Izakaya Shingen
201 Bank St., 613-680-0802, izakayashingen.com
Open: Sunday to Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 to 11 p.m.
Prices: small plates up to $13.50 
Access: one step to front door

With so many flattering photos of meaty morsels displayed on the menu at Izakaya Shingen, some of my dining companions have found it hard to get excited about ordering the grilled rice balls.

And yet, as humble as they may sound, yaki onigiri, as they’re known in Japan, have an impressive history that dates back a millennium. Samurai were said to have packed onigiri in bamboo leaves for their travels. Today’s yaki onigiri are tucked into Japanese lunch boxes, taken to picnics, sold in convenience stores. They’re also a staple snack at izakayas — Japanese watering holes — where they help relaxing off-shift workers absorb their beer.

Grilled rice balls at Izakaya Shingen

On Ottawa’s dining scene, the history of yaki onigiri has been negligible. That’s not surprising, given that the area’s few izakayas have tended to offer Asian-fusion fare, or tacked on izakaya dishes to menus filled with tricked-out sushi and ramen, rather than aspire to serving what you’d eat in an unassuming bar in Tokyo. (Hint: Any izakaya that offers seafood poutine, as I’ve seen while on my rounds, plays fast and loose with its designation.) 

But Izakaya Shingen, which opened last fall in Centretown, happily keeps things much more traditional. Along with the yaki onigiri — which were nicely crusted and flecked with bits of salmon in their yielding interiors — the rustically decorated restaurant also serves assorted grilled goods, deep-fried treats, a few raw-fish items, steamed and simmered items and more, including such dishes rarely seen in Ottawa as mentaiko udon (noodles in creamy spicy cod roe sauce) and dashi chazuke (rice with dashi broth, topped with octopus, salmon or Japanese plum).

Open only in the evening, Izakaya Shingen shares its space and kitchen with the more lunch-hour-oriented eatery Burrito Sensei, which opened almost a year ago and specializes in sushi burritos and rice bowls topped with raw fish and other ingredients. Burrito Sensei’s fare is also available when Shingen is open, if raw fish dishes are a must. But during my two recent visits I opted solely for the izakaya’s small plates, and wasn’t at all disappointed. 

Yakitori skewers — pieces of thigh, ground chicken meatball, bits of heart and liver — all appealed with their tenderness, clean flavour and light kiss of charcoal, and at $2.20 a stick, they feel like a steal.

Charcoal-grilled chicken skewers (ground chicken, heart, liver, regular) at Izakaya Shingen

Ginger-tinged sake-steamed clams ($9) were delicious — I could easily and gluttonously have downed a second helping. Slow-braised pork belly (buta no kakuni, $9) held bits of tasty, tender meat between its layers of fat. Almost as unctuous, and much sweeter thanks to its slathering of sauce, was an impressive chunk of roasted eel on rice ($10.80).

Sake-simmered clams at Izakaya Shingen

Braised pork belly and egg at Izakaya Shingen

Roasted eel on rice at Izakaya Shingen

Slabs of grilled beef short ribs ($9.80) were toothsome and sweetly sauced, but not overly so. Salt-cured salmon ($6.80) was texturally on point but too salty for some of us, while miso-marinated black cod ($12.60) was more mellow and widely appreciated.

Kalbi (beef short ribs) at Izakaya Shingen

Salt-cured salmon at Izakaya Shingen

Miso-marinated black cod at Izakaya Shingen

The kitchen’s deep-frying items were, for the most part, crisp and not oily. Among them, octopus balls (tako yaki, $6.90) with molten interiors were a standout. Boneless chicken karaage ($7.40) were a touch over-cooked on one occasion, but that gateway dish was still gobbled up by less adventurous eaters.

Tako yaki at Izakaya Shingen

Chicken Karaage at Izakaya Shingen

If you want to be comforted with carbohydrates, I can recommend those rice balls, or even better, the single-serving, porridge-like dashi chazuke dishes. Mentaiko udon ($12.20), a dish of thick udon noodles in a cream sauce topped with a dollop of spicy, crunchy, salty cod fish roe, was an Asian funhouse version of carbonara and a taste worth acquiring.

Salmon with rice in dashi broth at Izakaya Shingen

Udon noodles in cream sauce with cod roe at Izakaya Shingen

The last time I had okonomiyaki in Ottawa, that savoury Japanese pancake was a gloppy, over-sauced mess. While you couldn’t call Izakaya Shingen’s version ($13.50) refined — okonomiyaki, at its best, is filling, student fare — its components (pancake, cabbage, bacon, sweet sauce and more) were well-balanced in terms of flavour and texture and we dug into it with gusto.

Okonomiyaki at Izakaya Shingen

The dessert choices here are limited to three kinds of ice cream (black sesame, ginger and mango, up to $4.50 for a bowl), none of which is made in house, or the spin-it-yourself cotton candy, which you can make using a machine near the doorway.

ice creams at Izakaya Shingen

If such sugary frivolity is not your thing, the greater sophistication of about 10 sakes and four Japanese beers are options.

The izakaya’s decor is woody and casual. The dining room side, which seats about 40 on wooden stools, benches and softer banquettes,  is more evocative with Japanese wall hangings, banners and sake containers. Service has been fast in terms of delivering dishes, but a little lax in terms of check-ins and water refills. 

For almost six years, since I reviewed a now-closed Elgin Street restaurant that was named Izakaya but wasn’t really one, I’ve groused repeatedly about the lack of Japanese bar food arriving in town. It had seemed like the trend had arrived here, but the quality and consistency had lagged. No longer. With dishes that were well chosen, well made and reasonably priced, Izakaya Shingen at last scratches Ottawa’s izakaya itch.

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The Third
1017 Wellington St., 613-728-2965, facebook.com/thethirdott
Open: Tuesday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to closing, Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to closing, closed Monday
Prices: up to $12.50 for mains and burgers
Access: one step to front door

It’s easy to feel nostalgic at the Third.

That’s true, even if the almost-four-month-old pub and eatery’s name is somewhat new-fangled and even a little cryptic. Its explanation lies in the fact that almost 30 years ago, American sociologist Ray Oldenburg came up with “the third place” as a term encompassing venues outside of home (“the first place”) and work (“the second place”) where people gather and a sense of community ensues. I’m sure you get the drift. 

Tricky name aside, the Third, a narrow 46-seater with a bar that opened in Hintonburg where the Blackpepper Urban Pub had been, evokes a simple, vintage feel. If the old photo of the Hintonburg Hand Laundry and some associated signage don’t have you thinking about bygone days, the faux tin-wall siding might, along with the well-used tables, wooden pews and chairs surrounded by white and green walls.

And then there’s the concise, all-day menu of snacks, sandwich-based plates and smaller-sized mains. The Third stresses familiar pub and comfort food, minus any of the trendy or worldly tweaks that rule elsewhere. Chef Caroline Murphy, who designed the menu along with co-owner Ashley Struthers, may have cooked previously downtown at the Asian-fusion restaurant Makita and the modern Italian restaurant Town, but at the Third, she has scaled back her food to homey, from-scratch essentials.

Also dialled back at the Third are the prices. Most expensive on the menu is a double-patty bacon cheeseburger for $14.50, but every other sandwich or main course is $12 or less. Glancing at those prices for those dishes, you might think that it’s the 1970s all over again at the Third, even if the sound system isn’t playing Steely Dan.

Struthers links the Third’s pricing to two factors — its smaller portions, which themselves are explained by the uneaten food that Struthers saw returning to other restaurant kitchens in the past, and to her eatery’s efforts to run a “zero-waste” philosophy. Here, being frugal and environmentally minded means that, for example, vegetable scraps end up in soup rather than in the composter.  

Given the Third’s eminently affordable fare, unpretentious, convivial spirit and friendly, attentive service, it practically a no-brainer to ask, “What’s not to like?” As long as you don’t need massive portions, truffle oil on your mac and cheese or kimchi on your burger, you should do quite well.

During several visits, we received some likeable hits and a few forgivable misses.

At a dinner visit, a Caesar salad ($7) was a fresh and basic yet flavourful starter that happily made good on the menu’s assertion that its dressing contained anchovies. 

Caesar salad at the Third

A bacon cheeseburger ($12) had none of the fancy fixings or monumental height that defines more expensive burgers elsewhere, but it nailed the essentials with its appreciable crust and juiciness. A club sandwich ($11) made with turkey breast and homemade bread was also spot-on. Equally simple and well-made was a bowl of chunky chicken noodle soup ($5), served with toasted home-made bread on the side.

Bacon cheeseburger at the Third

Club sandwich at the Third

Chicken Noodle Soup at the Third

Occasionally the salting of some items has gotten away from the kitchen, as with the fries that came with that club sandwich, or the perfectly crisp sweet potato fries that came with a respectable veggie-nut burger ($10). Some house-made potato chips ($3) were also markedly over-salted, and it was a good thing that the home-made onion dip masked things.

Veggie burger and sweet potato fries at the Third

Potato chips at the Third

Three of four main dishes were definitely worth re-ordering. Fish and chips ($10) were admirably crisp and not oily, and the haddock came with some superior tartar sauce. The vegetarian option — a combo of roasted butternut squash and quinoa ($9) accented with turmeric, raisins, feta, kale and parsley  — was a lovely, zesty creation. Our table’s carnivore appreciated moist chunks of pork tenderloin ($11) served with cabbage slaw and sweet potatoes. 

Fish and chips at the Third

Quinoa squash vegetarian main course at the Third

Pork tenderloin main course at the Third

Only the quarter chicken under a brick with mac and cheese ($12) underwhelmed, because the nice, starchy side outshone the chicken leg, which lacked seasoning and crispness.

Chicken under a brick at the Third

A warm chocolate chip walnut cookie with milk ($3), the only dessert on the menu, impressed with its home-made feel. 

Chocolate chip and walnut cookie at the Third

We also had breakfast last weekend at the Third, happily seated in the sunny nook by the front window. Then, house-made scones ($4 each) were massive and dense, and needed the compote that came with them. Most notably, but perhaps because we wanted them to land before our main breakfasts, the pastries were undercooked with doughy centres. We let our server know about the shortcoming, and weren’t charged for the scones.

Scone at The Third

Better was a classic plate of eggs Benedict ($10) with ham, proper hollandaise sauce, and a brightly dressed, nicely contrasting salad. Best was the “mish-mash hash” ($8) of ham and potatoes below two fried eggs. The dish was a winner thanks to its bold, barbecue-like seasoning. I would have liked the French toast ($8) more had it been fluffier.

Eggs Benedict at The Third

Mish Mash Hash at The Third

French toast at the Third

About a dozen beers are on tap, including local brews by Kichesippi, Dominion City and Ashton Brewing Company. Wine choices are more limited but among them are on-tap wines from Niagara’s Vineland Estates Winery.

From what I’ve seen, Hintonburg residents has been quick to embrace the Third as a hangout true to its name. My easy-going, budget-friendly experiences make me think that it’s worth popping in even if you don’t live in the neighbourhood.

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Duna Bistro
2518 Innes Rd., 613-808-8346, dunabistro.com
Open: Monday to Saturday noon to 8 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: main dishes $15 to $24
Access: no steps to front door or washroom

I’ve never knowingly reviewed a restaurant with an uncertain future. But in the case of Duna Bistro, I’ll make an exception.

For this tiny, takeout-oriented eatery in Blackburn Hamlet, the lease will be up at the end of June, in advance of condos replacing its little strip mall. The business, run by chef-owner Paul Simon, will have to move, although he’d already thought of doing just that, albeit with less urgency. 

Fans of traditional Central and Eastern European food should hope that Duna Bistro, which takes its name from the Hungarian word for the Danube River, finds its new home close to them. While I’m told that Kanata-based and even Gatineau-based schnitzel fans have returned from Duna Bistro with a pizza box or two loaded with flattened, massive pork cutlets, Simon hopes that relocating will allow him to open a full-fledged restaurant with comfy seating, a liquor licence, and maybe even live music.

A more expansive Duna Bistro, particularly if it moved west, would help fill a near-vacant niche, especially with those veteran European restaurants the Lindenhof and New Dubrovnik shuttered for some years. By my reckoning, only the fancier Das Lokal in Lowertown and the more proletarian Schnitzel Works on Cyrville Road fly the culinary flag for meaty German/Austrian fare. 

For now, Duna Bistro seats just 11 at the counters along its perimeter. Simon, a Canadian of Hungarian descent, does the bulk of the cooking. The 49-year-old is self-taught in the kitchen, informed by his mother’s and grandmother’s cooking, and by what he ate during the nearly two decades he spent working in the financial sector in Central Europe before he moved to Ottawa for familial reasons in 2012. 

In the last few weeks, I’ve had two hearty, homey and satisfying meals at Duna Bistro while staring out the window at Innes Road. Like most of Simon’s customers, I also brought home a few dishes, wanting to see if they would significantly degrade after 20 minutes in the car.

The star attraction here, pork schnitzel, has lived up to its billing. At $17 for a regular serving and $24 for a large one, the specialty might seem steeply priced. But both include a starchy side, and moreover, the over-sized schnitzels have tasted admirably hand-crafted, as if the Viennese grandmother I never had had made it.

