The Albion Rooms
33 Nicholas St. (inside the Novotel Ottawa hotel), 613-760-4771, thealbionrooms.com
Open: Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Prices: Small plates $9 to $15, mains $20 to $36
Access: Steps to the new Heritage Room dining area 

The Albion Rooms recently got considerably roomier.

When the Novotel Ottawa’s latest restaurant opened almost four years ago, it was a cluster of smaller spaces a stone’s throw from the lobby, including a cosy bar-side lounge, a bright patio and a tucked-away dining room. But in late March, the hotel added, just a few steps behind and up from the bar, a expansive 86-seat dining room that it calls the Heritage Room Gastropub. It’s a handsome, clubby place with a view of chef Jesse Bell’s kitchen, and its woody tables, plush banquettes and leather chairs markedly raise the comfort level beyond what the Albion Rooms had provided.

Albion Rooms Executive Chef Jesse Bell. March 23,2017.

With the dining room’s opening, Bell launched a new menu that expands the kitchen’s offerings from about 15 to 20 items, adding a few more main courses while retaining a farm-to-table focus. All of the changes represent a chance to step up for Bell, who has cooked at the Albion Rooms since its first day, and who was promoted from sous chef to executive chef when his predecessor, Stephen La Salle, moved almost a year ago to the Andaz Ottawa ByWard Market boutique hotel.

I liked quite a bit what La Salle served when I reviewed the Albion Rooms in July 2013. I’ve liked Bell’s dishes during several visits, although some items were executed better than others, and I think that the service lagged behind the food.

Let’s start with the starters that the Albion Rooms did impeccably, in the past and the present. Charcuterie here was a solid choice four years ago, and my recent sampling was even better. While I haven’t tried all eight of the available meats, the house-made pork-and-duck terrine, foie gras torchon and boar rillettes ($27 for three meats) were intensely satisfying and generously supported by superior pickled veg, dried fruit, perky condiments and assorted seeds. As charcuterie boards go, the Albion Rooms serves one of the city’s best.

Charcuterie board at the Albion Rooms

Another hold-over from back in the day is the Scotch egg ($13), a guilty pleasure that appealed with its still-runny yolk, crisp and savoury chorizo coating and potent smoked paprika aioli. 

Scotch egg at the Albion Rooms

Of the new appetizers, mushrooms on toast ($14), nicely offset by kale pesto, was a big winner. Elk tartare ($15) was sumptuous and interesting, spiked as it was with pickled blueberries and joined by molten egg yolk.

Mushrooms on toast at the Albion Rooms

Elk tartare at the Albion Rooms

The vegetarian-friendly caramelized leek appetizer ($12) had nice hits of savouriness, bitterness and saltiness going for it, but was not as bold as other appetizers. Grilled mackerel ($13) were tasty, although the sea asparagus with them were limp and overcooked. 

Leeks appetizer, and mackerel appetizer at the Albion Rooms

The mains here have been hit and miss.

We’ve no complaints at all for the sturdy Enright Cattle ribeye steak topped with horseradish butter ($36), which was a massive piece of meat with good juiciness, charring and character. Oversized, “thrice-cooked” chips were textural treats and tasty too. Two similarly pleasing staples were the fish and chips ($19), which paired its cod with an irresistible oyster-spiked tartar sauce, and the elk burger ($19), which was as good as it was hearty and drippy.

Enright Cattle ribeye steak at the Albion Rooms

Fish and chips at the Albion Rooms

Of two fancier and pricier seafood choices, I much preferred the “West Coast seafood boil” ($32), even if its name was arguably a bit of a stretch. More of an assemblage than a seafood boil, the bowl’s star was an ample portion of blackened tuna, with Manila clams, toothsome butter-poached shrimp and chunks of punchy chorizo as flanking proteins that swam with charred cippolinis in a likeable vegetable stock.

West Coast seafood boil at the Albion Rooms

Seared ling cod ($32), though, was overcooked on a plate that otherwise had interesting items going for it. On another promising plate, duck confit ($26) also lacked for moistness.

Crispy Ling Cod at the Albion Rooms

Duck confit at the Albion Rooms

The sous-vide short rib ($32) was massive and tender, but I wished for more cooked-in flavour. Of its accompaniments, the carrots were too crunchy. A pasta carbonara had the right indulgent feel to it, but could have been more exciting in terms of flavour. 

Short rib at the Albion Rooms

Pasta Carbonara at the Albion Rooms

Of the desserts (all $6), dark chocolate panna cotta hit the spot, while a piece of ginger cake seemed just a bit chalky in terms of its texture.

Chocolate panna cotta at the Albion Rooms

The wine list consists of about two dozen bottles by and large in the $50 to $60 range, with by-the-glass prices $13 or $14. I’ve been more tempted by the local craft beers on tap, and by the interesting signature cocktails.

If anything needs an immediate tweak at the Albion Rooms, I’d say it’s the service, which over four visits seemed a little too run-of-the-mill, inattentive, short on details regarding dishes and so on for a restaurant where many mains are in excess of $30.

A little bit more training on the front-of-house side would make me think that the Albion Rooms was not just bigger, but better too.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine
1091 Bank St., 613-730-5672, antipazzo.com
Open: weekday lunches 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., dinners nightly from 5 to 10 p.m.
Prices: antipasti $4 to $19, pastas $14 to $19, mains $21 to $32
Access: small step to front door

When Taylor’s Genuine Food and Wine Bar closed in January, a colleague who lives down the street got her hopes up regarding its successor.

“The neighbourhood has pubs coming out of its ears,” she told me. What Old Ottawa South needed, she said, was a slightly fancier but still affordable place — Taylor’s was fine, if pricey — where she could treat a houseguest to a nice, memorable meal out.

In the last week, I’ve been twice to Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine, which in early March replaced Taylor’s at Bank Street and Sunnyside Avenue, and it goes a way toward satisfying my colleague and me as a go-to neighbourhood option. But there’s room for improvements too.

The most attractive and value-rich items, I’ve found, were usually smaller and simpler, pleasingly accompanied with a glass of something from Antipazzo’s well-stocked and informative wine list. Indeed, oenophiles should be pleased that Antipazzo’s owner and sommelier, Tony Irace, commendably makes all of his wines, from very affordable Ontario-made choices that Irace buys by the keg to deluxe, splurge-worthy Italian bottles, available as three- and five-ounce pours.

But we’ve also been somewhat let down — not drastically, but repeatedly — by some of the more ambitious dishes from Antipazzo’s open, from-scratch kitchen, which is helmed by chef Christopher St. Aubin, who has cooked at Salt Dining and Lounge and before that, at Taylor’s itself, under its namesake owner-chef John Taylor.

The 10 items that I’ve tried from Antipazzo’s menus have been a mix of the almost wowing and more pedestrian.

Meals have gotten off on the right foot with complimentary house-made bread dipped in peppery olive oil or the sweeter alternative of the kitchen’s pear-citrus vinaigrette.

House-made bread with olive oil and pear-citrus vinaigrette at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

After that, several of Antipazzo’s smaller plates made us happy. The salad ($9) of slow-roasted tomatoes that burst with warmth and flavour, pesto and balsamic-drizzled cheese, was a winner with every bite, as were crostini ($9) topped with rich, unctuous duck mousse or eggplant spread and Grey Owl goat’s cheese. Expertly grilled vegetables ($7) were optimally textured and generously portioned, and Irace bolstered them table-side with a drizzle of artisanal balsamic. Tuna crudo ($19), which benefitted from a citrus cure, the bite of pickled mustard seeds, and a spoon of lemony smoked salt, went down very easily, although it did seem, like a few other dishes, a touch over-priced. 

Roasted tomato salad at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Crostini with duck mousse and eggplant mousse with Grey Owl cheese at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Grilled vegetables at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Tuna crudo at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

The only starter that did little for us was an arancino (deep-fried rice ball, studded with cured meat and topped with tomato sauce) whose flavours and heaviness disappointed.  

Arancino at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Of five pastas, I can weigh in on two. Well-made spaghetti carbonara, garnished with a raw quail egg, ($12 at lunch, or $14/$18 at dinner) provided the necessary indulgent satisfactions. We were glad to see tagliatelle with duck ragu ($14/$18 at dinner) on the menu, but the house-made, al dente noodles impressed more than the sauce, which seemed to want for more brightness, herbaceousness or complexity. 

Spaghetti carbonarra at Antipazzo

Duck tagliatelle at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

The best main course that hit our table was a seared piece of Arctic char ($28). While this daily special might not have been the first piece of fish you’d think of when you think of Italy, it was moist and crisp-skinned, and its accompanying polenta was rich and creamy. On another plate, the helping of polenta outshone the bison osso buco ($32) which, while flavourful, could have been more tender. At lunch, wild boar stew ($14, $23 at dinner) had well-developed flavour but was a touch too salty, and this time, the too-cool polenta lacked creaminess. 

Arctic char at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Bison osso buco at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Wild boar stew with polenta at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

To its credit, Antipazzo offered a half-dozen or so desserts, but our full bellies allowed us to sample just two — a lemon tart that could have dialed down its sweetness a bit and a pear crumble that was quite tasty but looked like it had been dropped on the plate.

Lemon tart at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

Pear crumble at Antipazzo Italian Plates and Wine

In general, the plating of Antipazzo’s more involved dishes could have been more clean and elegant, especially in keeping with the white tablecloths and Irace’s polished but friendly demeanour.

Antipazzo is a narrow space that holds 30 or so people at a front section, a line of tables along a wall and a bar that harkens back to the coffee shop that predated Taylor’s. The smells of a working kitchen do waft into the dining area now and again. A grey slate wall is a classy touch, and otherwise white walls with framed wine labels stand out. The music here could have been better and quieter.

“I want to like it,” my colleague said of Antipazzo after we’d eaten there. But she’ll withhold her full endorsement until the meals here are as striking as the wines. I’d agree that Irace and his team have this goal to shoot for. 

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Burrito Sensei
199 Bank St., 613-680-0802, burritosensei.com
Open: Monday to Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 9 pm., closed Sunday
Prices: burritos and bowls $10.95 to $14.50
Access: one step to front door

When is a burrito not a burrito? It doesn’t take a degree in Mexican gastronomy to have suspicions about the “burritos” served at Burrito Sensei on Bank Street, which can be made with raw fish wrapped in rice, which is in turn wrapped in seaweed.

Clearly, what’s served at this fast casual Centretown eatery — which opened in early March where Vetta, and before that, Cafe Paradiso, had been — is Asian fusion fare that’s Mexican only in terms of marketing. The sushi rolls here are burrito-sized — which is to say, massive — and they’re likely inspired by similar foodstuffs in Toronto, Vancouver and beyond. You could also think of them as variations on what’s known as temaki sushi, or hand rolls, in Japan, which, if you follow the logic of Burrito Sensei’s naming, could be sold in Centretown at a place called Fish-filled Ice Cream Cone Sensei. 

But enough snark. In the last week, I’ve had three lunches at the unique but seemingly franchise-ready Burrito Sensei, and I’ve good and less good things to report about the place, which can be packed at peak hours with customers lining up to place orders that not long after are brought to tables once an assembly team has put them together. (Burrito Sensei’s food can also ordered to go, and printable order forms at the restaurant’s website even expedite the process.)

In addition to the sushi burritos, the restaurant also serves poke bowls, astutely leaping on the spreading enthusiasm for the raw fish salads (poke) that originated in Hawaii but in recent years have gone global. A few Japanese side dishes complete the menu.

Of those snacks, we preferred the savoury, well-sauced takoyaki (battered balls with bits of octopus inside, eight for $6.95), complete with garnish of quivering bonito flakes, even if the balls were a little too molten inside. More bland were the sweet potato croquettes (five for $5.95), that really needed their citrus-perked mayo. 

Sweet potato croquettes at Burrito Sensei

Of seven sushi burritos, we thought best of the fish-based offerings, which were also more expensive by a few dollars than those made with pork, chicken, tofu or sweet potato.

All were very filling and well-designed with a diverse, balanced set of admirably fresh ingredients joining generous portions of fish and well-seasoned, properly textured rice. For example, the “fired up salmon” burrito ($13.50) featured crisp-skinned cooked fish bolstered by more of that citrusy yuzu mayo and the punch of dill, along with green onions, seared tomato, field greens and avocado. The raw salmon burrito ($13.50), made with kale, red cabbage, tobiko and bits of tangerine, was also well-received.

“Fired up salmon” sushi burrito with a side order of edamame at Burrito Sensei

Salmon sushi burrito at Burrito Sensei

I thought less of a chicken burrito ($10.50) that arrived during a jam-packed lunch after some delay, and with bitter, over-charred chicken. My pals who tried the pork burritos ($10.50) were happier with them, although the slices of pork cutlet in one case were definitely dry, and in another, they were overly cool and seemed as if they had been sitting around a while before the burrito was assembled.

Miso chicken sushi burrito at Burrito Sensei

Pork Jab Burrito at Burrito Sensei

Some closing thoughts on sushi burritos: they’re weren’t easy to eat gracefully. “It’s not date food,” said one friend. Basically, chewy seaweed wrapping and corn tortillas are not interchangeable, and it’s for a reason that the Japanese divide their sushi rolls into bite-sized pieces.

