Thali
136 O’Connor St., 613-594-4545, thaliottawa.ca
Open: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: most lunch platters $18 (refills available)
Access: no steps to front door

It’s only taken 5,000 years or so, but thali-style dining is packing them in at lunchtime in downtown Ottawa.

Archaeological excavators found the ancient precursors of today’s thalis — round metal platters used to serve foodstuffs in small containers — in Northern India. Over the millennia, thalis spread beyond South Asia, across the Indian Ocean and into the Caribbean and United Kingdom, wherever the Indian diaspora would take the beloved platters.

I think I first saw thalis in Ottawa in the 1990s. Then, they seemed a way to bring the buffet to the table rather than the diner to the buffet. I liked thalis then, but I like them even more now that chef-restaurateur Joe Thottungal has made them the centrepiece of his new downtown restaurant, aptly called Thali.

Ottawa foodies will know Thottungal as the city’s premier Indian chef, whose 15-year-old first restaurant, Coconut Lagoon, rose from humble beginnings on Saint-Laurent Boulevard to become a celebrated award-winner. Specializing in the distinctive and vibrantly spicy cuisine of Kerala, Thottungal’s home state in Southwestern India, Coconut Lagoon was a hit even before Thottungal’s star rose in recent years at Ottawa cooking events.

Representing the Ottawa area, Thottungal even came in second at the 2017 Canadian Culinary Championships. The sleek renovation of Coconut Lagoon thereafter, the opening in early December of Thali and the upcoming release of a cookbook show that Thottungal is not one to rest on his laurels.

Designed by Ottawa’s Project1 Studio, which was also behind Coconut Lagoon’s renovation, Thali is a bright, modern room that seats about 70 at large communal tables, a few four-seaters, plus more than a dozen stools beside the large window facing O’Connor Street. It is geared to serving speedy but meaningful lunches. The restaurant briefly had a dinner service late last year, but it was discontinued “due to an overwhelming response during lunch hours,” says its website. Instead, cooking classes, meetings and private dinners are held at Thali in the evenings.

Thali occupies a bright, modern, corner space at 136 O’Connor Street in Ottawa.

Last week, I twice made the trip to Thali for lunch, and I’m envious now of Centretown workers within walking distance of Thottungal’s food.

The eatery’s concept prioritizes efficiency by removing some of the decision-making for diners. Each day, the thali ($18) consists of six pre-set containers of food — several vegetable dishes, a yogurt-based raita salad and a dessert, plus a chicken, beef, lamb, vegetarian, vegan or seafood preparation chosen by the diner for his or her seventh container. (Gluten-free options are also available.)

A typical thali at Thali

The ravenous can pick an eight-container combo ($22), but, in spite of the small size of the khatoris (small copper bowls), the thalis are plenty filling. Indeed, in keeping with tradition, the thalis are “unlimited,” meaning you can get refills of your favourite items if you have the desire and room in your stomach.

The food I ate here was highly satisfying, well-prepared, thrumming with flavour and variety and indebted to the culinary successes of not just Kerala but all of India. Beef curry and butter chicken had heft and distinctiveness going for them, lamb korma was more mellow, and a mango-enhanced shrimp curry packed some surprising heat. Bowls that started tangy eggplant, mushrooms in a comforting gravy, beets, lentils and more provided delicious diversity.

Some dishes seemed to me like tweaks of Coconut Lagoon-proven favourites. But Thottungal also told me this week that because Thali doesn’t have a set menu, its kitchen, where dishes and bread are cooked each morning before service, also has “a lot of opportunity to create and come up with new and exciting dishes.”

At the centre of the thali, a bowl of rice was just fine. But I placed more importance on the thali’s crisp papadum cracker and especially its rich paratha flatbread, Beside me, thali adepts were making quick work of their curries by sopping them up with scraps of paratha before eating what remained on rice that they emptied onto the thali proper.

A sweet vermicelli pudding and gulab jamun (dough balls in rosewater-tinged syrup) ended meals sweetly, while Thali also offers mango, peach and pineapple lassi (yogurt-based) drinks. The eatery is licensed and serves locally made beers and a few Ontario wines.

Not surprisingly, the packed room here grew noisy during the lunch rush. But it felt like a place worth lingering in, albeit a little chilly, when we ate there on a less crowded Saturday.

Even when Thali was more busy, service was attentive, well-trained and practically instantaneous. “It takes one minute to put together a thali,” Thottungal said.

Thinking that Thottungal has apparently put his own successful stamp on fast-casual dining, I asked him if he had any thoughts about opening other Thali locations in Ottawa or beyond.

“I believe (in) new and different concepts,” he wrote back. “Therefore, while other Thali locations will likely not be possible, a new restaurant with a new, bold concept will be for sure a sight for the future.”

So, while Thali is scarcely a month old, I’m already salivating at the thought of Thottungal’s encore.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

A decade ago, had you had asked Google to seek out “ramen in Ottawa,” the all-knowing search engine would have drawn a blank.

“There isn’t any ramen in Ottawa,” a sassier results page could have told you. “Try Toronto. Or New York. Or Tokyo.”

Yes, that hearty meal-sized Japanese soup (not the instant noodles of the same name) went global in the mid-2000s after the slurp-driven success of New York’s Momofuku Noodle Bar. But Ottawa didn’t begin to catch ramen fever until 2013 or so.

My recollection is that Sidedoor in the ByWard Market brought ramen bowls to town first, followed by Ginza on Elgin Street. After the Toronto-based chain Sansotei, which is devoted to ramen, opened a spot in Centretown in the spring of 2016 and drew daily queues out the door that continue to this day, other entrepreneurs wanted to get in on the ramen action.

Now, if you perform the same search, Google plots more than dozen red pins on its map, mostly downtown but even in the suburbs. But how are you to know which restaurant’s ramen is most worth your while?

ALSO: How Ottawa became a pho paradise

That’s where this roundup comes in. Over the last few months, I’ve tried to hit all of Ottawa’s ramen purveyors to determine whose broth, noodles and toppings ruled. Below are my rankings.

But first, a few words on how this ramenologist operates. My priorities as a ramen enthusiast have evolved over the years. Now, I’m looking for great broth, great noodles and great everything else — in that order — whereas years ago, as a hyper-carnivorous ramen newbie, I might have let a properly succulent piece of pork belly overly sway my assessment.

For context’s sake, I should also add that in recent years, I’ve had some truly transcendental bowls of ramen in Montreal (at Yokato Yokabai), Toronto (at Santouka) and New York (at Ivan Ramen). If you ask me, the reality check for Ottawa ramen buffs is that your go-to soup here has a ways to go to match the supreme bowls in more mature ramen markets.

But until then, here’s my take on Ottawa’s ramen landscape — based admittedly on a visit or two to each spot rather than repeated patronage and as much tonkotsu ramen as I could ingest as a starting baseline.

TOP TIER

Ottawa’s two locations of Sansotei (153 Bank St., 1537 Merivale Rd., sansotei.com) remain at the top of the ramen heap, thanks to their very reliable bowls. Over multiple visits, I’ve generally found the components of every bowl to be well made, if not stellar. The tonkotsu broth here may be Ottawa’s thickest and creamiest, and carnivores will appreciate the broth’s porkiness, as well as the bowl’s above-average pork belly. I’m only speculating, but I think the success of Sansotei’s pork-broth tonkotsu led to the subsequent ubiquity of that ramen variant in Ottawa, arguably to the detriment of perfectly good chicken-based ramen (which can be amazing at places such as Ivan Ramen, for example).

Tonkotsu ramen at Sansotei

The sushi-based eatery J:unique Kitchen (381 Cooper St., facebook.com/juniquekitchen) may have opened just two months ago, but it serves a commendable ramen made with care. We liked the cleanness of its broth, the springiness of its noodles, and the generosity of well-prepared garnishes such as sweetly cooked shiitakes. Plus, the soup came with a small California roll and either gyoza or chicken karaage. Those bonus items make J:unique’s ramen a stomach-filling steal at $14.95.

Tonkotsu ramen at J:unique Kitchen

Koichi Ramen (832 Somerset St. W., koichiramen.com) takes its name from its Ottawa-raised chef-owner Koichi Paxton, who became one of Ottawa’s first ramen-makers when he helped open Ginza on Elgin Street in the spring of 2014. He brought to the enterprise what he had learned in 2012 during a four-month internship in southern Japan at a ramen eatery. Koichi (the eatery) is Paxton’s takeover of the space that had been Ginza’s second location.

Here, the ramen has felt as if there’s a personal touch behind it. The pork-based broths have been robust but clean and enjoyable, and the signature pork broth that includes sesame was a standout. Commendably, Koichi also serves chicken-based and vegetarian broths. Atypically, Paxton offers spice levels on all of his broths. Even a mild level of heat was quite discernible, and purists will likely be fine with “no spice.” Noodles here have had good flavour and chewiness and the bowls are very much customizable with a range of extra toppings. It’s really only the pork belly that’s needed work here. It’s never rocked my world like pork belly can, and on my last visit, all the succulence had been seared out of it.

Tonkotsu ramen — noodles in a pork broth with grilled pork belly, soft egg, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, kikurage and scallions.

MIDDLE TIER

On their elevated, pan-Asian menu, the Momofuku-inspired, non-Asian chefs at Datsun (380 Elgin St., eatdatsun.com) include two kinds of ramen, which are distinguished by potent, concentrated broths and interesting toppings that work well together. My small gripes here have included the dryness of the fried chicken (also found in Datsun’s bao) that stars in the chicken ramen, as well as eggs that are poached rather than soft-boiled and soy-marinated.