Here, better quality pork loin has been pounded — “with love,” Duna’s website says — and then breaded and panfried. Their crispness and tenderness were finely finished with a squeeze of lemon to cut their richness. Sauce fans could add dollops of mushroom-based jaeger sauce for $4, although these schnitzels, which sprawled across their plates, were so good on their own that I thought sauce wasn’t needed.  

clockwise from bottom left, schnitzel, jaeger sauce, two cabbage rolls, and spaetzle at Duna Bistro

With the three-quarter-pound large schnitzel ($24) sampled at our first visit to Duna came a bowl of toothsome, made-that-morning spaetzle, fortified with bits of bacon and caramelized onions. Simon threw in a bowl of homemade sauerkraut, which was refreshingly acidic and nicely seasoned so as to taste of more than fermented cabbage.

Sauerkraut and cole slaw at Duna Bistro

We also had a plate of luscious pelmeni ($15) — juicy Russian dumplings stuffed delectably with chicken and veal and served with sour cream and caramelized onions.  

Pelmeni at Duna Bistro

At a second visit, we tried not only another well-made schnitzel but also a plate of long-cooked cabbage rolls ($15), which featured smooth, mellow stuffings of ground pork and rice and which sat in a generous puddle of sauce made with not just tomato but also red pepper. Ten pierogies stuffed with cheddar and potato, boiled and then fried in duck fat ($17) — apparently as per Wayne Gretzky’s favourite preparation — were suitably indulgent.

Cabbage rolls at Duna Bistro

Cheese and potato pierogies fried in duck fat at Duna Bistro

We had wanted to try Simon’s goulash too at lunch, but what goulash he had was still cooking, because a huge order the previous night had emptied his fridge of that beefy stew.  This week, I took home a container of goulash ($17), brimming with tender beef in a tangy, salty gravy on one side and dense mashed potatoes on the other. In its tin, the goulash wasn’t going to win any beauty contests. But once removed, and even eaten again the next day at lunch, the hearty, savoury stew was as warming and comforting as you could wish for.

Goulash with mashed potatoes, spaetzle and shredded beets at Duna Bistro

I also brought a dozen pierogies ($15) stuffed with pork (potato-cheese and sauerkraut-mushroom stuffings are also available), which surpassed the boiled Slavic dumplings I’ve eaten in the past, but came second in my heart after those cheesy, crisp-seared pierogies. 

Pork-filled pierogies with caramelized onions, double-smoked bacon and sour cream from Duna Bistro

There are no desserts on Duna Bistro’s menu. However, at one lunch there was a tray of simple cookies and some slices of lavish chocolate biscuit cake on one the eatery’s counters, both made by one of Simon’s workers. We bought and shared a slice of the superb cake, which had been made for a special occasion, and were each gifted a cookie.

As humble as Duna Bistro is, Simon is a cordial host who clearly takes quiet pride in his no-shortcuts food and in pleasing customers. He’s also capable of cooking dishes, such as borscht and chicken parikash, beyond what’s listed on the current menu, which has been compacted while business at this location is winding down. Duna’s website does offers a to-go Easter dinner for this weekend, built around a roasted lamb leg.

Simon told me this week that when he lived in Budapest, he was so crazy about the schnitzel at a certain Viennese restaurant that he would sometimes drive more than two hours to have some of it for lunch. “I used to adore that place,” he said.

Social Thai
399 Bank St., 613-230-0084, ottawasocialthai.ca
Open: Monday to Wednesday 5 to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11 p.m., Sunday 4 to 9 p.m.
Prices: sharable main dishes $16 to $22
Access: step to front door, washrooms downstairs

The last time I had dinner at Social Thai, the wintry wind whooshed from Bank Street into the dining room with every delivery man that entered to stock up, quite possibly on pad Thai meant for someone in Centretown.

The two-year-old restaurant dispatches its food via SkipTheDishes and Uber Eats. When the latter service did a tally about a year ago, it found that Social Thai’s pad Thai was one of its Top 5 dishes ordered by Ottawa residents.

That’s all well and good. But there are other dishes, which are both attractively plated and simply better, that make dining in at Social Thai appealing, especially once the weather and wind eventually warm up.

For almost a decade until April 2016, the restaurant at Social Thai’s address had been Miga, a Korean restaurant. But its owner decided to switch to Thai cuisine, thinking it was more popular, I was told this week.

The new restaurant does employ Thai cooks in the kitchen, I’m told, and there have been major changes to the once no-frills dining room too. Social Thai seats almost 40 in darkened, classy surroundings. At this brown-walled place of glass-topped tables and lightly cushioned metal seats plus some picnic-table seating, diners are surrounded by low-key art on the wall, groovy music and contemporary pop from the sound system and sometimes the smell of lemongrass.

For the most part, the kitchen offers its versions of the usual curries, stir-fries and noodle- and rice-based dishes that in North America, if not in Thailand, have seemingly been elevated to must-orders. They’re made all the more accessible because Social Thai’s diners typically choose the protein — chicken, beef, sometimes tofu, or shrimp, which can come with an extra charge — that goes into the dish. Spice levels are also adjusted on demand, from mild to medium to spicy to “Thai spicy,” and we’ve found medium and spicy dishes were sufficiently potent. Need more heat? There are also shakers of ground Thai chillies on each table. 

Here, there are also some less expected dishes here that you might try, and not just for novelty’s sake. While shredded vegetable fritters (khang pong) are common street food in Northern Thailand, you’ll be hard-pressed to find them in Ottawa’s Thai restaurants, and maybe even at North American Thai restaurants. Social Thai does serve these deep-fried treats ($10) as starters. I’ve had versions made with squash and sweet potato, crisp and piled high in a snarled mess in an ornamental bowl, with tangy dipping sauce on the side.

Squash fritters at Social Thai

They were well-made, direct of flavour and enjoyed at our table, and I would pretty much pay the same compliments to most other dishes we were served at Social Thai, whether it was obscure or a greatest hit of Thai cuisine.

I’m also not used to seeing crispy chicken salad (yum gai tod, $16) at Ottawa’s Thai restaurants as much as minced chicken salad (larb, $16) or mango salad (yum ma maung, $16). All of them were punchily flavoured and pleasantly received. The first dish featured deep-fried chicken meat with bracingly dressed vegetables, the larb was more minimalist but on the money with its heat and sourness, and the mango salad — upsold so that it teemed with seafood — was fresh and bright. 

Crispy Chicken salad at Social Thai

Larb chopped chicken salad at Social Thai

Mango salad with seafood at Social Thai

Savoury Social Thai spring rolls ($10) were impeccably fried and generously stuffed with chicken and vegetables. Our table’s resident hot and sour chicken soup (tom kha gai) aficionado pronounced Social Thai’s rendition ($8) among the very best that she’s had.

Social Thai spring rolls at Social Thai

Tom Kha Gai soup at Social Thai

Larger dishes impressed with their balance of flavours and attention to texture and contrast. 

Crisply coated sole with Thai herbs (pla sai moonprai, $22) demonstrated again the kitchen’s frying skills, although the dish’s biggest pop of flavour came from its sauce. An expertly cooked stir-fry (pad med ma meung) made with shrimp, vegetables and cashew nuts ($20) was toothsome and well-sauced.

Crispy sole at Social Thai

Shrimp stir-fry at Social Thai

Two curries here leaned to the runnier side but were still flavourful. We preferred the Social Thai seafood curry ($20.50) to a panang curry ($19) that was made with beef and seemed more perfunctory.

Social Thai seafood curry at Social Thai

Panang curry with beef at Social Thai

The much-ordered pad Thai ($14.50) was alright, registering as a little sweet but with a lingering tanginess. I liked even more the fried rice made with vegetables, pineapple and cashews ($17).

Pad Thai at Social Thai

Substantial portions and intense flavours left us too full and sated to try either the ice cream or spring rolls made with bananas for dessert.

As for beverages, in addition to some interesting cocktails and beers that included some locally brewed choices, the restaurant also serves tamarind juice and Thai coffee.

Servers here have been well-informed and helpful. But at one of two dinners, water refills to soothe our jangled palates were slow in coming, and an extra soup had been added to our bill.  

My biggest gripe has to do with Social Thai’s prices. Of course, rising prices at restaurants are as certain as death and taxes, and I wonder if prices here did rise to offset costs associated with the delivery services or the new provincial minimum wage. Whatever the explanation, the prices here do strike me as on the high side for Thai dishes in Ottawa, and I have had, elsewhere in the city, comparable or better plates for a few dollars less. 

phum@postmedia.com
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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

The Bowl
83 Holland Ave., 613-729-5454, thebowlottawa.ca
Open: Monday to Friday 11 a.m. 7 p.m., Saturday noon to 7 p.m., closed Sunday

Mad Radish
859 Bank St. and 116 Albert St., madradish.com
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Bank Street); Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday (Albert Street)

Paradise Poké
134 Bank St., 613-518-4432, paradisepoke.ca
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sunday 

Raw Pulp + Grind
440 Preston St., 613-569-7291, rawpulpandgrind.com
307 Richmond Rd., 613-798-7292, rawpulpandgrind.com
Open: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Preston Street) or 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Richmond Road), Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

When I learned that a new restaurant in town was boasting on its website about serving just “one (really, really tasty) dish,” my first thought was, “Excellent! This will yield the shortest column I’ll ever write.”

Well, I’ve conquered my laziness and below is a recap of my visits to not one, but four, Ottawa fast casual restaurants that specialize in turning out quick, healthy, vegetable- and grain-forward bowl-based dishes for customers who are in a rush, but want something other than a burger or a shawarma to fill themselves up. 

It feels as if eateries such as The Bowl, Mad Radish, Raw Pulp + Grind and Paradise Poké are on the rise, even if they are at one end of the restaurant spectrum, opposed to the meatier or more luxurious, relax-and-stay-awhile places that get more press. By comparison, the bowl-based eateries definitely involve more assembling than cooking, but the flip-side of that there can also be much more customization of a bowl’s contents in keeping with a guest’s likes and dislikes. 

The above eateries mostly focus on feeding nearby workers at lunch time or selling them snacks before and after. Just one of the businesses, Mad Radish in the Glebe, is open beyond 7 p.m. In addition to stressing the healthfulness of their food, most of the businesses tout their eco-friendly bona fides with compostable bowls and the like.

At The Bowl, a tiny eatery on Holland Avenue, the business is built around a bowl of brown rice, beans, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, kalamata olives, avocado, cilantro, topped with crispy chickpeas. The vegetarian dish can be made vegan if extra avocado is substituted for the cheese and sour cream. Holding the dish together is what The Bowl calls KiKi sauce, which is a spiced, citrus-y tahini-like sauce.

The bowl (brown rice, beans, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, kalamata olives, avocado, cilantro, and topped with house roasted crispy chickpeas, with kiki sauce (lemon tahini) at The Bowl

The Bowl’s bowl ($8.50) was surprisingly dense and filling, its rice and beans were pleasantly warm, its sauce did indeed liven up the other fine ingredients and the house-roasted chickpeas were a special crunchy treat. Also served at The Bowl are drinks including locally fermented Buchipop kombucha ($4), and a chocolate brownie ($3) that was made with avocado and black beans, but not make us believers in those substitutions.

At Ottawa’s two Raw Pulp + Grind locations, which also serve juices, smoothies, parfaits, coffees and teas and more, the “power” bowls ($11 each), are pre-made and kept cool for grab-and-go customers. Both a Thai Noodle bowl, which topped rice noodles with assorted crisp veg, cilantro and a peanut/miso dressing, and a bowl of quinoa enlivened by sweet potato sticks, black beans, edamame, beets, kale, and pumpkin seeds with a lemon tahini dressing, were enjoyable and fortifying, even if they were chilled rather than warm. 

Thai Noodle Bowl at Raw Pulp + Grind

Quinoa power bowl at Raw Pulp + Grind

On the sweeter side, Raw Pulp + Grind serves açai bowls that layer fruits, granola, nut milks and more over blended açai berry pulp, and has more of them listed on the wall than it does savoury choices. Having made their way to Ottawa via Brazil, Hawaii and other trendy, health-conscious locations, açai bowls combine the appeal of superfood-based nutrition with the feeling that you’re eating dessert. Given how much I liked Raw’s “Black Beauty” acai bowl ($11), whose most notable ingredient was activated charcoal, I’ll likely pop for açai-based treats as impulse purchases when I pass by the store in the future.  

“Black Beauty” acai bowl at Raw Pulp + Grind

At Ottawa’s Mad Radish locations, both opened last summer, most of the menu consists of salads in bowls. However, we opted to try two of three warm and somewhat less leafy bowls. The forager ($13), in which toothsome marinated mushrooms were the star, appealed more than the the chicken-based bowl. While the latter’s meat had been sourced from the Quebec-based organic producer Ferme des Voltigeurs, it had been overcooked before it made from the assembly line into our bowl. Also, something about this bowl induced palate fatigue more quickly than the bowls I tried elsewhere.

Fired-up Chicken and Forager bowls at Mad Radish

On the plus side, Mad Radish’s dark chocolate brownie ($2) delivered the indulgent goods that its counterpart at The Bowl lacked.

Finally, at Paradise Poké, the heavily Asian-influenced, savoury bowls (they also make two açai bowls) were well and quickly made.

In Hawaii, poké is more likely to be a salad heavy on the raw fish, assertively dressed and seasoned. In North America, the fish can get downplayed in what passes for poké, and at Paradise Poké, while there’s sufficient raw tuna or salmon in their bowls ($13.95), they also teem with foundations of warm sushi or brown rice, cucumbers, sesame seeds, edamame, purple cabbage, assorted house-made sauces, fried shallots, pickled daikon and more. 