I’m a bigger fan of the poke bowls here, which combine the popular Hawaiian raw-fish dish with today’s trendy rice bowls.

Sentimentality might be factor — I’ve been blessed to eat servings of poke in Hawaii, where even assertively dressed, supermarket-grade poke, available pre-made and in bulk, made me happy.

Burrito’s Sensei tuna poke bowl ($14.50) was enjoyable in its own right, with a buzz of flavour and texture contrasts thanks to chopped fish mingling with cubes of mango, a scattering of crunchy fried panko, avocado, cilantro and fresh greens. 

Tuna poke bowl with a side order of takoyaki at Burrito Sensei

Salmon poke bowl with wakame salad at Burrito Sensei

It did occur to me that the same dish with more acidity and, indeed, more tuna, would have been an improvement. Kudos, then, to Burrito Sensei for accommodating custom-made orders that can pull together any protein (available, for that matter, in double-sized portions) with all kinds of toppings, spices, sauces and dressings. 

I look forward to designing a poke bowl with twice as much tuna, lots of yuzu vinaigrette, and furikake (a seasoning mix of sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt, and more.

The occasionally boomy restaurant — a minimalist space of dark, reclaimed wood walls, miniature sake barrels and bottles and Edison lights — is licensed, and serves beer from the taps of a bar at the back of its main dining room. Meanwhile, canned soft drinks and bottled water are kept by the cash. There are no desserts available.

Within Ottawa’s current wave of cheap and cheerful Asian eateries, Burrito Sensei may be the least authentic but the most in sync with the cravings of on-the-go sushi fans. I don’t think the food here currently points to sensei-level mastery, but one can always hope.

Correction: Last week’s review mistakenly referred to Christopher St. Aubin as the chef at Antipazzo. He was with the Old Ottawa South restaurant in early March when it opened, but had left it by the time I ate there in early May.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Ka Familia

3570 Strandherd Dr., Unit 1, 613-843-0555, kafamilia.ca
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 10 p.m.
Prices: main courses $16 to $26
Access: No steps to front door, washrooms

Take it from me — if you’ve not had pork and pigs blood stew before, it can be difficult to discern if the dish has been well and authentically made.

That was my challenge following a dinner last week at Ka Familia, which opened in April, bringing what it calls “Filipino fusion” fare to a strip mall in Barrhaven. 

The western suburb needs more diverse dining-out choices and Ka Familia, which is one of just a small handful of Ottawa businesses to offer Filipino food certainly qualifies.

But back to that stew. In the Philippines, it’s called dinuguan, and it can consist of not just pork meat but offal too, cooked in pig’s blood, vinegar and spices. In Barrhaven, Ka Familia’s dinuguan ($18), which was a dinner special during my two visits this month, had the evident, but not overpowering, minerally tang of its signature ingredient that bathed its meat and welcome pieces of crackling. However, the more daunting bits of the pig had been left out, and it seemed that the same was true with respect to sourness and heat, although some sliced chilis adorned the stew.

Dinuguan (pork and pig blood stew) at Ka Familia

With that dish alone, Ka Familia ticks off the box for adventurous dining. So, too, does dinakdakan, this week’s special, a nose-to-tail dish par excellence that combines pig’s ears, snout and brain and more.

Don’t let these formidable dishes scare you off, though. While they may cater most of all to the Filipino expats I’ve seen at Ka Familia, other menu items struck me as quite subdued and approachable renditions and variations on the staple dishes from the homeland of chef and owner Dominador Rosete, who is opening his first restaurant in Canada.

If anything, I wondered if the new eatery was serving toned-down versions of Filipino dishes, either in the name of culinary fusion, or perhaps to make dishes more appealing to suburban diners who’ve never eaten in Manila. Generally, I would have welcomed more complexity to the flavours here. 

Rosete’s daughter, Sophia, who manages Ka Familia’s dining room, told me this week that her family is from the north of the Philippines, and that the food there skews more to the sweet side than do the frequently more sour dishes of the south.

Of five appetizers that we tried, the ones that were clearly tops involved pork. Perhaps the best dish that we had at Ka Familia was its starter of stubby, bacon-wrapped longanisa sausages ($9) that sat on puddles of sweet-sour corn relish. The dish delivered big and contrasting flavours. Pork belly skewers ($9) were savoury-sweet indulgences and lumpia (deep-fried rolls made with ground pork, $9) were well-made and not oily.

Longanisa sausages at Ka Familia

Pork belly skewers at Ka Familia

Lumpia rolls at Ka Familia

Shrimp with mango slaw ($10) did let us down, though, with shrimp that very much lacked flavour and seasoning. Tuna tataki ($13) needed salt or acid or both to wake it up.

Shrimp and mango slaw at Ka Familia 

Tuna tataki at Ka Familia

Pancit, the national noodle stir-fry of the Philippines, involved thick egg noodles, soy sauce, julienned vegetables, and if you’ve chosen best, crackling-enhanced pork rather than chicken or tofu ($16). Pancit also appeared as the starchy accompaniment beneath an alright piece of trout ($22) and smokey-sweet oven-baked ribs ($22) that were topped with an interesting mango salsa but would have been more enjoyable with a bit more spice and a little less chewiness.

Pancit noodles at Ka Familia

Trout on pancit at Ka Familia

Ribs on pancit at Ka Familia

Of two homey, simple dishes of stewed meat, we preferred the pork adobo ($18) over the tomatoe-y beef mechado ($17) because it was more tender and interesting.

Pork Adobo at Ka Familia

Beef Mechado at Ka Familia

Of the house-made desserts, a toasty and comforting coconut-y slab of glutinous rice sticky pudding ($5) was our favourite. “That recipe’s been in my family for hundreds of years,” Sophia Rosete told me. It made a better impression than the more standard cappuccino or dulce de leche-topped cakes ($7). A slice of cassava cake ($7) did the least for us, and had a tinge of a odd, funky flavour to it.

Sticky rice pudding at Ka Familia

Dulce de leche-topped cake at Ka Familia

Cassava cake at Ka Familia

Located where the Mediterranean restaurant Casa de Gustos had been, Ka Familia seats about 60 at dark wood tables, some nestled in blue booths, underneath lights mounted in colanders. There’s patio space in front of the restaurant and a bar inside. 

In a back corner of the dining room, there’s a pizza oven held over from the previous tenant, but it was out of commission when I visited. We were unable to sample any of the menu’s fusion-style pizzas, which tempted us with ingredients such as pork adobo, loganisa sausage, sun-dried mango and beef tapa. The last preparation cures its meat in soy and the juice of calamansi, a citrus fruit.

One of Ka Familia’s personable, forthright servers told us that the pizza oven might never be brought into service, as having one of the kitchen’s two staffers working outside of it would be too much of a stretch.

It will be a bit of a trick, I think, for this affordable and likeable family-run restaurant to find a groove that will appeal equally to Filipino expats, culinary tourists and less adventurous diners. But all three constituencies should wish Ka Familia well.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Jambo Restaurant
69 Kempster Ave., 613-726-9393, jamborestaurant.com
Open: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Prices: mains $8.99 to $18.49
Access: one small step to entrance

For more than two decades, regulars flocked to the modest standalone restaurant at 69 Kempster Ave. in Ottawa’s west end for Hsiao Foo Huang’s laksa. The spicy soup of chicken, shrimp and noodles was a cornerstone on the menu of the Singapore Restaurant, which Huang and her husband, Ah Bah Lim, operated until they retired last August.

The following month, the Singapore, Ottawa’s only Malaysian-Chinese restaurant, became Jambo, Ottawa’s only Kenyan restaurant.

In May, I made three visits to Jambo — which in the Swahili language is used as a greeting — hoping that there would be an item as engrossing as Singapore’s laksa.

The best dish I’ve had at this affordable, no-frills place of about 44 seats was its most expensive item, a platter of grilled goat ($18.49) that teemed with deliciously seasoned, bone-in pieces of tender meat. If there’s a better serving of goat in Ottawa than what I had at that lunch, someone needs to point it out to me.

Grilled goat at jambo Restaurant

However, the other dishes I’ve sampled were not as impressive. We tried other grilled items — barbecue chicken ($11.99), whole tilapia ($14.99), bone-in beef ($14.49) and a chicken brochette ($14.99) — and that listing is in descending order of tastiness. None was quite as moist as that goat was, with the beef and the brochette being the least tender. And while the barbecue chicken and the beef in particular satisfied flavour-wise, the brochette was definitely more ho-hum, and too dry to boot.

Barbecue chicken with chapati at Jambo Restaurant

Grilled tilapia at Jambo Restaurant

Grilled beef at jambo, Restaurant

Chicken brochette at jambo Restaurant

Jambo also serves some stewed items. There was a beef stew ($12.99) that seemed absolutely standard to me, but which arrived at the table cold and required reheating. I’ve also tried the chicken curry ($11.99), which was more tomato-y and salty than curried, and contained a few well-cooked pieces of bone-in meat. Vegetarians could opt for Jambo’s simple but robust bowls of either corn with beans ($10.99) or lentils or beans ($7.99). But if flavours are the top priority, I’d opt for something grilled and cross my fingers that it’s not overcooked.

Beef stew with chapati and greens at Jambo Restaurant

Chicken curry at Jambo restaurant

Corn and bean stew at jambo Restaurant

While I’ve frequently wished that the stars of Jambo’s plates were better, more generally I’ve liked the range of accompaniments, including chapati (the unleavened flatbreads that Indian migrants brought to Kenya), mounds of ugali (mashed maize flour) whose blandness was mitigated by a dollop of a salsa-like, seemingly store-brought sauce, sukuma wiki (braised, salty kale), and especially kachumbari (an acidic, chili-powered relish of onions and tomatoes). These unpretentious but authentic items made our meals more interesting. 

Meanwhile, our visits were more pleasant thanks to the genial hospitality of Jambo’s chef, Pacificah Moginda, who also doubled as our server. During one visit, she treated us to some crisp, un-oily vegetable samosas ($1.99 each), served with Tabasco sauce on the side, that hit the spot. Jambo’s other appetizer, some chicken wings ($9.95 for 10), served at another meal with a sweet, perhaps tamarind-based sauce, were tasty, but alas, too dry.

An order of samosas at Jambo Restaurant

Chicken wings at Jambo Restaurant

As for ambience, the restaurant features Kenyan art on the walls, Afro-beat music on the sound system and, during our last two visits, CNN dispensing the latest Trump news on the TV. One aspect of the restaurant’s appearance that needs to be addressed is the garbage storage in the parking lot behind it, which makes a bad first impression.

Dessert options appeared to be limited. In response to our query, Moginda made us a plate of mandazi ($8.99) to order, which were doughnut-like but not sweet. I see on the web that mandazi can be sweetened, sometimes with coconut or coconut milk, and spiced, which would be my preference.

Mandazi at jambo Restaurant

The restaurant is licensed, and among its bar offerings are big bottles of Tusker ($5.99), a malty, easy-drinking Kenyan lager. Spiced teas ($2.99) made with imported Kenyan Ketepa Pride tea are also available, and Kenyan coffee, we were told, should be available this summer.

Jambo has been very quiet during each of my visits, with just a take-out client or one other small table keeping Moginda busy. The restaurant doesn’t have the across-the-board quality or appeal of its predecessor — at least not yet — but for East African expats it does serve a need, and if the grilled fare can become a little more consistent, it could deserve a larger, wider audience, too. 

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Amberwood Lounge & Eatery
54 Springbrook Dr., Stittsville, 613-831-2442, aleottawa.ca
Open: Weekdays 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Prices: mains $18 to $34
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms

From what I’ve seen, Jason Potvin, the chef at the Amberwood Lounge & Eatery in Stittsville, knows how to write an alluring menu to tempt all kinds of eaters.

For trendier palates, the signifiers of cosmopolitan culinary savvy pop out, from tuna poke (Hawaii’s raw-fish salad) to halloumi (the squeaky, salty Cypriot cheese that takes so well to the grill) to kimchi, which is supposed to add its funky tang to ALE’s meatloaf and pork chop. The restaurant inside the Amberwood Golf and Country Club, which has been open since April 2016, also offers less worldly snacks to the post-golf crowd. For main courses, older or less adventurous diners might also favour a steak, burger or pork chop. 

But given what I’ve eaten during my three visits, I wish that ALE’s kitchen had generally done a better job and turned out better-tasting and even better-looking food. Granted, its prices for main courses — think short ribs or lamb shanks for under $25 — were significantly cheaper than comparable dishes in downtown Ottawa. But those cheaper plates were also not nearly as well-made or enjoyable. 

I first visited ALE in January. Its winter menu was in effect, and I’ll be brief in discussing dishes that are no longer available. There was a lamb shank, with an undistinguished sauce that hid so-so, flavour-deprived meat. No more impressive was the wan, boneless short rib. A sirloin steak was fine, but its shiny, thickened brown sauce, mashed potatoes and a massive, breaded, deep-fried mushroom appealed less. Some candied bacon garnish was better than the pedestrian maple-mustard salmon and rice that it came with. 