Chicken ramen at Datsun

Festival Japan (149 Kent St., festivaljapan.ca) served straightforward, respectable tonkotsu ramen that featured chunks of pork shoulder rather than pork belly — a good practical call, I’d say, given the lacklustre belly slices sometimes served elsewhere. The tonkotsu broth did taste more of chicken than pork, but had a good heft to it. The egg was hard boiled, which is a bit of a letdown.

Tonkotsu ramen at Festival Japan

Hanabi Japanese Cuisine (434 Bank St., hanabicuisine.ca) served us a lighter-textured but savoury tonkotsu broth, with sweet pork belly and a reasonable egg. A bit of kimchi is served on the side. At the Little Italy izakaya Kuidaore (420 Preston St., kuidaoreizakaya.ca), the broth was the best thing about the tonkotsu ramen. There was room for improvement with the noodles and pork belly. Both of these ramens would do in a pinch, but not spark much excitement.

Tonkotsu ramen at Hanabi

A few blocks south of Sansotei on Bank Street, Saigon Pho (232 Bank St., saigonphoottawa.ca) began selling ramen last year, one suspects in the hopes of siphoning away some of the business lining up nearby. Its tonkotsu broth was pleasant and warming, if not hyper-creamy. Its pork was nondescript except for it fall-apart texture, its egg soft-boiled but un-marinated and its noodles so-so. Beef belly is also offered here as a garnish, and I thought my bite of it was better than its porky counterpart.

Tonkotsu ramen at Saigon Pho

I liked the ramen at Sidedoor (18b York St., sidedoorrestaurant.com) more in past years. Perhaps that’s because the post-Momofuku non-Asian-run kitchen pioneered the soup here in Ottawa, or because I knew less about ramen. The kitchen here goes its own way with ramen, eschewing the thicker, cloudy tonkotsu style for a lighter broth that contributes to overall Chinese orientation of the soup. The noodles and egg have shone here, while the broth has been a bit one-note and salty. The pork belly has been plentiful, but it was tough once and more roast-y than sweet and salty. The abundance of coriander just seemed wrong. In all, the ramen here dares to be different — but is maybe too different.

Ramen at Sidedoor

BOTTOM TIER:

At the pan-Asian eatery Ching’s Kitchen (641 Somerset St. W., facebook.com/Chings-Kitchen) the tonkotsu broth was thin and tasted too much of the heavy char on the pork belly, which admittedly was tender and meaty. Good: marinated soft-boiled egg. Bad: limp noodles. Saving grace: They make excellent Taiwanese popcorn chicken here.

Tonkotsu ramen at Ching’s Kitchen

In a word, the tonkotsu ramen at Wasabi Restaurant and Sushi Bar (41 Clarence St., wasabisushibar.ca) was bland. Its broth was thin, its pork belly perfunctory. The lightly marinated egg was hard-boiled. The wavy noodles had some chew. Despite the corn, bamboo shoots, and slices of flavour-free fish cake, the ramen felt like less than the sum of its parts.

Tonkotsu ramen at Wasabi restaurant

The tiny Ginza Ramen Sushi and Sake Bar (280 Elgin St., ginzarestaurant.ca) got into the ramen business early in Ottawa with Koichi Paxton in the kitchen and continue to dole out bowls, along with sushi, pho, poke, vermicelli and more. I found my tonkotsu ramen here had pleasant, if thin, broth and a marinated egg, but then a series of disappointments — excessively strong-tasting bamboo shoots, excessively fatty pork belly that lacked cooked-in flavour and noodles that were too soft and bland.

Tonkotsu shoyo ramen at Ginza Ramen on Elgin Street

Nom Nom Kitchen (4-2160 Montreal Rd.) is an inexpensive Korean eatery that has branched out to serve other Asian items, including tonkotsu ramen. It serves all of its food in take-out containers with plastic cutlery, ramen included. The spicy Korean ramen had more going for it than the no-frills tonkotsu.

Nom Nom Kitchen’s tonkotsu ramen

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

ALSO IN THE NEWS

Hum: The new Canada Food Guide shouldn’t scare you away from dining out

The hidden cost of Marie Kondo-ing your entire life

City of Ottawa readies test track in Nepean for autonomous vehicle technologies

Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant
591 March Rd., 613-693-1525, harbinrestaurant.com
Open: Tuesday to Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday noon to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: most dishes from $11.99 to $17.99
Access: no steps to front door

La Noodle Kanata
790 Kanata Ave., Unit M2A, 613-599-0880, lanoodleca.com
Open: Daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Prices: most dishes from $12.99 to $18.95
Access: no steps to front door

“Kanata,” a colleague who lives there recently said to me, “is a wasteland when it comes to Chinese food.”

It was my pleasure to correct him, as I’ve recently been eating at two Chinese eateries tucked into the western suburb’s malls, Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant on March Road and La Noodle Kanata in Kanata Centrum.

Both restaurants are franchises of China-based businesses that offer authentic fare and attest to the continuing influx of Asian eateries across the breadth of Ottawa.

Harbin is the newer — and frankly, better — of the two. It opened in September, remaking the space where the Indian restaurant Urban Turban had been as a clean, bright dining room filled with blocky wooden tables and chairs, a wall-sized faux Chinese ink drawing and imitation brickwork. Here, Mandarin pop or rap might be soundtrack to your dinner, obscuring the roar of the kitchen’s gas-fired woks.

Harbin takes its name from the metropolis in China’s northernmost province. The restaurant’s evolving menu includes, in addition to some more common stir-fries, fried rices and appetizers, a dozen Sichuan dishes, some Northeastern Chinese dishes, clay pot dishes, some intriguing casseroles said to be traditional in Harbin, and plenty of chef’s specials. I’ve not been let down by anything I’ve eaten here.

The two casseroles that we tried were straightforward and easy to like. One featured plump but lean hand-made pork meatballs, spinach and vermicelli in a comforting broth. Another casserole of lamb, lightly pickled cabbage (called “sauerkraut” on the menu) and vermicelli appeared a little more daunting but pleased with its lean, thinly sliced lamb and clean broth that grew more lamb-y as we finished it. Both casseroles nicely offset spicier fare that we’d ordered.

Pork meatball casserole at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant

Lamb, sauerkraut and vermicelli casserole at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant

Chunkier pieces of lamb appeared in a cumin-tinged stir-fry that was more saucy and sweet than iterations of this dish I’ve had elsewhere. This dish, along with sweet-spicy but complex kung pao chicken and appealingly crisp deep-fried but toothsome pork sirloin with eggplant, would be good entry-level fare for diners wary of more spicy food. Crispy side pork ribs were alluringly flavoured nuggets of meat, fat and bone.

Stir-fried lamb with cumin at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant

Kung Pao chicken at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant in Kanata

Crisp fried pork sirloin and eggplant at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant

Crisp-fried pork side ribs at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant in Kanata

Mapo tofu, a reliably comforting and warmingly chilied dish of tofu and ground pork, provided savoury satisfactions and notes of earthy funkiness and Sichuan pepper tingle.

Mapo tofu at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant in Kanata

For heat-heads, one of the three-chili dishes should offer a challenge. We liked the deep and mammoth dish of sliced beef in Sichuan chili oil, which hid tender meat, tofu strips, noodles and more submerged in its sludgy, steaming, dauntingly dark red sauce.

Sliced beef in Sichuan hot chili oil at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant

The restaurant’s owner, Hang Yu, told me in an email that while other restaurants use pre-packaged hotpot seasonings, Harbin makes its equivalents and other seasonings from scratch. The beef and chili oil dish did strike us as not just laceratingly hot but also rounded by other flavours, with a hefty contribution of Sichuan pepper, both ground and whole.

Harbin’s menu makes a point of noting that its beef is Canadian AAA-graded and its tenderness is more appreciable in the chef’s crisp-then-chewy deep-fried creation called “fish-flavoured” beef (the beef tastes not of fish but of a Sichuanese sweet-sour-spicy combination more often applied to fish and even eggplant.

Fish-flavoured beef at Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant

The restaurant is not licensed and does not serve desserts. It does adjoin a Presotea bubble tea location, whose myriad cold and fruity beverages can tamp the heat of a chili-heavy meal next door.

Related

• Peter Hum's best bites of 2018
• Dining Out: Your master guide to the Ottawa's best (and worst) ramen
• Dining Out: Le Mien dazzles with hand-pulled noodles in spicy soup
• Dining Out: J:unique Kitchen brings "Vancouver-style" sushi to Centretown

Several malls to the west of Harbin is La Noodle, which opened two years ago in the restaurant sector of Kanata Centrum near the Landmark Cinemas.

There are other La Noodles in Ottawa, in the ByWard Market and on Clyde Avenue. But the Kanata location, which took over a long, narrow space with a dark, lounge-y vibe, has a strikingly large, pan-Chinese menu (which might even be too extensive, given that a few items we’ve wanted haven’t been available).

Still, during several visits here, I’ve found that the best items featured its signature hand-pulled noodle dishes.

The traditional beef noodle soup, native to Lanzhou in Northwestern China, brimmed with fresh noodles (made out of sight in the kitchen) and thinly sliced beef, floating in a meaty but salt-forward broth. Dan dan noodles, with their spicy, salty, peanut-y sauce, topping of ground pork and scallions and ring of bok choy, made for a hearty, flavourful lunch. The vegetarian biang biang noodles offered a simpler chili-powdered kick.