Tuna poke bowl and hibiscus tea at Paradise Poke

Chicken bowl at Paradise Poke

Not a member of Team Raw Fish? There are both signature and custom-made bowls that feature chicken, tofu or beets. Given my chicken-based bowl at Mad Radish I had low hopes of something similar at Paradise Poké, but the chicken-based bowl was surprisingly good, blessed with meat that was moist and not merely dry, but sauced.

Another nice touch at Paradise Poké was the house-made hibiscus iced tea ($2.95) beside the cash. 

In my admittedly hardly definitive or exhaustive tour of Ottawa bowl’s eateries, it was Paradise Poké that most bowled me over.

phum@postmedia.com
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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Flora Hall Brewing
37 Flora St., 613-695-2339‍, florahallbrewing.ca
Open: Monday to Thursday 3 p.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday noon to 2 a.m., Sunday noon to midnight
Prices: $8 to $18 for dishes
Access: fully accessible (automated accessible entrance, accessible washroom downstairs)

Elgin Beer Project
399 Elgin St., 613-656-6600, elginbeerproject.com
Open: daily from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. 
Prices: small plates $5 to $15
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms

Beerocracy
340 Somerset St. W., 613-680-2337, beerocracy.ca
Open: Tuesday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday 11:30 a.m. to midnight, Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., closed Monday
Prices: dishes $6 to $13
Access: steps to front door, washrooms downstairs

For the past few months, I’ve been popping now and again into three newer, craft-brew-based businesses in Centretown, not because I was thirsty but to see how their food stacked up. I ate quite a range of dishes, from a few commendable small plates to items that warranted a pint with which I could drown my sorrows.

On Somerset Street West, the punningly named Beerocracy opened last June where the Centretown Pub, one of Ottawa’s first gay bars, had been for roughly three decades until its closure in early 2017. A massive place with three separate bars plus front and back patios, Beerocracy means to attract customers with more than 30 craft brews in bottles and cans and on tap, while a lighter-side menu puts pub staples and Asian-influenced dishes side by side.

The best thing I can say about Beerocracy’s food is that it won’t excessively gouge a beerocrat’s expense account. The most costly entrée here is $13 and most items are under $10. The no-frills small and larger plates that I’ve sampled were nothing to write home about and were occasionally flawed.

Among several appetizers, best in terms of flavour and execution were the chicken satay skewers ($7), although their peanut sauce was oily and mediocre. Three pork belly slices ($7), topped with stripes of pleasant, if lightly spiced, sauce, were alright. Seafood spring rolls ($6) scarcely tasted of seafood, and their fish sauce was wan and unadorned. Cold rice wraps ($6) were another lacklustre letdown. 

Chicken Satay skewers at Beerocracy

Pork Belly at Beerocracy

Spring Rolls at Beerorcracy

Rice wraps at Beerocracy

Of the larger dishes, I’d recommend the burger and fries ($10), even if they were just OK, over any of the slow-cooked meats (plates of oxtail, ribs or brisket, $11 to $13), which were generally short of flavour, blandly sauced and tougher than they should have been. A serving of Singapore noodles ($11) was substantial, but the fried egg on top of it was overcooked. 

Burger and fries at Beeorocracy

Oxtail at Beerocracy

Brisket at Beerocracy

Ribs at Beerocracy

Singapore Noodles at Beerocracy

It was a nice surprise to see homemade Japanese cheesecake ($3.50) as the menu’s only dessert, but our slice’s merits were muted because it was too cold.

Japanese cheese cake at Beerocracy

At the south end of Elgin Street, the Elgin Beer Project last year replaced Slice & Co. At this 40-seat place that’s almost a year old the list of craft beers and ciders verges on 100 items, while a menu of a dozen or so small plates and snacks hints at some interesting eating for not much cash. However, the kitchen’s work was too often lacking.

Best here was a banh mi-based burger ($15) created on a whim and blessed with a runny fried egg. But during my two visits, other dishes came with significant problems, from the heaviness and blandness of an insufficiently sauced bánh xèo (Vietnamese crepe, $8) to the underseasoned egg rolls ($7) to the stodgy batter on the kung pao cauliflower ($7) that would have been better roasted. Brussel sprouts ($7) came with an off-putting cheese-y sauce and they, too, would have been better after a good roasting. Mushrooms on toast ($8) registered as oily, brisket sliders ($9) were dry and Nashville hot chicken ($8) was meagerly spiced and curiously perched on an almost cake-y brioche. 

Burger at Elgin Beer Project

Egg rolls at Elgin Beer Project

Kung Pao cauliflower at Elgin Beer Project

Brussel sprouts at Elgin Beer Project

Mushrooms on toast at Elgin Beer Project

Brisket sliders at Elgin Beer Project

Nashville chicken at Elgin Beer Project

“We’re not really about desserts, we’re about beer and small plates,” our server said, before he brought us a slab of carrot cake loaf, the venue’s only dessert. It was a good thing that our expectations had been lowered. 

Carrot cake loaf at Elgin Beer Project

And then there’s Flora Hall Brewing, the two-floor, 120-seat place that opened in late October last year, having converted a one-time garage into an industrial-chic gathering place that can be packed and very loud on weekend evenings. About a dozen beers are brewed on site, a few other craft beers and ciders are also available, and the concise, frequently changing menus by former Moonroom chef Linette Edmonds roam globally and aspire to deliver from-scratch small plates with punchy flavours.

Lunching here, I’ve had a few somewhat regrettable experiences. A spicy sausage calzone ($16) was very one-note in flavour and its exterior was too crunchy. Some Sichuan chicken wings ($12) tasted neither Sichuan-y nor good. The kitchen can be heavy-handed with salt here and there, notably on its plank-like and otherwise quite commendable fries.

Spicy sausage calzone at Flora Hall Brewing

Sichuan chicken wings at Flora Hall Brewing

Fries at Flora Hall Brewing

But in the main, there were dishes too that I’d happily eat again, such as a perky caponata with grilled bread ($12), a flavourful Moroccan spin on chicken thighs ($17), a jerk tofu wrap ($14) in which the tofu reasonably stood in for chicken and a barley feta salad with a zingy dressing ($10).

Caponata at Flora Hall Brewing

Moroccan chicken at Flora Hall Brewing

Barley salad at Flora Hall Brewing

Jerk Tofu Wrap at Flora Hall Brewing

Bonus: At Flora Hall, it was consistently worth saving room for the house-made desserts ($9), including a Sichuan ice cream sandwich, double chocolate cake and bourbon apple crumble ice cream with toasted oats and apple.

Sichuan Ice Cream sandwich at Flora Hall Brewing

Double chocolate cake at Flora Hall Brewing

Dessert at Flora Hall Brewing

For all of your beer needs, the three venues above do admirable jobs. But if you’re seeking food that will do more for you than simply absorb alcohol, then of these Centretown haunts, Flora Hall was clearly the best option. 

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Mati
428 Preston St., 613-680-3860, matiottawa.ca
Open:  Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday 5 to 11 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m.
Prices: appetizers $14 to $21, mains $24 to $128
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms downstairs

At our table last weekend at Mati, there were a few causes for celebration.

Beside me at this almost five-month-old restaurant on Preston Street was someone marking her birthday. Across from us was a couple in a festive mood because their European cruise loomed, and they had also just learned that their daughter-in-law was expecting. Mati, we hoped, was just the kind of sleek, splurge-y place where, for the duration of dinner, at least, we could feel special about ourselves and our circumstances.

Located where the last incarnation of Ottawa’s venerable Black Cat Bistro had been for nearly a decade, Mati is the upscale sister restaurant of EVOO Greek Kitchen, which opened in late 2013 a block south of Mati on Preston Street. Mati’s owners have given the venue a striking makeover so that a large, square, three-sided bar and stylish lighting make a splashy impression when you enter, while ringed around the bar and in a second dining area, cosy tables and larger banquettes are decked out for posh dining and drinking. The restaurant seats about 70, and at both my visits, the restaurant has been busy with a youthful clientele.

Regarding dining, Mati highlights its offerings with its subtitle of “crudo + charcoal,” meaning raw-seafood-based small plates and items, including steaks most of all, that are grilled on the kitchen’s Argentine-style grill. There are also some notable Greek and Mediterranean influences to Mati’s menu, although they don’t stop the tuna tartare from skewing Japanese, nor the mussels from heading in the direction of Thailand.

Regarding drinking, almost a dozen creative cocktails costing up to $15 a glass plus a listing of Italian liqueurs warrant their own page, while the wine list includes only European bottles, of which about a dozen wines are available by the glass, usually for $10 or more. 

It’s worth talking about prices in general right now because Mati’s can be eye-wideningly high. The cheapest steak dinner, for example, is $42. Shareable big-ticket items include the seafood tower ($78 or $125, depending on the size), massive steaks for $86 and $128 respectively, or a whole chicken for $39. Thus, going to Mati with reasons to celebrate makes it that much easier to part with that much cash. 

During my two Friday-night dinners at Mati, there was enough to like, including flavourful grilled food and some well-made small plates, that I and my dinner companions enjoyed our time there.

At the same time, if you went to Mati expecting a top-to-bottom, fine-dining experience for fine-dining prices, I’d say you would get something different — tasty, yes, but also a bit less refined. The room’s loudness when the air was filled with groove music and chatting, plus the tight fit of the black dresses of Mati’s servers, also ran counter to it being a temple of fine dining.

We’ve started meals well with soutzoukakia ($14) — toothsome, oblong, braised lamb and pork meatballs in a full-flavoured tomato sauce. A fine vegetarian starter was assortment of nicely battered discs of zucchini and eggplant ($15), given an umami boost with parmesan and garlic lemon aioli. 

Lamb and beef meatballs at Mati

fried eggplant and zucchini at Mati

But if these appetizers, for all their simplicity, were pleasing, I thought the seafood platter ($78), for all of its craft and luxurious signalling, was more uneven. A lobster’s claw and tail were properly cooked, while East Coast oysters and plump shrimps were on point. Clams were made better with a miso-enriched sauce, as were mussels by their tangy escabeche treatment. But the yellowfin tuna tartare’s maple-soy dressing obscured the taste of the raw fish, while slices of raw swordfish did not sparkle and they too were overshadowed by garnishes. 

Seafood platter at Mati

Among main courses, steaks that had been aged for 40 days, cooked sous-vide for edge-to-edge temperature consistency and then given a modest char from the grill had concentrated beefy flavour and good texture. Citrusy chimichurri sauce and finishing salt were simple enhancements. The deluxe porterhouse ($86), served with rustic, smashed potatoes, was the worthy centrepiece of one evening’s feast. I was less impressed by the more modestly flavoured filet ($42) with two jumbo shrimp and satisfying, but less than impeccable, shoestring fries.  

Porterhouse steak at Mati

Filet and shrimp at Mati

A whole chicken ($39), divided into pieces on a board and served with a tart slaw, was pleasantly moist and tasted better than it looked. Braised short rib ($35) were tender and properly sauced and made for a comforting bowl.

Charcoal-grilled chicken at Mati

Short rib at Mati

I’d take the Mati Greek salad ($17), heavy with juicy tomatoes and an enriching tapenade, over the less substantial plate of grilled asparagus and carrots with feta ($14).

Greek salad at Mati

Asparagus, carrots and feta at Mati

Rather homey desserts were massive but flawed, despite a $12 price that I associate with oodles of finesse, if not perfection. A berry strudel was gummy rather than flaky. The bottom of a S’mores brownie cooked in a cast iron pan was on the burnt side. Overall, an Italian digestivo made for a better meal-ender.

S’mores brownie at Mati

Berry strudel at Mati

In the end, I was glad to have taken my relatives on one occasion, and then some out-of-town friends on the other, to Mati. The convivial vibe, the slick trappings and the restaurant’s best dishes made for memorable outings. But the cost of enjoying ourselves was considerable, sufficiently so to make me wince at my bills the day after. 

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Alirang
1485 Merivale Rd., 613-695-5188, facebook.com/AlirangRestaurant/
Open: Monday and Wednesday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., 5 to 10 p.m., closed Tuesday
Prices: main dishes $11.95 to $17.95, barbecue $17.95 to $28.95 per person, minimum two people
Access: washrooms downstairs

On a recent Saturday night at Alirang on Merivale Road, there were almost as many people waiting for tables as there were people eating in the packed, 60-seat Korean restaurant.

At the three-month-old eatery, an offshoot of the well-established and similarly named place in Lowertown, it’s common at peak times for the lobby to be jammed with a hungry and mostly Asian throng. That’s what happens when a popular place refuses to take phone reservations, and when that place has earned its popularity with hearty, agreeable, affordable versions of Korean cuisine’s greatest hits.

For almost a decade and a half, the previous standalone restaurant at this address had been the burger-and-milkshakes joint Dick’s Drive-In and Dairy Dip. Thorough renovations have removed the old look and feel of Dick’s and replaced them with prominent Korean decorations along the dining room’s main wall and even an aquarium.

Most importantly, some of the tables are outfitted to allow for do-it-yourself, gas-cannister-powered grilling of various cuts of pork, chicken or beef, an option that merits a page of its own in Alirang’s book-like, illustrated menu. 