Lamb shank at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Short rib at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery-

Baseball sirloin steak with deep-fried portobello mushroom at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Maple-mustard salmon with candied bacon at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

What worked much better for us were most items on a platter of snacks and starters — more simple indulgences such as plump, tender shrimp, bites of sausage wrapped in glazed bacon, more of that candied bacon and a small bowl of mussels in a lightly garlicky cream sauce. The only flops on the platter were some crab spring rolls that were oily and very short on crab. 

Sharing platter of appetizers at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery in Stittsville

Hardly enthused, I didn’t return to Amberwood until last week. Then, the summer menu raised hopes but the execution of dishes too often left something to be desired.

ALE’s poke, with its chopped raw tuna, avocado and tomato, was not bad, but the mix definitely needed the citrus-soy dressing on the side, which even then could have been brighter and more punchy. Halloumi arrived deep-fried rather than simply grilled, which did not strike us as an improvement. Seafood chowder featured a nicely cooked shrimp dangling from its rim, but its mussels tasted strong and fishy, its broth was neither rich nor pleasant and its heft came from an excess of tasteless crab-stick shards.  

Tuna poke at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Halloumi at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Seafood chowder at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

A sirloin steak had a bit of liveriness to it, and its “crispy mushrooms” were all crunch and very little mushroom. Fries on the side were just OK, but better than lumpy mashed potatoes had been in January. A pork chop was admirably hefty, but the Asian chili glaze left nothing but a little bitterness to the meat and the so-called kimchi-mango salsa, regardless of whether it was a desirable combination, was all mango, no kimchi.

Sirloin topped with red pepper, gorgonzola and “crispy” mushrooms at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Pork chop with mango salsa at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Fish and seafood on the summer menu are mix-and-match affairs. You pick an item, choose how it’s to be cooked and how it’s to be sauced. I ordered grilled shrimp with a pineapple-Szechuan sauce. The shrimp were on the overcooked side, and their sauce was, if anything, simply sweet, and not very pineapple-y and definitely not potently spicy or even tingly as Szechuan-flavoured things ought to be.

Shrimp with pineapple Szechuan sauce at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

For all of the condiments and toppings that graced the proteins at ALE, I came to wish simply for meats that were juicy and tasted of themselves and simple seasoning.  

My last meal at ALE was a lunch. Then, the restaurant was at its most busy, almost filled seemingly with golfers and Stittsville neighbours alike. (The restaurant is open to all, not just to club members.)

Our servers then had a bit more snap and attentiveness to them, but the food again was so-so at best. The so-called shrimp ceviche Cobb salad was nicely sized and had a range of well-combined ingredients including avocado, egg, goat cheese and arugula, although it lacked a Cobb salad’s usual orderliness. It also surprised with wee shrimp that had none of a ceviche’s sharp, acidic brightness. The crispy cod was oily. 

Shrimp ceviche Cobb salad at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Crispy Cod and potato-leek soup at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Desserts — most were available both in winter and now — were unremarkable. S’Mores Dip (toasted marshmallows and graham crackers served with melted chocolate, and nothing more) was a low-effort dessert. While a big, chili-spiked brownie showed off more cooking, it was devoid of heat. A crepe filled with apple crisp seemed old, cold and tired. The plating of these and other dishes seemed thrown-together and virtually finesse-free. 

S’mores Dip at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery.

Chili Brownie at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery

Apple crisp crepe at Amberwood Lounge and Eatery- pix by Peter Hum Ottawa Citizen Photo Email

True to its acronym, ALE does rotate local craft beers onto taps. Given the shortcomings I’ve experienced, I’d suggest that taking in the view with some pints plus some shareable snacks or a salad might be the best way to go here.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Petit Peru
152 Montcalm St., Gatineau (Hull sector), 819-205-6231, petitperu.com
Open: Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: mains under $20
Access: no stairs

“I’ve never tried Peruvian food,” a pal said. That was all the excuse I needed to whisk him across the Chaudière Bridge to the Hull side for lunch at Petit Peru.

One of just a few Ottawa-area businesses that serves Peruvian fare, the restaurant has been something of a nomad since it opened a few years ago. Owner Jorge Bahamonde first served food to a few tables inside his grocery store, L’ Epicerie Petit Peru on St-Raymond Boulevard in Hull. In June 2014, he opened Petit Peru Resto Bar in a space that he shared with a ByWard Market dance club. The first true stand-alone Petit Peru opened some time later in Chinatown in a no-frills space. That eatery closed, and about two months ago, Bahamonde took over a former café on Montcalm Street in Hull. This latest location is Petit Peru at its most inviting.

It’s a narrow room that seats about 40, with a sloping ceiling, brick wall and tile floors. Two TVs show Latin American music videos at a reasonable volume. There’s a bar along one side. Petit Peru doesn’t have its liquor licence yet, but plans to get it, perhaps by the end of the month.

For me, the gateway item to Peruvian food as Petit Peru serves it is its leche de tigre, a tall glass filled with a citrusy, chili-spiked, perfectly seasoned broth that also relies on the concentrated marinade used to make ceviche, plus chunks of raw tilapia that have been effectively “cooked” by being steeped in that marinade. Depending on who you talk to, leche de tigre is also either an aphrodisiac or a hangover cure. It’s sufficient for me that it’s simply one of the top reasons to visit Petit Peru. My friend, the Peruvian-food newbie, felt the same way.

A trio of sauces and leche de tigre at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

The larger-portioned and more easily shared ceviches — which can feature simply tilapia or that fish with assorted shellfish and squid and be adorned with kernels of Peruvian corn, cooked two ways — have been likeable and vivid, if not as mouth-pleasing and punchy as leche de tigre. From June 22 to 26, Petit Peru will be serving all-you-can-eat ceviche, which strikes me as the best raw deal in the region.

Also representing Peru well at Bahamonde’s eatery were its causas — cold terrines that stacked tuna or beef or crab on top of avocado and smooth, seasoned, mashed potatoes. The noble spud, a star of Peruvian cooking, was also well-treated in papa rellena, an orb of crusted mashed potato stuffed with ground beef, onions, garlic raisins and hard-boiled egg.

Tres causas (crab, beef and tuna) at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

Papa rellena at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

Empanadas here, whether stuffed with well-seasoned beef or chicken, have been consistently fine, especially with a hit of tangy Huacatay sauce. I usually take the savoury pastries home for later enjoyment and indulge my appetite in real-time on Petit Peru’s more time-sensitive dishes.

An empanada from Petit Peru, with Huacatay sauce

The starter I’m least keen on here is the tamal, a long, oblong stuffed corn-dough dumpling. At Petit Peru, I like my corn plump and crunchy, as it can be found in ceviches or as an opening snack. 

Tamal at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street

Main courses have been hearty and very likely to generate leftovers. One of the most substantial plates, “lomo à la Pobre” or “poor man’s steak,” was laden with seasoned slabs of sirloin, rice, fries topped with a fried egg, and salad. More adventurous meat-lovers could opt for anticuchos, the celebrated Peruvian dish of grilled, sliced beef heart, which was tender and flavourful, albeit with a touch of offal’s funk. Some of Petit Peru’s homemade sauces could be used to mask that tang.

Lomo a lo pobre at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

Anticuchos at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

Rotisserie chicken here is called pollo à la brasa and available in quarter-, half- and whole-chicken portions. Perhaps if the soy-lime marinated skin were a little more crisp, the chicken would be faultless. But otherwise, the bird’s meat, both light and dark, has been moist and flavourful, and better still with one of the eatery’s house-made perky sauces. 

Pollo a la brasa at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

The chicharrón platter teemed with deep-fried, crispy pork loin, intended to be stuffed into buns with sweet potato and marinated red onions. Most of the flavourful meat was very dry (that’s the cost of a crunchy exterior) but hunks with a seam of fat retained some succulence.

Chicharron (crispy pork) with sweet potatoes at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

Deep-fried shrimp, squid, fish and yucca were battered and crisply fried. Gingery fried rice, studded with chicken, beef or fish, came mounded in the form of an Inca pyramid, even if the dish is indebted to Peru’s Chinese immigrants.

Jalea (fried seafood) at Petit Peru

Speaking of the Inca, that indigenous empire lends its name to Inca Kola, the alarmingly yellow Peruvian soft drink available here. So to is house-made chicha morada, an Incan spiced punch made with dried purple corn and studded with pineapple.

A lighter dessert here was a serving of two surprisingly delicate alfajores that sandwiched dulce de leche between sugar-dusted cookies. Heavier was Petit Peru’s torta tres leches, a sponge cake sopping in condensed milk, heavy cream and more.

Alfajores at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

Tortas tres leches at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull

After he split that torta tres leches with me, my pal was glad to have been introduced to Petit Peru and said he’d go back. If you’ve not yet experienced the at-times unfamiliar but captivating fare at this or a previous Petit Peru location, you might well feel the same way after your initial visit.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum 

Coconut Lagoon
853 St. Laurent Blvd., 613-742-4444, coconutlagoon.ca
Open: Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m.
Prices: entrées $20 to $27 
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms

After a recent, too-lengthy run of restaurant dinners that were woefully short on bold, impressive flavours, I was in need of a sure thing. And with that, a friend and I went to Coconut Lagoon on St. Laurent Boulevard.

True confession: In the 13 years since it opened, I’d not previously had dinner at chef-owner Joe Thottungal’s restaurant. But I did sample his entries at Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates competitions in 2015 and 2016, and their spicy, mouth-filling satisfactions, which represent well the South Indian state of Kerala where Thottungal is from, instilled confidence. Oh — Thottungal even won Gold Medal Plates last fall, qualifying for this year’s Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna, B.C., where he finished second in a field of 11 chefs.

Food aside, we had another reason to visit Coconut Lagoon. Since last fall, Thottungal has made considerable and much-needed renovations, inside and out. When the Citizen last reviewed the restaurant in 2009, my predecessor lauded Thottungal’s food but said Coconut Lagoon, which previously had been a humble sports bar, was “a real Plain Jane, not the stuff of a destination restaurant.”

That’s changed. Thanks to Ottawa architectural firm Project1 Studio, Coconut Lagoon’s exterior is now sleek and modern, with a separate lobby decorated with press coverage. The main dining area, in front of Coconut Lagoon’s buffet and cash, has been enlarged and modernized, but it still seats about 55 or so, surrounded by dark wood walls and matching tables. On the walls are the Thottungal’s competition medals and trophies. In all, the updated dining space is classier but neutral, all the better to allow the sights and tastes of Thottungal’s food to pop.

This week, Thottungal told me his extensive menu is a mix of favourites that have been listed since he opened, plus somewhat tweaked dishes that rotate onto the menu every few months. 

At two dinners, I’ve been thoroughly pleased by almost everything I’ve eaten at Coconut Lagoon, thanks to dishes that left me wanting to sop up every bit of their complex and well-crafted flavours. 

Among the appetizers, there were plump, meaty crab cakes ($12 for two) that thrummed with the peppery excitement of Keralite spices and were offset by a perkily dressed slaw. Aloo tikki potato croquettes ($7) were nice bites with molten interiors, bolstered by a bright chili lime aioli.

Crab cakes at Coconut Lagoon

Tandoori lamb chops ($12 for two) were tender and slathered with intense flavour. Thottungal told me he’d recently served 1,000 of these treats at 24 Sussex Dr., and the proof can be found on Twitter, where the chef tweeted a photo of him, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and those chops.

Coconut Lagoon’s Tandoori Lamb Chops

Of the entrees (each served with rice or bread), Kovalam lobster masala ($27) was an opulent choice, with properly cooked tail meat in a thick, vibrant sauce. Lamb Chettinad ($22) provided no end of spicy enjoyment, although not every piece of lamb was as tender as promised. Kuttanadu duck ($23), a relatively new addition to Thottungal’s menu, featured a slow-cooked, skin-on breast — texturally, it felt a bit like a confit-cooked leg — in a savoury coconut gravy spiked with green chillies. Milder was the shrimp “moilee” ($23), with its seafood nestled with pieces of mango in a bright yellow ginger-coconut curry. 

Coconut Lagoon’s Kovalam Lobster Masala

Mango shrimp, spinach paneer, Lamb Chettinad and rice at Coconut Lagoon

Duck curry at Coconut Lagoon

Coconut Lagoon’s Shrimp and Mango Moilee

Vegans have almost a dozen options and entrées and side dishes, including Ooty mushroom curry ($20), which was creamy and comforting, the Madras eggplant masala ($14), which was dark and almost chocolate-y in its unctuousness. Chunky pumpkin and red peas erussery ($14), while gingery and peppery, struck us as less interesting.

Vegetable biryani rice ($17) was fresh, unstintingly flavoured with cardamom, cloves and turmeric, and littered with curry leaves. It easily outshone similar dishes I’ve had elsewhere.

From a good selection of desserts, I’ve preferred the forthright caramelized pineapple with house-made coconut ice cream (7) to a more pedestrian crepe stuffed with coconut and jaggery ($7), which could have been more coconutty and more tidily presented.