Traditional beef noodle soup at La Noodle in Kanata

Biang biang noodles at La Noodle in Kanata

Dandan noodles at La Noodle in Kanata

Other dishes, while generously portioned, ranged from alright to disappointing. The rustic plate of “Grandma’s” pork belly (known elsewhere as red-cooked pork, I think) was simple, salty and pleasing. The same could be said of soft-shell crab fried rice, that we had to take out because the dining room was being cleaned.

Grandma’s pork belly at La Noodle in Kanata

But we picked out more flaws with the pepper-salt soft-shell crab (no pepper-salt flavour, very oily), spicy crispy chicken (not spicy or meaty enough, too dry), mapo tofu (one-note in flavour, scant Sichuan pepper tingle), seafood with XO sauce (bland), a “Chinese sandwich” of dice, braised pork (OK filling but sub-standard bread) and barbecue lamb skewers (sad, chewy, meagre, insufficiently spicy bits of meat).

Pepper-salt soft-shell crab at La Noodle in Kanata

Spicy crispy chicken at La Noodle in Kanata

Mapo tofu at La Noodle in Kanata

Seafood with XO sauce at La Noodle in Kanata

Chinese pork sandwich from La Noodle in Kanata

Chinese New Year comes early this year, with the Year of the Pig commencing Feb. 5. Perhaps a trip to Kanata would suit your celebrations.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

ALSO IN THE NEWS

NAC Orchestra, Chamberfest’s Roman Borys among the Ottawa musicians nominated for 2019 Juno Awards

New Alt Hotel to be built near Ottawa airport

How it works: City snow clearing in Ottawa

Queen St. Fare
170 Queen St., queenstfare.ca
Open: Monday to Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The last few times I’ve played tourist in New York, I’ve alternated meals at acclaimed and even Michelin-starred restaurants with visits to some of the city’s food halls. Sometimes it was hard to say which experiences delighted me more.

Certainly the food-hall eats were easier on my budget. And among them were such memorable treats as vibrantly spicy Pakistani lamb chops in Brooklyn, impeccable Scandinavian-style hot dogs at Grand Central Terminal, a sushi roll of sumptuous Hokkaido scallop, also in Brooklyn, and one of the best ramen bowls of my life, at the Ivan Ramen in Hell’s Kitchen.

This point of this recap isn’t just to brag. It’s to show how good a discerning food hall — as opposed to a food court populated with run-of-the-mill national and multinational franchises — can be. A well-curated food hall can showcase the best fast-casual fare that a city offers and make the hearts of foodies, both locals and tourists alike, beat faster.

This perspective sets the bar high for Queen St. Fare, Ottawa’s first food hall. Opened two months ago in the Sun Life Financial Centre, it fits six locally based eateries and a new cocktail bar into the 9,000-square-foot expanse that was formerly Hy’s Steakhouse. And that’s not to mention the stage for live bands that adds allure during weekend brunches and some evenings. (Interestingly, DeKalb Market Hall, the Brooklyn food hall of 40 or so vendors that I visited, is to introduce a stage this year — a case of great food halls thinking alike?)

In the last month, I’ve had a handful of lunches at Queen St. Fare, hoping, perhaps unfairly, for the kind of mouth-pleasing excitement that I had at DeKalb. Overall, the mix of options at Queen St. Fare is more limited and conventional, while execution has been for the most part admirable.

My favourite of all the items I’ve eaten at Queen St. Fare was the Nashville hot chicken sandwich at Capitol Burger Counter, a new but retro-styled vendor. It was properly crisp and craggy, moist and spicy (if not tear-your-head-off Nashville hot), with pickles and slaw adding brightness and crunch. The chicken was nicely swaddled in a pillowy roll reminiscent of the bun that the much-praised Shake Shack locations use in the U.S.

The Nashville chicken sandwich from Capitol Burger Counter at Queen St. Fare

Capitol Burger’s burgers, made with beef from Enright Cattle Company near Belleville and fashioned with Shake Shack-esque simplicity, have also hit the spot, especially because of their pleasing crusts and juicy interiors. Thankfully, they are not so much the overladen, Instagram-able meat-and-garnish bombs sold elsewhere. They are just good burgers that get their fundamentals right, something which can’t always be said about many a fancier burger.

The burger from Capitol Burger at Queen St. Fare

I’ll add that the counter’s vegetarian option, the “Beyond Meat” burger made of plant-based protein, was surprisingly appreciable. I’ve wanted to try Capitol Burger’s milkshakes, but the last few times I’ve asked for one, it wasn’t available.

Beyond Meat burger from Capitol Burger Counter at Queen St. Fare

After those burgers, I’m keen on the tacos from Mercadito, the Mexican-food vendor that has Ottawa celebrity chef René Rodriguez on its payroll. Rodriguez, who won the 2014 edition of Top Chef Canada, the Food Network Canada TV show, is Mercadito’s chef, and when I’ve visited Queen St. Fare, I’ve seen Rodriguez plating dishes, more often than not.

Related

• Hundreds get a taste of what's to come at Queen St. Fare food hall
• Queen St. Fare unveils new stage for live music
• 'Entirely new vibe': Ottawa's first food hall to open in former Hy's Steakhouse location on Queen St.

Rodriguez’s tacos — particularly the pulled chicken, beef and fish tacos — have delivered big flavours that pop. At Sunday brunches, I’ve had Mercadito’s pig cheek tostada (a signature Rodriguez dish), breakfast burrito and pork sandwich. They work for me, too, but the tacos would still be my first pick.

Tacos from Mercadito at Queen St. Fare

Pork sandwich from Mercadito at Queen St. Fare

Breakfast burrito from Mercadito at Queen St. Fare

Pig cheek huevos ranchero tostada from Mercadito at Queen St. Fare

The tortilla chips at Mercadito have been oily but good, but the guacamole struck me as oddly lacking, needing more punch, from perhaps onion, lime or coriander. The churros here are small, but a pineapple caramel dipping sauce makes them irresistible.

Churros with pineapple caramel sauce from Mercadito at Queen St. Fare

Closest to Queen St. Fare’s western entrance is the third Ottawa location of pizza vendor Fiazza Fresh Fired. Its pizzas have been reliably made, thin-crusted but devoid of floppiness, fresh and quickly produced. I’ve always ordered one of the pizzas on the menu rather than a customized pie. The truffle-oiled mushroom pizza, here, for example, has done the trick, even if I associate mushroom pizzas with white rather than red sauces.

Mushoom pizza from Fiazza Fresh Fired at Queen St. Fare

Broccoli and roasted garlic pizza from Fiazza Fresh Fired at Queen St. Fare

I do wonder if, for its Queen St. Fare location, Fiazza could develop a more creative, special pizza that might appeal more to foodies, if less to the masses. (Yes, that does imply that I don’t think the menu contains such an option.) I think the same question could be posed for two other food-hall vendors here: Sen Kitchen and Green Rebel.

The former, a spin-off of the Vietnamese eatery at Lansdowne, has served some commendable items, including a reasonable pork belly bao and a peanut chicken dish that tasted considerably better than it looked. The tom yum soup I tried here had perfect, toothsome shrimp in it, but was oddly almost as sweet as it was sour.

Pork belly bao bun from Sen Kitchen at Queen St. Fare

Tom yum shrimp soup from Sen Kitchen at Queen St. Fare

Green Rebel is pegged as the food hall’s healthy, wholesome, salad-centred purveyor. However, the “Buddha boxes” with warm ingredients that I’ve sampled have felt like less than the sum of their parts. Despite the long, tantalizing menu descriptions, they’ve seemed to fall short on offering different, vivid bites, and their proteins (chicken or salmon) were simply dry.

Chicken Buddha box from Sen Kitchen at Queen St. Fare

Salmon Buddha box from Green Rebel at Queen St. Fare

The best item I had from Green Rebel came after I asked a staffer what was best, and she replied, “I can make you something not on the menu.” She served a Cobb salad that had more going for it. I do like the beverages at Green Rebel, including the avocado blueberry smoothie and the house-made orange ice tea, which could be desserts on the go.

Cobb salad from Green Rebel at Queen St. Fare

From Bar Robo, I’ve had just a few coffees and a S’mores doughnut, baked that morning on site, that I wished had been more chocolate-y. I’ve not yet tried any of the tempting cocktails at Q Bar. One night, perhaps when I’m lured downtown for music as well as food, I will.

S’Mores doughnut from Bar Robo at Queen St. Fare

With an optimal location and a built-in lunch clientele, Queen St. Fare seems to have been earmarked for success. I’ve seen it packed to its 400-person capacity during several lunch hours, and we’ll see what the nearby opening later this year of the LRT’s Parliament Station will do for its evening and weekend business.

For now, from a foodie’s point of view, the food hall satisfies but doesn’t yet thrill like a food hall can, which only means there’s a goal to be attained.

More Dining out columns:

Dining Out: In Kanata, Harbin Restaurant and La Noodle serve overdue authentic Chinese fare

Dining Out: Thali’s distinctive, satisfying Indian fare takes a minute to make

Dining Out: J:unique Kitchen brings ‘Vancouver-style sushi,’ flaming rolls to Centretown

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Corner Peach
802 Somerset St. W., 613-302-6829, cornerpeach.ca
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday
Prices: mains $16 to $30, starters $9 to $16
Access: one step to front door
Note: restaurant does not take reservations

Given the weather we’ve been having, you have to feel for Ottawa’s restaurants.

Facing one Snowmageddon after another, interspersed with bouts of polar vortex, prospective diners could be forgiven for ordering food in, or even cooking for themselves. In these conditions, the eatery that lures people in had better be a special one.

Corner Peach, which opened in early January, is just such a place. The tiny room, which holds about 30 in what was formerly a south Asian grocery store in Chinatown, has a hip, welcoming vibe. Meanwhile, its kitchen turns out elevated comfort food that makes bundling up, shovelling your driveway and hustling over there worthwhile. It feels like a refuge from the horridness outside, even if the curtains inside its front door can allow a bit of a draft.

The restaurant has two seasoned co-owners and operators in chef Caroline Murphy, who has previously cooked at town and Edgar, and Emma Campbell, who was the front of house manager at Supply and Demand and Oz Kafe. Apart from a pre-opening flap regarding what to call their business – “Corner Peach” was an 11th-hour replacement for, and improvement on, a name that had an offensive allusion – the pair seems to have smoothly realized their vision. They’ve created an enticing neighbourhood eatery that morphs from a coffee shop before noon to a diner-y lunch hangout to a from-scratch, casual fine dining destination at night.

Murphy and Campbell have fit an awful lot of character into their small, simple room. Large windows on two sides offer plenty of natural light. The high, distressed tin ceiling is an attention-grabber. So too is six-seat bar/luncheon counter that faces an attractive brick wall. Plants and a stuffed deer’s head add warmth. The place’s brown banquettes and chairs are comfy, and most cozy of all is the table for four in Corner Peach’s front corner. You need to be lucky to snag it, though, as Corner Peach doesn’t take reservations.

Beside the cash, a showcase stocked with baked goods pleasantly brings to mind Murphy’s connection to Edgar, Marysol Foucault’s similarly intimate winner in Gatineau’s Hull sector. From Corner Peach’s showcase, the brown butter chocolate chip cookie is totally on point. It will be hard for me to leave the place without one.

At lunch last week, a roast beef melt sandwich ($8.50) pulled together parsley, chives, buffalo sauce and Cool Ranch Doritos in its buttery, bread-y embrace for an indulgent guilty pleasure. A bowl of chicken soup on the side brimmed with flavour, big chunks of chicken, Swiss chard, toothsome pasta and a bit of heat.

Roast beef sandwich, chicken soup at Corner Peach

The house baker’s version of a Portuguese egg tart ($3) was commendably rich, although some browning of the custard would have been nice and the rugged tart did pack a lot of crunch.

Portuguese egg tart at Corner Peach

At dinner last weekend, the fanciness of the fare on Murphy’s concise menu was dialed up a notch or two.

We tried three of six starters and all were pared-down winners. Beef tartare ($16) arrived fresh, coarsely chopped, well-seasoned and in a sizeable mound presented without any airs, with impeccably crisp, assertively salted fries and luxurious mayo on the side. French onion soup ($9) tasted of slow, patient cooking to coax the best out of onions and beef bones, topped with a fine hit of melted cheese. Brussel sprouts ($11) were halved, cooked al dente and left to nestle with thick-cut bacon in warm, rounded vinaigrette that balanced sweetness, sourness and acid.

Beef tartare with fries and mayo at Corner Peach

French onion soup at Corner Peach

Brussel sprouts at Corner Peach

We tried all four of the menu’s main courses and again, everything did the trick for us. Perfectly al dente spaghetti ($17) needed nothing more than a sauce of minced mushrooms and egg, a topping of parmesan and plenty of pepper. A vegetarian tart ($18) seemed small but contained a multitude of good things beneath its canopy of squash.

Spaghetti with mushrooms, egg, pepper and parmesan at Corner Peach

Vegetarian tart at Corner Peach

Tender seared scallops starred in the kitchen’s most sophisticated dish ($30), offset by crisped ham, bits of cauliflower and broccoli, all set in a cheesy Mornay sauce that was just a touch glue-y. A squeeze of the lemon offered with the dish was just what it needed to brighten it.

Scallops main course at Corner Peach

Best among the mains was a homey serving of confit pork ($24), its meat and fat rendered utterly succulent, sitting on cheesy mashed potatoes and topped with peas, gravy and corn-flake-crusted onion rings.

Confit pork with cheesy mashed potatoes and onion rings at Corner Peach

We gave all three of the night’s desserts a try. While you couldn’t fault the pear and ginger pie ($7) or the peaches and cream “peach-tail” ($9), a flatbread-based dessert riffing on an Ottawa-based favourite, the decadent, brittle-topped chocolate mousse ($9) was something to fight over.

Pear and ginger pie, peach flatbread dessert and chocolate mousse at Corner Peach

Cocktails here are $13, well-chosen wines are all available by the glass and most beers are Ontario craft brews. Little Victories Coffee, which is roasted in Ottawa, and teas from Maison Cha Yi in Gatineau are served.

Co-owner Campbell told me this week that unlike many Chinatown and Centretown restaurants, Corner Peach won’t be allowing its food to zip out the door with delivery people. That’s a fine stand to take, I think, when the dining-in here is as solid and rewarding as it is.

Some people speak of authenticity in restaurant-dining as a measure of how much dishes follow the strictures of a faraway cuisine. I’m starting to think that the term could be more meaningfully applied to refer to having a true restaurant experience, with all the benefits that a place like Corner Peach offers when you show up and grace its dining room.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Moe’s BBQ
2446 Bank St. (in the Towngate Shopping Centre), 613- 695-1786, moesbbq.ca
Open: Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday noon to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday noon to 11 p.m.; closed Monday
Prices: main courses $18 to $39, burgers $9 and $10
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms

The next time you have a hankering for smoked ribs or chicken, and you think that Moe’s BBQ in South Keys is a little out of your way, just bear in mind the customer who made the trip to Moe’s from Egypt.

A server at Moe’s tells the tale of an Egyptian foodie who had learned of the business at Bank Street and Hunt Club Road via the internet, and planned his North American travels to include a layover in Ottawa to allow for a visit to the no-frills but clean and modern eatery that seats about 30.

For that visitor, not to mention many others, the special allure of Moe’s is that it serves halal barbecue fare — a very rare intersection of Islamic food strictures and meat-centric, U.S. southern-style smoking.

Moe’s BBQ owner and pitmaster Mobeen Butt with his barbecue meats.

On its website, the eatery, whose owner and pitmaster is Pakistan-born Mobeen Hussain Butt, calls itself the first “certified halal southern-style smokehouse in Ottawa.” That understates its uniqueness, I think, given that my internet searches have found just a handful of similar businesses in Houston and Los Angeles.

Other halal eateries in Ottawa that tout their barbecue fare offered charcoal-grilled kabobs and chicken as they’re served in the Middle East or neighbouring Afghanistan. But Moe’s BBQ takes its biggest inspiration from Texas, where beef brisket is the king of meats.

While there are no pork ribs or pulled pork at Moe’s, there are huge, hyper-meaty, well-seasoned beef ribs and pulled-to-order beef that will make carnivores gleeful, all maple-smoked.

Last weekend, I and several other certified barbecue competition judges had dinner at Moe’s, covering our table with butcher-paper-lined metal trays heaped with brisket, beef ribs, pulled beef, pulled beef poutine, chicken legs, chicken wings, buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, coleslaw, and tiny containers of sauce. Ultimately, we enjoyed everything we tried, squabbled about what our favourites had been, missed pork not at all and would happily return.

Brisket is a notoriously difficult meat to barbecue. Even on the competition circuit, pitmasters who screw up can turn in slices of brisket that are inedibly leathery, teeth-rattlingly salty or badly smoked so as to taste of creosote. The brisket we tried at Moe’s was moist, thick-cut and beef-forward in flavour rather than heavily spiced or salted.

Brisket, cornbread, buttermilk biscuit and sauces at Moe’s BBQ

Some brisket aficionados love most of all “burnt ends” — crisp-fatty meat nuggets that are made from the point end of a brisket and require extra work and attention. Moe’s makes the practical choice not to serve burnt ends.

The pulled beef at Moe’s comes from Alberta-raised beef rump and is pulled to order. It was tender but not mushy and better than much pulled pork available elsewhere, which can feel over-sauced and as if it had been sitting around, held at temperature too long.

Pulled beef, cornbread and barbecue chicken at Moe’s BBQ

Beef ribs were meaty and as large as Flintstones-sized specimens with a sweet-spicy glaze that made for much concerted gnawing.

Beef ribs and brisket at Moe’s BBQ

When we ordered barbecue chicken, we were told that the kitchen was short of breast portions, which was fine with us because dark meat takes better to barbecuing. The legs that we received were mellow in flavour, moist if not juicy, and crisp-skinned. Chicken wings were more assertively flavoured and just a touch more dry.

Barbecued chicken at Moe’s BBQ

Chicken wings at Moe’s BBQ

House-made sides — dense cornbread, buttermilk biscuits and coleslaw — were solidly made. The most memorable side was a tray of “BBQ rice,” which consisted of aged basmati rice flavoured with brisket drippings. It was as delicious as it was simple and novel.

Moe’s sauces, offered in small individual servings, could ratchet up the heat and spice a bit, especially with the approach to the meats being so purist, although as barbecue competition judges like to say, “It’s a meat competition, not a sauce competition.”

The next time I visit Moe’s, solo rather than with a pack of meat-lovers, I might have a brisket burger, which stacks slabs of brisket in an Art-is-in Bakery pretzel bun. I might also order one of the desserts (Oreo cheesecake, chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone, or a milkshake). When the judges and I went for dinner, we had wanted something sweet to finish, but Moe’s was so busy that desserts were withheld in favour of opening up our table more quickly to waiting patrons.

The restaurant is not licensed, but its stock of cold drinks does include several fruity flavours of Barbican, a non-alcoholic malt beverage produced in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Pitmaster Butt, who is 29, worked as a mechanic and commercial cleaner before he and his wife saved enough money to open the restaurant.

He said this week that he’s been interested in barbecuing since he was a teenager, when he cooked kabobs and tandoori fare over charcoal. Later, he became fascinated with U.S. southern-style barbecue after watching TV shows on the subject. “It just looked so good,” Butt said. “To me it made sense that it must be really good.

“You want to explore,” Butt added. “I want to experiment, I want to try new flavours, all the flavours that are out there.”

Since Butt eats halal, he has never tried “authentic” barbecue fare, and has assembled his recipes and methods by reading articles and watching videos. “It was just kind of a leap-of-faith thing, I guess,” he said. “Even if it’s not as good as the actual southern style is, I’ll get there.”

One clear endorsement of his food is that the Egyptian who visited Moe’s wanted him to open a location in Egypt. “They said it would do really well,” Butt said. “He said the town he’s from loves meat.” Toronto entrepreneurs have made similar offers, Butt added. But he is resisting, preferring to focus on keeping standards high at his Ottawa location.

While his first week of cooking at Moe’s made him wonder if he’d made a mistake, Butt now says: “I love it. I love when it’s busy. There are days I take a day off and I miss it, cutting the meat and pulling the meat. It’s my dream job.”

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
instagram.com/peterhum

MORE RESTAURANT REVIEWS:

Dining Out: Queen St. Fare — Ottawa’s first food hall — satisfies but doesn’t yet thrill

Dining Out: Corner Peach delights with elevated comfort food in cozy Chinatown space

Dining Out: In Kanata, Harbin Restaurant and La Noodle serve overdue authentic Chinese fare

Cooper’s Gastropub
25 Cartier St., 613-237-2111, ottawaembassy.com
Open: 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily
Prices: mains $14 to $29
Access: hotel’s front door is wheelchair-accessible, steps to the entrance closest to the restaurant

There’s definitely an art to writing an enticing menu.

Take, for example, the menu that’s been in force for a few months at Cooper’s Gastropub, the restaurant inside the Embassy Hotel on Cooper Street. It is smartly stocked with buzzwords and signifiers that instil confidence and raise expectations for interesting, above-average dinning.

The ricotta, pancetta, fries and doughnuts are house-made. The pickerel and lamb are from Ontario, the mushrooms are from the West Quebec business Le Coprin Mushrooms, and the beer in the onion soup is from Nita Beer Company in Nepean. From herb-lemon roasted croutons on the Caesar salad to lightly creamed sherry-veal jus on the mushrooms on toast, to brown butter “maitre d’hotel” on the striploin steak, there are mentions of sophisticated touches that you would associate with a gastropub that pays attention to delicious details. Meanwhile, the prices appeal, as not a main course cracks the $30 mark.

It has mystified me, then, that more often than not, the food at Cooper’s has let us down. We’ve eaten two dinners and a lunch there since last fall, and experienced a few items that were likably passable. Too many dishes, though, fell short of their menu descriptions and seemed to us to reflect a stumble or two in the kitchen.

Our best fare came at lunch this week, when we tried the “five-napkin” burger ($14) and the fish and chips ($17). While the burger’s meat could have been more juicy and less salty, its fresh garnishes, condiments (especially a tangy tomato jam) and overall heft left a positive impression. While battered pickerel was more puffy than crispy and a touch oily, the fish was clean-tasting and well supported by its lime-dill tartar sauce. Fries with both dishes were respectable, and both dishes were visually pleasing.

“Five-napkin” burger at Cooper’s Gastropub

Fish and chips at Cooper’s Gastropub

But at two previous dinners, the food was both more ambitious and less satisfying, including some starters that felt too sloppily made. An appetizer of grilled shrimp ($11) got its seafood right, but the rest of the dish — seemingly warmed-up beluga lentils, corn fritters, some of that house pancetta, and indistinct sauces — seemed thrown together and fuzzy. A plate of mushrooms on toast ($12) also felt as if it had been made with heavy hands so that flavours and textures were muddled.

Grilled shrimp and lentils at Cooper’s Gastropub

Mushrooms on toast at Cooper’s Gastropub

Escargots ($11) were promised “soft,” with black garlic brown butter and Asiago cheese under pastry, and “crispy,” with crunch from panko and almonds, and an espelette pepper-spiked creme fraiche. But either way, they were dull and underwhelming.

Escargots at Cooper’s Gastropub

Onion soup ($9) was too salty. Somewhat better was a well-stocked seafood chowder ($10), although its shrimp, smoked salmon and mussels impressed more than its broth.

Onion soup at Cooper’s Gastropub

Seafood chowder at Cooper’s Gastropub

With some of the main courses, the potential of the dish was there, but frustratingly, there was a lack of finesse or flavour. The braised Ontario lamb shank ($25) was one of the better mains, although its plating seemed very thrown-together, its jus seemed tired and its gougère pastries lacked lightness and were too cold. Beef short rib stroganoff ($25), while hearty and made more interesting by its walnut-based “crumble,” lacked deep, cooked-in flavour.

Lamb shank at Cooper’s Gastropub

Short rib stroganoff at Cooper’s Gastropub

A pot pie of chicken, chorizo and cashews ($25) was not bad, although the crunch of the cashews was done away with in the baking. Smokey elk and pulled pork meatloaf ($24) was not as good as the mashed potatoes and red wine jus that came with it. Forbidden black rice “risotto” ($23) was a mushy, ugly flop.

Chicken chorizo pot pie at Cooper’s Gastropub

Smokey elk and pulled pork meatloaf at Cooper’s Gastropub

Forbidden rice “risotto” at Cooper’s Gastropub

A striploin steak ($29) ordered medium rare came to the table significantly undercooked and was sent back. It returned cooked to medium, but did not offend as much as the side order of “Asiago tossed” onion rings, which left a jolting aftertaste that persisted unpleasantly beyond dessert.

Striploin steak with onion rings at Cooper’s Gastropub

The best dessert we tried was a slab of dark chocolate and pistachio terrine ($8) that hit the mark, although its banana-cinnamon fritters were leaden, disagreeable and tasted only vestigially of banana. House-made doughnuts ($8), which were only available at one of our dinners, were big and heavy.

Desserts at Cooper’s Gastropub

It’s too bad that I hit Cooper’s on what were, in a best-case scenario, two off nights. It’s a modern and attractive enough rectangular room that seats about 50 or so on comfy seats and banquettes. There are TVs at either end showing sports or news to help solo travellers pass the time. The restaurant’s long bar faces a food-themed graphic that, like the bottles of pickled goods on the shelves, suggests that a good meal awaits.

Like everyone else in Ottawa, I’m feeling these days as if spring can’t come soon enough. Maybe the same fresh start is in the cards for Cooper’s when its spring menu kicks in. Hopefully that document will be as well-written as its winter predecessor, but yield better executed fare.

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

LeBreton Flats redevelopment talks have failed, NCC says

Mayor Watson says it’s ‘asinine’ to muse about not building Stage 2 LRT, which would be $1.2B more than previously estimated

Ottawa airport rail link would cost Transpo $4M annually compared to current bus service

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Chilaquiles
381 Montreal Rd., 613-699-7100, chilaquiles-restaurant.business.site
Open: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: main courses up to $14.50
Access: steps to front door

Here’s my only regret about putting February behind me: It’s no longer mole month at Chilaquiles.

That’s mole, as in the rich and sometimes heavenly Mexican sauce. It was a special offered on the blackboard last month at the eight-month-old Montreal Road restaurant. Having seen a photo on the casual eatery’s Facebook page of its mole, made according to tradition with chilies, seeds, nuts, bread, chocolate and lard, as it was developing its slow-cooked deliciousness, I was lured to Vanier to give the place a go.

For the most part, I was not disappointed during my recent visits. The humble, cosy eatery, which seats about two dozen people in a festive, multi-coloured room, beneath evocative Mexican tissue-paper decorations (papel picado) and at tables set with flowery tablecloths, keeps its fare simple. But it hits the mark for a cheap and cheerful meal out.

The now unavailable mole sauce stood out for me compared to the more common items on Chilaquiles’s menu. The bulk of that two-pager, on which no item tops $15, offers standbys such as tacos, enchiladas and burritos that swap in a customer’s choice of proteins and sauces.

But even if the dishes here are familiar, the eatery, owned and operated by Mexican expats Fernando Gomez and Soemy and Kelvin Sanchez, won us over with house-made food that was crafted with care and pride. At the risk of stating the obvious, at Chilaquiles, the kitchen knows what the food should taste like — something which can’t always be said elsewhere.

Related

• Dining Out: At Moe's BBQ, southern U.S. smokehouse fare gets a tasty halal makeover
• Dining Out: Corner Peach delights with elevated comfort food in cozy Chinatown space
• Dining Out: In Kanata, Harbin Restaurant and La Noodle serve overdue authentic Chinese dishes
• Peter Hum's best bites of 2018

For example, it is worth ordering tortilla chips and guacamole ($8) here because the chips are made on site and warm. One bite of these chips makes you question why you go anywhere where the tortilla chips are not house-made and warm. The guacamole is good, straightforward and ample, stressing avocado over the acidity and cilantro that I might bump up were I to make it at home.

Chips and guacamole at Chilaquiles

Squeeze tubes of house-made sauces arrive next. “Mild, hot and hottest,” said Soemy Sanchez as she served us the green, red and ruddy brown salsas. All three were distinctive and invigorating, and the latter two brought balanced smokiness into their play of flavours. Let’s just say we made a dent in all of the sauces throughout our meal.

Tacos here are eminently affordable (three for $10.50), traditional and devoid of frills, featuring slow-cooked meats (or for vegetarians, sautéed mushrooms with onions and peppers) usually topped with cilantro and onions. My panels of taco testers liked every specimen that landed in front of them, and especially the slow-roasted pork carnitas and slow-cooked pulled beef barbacoa.

Assorted tacos at at Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles also orders taco dorados (four for $11.50), which envelop their fillings in rolled deep-fried corn tortillas. They were fine, but after those crisp tortilla chips to start, I’d prefer soft tacos.

Deep-fried tacos at Chilaquiles

The restaurant takes its name from a dish of deep-tortilla chips, heavily sauced and topped with shredded chicken (or for vegetarians, avocado and lettuce), topped with sour cream and crumbled, mild, white cheese. At Chilaquiles, the chilaquiles ($14.50) can get a little messy but they are worth the effort because the quality of the chips and salsas speak through the dish.

Chilaquiles and refried beans at Chilaquiles

When the mole was available, we enjoyed its complexities with shredded chicken enchiladas (three for $13.50). And it was our favourite of the items we ordered.

Chicken enchiladas, rice and mole at Chilaquiles

This month has brought with it a new special, the tandem of cochinita pibil and pollo pibil — Yucatan-style pork and chicken cooked in an achiote-and-citrus marinade while wrapped in banana leaves. We tried some cochinita pibil tacos this week and they were tender and full of flavour, albeit bolstered by those squeeze-tube salsas.

Cochinita Pibil tacos at Chilaquiles

I tried both of the soups ($5.75 each) — the tomato-y sopa de tortilla, garnished with crisp tortilla strips, sour cream, cheese and avocado, and the chicken soup that also contained chickpeas, carrots and peas. I preferred the comfort and contrasting textures of the former, especially because I thought the saltiness could have been dialled down on the latter.

Tortilla soup at Chilaquiles

Chicken soup at Chilaquiles

The restaurant is not licensed, but its selection of non-alcoholic beverages, including Mexican soft drinks and other sweet options, is almost daunting. When we expressed our curiosity to Sanchez, she offered and then brought us samples of the Jamaica (hibiscus), horchata (cinnamon-y rice milk) and tamarindo (sweet and sour) drinks, which are available in pitchers for $9.

Dessert options were limited to a flan ($4.50), which was on the dense and firm side but still enjoyable, and cinnamon-y hot chocolate ($3) made to order from Mexico’s Abuelita brand chocolate.

Flan Napolitano at Chilaquiles

Mexican hot chocolate at Chilaquiles

There are other Mexican- and Mexican-themed restaurants in Ottawa that are trendier and fancier. But only a few are as homey, budget-friendly and true to Mexico as Chilaquiles, which at its best can cleanly extract a lot of flavour from simple things and serve the results warmly.

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

‘It’s pretty shocking’: Allium’s chef-owner hopes to re-open before year’s end following devastating fire

Bagnall: Anti-corruption laws and the LRT: an awkward balance

Public school parents fear schools won’t be ready for children with autism

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

Rabbit Hole
208 Sparks St., 613-695-0500, rabbitholeott.ca
Open: Monday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., closed Sunday
Prices: pizzas $18 to $20, mains $17 to $26
Access: no steps to front door, seating upstairs and downstairs, washrooms on both levels

Given the perennial problem of enlivening downtown Ottawa once its offices shut down for the night, the hopes for Rabbit Hole on Sparks Street are especially high.

Located a few steps east of Bank Street, the bar and restaurant had its grand opening in mid-December and has attracted buzz and patrons ever since. If that evening ghost-town quality of Ottawa’s downtown dissipates this year as the weather warms, it should be due to places like Riviera, the fine-dining destination at the other end of Sparks Street, Queen St. Fare, the new food hall, and Rabbit Hole, bolstered by the none-too-soon opening of the LRT project’s Parliament Station.

Related

• Dining Out: Riviera woos with power-player fare and capital-city cool
• Dining Out: Queen St. Fare satisfies but doesn't yet thrill
• Dining Out: Thali's distinctive Indian fare takes a minute to make
• Peter Hum's best bites of 2018

Rabbit Hole’s owners are Aaron and Chris Juneau, who also own Central Bierhaus in Kanata Centrum. Having taken over the Sparks Street space that was FarmTeam Cookhouse and Cellar, the Juneaus have apparently put their finger on what this part of downtown needed.

Extensive renovations have created a two-level venue that stresses cocktails, oysters, pizza and a short menu of starters and mains, wrapping the experience in imaginative decor and a bustling nightlife atmosphere.

Rabbit Hole’s narrow upstairs space is set beneath a striking canopy of tiny lights, with an inviting bar running along one wall and leading to the small open kitchen. The downstairs space is more expansive and even more evocative of the venue’s name, with a large bar as a centrepiece surrounded by comfortable alcove seating and the original stone walls of the 122-year-old property. In all, both rooms are marked departures from the more generic look of pubs that dot downtown.

Chris Juneau, who oversaw a larger kitchen at Central Bierhaus, is Rabbit Hole’s chef. In my May 2016 review of the Kanata restaurant, I wrote that Central Bierhaus presented solid, simple, meat-forward fare that was better than what I’d expected. I had a similar pleasant surprise at Rabbit Hole. While I wasn’t wowed by what we ate, our food, with few exceptions, satisfied. Main courses, none of which topped the $26 mark, were strongest in terms of taste and value.

Rabbit Hole’s list of appetizers runs counter to the trend of more composed small plates. Instead, available here are small, basic items to nibble on (chips with dip, warm olives), oysters, an expensive, retro power order (a $25 crab claw cocktail), a charcuterie plate or several salads.

We tried some oysters ($3.50 each), which were small and likely P.E.I.-raised — the menu and our server could not say — and they were fine, fresh and brine-y. The Caesar salad ($16) was heavy on crisp shards of bacon, but lighter on anchovies and acidity, and large enough to be a small main course or easily shared at our table.

Caesar salad at Rabbit Hole

A dozen pizzas, which are also customizable, merit their own page on the menu, split into tomato-sauce-based and ricotta-and-cream-sauce-based options. We tried a white, wild mushroom, caramelized onion and arugula pizza ($19) and a red pizza fully loaded with grilled chicken, more of that crisp bacon, roasted red peppers, black olives and pickled jalapeños ($20). Both pizzas yielded respectable, enjoyable slices, although one of them was a touch too chewy.

“Red six” pizza with grilled chicken, Applewood bacon, roasted red peppers, black olives, pickled jalapenos at Rabbit Hole

White two pizza : Wild mushrooms, caramelized onions, arugula, chili oil at Rabbit Hole

Our mains were straightforward, and for the most part well-made, crowd-pleasers.

We appreciated the seasoning and proper sear on a slab of rare tuna ($24), offset by broccolini and a citrus-y condiment, although its bed of Israeli couscous struck me as a bit overcooked.

Seared rare yellow fin tuna with herbed Israeli couscous, broccolini, wilted greens, preserved lemon relish at Rabbit Hole

Fans of pork and beans should pop for Rabbit Hole’s succulent but crisp-bottomed pork belly with maple-sweetened beans ($21). Rabbit Hole’s burger ($18), decked out with aged cheddar, pickles and garlic aioli, and steak with crisp, impeccable frites  and good carrots ($26) showed that there’s know-how in the kitchen to make meat-and-potatoes lovers happy. That said, the saltiness of the steak and its sauce could have been dialled down.

Crispy pork belly with navy bean and tomato cassoulet, sautéed greens, maple glaze at Rabbit Hole

Burger at Rabbit Hole

Steak frites at Rabbit Hole

The massively portioned vegetarian pasta ($20) of wavy, ribbon-y noodles with wild mushrooms, peas, arugula, lemon creme, Grana Padano and mint crumbs was less than artfully plated but definitely hearty and tasty.

Mushroom pasta at Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole serves just one dessert, which is not made in house. It brings in cannelés, the small, in-vogue, rum-and-vanilla-flavoured French treats with a crackly exterior and tender crumb. They’re made by Ottawa pastry chef Adam Cenaiko, who personalizes them, perhaps to the dismay of cannelé purists, with add-ons such as peanut butter, banana or dulce de leche. We approved of the three cannelés ($14) that we split.

Cannelé desserts at Rabbit Hole

The wine list consists of a half-dozen sparkling wines plus roughly a dozen whites and 16 reds that roam through the varietals. More than half of the reds and whites are available as six-ounce pours ($10 to $18) and roughly a dozen of the wines are designated as organic, biodynamic or “made through … low interventional natural practices.”

Rabbit Hole’s dozen taps skew toward German beers while Ontario craft beers are available in bottles and cans. Its list of eight  cocktails ($13 to $16) appealed with its eclecticism and creativity, although I found that a bourbon-based Aztec Old-Fashioned ($15) hit its sweet notes hard and its smokey and chocolate-y aspects less so.

For me, there are other restaurants in town with dishes or menus that inspire near-Pavlovian cravings. Rabbit Hole isn’t one of them. But even if the vibe is the most special thing here, the sum of its ambience, food and drinks would make me happy to return.

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

Bistro Alégria
77 Prom. du Portage, Gatineau (Hull sector), 819-771-2244, bistroalegria.ca
Open: Tuesday and Wednesday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 5 to 10 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday
Prices: main courses up to $29, sandwiches up to $18
Access: small step to front door, washrooms on ground floor and downstairs

The property at the corner of Promenade du Portage and Rue Leduc in Gatineau’s Hull sector has seen restaurants come and go over the last few years.

For a time, Aura Resto-Lounge served tapas and martinis. More recently, Lyna Le Lounge offered all-you-can-eat sushi from a treadmill. If a single Yelp review and a Google image are correct, about a year ago the tenant at the address was Resto Le Fat Burger, where the Thursday happy hour was called “Crazy Thursday.”