On that Saturday night, three of us chose to take the cooking into our own hands. After our 3o-minute wait for a barbecue-equipped table, it was a relief to first receive a container of barley tea on the house and then the elements of our dinner, which landed in a quick succession. We were brought small bowls of banchan (side items, in this case, three lightly pickled vegetable dishes and some potent kimchi), some soy-sesame-dressed greens, bowls filled with slices of raw pork jowl or raw pork belly and king oyster mushroom, leaves of romaine to be torn up and used to wrap the meat, and two bowls of dipping sauces that added over-the-top umami savouriness to the meat. 

As the components of the meal landed, we were left on our own to figure out the niceties of Korean barbecuing. It wasn’t hard for us to infer and intuit what to do, but if you did want confirmation of the usual procedures, you would probably have to ask, because servers at Alirang, in my experience, are pretty no-fuss and there to expedite, not to explain, chat or make friends. (They may also leave you lingering and waiting for the bill once you’ve eaten, as they can be beleaguered and focused on bringing dishes from the kitchen to the table.) Our pork-themed dinner was convivial, rugged and filling as we grew more adept at assembling lettuce-wrapped morsels of pork, the jowl coloured and the belly crisped.

Tabletop barbecue at Alirang on Merivale Road.

Between that dinner and two other visits to Alirang, I’ve sampled other dishes that were consistently heaped with their rudimentary flavours.

Duck bokum ($17.95) was stir-fry of tender meat and veg in a heated, funky sauce that for all its brusqueness did not overwhelm. Thinly sliced, lightly charred galbi (beef short ribs, $17.95) were sweet-salty-chewy fun to gnaw on. Bulgogi bibimbap ($13.95) combined the iconic marinated beef preparation with the equally significant rice-bowl dish, combining the flavourful, thinly sliced meat with a fried egg, vegetables and rice that had achieved a crisped underside from the super-heated stone bowl.

Duck bokum stir-fry at Alirang on Merivale Road.

Galbi beef ribs and banchan at Alirang on Merivale Road

Bulgogi bibimbap at Alirang on Merivale Road

In dukbaegi bulgogi ($15.95), more of the marinated beef swam alongside slippery vermicelli in a thin, sweet-salty broth. For our table’s fan of nothing too involved or spicy, another piping-hot soup dish featured udon noodles in a basic dashi broth (perhaps from a powdered base), with a cutlet of deep-fried chicken on the side.

Bulbogi with vermicelli and broth at Alirang on Merivale Road

Udon soup with chicken katsu at Alirang on Merivale Road

Another lighter but pleasing dish was the Hoedopbap ($14.95), a rice bowl of sorts featuring raw salmon and salad with a spicy-savoury dressing.  

Raw salmon salad and rice at Alirang on Merivale Road

We preferred the smallest, simpler appetizers — plump, meaty deep-fried mandoo dumplings ($4.95), tender and sizable shrimp tempura ($7.95) — to the somewhat oily pajeon seafood pancake ($12.95) that needed its sauce to give it some pop. 

Mandoo dumplings at Alirang on Merivale Road

Shrimp tempura at Alirang

Pajeon seafood pancake at Alirang on Merivale Road

The minimal selection of desserts here ($4.95 each) included store-bought Asian-flavoured ice creams and deep-fried bananas that could have been happily skipped.

Deep-fried bananas at Alirang

I know first-hand that there are Korean chefs at restaurants of international stature who turn out dishes with finely calibrated nuances. Alirang takes a lower, more rustic road, delivering big, satisfying flavours that, if you overdo things, can leave feeling like your palate needs a good scrub. Still, given the crowds that can surround you, if you feel that you way, you could be in good company.

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Thanjai Restaurant
108 Third Ave., 613-695-1969, ottawa.thanjairestaurant.com
Open: Wednesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday and Monday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Tuesday
Prices: $10 to $15 for most dishes
Access: ramp to front door, wheelchair-accessible washroom
Note: ample vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options

I have fond memories of eating dosas — those, large, tangy, South Indian crepes filled with delectable vegetarian stuffings — as far back at the early 1990s in Ottawa, at the Little India Café in the west end, which is still going strong, and at now-shuttered Roses Café locations, which were owned by Subodh Mathur, who passed away two months ago, may he rest in peace.

Since then, I’ve always been happy to come across dosas on various menus. But few dosas delivered the savoury pleasures, never mind the thrill of discovery, of those introductory experiences. Lesser examples have been heavy, grainy or marred by cold stuffings.

That history with dosas has made my recent meals at Thanjai Restaurant in the Glebe seem all the more delicious and overdue. The six-month-old eatery, an offshoot of a similarly named Montreal restaurant, specializes in dosas of myriad shapes and varieties — I count more than 40 of them on the detailed, multi-page menu. Most are vegetarian, a few meaty. Appetizers, curries and some rice and noodle dishes basically round out the menu. 

At Thanjai, there are standard dosas, made with batters of fermented crushed rice and lentils and therefore gluten-free, wrapped around spiced potatoes and other stuffings, and accompanied by spicy sambar (a vegetable stew) and chutneys with coconut or tomato bases. There are rava dosas made with wheat semolina and rice flour — not gluten-free, but still vegan. There are remarkably thin, crispy “paper” dosas turned into indulgences with the addition of ghee (clarified butter). Some signature dosas here come with the inclusion of “rare” or “extremely spicy” chillis from the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. 

Based on the consistently enjoyable and interesting food that I’ve so far eaten at Thanjai, I wouldn’t mind trying them all.

The restaurant’s friendly Ottawa-based co-owner, who chatted with my table during my last visit, said his food was uncompromisingly authentic. I’d take the general spiciness of many dishes, including some that don’t have the chilli symbol beside them on the menu, as one indicator, as well as the bone-in, unfussed-over chicken in the Chettinad chicken curry as another.

At the same time, other no-less tasty dishes here didn’t scorch our palates or stomachs. Thanjai’s menu also has a five-item “kids corner” stocked with its dishes at their most plain and in smaller portions.

I’ve opted to begin meals here with more uncommon appetizers that brought jolts of flavour. Rather than more usual samosas, we’ve had the potato-and-peas-stuffed pastries served “chaat” or street-food style. In samosa chaat ($8), the treats were more shareable, broken into pieces and bolstered with chutneys, onion, coriander and spices.

Samosa Chaat at Thanjai Restaurant

Also irresistible was a plate of egg bhurji ($8), in which small, tautly scrambled curds were onion-enhanced and potently spiced. Chilli chicken ($14) from the menu’s Hakka (Chinese-influenced) section, featured boneless pieces of meat in a sauce of pronounced heat and sourness. Even the mild version was not shy on flavour.

Egg bhurji at Thanjai

Deep-fried shrimp ($14) were more notable for spicy flavour than succulence. Tomato-y rasam soup ($6) teemed with spiciness and tanginess.

My favourite dosas here were eminently light and delicious simply as savoury crepes in their own right, fillings and chutneys aside. I’m most partial to the ghee paper masala dosa ($12), which was remarkably thin and curled, spanning our table and smacking of buttery goodness. Masala dosas that added mushrooms ($13), spinach and home-made cheese ($13), curried fish ($14), curried lamb ($15) were faultless and more filling.

Ghee paper masala dosa at Thanjai

Palak paneer dosa at Thanjai

Fish dosa at Thanjai

Mushroom dosa at Thanjai

Rava masala dosa at Thanjai restaurant in Ottawa

I could also be happy to skip the dosas at Thanjai, provided that I had some uttapam instead. Thick, puffy and tangy, uttapam is the gluten-free pancake to the dosa’s crepe. The uttapam that we tried were comfortingly spongy and well suited for sopping up chutney, although the one that promised caramelised onions came with onions that were simply sautéed.

Onion uttapam at Thanjai

Masala uttapam at Thanjai

We’ve tried two rice dishes — lamb biryani ($15) and the more obscure bisi bele bath ($10), a jumble of rice, lentils and vegetables native to Karnataka. Both dishes brimmed with flavour and homeyness, although I wondered whether the rice, on the mushy side, would have been thought of as overcooked by Karnatakans.

Lamb biryani at Thanjai

Bisi Bele Bath at Thanjai

For an alternative starch, we tried Thanjai’s lamb kothu ($15), one of four dishes that takes chopped paratha flatbreads as its foundation. It, too, was addictively good, a peppery, filling and comforting mish-mash.

Lamb kothu at Thanjai

From Thanjai’s selection of desserts, I’ve not been able to try the designated special, rava kaseri, a South Indian semolina pudding. But two desserts that I did try struck me as small but optimal meal-enders. Gulab jamun (fried, spongy milk balls in syrup, $3) was not overly floral, and rasmalai, a ball of home-made cheese in condensed milk ($2) was as refreshing as could be.

Gulab jamun at Thanjai

Rasmalai at Thanjai

The dining area, which seats about 50 people on two floors, is long and narrow with green walls covered with large mirrors. It can get loud in there.

The restaurant is licensed, with a limited selection of wine, beer and spirits. Imported Indian soft drinks are also available.

Service has been to the point and knowledgeable, with one lunch-time server who was especially good at guiding our choices. Another server was a little too insistent at upselling us some appetizers, and there was a wait for food that dragged on when Thanjai was particularly busy. 

But these small offences were very easy to forget once an array of delightful dosas landed at our table.

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Foreign Cinéma
121 Clarence St., 613-627-8482, foreigncinema.ca
Open: Tuesday and Wednesday 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., Thursday 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., Friday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., closed Monday
Prices: most dishes under $20
Access: washrooms downstairs

Last weekend, when I visited Foreign Cinéma, which I should note is a ByWard Market restaurant and not a repertory movie house, its big flat-screen TV was tuned to Netflix and showing White House Down, in black and white and with the sound off.

A few nights before, while noshing on scallop ceviche, perogies and fried Cornish hen, I was able to watch Star Trek Beyond.

So much, then, for truth in restaurant naming. At least Foreign Cinéma’s website notes: “Groups can request in advance that a certain film be played during their experience and we will do our best to accommodate!”

Mind you, I enjoy restaurant meals as an escape from life’s ubiquitous screens, so it’s not that big a difference whether my dining experience comes with Federico Fellini or Michael Bay on the side.

What has mattered more was Foreign Cinéma’s food, which leans toward small plates and small mains, and is described as both “American contemporary cuisine” and “West Coast.” For what I ate last week, I would apply a range of different descriptions, from respectable and interesting to somewhat flawed to nearly inedible.

The 100-seat Clarence Street restaurant, which amps up its groove-based dinner music on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays after 10 p.m. when a live DJ begins spinning, replaces Ace Mercado, which was in business for three years until it closed in early November 2017.

That fancy Mexican restaurant gained some detractors in the fall of 2015 when it was pegged as contributing to the closure of its neighbour, the vintage diner Mellos on Dalhousie Street. Those who shunned Ace Mercado should know that Foreign Cinéma, which opened in early December 2017, is under different ownership. Foreign Cinéma’s chef, Barry Moore, was retained from Ace Mercado’s staff to run Foreign Cinéma’s kitchen.

Oddly, then, the worst thing that we had at Foreign Cinéma was a plate of fish tacos ($12), which we were told were holdovers from Ace Mercado’s menu. Made with trout, these tacos were punishingly salty. We told our server so, he took them away and we weren’t charged for them.

Trout tacos at Foreign Cinéma

Other smaller plates were far less objectionable, but still in need of improvement. Lamb sliders ($3) were promising, with house-made wafers of Dijon-spiked seaweed that intrigued us. Too bad the lamb was dry and under-seasoned. Scallop ceviche ($16) piqued our curiosity and taste buds with a sweet and bright hibiscus-perked dressing, but its scallops were haphazardly and overly minced, and also bland. Vegetarian flatbreads ($8) were no better than ordinary.

lamb sliders at Foreign Cinéma

Vegetarian flatbreads at Foreign Cinéma

Scallop ceviche at Foreign Cinéma

Better was a plate of well-made smoked salmon perogies ($10), enlivened by fried capers. Best of the appetizers that I tried was a seafood salad ($16), which in addition to its greens featured chilled shrimp, calamari, toasted coconut and a lemon ginger dressing. It was pretty appealing and free of gaffes.

Perogies at Foreign Cinéma

Seafood salad at Foreign Cinéma

Of Foreign Cinema’s larger and meatier items, a tuna poke bowl ($18) suffered from coconut rice that was a gloppy mess. On the whole, the bowl felt heavy when it should have been lighter and brighter. Markedly better was a properly cooked plate of pan-seared trout ($17) with butternut squash purée and broccolini.

Tuna poke bowl at Foreign Cinéma

Pan-seared trout at Foreign Cinéma

I’ve twice ordered the fried Cornish hen ($18) here — the second time to see if the bird would emerge from the kitchen, not just nicely battered and crisply fried, but also with more seasoning and moisture to its meat. Happily, the second hen improved on its dry predecessor, and each time grits and fried green tomatoes were pluses on the plate.

Cornish Hen at Foreign Cinéma

I’m a harsh judge of ribs at restaurants, where too often they are overcooked into mushy submission, boring, or both. But Foreign Cinéma’s ribs ($18) kept us interested with their hibiscus barbecue sauce and sesame seed crust, and were also sufficiently tender. Pucks of cornbread and dollops of slaw nicely completed the dish.

Ribs at Foreign Cinéma

While other dishes here seem properly and affordably priced to me, the 12-ounce ribeye steak ($36) strikes me as splurge that’s harder to get behind. It had an OK char and an interesting miso beurre blanc going for it, but the flavours on its plate seemed a little fuzzy, especially at twice the price of other mains. 

Ribeye steak at Foreign Cinéma

Desserts were pleasant enough for $8 apiece. They included a strawberry shortbread crème brûlée that was a bit too pudding-y, and a trio of brownies (chocolate walnut, red velvet, ginger blondie).

Strawberry shortcake crème brûlée at Foreign Cinema

Brownies at Foreign Cinéma

Servers, who are, I’m told, all new hires, were personable, attentive and proactive, when it came to taking our orders and bringing our food.

However, we were less pleased when we went to sit down at a window-side banquette dirtied with food crumbs, and especially when we saw someone — not an employee, I’m inclined to think — who stood at the bar, playing at squirting whipped cream from a cannister directly into his mouth. Come on, bro! Sit down and watch the movie!

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

marc | kitchen
40 Adeline St., 613-695-9739, marckitchen.ca
Open: Monday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 5 to 9 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: most lunch items $17, appetizers $15, mains $24 to $30
Access: steps to front door

If Marc Behiels were a luckier chef-restaurateur, he would have thrown out that citrus cornmeal cake before a shockingly substandard piece of it arrived at my table.

Instead, at marc | kitchen in Little Italy, the finishing touch on my so-so lunch earlier this month was a dessert with several spots of mould on its underside. I don’t normally flip my desserts over and inspect them, but it seemed like the right move after I detected some of that green stuff on my cutlery and fortunately stopped short of eating it.

the mouldy underside of a piece of citrus cornmeal cake at marc | kitchen

Here’s how Behiels handled the culinary crisis. He apologized, called the oversight unacceptable, told staff to throw out the rest of the cake, and comped the whole lunch for me and my friend.

During several visits this month, we’ve experienced varying combinations of regrettable lapses and well-intentioned, personable service at marc | kitchen. The inconsistencies have been all the more frustrating because the casual eatery, which Behiels opened for weekday lunches in mid-February before adding three nights of dinner service in early April, is a place you would, honestly, like to like.

For one thing, it replaces the Rex, a cosy, well-regarded place that chef-owner Cody Starr closed late last year due to his health issues. One would have hoped for good culinary karma to carry over.

There is also the admirably personal effort that Behiels has put into his eponymous place. In a phone interview earlier this year, Behiels told me that his concise menu consists largely of mostly-from-scratch, Korean-influenced dishes because his wife is Korean-Canadian and he’s simply bringing his family’s fare into an eatery setting. That includes each meal’s complimentary bowl of kim chi, made according to his mother-in-law’s recipe.

Kimchi at marc | kitchen

You might also want to root for Behiels given that his restaurant represents a third act of sorts in his working life. After running a small design and web development shop in Ottawa for more than 15 years, Behiels opened marc | kitchen in a return to his roots, as he had worked in Ottawa’s restaurant industry during his teens and 20s. At marc | kitchen, the amiable aproned owner frequently leaves the kitchen to chat with guests.

However, even before I was served mould-spotted cake, I had gripes about dishes here. My dinner began with two shared appetizers that were lacklustre and overpriced. (In general, dinner prices have struck me as high here, while lunch prices were more reasonable.)

A bowl of Mexican corn salad ($15) lacked grilled-in goodness and fresh, vibrant, contrasting flavours. Thanks to their punchy sauces, Korean chicken wings ($15) had more impact. But the wing-count was meagre for the price, and if you’d hoped for the crisp exteriors of trendy Korean fried chicken, you’d have been let down by these flabbier examples.

Mexican corn and chips at marc | kitchen

Chicken wings at marc | kitchen

That night, one main course, a plate of moist miso-glazed trout ($28) with buttery green beans and a block of rice, was clearly the winner, although this month I also sampled a comparable trout dish at a ByWard Market restaurant for $11 less.

Miso trout at marc | kitchen

Flank steak, flavoured appealingly but not that powerfully, with lemongrass and lime leaf, had been cooked sous-vide, Behiels told us that night. But the steak had also been over-seared after its water bath and it was tough, dry and in need of sauce. For $30, we expected better meat, plus some sides that were more interesting than fingerling potatoes and sautéed bok choy. Bo ssam ($30), the great Korean pork-based lettuce wrap dish, came with dry, tough pork belly.

Flank steak at marc | kitchen

pork belly bo ssam at marc | kitchen

That dinner’s highlight was its desserts. Smooth, big-flavoured and beyond reproach, pot au chocolat and pot “au key lime pie” ($10 each) were the best items that I’ve had at marc | kitchen during my three visits.

Key lime pot and chocolate pot desserts at marc | kitchen

Also enjoyed was a hearty lunch-time serving of mac and cheese ($17, with a side dish), made with double-smoked bacon and four kinds of cheese (Emmental, Gruyère, cheddar and parmesan). It had more of the depth of flavour and complexity that we sought in other dishes here, and a server told us the dish had benefitted from tweaking that followed repeated feedback from a customer who knew her mac and cheese.

Salad and mac ‘n’ cheese at marc | kitchen

Also at lunch, I ate more flank steak and pork belly, with both meats starring in sandwiches ($17, with a side dish) made with buns from Nat’s Bread Company. The flank steak in the sandwich was juicy but also too chewy, while the massive slab of pork belly was, relatively speaking, the kitchen’s red-meat triumph — succulent and assertively spicy, if also fattier and drippier than I liked.

Mushroom coconut soup and flank steak sandwich at marc | kitchen

Pork belly sandwich and Asian slaw at marc | kitchen

I’ve also tried Behiels’ kalbi (Korean beef short ribs, $17 with a side dish) and while it was pleasantly salty-sweet, it was also tough, all the more so because it was thickly sliced.

Beef ribs at marc | kitchen

Last week, at my second lunch here, I again ordered the cornmeal citrus cake ($10), checked its underside — phew! — and even found that it tasted fresher and better, more orange-y and almond-y, than its notorious predecessor. The crème fraîche on the plate, however, tasted exceedingly and even off-puttingly tangy to me.

Citrus corn cake (second slice) at marc | kitchen

This week, I spoke to Behiels on the phone about some of my concerns. He said there had been no other incidents of mouldy food being served, but that he and staff were going to be “more fastidious about checking things.”

When I told him I thought his dinner prices were high, he said: “I’m trying to bring in high-quality materials and across the board I’ve seen those prices jump.” He noted that the trout for his $28 main course, which was designated a “market price,” cost him $9. Following the restaurateur’s rule of thumb that a dish’s price should be three times the cost of its ingredients, that dish’s price now seems less out of line.

Behiels on Monday said he was still ironing out the details of his June menu. I’m hoping the new month brings not only new dishes to marc | kitchen, but also lower ingredient costs, improved food storage and more consistent cooking.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Dumpling? Dumpling!
261 Centrepointe Dr., 613-225-3888, dumplingdumpling.ca
Open: Daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Prices: $11.50 for 10 dumplings, veg and rice
Access: no steps to door, washrooms

Dumpling Park
536 Rochester St., instagram.com/dumplingpark
Open: Weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Prices: $11.99 for 15 dumplings
Access: outdoor venue, no steps

Shanghai Wonton Noodle
178A Rideau St.
Open: Daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Prices: $9.75 for 10 wontons, $11.75 for 10 wontons in soup
Access: step to front door

The best savoury dumplings I’ve ever had were blessed with an ingredient that’s impossible to duplicate — maternal love.

Perhaps you are just as sentimental about doughy wrappers, filled with meat and then boiled, steamed or fried. Hopefully, you’ve tasted wontons or perogies or ravioli or momos or gyoza or khinkali that were just as good as those that I grew up with.

But even if freshly made dumplings were not part of your happy childhood, wouldn’t you want to try a restaurant that specialized in making and serving them?

I’ve made the rounds in recent weeks to three Ottawa restaurants that give dumplings pride of place in their names and on their tables. All of these places are modest and small — 30 seats at most. Outside of dumplings, their offerings are limited and you can’t get an alcoholic drink at any of them. Still, I can see myself craving dumplings in the future when I’m in their respective vicinities, and the best of these venues will make me go out of my way.

Dumpling Park

First, there’s Dumpling Park, the minimalist and somewhat hidden lunch-time haunt that’s frequented by many a federal public servant working on Booth Street. Tucked behind the Morning Owl Coffee House on Rochester Street, this dumpling business recently began its fourth season of warmer-weather, lunch-hour operations, slinging a bare minimum of dishes, cooking for a few customers seated at plain patio tables and for even more who take the food back to their desks.

Last week, I tried two dishes at Dumpling Park, which is to say practically its entire menu, except for the vegan options. The namesake dish here, the dumpling bowl of 10 seared pork and chive dumplings with zucchini noodles and rice ($11.50) was a nice, balanced meal, although I thought the dumplings were under-seasoned on their own and in need of soy-based sauce. I preferred the alternative to dumplings, a noodle bowl ($9.73) of fresh, squidgy rice noodles, cabbage, bok choy and red peppers, which I took with the choice of braised chicken over tofu. While some of the chicken was over-cooked, the so-called “crack” sauce, which included some black-bean funk in its mix, went a long way toward making the dish a winner.

Pork dumplings with zucchini noodles and rice at Dumpling Park

Noodle bowl with chicken at Dumpling Park

Shanghai Wonton Noodle

On Rideau Street near Dalhousie Street — a little stretch of the ByWard Market where simple Asian eateries have popped up — I’ve had several lunches at the hole-in-the-wall called Shanghai Wonton Noodle, which curiously shares its entrance with the burrito place that’s located behind it. Based on my visits, there’s apparently no shortage of young Chinese expats coming to this shop for affordable and filling fixes of massive, doughy pork wontons and Wuhan hot-and-dry noodles.

Pan-fried wontons and Wuhan hot-dry noodles with pork at Shanghai Wonton Noodle

From the couple toiling single-mindedly in the tiny kitchen behind the cash, you can get 10-unit orders of big, coarsely wrapped pork dumplings, plain or mixed with mushrooms or the slightly bitter herb called shepherd’s purse. They may be served in soup, or with peanut sauce, or pan-fried.

Big wontons with peanut sauce at Shanghai Wonton Noodle

Generally, I’ve found the two-bite wontons here to be well-seasoned and on the fattier side, but not in a bad way, while the wrappers can be very doughy and starchy, especially when given a hard, all-encompassing pan-sear that practically mimics deep-frying. The peanut sauce has been runnier and more tame than I like, but still tasty. Broths in soups have been peppered and herbed and lightly meaty. A serving of smaller wontons, 15 to a bowl of soup, seemed like the best bargain here, ringing in at under $6, even if some of the nuggets of pork filling were small. Wuhan noodles had good sesame notes to them and a bit of heat, but the pork or well-done beef with them has appealed less.

Small wontons in soup at Shanghai Wonton Noodle

Wuhan dry noodles with beef at Shanghai Wonton Noodle

Dumpling? Dumpling!

Located in a Centrepointe Drive mall, the two-month restaurant named Dumpling? Dumpling! bluntly asks its question and answers forcefully in the affirmative with the best-made and largest, most interesting variety of dumplings in this survey.

Here, a  typical order consists of 15 dumplings (pork, beef, chicken, shrimp or vegetarian), boiled or steamed or, for an extra $1 above the $11.99 price, pan-fried. For an extra dollar, you can also mix two kinds of dumplings in an order.

We’ve been consistently pleased with Dumpling? Dumpling!’s dumplings — take that, Mr. Editor — and we’ve preferred our orders pan-fried to achieve a nice, crisp sear on one side. Regardless of the meat inside, dumplings here have contained big, clean flavours, while secondary ingredients, from funky Chinese mushrooms to more gentle asparagus to coriander to fennel to curry, have spoken clearly in their preparations. The chicken and asparagus dumplings and the pork and fennel dumplings have really worked for me, although I think any pork dumpling, if cooked spot-on, can be juicy enough to practically and appealingly resemble a soup dumpling — you do best to bite off a tip and slurp out the luscious liquid.

Pan-fried and steamed dumplings at Dumpling? Dumpling!

Steamed “crystal” dumplings were nicely textured and pretty as a picture, but I wouldn’t choose them over their meatier cousins.

Crystal dumplings at Dumpling? Dumpling!

Meatless hot and sour soup ($3.99) struck me as plain. A better side dish was the order of small wontons in spicy, albeit gloppy, peanut sauce ($4.99). A colleague thought it was overly gooey, but I wallowed in the big flavours, as sloppy as they were.

Hot and sour soup at Dumpling? Dumpling!

Wontons in spicy peanut sauce at Dumpling? Dumpling!

The clientele here often includes young families and single folks, and bubble teas and flavoured iced teas are part of the draw for some. The eatery does brisk takeout and delivery business too, and sells frozen dumplings.

For the staffers here who work diligently behind a clear, walled-in divider beside the dining area, making dumplings in plain view of customers, work could be closer to drudgery than love.

But even if they aren’t cooking for their nearest and dearest, their dumplings deserve to be highly regarded.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

The Cameron
176 Cameron Ave. (upstairs at the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club), 613-730-7207, instagram.com/the_cameron_ottawa
Open: Weekdays 4 to 11 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for brunch, 3:30 to 11 p.m. for dinner
Prices: most mains under $20
Access: Steps to front door, dining room upstairs

If you’re feeling that summer vacation can’t come soon enough, I suggest you get yourself down to the Cameron in Old Ottawa South for dinner on a warm, sunny night.

The seasonal restaurant opened a month ago at the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club, nestled upstairs in the 95-year-old building beside Brewer Park. Open to the public and not just to members, the Cameron, which seats about 120, feels like an instant getaway, perhaps to a quaint old resort in New England. At the very least, a meal here, at a table on the long patio that overlooks the clay courts and nearby beach volleyball games, is a break from urban Ottawa and the rat race.

After two dinners at the Cameron in the past week, here’s my abbreviated review: grab a cocktail (maybe a Pimm’s Cup, as vintage as the wooden racquets on the Cameron’s back wall), munch on some complimentary popcorn, tuck into some well-made fish and chips or the winning “Serena” burger, and be glad that for not too much money you spared yourself the exertions of cooking at home.

My extended review, though, has to list some gripes about other dishes that were a little too simple or short on flavour.

Best to know that while the Cameron’s kitchen is a sister operation of the Belmont, less than a kilometre away on Bank Street, the Cameron’s fare is generally more conservative and less globally influenced than what’s offered at the Belmont, which recently cracked a highly regarded list of the Top 50 best bars in Canada. (It came in 48th.)

From chef Phil Denny, who told me he splits his time between the Belmont and the Cameron, comes a two-page menu that offers starters, salads, sandwiches, burgers, entrées, a few choices for children and two desserts.

We began by checking out four items that were marked with chillies, because they looked to be not just spicy, but a little less classic, too. The advertised heat, we discovered, was nothing to be frightened of, and some dishes were better than others.

Four lightly curried zucchini fritters ($12), seemingly more of a riff on pakoras than fried zucchini, were served with mango chutney and a dollop of raita. They could have been a little more crisp and punchily flavoured, but they were enjoyable. A coconut curry with some supplementary roast chicken ($19) was comparable to the fritters — fine, if tepid in terms of curry flavour.

Zucchini fritters at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

Chicken curry at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

Beef tataki — very curiously a two-chilli item — made with seared striploin ($18) came with a pleasing avocado mayo and a mound of slaw with some character to it. But for a minimally cooked dish that should stress tenderness, the meat was thick-cut and chewy.

Beef tataki at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

The “McEnroe” sandwich ($17) built around a chunk of “Korean” fried chicken was neither two-chilli spicy nor that satisfying in terms of texture or robust flavour.

Korean chicken sandwich with Caesar salad at the Cameron, in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

We liked better the tostadas ($14), a nachos-like starter whose jalapenos, crispy garlic and supplementary pork ($4) made for more flavourful eating.

Tostadas at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

The “Serena” burger ($16), garnished with smoked gouda, bacon, mushrooms and horseradish mayo, was a well-made highlight dish. So too was a plate of crisply beer-battered haddock and chips ($18), served with mushy peas, house-made tartar sauce and fries. With all of our dishes, the fries were respectably fresh and crisp.

“Serena” burger and fries at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

Fish and chips at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

The striploin steak of the steak frites ($32) was to have been served medium rare, but arrived a touch overcooked. We wondered if the steak had been cooked sous-vide, but then seared too harshly to get some char on its exterior.

Steak frites at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

The grilled Cubano sandwich ($17) had a good balance of the right ingredients (ham, pork shoulder, swiss cheese, mustard, dill pickle), but would have been better had it come from the kitchen more quickly, piping hot off the grill. Plus, there was a thumbnail-sized fragment of pork bone within the sandwich. The Reuben sandwich ($17), made with pastrami from the esteemed Sharbot Lake producer Seed to Sausage, had great flavour and succulence, but the meat could also have been better trimmed — its meat-to-fat-and-gristle ratio seemed a little off.

Cubano sandwich at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

Pastrami sandwich at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

The big problem with a smoked salmon Niçoise salad ($16) was that there wasn’t enough of it. With just a halved small potato and a few green beans, and much empty space on the plate, it seemed quite skimpy. The side order of Caesar salad that came with one of our burgers had a lot of bacon going for it, but was let down by a bland vinaigrette.

Smoked salmon niçoise salad at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

The two $10 desserts — a brownie sundae and New York cheesecake — were made elsewhere, we were told, but felt very much like store-bought, nothing-special, least-possible-effort items.

Cheesecake and brownie sundae at the Cameron in the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club

So, some of the dishes needed extra excitement or more careful treatment in the kitchen. If the cooks can keep their eyes on the ball a bit more, I’d root for the Cameron’s food as much as for its surroundings.

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

With summer comes patio weather, and there’s nothing like sinking your teeth into the gooey goodness of a delicious pizza at an outdoor restaurant or in your own backyard. There are pizzerias all over Ottawa, but there are a few notable locations that top the list.

Name: Louis’ Restaurant & Pizzeria

Location: 181 McArthur Ave. in Vanier

What they’re known for: If you are looking for a good old-style pizza, look no further. Louis, which has been in business for decades, makes pizzas with soft, plump crust and generous toppings.

Price: From $11 for a small 10-inch to $24.75 for the 15-inch Louis’ special (includes pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, olives and bacon). Delivery: No.

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Kalil Dahdouh poses for a photo at Cafe Colonnade in Ottawa last year.

Name: Colonnade Pizza & Restaurant

Location: 280 Metcalfe St. downtown, along with five other locations across the city.

What they’re known for: They have perfected a recipe that’s been around for five decades. The ingredients are known to be fresh and loaded onto their specialty and single-topping pizzas with include a classic crust.

Price: From $6.95 for a plain seven-inch pizza to $28.95 for a 15-inch large pizza with several toppings. Delivery: No

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A Fiazza pizza.

Name: Fiazza Fresh Fired

Location: 86 Murray St. in the ByWard Market

What they’re known for: This customizable thin-crust gourmet pizza is made fresh in front of you. Reviewers described it as the “subway for pizza, only better” because you choose your toppings and then they place it in their fire oven.

Price: The base price for this personal-sized pizza is $8.55, and then the customer can add a variety of cheese — whether mozzarella, a cheese blend or vegan — and a wide variety of toppings that cost between $1.35 to $2.35 extra. Delivery: Order through skipthedishes.com

•

The Grand on George St.

Name: The Grand Pizzeria & Bar

Location: 74 George St. in the ByWard Market

What they’re known for: These wood stove pizzas have a thin crust and are dressed in authentic Neapolitan-style with fresh ingredients such as basil, arugula and shaved Parmigiano. The pizzas are one size — about six slices, which can feed one to three people.

Price: From $17.99 for a Margherita to $21.99 for a Shrimp Pizza. The Grand also offers gluten-free crust for an extra $2. They also offer a vegan version with faux cheese. Delivery: Through skipthedishes.com

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Tennessy Willems on Wellington St. West.

Name: Tennessy Willems

Location: 1082 Wellington St. West

What they’re known for: They offer authentic wood-oven pizza using local ingredients. The pizzas come in one personal size.

Price: From $12 for a marinara to $20 for Duck Confit, Wild Boar or Ciccio. They also offer gluten-free options. Delivery: No.

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Name: Napoli’s Restaurant

Location: 81 Richmond Rd. near Island Park Drive

What they’re known for: This family-owned and operated restaurant offers fresh traditional pizza with all the classic toppings.

Price: From $10.95 for a small plain to $26.95 for a large Meat Lover with ground beef, ham, bacon and pepperoni. Delivery: Yes

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Name: Cumberland Pizza

Location: 152 Nelson St. in Sandy Hill

What they’re known for: Simple homemade pizza with fresh, generous toppings. They offer everything from classic toppings, to pizza with a Mexican and Green twist.

Price: From $8.85 for a small nine-inch plain pizza to their new Gyro Pesto on thin crust (includes gyro meat, sundried tomatoes, red onions, black olives and feta cheese) for $29.20 for an extra large 17-inch pizza. They offer gluten-free crust for an extra $4. Delivery: Yes.

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Name: Golden Crust Pizzeria

Location: 353 St. Laurent Blvd.

What they’re known for: If you are looking for a pizza with thick, golden crust, this is your spot. They boast fresh toppings — from fresh veggies and olives to chicken and steak — on traditional and whole wheat dough. homemade garlic sauce and a special “secret” pizza sauce.

Price: From $6 small nine-inch cheese pizza to $28 for an extra large Chef’s Special with mushroom, pepperoni, green pepper, green olives, tomato and bacon. Delivery: Yes

•

Name: Ricardo’s Pizza

Location: 267 Bay St., downtown Ottawa

What they’re known for: This family-owned restaurant makes a classic pizza with a variety of generous, fresh toppings in the heart of the city. They make the sauce and dough fresh daily and will tailor your pie to your needs: If you would like your crust a little thinner, or your sauce with a dash of spice, just way the word.

Price: From $9.30 for a small plain pizza to $33.65 for an extra large meat lover. Delivery: Yes

•

San Marino Pizza in Barrhaven.

Name: San Marino

Location: 1 Jockvale Rd. in Barrhaven

What they’re known for: San Marino Pizza opened in 1987 in Barrhaven. Operated by two brothers, they share their art of cooking by preparing fresh ingredients, made on the premises, daily.

Price: From a plain small nine-inch for $9 to a 17-inch extra large San Marino Special with mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers, olives, bacon and ham for $30.25. Delivery: Yes

Heavy metal that is. Ottawa’s heavy-metal hangout, The Koven, serves burgers for headbangers.

Video by Tony Caldwell/Postmedia

The Koven
93 Murray St., 613-858-6111, thekoven.ca
Open: Monday 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Prices: Burgers $4.50 to $15
Access: one step to front door

While some food at the Koven can be an unholy mess, I expect regulars wouldn’t have it any other way.

At the six-month-old Murray Street restaurant, the theme, laid on thickly over everything from its decor to its music to its burgers, poutines, hot dogs and more, is heavy metal. It’s a concept that the Koven’s owner, Mehdi Galehdar, believes is unique in Canada.

The blaring sounds of Behemoth or Cryptopsy might greet customers as they sidle past artwork of a hellscape featuring souls writhing in agony and settle in at a table beneath impressive portraits of the members of KISS. The 17 burgers here are categorized as 1/4-pound, Extreme and Sacrilegious. The 17 poutines, from the Cheesus Krist (curds, brie, cheddar, parmesan) to the Cannibal Corpse (roasted red peppers, sautéed onions, curds, spicy havarti) come with a choice of three gravies: Klassik, Veggie or Bloody.

The Koven’s Cannibal Corpse poutine

Yes, most of the menu’s items refer to bands in the metal pantheon. My favourite dish could be the chicken fingers listed as Five Finger Chicken Punch, in tribute to the band Five Finger Death Punch.

Since it opened in December, the Koven has even become Ottawa’s meet-and-greet spot for metal bands. When Judas Priest came to Ottawa in March to play the TD Centre, the metal greats fit in a meal at the Koven. Maybe that is all the endorsement you need.

I can add a few more observations based on my three lunches here. Bear in mind, though, that I am not part of the Koven’s target market. I outgrew hard rock after seeing KISS and Cheap Trick at the Ottawa Civic Centre four decades ago. The idea of eating the Koven’s signature Chaotic Cthulhu (beef patty stuffed with curds, bacon, cheddar, Swiss cheese, topped with barbeque sauce and aioli and sandwiched between two grilled cheese sandwiches, $15) filled me with dread. That the Koven used to be the fine-dining destination Navarra, which closed in March 2017, makes me shudder a little.

The Koven’s signature Chaotic Cthulhu burger.

And yet, I found that the Koven served some pretty good burgers and sides, as well as some more extreme items that you order and eat at your own risk. Also, the prices were more than fair and the servers were friendly.

Perhaps you would want to sit inside, near the TV showing videos of bands with guitars screaming, bass drums thudding and vocalists croaking. On sunny days, however, I’ve preferred to eat on the Koven’s pleasant backyard patio where the space is brighter and quieter.

At my first lunch, we had two hits and a miss. The massive serving of house chili ($8) surprised us with good heat and depth of flavour. The Pyre ($10), a serving of crisp sweet potato fries and gravy-slathered onion rings and curds, was another winner. The Lamb of God ($12), however, was a massive and shockingly over-the-top sandwich of too-dry merguez sausage, havarti, lettuce, tomatoes and a heap of fries on a baguette. (Apparently, these kinds of sandwiches, nicknamed “mitraillettes,” meaning machine guns, are a thing in Beligum, where Galehdar lived for a time.) Perhaps the band of the same name would have thought it a fitting tribute. I could only regard it as a truly daunting hangover cure. Maybe I should have been warned.

Sweet potato fries and onion rings at the Koven

The Koven’s Lamb of God sandwich.

At my next visit, I dialled back my order and asked for the Koven burger ($6.50), which you could also call a quarter-pounder with bacon, cheddar, green pepper and mushrooms. It was a moist and solidly made burger on a good bun. So too was my friend’s meat-stuffed-with-meat Mephisto burger ($10), whose patty also contained sausage and brie, and which was topped with mushrooms, Swiss cheese and a pesto mayo.

Mephisto burger at the Koven

At my last visit to the Koven, I found the courage to order the Leviathan ($14), a beef patty that was stuffed with curds, bacon, salami, pepperoni, cheddar and then rolled in dough before hitting the deep fryer. “Nice. Go big or go home,” our server said. I should have flashed her the sign of the horns.

The Leviathan was a burger that one brags about eating more than one savours. The doughy exterior was actually not bad and while deep-frying had extracted much of the beef’s juiciness, the melted curds and especially the barbecue sauce and chipotle mayo on the side acted as correctives. As the late Anthony Bourdain famously said: “An ounce of sauce covers a multitude of sins.”

Leviathan burger at the Koven

However, those chicken fingers ($12, with fries) were simply too dry to be redeemed by their dip.

Five Finger Chicken Punch at the Koven

At the core of the bacon-and-pulled-pork-bolstered Slipknot poutine ($8 for “punk” size, $10 for “rock” size, $17 for “heavy metal” size) was some pretty good poutine — fine, crisp fries slathered in well-seasoned gravy. However, while the poutine’s bacon garnish was fine, the same was not true of its dry pork from Hell (which I believe is an AC/DC song).

Slipknot poutine at the Koven

You might have guessed that the Koven is less than ideal for vegetarians. However, there are meatless choices, and even a double-tofu-patty-and-spinach creation called the Atheist. I did not try it.

The restaurant is licensed, and stresses local craft brews. At one of our lunches, my friend satisfied a craving for a bloody Caesar and thought his drink, served in a Mason jar, was spicy, punchy and above average.

However, metal fans apparently do not like sweets, as there are no desserts available here. Mind you, there are several premium gelato places nearby on Murray Street, although visiting one of them after the Koven will seem like touching down on a completely different, metal-free planet.

Galehdar, the Koven’s owner, says he loved heavy metal back in his homeland, Iran — “It’s highly forbidden there,” he adds. In Canada for the past dozen years, he previously combined metal and hospitality at the now-closed Gatineau snack bar La Kabane. Galehdar opened the Koven to serve “comfort food at a reasonable price … the metalheads are not necessarily the richest of people” and because “there was nowhere where I could go to listen to the music and just be myself.”

The Koven, he says, is busiest on weekends when Ottawa’s metal fans congregate. The eatery even receives tourists who learned of it through the social media of European metal bands proud to have been immortalized by burgers or poutines.

I must say, even if I’m no heavy metal fan, I admire the Koven’s dedication to it. As Cannibal Corpse sings in Carnivorous Swarm: “Here to devour/Vicious attack/Ferociously savage beyond a primal desire.”

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

The Clarendon Tavern
11 George St., 613-422-5111, theclarendon.ca
Open: 11:30 to 2 a.m. Daily
Prices: all dishes under $20
Access: steps to front door and to the backyard patio, which can also be accessed separately

The arrival in late May of the Clarendon Tavern in the ByWard Market strikes me as practically a defiant gesture against recent conditions that have made opening and running restaurants in Ottawa more difficult.

The eatery replaces the Black Tomato, which was shuttered last fall after its owner proclaimed that Ontario’s minimum wage was the last straw that broke the back of his two-decade-old business.

And yet, at a time when most of Ottawa’s new eateries seem to be small Asian businesses popping up where rents are cheapest, the Clarendon, located in a beautiful heritage stone building on George Street at Sussex Drive, is the latest venture by the expanding Eighteen Hospitality Group, which includes the nearby restaurants Eighteen, Social and Sidedoor, plus another newcomer, Jackson in the Ottawa Art Gallery.

Furthermore, at a time when the costs of ingredients are rising and thereby driving up menu prices, the Clarendon keeps everything on its one-page gastropub menu under $20.

During the recent swelter, I’ve had three meals on the Clarendon’s charming, 50-seat backyard patio, beyond its renovated interior, which seats 90, and includes circular banquettes next to its bar. Overall, I’ve found that food-wise, the Clarendon’s executive chef, Chef Dave Godsoe, who also runs the haute-cuisine kitchen at Eighteen, has pulled it off, with the Clarendon’s best dishes combining big and admirable flavours, some interesting tweaks to standard fare, and good value.

All of our smaller plates and snack-sized items were on the mark. We thought very highly of Godsoe’s crisp and spicy “K.F.” Cauliflower ($12), its bed of chili-cashew spread, and smear of cooling raita. Another well-fried choice — especially when discounted during happy hour — was the Clarendon’s chorizo Scotch egg ($8, or $5 during happy hour) with its properly molten yolk lovingly encased in sausage. Tuna poke ($16) registered more as a Asian tartare to me, but nomenclature aside, its tuna was fresh and its well-made accompaniments played well together.

K.F. Cauliflower at the Clarendon Tavern

Chorizo Scotch egg at the Clarendon Tavern

Tuna poke at the Clarendon Tavern

Roughly a third of the Clarendon’s savoury offerings are thin-crust flatbreads and we were happy with the two that we tried. The more straightforward of the two featured tender shrimp ($16) and some surprising but meaningful heat from chili flecks. The duck confit flatbread ($16) was another tasty choice, although it skewed just a little sweet from its orange-spread component, while its black garlic, miso and sesame notes seemed underplayed.

Shrimp flatbread at the Clarendon Tavern

Duck confit flatbread at the Clarendon Tavern

We liked some larger plates more than others. While nothing that we tasted was bland, there were quibbles here and there. Cod with chips ($18) delivered a hearty crunch thanks to the crushed chips that coated the fish and the fries, “thrice-cooked,” the menu says, were pretty good, if not exemplary in their combination of a crisp exterior and yielding interior. A lamb burger ($19) was easily enjoyed, although its spicy jerk mayo was surprisingly timid.

Cod and chips at the Clarendon Tavern

Lamb burger with fries at the Clarendon Tavern

Fried chicken ($18) consisted of three small, moist thighs whose batter delivered a good hit of flavour, but no crispness. Tender brisket was bolstered with a superior barbecue sauce, but the pickles on the plate could have been punchier. Chicken tikka ($18) won over the person who ordered it, even if he was not wowed from the start. A pork stir fry ($18) drew successfully on Vietnamese flavours with its chili, ginger and caramel notes, but the dish did put a lot of fat on the plate.

Fried chicken at the Clarendon Tavern

Brisket at the Clarendon Tavern

Chicken Tikka at the Clarendon Tavern

Pork stir fry at the Clarendon Tavern

Desserts (all $8) at the Clarendon were sweet and classic rather than adventurous. I’d choose the apple crumble again for sharing, or the cookies and cream milkshake with deep-fried Oreos if I were to hog dessert to myself. A cheesecake fan approved of Godsoe’s sous-vide creation, and chocolate pot au crème was a thick, rich indulgence tucked under peanut butter mousse and slices of caramelized banana.

Apple crumble at the Clarendon Tavern

Milkshake and treat at the Clarendon Tavern

Cheesecake at the Clarendon Tavern

Chocolate pot au creme at the Clarendon Tavern

Service has seemed a little slow to us, although at one lunch we were at least warned that we should be patient, as there was a large party eating inside.

Drinks here keep value in mind: Most cocktails are $11 or $12, a dozen beers on draft are $6.50, $7.50 or $8.50, and most of the 20 wines on offer are $10 or less for a glass or $55 or less for a bottle.

There are fancier, pricier restaurants than the Clarendon in the ByWard Market, including its sister businesses. The Clarendon’s predecessor, the Black Tomato, was also significantly more expensive. But given the struggles of the restaurant industry today, plus the virtues that the Clarendon offers at its price point, you have to wonder if this new tavern on the corner hasn’t done a better job of keeping focused on value and viability.

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Chinese Dragon BBQ
1465 Merivale Rd. B03, 613-695-7788
Open: Monday, Wednesday to Friday 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday and Sunday noon to 1 a.m., closed Tuesday
Prices: most dishes under $15
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms

Delicious Sichuan Cuisine
1430 Prince of Wales Dr., 613-695-6868, delicioussichuan.com
Open: Monday, Wednesday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.. closed Tuesday
Prices: most dishes under $15
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms

When I was growing up in Nepean decades ago, our idea of Chinese restaurant food was fried rice, chow mein and chicken balls.

Now, there are myriad choices on Merivale Road for more authentic and varied regional Chinese cuisines. Yes, you can still get burgers, shawarma and chain-eatery staples. But neighbouring businesses offer not only now-familiar Cantonese fare but also newer-to-the-neighbourhood Chinese hot pot cuisine, sweet and oily Shanghainese food, hand-pulled Lanzhou noodles and more.

Most recently, in the Merivale Market mall, I’ve come across the Chinese Dragon BBQ, which, in spite of its mundane name, serves some harder-to-come-by food, including dishes from Harbin, the capital of China’s northernmost province.

A few kilometres to the east in a vintage Price of Wales Drive mall, the time-worn eatery has become Delicious Sichuan Cuisine, where customized hot pots are just one specialty, along with dishes that are more common (kung po chicken, hot and sour soup) and less common (spicy pork kidney and small intestine, fried corn with salted egg yolk).

I’ve eaten at both of these restaurants in the last few months, and I single them out this week not because they’re excellent, but because they are interesting, different, uncompromising and reflective of the most prominent demographic shift that I see on our restaurant scene, in Nepean and beyond. Goodbye, chow mein and chicken balls, hello Xinjiang lamb skewers and stewed pork belly with tofu.

Chinese Dragon BBQ opened in January. It’s a new, 50-seat eatery with a few bright yellow walls and faux brick surfaces, plus a TV screen that usually shows Chinese pop videos via YouTube. The kitchen is out of view, but not out of mind, as the roar of burners firing up beneath the woks sounds like there is indeed a Chinese dragon in the kitchen. The disconnect between the kitchen noise and the pop videos can be a little surreal.

The “BBQ” section of the restaurant’s menu teems with more than 30 choices. Lamb, a favourite in northwestern China, was crowd-pleaser here, whether we had skewers, chili-flecked and cumin-y and almost as fatty as they were meaty, or so-called “chops,” which seemed more like a flap of bone-in breast meat, but was toothsome and robustly flavoured, with more sesame and sweetness figuring in its mix. While, we’ll have to try barbecued beef heart, beef tendons, clams or sweet potatoes at a future date, I can vouch for barbecued eggplant and potato slices that were pleasantly seasoned and commendably cooked.

Lamb skewers at Chinese Dragon BBQ

Barbecue lamb “chop” from Chinese Dragon BBQ (order for take-out)

BBQ sliced potato at Chinese Dragon BBQ

Barbecued eggplant at Chinese Dragon BBQ

Harbin enjoys a reputation for tasty dumplings, and Chinese Dragon BBQ acknowledges that with three choices. I’ve only tried the dumplings described as seafood, which were at least as pork-y as they were shrimp-y and Chinese chive-y, but they were impressively flavoured and juicy, with fresh, thick skins.

Dumplings from Chinese Dragon BBQ (ordered for take-out)

My homework told me that Harbin is also known for its sausages, and so I ordered some. It turned out my research was a little superficial, as Harbin sausages at the Chinese Dragon BBQ were cold, mild, garlicky and very similar to eastern European sausages. Had I delved a little deeper, I would have learned that the Chinese province of which Harbin is the capital borders on Russia and in the early 1900s, many Russians, Poles and Lithuanians escaped turmoil in their countries, relocated to Harbin, where their cuisines, including their sausages, now figure.

Harbin garlic sausage at Chinese Dragon BBQ

Based on the Chinese expats ordering beside me, the point of going to Chinese Dragon BBQ isn’t to go all out on barbecued items, dumplings and sausages, but rather to have a few skewers along with more rugged, massively portioned and quickly dispatched stir-fries and the like.

Sichuan noodles at Chinese Dragon BBQ on Merivale Road

Spicy clams at Chinese Dragon BBQ

softshelled crab fried rice at Chinese Dragon BBQ

A dish of ribs, which we guessed had been baked or boiled and then stir-fried, let us down, striking us as more salty than spicy. Better was a stir-fry of pork and eggplant.

Lao gan ma ribs at Chinese Dragon BBQ

Braised eggplant and pork at Chinese Dragon BBQ

The restaurant is not licensed, and it does not serve desserts.

At Delicious Sichuan Cuisine, which has a winding, practically windowless and a bit down-at-heels dining room, the food that sped out of the kitchen was similarly rustic and prone to big and even brusque flavours.

At lunch, I thought highly of the “Chinese pork burger,” with sandwiched cumin-y shredded meat in a house-made flatbread, and a small but umami-rich bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup.

Pork burger at Delicious Sichuan

Seaweed and egg drop soup at Delicious Sichuan Cuisine

At dinner, we enjoyed picking at the meaty morsels of the sir-fried lamb with cumin and the deep-fried spicy chicken with garlic and chili. Thick, salty and rib-sticking was the dish of stewed pork belly with squidgy, texturally pleasing knots of tofu skin. In a bowl of seafood with gluten, the shrimp and squid were tender and the A green onion pancake was a fresh, if oily, snack.

Lamb and cumin at Delicious Sichuan Cuisine

Seafood and gluten at Delicious Sichuan Cuisine

Scallion pancake at Delicious Sichuan Cuisine

Mutton and vermicelli soup was as rustic as it gets, with its opaque, peppery broth and unadvertised tripe as well as shreds of lamb. Ma po tofu delivered a big seam of heat in a one-note fashion, and could be more complex or more savoury.