After speaking to Thottungal this week, I tried Coconut Lagoon’s lunch buffet ($18). While the dinner menu’s most refined and premium dishes were absent at lunch, Trichur-style salmon curry, butter chicken and the mushroom curry were hearty and tasty, and apparently were little worse for wear for their time on the buffet table. Pepper lamb, no longer on the dinner menu, delivered the biggest flavour punch on our plates.

Yes, the food at Coconut Lagoon is pricier than at other Indian restaurants. But as the medals, plaques and my overdue visits attest, Thottungal’s dishes are winners worth the splurge.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Social
537 Sussex Dr., 613-789-7355, social.ca
Open:  Monday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., closed Sunday
Prices: starts $8 to $18, mains $22 to $39
Access: One step into restaurant, washrooms downstairs

A few months after Social on Sussex Drive opened in the spring of 2000, the Citizen’s reviewer described it as “glamorous, hip and humming.”

If anything, the restaurant’s glamour score has recently tripled or so, thanks to its most recent renovations that have seen Social take over the space of the former art gallery next door to become an even more posh, multi-roomed hangout.

Meanwhile, its executive chef for the last year has been Jeff Bradfield, formerly of Erling’s Variety in the Glebe, which is noted for its distinguished small plates.

With its new look and newish chef in mind, I decided to eat again at Social, which I had reviewed, and quite liked, in January 2014. 

Before this spring, Social, despite its dramatically high ceilings, still felt not so far removed from its beginnings as a cosy, narrow bistro. Well, that intimate space where I’d enjoyed a short rib-enhanced burger and fancy clam chowder three years ago has been converted into a waiting and lounging area of cushy couches and massive overhead mirrors.

The expanded Social also includes five tastefully luxurious dining rooms that seat anywhere between 18 and almost 50 and about 185 cumulatively. At this time of year, factor in the large, secluded backyard patio that seats about 100, plus the bar, and you have what’s essentially a high-volume eatery — where, fortunately, the food markedly surpasses what high-volume eateries typically serve.

Social’s owner Peter Boole said he wanted the make-over, which he did with designer Henrietta Southam, to better organize his restaurant’s space while granting it more street exposure and more space to host events. The new front dining room — a 47-seat space with a bold blue wall, brass horseshoe banquettes paired with white marble tables and chunky cloth-covered or leather chairs matched with big, distressed wood tables — is the “proper dining room” that Social lacked until now, Boole says.

The new front dining room inside Social on Sussex Drive

The “Social Dining Room” at Social on Sussex Drive

 Truth is, a few weeks ago, I bolted past this appealing space because we were so keen to eat al fresco. Four of us sat in the splendid enclosed patio — during the waning days of Bradfield’s spring menu, it turned out — and had a lovely dinner.

Three appetizers struck us as well-crafted, harmonious compositions that nicely tweaked familiar dishes and waved the flag for from-scratch cooking.

Rather than serve pork belly, Bradfield turned his attention to pig cheek, served with a miso lacquer in a crisp croquette offset with celeriac purée and gingery, compressed Asian pear. Beet salad, with roasted and pickled beets plus apple chips, beet meringue, cashew cream, goat cheese and maple-espresso nuts, felt very much value-added. Flatbread loaded with wild mushrooms, hummus, greens and truffle honey didn’t last long at our table. 

Pig cheek – jowl croquette, miso-lacquered cheek, guanciale, ginger compressed Asian pear, apple celeriac puree at Social

Beets roasted and pickled beets, apple chips, beet meringue, cashew cream, goat cheese, maple espresso nuts at Social

Wild mushroom flatbread with hummus, greens and truffle honey at Social

With all of these dishes, I was pleasantly surprised by the smart way in which Bradfield was able to add a discernable but uncloying sweet note to make a savoury plate more playful and diverse. Even though my palate leans more to salty, sour and umami flavours, I fully approved.

The mains were no less impressively conceived of and executed. Smoked chicken pappardelle, with kale, peas, fennel and sun-dried tomato pesto packed a wallop of flavour and comfort. A plate of tender yet crisped duck confit with purple potato, corned red cabbage, heirloom carrots and sea buckthorn gastrique, was one of the very prettiest that the kitchen sent out. Almost as splashy visually, on its vibrant blue plate, was a slab of ling cod topped with a thick rouille sauce with an exotic, uni (sea urchin) boost, beside a smear of sweet potato purée and a succotash of beans and okra that provided a crisp, green contrast. OK, the fish was a wee bit dry, but the uni rouille was to die for.

Smoked chicken pappardelle, with kale, peas, fennel, Sun-dried tomato pesto at Social

Duck confit at Social

Ling cod with okra succotash, sweet potato puree, uni rouille at Social

Desserts were pricey but memorable and even quirky splurges. I’ve frequently been let down by savoury accents on sweet meal-enders, but Social pulled it off with blue cheese adding funkiness (but not too much) to a chocolate brownie, accompanied by sour cherries, double chocolate gelato and cocoa olive earth. Similarly, coffee-cured pork belly played well with deep-fried gelato, which also benefitted from the salted dulce de leche on the plate. Apple halves received a modernist treatment, arriving after being cooked sous-vide and served with sour apple fluid gel, coconut caramel, and a scattering of cheddar crumb and spiced nuts.

Blue cheese brownie with sour cherries, cocoa olive earth, double chocolate gelato at Social

Deep fried gelato with coffee cured pork belly, salted dulce de leche at Social

Sous vide apple, dates, cheddar crumb, spiced nuts, sour apple fluid gel, coconut caramel at Social

As review research goes, the only thing amiss about that meal, given its tastiness and the polished, attentive service, was our timing. The summer menu has seen some of the dishes tweaked or removed.

I have sampled a few of Bradfield’s new, lighter dishes and they were winners, too. A raw tuna starter was fresh and lucid of flavour, with a barely blowtorched exterior. With the fish were Japanese accents — wasabi yogurt, compressed cucumbers, Asian pear, nori and togarashi — but none outshone the delectable tuna. 

Seared tuna at Social on Sussex Drive in downtown Ottawa.

Shrimp raviolo was a deceptively cross-cultural dish, its massive dumpling stuffed with a heap of shrimp that had been subtly hit with Thai/Asian seasonings while its broth tasted of a hint of Pernod, which also lined up with the dish’s wedge of grilled fennel.  

Shrimp raviolo at Social on Sussex Drive

From new pastry chef André Bluteau came an admirably light buttermilk black pepper panna cotta in cold-pressed strawberry juice. Ottawa’s more rubbery, heavy panna cottas should take note and raise their game. 

Buttermilk black pepper panna cotta at Social on Sussex Drive in downtown Ottawa.

During its run, Social has been blessed with a succession of talented chefs, from René Rodriguez to Steve Mitton to Matthew Carmichael to Kyrn Stein. Given the vividly flavoured, thoughtful food that Social’s kitchen now turns out, even as it meets the demand of 40-plus extra seats and the summer patio rush, Ottawa native Bradfield, 32, belongs in this illustrious company.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Sugar Marmalade
180 Rideau St., 613-241-1255, sugarmarmalade.com
Open: Sunday to Thursday noon to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 2 a.m.
Prices: savouries and sweets up to $10.49 
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms

Regarding my first lunch at Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street, my notes consisted of just four words — “So bad for you.”

That’s not to say that my dining companion and I didn’t enjoy what we ate at this Asian snacks and desserts eatery, which opened in the spring where Hooch Bourbon House had been.

My scribbles were meant as an admission of guilty pleasures — deep-fried savouries that went down easily but later felt heavy in the gut, plus drinks and desserts that were fruit-forward and sweet as all get-out.

One of the flock of small Asian eateries that have opened recently in Ottawa, Sugar Marmalade is a franchise, one of nine locations in Ontario that reflect the tastes (and budgets) of a clientele young enough to think that they’ll live forever despite their snacky, sugary diet.

Sugar Marmalade offer a massive menu with a staggering list of desserts ranging from mundane to exotic, including puddings, parfaits, panna cottas, cheesecakes, shaved ice, sweets-laden toasts, glutinous rice desserts, and desserts based on soya beans, sago and grass jelly. 

Here they serve not just bubble tea, but also juices, Italian sodas and special beverages, the most daunting of which are “durian deluxe” and “brain freeze apple deluxe.”

Meanwhile, in this room whose walls are densely festooned with peppy pro-dessert slogans and catchphrases, there are a few meaty Asian dishes and snacks. 

At that first lunch, we were pleasantly surprised by Sugar Marmalade’s Japanese-style popcorn chicken, which consisted of a massive portion of just-fried, super-crisp nuggets of meat and chicken skin, improved with drizzles of Japanese mayo and a sweet-tangy brown sauce, plus a scattering of julienned seaweed. Not any healthier for you, but irresistible too, were the crinkly, ultra-crisp kimchi fries, moistened with a Sriracha mayo.

Japanese popcorn chicken at Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street.

Kimchi fries at Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street

Veering away from deep-fried crispness, we went for the gummy chewiness of Hong Kong-style steamed rice rolls, which were more plain than I guessed they would be, and simply dressed with another store-bought savoury brown sauce and sesame seeds.

Hong Kong rice roll at Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street

From the special beverages category, we both homed in on mang0-based choices and were rewarded with Mason-jar mugs brimming with slices of fresh mango, mango juice and a chewy element such as sago pearls to impart that springy texture the Taiwanese in particular value. The creamier Golden Royal Drink was reminiscent of a lassi.

Mango-based special drinks at Sugar Marmalade on Rideau Street

If I could be guaranteed junk food of a similar high calibre on future visits to Sugar Marmalade, I’d be popping by as frequently as my arteries could handle it. But at my two subsequent visits, a lunch and a packed-house dinner, as we dove more deeply into the menu, we also met with more disappointments.

The level of the deep-frying was never as exalted as it had been on my first visit. Honey garlic chicken wings were juicy and surprisingly tubular, but they were mild of flavour. Taiwanese-style (plain and unsauced, that is) popcorn chicken was alright, but not nearly as good as the superbly fried predecessors. Deep-fried calamari were oily.

Honey garlic chicken wings at Sugar Marmalade

Taiwanese popcorn chicken at Sugar Marmalade

Calamari at Sugar Marmalade

An order of “mixed balls” (fish, squid, lobster, beef) was good for amusing the 14-year-old boys in our party, but was otherwise pretty pedestrian, as ordinary as the sweet-chili sauce from a jar that came with it. Ditto the Taiwanese-style fish cakes that came with a blob of wasabi, and for that matter, the sweet potato fries, which curiously came with no dipping sauce, unlike so many other dishes.

Mixed balls at Sugar Marmalade

Fish cakes with wasabi at Sugar Marmalade

Sweet potato fries at Sugar Marmalade

Among the larger plates served with rice and broccoli, a giant, pepper-salt baked chicken leg was well-seasoned, moist and suitable for sharing. Bone-in chunks of chicken with Chinese mushrooms were hearty and satisfying. But the deep-fried Japanese-style pork cutlet was so-so, and the Japanese curry that topped it was very mild, even as Japanese curries go.

pepper-salt chicken at Sugar Marmalade

Chicken with mushrooms at Sugar Marmalade

Pork cutlet with Japanese curry at Sugar Marmalade

I confess to feeling a little less adventurous than this job might entail when I visited Sugar Marmalade, and I passed on stewed papaya with white fungus sweet soup, as well as Taiwanese-style popcorn chicken cartilages.

The most outré dish that I did sample was Japanese-style eel on a slab of toast with melted cheese. The eel, while tasty, was very fatty, and the cheese was simply dismaying. Maybe the pulled pork or pizza toast would have been better, or, from the sweet side of the spectrum, the hazelnut chocolate or marshmallow toasts.

Eel on toast with cheese at Sugar Marmalade

We sampled a few more interesting mugs. The strawberry and lime Italian soda was a nice, tart concoction and the chrysanthemum drink was simple and refreshing. A chocolate shake, topped with a towering mound of what seemed like aerosol cream, was mediocre.

Strawberry lime Italian soda at Sugar Marmalade

Chrysanthemum drink at Sugar Marmalade

Chocolate shake at Sugar Marmalade

hazelnut mocha panna cotta at Sugar Marmalade

More of that bland, texturally disappointing cream abounded inside the mango pancake, which was more like a crepe. Hazelnut mocha panna cotta included good ice cream, but much less good panna cotta, and, oddly, corn flakes. Chocolate egg waffle looked like a Jackson Pollock painting and tasted good, but would have been much better if it had been as hot and fresh and crisp as it might have been from a good night-market vendor.

Mango crepe at Sugar Marmalade

Egg waffle at Sugar Marmalade

I wish I could like Sugar Marmalade more, and look the other way health-wise to enjoy its over-the-top, trans-Pacific aspect. But too many inconsistencies and shortcuts make me think that lovers of deep-fried items and eye-widening desserts will have to open the eatery’s doors with fingers definitely crossed.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

La Maison Conroy
61 rue Principale, second floor, Gatineau (Aylmer sector), 819-557-1661, lamaisonconroy.com
Open: Wednesday to Sunday 5:30 to 10 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday
Prices: starters $15 to $20, main courses $25 to $35
Access: restaurant and washrooms are on the second floor, steps to front door and patio

Several years ago, whenever I popped by ZenKitchen on Somerset Street West, my go-to dish was chef Kyle Mortimer-Proulx’s gnocchi. A few days before that much-loved vegan restaurant closed in May 2014, I ate — with delight — Mortimer-Proulx’s pillowy potato dumplings with ramps, fiddleheads, almond pesto and sage.