Since last fall, 77 Prom. du Portage has been home to Bistro Alégria, which has banished tapas, martinis, treadmill sushi and Crazy Thursdays in favour of chef Alex Gomez’s Latin-American fusion dishes.

Gomez’s extensive menu, which ranges from appetizers to sandwiches to burgers to mains, is dotted with references to the flavours and cuisines of the Caribbean and Central and South America, from Cuba to Mexico to Argentina to Colombia to Chile to Peru to Costa Rica to the Dominican Republic, the chef’s own homeland.

That’s a lot of culinary ground to cover, and I admire Gomez’s ambitions, particularly when the vibrant food that inspires him is under-represented in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. By my tally, we most notably have one restaurant similar to Alégria — the more refined Soca Kitchen on Holland Avenue — and then a few good Mexican restaurants, two Salvadoran restaurants, plus two Gatineau restaurants and an Ottawa food truck that serve Peru’s unique dishes.

In Spanish, alégria means joy. During a recent dinner and lunch, we had reasons to be happy, and some small letdowns, too.

We liked the feel of the place, which seats about 50 at black tables in an attractive rectangular room. At the back of the room is a small bar that has about a half-dozen major-label beers on tap and dispenses tropical cocktails. Potted plants plus paintings and images of tropical scenes warm up the space, as does the salsa soundtrack. Service at Alégria was consistently friendly, attentive and multilingual.

Some of the best items that we had at Alégria were utterly simple. Complimentary baskets of puffy tortilla strips, served with an avocado cream-cheese dip, were perfect to nibble on and rouse our appetites. Small deep-fried, corn-based empanadas filled with ground beef and mashed potatoes were well-made and comforting, and on the side, the bowl of bright-flavoured corn salsa with a chimichurri-like component — Colombian “aji,” or sauce, the menu said — kicked the humble pastries up to another level.

Tortilla strips at Bistro Alégria

Empanadas with corn salsa at Bistro Alegria in Gatineau’s Hull sector

Camarons al Ajillo, the classic Spanish/Latin American dish of garlicky shrimp, was nicely rendered as an appetizer ($15), with its  shrimp that were big and luscious bolstered by a mellow roasted garlic sauce and topped with onions, tomatoes, coriander and more.

Garlic shrimp (camarons al ajillo) at Bistro Alégria

I guess that tastes in ceviche vary. My preference is for the boldly acidic and spicy versions that I associate with Peru. Alégria’s house ceviche ($15), made with salmon and shrimp, was much more restrained in terms of its flavours and citrus cure.

Salmon and shrimp ceviche at Bistro Alégria

At dinner, we tried four of seven main courses, which were generously portioned but somewhat uneven in quality.

Pechuga de pollo ($23) elevated a moist grilled chicken breast with a tequila-chipotle sauce, and the accompaniments — sweet potato purée and a tomato-topped stack of grilled vegetables — were all winners.

Chicken breast in tequila-chipotle sauce at Bistro Alegria

In Peru, lomo saltado is a popular stir-fry of beef, influenced by the country’s Chinese immigrants. At our Alégria dinner, lomo saltado ($27) was upgraded to a prominently charred piece of steak, flavoured with ginger and aji amarillo, served with big, crisp yucca fries and another stack of grilled veg.

Lomo Saltado striploin steak with yucca fries at Bistro Alegria

Puerco asado ($23) sat roasted pork tenderloin on a platform of pineapple and topped it with a salsa of tomato, pineapple, onions and chimichurri. The pork was overcooked a bit, but still tender.

Pork tenderloin with pineapple at Bistro Alegria

I’ve found that paella at restaurants that don’t specialize in that glorious rice dish usually fall short of what you can coax from your kitchen, or better still, your barbecue. Alégria’s “tropical” paella ($29), alas, was another example that disappointed. Yes, it brimmed with copious proteins, including pieces of chicken breast, shrimp, squid, mussels and chorizo. But only the shrimp impressed, while the chicken and squid were bland. A big piece of minimally flavoured fish product was meant to simulate lobster, I think. Plus, the rice needed more depth of flavour and the “tropical” take was not an improvement over the traditional boldness of a Spanish paella.

Paella Tropicana at Bistro Alégria

During a lunch visit this week when Alégria was crowded, two hefty, if somewhat messy, sandwiches did the trick. The Cubano sandwich ($17) of tender pulled pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and mayo underplayed its pickle component but was satisfying nonetheless. The Atlantico sandwich ($18) of fried cod with arugula, cucumber and a lime aioli was nearly as good — perhaps the fish was just a touch overcooked, my friend said.

Cubano pulled pork sandwich at Bistro Alégria in Gatineau’s Hull sector

Atlantico cod sandwich at Bistro Alégria in Gatineau’s Hull sector

We tried two house-made desserts at lunch, neither of which wowed us. Churros and a cold, dense, egg-y piece of flan ($6 each) were both ordinary and a little heavier than they needed to be.

Churros and flan at Bistro Alégria in Gatineau’s Hull sector

On Friday and Saturday nights, there can be Latin-based live music at Alégria, for which cover charges apply. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer real musicians to the DJs who entertained at some of Alégria’s precursors. They add to the human dimension of the place, which hopefully will also have a longer run than the eateries that came before it.

Click here for more restaurant reviews.

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Bar Lupulus
1242 Wellington St. W., 613-759-4677, barlupulus.ca
Open: Monday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to late, Saturday 5 p.m. to late, Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5 p.m. to late
Prices: small dishes $15 to $19, mains $22 to $30
Access: wheelchair accessible, including washroom on main level (other washrooms downstairs)

Under normal circumstances, I visit an Ottawa-area restaurant a few times, write up my take, and then not step foot in the place for another five or six years. The rotation, so to speak, is a long one because, well, so many restaurants, so little time.

This week, though, I’m making a big exception. I recently returned twice to Bar Lupulus a little more than a year after reviewing it in December 2017, which was about two months after the beer-based eatery on Wellington Street West opened.

To have stayed away would have been to miss out on some delicious and noteworthy dishes from Justin Champagne, Lupulus’s chef since last June.

When Lupulus opened, its chef was Jeff Bradfield, whose well-crafted, from-scratch cooking helped establish the bar as one of the city’s best gastropubs. But if anything, Champagne’s striking successes using some of the trendiest culinary techniques make me think that the tastemakers who determine Canada’s best restaurants ought to have Lupulus on their radar.

Champagne, 32, is at the helm of a restaurant kitchen for the first time. But he’s had lots of experience at fine-dining destinations, including five years at Atelier in Little Italy, working for its chef-owner and two-time Canadian culinary champion Marc Lepine. The Winnipeg-born Champagne, who moved to Ottawa to work at Atelier, has also cooked at Vancouver’s award-winning Hawksworth Restaurant and even at Atelier Crenn, a three Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco.

Bar Lupulus’s Chef Justin Champagne

The best of his items I’ve had at two recent dinners at Lupulus were artful, novel creations, complex but thoughtfully so, lovely to look at and very tasty. Some dishes were even a little perplexing, although in a good way.

I’ve had comparable fare, and especially umami-rich dishes that take advantage of au courant fermented ingredients, during some recent meals in Montreal, at some much-admired restaurants. I like Champagne’s food more.

You don’t have to go all in at Lupulus with its most experimental dishes. For example, the three charcuterie items I’ve tried — citrus-cured salmon gravlax with cultured cream and dill, wild boar rillettes and rabbit liver mousse with a foie gras cap and pistachios —  were more conventional marvels of preserved meatiness and richness, offset by precisely optimized accompaniments including pickled butternut squash, pearl onion and mustard seeds, tomatillo jam and confit chayote. I can’t recall having had a more enjoyable charcuterie board, and it left us feeling we were in good hands and ready for more outré eating.

Charcuterie at Bar Lupulus

From the “raw bar” section of Lupulus’s dinner menu, we were wowed by a “soppressata” preparation of Acadian sturgeon ($18), which Champagne had brined and hot-smoked to toothsomeness. Garlic scape aioli, crispy chicken skin, dulse, chayote and Acadian caviar brought additional wonders to the plate.

Just as impressive was a carpaccio of oak-brined, grass-fed beef ($15) that beguiled us with its uniqueness savouriness, amped up by nori mayo and foie gras-spiked caramel corn.

Oak-brined carpaccio at Bar Lupulus

Of three eye-catching pastas, my favourite, due to its umami heft, was the jet-black “carbon” capellini ($18) with chili-brined roe, pickled cauliflower, arugula and charred eggplant purée. The dulse farfalle ($16) bolstered with fennel, patty pan squash, exotic mushrooms and a crumble perked by lacto-fermented vegetables, also had much to offer. A friend who had the wheatgrass pappardelle with an aerated tomato sauce and smoked confit rabbit leg ($18) enjoyed it, but thought other plates provided more excitement.

Carbon Capellini at Bar Lupulus

Dulse farfalle at Bar Lupulus

Wheatgrass pappardelle at Bar Lupulus

Indeed, if I had to compare Lupulus’s pastas with its mains, I’d say spend the extra $10 or so and go for the deluxe culinary thrills.

Champagne marinates guinea fowl in koji rice — cooked rice that’s been inoculated with Aspergillus oryzae mold, which is known as koji in Japan and which can be used as a starter for the fermentation of soy sauce, miso and other food products. The multi-day marinade boosts the funky flavour of the poultry, much as a steak is transformed by dry-aging. For his dish ($30), Champagne presented the bird’s breast tender and crisp-skinned, while the dark meat was fashioned into a deep-fried croquette. The rest of the plate brimmed with treats, most of all a saucy, umami-rich wheatberry risotto garnished with snails and truffled cheese.