Mutton soup at Delicious Sichuan Cuisine

Ma Po tofu at Delicious Sichuan Cuisine

The restaurant is not licensed and the dessert options are negligible.

I wouldn’t go to either of these newcomers looking for refinement or even consistently pleasing meals. But they should reward adventurous diners keen on thrill of discovery, who prefer real-deal Chinese food over chicken balls and chow mein.

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Café Merkén
2 Rue Aubry, Gatineau (Hull sector), 819-776-0220, facebook.com/cafemerken/
Open: Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 7p.m.,
Prices: three tacos for $11
Access: steps to front door

La Ha Tacos
1400 Youville Dr., Orléans, lahatacos.com
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: three tacos plus chips: $9 to $12
Access: one step to platform in front of truck

Nacho Cartel
200 Wilbrod St., 613-262-8988, nachocartel.com
Open: Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 1:30 to 6:30 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: $5 or $6 for a taco
Access: one step to patio

Nuvo Peruvian-Mexican Restaurant
1481b Innes Rd., 343-488-8388, nuvorestaurant.ca
Open: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Prices: three tacos for $12
Access: no steps to front door

Taqueria La Bonita Wellington
1079 Wellington St. W., 613-798-9292, labonita.co
Open: Tuesday and Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: $6 to $6.75 per taco
Access: one step to front door

Toro Taqueria
210 Slater St., 343-997-7066, torotaqueria.com
Open: Monday and Tuesday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday to Friday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Prices: three tacos for $13.50
Access: several steps

It’s time for another tour of the Ottawa area’s latest taco purveyors, a field which, to the delight of taco aficionados, has only become more crowded and diverse.

The batch under consideration today — which I’ve listed from what I liked least to most — includes trucks, lunch joints and a full-service, licensed restaurant, run by proprietors from Mexico or Latin America or by Canadian-born taco enthusiasts who have turned their passion into a business. At one place, the three-tacos-plus-chips deal for $9 seemed like a steal, but at another, $6.50 for a single taco seemed steep.

Nuvo Peruvian-Mexican Restaurant

Tacos at Nuvo Restaurant

A woman from Mexico and a woman from Peru operate this restaurant that replaced a Quiznos franchise in an Ottawa east-end strip mall more than a year and a half ago. On its website, the restaurant stresses that it prepares food that’s “free of artificial preservatives, fake flavours, and artificial fat substitutes,” and that it cooks with “antioxidant-rich, healthy alkaline water.” Still, my lunch of tacos made with grilled shrimp, chicken breast and braised pork, left much to be desired. The shrimp and chicken were overcooked and dry, and when the garnishes and sauces were factored in, the tacos simply felt and tasted messy and drippy, yet short on big, fresh flavours. Were I to return to Nuvo, it would be for other Mexican dishes, or for the Peruvian dishes that looked to be simple and rib-sticking and are available on Saturdays.

Café Merkén

Tacos at Café Merkén

Located on a pedestrian street off of Hull’s bustling Laval Street, this tiny, quaint café includes empanadas, tacos and sandwiches on its tiny menu. The steak, chicken and pulled pork tacos I had were reasonably well-made, with some character and flavour to them. At less than $4 a taco, the eatery delivered good value and the owners and their space were charming. I might not go out of my way to have tacos at Café Merkén, but if I were on the Quebec side, the option would cross my mind.

Taqueria La Bonita Wellington

Cochinita Pibil and Carnitas tacos at La Bonita on Wellington Street West

Chorizo taco at La Bonita Wellington

When La Cocina Loca in Hintonburg closed last fall, La Bonita, a taco eatery run by Mexican expats on Cadboro Road, opened a second location in its place. The menu common to both locations stresses the authenticity of its taco preparations, from chicken mole to carnitas to cochinita pibil. Here, I’ve tried tacos predominantly made with shredded and slow-cooked meats and found them flavourful but also sometimes light on moisture, and often salty. Most were minimally garnished, as their analogues in Mexico would be, with cilantro and onions, and hot sauces available at each table helped. Best was the barbacoa beef taco and the pork preparations. The mole featured on a chicken taco was thick and lightly sweet, and less complex than hoped for. With most tacos costing more than $6, Taqueria La Bonita felt like a relative splurge, although the decor, with its festive, hanging lights and old-time movies projected on the wall, makes for a relaxing vibe worth a linger.

Nacho Cartel

Tacos at Nacho Cartel

At this food truck tucked in a Wilbrod Street parking lot, the nachos and tacos were potently flavoured, blessed with well-seasoned meat, superior sauces and tortillas that benefited from some time on the grill. We particularly liked the shrimp taco, which my lunch partner thought was more special than the still-impressive veggie taco made with deep-fried cauliflower. I enjoyed the char on the chicken in my taco, and found the beef taco the drippiest. A covered patio provides respite from the noon-hour heat.

La Ha Tacos

House-made chips, fire-roasted salsa, tacos al pastor at La Ha Tacos in Orleans

Fish and steak tacos at La Ha Tacos

At this taco truck, which opened last year and is less than obviously tucked in front of an Orléans car wash, the tacos are sold only in threes of each variety, which makes sampling a range of them hard unless you visit en masse. However, the tacos have fine flavour and the meats a nice char to them. There are a wide range of garnishes, too. The combination of pricing — as low as $9 for three pork tacos plus warm, freshly fried corn chips and house-made salsa  — and quality, as well as the availability of house-made agua frescas, should make a trip to this truck with a covered eating area appealing for non-Orléans-based taco fans.

Toro Taqueria

Campechano taco from Toro Taqueria on 210 Slater St. in Ottawa. Photo by Jean Levac

Tacos at Toro Taqueria

Unless you are a downtown worker, the trip to Toro Taqueria, which is only open for lunch on weekdays, will take you out of your way. But if you love tacos, I advise you to find an excuse to visit this eatery, opened in May by Anthony Bailey, who also owns the nearby Morning Owl coffee shop locations and is Toro’s chef.

I’ve been very impressed by the distinctive and well-made tacos I’ve tried here, which usually featured especially juicy, superbly seasoned and braised-that-day meats (although a citrus-marinated shrimp taco was also a winner). I’m a big fan of Toro’s campechano taco, a wondrous three-meat creation made with beef brisket, pork shoulder and chorizo, topped with bits of crunchy chicharron (fried pork rind). You eat this taco, like many others, at your own risk — or more specifically, the risk of damaging your shirt with sauce and food. But the tastiness of the cooking liquid justifies this forewarning. House-made red and green salsas, plus a sharp chimichurri, are available, but I haven’t found that the tacos need their boost. Good, fresh guacamole, agua frescas and a slice of tres leches cake completed our lunch nicely. Only the side dish of rice and beans struck us as more ordinary, and the mushroom taco felt overloaded.

After I’d eaten two lunches at Toro, Bailey told me his recipes rely on, among other things, special-order whole chilies that he grinds and rubs into his meats the night before cooking. That commitment to flavour plus careful cooking lifts this newest of Ottawa’s taco joints to the top of this heap.

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews

Table Sodam
1200 Bank St., 343-488-8036, table-sodam.business.site
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 to 10 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: Most items $18 and under, Korean-style chicken $33
Access: Two steps to front door, washrooms downstairs

Table 85
610 Bronson Ave., 613-788-2112
Open: Tuesday to Friday noon to 9 p.m., Saturday noon to 4 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday
Prices: Most dishes under $16, Korean-style chicken $31
Access: Stairs to front door, restaurant is downstairs

When Sean Kunwoo Nam came from Korea to Ottawa in 2006 as a student, he had no intention of opening a restaurant.

But some things, it seems, are inevitable. Nam, who had cooked in Korea before arriving here, now has not one but two restaurants in Ottawa that specialize in Korean-style chicken and other dishes of his homeland.

I’ll review Table Sodam first, as it’s the more appealing of the two. Opened this spring, it’s a narrow, cheerful eatery of 24 seats that has replaced the Havana Cafe in Old Ottawa South. Covering one wall is a charming line drawing of a streetscape, while opposite it are a few Korean curios. Sodam has a staff of two, takes no reservations, and at my three dinner visits, it’s been steadily packed.

I’m guessing that none of the customers was a vegetarian or vegan, as meat abstainers would be frustrated at Sodam. Its lone accommodation, “vegetarian” bibimbap, includes a fried egg. However, if you’re open to chicken, mussels, pork or rice cakes bolstered by the savoury, sweet heat of gochujang, Korea’s wondrous red chili paste, or to the more mellow satisfactions of thinly sliced beef bulgogi, then you’ll likely be as happy here as I was.

Bulgogi ($18) and bulgogi bibimbap (thinly sliced marinated beef on rice, $16) at Sodam, as well as a spicier and fattier pork bulgogi mixed with tender squid rings ($18), come as part of a meal, surrounded on their trays by an array of solidly made banchan (side dishes) including potent kimchi, some salty-sweet potatoes, seasoned bean sprouts and more. Depending on the order, Sodam may also throw in rice, clear soup and some crudités. All in all, you won’t feel like the restaurant has held much back.

Bulgogi and banchan at Table Sodam

Bulgogi bibimbap at Table Sodam

Pork bulgogi at Table Sodam

The most robust of those meal-stars was the gamjatang ($15), with its long-braised pork bones in a spicy broth. The effort required to pick the meat from the neck bones made this a less genteel meal than, say, bulgogi, but it was also more hearty and complex.

Pork bone soup at Table Sodam

Other menu items at Sodam are main-sized dishes, some of which are more sharable than others. Kimchi fried rice ($18) pleasingly balanced mouth-filling flavours and came with large, assertively grilled shrimp. A spicy toss of squidgy rice cakes and fish cakes ($13) provided starchy comforts to offset other protein-heavy choices. Stir-fried “fire” chicken ($16) was “very spicy,” the menu warned — but while there was some meaningful heat to the dish of rustically chopped chicken and various vegetables, it was more tasty than fiery.

Kimchi fried rice with shrimp at Table Sodam

Spicy rice cakes at Table Sodam, pix by Peter Hum

Fire chicken at Table Sodam

Nurungji tang ($18) was billed as a mix of seafood in a stew with scorched rice. Our large, shallow bowl brimmed with mussels and greens, fake crab, the occasional shrimp and more in a rich broth — but what I wanted most was more of that scorched rice.

Seafood stew at Table Sodam

Which brings me to Sodam’s Korean-style chicken, which is to say, its rendition of the particular kind of fried chicken that is infrequently found in Ottawa, but which took Manhattan by storm almost a dozen years ago and has been a bar food of choice in Korea for decades.

Sodam serves boneless and bone-in pieces of expertly fried, crisply battered and un-oily fried chicken, flavoured with a sweet-spicy sauce (my preference) or a sweet-salty alternative (still pretty good), accompanied by cubes of lightly sweet pickled daikon. I’ve sampled meaty nuggets of boneless chicken ($17) served with linguini in a creamy sauce (my preference) and with the only-in-Korea side of corn and melted cheese (almost milkily runny here).

Boneless Korean-style chicken with linguini at Table Sodam

For ease of eating, boneless chicken won. But there was a more communal enjoyment that came with sharing a whole chicken ($33 to $35), chopped and fried, at a table, and that’s not to speak of the primal gratification of gnawing the meat off the bone, with only chopsticks separating your hands from the chicken’s saucy exterior.

Korean-style chicken at Table Sodam

The menu’s header above the chicken dishes, among others, reads “good with beer and soju,” which effectively lays Sodam’s cards out on the table. Indeed, Koreans have a word — anju — for food consumed with alcohol, and the front page of Sodam’s menu lists assorted soju (smooth, easy-drinking, occasionally fruit-flavoured Korean spirits). Sodam also sells bottles of Max, a malty Korean beer, and Sapporo on tap. “Beer and chicken,” Nam told me last week, “are very good friends.”

Korean alcoholic beverages at Table Sodam

The fondness here for food and drink does not seem to extend to desserts, as there aren’t any at Sodam. Fortunately, Stella Luna Gelato Café is just a few blocks away.

Sodam is the offshoot of Table 85, which Nam opened in a more low-key way in 2015. Located in the basement of a Bronson Avenue real estate office building, Table 85 was initially a more ordinary cafeteria operation with burgers and the like. However, Nam’s Korean daily specials drew such a following that two years ago he went all-in serving Korean food.

While Table 85 may have a larger kitchen and more space for customers, it’s a subterranean place with little in the way of decor beyond the big TV tuned to a food channel. Its menu of a dozen items is heavy on rice and noodle dishes and overlaps somewhat but not overly with Sodam’s offerings. Table 85 does serve Korean-style chicken, but doesn’t serve soju, as it’s unlicensed.

I’ve only had food to go from Table 85 — a thick and crusty savoury seafood pancake ($10.99) and a big, likeable helping of jajang noodles ($11.99), with its characteristic black bean sauce, cabbage, onions and bit of ground pork. While I waited for my food, I saw customers complain that their jajang noodles were lacking in intensity (or perhaps they meant fermented black-bean pungency). The kitchen’s response was to offer to fix the dish with more salt or sugar, but no MSG.

Seafood pancake from Table 85

Jajang noodles from Table 85

Nam, who is 42 and has three sons with his wife, said he can work long shifts of 16 or even 20 hours between both restaurants, beginning at Table 85 because its larger kitchen is better for prep.

And yet, he hinted he might not stop at two Tables. “If I open a third restaurant, maybe I’ll make a different menu, too.” Nam said.

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