Because of that memory, I was especially happy a few weeks ago when I sampled the gnocchi that had just been added to the menu at La Maison Conroy, the dinner-only fine-dining restaurant in Aylmer where Mortimer-Proulx now cooks. It too had the makings of a must-order dish, with feather-light gnocchi keeping fine company with shreds of rabbit, plump peas and savoury broth.

– Gnocchi a La Parisienne: braised rabbit with sweet peas, house-made ricotta at Maison Conroy in Aylmer

There are other items that also appeal deeply at La Maison Conroy, which opened last December in the handsome, historic stone building where the Le Bostaurus steakhouse had been for a few years. Mortimer-Proulx, 32, who went from ZenKitchen to cook much meatier meals in the high-volume setting of the Lowertown Brewery on York Street, seems to have full licence to turn out ambitious, trend-conscious, foodie-wooing dishes.

Chef Kyle Mortimer-Proulx in the dining of Maison Conroy, a fine dining restaurant that opened this past December in Aylmer in a historic 1855 building.

This is a place where Spanish cured meats and preserved seafoods — the hottest imports on a certain kind of menu these days — are sold. At La Maison Conroy, the steaks and beef for tartare has been dry-aged in-house, while both the Iberico pork and eggs are cooked sous vide. Smoked oyster and black garlic flavour the aioli.

During my two dinners, the fare that I’ve tried has been often, if not uniformly, delicious and always interesting. Occasionally I’ve felt that a dish could have been edited a bit further in terms of its ingredients or look, but any complaints that we’ve had about Mortimer-Proulx’s generous dishes have been quibbles that paled given how much the chef wants to pack his creations with goodies. 

Plus, it’s easy to be predisposed to like La Maison Conroy’s from-scratch offerings given the fresh and impeccably baked mini-loaves of bread with bone-marrow-enriched butter that land on tables as an indulgent appetite-whetter.

Earlier this year, when ramps were available, we loved a starter that made its contrasting elements — rich, cleanly fried salt cod croquettes dotted with smoked oyster aioli, grilled ramps, potato sticks and confit potato, raw mushroom and greens — into a cohesive treat.

Salt cod and ramps at Maison Conroy

Delectable beef tartare had little extra funk thanks to its dry-aging, and its accompaniments (black garlic aioli, puffed quinoa, cured egg yolk, pickled mustard seeds) were well-crafted and on point with the recalibration of today’s umami-loving palate. 

Skipping imported delicacies and Canadian oysters, we’ve also started with La Maison Conroy’s charcuterie board. While its slab of foie gras torchon was unbeatable and its array of accompaniments delivered a lot of contrapuntal flavours and textures, its pork rillettes were too salty and the sourness of the pickled veg could have been pushed further.

Charcuterie plate at Maison Conroy

In addition to the gnocchi, I’ve tried or stolen bites from four more main courses, all bearing cute names on the menu.

“Confused Bivalve” was so described because its scallops had been poached in beef fat — a move that Mortimer-Proulx this week told me he had previously tried at Lowertown Brewery with the renderings of briskets. While interesting, that technique didn’t strike me as a improvement on searing, and the dish confounded me a little with the prominence of its bitter notes from radicchio and celeriac purée.

Scallops main course at Maison Conroy

More successful, I thought, was “Erin Had A Little Lamb,” with lamb patties cooked “crepinette” style (wrapped in caul fat), plated rustically amid grilled sourdough, grilled ramps and mushrooms, and sauced with lamb jus and a splooshy, perfectly runny egg.  

Lamb crepinette at Maison Conroy

Mortimer-Proulx’s “61 Strip” striploin steak was very enjoyable, and the full range of sides — a blue-cheese-laced biscuit, yummy Brussels sprouts with bacon, rich Madeira demiglace, better offset celeriac purée — made the dish admirably diverse. The meat, Mortimer-Proulx told me, had been dry-aged for two to three weeks, which is less than a dry-aging devotee would probably want but enough to noticeably concentrate the meat’s flavour.

Dry-aged steak at Maison Conroy

There were no flavour complaints with “A Cut Above,” which starred two spears of densely porky Iberico pork shoulder that had been cooked sous vide and given a finishing sear. A sherry demi-glace, tangy blackcurrant condiment and shallot jam added more waves of flavour and slices of earthy blood sausage were hidden under heaps of asparagus and pickled veg.

Sous Vide Iberico Pork Shoulder with blood sausage, grilled broccoli, sherry demiglace, blackcurrant mostarda and shallot jam.

Desserts showed imagination but fell short of wowing. We preferred the sour cream cake with macerated strawberries and rhubarb shavings to the peanut butter semifreddo, with a pretzel crust, milk chocolate, granola and dulce de leche.

Sour cream cake dessert at Maison Conroy

Peanut butter semifreddo at Maison Conroy

We’ve sat both indoors, in the spacious upstairs dining room that seats 55, some in new clamshell banquettes, and outside, on the patio flanking the restaurant’s front door, on a Thursday night when the sound system played ’70s hits just a bit too loud. In both cases, which were weekday evenings, we were practically the only customers. (During our outdoor dinner, we noted that others on the patio were having food from Maison Conroy’s downstairs sister eatery, the more casual and affordable Le Maçon pub.)

Maison Conroy’s dining room, on the second floor of a historic 1855 building in Aylmer

A patio table at Maison Conroy, a fine dining room that opened this past December in Aylmer in a historic 1855 building

Maison Conroy

Mortimer-Proulx candidly told me that the reception for his restaurant since it opened has been slower than expected, although it can be packed on some summer weekend nights. 

Leaving the night or the season out of it, Mortimer-Proux’s food definitely deserves more attention. Yes, it can be pricey, and especially more than what neighbouring Aylmer restaurants charge. But it also offers more to savour and think about, from a young and promising chef at last given the chance to serve food as he wants. If Aylmer residents aren’t flocking yet to La Maison Conroy, maybe Ottawa foodies should keep it in mind as a destination.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

South Branch Bistro
15 Clothier St. E., Kemptville, 613-258-3737, southbranchbistro.com
Open: Weekdays and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Prices: Starters, $6 to $14
Access: steps to front door, but wheelchairs can enter via patio in the back

Twice this summer, my travels back to Ottawa have taken me past Kemptville around dinner time, and twice we’ve eaten in town at the South Branch Bistro.

The casual eatery and music venue opened almost a year ago in its circa-1880 stone building, replacing the decade-old The Branch Restaurant after chef-owner Bruce Enloe moved on to manage the Two Rivers Food Hub in Smiths Falls.

Kemptville resident and bistro co-owner Shelley Stinson told me this week that she and her partner Ken Baird quickly jumped at the chance to take over The Branch because they enjoyed coming to the business when Enloe owned it. She also told me that her bistro buys local ingredients for its dishes through the food hub, which is a middleman for producers and food businesses. 

Just as the restaurant’s name has received a tweak, so too has its food. Under Enloe, dishes could go in a global, gastropub direction or reflect his smokey Texan roots. During my two visits, South Branch Bistro’s dishes have seemed a little more generic, with some gentle nods to New Orleans fare. In charge of the kitchen here for the last few months has been Layne Belcher, formerly of the Urban Cowboy restaurant in Riverside South.  

Crab cakes (two for $15) were loosely textured and a bit sloppy-looking, but they packed good flavour and their remoulade sauce perked things up. Chicken wings ($14 for a pound of wings) that had been smoked in the smoker behind the restaurant, then deep-fried and seasoned or sauced, were more distinctive than the usual pub fare. “Bourbon Street” shrimp ($11), however, underwhelmed, with scarcely any shrimp at all to be found in a bowl of thick orange-and-sambuca cream sauce that we sopped up with grilled bread.  

Crab cakes at South Branch Bistro 

Chicken wings at South Branch Bistro

Shrimp in orange sambuca cream sauce at South Branch Bistro in Kemptville 

Mains here have ranged from a respectable seven-ounce filet mignon ($31) — properly tender, nicely sauced and complemented by veg and roasted garlic mashed potatoes — to an awfully bland dinner special of beef stroganoff ($22), served on white rice rather than the usual noodles.

Beef filet with farmers market vegetables, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, bourbon mushroom cream sauce at South Branch Bistro

Beef stroganoff special at South Branch Bistro in Kemptville

Better was the well-crusted blackened salmon ($24), and somewhere in the middle were a too-creamily sauced but tasty linguini carbonara ($22) and a serving of jambalaya ($24) made with shrimp, chicken and Andouille sausage. With the latter two dishes, the chicken breast meat was dry and short on flavour.

Blackened salmon at South Branch Bistro in Kemptville

Linguini carbonara at South Branch Bistro 

Jambalaya at South Branch Bistro

The South Branch burger ($15), with a very creamily dressed Caesar salad on the side, was just alright and at least a little bit under-seasoned. We had wanted to try the bistro’s pulled pork sandwich but the kitchen was out of the popular smoked meat on a recent Sunday night.

Burger with Caesar salad at South Branch Bistro in Kemptville

Desserts — made by Belcher’s mother, we were told — were appropriately homey. We thought better of the tart lemon pie ($7) than the somewhat mushy coffee cake ($6).

Lemonade pie at South Branch Bistro in Kemptville

Pecan coffee cake at South Branch Bistro

The backyard patio was a more charming place for a summery dinner than the dark, tin-roofed dining-room-and-bar area, which has had its walls painted Bermuda blue. The service has been friendly but at times a little unpolished, such as when a dirty side plate landed at our table.

Stinson and Baird deserve credit for keeping the venue going as an eatery and as a cosy, rallying place for live blues, folk and roots music on weekend evenings. However, the kitchen’s fare has been basically OK and unremarkable at best, and a little over-priced. It would need to be a little more special and consistent in the future to pull us off Highway 416 on our way back home.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Chez Anh
435 Sunnyside Ave., 613-709-1724, facebook.com/ChezAnh/
Open: Wednesday to Monday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed Tuesdays
Prices: sandwiches $4 and $5, soups $8
Access: one step to front door

The young woman who was running Chez Anh all by herself during our recent lunch visit seemed to be right on top of things, cooking and doling out tasty food in a cool, steady rhythm. We certainly had no qualms about the piping hot beef pho or the beefy bánh mì sub at our table.

But when her co-workers arrived with provisions — packages of noodles, chopsticks, paper towels and more — heated but funny banter ensured. “I swear to God, you’re giving me PTSD leaving me alone!” the woman said. When my friend asked if the woman and the other staffer she was squabbling with were sisters, she replied that they weren’t, and glowered intensely. 

Chez Anh — a wee, eminently affordable café of fewer than 20 seats, wedged into a former convenience store on Sunnyside Avenue closer to Bronson Avenue than to Bank Street — is, I guess, a bit like that. It’s a slightly disheveled, youthful place that serves up a relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere and the occasional sit-com exchange along with a concise listing of distinctive Vietnamese savouries and soups, plus — if they’re available — intriguing house-made desserts.

Who is Anh? That would be Anh Nguyen, a 26-year-old former federal public servant and food lover whose cooking résumé lacks any previous restaurant experience but does include being a Top 50 finalist on the second season of MasterChef Canada a few years ago. He opened his café three months ago, bolstered by a week-long, successful crowd-funding campaign that raised almost $4,000 for renovations.

As the owner and chef of his eponymous café, Nguyen serves dishes that reflects his mother’s cooking and the fare of Hanoi in Northern Vietnam, where he was born.

The pho here, available with chicken or beef, is Northern-style, meaning that it stresses a lucid, beefy, salt-seasoned broth and underplays the sweeter notes of many a Southern-style bowl of pho elsewhere in Ottawa. “It has to be as clear as possible,” Nguyen says. Also absent at Chez Anh are the plates of herbs and sprouts for garnishing one’s pho, although there are hoisin and chili sauces available on a counter, if not on every table. 

Differences aside, I’m a fan of the very much restorative pho here, which pleased with clean, well developed flavours, freshness, lots of lean meat — usually beef brisket or sirloin from Lavergne Western Beef in Navan, or shreds of chicken — and cubes of fried dough as a welcome bonus. I’ve also had the special miến gà — a chicken and glass noodle soup — which was fine, especially for lovers of fried shallots and those must-slurp vermicelli.

Beef pho with fried dough at Chez Anh

Chicken pho at Chez Anh

Mien ga at Chez Anh

A beef bánh mì sub here was an artful example of the exalted Vietnamese sandwich, its warm, crusty baguette generously filled with tender grilled meat, lightly pickled veg and a smear of pâté that contributed a livery, funky undertone.

Beef banh mi at Chez Anh

A rice vermicelli bowl lost marks for its dry chicken breast and tepid rather than tangy dipping sauce. But it was redeemed by a fantastic, meaty, massive and nicely seasoned spring roll.