Guinea fowl with wheatberry risotto at Bar Lupulus

The chef asks customers for a little leap of faith with his Arctic char ($26), which in lieu of the usual pan-fry is brined and cooked sous-vide at 46 C for 10 minutes. The fillet’s texture was unexpected, but also rich and buttery.

Sous-vide Arctic char at Bar Lupulus

A chunk of beef cheek ($28) was pressure-cooked to become appealingly tender and topped with a blend of sunflower seeds and spices, while the plate’s ancillaries — sumac gnocchi, crisp strips of salsify, a vivid smear of beet and habañero purée, pistachio chimichurri — were all on point.

Beef cheek, sumac gnocchi, salsify, pistachio chimichurri and beet and habañero purée at Bar Lupulus

Vegetarians need not feel shunned at Lupulus. For a remarkable meat-free dish, Champagne bakes sunchokes in shells of espresso grounds, hemp seeds and salt and then crisps up the shelled tubers in the pan. Other sunchokes are cooked with stout and puréed, while even more sunchokes become chips that are deep-fried and then dehydrated. The sunchoke dish ($22) is rounded out with orange-infused Israeli couscous, honey mushrooms and more on a bed of caramelized onion “leather.”

Sunchoke main course at Bar Lupulus

Desserts by Champagne maintained a similar sophistication, even as they comforted. Inside his chocolate olive oil cake ($10), the chef hid pandan meringue for a tropical surprise, while the cake was topped with a carrot sorbet that thanks to a koji component also had a bit of a fermented kick.

Chocolate olive oil cake with carrot sorbet at Bar Lupulus

Meanwhile, sous-vide chamomile cheesecake ($9) was gloriously light and dusted with lime leaf sugar, and served on a tonka bean cake.

Chamomile cheesecake with tonka bean cake at Bar Lupulus

Now, you can enjoy the dishes at Lupulus without knowing their backstories. But if you want to be fully informed of all the intricacies, Lupulus’s leather-aproned servers, in addition to being attentive and personable, know how Champagne’s dishes are made and can fill you in.

Ambience-wise Lupulus remains a welcoming, brick-walled space of cushy banquettes and saloon lighting, where a bank of more than 20 taps reminds guests that exotic beers rule. My only gripe, which applies to other restaurants, too, is that its low-lighting in the evening makes it harder to appreciate the beauty of the food.

I did bring a friend who has a decided aversion to hipsters and hipsterism and he needed to get over the very notion of “lacto-fermented veg crumble,” among other things. If you feel the same way, do check that prejudice. It’s worth getting onboard with Champagne’s food, not for “I liked it before it was cool” bragging rights, but because it’s so good.

Related

• Justin Champagne, chef at Bar Lupulus, brings fine-dining flair to "beer food"
• Peter Hum's best bites of 2018
• Dining Out: Rangoon's unsung Burmese dishes impress with deep flavours
• Dining Out: Some attractive dishes at Norca can wow
• Dining Out: Refined fare at Gezellig is in good, new hands

phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum

Dagu Rice Noodle Ottawa
Unit 1-3987 Riverside Dr. (at Hunt Club Road), 613-736-6503, daguricenoodle.ca
Open: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
Prices: Soups from $9.99 to $12.99, additional items $2.99 each
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms

Maybe you think you’ve seen, and eaten, it all when it comes to meal-sized Asian soups in Ottawa.

There’s certainly no shortage of them, from the well-established bowls of pho and wonton soup not only in Chinatown but in malls from Kanata to Orléans, to the ramen and Lanzhou beef noodle soups that arrived here more recently.

But if you’re like me, you’ve had little exposure to “crossing the bridge” noodle soup, the pride of Yunnan province in southwestern China for more than a century. Well, there is a massive modern restaurant at Riverside Drive and Hunt Club Road that would love to better acquaint you with this style of soup, which involves not only dauntingly hot and bubbling broth but also trays stocked with tiny bowls of ingredients waiting to be dunked and then devoured.

The restaurant is called Dagu Rice Noodle, and it’s no one-off. Opened last fall, it’s an Ottawa location of a nine-year-old Shanghai-based company that has 400 locations in China. Since September 2017, nine Dagu Rice Noodles have opened in Canada, from Calgary to Montreal. A Dagu Rice Noodle is to open in Las Vegas later this month.

In the Riverside Drive mall that also houses Ottawa’s T&T Supermarket, finding Dagu Rice Noodle is a little tricky. The signage seems to suggest that the business is beside the hotpot restaurant Morals Village, which opened in the fall of 2017. In fact, the two eateries, which are owned by the same parent company, are under the same roof. When you arrive, staff will ask you whether you’re there for the hotpot or the soup.

Related

• Dining Out: Hot-pot experience hits the spot at Morals Village
• Dining Out: In Kanata, Harbin Restaurant serves overdue authentic Chinese fare
• Dining Out: Two Chinese eateries spice up Merivale Road, Prince of Wales Drive
• Peter Hum's best bites of 2018

Having reviewed Morals Village’s hotpot fare in February 2018, I can say that Dagu’s soups are similarly diverse and filling. If you go for lunch, and don’t take half your bowl home for later enjoyment, then you’re a heartier eater than I am. In fact, if eating until you’re absolutely stuffed is your thing, then Dagu’s offer of unlimited refills of chewy, tubular rice noodles will appeal.

Dagu’s menu lists 13 soups, all of which feature rice noodles, and six of which are “crossing the bridge” style. A dozen of the soups are based on a deeply flavoured pork-bone broth (devoid of MSG, the menu notes), while the only recourse for vegetarians is the tomato rice noodle soup ($9.99).

Compared to a good tonkotsu ramen’s almost creamy and umami-rich pork-bone broth, Dagu’s bedrock broth is more straightforward, loudly sounding its pork-y note. It can arrive at the table unadulterated, in Dagu’s “signature” soup ($9.99), which also offers chunks of bone-in pork shank for a guest to grapple with, or overlaid with other flavours (sour, spicy, kimchi, tomato, mushroom).

Signature pork soup with stuffed meatballs at Dagu Rice Noodle

We preferred the more complex soups with bonus flavours. The evocatively named “mountain cliff mushrooms crossing the bridge rice noodles” soup ($9.99) — just say “B4” when ordering — brimmed with savouriness and a thick mouthfeel, not to mention the exotic mushrooms at the bottom of the bowl.

Mushroom cliff crossing the bridge rice noodle soup with meatballs, plus noodles and assorted add-ins, at Dagu Rice Noodle

“Spicy flavoured crossing the bridge rice noodles soup” ($9.99) packed the one-two punch of potent chilies and numbing Sichuan peppercorns, not unlike some even more potent and heavily loaded hotpots.

Spicy crossing the bridge rice noodle soup with shrimp, plus noodles and assorted add-ins, at Dagu Rice Noodle

With those “crossing the bridge” soups came mini-bowl after mini-bowl of ingredients: everything from corn kernels to cooked ground pork to bamboo shoots to stalks of imitation crab to ground, pickled mustard greens to a cooked quail egg. On the tray with those bowls were some slices of raw meat, which would cook in the piping-hot broth. Protein lovers could add sliced beef, lamb, shrimps or stuffed meatballs, each for an additional $2.99. The meatballs impressed us the most.

Of the other rice noodle soups, the sour and spicy flavoured rice noodle soup with pulled beef ($12.99) appealed with its moderate heat and tender meat. With the tomato flavoured rice noodle soup with “pork chop” ($12.99), the soup surpassed the served-on-the-side pork, which was a deep-fried cutlet not unlike the tonkatsu served in Japanese eateries.

Sour and spicy soup with pulled pork and noodles, at Dagu Rice Noodle

Tomato soup with pork cutlet at Dagu Rice Noodle

The kitchen’s deep-fryer also sends out breaded appetizers, such as the “salty, crispy chicken” ($6.99), which was more crispy than salty, and the crispy pork with Sichuan peppercorn ($5.99), which could have used more of that tingling spice.

Spicy crispy chicken at Dagu Rice Noodle

Crispy pork with Sichuan peppercorns at Dagu Rice Noodle

If the above two appetizers made you think Dagu had dumbed down its food for Western consumption, then opt for the spicy duck tongues ($6.99). Connoisseurs of this uncommon offal prize a crisp exterior and fatty interior, which must be gnawed off the bone. The omnivore among reported that Dagu’s duck tongues were like frog’s legs in terms of texture, and tasted “more medicine-y” as they grew cold. I liked the dish’s bed of spicy peanuts.

Spicy duck tongues and peanuts at Dagu Rice Noodle

The restaurant is unlicensed, but notable drinks included “super fruit tea,” a bubble tea-like concoction thick with pieces of fruit, matcha milk, which mixes green tea with milk, and strawberry and mango yakult, which are probiotic fermented milk drinks.

Oddest of all are the assorted “cheese drinks,” which top, for example, watermelon juice with a layer of what appears to be a tangy, foamy, thinned cream cheese. It wasn’t unpleasant, and apparently cheese drinks are very big in Asia, but I’ll stick to super fruit tea.

I should mention that Dagu, which means “big drum” in Chinese, was actually not the first place in Ottawa to serve crossing the bridge noodle soup. At the very least, the humble Vanier restaurant Fusion Yunnan was first to market here with that dish, which I tried one lunch hour more than a year ago. While I wasn’t knocked out, perhaps I owe that restaurant another visit, given Dagu’s arrival.

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