice, according to a recently released reports.

Sagy said, it’s not hard to see why.

“On a hot summer day, when its 30 degrees outside by the sea, you want a beer. Not wine,” he said.

He also said consumers around the world are beginning to get more picky about the food and drink that they consume. The same trend is happening in Israel.

“If you look back 20 years ago, there was no good wine in Israel. Now we have great wine,” he said. “We didn’t have good cheese or good chocolate. It’s time for a good beer revolution.”

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Alexander has been producing high quality craft beers. Some of his brews have won some of the top awards in the world, for six years now. Sagy has been brewing beer, both professionally and as a home brewer for more than 25 years. He said, while there are now a handful of established microbrewers in Israel, such as Alexander, it has only been within the past couple of years that domestic demand has really started to climb.

He said he has watched as Canada and the United States have both undergone a craft beer revolution, with consumers demanding better suds and new local brewers have opened to meet that demand. Sagy applauded the U.S., where some craft beer accounts for as much as 50 per cent of the market in certain states. In Ontario, craft beer from microbrewers still only accounts for about five per cent of the market. Still, Sagy says, that’s better than the situation in Israel.

“It’s like we are a two-day-old,” he said. “It’s just starting.”

Sagy is in town for the National Capital Beer Festival, which takes place between Friday and Sunday at Marion Dewar Plaza at Ottawa City Hall. He was touring various Ottawa area microbreweries this week and stopped in at the Big Rig Brewery. Sagy said that meeting domestic demand is still his priority and he isn’t looking to go to hard on exporting his product just yet. But, he’s eager to share Alexander’s offerings with Ottawa beer buffs and has brought two different types of beer to share at the festival, an IPA and his award winning Porter.

Sagy will also be devising a recipe with Turtle Island Brewing Co. founder, and National Craft Beer Week organizer, J.P. Fournier. The beer will be brewed and released to Ottawa bars as a special offering later this year.

He said he plans to take notes while on his tour of the Ottawa facilities and try to learn from craft beer enthusiasts throughout the weekend in the hopes of taking that knowledge back to Israel and using it to help shape the fledgling market for craft beer back home.

“This is all fascinating to me,” said Sagy.

Vpilieci@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/vpilieci

 


Ottawa's newest microbrewery finally opens doors, sells out

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After years of planning and a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, Dominion City Brewing Co. finally opened it doors to the masses this past Saturday, and then watched as thirsty customers bought up everything that they had to offer.

“People kept commenting, ‘We’ve been waiting a long time for a brewery to open in the east end,” said Josh McJannett, one of the firm’s three co-founders. “It was an awesome first day. Everybody got a high five on the way in.”

The brewery is capable of producing 700-litre batches of beer. It sold more than 620 litres on Saturday in growlers, large glass jugs capable of transporting just shy of two litres of beer. It also prepared several kegs for four Ottawa area bars that specialize in craft beer offerings. The kegs were dropped off on Friday, and four have already been emptied and replaced.

It’s a good problem to have, admits McJannett and another co-founder Alex Monk, who both believe that if they take pride in their offerings and continue to brew with high quality and local ingredients “that hopefully the crowds will keep coming.”

“The community is so tight and the customers are dedicated. You have to show that you care,” said McJannett.

Dominion City will source as much of its ingredients locally as it can, he said. The Earl Grey tea it uses in its Earl Grey Marmalade Saison comes from local coffee/tea house Bridgehead. He describes the business as a “community” startup, thanks to a successful crowd funding campaign that raised $19,000 for the fledgling brewery and support from family and friends along the way.

The trio have been planning the brewery for the past two years after growing a home-brew hobby into an obsession. The name Dominion City is a play on the country’s old status as the “Dominion of Canada”, and Ottawa’s role as the capital.

Seeing the business finally open its doors is something that seems a little surreal, they admit.

For the time being, the three will maintain their day jobs while expanding the brewery. Retail hours at the Canotek Road location will only be held on Saturdays.

The new brewery’s opening happened one week before Saturday’s National Capital Beer Festival, which will see dozens of the city’s top microbreweries converge outside Ottawa City Hall to showcase their offerings. While McJannett would have loved to be part of the festival, the brewery needs to focus on increasing production to meet early demand. He said Dominion City will likely participate next year.

Ottawa is quickly becoming a mecca for craft beer lovers. The city and its surrounding area will feature as many as 24 different microbreweries by year’s end.

For the time being, Dominion City has three beers it will be offering on a regular basis. The beers have all been created by the brewery’s three founders after years of home brewing and playing with various recipes. Here are a few details on those brews:

Town & Country Blonde Ale

Score: 78

Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5 %

International Bitterness Units (IBUs): 15

A smooth, easy drinking and very accessible offering that is sure to please even those who are a bit shy when being offered unfamiliar beers. The beer pours a deep, clear straw colour with a thin white head. The beer smells of sweet malt. Flavour is that of a well balanced beer that finishes with a hint of bitterness.

Earl Grey Marmalade Saison

Score: 80

ABV: 5.5 %

IBU: 21

This is a unique twist on a massively popular style of beer. Each batch uses more than five cases of oranges. The flavour isn’t lost in the beer, which is an accomplishment considering that fruit additions to beer usually disappear entirely in the finished beer. Although the Bridgehead Earl Grey is hard to detect in the final product. The beer pours a hazy dark straw colour with a thin white head. It smells of citrus, banana and clove. The flavour is what you would expect from a saison: peppery, slightly sour and citrus-like. The orange flavour helps to round out the beer. It’s an easy drinking offering on a hot summer day.

Two Flags IPA

Score: 78

ABV: 7 %

IBU: 63

Don’t let the higher IBUs scare you off — this beer is better balanced than many would think. While that may turn off some IPA fans, who look for that bitter hop kick in the teeth, it leads to an easy drinking beer that even the less adventurous beer drinker will likely enjoy. The beer pours a hazy copper colour. Aromas include pine, brown sugar and citrus. The flavour is malt sweetness and slight sugary undertones, finished by a slight hoppy bitterness.

Vpilieci@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com: Vpilieci

Dining Out: Chez Eric is a rustic charmer in Wakefield

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Chez Eric Café & Bistro

28 Valley Dr., Wakefield, Que., 819-459-3747, chezeric.ca
Open: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Wednesday
Price: Main dishes $15 to $26
Access: Steps into restaurant, washrooms upstairs

From my fourth birthday party to a family reunion in Vancouver a few weeks ago, some of my most convivial and memorable meals have been served in someone’s backyard.

The closest that a restaurant has come to evoking that kind of casual al fresco contentment was a dinner earlier this summer at Chez Eric Café & Bistro in Wakefield.

They have relaxed, rustic charm down pat there. Sure, the garden patio’s tables and chairs are plastic. But there’s something about the unfussy, leafy setting, complete with a naive artwork, a sandbox for the kids and disco and reggae on the sound system, that really clicks, much more than the perfunctory, concrete vibe of some urban Ottawa patios.

I only wish that I could have told you sooner of Chez Eric’s country allure. Indeed, some dishes mentioned below have been tweaked since I ate there. This review was delayed somewhat as otherwise I would have missed that family reunion.

Of course, our enjoyment of Chez Eric wasn’t limited to the ambience. Chef-owners Chris Taché and Joe O’Shaughnessy, who took over two years ago, dole out appealing, comforting dishes. They nicely extend the legacy of their previous boss, chef-owner Che Chartrand, who moved in the fall of 2012 to the Ottawa side and Stephen Beckta’s Gezellig restaurant, but who recently returned to his West Quebec stomping ground to be the Wakefield Mill’s executive chef.

From Chez Eric’s one-page dinner menu, it was an everyman dish that took top marks. The bacon-topped cheeseburger ($15) was exceptional, imposingly large and bursting with beefiness, served with a side of coleslaw.

Chez Eric's bacon-topped cheeseburger is a reputation maker.

Chez Eric’s bacon-topped cheeseburger is a reputation maker.

It’s a reputation-maker for the restaurant, our server said, and a few bites showed why. Ottawa’s many aspiring gourmet burger purveyors are lucky that Chez Eric isn’t just down the road rather than down the highway.

Our table’s runner-up dish was a satisfying plate of crisp-skinned duck confit ($26), topped with red onion jam and complemented by roasted root vegetables and a loose, bacon-y potato galette.

Duck confit at Chez Eric.

Duck confit at Chez Eric.

With two other main courses, we had small complaints.

The pork tenderloin ($16) was a touch dry, but its flavour was good and the bowl’s pillowy gnocchi and the play between artichoke, cherry tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes had their own merits.

Pork tenderloin main course at Chez Eric

Pork tenderloin main course at Chez Eric

A big, potent lamb meatball ($26) wrapped in phyllo hit the mark, as did the plate’s seasonal vegetables, but some very plain rice was a surprisingly lacklustre starch.

Lamb meatball in phyllo at Chez Eric

Lamb meatball in phyllo at Chez Eric

Modestly sized starters — a salad of beet morsels, fennel shavings and goat cheese ($12) and small, Parmesan-crusted scallops and more cherry tomatoes paired with cauliflower purée ($12) — eased us into dinner.

Scallops with cauliflower puree appetizer at Chez Eric

Scallops with cauliflower puree appetizer at Chez Eric

Desserts — a Mason jar filled with chocolate mousse and decadently topped with whipped cream, fruits and caramel and a not-as-strong slice of pecan pie — were direct, unrepentantly sweet and, at $7, reasonably priced.

Chocolate mousse at Chez Eric

Chocolate mousse at Chez Eric

Pecan pie at Chez Eric

Pecan pie at Chez Eric

We later returned to Chez Eric, which by the way is named after a goldfish, for a weekend brunch. Lousy weather forced us to eat inside in the woody, country-style dining room beside its tiny kitchen. Fortunately friendly service and, best of all, indulgent eggs Benedict topped with pulled pork ($16) that stood up to their hearty sauce, made up for the lack of a warm, swirling breeze and sun overhead.

Chez Eric's  pulled pork eggs Benny

Chez Eric’s pulled pork eggs Benny

phum@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Pizza the Fiazza way

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Fiazza

86 Murray St., 613-562-2000, fiazza.ca

Open: Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight

Prices: Pizzas $7.95 to $12.95

Access: No steps to front entrance, wheelchair-accessible washroom

The pre-teen pizza connoisseur among us took his first few bites of a dead-simple, thin-crust, pepperoni-meets-cheese-meets-red sauce-meets-crust pie. “We’re coming back here again,” he said.

Pepperoni pizza at Fiazza

Pepperoni pizza at Fiazza

We five were at Fiazza, which opened a few months ago on Murray Street. The youngest of us was not alone in his praise. The pies in front of each of us made good first impressions, prompting a happy consensus about crisp, flavourful crusts and fresh ingredients.

Not bad at all, we thought, for an eatery that felt a bit like a Starbucks of pizza. Fiazza’s serves fast food proudly, with sufficient quality and upscale, trendy menu options to distinguish itself favourably from the plebeian pack.

Co-owner Luigi Meliambro told me his  restaurant is modelled after eateries in California, adding that he considers his pizzas, because of their not-as-chewy crusts and wider range of ingredients, more New York than Neapolitan.

Customers line up to order and during a busy lunch hour, I’ve been more than dozen deep in the queue. Good thing it advanced quickly past the restaurant’s pizza assembly line — a staffer flattening dough balls and placing them on boards, a person topping each crust to order, someone tending to Fiazza’s natural gas, centrepiece oven, and a finisher who plates the pizza once its three-minute blast of 500-F heat is done.

After paying, you sit down in Fiazza’s woody, utilitarian interior or on its patio and chow down to the sound of soul- and acid-jazz.

Diners can build their pies from a panoply of items that frequently aim to please more discriminating eaters. “We strive to source all natural and preservative-free meats,” the Fiazza menu says, and its spicy sausage is from Luciano Foods on Preston Street. Mushrooms are local (from Le Coprin in the Outaouais) and organic. Gluten-free dough is available. Some cheeses are from Ontario and “vegan cheese” is also available.

But if starting from scratch is too onerous, you can simply order one of Fiazza’s dozen “signature” pizzas.

Among them, I was very pleased with the clear, varied meatiness of the carnivore pizza’s pepperoni, spicy sausage and crumbled bacon.

Carnivore pizza at Fiazza

Carnivore pizza at Fiazza

The “magik mushroom” pizza (those Le Coprin button mushrooms, truffle oil and parmesan, chiefly) was a satisfying umami bomb.

Magik Mushroom pizza at Fiazza.

Magik Mushroom pizza at Fiazza.

I liked the blue-cheese hit of the bella prosciutto pizza, along with the fact that its arugula and prosciutto were post-oven additions, simply wilted rather than cooked to a frazzle.

Bella Prosciutto pizza at Fiazza.

Bella Prosciutto pizza at Fiazza.

Ingredients aside, the pizzas were all better than average, with a good mix of crispy and chewier crusts. A few were soggier than I would have liked, making eating by hand a little trickier, and one was a bit too burnt here and there for its recipient. But for what Fiazza charges (between about $8 to $13 per pie), and the speed at which the pizzas arrive, minor flaws are easy to forgive.

Non-pizza options were minimal. A large serving of Caesar salad, packed with big pieces of lettuce, grated cheese and crumbled bacon, was above all unwieldy.

Caesar Salad at Fiazza

Caesar Salad at Fiazza

More concise and manageable was the made-ahead kale salad (quirkily labeled “kale ceviche” in its plastic container), flecked with red pepper, red onion and pumpkin seeds and dressed with lemon juice, maple syrup and balsamic.

Dessert options consisted of two vegan, nut- and gluten-free treats from Strawberry Blonde Bakery. The icing-filled, lemon ginger and oatmeal raisin cookies I tried hit their sweet notes hard.

Beverage choices were more varied and interesting. Apart from the usual, Harvey & Vern’s all-natural sodas, two Kichesippi beers on tap and two wines, also on tap, were available. The hippest among us can try the very au courant flavoured kombuchas (fermented, sweetened black or green teas).

Meliambro told me that his “fast casual” eatery is on its way to becoming less casual, with metal cutlery replacing the plastics and plates replacing the metal pizza trays.

He also said that after a few months in business, he’s considering how he might bring his concept to the suburbs.

If I were pitching pizza in Orléans, Kanata or Barrhaven, I’d be looking over my shoulder.

phum@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/peterhum

 

Dining Out: Asian Stars is a vegan, Vietnamese find

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Asian Stars Restaurant

1380 Clyde Ave. Unit B, 613-695-2288, asianstarsrestaurant.com
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday noon to 9 p.m.
Prices: Main dishes: $11.95 to $14.75
Access: No stairs to entrance, wheelchair-accessible washroom

To the list of foodstuffs that taste like chicken, you can add wheat gluten, a.k.a. seitan.

Take my word for it. That’s my conclusion after trying the kung pao seitan served at Asian Stars Restaurant, which opened in late June in a Clyde Avenue strip mall, adjoining a Denny’s location.

Vegan Kung Pao with Mock Chicken.

Vegan Kung Pao with Mock Chicken.

There — at Asian Stars, not Denny’s — co-owner and chef Phuong Côté puts extra effort into preparing house-made mock chicken, pork and beef, laboriously mixing flour into dough, rinsing the starch from it, and then simmering it in broth before portioning it and adding it to stir-fried dishes. Côté’s a part-time vegetarian, and her sister Kim, a fellow co-owner and Asian Stars’ front-of-house manager, is a Buddhist who won’t touch meat.

But the eatery is far from exclusively vegetarian and it’s impressed me over three visits with a range of quick, accessible and well-made appetizers, meal-sized soups and stir-fries.

Côté, who cooked on Somerset Street West for almost a decade and in Vietnam before that, touches upon multiple cuisines with her menu.

Her homeland was represented principally and well by big, steaming bowls of pho and vermicelli bowls laden with grilled meats (mock or real), spring rolls and the like.

The chicken and beef broths in her soups were clear, clean and fragrant, while the protein additions floating therein — lean slices of barbecue pork; tender, if slightly smaller-than-hoped-for and less flavourful shrimp; lean, rare beef — were good too.

Pho Soup with Rare Beef at Asian Stars Restaurant

Pho Soup with Rare Beef at Asian Stars Restaurant

Chicken-broth-based Pho with Barbecue Pork and Shrimp at Asian Stars Restaurant

Chicken-broth-based Pho with Barbecue Pork and Shrimp at Asian Stars Restaurant

A vermicelli salad teemed with just-cooked noodles and crisp, fresh vegetables and herbs, along with admirable shrimp paste on sugarcane and grilled pork.

Staple Vietnamese starters set meals off on the right foot, whether they were long, flavourful, deep-fried shrimp rolls or impeccable salad rolls. Best on a platter of appetizers were some moist, spicy pork meatballs that out-flavoured a heap of mango salad and morsels of beef satay.

Appetizer platter at Asian Stars Restaurant

Appetizer platter at Asian Stars Restaurant

Asian Stars also serves the spicy, beefy soup from Huế, in central Vietnam, but the menu generally stresses the country’s culinary crowd-pleasers, along with similarly popular, and North Americanized, dishes drawn from Chinese and Thai kitchens.

The flavours in black bean, kung pao, General Tso and spicy orange stir-fries have all been distinct and well-measured, although heatheads will find some of those dishes subdued, and should ask Côté to boost them, spice-wise.

More significantly, those dishes, served with white rice or vermicelli as requested, have been piping hot, not greasy, and stocked with toothsome, colourful vegetables.

Black Bean Seafood Stir-fry at Asian Stars Restaurant

Black Bean Seafood Stir-fry at Asian Stars Restaurant

Of the Thai-influenced dishes, the stir-fry that brought the bracing hit of tom yum soup to its plate had a nice sour punch, but pad thai, for all its tender chicken and tofu, lost marks because of a bland sauce and an absence of lime and coriander.

Pad Thai at Asian Stars Restaurant.

Pad Thai at Asian Stars Restaurant.

For dessert, roasted pineapple, served with vanilla ice cream, was a caramelized winner…

Grilled pineapple dessert at Asian Stars Restaurant

Grilled pineapple dessert at Asian Stars Restaurant

… and better than the banana deep-fried in a spring roll wrapper. Iced coffee with condensed milk was satisfyingly potent and sweet, although there was more ice than coffee in the cup.

Some advice if you go: When you write down your order, in lieu of telling a server what you want, be precise and use good penmanship. We’ve received the wrong kind of noodles in our soup and rice instead of vermicelli with one order.

But if the service was not spot-on, it was at least very hospitable and friendly. Indeed, because Côté and Verrault’s husbands — and fellow Asian Stars co-owners — are ex-military, the restaurant grants a 10-per-cent discount to serving or retired Canadian Armed Forces personnel, police officers and firefighters who dine in.

Stéphane Côté told me that soon, card-carrying members of the National Capital Vegetarian Association will receive a discount at Asian Stars too.

I’ll leave it to vegetarian veterans to report back if they are doubly blessed.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Clover brings class to a downtown dead zone

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Clover Food | Drink

155 Bank St., 613-680-8803, cloverottawa.ca
Open: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closed Sunday
Prices: Lunch mains $12 to $15, dinner mains $18 to $23
Access: One step into restaurant, washrooms downstairs

On the Saturday night before Labour Day, the stretch of Bank Street on either side of Laurier Avenue struck us as a bit of a no man’s land. As we walked to Clover, all that was missing was some rolling tumbleweed.

When we entered that long, narrow eatery, which opened in mid-June where the upscale sandwich outpost Bowich had been, it wasn’t much better. We three were the only customers, and something about twilight and the eatery’s largely unadorned white and blond wood walls made Clover seem especially under-populated.

That was a shame. Not because we were lonely in that 40-seat space, but because chef/co-owner West de Castro’s food deserved to be ordered and enjoyed.

De Castro, who in May left her sous-chef position at ZenKitchen to open Clover, puts out what she calls “simple, humble food,” in line, I suppose, with the dining room’s stylish minimalism and hard, wooden, schoolhouse chairs.

But her assessment might be too modest, given, for example, the spot-on seasoning and cooking of the bison flank steak that I tried, or the well-crafted, intriguing polenta cake that was a likable oddball on one of de Castro’s desserts.

True, Clover does not serve flashy, trendy food. But most of what I’ve tasted during my dinner and lunch visits has been tasty and smile-inducing as well as straightforward, cleanly conceived and fairly priced.

Here, no main course at dinner topped $23. Some of those main portions were on the smaller side, but more important are de Castro’s attention to details and quality regarding what’s on her plates.

Locavores will high-five over Clover’s reliance on local producers such as Juniper Organic Farms, Mariposa Farms, Beking’s Poultry Farm, Apiary 613 and Whalesbone fish supply. Also, four Ottawa-area craft brews and five Ontario wines are on Clover’s menu.

From de Castro’s concise and thoughtful menu (which she tells me will see much gradual turnover as fall arrives), I’ve tried two fine soups. A smooth pea-and-fennel potage was perked by a slick of fennel oil, and my favourite, a rich and varied chowder that balanced sweet charred corn, potatoes, caramelized pearl onions and chunks of bacon.

Corn Chowder with caramelized pearl onion, potato, bacon, charred corn, at Clover Food and Drink. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Corn Chowder with caramelized pearl onion, potato, bacon, charred corn, at Clover Food and Drink. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

At lunch, a grilled romaine salad did less for me. Its Caesar-style dressing could have been brighter and punchier and slices of plain grilled bread underwhelmed. Maybe I’d left it on the plate too long before trying it because I was so focused on chowder.

Grilled Romaine at Clover.

Grilled Romaine at Clover Food and Drink.

Three of four main courses were the kind of memorable, well-composed plates that merit return visits. That bison steak hit it out of the park, not only because of its meat, but thanks as well to a slab of sumptuous cornbread topped with a melting compound butter of garlic, parsley and oregano.

Bison Flank Steak at Clover Food and Drink.

Bison Flank Steak at Clover Food and Drink.

Chicken adobo — a thigh and drumstick braised to be winningly tender in that distinctly Filipino mix of vinegar, soy sauce and garlic — was a bowl of savoury, exotic comfort, supported not just by confit fingerling potatoes and kale, but by the crisp cracker of chicken skin that flew like a flag atop the meat.

Chicken Adobo at Clover Food and Drink

Chicken Adobo at Clover Food and Drink

At lunch, smelts were pleasantly salted, clean-tasting and texturally perfect, while the mound of salad beneath them was thick with slices of cucumber, vibrant tomatoes, the hit of black olives and dabs of basil aioli.

Smelts and salad at lunch at Clover.

Smelts and salad at lunch at Clover Food and Drink.

Bucatini, a pasta akin to a thicker, more interesting spaghetti, was sparely adorned with a red sauce flecked with sausage and bread crumbs. De Castro told me during a phone interview that this dish was intended as a “safe” dish for customers daunted by smelts and the like. I thought it could have been more bold and meaty.

 

Of three desserts, I’ve tried a pleasing muddle of chocolate cake, peanut butter mousse and raspberries.

Chocolate Cake at Clover

Chocolate Cake at Clover Food and Drink

It met expectations, but was topped by de Castro’s “Fugazi,” a precise, surprising little plate of seared polenta, discs of banana drizzled with caramel and a scattering of maple granola.

Fugazi dessert  at Clover

Fugazi dessert at Clover Food and Drink

Like the similarly commendable Rex near Little Italy, Clover follows a lunch-centric business model, opening noon-hour eaters most days of the week, but serving dinner only on Fridays and Saturdays. But de Castro’s food is certainly good enough to make you want to eat it more often than that.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Petit Peru Resto Bar a Peruvian revelation

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Petit Peru Resto Bar

349 Dalhousie St., upstairs, in the same space as La Diskoteka, 613-562-9756, petitperu.com
Open: Sunday and Tuesday, 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: Entrées from $16 to $19, ceviche from $17 to $26
Access: Fight of stairs to restaurant

Jorge Bahamonde’s first restaurant shares space with a Hull corner store. His second is almost like a pop-up, serving lunch and dinner before its second-storey Dalhousie Street location switches into night-time, Latin dance-club mode as La Discoteka.

Either way, it’s worth visiting one of Bahamonde’s Petit Peru eateries for the best of his unique and often vibrantly sauced dishes.

There are some caveats. The tiny, ultra-casual Hull location, L’ Epicerie Petit Peru on St-Raymond Boulevard, has just a handful of tables and its cutlery and plates are plastic. The ByWard Market outpost called Petit Peru Resto Bar, which opened in late June and replaced Los Tacos de Mauro, has real knives, forks and plates, but still feels like a nightclub pressed into service as a restaurant. Speaking of service, it can be a little short-staffed and sluggish, although waitstaff, which have included Bahamonde himself at my visits, have been friendly and multi-lingual.

Jorge Bahamonde from Petit Peru Resto Bar on Dalhousie St. in Ottawa poses with a plate of Anticuchos Thursday September 11, 2014.

Jorge Bahamonde from Petit Peru Resto Bar on Dalhousie St. in Ottawa poses with a plate of Anticuchos Thursday September 11, 2014.

But much can be forgiven if you have are a fan of, say, ceviche or roast chicken.

Bahamonde’s ceviches are the real deal. On Dalhousie Street, he serves five generously portioned kinds (from $17 to $26) in large, square plates, from a traditional base model featuring tilapia to a deluxe version that adds scallops, calamari, shrimp and even morsels of deep-fried seafood.

The ceviches I’ve tried teemed with vivid flavours thanks to lime-juice baths spiked with punchy Peruvian limon peppers, spices, cilantro and red onions. Also, Peruvian corn cooked two ways provided taste and textural contrast to the yielding raw fish.

Ceviche at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Ceviche at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Other great raw deals at Petit Peru Resto Bar included Leche de Tigre ($9), a mug filled with distilled ceviche broth goodness and tilapia  chunks, hold the onions, as well as tiraditos ($16), which presented tilapia slices swimming in purely Peruvian sauces. The intriguing heat of aji amarillo chili-based sauce and the spicier-still rocoto chili sauce both worked well. I’ve yet to try the parmesan sauce. It breaks the old cheese-with-fish rule, but who knows?

Tiradito in rococo sauce by Jorge Bahamonde from Petit Peru Resto Bar on Dalhousie Street.

Tiradito in rococo sauce by Jorge Bahamonde from Petit Peru Resto Bar on Dalhousie Street.

Raw fish aside, you could be very pleased with the best of Petit Peru’s other options too.

Bahamonde’s empanadas ($4 each),  filled with expertly seasoned beef or chicken and served with tangy, mustardy Huacatay (black mint) sauce, must be among the best stuffed savoury pastries in Ottawa.

Beef Empanada at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Beef Empanada at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

 

Alternately, there were causas — layered, ring-molded creations that stacked a star ingredient on layers of avocado and smooth, seasoned, cold mashed potatoes. The tres causas platter ($16) offered three to choose among, and a minced seafood causa topped its tuna- and beef-based rivals.

Tres Causas (seafood, tuna and beef) at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Tres Causas (seafood, tuna and beef) at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Rotisserie chicken, available quartered ($10), halved ($17) or whole ($33), was consistently a triumph, moist and deeply flavoured from a day of marinating. Accompanying it were Huacatay sauce, house mayo, and Peruvian-style twice-fried potatoes, which were delicious piping hot, but which degraded into stodgy, starchy batons if they lingered and cooled.

Rotisserie chicken at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Rotisserie chicken at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Chicharrón ($16) consisted of a heap of sliced, fried pork loin, sweet potato, marinated red onions and small warmed buns with which to make sandwiches. At first sight, the pork scanned as off-puttingly dry, but in its sandwich-y embrace, its seasoning and crisp exterior mattered most.

Chicharron at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Chicharron at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Two dishes nodded to the influence of Chinese immigrants on Peruvian cooking. Lomo saltado ($16) was a hearty stir-fry of rugged beef with tomatoes and onions.

Lomo Saltado at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Lomo Saltado at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Chaufa rice ($13 or $14), a fry-up that involved rice with bits of omelette and chicken, fish, beef or seafood, was pleasantly gingery.

 

Tilapia Fried Rice at Petit Peru Resto Bar

Tilapia Fried Rice at Petit Peru Resto Bar

If these dishes aren’t on-the-edge enough for non-Peruvian expats, then there’s the marinated, grilled offal — mollejitas (chicken gizzards, $8) or anticuchos (beef heart, $9). I skipped these during my recent visits, but I’ve eaten the anticuchos at the Hull Petit Peru, and they were tangy and even reminiscent of flank steak.

Anticuchos at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Anticuchos at Petit Peru Resto Bar.

Drinks here can be exotic, ranging from a potent pisco sour to special flax seed beverages to imported Peruvian soft drinks to chicha morada, a brew made with purple corn and pineapple, to three pricey tropical juice blends.

But as far as sweet cravings go, I recommend the shareable dessert sampler ($10), which ends a meal nicely with homey yet decadent torta tres leches, a vanilla cake with three kinds of milk (evaporated, condensed and heavy cream), a slice of pionono, a rolled sponge cake with dulce de leche (caramelized condensed milk), and alfajores, sugar-powdered, dulce-de-leche-stuffed shortbread cookies. The desserts are available separately too.

Three desserts (Tres Leches Cake, Pionono sponge cake and Alfamajores) at Petit Peru Resto Bar

Three desserts (Tres Leches Cake, Pionono sponge cake and Alfamajores) at Petit Peru Resto Bar

Petit Peru’s menu now in place (I’m told it will be updated soon) lists four sushi-roll-like items that combine tempura-fried seafoods or other items with Bahamonde’s sauces. He told me they just weren’t selling, and now will only available on selected Sundays. Other Sunday menus will feature different Peruvian specials as Bahamonde goes deeper into his homeland’s eclectic cuisine.

So, Ottawa’s first Peruvian restaurant serves unfamiliar fare in an odd setting. But don’t be dissuaded. There are flavourful, filling and even revelatory meals in store.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Cast your ballot: Elgin Street Diner vs. Fraser Café

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After a long month that included 30 brunches, tough decisions, weight gain, occasional self-loathing, and incredible food, we’ve made it to the championship round of our Brunch Bracket.

Haven’t been following along? Here’s a refresher:

The Citizen’s mobile team pitted 16 Ottawa brunch destinations against each other in a head-to-head bracket format. In the first round, we had eight separate “brunch battles” where we asked each competing restaurant to give us what they felt was their best brunch item. Then we picked a winner based on the strength of the meal and the experience.

As we moved into second and third rounds, we followed the same format, making sure we ate a different meal each time. Our premise was that the eventual champion would win on the merits of its menu depth and its ability to consistently provide a stellar experience.

However, we weren’t the final arbitrators of a restaurant’s fate. We asked you to vote on which restaurant you thought should advance, and your votes ultimately decided which restaurant moved on.

And boy, did y’all vote. More people voted in our last matchup (10,000 plus) than voted in the 2010 municipal election in the Somerset ward, where matchup winner Elgin Street Diner is located. (Thankfully, a Big Hollandaise lobby doesn’t exist in Ottawa).

So, here we are, cast your ballot and crown the city’s best brunch spot.

 

Normally, we post all of our reviews on the Citizen’s mobile app, but for the championship round, we’ve posted our review below. And if you go down further, you can see the results from all of our previous matchups, along with links to our reviews.

* * *

Fraser Café

Price: Main dishes are between $12 and $17.

Address/Hours: 7 Springfield Rd. Brunch is served Sat. and Sun., 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.

Accessibility: A ramp on the side, but no accessible washrooms.

Ambience/Service: A neighbourhood bistro with modern but unstuffy decor and attentive yet laid back service.

Fraser Café has gotten to the Championship Round by the skin of its teeth.

The hip New Edinburgh bistro narrowly beat out both Baker Street Cafe in Round 1 and Art Is In Bakery in Round 2 with identical voting scores of 51 per cent. Round 3’s matchup between Fraser and the Scone Witch was this Bracket’s closest yet — Fraser squeaked by with 50.39 per cent of the vote right before the polls closed.

Below, what we’ve eaten from Fraser Café up until this point in the competition, including the Championship Round dish.

Round 1: Poached eggs and hollandaise with tomato and porchetta ($15). Delicious.

Round 1: Poached eggs and hollandaise with tomato and porchetta ($15).

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Round 2: Huevos Rancheros with a side salad ($13.50).

What we ate: Breakfast Sandwich, or fried egg, smoked bacon, cheese, and tomato on a multigrain bun ($14.50).

Round 3: Breakfast Sandwich, or egg, bacon, cheese, and tomato on a multigrain bun ($14.50).

Fraser web 1

Championship Round: Hot-smoked trout, with olive oil, sourdough, capers, tomato, onions and greens ($17).

How it tasted: We were surprisingly disappointed. The dish looked decadent — the fish, which took on a ruby-orange gleam, was drizzled in sauce and garnished with delicate blue flowers — but perhaps the trout was smoked too hot. Coupled with the toasted sourdough, the whole thing tasted dry as a fish bone. The crisp bread did nothing to help along the over-cooked trout, and the red pepper sauce added flavour but little moisture.

What the dish had going for it was its salad sides, which were light, refreshing and uncomplicated.

Why you should vote Fraser:

• The food: Despite our less-than-stellar final visit, there’s no arguing Fraser does excellent brunch — it’s gourmet without the pretension. The bistro has gotten to this point in the competition on the back of some delicious dishes that offered a great mix of flavours and textures.

• The service: Fraser has had bright, friendly and attentive service every time we’ve visited. Even though it was often crowded during brunch time, the atmosphere never felt congested or claustrophobic.

• The prices: Most of the brunch items are reasonably priced at around $15 each — just a titch above this Bracket’s average. But the cost is worth it — what the menu lacks in size it makes up for in depth.

Why you shouldn’t vote Fraser:

• The availability: We phoned ahead to book a reservation every time we visited — there’s none of the easy availability of a greasy spoon bistro you can stumble into after a drunken Friday night out. In that sense, brunch at Fraser becomes more of an event and less of the leisurely meal it should be.

• The prices: We know we just said the prices are reasonable. But they’re reasonable for the quality of food you’re getting. Otherwise, paying $17 for the meal — plus tip, plus whatever beverage of choice you order — puts an unwelcome dent in your wallet.

• The kitchen location: Fraser has an open kitchen, which means if you’re sitting close to the cooking flames, it can get uncomfortably hot. But that’s a minor quibble.

We’re scraping the barrel here.

* * *

Elgin Street Diner

Price: Main dishes are between $8 and $15.

Address/Hours: 374 Elgin St. Open 24 hours. Special brunch menu, Sat. and Sun., 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Accessibility: A few front steps make it unaccessible.

Ambience/Service: The speedy service and retro turquoise booths make this a go-to greasy spoon.

This bracket’s Cinderella story

When this started, none of the Citizen’s reviewers thought ESD had a chance.

But in Round 1, ESD cruised to victory over Carmen’s Veranda with 56 per cent of the vote. Then, over powerhouse the Manx (and our pick), ESD crushed with 62 per cent of the vote. It wasn’t even close in Round 3 over Stoneface Dolly’s — ESD grabbed a whopping 70 per cent of the vote.

Below, what we’ve eaten from the Elgin Street Diner up until this point in the competition, including the Championship Round dish.

Elgin web 3

Round 1: The Hangover Breakfast, or eggs, bacon, beans, poutine, and toast ($12).

Elgin Web 4

Round 2: Breakfast Special, or two poached eggs, bacon, toast, potatoes, and beans ($8). We added a slice of french toast ($3.50).

photo copy

Round 3: The Farmers Benny. Potato hash, sausage, spinach, tomatoes and caramelized onions. Topped with two poached eggs, hollandaise and avocado ($14.99).

Round 4: Fruit Waffle, with strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, banana and maple syrup ($13.99).

Championship Round: Fruit Waffle, with strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, banana and maple syrup ($13.99).

How it tasted: Pretty damn good. The sweet, crunchy waffle is complemented by sweeter, succulent fresh fruits.

Why you should vote ESD:

• The simplicity: A common theme throughout all our ESD visits is the straightforward, brunch-y goodness of our meals. We’ve been pretty harsh on the longtime diner, but that’s only because we’ve been measuring it against the lofty standard of a few fancy pants, hipster haunts. That’s not what ESD is and you, faithful reader, seem to understand that.

• The service: It’s speedy and to the point, but not dismissive. You feel like you fit right in at Elgin, no matter who you are. That would seem to make sense, seeing as the entire joint has been family-run for 21 years straight.

• The atmosphere and availability: Unlike Fraser Café, ESD is open 24 hours with a ton of seating — it’s rare you’ll ever wait longer than five minutes for a table, if at all. On top of that, the atmosphere alternates between a home-y, comfortable diner by day, and a jumping, rowdy, drunken party by night.

Why you shouldn’t vote ESD:

• The competition: Depending on your brunch expectations, ESD can be either a godsend or a complete letdown. The diner doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t — but that might not be the greatest thing either. In this Bracket, we’ve lauded restaurants that serve innovative, interesting dishes that separate themselves from the brunch plebes. ESD hasn’t done that.

• The food: ESD is a diner, and their main fare is basic, straightforward diner dishes. With a little effort, you could probably make this stuff at home. The dishes are void of red pepper emulsion and tiny blue flowers as garnish, à la Fraser Café. There’s little in the food that catches you by surprise — and that’s not a good thing.

• The service: We’ve mentioned how we love the speedy and friendly staffers. But you’re never going to get an experience from the service — the waiters are there to turn and burn tables, not discuss the finer points of poutine with you. You never eat at ESD to relax. You’re there to get in and get out.

* * *

Our reviews:

The Championship 

Brunch Battle 1: Fraser Café versus Elgin Street Diner

Readers’ winner:  ?

The Final Four 

Brunch Battle 1: Fraser Café versus The Scone Witch

Citizen winner: Fraser Café
Readers’ winner:  Fraser Café with 50.39% of the vote

Brunch Battle 2: Stoneface Dolly’s versus Elgin Street Diner

Citizen winner: Stoneface Dolly’s
Readers’ winner: Elgin Street Diner with 70.96% of the vote

The Elite Eight 

Brunch Battle 1: Urban Pear versus Stoneface Dolly’s

Citizen winner: Stoneface Dolly’s
Readers’ winner: Stoneface Dolly’s with 65% of the vote

Brunch Battle 2: The Manx versus Elgin Street Diner

Citizen winner: The Manx
Readers’ winner: Elgin Street Diner with 62% of the vote

Brunch Battle 3: Wilf & Ada’s versus Scone Witch

Citizen winner: Wilf & Ada’s
Readers’ winner: The Scone Witch with 56% of the vote.

Brunch Battle 4: Art-Is-In versus Fraser Café

Citizen winner: Art-Is-In
Readers’ winner: Fraser Café with 51% of the vote.

Previous results from the Round of 16

Brunch Battle 1: Fraser Café versus Baker Street Cafe

Citizen winner: Baker Street Cafe
Readers’ winner: Fraser Café with 51% of the vote

Brunch Battle 2: Wilf & Ada’s versus the Daily Grind

Citizen winner: Wilf & Ada’s
Readers’ winner: Wilf & Ada’s with 78% of the vote

Brunch Battle 3: John’s Diner versus Stoneface Dolly’s

Citizen Winner: Stoneface Dolly’s
Readers’ winner: Stoneface Dolly’s with 70% of the vote

Brunch Battle 4: Jak’s Kitchen and Scone Witch

Citizen Winner: Jak’s Kitchen
Readers’ winner: Scone Witch with 51.34% of the vote

Brunch Battle 5: The Manx versus Murray Street

Citizen Winner: Murray Street
Readers’ winner: The Manx with 56% of the vote

Brunch Battle 6: Elgin Street Diner versus Carmen’s Veranda 

Citizen Winner: Elgin Street Diner
Readers’ winner: Elgin Street Diner with 56% of the vote

Brunch Battle 7: Urban Pear versus Fresco Bistro Italiano 

Citizen Winner: Urban Pear
Readers’ winner: Urban Pear with 56% of the vote

Brunch Battle 8: Art-Is-In versus Pressed

Citizen Winner: Pressed
Readers’ winner: Art-Is-In with 74% of the vote


Dining Out: The meat of the matter at Lowertown Brewery

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Lowertown Brewery

73 York St., 613-722-1454, lowertownbrewery.ca

Open: Daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Prices: sandwiches $9.95, rotisserie chickens $11.95 to $22.95, butcher platters $15.95 to $49.95

Access: fully accessible

Young chefs move from kitchen to kitchen. It’s the way of the business. Still, one of the most striking shifts that I’ve seen has to be Kyle Mortimer-Proulx’s recent relocation.

The last time I met him was in mid-May, when he was the chef at the upscale vegan spot ZenKitchen. Then, days before ZenKitchen suddenly closed due to financial woes and Mortimer-Proulx found himself jobless, the young chef was visibly proud of a seasonal treat of morels, fiddleheads and asparagus, smiling about a delicious faux vegan sundae.

Now, the 29-year-old is chef at a ByWard Market eatery that you could call the anti-ZenKitchen. It’s large versus small, casual versus fancy, populist versus niche, and meat-heavy versus meat-free. Last week at Lowertown Brewery, Mortimer-Proulx hosted a “Pork Belly Throwdown,”  the first in a series of monthly cook-offs, for himself and five other chefs.

Opened in mid-June, about two weeks before Mortimer-Proulx started there, Lowertown Brewery is a massive place of wood tables, unfinished concrete walls and overhead ductwork. It celebrates craft beer, nightly live music, sports on the TV screens and affordable carnivorism. It’s one of more than a dozen ByWard Market restaurants or bars owned by Ottawa Venues (also known as York Entertainment), and chef John Leung is the culinary director for all the company’s properties.

Still, the brewery touts Mortimer-Proulx’s culinary achievements, flanking its entrance with two plaques that announce his participation in November in Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competition — although Mortimer-Proulx was invited when he worked at ZenKitchen.

Plaques aside, the food at Lowertown Brewery is meant to comfort, not to win elite cooking contests. Its limited menu — developed by Leung, but tweaked by Mortimer-Proulx — is built around roast chicken and humble, prepared rather than cooked-to-order meats (beef brisket, corned beef, sausage and porchetta) available in sandwiches or not, perhaps preceded by a beer-friendly snack and accompanied by massive fries or a salad.

Butcher's Platter at Lowertown Brewery.

Butcher’s Platter (clockwise from top: corned beef, beef brisket, sausage and porchetta) at Lowertown Brewery.

Factor in a sweet, direct, glass-jarred dessert (cheesecake or a Nanaimo bar, for example) and four courses at the brewery might come to around $30 (beer excluded), or about half of the rough equivalent at ZenKitchen.

Cheesecake at Lowertown Brewery.

Cheesecake at Lowertown Brewery.

During my three visits, I’ve had some fine, noteworthy, slow-cooked meat. Corn beef and smoked brisket, in sandwiches and as part of the butcher’s platter, were sumptuous and full of flavour.

A smoked pork belly sandwich ($9.95) was a nice indulgence, even if perkier, more imaginative accompaniments than mayo, tomato and lettuce might have scored higher.

Pork Belly Sandwich plus Potato and Bacon Salad at Lowertown Brewery

Pork Belly Sandwich plus Potato and Bacon Salad at Lowertown Brewery

These items strike me as Lowertown Brewery’s winners, along with the guilty pleasure of maple peanut candied bacon ($5.95 for four crisp, well-pressed strips) and flavourful, if messy, smoked chicken wings ($10.95).

A short-rib sandwich available as a special also delivered, and later I wondered if Mortimer-Proulx gets to step out of the box a bit more with his specials.

But in addition to the hits, there were letdowns and inconsistencies too.

Rotisserie chicken, while moist and tender, was disappointingly bland on two occasions, as part of that sharing platter and later within a sandwich. On both visits, the sauce that came with the chicken was of little help flavour-wise.

Roast chicken at Lowertown Brewery.

Roast chicken at Lowertown Brewery.

Porchetta was a winner in a sandwich, slathered in a fine, acerbic lemon mint sauce.

Porchetta Sandwich and Beef and Barley Soup at Lowertown Brewery

Porchetta Sandwich and Beef and Barley Soup at Lowertown Brewery

But on a previous visit, the slice of porchetta on the butcher’s platter was dry and tough.

Of the brewery’s side dishes ($3.95 for small portions, $6.95 for large, which is arguably closer to a medium), three salads registered as good but not great, with a tartly dressed kale salad best offsetting our meat fiesta, compared to a very bacony potato-and-bacon salad and an apple quinoa salad.

Kale Salad at Lowertown Brewery.

Kale Salad at Lowertown Brewery.

Soups (beef-and-barley, chicken) were meaty but nothing special, with broths that, while made-from-scratch, could have been more heartily flavoured.

During one visit, Vito Pilieci, the Citizen’s beer columnist tagged along and tried a flight of five brews. Some were made by Clocktower Brew Pub, which is in a partnership with Lowertown Brewery. The newspaper’s suds buff described them as accessible and straightforward, although one was off.

Service has been friendly and confident, but not always astute. One server overestimated the ability of a butcher’s platter and side dishes to fill the bellies at our table. Another server delivered chicken soup rather than beef and blamed the kitchen for not informing him of the switch that day.

Interviewed after I’d eaten there, Mortimer-Proulx told me a menu revamp is coming soon. Mortimer-Proulx said he hoped to add more of his “personal flavours” without changing the restaurant’s direction.

He added that he hopes to get the OK from Lowertown’s owners to begin serving a “secret menu” at a small chef’s bar to more discriminating customers. I have my fingers crossed, as what I heard sounded like the passion of a Gold Medal Plates invitee otherwise tasked with executing a more mainstream, high-volume mandate.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Hintonburg's hidden Southeast Asian lunch counter

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Sam’s Cafe at Fairmont Confectionery

102 Fairmont Ave., 613-728-0931, www.facebook.com/FairmontConfectionery
Open: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily
Prices: Vietnamese subs $4, single-serving entrées with rice $7, entrées $9.75 to $15.95
Access: Steps to front door

Since some time in the Great Depression, the Fairmont Confectionery has met the corner-store needs of its neighbours in Hintonburg.

But last month, there was a shake-up at the back of the store, something that the original shopkeeper of eight or so decades ago could scarcely have imagined.

Last month, the store’s new owner created a 10-seat mini-eatery and take-out counter within the confectionery and named it Sam’s Café, after himself. But since Sam Souryavong is from Laos, and since the former legal clerk spent four months last year at the long-established and accredited Wandee Culinary Art School in Bangkok, the café’s fare is resolutely Southeast Asian.

Sam Souryavong, owner and chef of Sam's Cafe.  (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Sam Souryavong, owner and chef of Sam’s Cafe. (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Its soups are Thai and its sandwiches are Vietnamese. Most importantly, Souryavong’s Thai curries and stir-fries are sufficiently complex, calibrated and potent in their flavours to make you forget that you’re eating in a corner store.

It will help if you sit at the table for six, facing the red back wall adorned with Thai art. But even then, you won’t feel swaddled in the exotic ambience of other fancier Thai dining rooms. The buzz of the door opening will be audible, as will be the bells of the lottery ticket machine. You’ll be just a few steps from Souryavong and his sister Sandy (who previously owned a Vietnamese restaurant in Markham), working in the well-organized galley kitchen.

But then, the transparency of the home-style experience here is one of its charms. You can see the pantry that the Souryavongs rely on, covet the massive mortar and pestle used to make the fragrant curry pastes from scratch. You can ask the siblings, who always wear aprons from that Bangkok cooking school, about their food. Of course, you can ask for the dishes to be made as hot as desired.

In short, the confectionery’s a good place to have Thai cooking demystified, as well as purchase lottery tickets or a newspaper.

The lightest and quickest of lunches here would be a Vietnamese Banh Mi sub ($3 0r $4 each). Souryavong makes a traditional one filled with Vietnamese sausage, ham and pâté, as well as one that substitutes his own prikpow, a pungent Thai chili paste, for thepâté. Curry chicken banh mi and baked chicken banh mi, both with chunks of well-seasoned meat, were pleasing and accessible.

Grilled Chicken sub from Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

Grilled chicken sub from Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

Vietnamese salad rolls, with shrimp or chicken, were fine and fresh.

Salad rolls at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

Salad rolls at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

But the dishes that really sing are those that display the Thai mastery of blending intense, complimentary flavours, such as Souryavong’s punchy version of tom kha soup, thick with aromatics and medium-sized shrimp or chicken.

The curries here were flavour-forward and exemplary, thanks to those made-from-scratch curry pastes.

There were distinctive touches too — green chicken curry came with round Thai eggplants, including miniatures that packed a small sour pop.

Green chicken curry at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery  (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Green chicken curry at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Red beef curry came with pumpkin or squash.

Red curry with beef at Sam's Cafe at Fairmont Confectionery

Red curry with beef at Sam’s Cafe at Fairmont Confectionery

Both curries, Souryavong said in an interview, barely deviate from his cooking school’s recipe.

If you’re lucky, the café will have Massaman curry as a daily special posted on its white board.

Massaman curry at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery.  (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Massaman curry at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery. (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

While the café’s version, Souryavong said, has been dialed down to be less chili-packed than his textbook’s version, it was richly textured and still teeming with flavour, including hints of nutmeg and cardamom. Souryavong said that his Massaman curry paste has twice as many ingredients as his other pastes, and that’s it’s a half-morning of roasting, toasting, pounding, blending and grinding to make a batch.

A focused stir-fry of chicken and basil had the fresh hit of Thai basil, and could be made with as many Thai chilis, finely minced, as a customer demands.

Chicken basil stir-fry at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

Chicken basil stir-fry at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

The bracing papaya salad, chili-flecked and nicely nudged with the funk of shrimp paste, was sharp and incendiary.

Papaya salad at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Papaya salad at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Larb, the Laotian salad, set taste buds jangling in all directions with its finely chopped roast chicken, green onion, shallots, cilantro, ground toasted rice, fish sauce and lime juice.

Laotian chicken salad at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

Laotian chicken salad at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

What’s missing at the café? A customer might wish for a wider range of meal-enders, as house-made desserts have consisted simply of small containers of coconut-cream-topped tapioca, with hidden pieces of taro or squash.

Tapioca butternut squash coconut cream dessert at Sam's Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

Tapioca butternut squash coconut cream dessert at Sam’s Cafe in Fairmont Confectionery

You might prefer an ice-cream treat from the confectionery freezer.

There’s no beer here, and no tea either — just water, or a soft drink from the corner store’s coolers.

Finally, there’s no Pad Thai served at the café. Souryavong explained that his standard four-burner range doesn’t produce sufficient heat, and he refuses to serve a “soggy” version.

“I don’t have a lot of choices, but whatever I have is what I do best,” Souryavong said. His admirable standards should be high enough to delight Thai food fans and newcomers to the cuisine alike.

phum@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Savoury pan-Indian fare at Palki

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Palki

1060 Ogilvie Rd., 613-741-9191, palkicuisineofindia.com

Open: Daily: lunch buffet after 11:30 a.m. on weekdays and starting at noon on Saturdays and Sundays; à la carte dinner after 5 p.m.

Prices: Curries in the $15 range

Access: No steps to front door or washroom, adjacent parking

Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but when I go out for Indian food, I’ve come to expect a certain mix-and-match of proteins and curry styles. As in, a menu that essentially asks: Would you like chicken/beef/lamb/shrimp in your korma/dansak/madras/vindaloo?

The menu at Palki, an Ogilvie Road restaurant that opened officially in April, does not do that. While there are standbys such as butter chicken, lamb roganjosh and tandoori chicken, other items are lesser-known in Ottawa, if not in Brampton or Mumbai.

It’s a curated affair that picks dishes from across the expanse of India, from fish fritters associated with Amritsar in the north, to a prawn curry indebted to Kerala in the south. There’s chicken Chettinad, hailing from Tamil Nadu in the southeast, and a simmered fish dish advertised as true to the cuisine of Goa, on India’s southwest coast.

I wish I were well-travelled enough to assess these dishes as “authentic” or simply “influenced.” I can share that chef Abhishek Rawat, 28, said that the Amritsar fritters, made with basa fish, are not as spicy as they would be back home, and that he keeps non-Indian palates in mind with his spice preparations and seasoning.

Fish Amritsari: Fish fillets fritters with carom and spices, at Palki (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Fish Amritsari: Fish fillets fritters with carom and spices, at Palki (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Still, my conclusion after three visits is that there’s no shortage of commendable flavours with the by-and-large well-prepared food at Palki, even if the heat has been dialed down. I have had more fiery, punchy Indian food elsewhere, as well as much milder, concession-making curries too.

Appetizers here have been good starts to meals. Potato-and-pea-filled samosas, Til Tikki (potato croquettes stuffed with lentils) and those chickpea-flour-fried fish fritters were crisply fried and well-proportioned in their mix of ingredients and flavours. The house-made mint chutney added a bracing herbal hit.

Curries both familiar and unfamiliar were approachable, richly and comfortingly textured and amply stocked with tender meat. On the milder side but still tasty were the chicken Chettinad and the Keralan prawn curry, although I expected more assertive spiciness from both. I preferred the more deeply flavoured chicken lababdar that immersed tender tandoori-broiled chicken pieces in a butter-rich, tomato-fenugreek gravy, the hearty lamb roganjosh, the lamb masala thick with caramelized onions in its sauce, or the beef kolhapuri, made with poppy and sesame seeds and dessicated coconut.

CHICKEN LABABDAR: Broiled chicken in a rich creamy tomato sauce flavoured with fenugreek. Dishes from Palki Cuisine of India, which opened seven months ago on Ogilvie Road in Ottawa.  (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Chunks of tandoori-broiled chicken star in a rich creamy tomato sauce flavoured with fenugreek at Palki. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

LAMB MASALA: Diced lamb cooked with an aromatic blend of spices.  Dishes from Palki Cuisine of India, which opened seven months ago on Ogilvie Road in Ottawa.  (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Palki’s lamb masala comforts with the thickness and sweetness of a gravy that teems with caramelised onions. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Palki's beef Kolhapuri is rich with the flavour of roasted spices and poppy seeds (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Palki’s beef Kolhapuri is rich with the flavour of roasted spices and poppy seeds (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

With all of these bowls, there was sauce that needed to be mopped up with naan. Pepper naan, flecked with bits of sweet peppers and chillies, was an interesting departure.

Vegetarians would do well with chilli paneer, an Indo-Chinese dish that took those familiar fresh cheese cubes in a sour, cayenne-rich direction, a luscious bhagare baingan (eggplant stew) and either of the lentil dishes (dal tadka and dal makhni).

CHILLY PANEER: Fresh cottage cheese cubes tossed with tangy chillies and peppers. Dishes from Palki Cuisine of India, which opened seven months ago on Ogilvie Road in Ottawa.  (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Called “chilly” paneer on Palki’s menu, this dish is anything but chilly.  Cayenne pepper and fresh cottage cheese combine well in this sour and spicy Indo-Chinese fusion dish. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

From Palki’s tandoori choices, I’ve had mixed experiences. Peshawari beef boti kebabs, while appealingly flavoured, were too tough on two occasions. Tandoori moti was a visually show-stopping platter of marinated and baked whole trout.

Tandoori Mahi consists a baked, marinated whole trout at Palki.  (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

Tandoori Mahi consisted of a baked, marinated whole trout at Palki. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

But it didn’t win me over as much as the almond-and-cardamom-flavoured chicken pieces (murgh badami tikka) or the large and succulent tandoori prawns did.

TANDOORI PLATTER: Shrimp, lamb, beef and chicken.  Dishes from Palki Cuisine of India, which opened seven months ago on Ogilvie Road in Ottawa.  (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

This platter at Palki shows off a range of its marinated meats, including Shrimp, lamb, beef and chicken. (Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen)

I was curious about Palki’s pineapple salad, but although it was an interesting tangy, acidic counterpoint to the rich curries, I’d skip it next time. But another novelty, a dessert of malpua, a North Indian pastry, topped with kesari rabri, a sauce of saffron-infused reduced milk, felt like a good way to end dinner.

Malpua dessert with Kesari Rabri (reduced milk- saffron syrup) at Palki

Malpua dessert with Kesari Rabri (reduced milk- saffron syrup) at Palki

The restaurant serves a lunch buffet, but the steam-table fare I tried had much less cachet and fresh impact than the à la carte dinner dishes.

Palki, by the way, might well be Ottawa’s biggest Indian restaurant. It’s a huge space that seats at least 150, with the furniture, wall hangings and chandeliers that would suit a banquet or party.

The second, more easterly restaurant for owner Dewan Choudhury, who also has the 12-year-old Taj Mahal near Lansdowne Park, Palki was almost vacant when I’ve dined there. If it’s the unfamiliarity of some dishes that has kept people away, I’ll suggest that those fears are unfounded. Discoveries here are worth making, although perhaps a more informative and geographically specific menu would help diners too.

phum@ottawacitzien.com

twitter.com/peterhum

Dining Out: Teatro Cafe's small plates a hit in Hintonburg

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Teatro Cafe

1233 Wellington St. W., 613-699-1020, teatrocafe.ca
Open: Daily from 11:30 to 2 p.m. and then from 5 p.m.
Prices: small plates $8 to $17
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms

Of the Ottawa area’s restaurants that have opened in the last few years and focussed on small plates, Teatro Cafe, which arrived in June in Wellington West, strikes me as having the clearest sense of raison d’etre.

It’s simply practical to have the small, open kitchen that replaced the coffee counter in the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s lobby specialize in lighter but sophisticated fare. As well, the theatregoers that would ideally frequent the place aren’t in need of a three-hour dinner of massive portions that would leave them in a food coma.

Mind you, I’m increasingly having mixed feelings about small plates. I’m not so sure that the sharing ethic that’s associated with “tapas” in North America really works, even if small plates here have grown beyond their Spanish inspirations. And lately, when I’ve seen small plates that aim for downmarket cool rather than posh-food highs, the results have usually been flops, lacking craft and luxury — not to mention too little food on the plate.

Fortunately, Teatro gets it right. Here’s my scorecard for chef Mook Sutton’s work. Over two visits, 14 of 21 items were tried, and of them five were top-tier, richly flavoured and attractively plated hits, eight were a notch below but still solid and enjoyable, and just one was a letdown.

Sutton’s Mariposa Farm-sourced duck breast ($17) and skewered bison flank steak ($15) typified small (or perhaps medium?) plates done really well. Both had tender, flavourful morsels of meat worth fighting over, and were endowed with meaningful, contrasting extra goodies (a crumble of gingerbread on the duck, sherry-soaked figs, baby carrots even some whipped feta for the bison). Every drop of the finishing sauces (a smoked duck jus and a red wine gastrique) deserved to be sopped.

Bison Skewers at Teatro Cafe'

Bison Skewers at Teatro Cafe’

Duck Breast at Teatro Cafe (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Duck Breast at Teatro Cafe (Jean Levac/ Ottawa Citizen)

Spiced chicken ($13) ate very nicely, with a crusted but moist thigh piled atop mashed potato, a bacon-bolstered slaw and barbecue sauce, flanked by a mini cornbread muffin.

Spiced Chicken at Teatro

Spiced Chicken at Teatro

A “tarte tatin” of oven-dried tomato and fiore de latte ($12), hidden under a thatch of dressed kale impressed with its surprising, savoury heft.

Tomato tarte tatin at Teatro Cafe

Tomato tarte tatin at Teatro Cafe

Raw tuna appetizers can easily slide into mediocrity, but Teatro’s is closer to a wow. The fish ($16) was served three ways — as a tartare mingled most of all with lychee, as a tightly cubed ceviche that went Southwestern with cilantro and jalapeno, and in medallions  mounded over a crab-avocado concoction. It was hard to choose a favourite from this vibrant threesome.

Tuna trio at Teatro Cafe

Tuna trio at Teatro Cafe

A plate of finely seared halibut ($16) also came with a crabby accent, but stuffed in a slightly sludgy canneloni with potato. Even though a nice corn-butter sauce boosted the dish, the portioning of the admittedly pricey fish did seem less generous compared to the more shareable proteins on other plates.

Halibut and Canneloni at Teatro Cafe

Halibut and Canneloni at Teatro Cafe

Crab and pineapple salad ($11) was an appealing, focused composition,

Crab pineapple salad at Teatro Cafe

Crab pineapple salad at Teatro Cafe

as were grilled spears of Parkdale market asparagus ($11) topped with the umami hits of parmesan and tomato jam.

 

asp

Grilled Asparagus at Teatro Cafe

Pork belly was the star in an Asian-style noodle bowl ($13), eclipsing the nearby shrimp and the broth that I would have liked more had its flavour been deeper.

Shrimp and Pork Belly noodle bowl at Teatro Cafe.

Shrimp and Pork Belly noodle bowl at Teatro Cafe.

These days, I’m usually wondering if octopus has had its moment, and the charred octopus, while smartly accompanied with shrimp, tomatoes, sweet pepper and fennel, plus a crispy chorizo accent ($13), still didn’t sway me.

Octopus and Shrimp dish at Teatro Cafe

Octopus and Shrimp dish at Teatro Cafe

At lunch, a soup of the day ($4,50), salsify with honey mushrooms served with plenty of crostini, would have been bang-on with just a hit of salt.

soup

Salsify and honey mushroom soup at Teatro Cafe

The only dish that flopped was a lunch-time fish taco plate ($13), with slices of tuna that barely registered.

Tuna Taco lunch special at Teatro Cafe

Tuna Taco lunch special at Teatro Cafe

Compared to some of the elaborate savoury plates, Teatro’s desserts were not showstoppers. Nor, I think, were they meant to be.  I did like the lightness of the yogurt cheese cake ($7), nestled in some indulgent dulce de leche, more than the less distinctive chocolate brownies ($8).

Yogurt cheesecake with dulce de leche at Teatro

Yogurt cheesecake with dulce de leche at Teatro

 

Brownie dessert at Teatro Cafe

Brownie dessert at Teatro Cafe

Ambiance-wise, Teatro, which seats about 60, is a pleasant, simple space, although it can feel like an afterthought in a lobby if you’re facing the street entrance. It’s better, I think, to face the kitchen and watch the culinary show. That said, the open kitchen’s downside is that after dinner there, I did come home smelling like I had been cooking.

As for service, it was a little uninformed for one meal and then extremely attentive and even overly intense for another.

There’s a happy medium that suits the Sutton’s commendable, affordable plates, I’m sure.

phum@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/peterhum

ottawacitizen.com/tag/dining-out

Dining Out: At Salt, a mix of wows and mehs

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Salt Dining Lounge

345A Preston Street, 613-693-0333, saltottawa.ca

Open: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily

Prices: Mains $23 to $34

Access: No steps to front door or washrooms

Wiser people than I offer this advice: Don’t dwell on what might have been. But trust me, nagging regrets are hard to dispel when a top-dollar, locally raised, dry-aged steak arrives at your table overcooked.

We were at Salt, a large, luxurious restaurant and lounge that opened on Preston Street this summer. The two of us were sharing a signature, 20-ounce O’Brien Farms striploin that had been aged in-house for a month and a half. This big-occasion main course was ordered medium rare. It arrived, pre-cut and leaking juices on to its wooden cutting board, and sadly closer to medium in its middle. The steak’s outer slices were devoid of pink.

That’s not to say that dinner was ruined, or even that the steak was bad. It had good flavour and char, but it could have been better.

This, of course, is a first-world complaint. But when the dish in question is a high-stakes steak — $90 — nothing less than deep, lingering satisfaction should do.

Overall, that’s how I feel about Salt after dining twice there this month. Yes, the best dishes wowed with striking visuals, complex preparations and deftly achieved flavours and textures. But the dishes that could have been improved upon also added up.

The decor at Salt set expectations very high. I like that the restaurant’s dining room is a lavish, see-and-be-seen place of plush seats and banquettes, imposing tables set with stemware, crushed velvet curtains and hard-bound menus. This expansive space, and the suave, piano-equipped lounge near Salt’s entrance, have “night on the town” written all over them.

Meanwhile, black-clad servers set the proper classy tone. We’ve appreciated thoughtful gestures too — an offer of blankets in case we found the room too cold, an Asian soup spoon filled with chili-spiked salt, proactively brought to a guest who expressed a fondness for heat.

My only misgivings about Salt’s ambience is that the room can grow too dark to fully appreciate the visual dazzling from chef Ryan Edwards, 36, who was previously at Taylor’s on Bank Street and who will compete in Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competition next month.

Edwards has the admittedly difficult task of bringing fine-dining, farm-to-table, and at times technique-rich flair to a restaurant that can pack 120 guests indoors plus at least that many on its patio, when the weather allows.

Chef Ryan Edwards of Salt Restaurant And Lounge on Preston Street (Wayne Cuddington/Ottawa Citizen)

Chef Ryan Edwards of Salt Restaurant And Lounge on Preston Street (Wayne Cuddington/Ottawa Citizen)

His menu finds him making multiple uses of many components, so that black cod, scallops or pork belly appear as appetizers or main courses. Made-in-house accents such as smoked tomato ketchup, apple mostarda and ginger crisps tantalize.

Among the dishes that won us over were two meticulously made salads. Edwards’ beet salad ($13) takes the humdrum out of that common menu choice, supporting the usual roasted and pickled beets with discs of gelatin-treated goat-cheese panna cotta, beet purée and granola.

Beet salad at Salt

Beet salad at Salt

Even better was the root vegetable salad ($13), a generous combination of not only confit squash and morsels of celeriac, parsnip and charred carrot, but also crisp pancetta and parmesan tuiles. A complex, nutty sorrel and brown-butter vinaigrette was a winner.

Root vegetable salad at Salt

Root vegetable salad at Salt

Less complicated but well executed were the chicken liver mousse on toast ($9), which boasted good clean flavour and consistency, and a scallop crudo adorned with bits of pistachio and smoked tomato water ($11) which, although limited to just a few bites, had the quality and complexity it needed.

Chicken liver on toast at Salt

Chicken liver on toast at Salt

From-    Peter Hum -peterhum88-rogers.com- To-      Photo -ott- Subject- FOOD Sent-    Thursday- October 09- 2014 6-01 PM  Scallop Crudo at Salt- pic by Peter Hum  Ottawa Citizen Photo Email

Scallop Crudo at Salt

Rillettes of smoked black cod ($13) was a loose, liquidy concoction. I’d like to eat it again, although I’d prefer a larger, less salty portion. (Despite the restaurant’s name, this was the only dish that was too salty.)

Black cod rillettes at Salt

Black cod rillettes at Salt

With Salt’s apple salad ($14), the titular ingredient was overshadowed by an enjoyable slab of pork belly and assertive kimchi purée.

Fall apple salad at Salt.

Fall apple salad at Salt.

Of four non-steak mains that I’ve sampled, lobster spaghetti ($25), rich with shellfish meat and perked with chili, stood out as a solid success.

Lobster spaghetti at Salt

Lobster spaghetti at Salt

With two other mains, Edwards offered pork “four ways” and duck “three ways” respectively. These ambitious dishes pay off if a kitchen has the chops make different cuts sing in harmony. But the challenge is that one piece of pork or duck can outshine the rest, generating disappointment and maybe the feeling that pork or duck “one way” would have been better.

The variations on Mariposa duck ($32) was the better of the two, with a spot-on seared breast. As for confit duck leg, Edwards incorporated morsels of it in a cube of deep-fried polenta. Foie gras appeared as an accent, à la David Chang, in the form of small splashes of shaved frozen torchon.

With the Mariposa pork “nose to tail” plate ($34), I thought very highly of its prosciutto-wrapped tenderloin, and was glad that the main’s pork belly was as good as the specimen on the apple salad. But I was less persuaded by a nugget of overly gelatinous confit cheek and I could have done without the deep-fried bit of pig tail, even if it was novel and nicely seasoned.

Mariposa Pork "nose to tail" three ways, at Salt.

Mariposa Pork “nose to tail” four ways, at Salt.

With a black cod main course ($30), Edwards nodded to Asia, adding udon noodles, shiitakes and bok choy to a bowl of smoked dashi broth, beneath the serving of pan-seared fish. But the broth struck me as over-smoked, in particular after several spoonfuls, and the rest of the dish felt ordinary.

Pan-seared sablefish in smoked dashi broth with udon at Salt.

Pan-seared sablefish in smoked dashi broth with udon at Salt.

But if Salt’s mains have been a little uneven, desserts ($12) were strong and even pleasantly provocative finishes. A deconstructed abstraction of tiramisu included chocolate espresso panna cotta, coffee ice cream, meringue drops and a scattering of coffee “soil,” among other things.

Deconstructed tiramisu at Salt

Deconstructed tiramisu at Salt

We liked even more the outré, sweet-meets-savoury melange of “aerated” sponge cake with dehydrated fennel chips, fennel jam and a special fennel-meets-brown-butter ice cream.

Aerated sponge cake with fennel brown butter ice cream at Salt

Aerated sponge cake with fennel brown butter ice cream at Salt

I’m left, then, with “ifs.” If only I’d sent back the steak (Salt co-owner Rod Scribner later told me he would have welcomed the return). If only we had chosen short ribs and scallops rather than that meaty splurge, and received perfection. If only every dish was as striking as those desserts.

After speaking to Scribner and Edwards, I feel that Salt has the ambition and smarts to hit very high standards plate after plate. But I haven’t yet had that experience, and it will take a future visit to see if the unevenness disappears.

phum@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/peterhum

ottawacitizen.com/tag/dining-out

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