Vermicelli bowl at Chez Anh

When we ordered some of Chez Anh’s pâté chaud (pastries stuffed with meat), our server warned us: “They’re ugly today.” But she continued. “I promise, they’re delicious.” We didn’t think they looked that bad, and they were, indeed, deliciously flaky and richly savoury — everything you would want in a sausage roll.

Pate chaud at Chez Anh

Among Nguyen’s other snacks, the rice paper rolls were simply made, good and fresh. 

Rice rolls at Chez Anh

The desserts listed on Chez Anh’s wall-filling blackboard have always appealed on sight, although we’ve sadly missed on house-made macarons — Nguyen says to come early in the week for those — and slices of tiramisu or other cakes that sold out. I had a bowlful of green tea panna cotta that could have been better. It was jiggle-free and too cold. Better was a “Hungarian” square which was above all sweet and topped with orange-y glaze.

Hungarian square at Chez Anh

The café is not licensed, but it does serve, in addition to soft drinks, Cultured Kombucha, strong Vietnamese coffee and pandan iced tea.

When school starts in a few weeks, it’s likely that Chez Anh, which can already be packed with neighbourhood folks, will become still more crowded with Carleton University students who want take-out treats or a linger in an unpretentious spot staffed by people barely older than themselves, where a sassy playlist sends the sounds of Amy Winehouse, Lana Del Rey and Santana into the air.

This weekend, Nguyen is kicking off Night Market Fridays and Saturdays, when he will open to midnight and from 9 p.m. serve snacks such as lamb skewers, grilled squid, curry fish balls and mango sticky rice. Don’t be surprised if things get a little hectic, and comfort that server if she appears a little frazzled.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

La Squadra

114 Montcalm St., Gatineau (Hull sector), 819-525-4505, lasquadra.ca
Open: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday, Friday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., Sunday 4 to 10 p.m.
Prices: starters $7 to $28, pizza $16 to $20, pasta $18 to $23, mains $26 to $40
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms

It’s always nice when a restaurant pops up out of nowhere, instead of replacing an eatery that ran its course. So it is with La Squadra, an Italian restaurant in Gatineau’s Hull sector that open six months ago on the ground floor of a new condo building.

La Squadra is a modern, sleekly attractive place that seats more than 100 people and is flanked by a long stretch of windows. It consists of a good-sized bar area, and a larger dining space of cushy seats and hard, dark surfaces, all with eye-catching lighting and black ductwork overhead.

At the back of the room, La Squadra’s wines are proudly on display, which makes sense given that the restaurant’s owner is Benoit Desjardins, a sommelier, wine columnist at the Outaouais radio station 104.7 FM and owner of the more casual Gatineau restaurant and wine bar Pizzédelic. At La Squadra, Desjardins’ list that goes with the collection is long, and heaviest on Italian reds, although other countries are represented. 

During my two dinners at La Squadra, the dishes emerging from the kitchen, overseen by chef Giuseppe Bastone, have been unadulterated or lightly tweaked Italian staples. They’ve also ranged widely in quality, and many strike me as overpriced.

Among the appetizers we’ve tried, the properly seasoned fried calamari ($14), nicely sauced three-meat meatballs ($10) and tender, marinated and grilled octopus ($19) were well-made and enjoyable, although a bit more effort and attention to detail would have been welcome with the last dish — its white beans were mushy, and grilling the cherry tomatoes would have been a nice move.

Fried calamari at La Squadra

Polpette (meatballs) at La Squadra

Octopus starter at La Squadra

Last week, stracciatella ($7), the classic egg drop soup, was a little clumpier than hoped for, but still very comforting. Earlier this year, an arugula-beet salad ($13) was fine, if unremarkable.  

Stracciatella at La Squadra

Arugula, spinach, beet salad at La Squadra

Our one pizza at La Squadra, chosen from its list of six pies, was a notable disappointment. The chewy-crusted, personal-sized seafood pizza ($20), while teeming with tiny scallops, clams, mussels, shrimp and fake crab, was too soon a mushy, indistinct, bechamel-sauced mess.

Seafood pizza at La Squadra

Of two pastas we tried from the 13-item selection, much better was the hearty spaghetti carbonara ($21), even if its addition of cream offends purists. Gnocchi ($20) that we tried earlier this year has left the menu — no great loss, as it was gummy and bland. 

Spaghetti carbonara at La Squadra

Gnocchi at La Squadra

Main courses were just OK or somewhat better. We wished that a lighter hand had been at work with the veal scallopini marsala ($27), which was overwhelmed by a sharply salted sauce. Rabbit cacciatore ($28) was filling and loaded with succulent braised thigh meat, but its gravy could have been mellowed and seemed heavy on the tomato paste and salt. 

Veal marsala at La Squadra

Rabbit cacciatore at La Squadra

A big-ticket veal chop ($40) was, on its own, blessed with a fine char from the grill, nicely seasoned and definitely delicious. However, the mound of roasted red peppers, olives and capers that covered the veal was too briny and slap-dash, and the pesto on the plate’s pasta was oily and small-flavoured, lacking freshness and pop.  

Veal chop with pesto pasta at La Squadra

Tiramisu ($9), made in-house and served in a cup rather than on a plate, packed most of the right flavours in something of a mish-mash. We wanted the dessert to be boozier or more moist and not just simply creamy, so that the crisp ladyfingers, deployed more like a garnish, could have become absorbent.

Tiramisu at La Squadra

Three cannoli ($9) came with an in-house filling that added chocolate chips and orange flavour to the usual sweet ricotta.

Cannoli at La Squadra

Service at La Squadra was friendly and attentive. That said, while appetizers were quick to arrive at our table, there were significantly longer waits for other courses. 

Hull needs more really good restaurants, and La Squadra could become one of them, once its fair to middling food attains something like the sophistication of its surroundings. 

phum@postmedia.com

twitter.com/peterhum

Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Persis Grill
2288 Tenth Line Rd., Orléans, 613-824-9978, persisgrill.ca
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday noon to 9 p.m.
Prices: kebab-based plates $12.49 to $22.99
Access: No steps to front door or washrooms

Unless you live in the new, expanding communities off of Tenth Line Road in Orléans, you will likely think that the trip to Persis Grill involves a bit of a trek.

Even my relatives who live 10 minutes away in Chapel Hill don’t think the Iranian eatery, which opened in January in a Tenth Line Road mall-in-progress, is all that close. Me, I’ve twice made the half-hour drive to Persis Grill, and each time I’ve felt well-rewarded by tasty, interesting, affordable and generously portioned food. 

That’s not to call the food here haute cuisine, or to ignore a few quibbles. But on balance, I do wish I lived closer to Persis Grill, or that it sold food closer to my house.

Dinners here have begun by stressing the eatery’s hospitality, with not only on-the-house platters of sliced, crisp nan bread, but also complimentary bowls of soup that were nothing fancy or exotic but still much appreciated. We’ve had a fine broccoli soup and a gingery carrot soup that was perhaps a little over-thickened.

Broccoli soup at Persis Grill

Among the warm appetizers, we’ve enjoyed the mirzaghasemi ($5.99), a savoury mash made mostly of barbecued eggplant, tomato and egg, and dolme barge-mo ($6.99), a foursome of well-seasoned, rice-stuffed vine leaves, perked with a sweet-and-sour pomegranate sauce. 

Warm eggplant dip at Persis Grill

Stuffed vine leaves at Persis Grill

At another dinner, we opted for cold appetizers ($19.99 for four) — thick Balkan yogurt topped with cucumber, solidly made hummus, olives coated in pomegranate and ground walnuts to add tanginess and nuttiness to saltiness, and a bowl of finely chopped pickled vegetables.

Hummus at Persis Grill

After any appetizers, some kind of kebabs here, all made with halal meats, have been inevitable. Whether they’ve been white- or dark-meat chicken, ground beef, beef tenderloin or lamb chops, the lean, skewered meats were given complex but not overpowering flavour overlays with their marinades, most of which are yogurt-based. Then, the meats have emerged eminently juicy from the grill. We thought a little better of the the cheaper kebabs over some of the deluxe items such as the lamb chops and tenderloin, which cooked to medium had strayed just a bit into chewiness.

A platter of beef and chicken kebabs at Persis Grill

Beef and chicken kebab at Persis Grill

Lamb chops at Persis Grill

Seafood options were reliable, including grilled shrimp ($18.99) that were succulent and well-flavoured and a moist, appealingly grilled salmon filet ($18.99). 

Grilled shrimp at Persis Grill

Grilled salmon at Persis Grill

Beyond its grilled items, Persis lacks some of the dishes that appeal to me at other similar restaurants, such as ash reshteh (Persian noodle soup). The fesenjan stew ($16.50), a thick gravy of pomegranate paste and walnuts, in which chunks of chicken breast were submerged, was rich and flavourful, although its chicken was a little dry.

Fesenjan stew (chicken in pomegranate and walnut sauce) at Persis Gril

All of these items came on large plates, flanked by fresh salad and basmati rice. The rice was exceptional at our first visit, but a little less fluffy and fresh during our second. Upgrading the rice for a few dollars — so that it was either boldly saffroned and studded with barberries and coriander seeds, or garnished with a mix of nuts, cranberries, carrot and orange zest — definitely boosted our enjoyment.

Rice with saffron and barberries at Persis Grill

Of the desserts we’ve had, the satisfying baklava ($1.99) and a hefty ball of spiced, saffron ice cream ($4.99) were made in-house. Other options — a gooey chocolate lava cake ($8.25), a slab of cheesecake ($5.25) — were amply-portioned and, above all, sweet.

Saffron ice cream at Persis Grill

Chocolate lava cake at Persis Grill

Like many a strip-mall eatery, Persis Grill is large and high-ceilinged with dark ductwork overhead. Along its side walls, however, the large bas-relief carvings reproducing ruins at Persepolis have pride of place and make you wonder if you’re still in Orléans. 

Service has been fast, no-frills and attentive. The restaurant is licensed and has a small selection of wines and beers, but also allows guests to bring in their own bottles and pay a $7 corkage fee.

End each night we’ve visited, the restaurant has been packed with walk-ins and reservations by 7 p.m. Chef Ali Shojaee this week told me with obvious pride that the restaurant is similarly busy each night, and that 80 per cent of his business is non-Iranians who are sharing their enthusiasm for his food by word of mouth.

Shojaee said that he’s been cooking at restaurants from Toronto to Vancouver to Mexico for 25 years and that he stresses fresh, natural, daily preparations in his kitchen, eschewing MSG and other chemical shortcuts.

He added that he lives in Ottawa’s west end and has a 20-minute commute seven days a week. “I’m good with it,” he said. “The time I come to work and the time I leave, there’s no traffic. It’s not that bad.”

If Shojaee can make cross-town trips daily to Persis Grill, I guess it’s not too much for the rest of us to do the same to enjoy his food. 

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Casa México
1489 Merivale Rd., 613-695-7899, casa-mexico.ca

Ola Cocina
62 Barrette St., 613-746-6222, olacocina.ca

La Cocina Loca
1079 Wellington St., 613-798-9292, facebook.com/olacocinahinto

El Camino
81 Clarence St., 613-422-5918, eatelcamino.com 

Zak’s Cantina
10 ByWard Market Sq., 613-422-9257, zakscantina.com

I’ve taken a taco tour of Ottawa in recent weeks, grazing at some of the newer places that focus on that sometimes more, sometimes less, Mexican treat. Below, in lieu of full-sized reviews, are my findings following some single-visit spot checks. 

Silvia and Marco Martinez came to Canada in 2013 from Acapulco and about a month ago the couple opened Casa México in a Merivale Road strip mall just south of Baseline Road, replacing their sandwich shop that was called Passport Café. The rebranded business is humble, with its cooking area in plain view beside the cash. But the eatery is colourfully and festively decorated, and service here, especially if you can speak a smidgen of Spanish, was warm and personal.  

A half-dozen tacos were available on corn tortillas sturdy enough to contain their slow-cooked, shredded proteins. Tacos here were right-sized, neither too small nor overloaded, and minimally garnished. Most flavourful were the tacos filled with pork adobo, chicken mole and Mexican chorizo with potatoes. Shredded beef and pork tacos benefitted from the boost of green salsa brought to the table. The shredded pork (carnitas) tacos would have been better with a finishing sear to make the meat crispy.

Tacos at Casa México

Still, these were basic but good tacos worth a visit (especially at $4 a piece), and the fine, flavourful tortilla soup ($8), house-made and not-too-sweet tamarindo drinks ($3.50) and Latin music sounds added to my positive impression of this no-frills but charming place.

Tortilla soup at Casa México

I’ve also tried the tacos at the similarly named, and formerly associated, Ola Cocina in Vanier and La Cocina Loca — previously Ola Cocina West — in Hintonburg.

There’s a longer story to be told, but the shorter one begins with restaurateur Donna Chevrier opening her cosy 20-seater Ola Cocina in late 2013, and later joining forces with Ottawa serial restaurateur Ion Aimers to bring her acclaimed artisanal tacos to Hintonburg, in the space that had previously been one of Aimers’ ZaZaZa pizza joints. The partnership ended, but Aimers continues to sell Ola Cocina-style tacos in the renamed La Cocina Loca.

While the menus are nearly identical at the two eateries, my respective taco dinners varied considerably. Yes, both Cocinas serve a wide range of fancy tacos ($4 at La Cocina Loca, $4.50 at Ola Cocina), including duck confit tacos outfitted with arugula, beets, crème fraîche and cranberry coffee maple syrup, as well as tandoori chicken, octopus and pork belly tacos, plus more traditional creations such as pork shoulder slow roasted in achiote paste. But everything tasted significantly better — fresher out of the kitchen and more zippily garnished — at Ola Cocina in Vanier. The same went for guacamole at both places, and especially for side orders of rice and beans. In Vanier, the rice and beans were punchily seasoned. In Hintonburg, not only were the sides bland, but the beans also came with pieces of plastic wrap among them. (Thankfully, the server apologized and my meal was comped.)

Tacos at Ola Cocina

Dirty rice and beans plus tacos at La Cocina Loca

Our conclusion, factoring in a taco tour that I’d taken in 2015: Made well, Chevrier’s tacos are among the top three in the city. But beyond her watchful eye, they can also be distinctly less well executed. 

What other tacos do I crave? In addition to those from Ola Cocina and Taqueria Kukulkan on Montreal Road, which I raved about two years ago, there are the tacos at the recently opened El Camino on Clarence Street.

A bigger spin-off of El Camino on Elgin Street, this new ByWard Market restaurant and bar has all the hipness — and some would say hype — you would expect from a place opened by chefs Matt Carmichael and Jordan Holley, whose downtown Ottawa mini-empire includes the original El Camino, its Asian small-plates neighbour Datsun and the upscale Sparks Street gem Riviera.

El Camino’s are the priciest tacos in town — most are $6.50 each but a hard-shell tuna tartare taco is $10.50. That said, the ones we tried were memorable beauts worth the splurge. At the ByWard Market location, where most of the seating is at high top tables, we were won over by outré choices such as a cochinita roasted pig head taco (great flavour and texture, excellent sear) and ox tongue (funky note to the flavour, nice char). More conventional choices including a chicken tinga and a massively proportioned, crispy fish taco were also delights. All demonstrated the kitchen’s skill at balancing bold flavours with nuanced accents to create distinctive, crave-worthy tacos.

Assortment of tacos at El Camino on Clarence Street

El Camino’s non-taco offerings tempted too, but we limited our sampling to the primal pleasures of the Mexican corn (two cobs for $13), torched and slathered with spice and mild, shredded feta; the salt and pepper squid ($12), which was not oily and tender but could have been seasoned more assertively; and the small but satisfying, gone-in-a-flash “tequilime pie” ($7).   

Salt and pepper squid at El Camino on Clarence Street

Tequilime pie at El Camino on Clarence Street

Finally, around the corner from El Camino is Zak’s Cantina on ByWard Market Square, the neighbouring sister restaurant of the veteran eatery Zak’s Diner. According to its website, the cantina means to recreate “every classic detail of a genuine Mexican family restaurant,” although the classic ’80s rock sounds during our lunch arguably undercut that goal. Along one side of the dining room, an exterior of a South American-inspired bus adds colour and fun.  

Of four tacos ($4.50) here  — spicy beef, pulled pork, chicken, deep-fried haddock — the fish was best. The rest, while large and filling, were sloppily made and sloppy to eat, with meat that wasn’t hot and was either under-seasoned or over-seasoned. At $6.50, so-called “crazy corn” here was half the price of El Camino’s. But its corn on the cob, sitting plainly in a bowl with feta, wasn’t half as good.

Assorted tacos at Zak’s Cantina

Corn with feta and lime at Zak’s Cantina

Zak’s Cantina is family-friendly, and its patio appealed during the waning days of summer. But its tacos were among the least of its selling points.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Oz Kafe
10 York St., 613-234-0907, ozkafe.squarespace.com
Open: Monday to Saturday 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., lunch and brunch services coming
Prices: mains $26 to $32
Access: ground floor is fully wheelchair-accessible

For almost a dozen years, the old Oz Kafe on Elgin Street was a hidden gem that served fresh, vibrant dinners made in a very small, custom-made kitchen. But in the summer of 2016, co-owner and operator Oz Balpinar had had enough of the cramped quarters, and she closed down her popular eponymous restaurant with the plan to reopen a few months later in a larger space in the ByWard Market. 

The reopening took longer — as in roughly a year more — than expected. But the wait for new Oz Kafe on York Street, which at last opened on Aug. 23, was worth it. 

The new location is also a hidden gem. Now, Oz Kafe resides in an attractively renovated heritage building, accessed from an off-the-beaten path courtyard and labeled with low-key signage. Once you do find it, you’ll see that the eatery seats about 60 on each of its floors — about twice the capacity of its predecessor’s single floor.  

And you should try to find it. Not only does the ambience at Oz cooly combine sleek and comfy modernity with the historical embrace of 19th-century stone walls and woody ceilings. At my two visits, the dishes by chef Kristine Hartling, a 30-year-old Algonguin College culinary program grad who was the chef de cuisine at Taylor’s Genuine Food and Wine Bar before it closed in January 2017, were all deeply satisfying winners. 

Chef Kristine Hartling of Oz Kafe in the Byward Market

Hartling’s dinner menu, which looks to Europe for inspiration where the old Oz under chef Jamie Stunt or Simon Bell could turn out Asian-inspired fare, is strikingly concise. There are just five appetizers, five mains, some cheese and charcuterie to nibble on, plus two desserts or house-made ice cream to end dinner sweetly. But every lovely dish I sampled was fully loaded with precise, harmonious flavours and textures.

Oz’s website refers to Hartling’s dishes as “veg-forward,” and that descriptor was borne out in the wide range of respected and ennobled locally grown treats on many plates, whether vegetarian or not. I don’t usually eschew meat, but I would be perfectly happy if I started with Oz’s crispy and cleanly made tempura fried summer squash ($14), bolstered by the richness of whipped ricotta and slatherings of bright, herby pistou, the Provençal cousin of pesto, followed by its charred baby eggplant main ($26).

Another fine dish with a Mediterranean slant, that sunny, savoury plate featured its slices of eggplant on a hearty chickpea and fennel stew, supported by sautéed greens and the flavour hits of slow-roasted tomato, green olive tapenade and sunflower romesco sauce. Generous and savoury, this dish could make carnivores think twice. 

Tempura fried summer squash at Oz Kafe

Charred baby eggplant at Oz Kafe

As for meatier options, we’ve had and enjoyed the smoked beef ($15), which struck me as a smart alternative to carpaccio. The app’s lean, thinly sliced beef was discernably, but not overpoweringly, smoked, and the lucidly flavourful and well-combined accompaniments — pickled shimeji mushrooms, blobs of tarragon aioli, sweet and tangy stone fruit mostarda and slivers of crisped leek — again demonstrated the kitchen’s attention to detail. 

At Oz Kafe, smoked rare beef from Enright Farms features cured and smoked thinly sliced eye of round, served with crispy leeks, stone fruit mostarda, tarragon aioli, and pickled mushrooms. 

Some of Oz’s charcuterie are made in-house and others are not. We’ve gobbled up Hartling’s refined cured steelhead trout ($9), which played marvelously with slices of grilled sourdough and perfectly pickled bits of mushroom and alliums.

Cured steelhead trout at Oz Kafe

Another worthy seafood starter was the slathering of tiny, tender, well-seasoned shrimp on grilled sourdough ($16). (The same bread, baked daily at Oz, comes with a bowl of sunflower oil mingling with strawberry vinegar at the start of meals.)

Nordic shrimp on toast at Oz Kafe

Sourdough bread with sunflower oil, strawberry vinegar at Oz Kafe- pix by Peter Hum Ottawa Citizen Photo Email

On a visit last week while the heat wave allowed us to dine on the 54-seat patio, we found that “veg-forward” doesn’t mean meats need to take a back seat. Hartling’s most conventional meat-and-potatoes option — slices of Renfrew-based Enright Farms sirloin ($32) or ribeye with broccoli, new potatoes, compound butter and crisp shallots — did the trick for our less adventurous dining companion. More exciting was the duskily spiced and juicy Cornish hen ($27), with a deluxe array of veg and a much appreciated chunk of grilled lemon. The showstopper was the juicier-still Nagano pork chop ($32), beautifully supported by grilled corn, corn purée, string bean succotash and more.

Sirloin steak at Oz Kafe

Spiced Cornish hen at Oz Kafe

Brined Nagano Pork Rib Chop, served with creamed corn, succotash and marinated bell peppers at Oz Kafe

I’ve twice had the same dessert — a pavlova ($12) with plum ginger sorbet perched on its baked meringue, surrounded by slices of roasted peaches and pistachios — because it was irresistible.

Peach pavlova and Oreo ice cream at Oz Kafe

Last Saturday, when Oz was close to packed, it struck us that the dessert was a little slow to arrive — not that we mentioned it. Still, our server proactively took the dessert off the bill because she thought it had been overly delayed. Now that’s good service.

Oz has an extensive beer list with interesting draft and bottled choices, and its wine list is similarly smart and curated with glasses — including three-ounce pours — available for many of its bottles.

I ate only once, and not while on critic’s duty, at the old Oz Kafe. I was impressed — but not like I was by its successor. With a cheery but warm and classic vibe and food that ranges from very good to blow-you-away, Oz Kafe deserves massive kudos entirely for its newcomer’s efforts.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Hung Sum
939 Somerset St. W., 613-680-3228, facebook.com/HungSumRestaurant
Open: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. 
Prices: dim sum small plates $3.75 to $5.65, chef’s specials $2.20 to $8.25 
Access: Steps to dining room

Here are the two words you need to know if you go to eat at Hung Sum: “Ho sik.”

That’s concise Cantonese for “the food is delicious,” and you will likely want to pass on the compliment via your server to chef-owner Chef Han Biao Lin, who is back in business serving what is likely Ottawa’s best dim sum after a hiatus of almost two years.

The first Hung Sum served pristine, made-to-order southern Chinese dumplings and more from a Somerset Street West hole-in-the-wall until it closed in November 2015, leaving masses of regulars distraught about where they would get their dim sum fix. 

clockwise from top left, scallop and shrimp shumai, ginger beef dumplings and shrimp har gow at Hung Sum restaurant, 939 Somerset St. W

If they were in the know, those regulars began to plan trips to Lin’s new Hung Sum soon after it opened in mid-August this year, taking over the space that El Gusto Mazzola, an Argentinian restaurant, had occupied on Somerset Street West near Preston Street, a few blocks west of the old Hung Sum.

Lin’s new restaurant, whose kitchen has been renovated to fire up two massive woks, is nothing fancy. But it’s still a marked upgrade from its more down-at-the-heels predecessor. The new Hung Sum is fresher-looking, larger and airier.

Chef Han Biao Lin cooks at Hung Sum restaurant, 939 Somerset St. W

A key explanation for the quality of Lin’s dim sum is that he cooks it à la carte, rather than serves it from a cart.

Yes, it’s standard dim-sum practice elsewhere to order one’s spring rolls, egg tarts or chickens’ feet from a passing server who’s wheeling plates of delectables on a cart around the dining room. But Lin — who has cooked at some restaurants that offer cart-service dim sum — says that despite the instant gratification of from-the-cart food, those dishes may have been touring a dining room for hours before being selected, and in the interim they’ve returned to the kitchen to be re-warmed.

Certainly in my experience, the best dim sum comes to the patient diner who orders off of a menu and is rewarded with piping-hot fare that hasn’t degraded during its time on a trolley.

Furthermore, as Lin’s wife May Lee says, Lin, who specialized in making dim sum in southern China before he came to Ottawa in 1994, is “really picky.” I take that to mean he cares about the ingredients in his dim sum, and that he prepares item with attention to detail and even pride.

His food might make you remember that dim sum means “touch the heart” in Cantonese — there’s your second language lesson — even if dim sum elsewhere can taste of mass-production and low effort in the kitchen.  

Hung Sum’s menu lists more than 50 dim sum items served all day, plus tea and soft drinks, as the eatery is, for now, unlicensed. Patrons tick off their choices, which land on the table as soon as they’re ready. You may come to respond to the sound of the “It’s ready” bell in the kitchen as did Pavlov’s dogs.

The fare is pretty standard in dim sum circles, with Lin striving to make food impeccably rather than innovatively. For my three recent lunches, he for the most part succeeded.

Safe bets here were any dumplings filled with shrimp, which tended to be loosely chopped and minimally manipulated rather than whizzed into a slurry by a food processor and rendered uni-textural. By all means get the old stand-by har gow dumplings ($4.95 for four), but don’t miss the less-common and refined scallop with shrimp shumai ($5.65 for four).

Shrimp dumplings at Hung Sum

Shrimp and scallop shumai at Hung Sum restaurant

Taro dumplings with pork ($3.75 for three) were a good measure of the kitchen’s standards for deep-frying. Happily, they were cleanly fried and savoury — not the oil bombs that they can be elsewhere. Similarly, chicken wings ($8.25), also available spicy, were spot-on crisp and delicious.

Crispy chicken wings at Hung Sum

Most interesting were the steamed green onion ginger beef dumplings ($4.50 for three), which had been deep-fried to give some crispness to their wrappers and then steamed to bolster their internal juiciness. 

Carnivores will probably relish Hung Sum’s pan-fried dumplings with pork fillings ($3.75 for three) and steamed barbecue pork buns ($3.75 for two). The latter were solidly made, if not outstanding, neither too sweet nor marred by overly fatty meat.

For comfort food, I liked the turnip cakes ($3.75 for three) with molten interiors, a bit of colour on the outside and some savoury pop flavour-wise. Congee (rice gruel) here was very, very plain. The dried scallop and meatball congee ($7) we tried was in great need of white pepper, I thought.

Savoury turnip cakes at Hung Sum

Congee at Hung Sum

It’s easy for dim sum to be a starch- and protein-fest. Still, vegetable lovers at our table were pleased by plates of Chinese broccoli with garlic ($6.50) and yu choy in chicken broth ($6.50).

Chinese broccoli with garlic at Hung Sum

Hung Sum does not serve the baked egg tarts that can make great, sweet meal-enders elsewhere. But the egg-yolk steamed buns ($3.75 for three), which hid custard-y, coconut-y fillings, were not bad substitutes.

Egg yolk buns at Hung Sum

A warning for some: there is MSG in some of Hung Sum’s items. But May Lee says her husband uses “as little as possible, less than other restaurants.”

At a Sunday visit when Hung Sum was most busy, service was slower than we would have liked. But during less-busy weekday lunches, the pace of the meal was much improved.

Currently in the kitchen, Lin and his mother-in-law basically handle everything. His wife May told me they want to hire another cook, but finding one who is qualified and speaks Cantonese hasn’t been easy. 

This year, my travels have allowed me to try a top-10 dim sum place in Toronto and even a designer dim-sum place in New York where high-end dumplings cost several times their equivalent at Hung Sum. A few years ago, I had fine dim sum at several of Richmond, B.C.’s well-regarded restaurants.

As low-key and smaller-scale as Hung Sum is, I wouldn’t trade it for any of those places.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Beechwood Gastropub
18 Beechwood Ave. 613-744-6509, beechwoodgastropub.com
Open: Monday to Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday and Friday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Prices: small plates $10 to $18, mains $22 to $30
Access: wheelchair ramp to front door

Over the last five years, I’ve had food made by Harriet Clunie in several settings and always left wanting to eat more of it.

When she was in her mid-20s, Clunie was René Rodriguez’s chef de cuisine at the now-shuttered and missed Navarra. A splendid meal that I ate there, when Rodriguez had the night off, must have benefitted from Clunie’s skills and attention to detail. Just a few years later, I enjoyed her food when she was in charge of Das Lokal’s kitchen when that Lowertown restaurant opened.

Like many a chef on Ottawa’s culinary scene, Clunie kept moving — and I couldn’t keep up. She was part of the Whalesbone family, cooking at the Elmdale Tavern, and then she moved to the Beechwood Gastropub, which opened about three years ago.

In the spring of 2017, Clunie, along with the eatery’s general manager Michelle Comeau, bought the gastropub from its owner, André Cloutier. But rather than rename the place Chez Harriet or something like that, they’ve kept the old name, which rightly stresses the restaurant’s neighbourhood roots.

I’ve eaten a few times this fall at the gastropub, and have liked what Clunie and Comeau have done with the place. I had mixed feelings about the venue when I reviewed it in early 2015, but think it’s now improved on all fronts. That said, some dishes have clearly been better than others.

Clunie’s menus have been concise, weighted toward smaller plates and appetites, and reliant upon from-scratch cooking and locally produced ingredients. Her best dishes have combined heartiness, breadth of flavours and refinement.  

Passing on the cheese and charcuterie, which draws upon goods from Jacobsons Gourmet Concepts up the street and Seed to Sausage and house-made meats, we’ve been quite pleased by two appetizers.

Breaded and fried eggplant medallions, served with grilled zucchini, marinated tomatoes, feta and radish were spot-on, delivering a nice mix of fresh veg, salt, acid and crunch. Ceviche made with small, organic, Pacific shrimp boasted similar complexity and harmony. It had a lot of zestiness to it, good mouthfeel and the tostada provided for scooping and nipping was a nice touch. 

Shrimp ceviche at Beechwood Gastropub

At another visit, however, I thought less of fried smelts with an unremarkable slaw, which in addition to being overly crisp and underly meaty needed a more acidic accent. Mussels and fries didn’t quite wow us too, mostly because the P.E.I. mussels were wee and the fries, while appealingly tossed in onion butter, were too mushy. Grilled bread, sopped in the mussels’ white wine sauce, was the highlight of the dish. 

Mussels and fries at Beechwood Gastropub

Kudos to the kitchen for striking sears and juicy interiors on several proteins. I’m thinking of the ling cod and striploin steak, both available in small and large portions. The fine piece of fish came with some interesting vegetable accompaniments, but the steak, while superbly supported by red wine jus and bracing chimichurri, was let down by more of those less-than-crisp fries. 

A small serving of ling cod at Beechwood Gastropub

Striploin steak (small serving) at Beechwood Gastropub

The house-made pasta here is always orecchiette, paired daily with what the kitchen sees fit. I’ve seen, and tasted, the little ears served with braised goat and a punchy tomato sauce that incorporated carrots, corn and cauliflower, and more recently with braised elk and a more stew-y sauce. Both dishes were winners.

Orecchiette with braised goat, carrots, corn and cauliflower at Beechwood Gastropub

Orecchiette with braised elk at Beechwood Gastropub

I’ve not tried the quail on Clunie’s menu, but I’ve stolen some bites from a Cornish hen special that recently subbed for the even smaller birds. It was fine, but didn’t knock me out as had the fish and steak. (The steak, by the way, also appears, but with eggs and home fries, on Beechwood’s weekend brunch menu, where, to my mind, it’s the best of the batch.)

Cornish hen at the Beechwood Gastropub

Of the comforting desserts here, I thought that the properly wobbly panna cotta, topped with a house-made compote and candied nuts, was better than the flourless chocolate cake. 

Panna cotta at Beechwood Gastropub

Service here has varied a little bit. In one case, it was on the ball and very proactive with explanation, but on another visit, it felt more slack, and there was no mention of daily specials.

At each of my weekend dinner visits, the gastropub has thrummed with business, including walk-ins galore. Having had some solidly made and affordable plates and just a few items that were in need of tweaking, I can see what’s driving the gastropub’s neighbours through its doors.  

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Flavours of Kerala
Unit B, 1104 Klondike Rd., Kanata, 613-435-8435, flavoursofkerala.com
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: appetizers $5 to $10, main dishes $14 to $20
Access: no steps to front door, rest room is wheelchair-accessible

Sarath Mohan, 27, has been a tech worker, a food blogger and a member of the kitchen team at an Indian restaurant in downtown Ottawa. But he has come into his own as the chef at Flavours of Kerala, a 30-seat eatery that opened in late August in a Kanata North mall.

Mohan is not from the South Indian province of Kerala, which is renowned for its distinctive and potently spiced fare. He’s from the city of Hyderabad, 1,000 km to the north. But his sous-chef Benny Vadakkan and Anil Nair, the restaurant’s owner, are Kerala natives, and between the three of them, they are turning some exceptional and well-crafted dishes that should please fellow South Indian expats and lovers of bold, complex flavours that sets taste buds thrumming. 

Keralite food has a discerning following in Ottawa, thanks to the pioneering efforts and successes of chef Joe Thottungal, who 13 years ago opened Coconut Lagoon on St. Laurent Boulevard. Thottungal began modestly, but his achievements, including a win at last year’s Gold Medal Plates competition in Ottawa and second place at this year’s Canadian Culinary Championships, place him in the top tier of Ottawa chefs. 

Nair, previously a co-owner at Kochin Kitchen, a not-quite-three-year-old Keralite restaurant in the ByWard Market, said that he opened Flavours of Kerala in Ottawa’s west end in part because he didn’t want to be too close to Coconut Lagoon. (He also wants to woo Kanata’s tech workers at lunch-time.)

My take, after several visits this month to Flavours of Kerala, is that Ottawa is definitely big enough for several high-calibre Keralite restaurants. Indeed, the quality of Mohan’s food is such that east-enders would be justified in making the trip across town to try it. 

Flavours of Kerala is small and simply decorated, its grey walls adorned with evocative paintings and curios. Nair takes the lead in the dining room, providing friendly and knowledgeable service. Both he and Mohan, who likes to visit the dining room and solicit feedback, can speak passionately about the eatery’s food, the preparations, the ingredients, and more. 

Our first meal at Flavours of Kerala began very well, with onion pakoras (fritters made with chickpea flour) that were crisp, but not oily, loosely clustered and brightly flavoured with a gingery pop. Chili chicken — moist white-meat nuggets that had been breaded, fried and tossed with a sambal-like sauce — was irresistible. Salt and pepper calamari were spice-perked, cleanly fried and tasty. “Southern scallops” was a successful fusion effort, with properly seared seafood playing nicely with with Keralite spices and coconut-milk sauce.

Onion pakoras at Flavours of Kerala restaurant.

Chili chicken at Flavours of Kerala restaurant.

Calamari at Flavours of Kerala restaurant.

Southern scallops at Flavours of Kerala restaurant.

We chose larger, shareable items, all served with rice or fried parotha flatbreads, that ratcheted up the spicy stimulations. We could have ordered milder, more familiar options such as lamb korma or butter chicken, but opted instead for the full Keralite experience. In fact, Mohan told me that he cannot dial down the heat on his dishes, although he can make them more spicy.

We certainly found that the pepper lamb and beef vindaloo didn’t need any extra heat. Both featured tender meat in complex and different mouth-jangling sauces. Palates more accustomed to such incendiary fare could judge better, but we found that the lamb packed a bigger wallop than the beef, which scorched more slowly, with chilies and vinegar leading the charge.

Pepper lamb at Flavours of Kerala

Beef vindaloo at Flavours of Kerala

In comparison, “kanthari kozhi,” a signature-dish creation of Nair’s, was practically soothing, with its boneless chicken immersed in a gravy that balanced the punch of green kanthari chillies with coriander and coconut milk.  

Kanthari kozhi chicken dish at Flavours of Kerala restaurant.

Another dish that won us over with well-blended, robust flavours was elayil pollichathu, in which boneless salmon (substituted for the more authentic bone-in kingfish) was marinated, slathered with a thick, tomatoey spice paste, wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled. 

Elayil Pollichathu Salmon cooked in a banana leaf at Flavours of Kerala, pix by Peter Hum

I was told that Vadakkan is in charge of that dish, as well as the keralite beef fry, to ensure the authenticity that supports the restaurant’s name. In that intoxicating beef dish, the meat was unsauced, but saturated with spicy flavour and complemented by a heap of browned onions and chunks of coconut. 

Kerala beef fry at Flavours of Kerala restaurant

Vadakkan has also cooked in recent years in Ottawa’s Dosa Inc. food truck, serving the famed South Indian sour dough crepes. Dosa are on Flavours of Kerala’s menu too, especially on Sundays, when an all-you-can-eat selection of dosas replaces the regular menu. 

Last Sunday, pre-dosa appetizers included fluffy idli (steamed rice-and-lentil cakes that feature in breakfasts in India) and light, clean-tasting vada (fried lentil doughnuts), served with coconut chutney and sambar, a spicy, tangy, vegetable-studded broth.

Then, the deluge of dosas hit our table. Most filling and popular were the masala dosas. Those light, crispy crepes were stuffed with a soft, savoury potato-based filling. Intriguing and enjoyable were the more snack-like dosas bolstered by a layer of egg batter and stuffed with paneer (grated white cheese) or a sharp, bitter chili paste. Our table of dosa neophytes watched experts at other tables eating their crepes with their hands, dipping scraps of them into chutney and sambar. 

Masala Dosa with chili sauce, sambar and coconut chutney at Flavours of Kerala

I don’t know if Nutella dosas are a thing in Kerala, but they are in Kanata, and they were a fine Sunday dessert here.

On other nights, there are several house-made desserts, which top the usually store-bought South Asian sweets at other Indian restaurants. Of them, I’ve only tried Mohan’s madhurakatti, which sounds incredibly simple — fry bread in ghee (clarified butter), add sugar syrup and a sauce of boiled, sugared, spiced milk — but is eye-wideningly delicious. 

“Bread pudding” dessert at Flavours of Kerala restaurant.

The restaurant is licensed, and stocked with imported beers and even Scotch, which, I was told, Keralite revellers like with their beef fry. Alternately, and especially to assuage burning mouths, there are yogurt-based lassi drinks, both sweet and salty.

Mohan, reflecting on his lack of culinary training, told me that he hopes to attend Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute to gain some new skills. I wonder though if he might also have a few things to teach his peers.

For his part, Nair says that he hopes Mohan will soon be representing Flavours of Kerala in local cooking competitions. I’d advise his rivals not to underestimate him.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum