Honey Town

710 Somerset St. W., 613-680-8100, honeytown.ca
Open: Sunday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Prices: savoury items $4.59 to $7.59, desserts $5.99 to $17.99
Access: stairs to front door

“Embrace a new challenge like your favourite dessert,” reads the motivational saying on the window outside the excellently named new Chinatown eatery Honey Town. But what if that challenge happens to be dessert?

I have in mind durian, the spiny and notoriously stinky Southeast Asian fruit, which fortunately figures in just a few of the at-times bewildering desserts served at Honey Town, which opened in mid-June. I had to steel myself, in the company of a durian buff, to take my first durian challenge — but more on that later.

For now, let’s be clear about the less controversial but still very interesting items on Honey Town’s menu. The small, unlicensed place with a fun, youthful vibe is heavily about dessert, although there are a few savouries, and unless you’re acquainted with Hong Kong and Taiwanese sweets, many desserts and their ingredients will send you to Wikipedia for their back stories after you’ve eaten them.

Why yes, sago, which figures in many a Honey Town item, is “a starch extracted from the spongy centre, or pith, of various tropical palm stems.” Tortoise jelly, a herbal concoction, is not really made from turtle shells, although many years ago, it was. Sea coconut, I have learned since eating some at Honey Town, is an ingredient in well-regarded cough syrups, although I’ve also been told that Honey Town substitutes young coconut for sea coconut.

On principle, I’m glad that Honey Town is here if only because I’ve thought that Ottawa restaurants too often serve very predictable desserts — Crème brûlée ad absurdum.

I’m also happy that Honey Town serves savoury Chinese snacks such as bao buns and soup dumplings, even if they fall short of being the best and most artisanal in town, registering closer to good than great. We’re still at the point where it’s a significant to have these items available, never mind excellently made.

I liked the fillings I’ve had in Honey Town’s handful-sized open-face buns — the archetypal slap of fatty-but-good pork belly, the tender bits of braised beef plus kimchi, the unfortunately dry fried chicken. Too bad the buns, which were most likely made elsewhere and previously frozen were a little mushy.

Pork belly and fried chicken bao buns at Honey Town

Soup dumplings of either pork or pork and crab delivered the hoped-for sploosh of broth and some meaty filling. Har gow shrimp dumplings had texture and freshness going for them but needed a bit more seasoning. Won ton soup was minimalist, made of shrimp won tons, so-so noodles, baby bok choy and broth that needed more flavour.

Soup dumplings at Honey Town

Har gow shrimp dumplings at Honey Town

Won ton soup at Honey Town

Who knew that kimchi fries was a thing, let alone a good thing? Honey Town’s rendition was no more than fries topped with kimchi, with ketchup on the side, while Google points to more complex recipes with caramelized kimchi. Still, Honey Town surprised with crisp, excellent fries worth a repeat visit, and I’d take these over sludgy poutine any day.

Kimchi fries at Honey Town

Also from the deep-fryer came Taiwanese popcorn chicken, which we wish had been meatier, although it more than passed the test for crispness and lack of greasiness.

Taiwanese popcorn chicken at Honey Town

From the menu’s sweet selections, what I’ve tried has spanned the gamut from the very approachable milk custard with honeyed walnuts all the way to something quite daunting and durian-forward.

I’ve sampled what must be Ottawa’s most mango-obsessed dessert — mango cream paste with mango pudding and mango ice cream. Good thing I was in the mood for mango. But seriously, I’d eat it again if myriad other choices didn’t also tempt.

Mango four ways dessert at Honey Town

I mean, how can you not order sea coconut and black glutinous rice ball with vanilla ice cream paste? It proved not only interesting but also sweet and refreshing on a sweltering day.

Coconut, glutinous black rice ball, vanilla ice cream paste at Honey Town

A massive — sufficient for three, really — bowl of chewy taro balls, tapioca pearls, boiled peanuts, red beans and syrup on shaved ice was diverse, less sweet than expected, and exotic. Those squidgy taro balls in particular stood out as a reminder of the textural breadth of the Asian palate, but the dessert became less daunting, and more slurpable, as the ice melted.

Taro balls, tapioca pearls, boiled peanuts, red beans, syrup on ice at Honey Town

Which brings me to trying durian. It turned out that at one lunch-time visit, Honey Town was out of durian thousand layer cake. So at the server’s suggestion, we went for the durian crepes.

Durian crepes at Honey Town

The stuffed pancake arrived, green and pungent.

“You know, it constipates you if you eat too much,” said my dining companion, a durian aficionado just the same.

“Now you tell me,” I replied.

“You’d have to eat, like, a whole one,” she said.

“I have three of them sitting in my freezer,” she added.

With the crepe, we found that the whipped cream mellowed out the chunks of durian, which we guessed had once been frozen and were thawed, especially given how labour-intensive it would be to make desserts with fresh durian, which has an intimidating, thorny husk. Without the whipped cream, the durian tasted like a cross between caramelized onion ice cream and rotting caramelized onion ice cream.

A large serving of Hong Kong-style “milk tea” (black tea mixed liberally with condensed milk) washed the durian flavour from my mouth.

Milk tea at Honey Town

But for my dining companion, any reprieve was temporary, as she later messaged me: “Got durian burps and it’s not a good thing.”

Looks like I won’t be going back to Honey Town for the durian cake challenge. But other than that, I’ll happily return.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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Tante Carole

168 Old Chelsea Rd., Chelsea, Quebec. 819-866-3149, facebook.com/RestoTanteCarole
Open: Monday, Thursday and Friday 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., every day except Tuesday 5 to 9 p.m, closed Tuesday
Prices: main courses up to $28
Access: stairs to front terrace and front door

It’s a good thing that Jonathan Harris and Suyeon Myeong abandoned their idea to open a restaurant called Pho Chaud.

Not that I have anything against Asian soups. Or bad puns. But if the two young chefs, a couple in real life who previously cooked at Brut Cantina Sociale and Courtyard Restaurant, had brought Pho Chaud to life, there would have been no Tante Carole.

In February, Harris and Myeong opened that restaurant in the Old Chelsea space that had been Café Soup’Herbe. Neither of them has an aunt named Carole, but their place is named more abstractly, to evoke thoughts of homespun coziness.

Chef and co/owners of Tante Carole restaurant in Chelsea Quebec, Suyeon Myeong and Jonathan Harris, in their eatery’s kitchen.

The name fits. Who wouldn’t want to spend some downtime on the restaurant’s large and pretty covered front porch, which could still be open when the leaves turn colour this fall thanks to its heaters?

Indoors, there’s a simple, light-wooded dining room plus bar that seats about 40, surrounded by walls adorned with snow shoes and a cross-country ski. Near the kitchen, there’s also a large blackboard listing Tante Carole’s dozen or so wine choices, which tend to be off-the-beaten track private imports and are available by the glass for between $8 and $11.

The front of the dining room at Tante Carole

The wine list at Tante Carole came on stream in June.

The wines were a recent addition. At first, Tante Carole served only lunches. But after receiving its liquor licence in June, dinners came on stream.

I’ve been for one of each meal. On the whole, the farm-to-table fare from Harris and Myeong has been fully flavoured, interestingly diverse and, at best, delightful. If a few prices had been a little lower, and if service, while friendly, had been a bit more responsive, I’d be singing Tante Carole’s praises unreservedly.

At lunch on the porch, there was a burger to beat most that I’ve had in recent memory — big, juicy and bolstered with smoked gouda and bacon. A well-made wrap of sliced bavette steak was a more modest but still beefy option, paired with superior tomato-basil soup.

Burger with bacon, smoked gouda at Tante Carole

bavette wrap, tomato basil soup at Tante Carole

At dinner, eaten inside because the porch was packed, two appetizers began the meal with a bang. The first, a refined but rustic study in lusciousness, lined up a puck of mellow, creamy foie gras torchon with morsels of moist duck confit and irresistible homemade brioche. Sweet onions and tart pickled rhubarb finished this winning dish ($16).

Foie gras, duck confit, brioche from Tante Carole

A mushroom-themed starter ($12) featured some of Le Coprin’s finest plus a well-seasoned mushroom sauce and some puffed barley for crunch. Salad ($11) hoisted the flag high for locavorism, featuring greens from Hendrick Farm, just across the road from Tante Carole, and Juniper Farm in Wakefield.

Most of the dinner main courses were fully loaded creations that kept us happy and talking, thanks to vibrant flavours, varying textures and colourful presentations.

A lighter choice was the plate of five seared scallops ($23), punchily accompanied by succotash and pickled green beans. A hidden smear of salsa verde provided some surprising heat.

seared scallops, succotash, pickled green beans and salsa verde at Tante Carole

The scallop I stole from my neighbour was a touch overdone, as was my pork tenderloin, which was still good, but not the star of its Asian-themed plate ($25). That honour went to the novel and tasty starch component, a seared tofu-skin wrap filled with sticky rice.

Pork tenderloin, chili sauce, bok choi, patty pan squash, sticky rice in a tofu skin wrap (rouleau de yuba) at Tante Carole

A generous vegetarian dish ($23) threw off all kinds of sparks. Roasted cauliflower and eggplant and more Le Coprin mushrooms gave it bulk, while a luxurious purée of squash infused with kaffir lime leaf, plus scattered curried granola and pistachios, added complexity.

vegetarian dish with cauliflower, roasted eggplant, squash, squash with Kaffir lime thai curry puree, beets, indian curried granola, pistachios  atTante Carole

Meanwhile, succulent duck breast and smoked celeriac came with their fine, fluffy couscous and some sharp, home-made jerk sauce.

Duck breast with jerk sauce, smoked celeriac, couscous at Tante Carole

Desserts have been very strong finishes. I’ve twice had chocolate cake at Tante Carole, and it’s been eye-wideningly good, deeply chocolatey and not too sweet, offset by fine supporting players such as a roof of fresh raspberries, a quenelle of chocolate mousse, malted milk ice cream or Earl Grey drizzle.

chocolate cake with raspberries and a chocolate quenelle at Tante Carole

Less showy lime sorbet on a bed of fresh berries was also delicious.

lime sorbet and berries at Tante Carole

Our grumbles were slight — those proteins that could have been a little more juicy we thought, post-dessert waits for the bills that dragged on a bit, and the charges for the admittedly good bread ($2 a person, $5 for the table).

But these were small and easily remedied sins. What Harris and Myeong, who recently moved to live just down the road from their restaurant, do very well in Tante Carole’s kitchen more than compensated.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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Original Burger Joint

873 Bank St., originalburgerjointottawa.com
Burgers $11 to $15 with fries or salad

The Bacon Factory Burger Emporium

154 O’Connor St., search for The Bacon Factory on Facebook
Burgers $11 to $13

Le Foubrac

47 Montclair Boul., Gatineau (Hull sector), lefoubrac.com
Burgers $6.99 to $9.99

OCCO Kitchen

3018 St. Joseph Blvd., occokitchen.com
Burgers $9 to $16

I’ve recently racked up more kilometres on my car than I would have liked, hitting downtown, the Glebe, Gatineau’s Hull sector and Orléans, all in a quest for an excellent hamburger.

Until I found that beaut, in a St. Joseph Boulevard strip mall at a joint that’s too good to be called a joint, but not large or fancy enough to be called a restaurant, I had to be satisfied with burgers that were so-so to pretty good. With those burgers, there was always something to gripe about — too big, too messy, too complicated, too dry or any combination of these shortcomings.

In the Glebe, I found gigantic burgers at the Original Burger Joint, seemingly made for those who think that burgers should be taller than they are wide. Even the teenagers eating with me were daunted. My burger ($15, including a side order), stuffed with mushrooms and topped with caramelized onions, lettuce and garlic mayo, was a hearty jaw-stretcher, best consumed quickly before its moist toppings made the bun soggy and unmanageable. While the onions and mayo made for a sloppy mess, the meat itself lacked juiciness.

Breakfast burger at Original Burger Joint.

Stuffed mushroom burger at Original Burger Joint

Original burger at Original Burger Joint

What I liked best at this place were the crisp, ungreasy onion rings and sweet potato fries, plus the availability of local craft beers.

Downtown, at the year-old Bacon Factory Burger Emporium, the burgers were interesting and creative. But some were also overloaded with one, if not more, extra ingredients. A jerk grilled chicken breast burger, my favourite of three burgers that I sampled, didn’t need guacamole, sriracha mayonnaise and slices of mango, competing with each other.

Jerk chicken Burger from The Bacon Factory Burger Emporium- pic by Peter Hum Ottawa Citizen Photo Email

The house burger — featuring back bacon, bacon, prosciutto, brioche bun, coleslaw and maple mayo — played its sweet notes more strongly than I would I liked. As for the carnivore burger, under its bacon, back bacon, smoked gouda, roasted garlic mayo and pickles, the beef patty was dry.

Bacon burger at the Bacon Factory Burger Emporium

Carnivore Burger from The Bacon Factory Burger Emporium

In Hull, café-bistro Le Foubrac began its life in October 2013 with some very good feng shui, opening where the much-missed Odile was. The attractive burger-and-sandwich place has enjoyed enough success to have expanded into the space next door and received its liquor licence.

In my blue cheese burger ($8.99), the meat was a bit dry and over-compressed, but its cheese, roasted peppers, caramelized onions and house mayo did compensate. The duck burger ($9.99) had good flavour.

Mont Bleu burger at Foubrac

Duck burger at Le Foubrac

Worth celebrating were the standout fries ($3.99). Le Foubrac does great Belgian-style things with potatoes, frying them in beef fat for extra savouriness and pairing them with one of four kinds of mayo, curried, garlicky or spicy). These are the kind of fries that make you fight with your dining companions for the last one. For poutine lovers, there are nine varieties.

Fries and garlic mayo at Le Foubrac

Last, but the opposite of least, is OCCO Kitchen, which opened in March in a small Orléans strip mall. OCCO stands for Orléans Catering Company, but it could also be called a takeout joint, given that eight stools and two counter tops are all that’s available for dining in. Meanwhile, at tripadvisor.ca, OCCO is ranked No. 1 of Ottawa’s 2,200-plus restaurants, although it has no tables and only serves soft drinks, never mind beer and wine.

OCCO’s owner is Mark Steele, who has been executive chef at the Delta City Centre, Ottawa Marriott and Algonquin College. He’s making artisanal fast food, doing as much from scratch and using as many local ingredients as possible.

The burgers here do taste better, above all because of the freshness of their components, starting with herbed, toasted, baked-in-house-that-day buns. Pickles and ketchup are homemade too, as is bacon that’s been candied, but not overly so, and beef that’s been cooked so as to retain some juiciness. The burgers I’ve tried have been hefty but very manageable, maintaining their structural integrity as long as I’ve enjoyed them. Along with the bacon cheeseburger at Tante Carole in Chelsea, which I reviewed last week, OCCO made one of the two best burgers I’ve had over the last several months.

Bacon cheeseburger at OCCO Kitchen

Also at OCCO, Steele, a Newfoundland native, does fried cod very well, in the fish taco, fish burger or fish and chips. The chips are spiced, herbed and garlicky.

Fish and chips from OCCO Kitchen

One only wishes that wishes that Steele had the central location and space of Bacon Factory or Original Burger Joint. Till then, I’ll have to rack up the kilometres, driving to Orléans.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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My review last week of four burger joints prompted readers to write in with their favourite burgers in Ottawa. Here are some of the recommendations I received:

“Best burger I’ve had in Ottawa was at Play (Food and Wine) about two years ago,” wrote one. “Every time I travel I realize how burger places here are comparatively mediocre.”

“I want to recommend the lamb burger at The Black Dog Bistro in Manotick — one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten, topped with grilled red peppers and goat cheese. Yum!” wrote another.

“Have you tried Chez Lucien on Murray Street?  Its crazy busy after 5 p.m. but so worth the wait,” wrote a third. “I love the Bourgeois burger with melted brie cheese, sliced pear and little bits of fried onion. Comes with fries and salad.  So yummy!!!”

“Come to Perth to the Hungry 7 diner located on Highway 7,” wrote a fourth. “Chef Dave will make you a great burger!”

I’m glad for these recommendations. They, along with some of my other favourites, have led me to formulate the burger paradox, which goes like this: while the best pizzas are served at pizzerias, the best burgers come from non-burger joints. I guess it just takes a chef’s hands, or at least a willingness not to cook all the juice out of the patty or inundate it with goopy toppings.

For what its worth, some not-so-usual burgers that I find myself craving:

• The foie gras burger at Two Six {Ate} in Little Italy
• The pig cheek burger at Navarra in the ByWard Market
• The shrimp burger at Kazu in Montreal

I realize that we’re stretching the definition of a burger a little, but still — the above options are — or were, in the case of Chef Rene Rodriguez’s super-indulgent but off-the-menu pig cheek burger — good eating.

The Navarra Pig Cheek Burger, circa 2010.

UPDATE: There was some banter Tuesday on Facebook that Rodriguez and his crew will bring back the Pig Cheek Burger, this Friday at lunch at least, if not longer, in part as a salute to the late Citizen food editor Ron Eade, who was quite a fan.

As for burger joints that nail it, my votes go to Burger n’ Fries Forever on Bank Street, and Vera’s Burger Shack in Bells Corners.

Burgers from Burgers n’ Fries Forever on Bank Street.

A fully loaded Vera’s burger from the Bells Corners burger joint.

And you?

Atari

297 Dalhousie St., 613-422-8877, atariottawa.com
Open: Monday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., Sunday 12:30 p.m. to midnight
Prices: small plates and snacks $5 to $19; cocktails $8 to $14
Access: step to front door

With two Nintendo-loving pre-teens in tow, I thought it would be a good idea to have lunch last week at a place with video-game characters painted on floor.

I’m talking about Atari, a two-month-old venue in the ByWard Market that takes its name from the Japanese word meaning “to hit the target” or the pioneering U.S. video game company, defunct since 1984.

In fact, I wish there were Asteroids or Centipede video game consoles here. But Atari is no arcade. For that matter, it’s more about cocktails and nightlife than family-friendly lunches. Still, we didn’t do that badly there, better than expected even, after we moved past Atari’s main-floor black banquettes and high-top tables and climbed the stairs to the roof-top patio overlooking Dalhousie and Clarence streets.

Atari opened on Canada Day where Sopra, a higher-end Italian restaurant, had been for about three years. The new spot’s motto is “Play with food and drinks” and it means to attract imbibers and snackers with a menu of about a dozen small, simple items and a cocktail list that’s twice as long.

The kids and I passed on novel, sweet-skewing drinks such as the Atartini, the Text Me Maybe and the #B.A.E., some of which included freshly snipped herbs from the roof-top planters.

We were pleased most of all by Atari’s lobster rolls ($6), even if they would have been better described as mini-lobster rolls. Call them what you will, they packed two or three delicious bites of claw meat into their tiny toasted buns.

Lobster roll at Atari

The top of Atari’s menu highlights “tartar” combinations (I would have spelled that “tartare) that invite guests to pick a raw, minced protein (tuna, salmon, beer or duck) and pair it with a style of seasoning (Asian, Mexican, French or Italian). Of course, some pairings, such as Asian tuna and French beef, are more natural than others.

We went for Italian duck tartare ($13 for 75 g, $18 for a shareable 150 g). While the chop of the duck was rough, and it could have been brightened with more salt and acid, the duck meat’s savoury, umami pop thanks to parmesan and truffle oil was undeniable. The pre-teens polished it off. They even played with their food, drawing happy faces on the tartare with the proffered strawberry hot sauce.

Italian duck tartare at Atari

In the bowl of mac and cheese ($9), longer, undulating noodles had some character, the sauce tasted of real cheese and was not overly truffled. Meatballs ($11) were not bad, but were less interesting, even for pre-teen palates, than the other options.

Mac and cheese at Atari

Meatballs at Atari

If the cocktail thing doesn’t work for Atari, it could pivot to desserts, based on the kids’ enthusiasm for its only sweet meal-ender, which was a plate of double-stacked, deep-fried Oreos with a small vanilla shake for dipping ($9).

Deep-fried oreos at Atari

The most notable downside of lunch was the frisée that completed most plates, which was tired and disposable. There was also a wee bit of shell in one lobster roll. Also, the discriminating young palates recognized their ginger ales were off, but upon raising it, they received improved replacements.

A few days later, I returned to Atari with two adults for more tartare and to see if the frisée had perked up.

“French” beef tartare struck me as bland in terms of both its meat and its seasoning — there’s definitely better classic beef tartare to be had in Ottawa. Asian tuna, with its pronounced sesame and soy sauce notes, made more of an impression, even if its gingeriness was muted.

Beef tartare and tuna tartare at Atari

Frisée, wherever it appeared, still seemed like it would have been better a few days earlier. Better greens were to be found in the passable kale salad ($12), amply portioned and packed with candied pecans.

Kale Salad at Atari

Atari’s burger ($11) was big on smokiness thanks to triple-smoked bacon. Pulled pork poutine ($9) was surprisingly crafted and superior to nearby fast-food fare, with crisp shoestring fries and a gravy that was light rather than sludgy.

Atari burger at Atari

Pulled pork poutine at Atari

In all, there seemed to be enough above-average bar snacks at Atari to merit the advice: come for the cocktails, stay for the lobster rolls, poutine, mac-and-cheese and deep-fried Oreos.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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More restaurant reviews at ottawacitizen.com/tag/dining-out

The Rowan

915 Bank St., 613-780-9292, therowan.ca
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 5:30 to 10 p.m., lunch and brunch services are planned
Prices: starters $8 to $15, main courses $25 and under
Access: no steps

When is a British restaurant in Ottawa not a pub? When it’s the Rowan in the Glebe.

Opened in late July by Simon and Ross Fraser, the sibling chefs behind the much admired Fraser Café in New Edinburgh, the Rowan replaces the Zazaza pizza eatery on Bank Street with a more interesting dining option that still has casual appeal. Ottawa restaurateur Ion Aimers was behind that Zazaza, as he still is with the Zazazas in Hintonburg and on Beechwood, and he is involved with the Rowan too.

The new place seats about 45, on moulded plastic seats or on a hard wooden banquette or at a small bar. The floor is concrete, and all of these hard surfaces make me believe a colleague who told me that the Rowan was not only packed, but also far too loud, on recent a Saturday night. I visited when the Rowan was not so crowded, and I sat near the front, and didn’t have issues with the volume.

I like the ambience of the Rowan — with its green wall and mural, its back-of-room open kitchen, and its array of lights casting a cosy glow come twilight. And I like its astute, friendly service and the considerable craft apparent in the food even more.

The kitchen, under the command of chef de cuisine and Fraser Café alum Kyle Decan, updates familiar dishes, perking them up with sour, acidic and strongly herbal touches in line with a contemporary palate. Here, mayo can come with the hit of curry, dill, malt vinegar or za’atar. Pickled beans, shallots, carrots and beets frequently adorn plates, almost as frequently as watercress, that quintessentially British green.

The Rowan’s menu is a taut one-pager containing a few snacks, almost a dozen starters, a few sandwiches, several “roasts” (meaning the most sizable main courses), and a few vegetarian options. There are a few echoes of some dishes I’ve seen on Fraser Café menus, but generally the food is somewhat more simple.

After some warm and complimentary sourdough rolls, I’ve begun with a few smaller items. Potato crisps ($5) were not chips but more like small, shatteringly crisp potato nests, served with a pot of thinned sour cream dip. An oxtail “sausage roll” ($13), bolstered by some bracing mustard, was indulgently flaky and meaty.

Potato crisps at the Rowan

Oxtail sausage roll at the Rowan

Six slabs of tuna crudo ($15) impressed with their size, tenderness and freshness, even if they needed just a bit more salt. The pickled corn strewn on the plate added colour and subtle sweet-sour pop.

Tuna crudo with pickled corn at the Rowan

Of the main courses I’ve tried, one was the great standout — a marvelously roasted half-chicken ($24) with perfectly crisp, perfectly seasoned skin as well as moist meat throughout. Elements on the rest of the plate needed to be assertive and they were, including a big dollop of tart coriander chutney, fenugreek potatoes, and radish and cauliflower for crunch.

Roast half chicken at the Rowan

Indian tweaks were seen again in one of several vegetarian mains — spiced chickpeas and quinoa fritters ($19) — even if its grilled, squidgy, salty halloumi cheese was more Middle Eastern than Indian. But the hearty bowl of spiced chickpeas was like a streamlined version of chana masala. The zucchini quinoa fritters had me thinking pakoras — and very good ones at that.

Spiced chickpeas and quinoa fritters at the Rowan

Braised lamb ($25) was a pot of richly flavoured, tender and occasionally fatty meat and potatoes, with a minted cream sauce and smashed peas on the side.

Braised lamb at the Rowan

A mound of humble sirloin steak ($25) presented and ate very well, with suitably massive wedge fries that were perfectly textured inside and out. They were even better with the accompanying malt-vinegar mayonnaise.

Sirloin steak at the Rowan

I dined both times with some committed carnivores, so the trout filet that looked so good at a neighbouring table went untried. To its credit, the pork pie ($21) fulfilled expectations for a moist, savoury treat, while the accompanying pot of au jus added another layer of richness.

Pork pie at the Rowan

Three desserts comforted rather than wowed.

Chocolate pudding ($8) was smooth, dark and authentic, topped with roasted almonds, strawberries and whipped cream. Apple fritters ($7) were well-made, but needed something extra to be memorable. Simplest was a bowl of strawberries in a puddle of cream, adorned with a chiffonade of mint ($7). Two sticks of perfect, warm shortbread elevated that bowl.

Chocolate pudding at the Rowan

Apple fritters at the Rowan

Strawberries and cream at the Rowan

If the Rowan isn’t a pub, it’s probably a gastropub — although in Ottawa, the Wellington Gastropub, which got there first and set the bar high, practically has a lock on that term.

Certainly, the Rowan has the culinary savvy and ambition to do a gastropub proud, but it serves just 10 beers, plus 10 red and 10 white wines, almost as many whiskies and some cocktails.

Gastropub? “Modern British,” as some websites say? “A place to eat. In the Glebe,” as its own website says?

Call the Rowan what you will. Just go and tuck in.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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Roberto

348 Preston St., 613-230-3111, robertopizzeria.ca
Open: Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday
Prices: pizzas from $12.75 to $18, gluten-free option $2.50 extra
Access: Steps to restaurant

I didn’t know Roberto Valente personally, but I’m still glad there is a pizzeria named after him.

In February, Valente died, far too soon. Just 46, the father of three young children succumbed to brain cancer. He was a star on Ottawa’s restaurant scene because for two decades, he and his older brother Richard had opened a succession of Fratelli restaurants from the Glebe to Kanata to New Edinburgh to Barrhaven to Westboro.

The Valente brothers, themselves the sons of Calabrian restaurateurs, planned to open a little pizzeria on Preston Street this year, but Roberto didn’t live to see it open in early June. The new place was to be called Cugini, meaning cousins in Italian, after the next generation of Valentes who would have the place to inherit. But after Roberto died, Richard renamed the restaurant in his memory.

“I’m going to call it Roberto, so I can still go visit Roberto every day,” Richard told the Citizen, soon after his brother died.

It’s a cosy, unaffected place of less than 30 seats that overtly celebrates Italian culture — think the soccer team photos on the walls — along with its namesake and his family. The back wall’s blown-up black-and-white photo shows young Roberto. Near the front, a smaller photo shows an older Roberto beside a wood-burning pizza oven.

The star on the pizzeria’s sign has five points — one for each of Roberto and Richard’s children.

Roberto’s children also lend their names to several pizzas on the concise menu of about a dozen pies. I’ve sampled more than half of them and am happy to write that they were pies that would have made Roberto proud.

Pizzas at Roberto are thin-crust creations that are well-designed, quickly made and quickly served. (Speaking of speed, I’ve found that three courses at Roberto usually clock in less than an hour.) They’ve generally emerged from the wood oven with nice charring. Just one, during an extra busy lunch service, landed on the table with one slightly burnt edge that was nothing critical.

The pies here are knife-and-fork fare, I think, although I did see other diners eating their pizzas with their hands, single slices folded over themselves or even a stack of two slices, toppings facing in.

Named for Roberto’s oldest son, Luca was a simple pepperoni pizza. But it was a real winner, thanks to tomato sauce with deep, true flavour.

Luca pizza at Roberto

Of Roberto’s five other tomato-sauced pizzas, I’ve tried and liked the Azzuri, which has artichoke, ham, black olive and mushrooms, and even more so the Juventino, with its charred roasted kale, cooked but still-crisp zucchini, and bright house-roasted red peppers.

Azzurri pizza at Roberto

Juventino pizza at Roberto

The “white,” tomato-sauce-free pizzas were strongly appealing too, including the no-frills Clemente pizza of clams, garlic and mushrooms and the Pirlo pizza of mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula and parmigiano. By the way, we were able to have one pizza that was half-Clemente, half Pirlo and were told that any pizza, as long as it was all-white or all-red, could be split.

Arugula and proscuitto / clams and garlic pizza at Roberto

The Roberto pizza was aptly rich and packed a savoury, salty umami blast with its wild and porcini mushrooms, truffle aioli and parmigiano.

The Roberto pizza at Roberto

Only the Bria pizza (house-smoked salmon, capers, goat cheese, onions, mozzarella) fell a little short, and only because an excess of capers made it too salty.

While pizza is the name of the game at Roberto, there are a few salads and desserts. There was nothing wrong with the straightforward kale Caesar, dotted with good pancetta.

Kale Caesar salad at Roberto

Tiramisu in a jar was heavy on the cream. The generous bowl of ice cream here was an interesting, dense mix of ricotta, black currant and basil.

Tiramisu at Roberto

Black currant/ricotta/basil gelato at Roberto

The eatery, Richard Valente said, “was just going to be mine and Rob’s fun place to go.”

Now, Roberto is more than that. A purveyor of very good pizzas, it’s also a worthy tribute to a much-loved brother and widely respected man, and a little room with soul.

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Tomo

109 Clarence St., 613-241-0990, tomorestaurant.ca
Open: Sunday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to “late,” Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Prices: sushi rolls $7 to $15, kitchen items $5 to $18
Access: fully accessible

An old friend was visiting Ottawa, her hometown, from Japan. She had taken a vacation from not only her adopted country but also its food. Four weeks here, she still hadn’t had any Japanese food. She was craving it, and I decided to take her to Tomo, which says its name means “old friend” in Japanese.

Not that she and I are among the Clarence Street venue’s prime demographic. Opened May 1, Tomo is a enlarged, sleeker reboot of the Asian-fusion restaurant formerly known as Wontonmama. At night, Tomo is as much club and lounge as restaurant, entertaining a younger and apparently deeper-pocketed crowd with DJs spinning tunes and bottles of $1,500 champagne and $500 cognac on offer. A server told us that Tomo has an application in to increase its legal capacity from 180 to 220, in line with its bustling evening popularity.

But Tomo serves lunches too, and my back-from-Japan friend and I went for that on its wee patio, even if the table was far too small for the array of dishes that later speedily arrived. (The interior, with its chic wall-sized mural, Edison lights in sake bottles and brick wall adorned with sake barrels, was attractive and energized rather than zen, but we wanted to enjoy some late-summer sunshine.)

Scanning the menu, my friend noted the grilled squid. “Fifteen dollars? Oh my God, that’s so funny! It’s festival junk food,” she said. And yes, a few prices here do seem a little steep, compared not just to Japan but to good Ottawa Chinatown eateries, where fare is served in more spartan, less hip surroundings. But my friend was very pleased when the whole squid arrived, savouring the give of its nicely sauced body and its crispy tentacles.

Grilled squid at Tomo

Four takoyaki ($5) croquettes with a bit of octopus inside, also got her thumbs-up, this time for getting its textures and inner moltenness just right, and for not being over-sauced. (We did find out that the takoyaki were not made in-house.)

Takoyaki and tuna tataki at Tomo

Of the tataki items (we could have gone for steak, tuna or duck breast), tuna ($12) was clean and fresh but a little underseasoned, although its sauces and toppings, which included shreds of daikon, crisp onion and tiny, intriguing red peppers, did compensate.

Moving to the sushi menu, we tried the sashimi platter ($16) and met with our biggest disappointment. Raw salmon and tuna, plus the slices of octopus, were fine, but the cheap and easy choice of pieces of fake crab just didn’t belong.

Sashimi platter at Tomo

Among the tricked-out sushi rolls were many made with tempura shrimp. “They’ll have that (in Japan) for children who don’t want raw fish,” my friend said. That aside, she and I thought the tomo roll ($11.50), made with tempura shrimp and topped with beef slices, was attractive, well crafted and tasty.

Tomo roll at Tomo

“You can eat it. It’s awesome,” my friend said of the roll’s protruding, deep-fried shrimp tails. She was right.

Two more visits helped me focus my take on Tomo.

I’ve tried more snack-sized items including the fried chicken ($12), skewers of duck meat dusted with togarashi, the peppery Japanese spice mix, and what’s billed as tempura baby octopus ($4).

Fried chicken at Tomo

Duck skewer at Tomo

Above all, they struck me as bar-food pairings with beer or cocktails in the best izakaya (Japanese watering hole) style. The chicken and duck were straightforward and fine, but the octopus was heavier and greasier than hoped for, lacking the finesse of true tempura, while the whole baby octopus emerging from the gloppy casing was just offputting. Make my octopus takoyaki or tenderized tentacles any day.

Tempura baby octopus at Tomo

I’d take beef tartare ($15) over the striploin ($18). The former came with greaseless, house-made potato chips for scooping, and the meat was well-chopped, nicely herbed and slightly chilied, even if I would have liked it more had it been brighter and more acidic. Striploin here meant not a steak, but slices of meat with a too-strong sweet sauce.

Beef tartare at Tomo

Striploin at Tomo

Tomo slaw ($11) provided more interesting flavour contrasts, with julienned green papaya, mango and cabbage playing nicely together and united by a slightly creamy, spicy dressing and topped with crisp filaments of taro. Again, had the dish been brighter or more acidic, I and a friend would have liked it more — but we could understand Tomo going for a more accessible flavour profile.

Tomo slaw with duck breast

On my last visit, we filled up with a spider roll ($15) that pleased us all with its still-warm, properly tempura’d soft-shell crab and tight construction.

For dessert, there was just a single choice, but an excellent one — a plate of three Asian-inspired Moo Shoo ice cream truffles (milk tea, mimosa, sesame, $9) by Ottawa’s Liz Mok. That smart outsourced pick suits Tomo’s fusion approach to a tee, and surely would surpass a half-hearted try (say, Asian churros) from the eatery’s kitchen or cheaper sweets bought elsewhere (say, red bean ice cream from Chinatown).

Mooshu Ice Cream at Tomo

In all, Tomo seems to pick its spots to get its blend of food and club-based fun right. Those who like their Asian fare contemporary and crowd-pleasing and their sushi beautiful and packed with cooked seafood will do well making friends with Tomo — even if $1,500 Cristal is out of reach.

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Carben Food + Drink

1100 Wellington St. W., 613-792-4000, carbenrestaurant.com
Open: daily for dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday brunches 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Prices: $15 to $28 for savoury dishes, desserts in the $10 range
Access: Fully accessible

At Carben Food + Drink on Wellington Street West, the chef-owners’ culinary ambitions are as clear as the three dozen or so high-end cookbooks on the dining room’s bookshelves.

There are gorgeous tomes by some of the world’s most revered and trendsetting chefs, from Ferran Adria to Daniel Boulud to Heston Blumenthal to Magnus Nilsson. And yet, their temples of gastronomy in Spain, New York, London and northern Sweden are a long way from Hintonburg.

Happily, it turns out that Carben, which opened in June, serves striking, component-rich, delicious dishes that are not only dazzling visually but also filled with the kinds of contemporary flourishes and transformations that should draw foodies from far and wide.

Chef Kevin Benes and his wife, pastry chef Caroline Ngo, seem to have extracted good value from their book collection, and from stints at restaurants in Ottawa and elsewhere, including the Holland Avenue mainstay Allium, where Benes previously worked under chef Arup Jana.

The couple behind Carben also get an extra gold star because not only are they stretching out imaginatively and successfully pushing molecular gastronomy techniques about as hard as any other Ottawa kitchen, especially at a similar price point, but they also have a five-month-old baby to raise at the moment.

Caroline Ngo, Kai Benes and Keven Benes of Carben Food + Drink.

Carben’s commendably short menu, which generally sees a new addition and subtraction each week, consists of about a dozen items ranging from $15 to $28. Desserts are on the pricier side at $10 and $11, but they should not be omitted, they’re so artful.

Over two dinners in the last two months, I’ve tried four smaller plates that were nothing but wows.

Tomatillo gazpacho ($16) was a marvelous, deluxe cold soup that had us swooning with its balance of flavours, its smooth texture, and its array of garnishes — ribbons of cucumber, watermelon that had been compressed with vodka, house-cured arctic char  and  balanced on top of a long almond cracker.

Tomatillo Gazpacho, with cracker, compressed vodka watermelon, cured arctic char, shiso leaf, lumpfish roe, cucumber rolls and Thai chili at Carben Food + Drink

Benez had reconfigured beef cheeks ($18) into a sleek, sumptuous bar of meat and paired it with a splashy salad of sorts that included pickled cauliflower, pea tendrils, a carrot puree and wasabi “gnocchi,” meaning that the Japanese mustard came in a thinned, dialed-down sauce encased in a breakable membrane.

Beef cheek with carrot puree, pickled cauliflower, wasabi “gnocchi” at Carben Food + Drink

A novel mushroom plate ($16) splendidly combined Asian influences and esoteric ingredients — wood-ear fungus, Eryngii mushrooms, edamame, shiso leaf, sea beans and the potent flavourings of a miso glaze and turmeric aioli. Somehow, there was an intriguing but not overpowering barbecued note to this vegetarian dish.

Wood Ear Mushrooms with Eryngii, Miso Glaze, Tumeric Aioli, Sea Beans, Edamame and Shiso at Carben Food + Drink

A pork belly and scallops combo ($16) paired the proteins with apple that had been compressed with tequila, a slick of chimichurri sauce, and mango and jicama for tropical brightness.

Scallops, pork belly with chimichurri, mango and jicama Carben Food + Drink

Among the larger dishes, tender slices of duck breast ($25) at Carben were dressed up and served in fine company, with quinoa, roasted onion, hazelnuts, rainbow chard and splashes of pastel-coloured pineapple gel that added sweetened acidity.

Duck main course at Carben Food + Drink

Juicy striploin steak ($28) was the star of a generous plate well-loaded with a starchy square of turnip pavé that riffed on scalloped potatoes, a bright parsley puree, pickled chanterelles, a cremini mushroom puree and porcini dust and crispy shallots.

Striploin main course at Carben Food + Drink

Arctic char ($24) with crisp skin and tender flesh came with a “black congee,” (loose, not-quite soupy rice, coloured and flavoured by squid ink), a slow-poached egg, smoked almonds and even a hardened crisp that tasted of orange and ginger.

Arctic char with black congee (rice with squid ink), 62-degree egg, scallions, orange ginger sheets at Carben Food + Drink

For all of these last three feats at a dinner last month, the conception and execution were bang-on. As busy as these courses were, they made us want to scrape the bowls and plates clean.

They also eradicated the qualms caused by some mains that were served at an August dinner but are no longer the menu, including a big mound of brined, slow-cooked beef tongue ($24) that aimed for transcendence but fell short.

Beef tongue main course from Carben Food + Drink

Carben’s themes of inventiveness and colourfulness extended to Ngo’s desserts, including a refreshing composition built around cucumber ice cream and vanilla-green tea sponge cake, a Southeast Asian-themed dish centred on light, vibrantly green pandan cake and lychee, and a more traditional chocolate and cherry ice cream dessert that was both complex and kid-friendly.

Cucumber-themed dessert from Carben Food + Drink

Pandan dessert with lychee at Carben Food + Drink

Chocolate and Cherry-themed dessert at Carben Food + Drink

The ambience here is simply what it should be. This narrow 40-seater designed, like many an attractive Ottawa restaurant, by Shannon Smithers-Gay of one80 Design, is cool and minimalist but not severe — dishes make big splashes upon arrival. Service has been friendly and personable. Guests are invited to peruse Carben’s cookbooks if the topic comes up. Most importantly, servers have been very well-informed and able to demystify dishes without pretension. That’s a must with dishes that are inevitably topics of conversation.

The only thing that I wanted to change about Carben during my visits, which have admittedly been on off-nights, is that I wish it had been more crowded with happy diners generating a nice buzz.

On my last visit, I did overhear a server say that a weekend night had been packed, with walk-in customers being turned away. I hope Carben can repeatedly generate that kind of interest.

Quieter nights at Carben, and memories of recently shuttered eateries, make me wonder if Ottawa only gets the restaurants it deserves. Let’s hope it deserves Carben.

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Portugalos

53 Bellehumeur St., Gatineau, 819-600-3344, portugalosrestaurant.ca
Open: Tuesday to Friday and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 4:30 to 10 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: main courses $14 to $35
Access: One step to front door, wheelchair-accessible washroom

It’s a long way from Ottawa to Lisbon. Fortunately, it’s not that long a journey to get to Portugalos in Gatineau, which might well be the capital’s only Portuguese restaurant following the recent closure of El Meson in New Edinburgh.

I’ve been to Portugalos twice in recent weeks after making the glum trip down Greber Boulevard, the turn at Les Promenades Gatineau and the turn onto Bellehumeur Street at the sign for Portugalos.

Inside the restaurant, I’ve preferred sitting on its more casual bar side, with its TV turned to a Portuguese sports channel, over the slightly larger and somewhat more formal dining room. In both ambiances, plaintive Portuguese folk plays over the sound system, tables are covered with rooster-decorated cloths, and the service has been attentive. But the bar side has felt to me more in line with the robust, unfancy and at times brusquely seasoned dishes emerging from the kitchen.

Eager to please, Portugalos has lunch and dinner menus, as well as a take-out menu stressing grilled chicken, piri-piri-spiced or otherwise. The dinner menu offers the most choices.

Seafood dishes have impressed the most, including a moist, flavourful grilled sea bass ($22) and a truly tender octopus appetizer ($14.50). Both seafoods came simply garnished with minced, lightly pickled vegetables amid a pool of olive oil.

Grilled sea bass at Portugalos

Grilled octopus appetizer at Portugalos

Other dishes have varied more in quality, but have tended to be generously portioned, assertively salted, and if paprika was called for, heartily seasoned. Proteins on plates have been the stars, with starches and vegetables being more run-of-the-mill.

The eatery’s menu says it can serve roast suckling pig if given several days’ notice. However, the much-sought-after pork dish appeared on the table d’hôte menu ($32.50 for three courses plus coffee) when I had dinner at Portugalos last weekend and it was a good choice, graced with peppery, succulent meat and crisp crackling.

Suckling pig at Portugalos

Paella Valenciana ($28.50) featured deeply saffroned al dente rice could have used a little less salt and more complexity in its seasoning, but its assortment of seafood and still-moist chicken was generous.

Paella Valenciana at Portugalos

During a lunch visit, plump shrimps ($18.50) were unabashedly garlicky, served amid salty broth and very ordinary rice.

Garlic shrimp at Portugalos

At the same visit, a chicken breast ($16.50) served with an appealing, paprika-forward sauce and slices of chorizo beat out a slightly dry but well-flavoured grilled half-chicken ($14).

Chicken breast a la Portugalos

Grilled chicken at Portugalos

A heavily seasoned, somewhat oily stew of braised pork and clams (carne de porco à Alentejana, $19.50) featured cubes of pork of varying tendernesses, a scattering of clams and pieces of pickled vegetable, seemingly from a can or bottle, that added a vinegary pop.

Pork and clams at Portugalos

We’ve generally liked the meal-starters here, beginning with the warmed buns and crostini and the red-peppered compound butter. While that octopus dish was tops, we also thought highly of the chorizo sausage that came to the table in a special earthenware dish, flambéed and flavoured by a grappa-like liqueur ($8.50) and the hearty caldo verde (or potato-and-kale) soup  ($4.50), even if seemed to be thickened with corn starch.

Flambeed chorizo at Portugalos

Caldo Verde soup at Portugalos

Deep-fried salt cod croquettes and their shrimp-filled equivalents (both $5 for three) were commendable, ungreasy appetizers.  The surf-and-turf of clams and chorizo sausage tasted above all of its big, mouth-filling red sauce ($12.50) and pâté of sardines on baguette were unmistakably briny.

Salt cod croquettes at Portugalos

Clams appetizer and sardine pate at Portugalos

Come dessert time, a server brought display samples table-side. We had to have pasteis de nata, the classic Portuguese egg tart (two for $5), but they would have been better at room temperature or even slightly warmed, we thought. A meringue pudding ($5) didn’t do much for us either, I’m afraid. Our favourite was a slightly more composed dessert of crumbled cookies and whipped cream ($5).

Portuguese tarts at Portugalos

Molotoff, a Portuguese meringue pudding, at Portugalos

Dessert at Portugalos

While the food at Portugalos was somewhat uneven, we appreciated the eatery’s commitment to its homeland (down to the Portuguese bottles on its wine list) and its friendly feeling sufficient to make us want to return there if we were again in the wilds of Gatineau — as close as we’ll come to Lisbon, you might say.

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Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

111-1433 Wellington St. W., 613-680-8990, gastrodiner.ca
Open: Wednesday to Friday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Prices: nothing over $13
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms

But perhaps it’s a little less clear what a gastro diner is. Compared to a more run-of-the-mill, unmodified diner, is a gastro diner more refined? Quirkier? Simply better?

In the case of Chesterfield’s, which opened in late August, sometimes it’s a little of all three.

Its space, which was Illume Espresso Bar until its closure in March, is very relaxed and a little rustic, a bit like Wakefield come to Wellington Street West, with second-hand decorations and mismatched plates in addition to those sofas. Shelves near the front door are stocked with Coles Notes and crayons.

Beyond its ambience, this small-scale place of about 40 seats, sofas and swiveling high stools has principles too. “We run solely on hydroelectricity, use no Styrofoam and we recycle. We are always open to any suggestion in how to reduce our carbon footprint,” its website says.

In the open kitchen, casually dressed and cheery staff aspire to make healthier food using a steam oven for much of the cooking, replacing a diner’s usually well-oiled flat top grills. “We are ‘a not so greasy spoon,'” the website continues.

What I’ve eaten here over several visits has been made-in-house, straightforward and simple, generally without the salty, oily hit of similar dishes elsewhere.

I thought quite highly of Chesterfield’s tourtière, which got its seasoning and meatiness bang-on and was topped with a fried egg substituting for gravy. With two sides — I picked some pita chips with mild baba ghanouj and an unfussy tomato-cucumber salad —  it was the dish at Chesterfield’s I’d go back for repeatedly.

Tourtiere at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

The so-called “Israeli” breakfast was a nice assortment served on a board. It included a bun of challah bread, smoked gouda and grapes and was centred around poached shakshuka eggs, meaning eggs in a tomato sauce perked with spices and a bit of harissa.

Israeli breakfast with Shakshuka eggs Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

A vegetarian banh mi sandwich was very liberal in its interpretation of that Vietnamese classic, with roasted cauliflower, pickled turnips, baba ghanouj, cucumber, carrots and Sriracha hot sauce in its bready embrace. While it was arguably as Middle Eastern as it was Asian, it was pretty good. Of the sides on offer, fennel cabbage slaw had good crunch and an approachable, sweet dressing.

Vegetrian banh mi at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

A substantial chicken schnitzel sandwich, featuring a thick, “air-fried” cutlet, lacked the pleasing crisp coating of a traditional schnitzel and was a wee bit dry. But its marinara sauce had good, redeeming brightness to it, and the side-order soup, a potato leek potage, was thick and hearty.

Chicken schnitzel sandwich and potato leek soup at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

The same schnitzel appeared with waffles, in lieu of traditional, and health-threatening, fried chicken. Again, the meat was just a touch dry, underseasoned, and this time visibly a little scorched. But with some chipotle mayo or maple syrup, it was easy enough to finish, and the waffles were impeccable.

Chicken and Waffles at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

The item that I thought needed a rethink was Chesterfield’s steak, which was part of a hash (it also figures in a sandwich or with eggs benedict). My dining companion and I both thought the beef was over-cooked and disagreeably marinated.

Steak hash at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

Cobb salad featured most of the right components (egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, bacon — but no blue cheese) in reasonably good shape, but needed more artfulness or zippy flavour to be vivid and special. You could say the same about the diner’s traditional two-egg breakfast.

Cobb salad at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

Traditional two-egg breakfast at Chesterfield’s Gastro Diner

Coffee and squeezed in-house juices have been fine. Alas, there are no diner-staple pies here. The closest Chesterfield’s has served to dessert has been a berry-rich smoothie.

So, “gastro” in Chesterfield’s case does not mean “deluxe.” But it does mean honest, affordable food served informally and cheerily in a well-intentioned setting. A few dishes stand out. Do you ask for a lot more than that from any diner, gastro or otherwise?

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Share Freehouse

327 Somerset St. W., 613-680-4000, sharefreehouse.ca
Open: Monday to Saturday 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., Sunday 4 p.m. to midnight
Prices: appetizers $15 and up, mains $17 to $26, double portions $33 to $45
Access: stairs to front door, one step to washrooms

In the six months that Share Freehouse has been open, the Centretown eatery has seen more than its fair share of changes.

True to its name, Share’s first menus pushed family-style dining hard, with main courses offered “for two” and priced accordingly, with optional “plus one” supplements. That was when Share, owned by Thom McVeigh, had Danny Mongeon, who formerly ran the kitchens at Hooch Bourbon House and Brut Cantina Sociale, as its chef.

But by June, Mongeon had left Share. Some time later, he was replaced by Aaron Wong, who was cooking at Salt Dining and Lounge. New menus have offered shareable, super-sized dishes, but also more conventional single servings too.

Bar snacks also figure on the menu, which are true to the location’s previous existence as 327 Wine Bar. Pretzels, crostini, spring rolls and the like are meant to go with a selection of whiskies and cocktails, a few local beers and choices from a wine list that could use a bit more information on it, such as countries of origin.

I’ve dined at Share three times. The first time, Mongeon was in the kitchen. I visited two more times in the last month. The bottom line: portion sizes aside, the dishes here have been ambitious and generous creations. The best conceived and executed ones, especially by Mongeon, put smiles on faces. Judicious choices from the menu can amount to a satisfying, interesting meal. But during the recent visits, there were enough uneven dishes with impressive components beside lesser ones to prompt grumbling and questioning too.

Fortunately, they were available in single portions, as mandatory double portions would have been doubly disappointing.

What has worked best at Share? If you can get some warm, freshly baked vanilla stout bread with maple butter, you will want to eat a loaf of the stuff.

Two other winners build on what Mongeon served in Share’s early days. The bison tartare ($15), which I’ve had twice, has been fantastic — one of Ottawa’s best raw meat dishes. Give credit to its assertive seasoning, the crunch of fried shallots mixed with lean, nicely chopped meat, and the covering of grated cured egg yolks. Wong has pushed the dish into full Asian mode, adding pickled clams, house-made kimchi and hoisin sauce along with lettuce leaves for wrapping. The Momofuku Bo-Ssam-style garnishes are arguably more than the wow-worthy tartare needs, but I’m not against them.

Bison tartare at Share Freehouse

Share’s roasted bone marrow ($17), scooped onto buttered toast, was rich and indulgent, with parsley’s herbal hit cutting its fattiness. (In Share’s earlier days, the parsley came with more finesse, in something closer to a rough purée.) A bowl of wan duck jus on the side, however, seemed superfluous in the recent tweak of the dish.

Roasted bone marrow at Share Freehouse

On a charcuterie board ($24), smoked arctic char, duck “ham” and a creton-like spread got a thumbs up. But the overly chewy root-beer bison jerky was too much effort to eat, and the board as a whole, like other dishes, struck us as over-priced. (Generally prices have risen since Share opened.)

Charcuterie board at Share Freehouse

Share’s ancient grains salad ($9) was full of nutty goodness, but there was a little too much oiliness to its squash fritters and deep-fried kale.

Ancient grains, squash fried kale salad at Share Freehouse

A duck main course ($26), inspired by shawarma wraps, demonstrated what worked and what didn’t at Share. The slices of duck breast were flawless, while lemony potatoes, baba ghanoush and other fixings were fine. But the mini-pitas were dense and insufficient, and over all, the dish was somewhat user-unfriendly, as the question of whether it was simply deconstructed or meant to be fussily reassembled was never answered. In this and other cases, our server, while amiable and attentive, wasn’t clear on the food’s details or intentions.

Duck “shwarma” at Share Freehouse

Slices of tri-tip beef ($24) had good flavour, as well as a lot of chew, but the limp, lifeless fries with them were a let-down.

Tri-tip steak for two at Share Freehouse

Leaving aside more of those subpar fries, a plate of pan-roasted pickerel ($24) was the best of the mains during a recent visit, with moist, fresh fish and accompaniments such as nicely acidic green beans, ancient grains and more playing together well.

Pickerel and fries at Share Freehouse

The DLT sandwich ($23), made with molasses-smoked duck bacon, lettuce and tomato, needed more duckiness. Super-rich, it tasted mostly of a heavy slathering of aioli.

Duck bacon, lettuce and Tomato Sandwich at Share Freehouse

To its credit, Share is mindful of vegetarians and vegans, offering at least one main for each preference. Its hearty vegetarian pot pie ($18), made with cheesy mashed potatoes, a sage bechamel sauce and assorted vegetables and served with house bread, was as rib-sticking as vegetarian dishes get. In hindsight, it was a too-heavy, too-bready choice on a fat-forward night that also included bone marrow and a DLT.

Vegetable pot pie at Share Freehouse

Share’s multi-component desserts ($8), while not quite artfully plated, have generally worked for me, including the chocolate ganache/chocolate-sea-salt ice cream and grapefruit sorbet/scones options. The peanut butter ice cream (very dense) with French toast (rich, naturally) was more heavy than we liked.

Chocolate dessert and Tea time scones dessert at Share Freehouse

Peanut butter ice cream French toast dessert at Share Freehouse

Root beer doughnut at Share Freehouse

There are good ingredients at Share, along with some good ideas and techniques. But there have also been too much going on with some dishes and some cooking lapses.

I hope that this unevenness can be chalked up to a work still in progress, and that another six months at Share will be filled with changes for the better.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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Belmont Snack & Liquor

1169 Bank St., 613-979-3663, belmontottawa.com
Open: Tuesday and Wednesday 5 p.m. to midnight, Thursday to Saturday 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to midnight, closed Mondays
Prices: snacks $8 to $15, large plates $18 to 30
Access: steps to restaurant, and steps to upper level with washrooms

Until about a year ago and for about a decade, a small, bi-level restaurant called Carmen’s Veranda called 1169 Bank St. home. My predecessor described the place circa 2008 as a “quirky little retro-looking neighbourhood restaurant” and an “eccentric-looking space.” Food-wise, it was “dandy,” Anne DesBrisay wrote.

Now in Carmen’s place is Belmont Snack & Liquor. I’ve had dinner there twice in the last month and was able to try the fall/winter menu as well as its precursor. The values that made Carmen’s distinctive seem to have been passed on to the new tenant. Belmont is a little less quirky, but as retro as it is hipster in its ambience. Its food, which at first was all about small plates but more recently branched out to include a few larger, family platters, has been both eccentric and mostly dandy.

Gone are Carmen’s giant cactus wrapped in mini-lights, collection of mortar and pestles, antique biscuit tins, linoleum tables and Naugahyde chairs. Belmont rolls with maps, pennants and a Belmont street sign on its walls, chunky wood tables and some metal chairs that you might wish were a little more comfortable had your stay been on the longer side.

The blackboard in the middle of the restaurant now focuses on mixed drinks, a few local beers and a short but interesting wine list that leans to New World bottles. For old times’ sake, there are vintage touches including plates from Café Henry Burger, the now defunct classic French restaurant in Gatineau’s Hull sector, plus a vintage arcade game console in the back, near the small open kitchen.

From that kitchen emerged many reasonably priced dishes that showed a lot of assertive flavours, culinary curiosity and global influences. The best dishes might recall Thailand or Japan or Morocco, or possibly some combination of far-flung countries. Other dishes reflect a kitchen keen to go its own way. This is an eatery that claims fried chicken skin as its signature, and isn’t averse to tossing fresh curry leaves on a chocolate brownie dessert.

We thought most highly of the Belmont’s twist on tuna tartare ($15), which was brightened with just the right amount of snappy kimchi, and its seared duck breast tataki ($12), with its maple- and soy-tinged meat and some well-chosen accompaniments (funky, appealing miso mayo and the clean, ungreasy crunch of fried taro).

Tuna tartare at Belmont

Duck tataki at Belmont

Two simple roasted vegetable dishes, both with Middle Eastern accents, made for nice contrasts during our meals. Carrots ($8) came with a dusting of sumac. Brussels sprouts ($8) came with tahini and pickled turnips.

Roasted carrots at Belmont

Brussel sprouts at Belmont

A snack that crossed pork rillettes ($9) with rough approximations of the fixings of a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich fell a little short, mostly because the pork could have been seasoned more punchily. We preferred another adaptation of Asian street food, namely some pork skewers ($12) that were inspired by Thailand’s moo dad deaw, or sun-dried pork jerky. It’s likely that the made-on-Bank Street version was quite removed from its inspiration, but its flavours were more mouth-filling than those of the quasi-banh mi.

Pork confit rillettes “banh mi” at Belmont

Moo dad deaw at Belmont

I’m a sucker for fried chicken skin most of the time — it’s the bacon of poultry, you might say. But I thought that Belmont’s ($7), which I tried at my first visit, were too heavily dosed with Maggi seasoning, a soy-like product that is essential to banh mi, even if a little goes quite a long way.

Fried chicken skin with celery and carrots at Belmont

Belmont’s larger plates have been amply sized and admirably loaded with flavours and components.

On its new menu, is a Southwestern-themed bowlful of very tender short rib meat ($25), offset by a bright salsa verde, a mole sauce of sorts with some depth of flavour, and some cheddar-ized hominy. Tortilla chips on the side brought nachos to mind, but in a good way.

Short rib and tortilla chips at Belmont

Cornish hen ($30) arrived succulent and appreciably spiced with a piri-piri-style sauce. A whole branzino fish ($30) was nicely cooked and given a deluxe Thai and Vietnamese treatment, perked with kaffir lime and lemongrass. (That dish — as well as the pork rillettes, chicken skins and roasted carrots — has been dropped on the latest menu.)

Piri piri Cornish hen at Belmont

Whole branzino at Belmont

A special last weekend of pork tenderloin ($20), which could have been a little better trimmed, played off the sweetness of its squash purée and onion chutney with a fresh paneer-style cheese spiked with caraway seeds.

Pork tenderloin special with squash, pickled onions, chutney, caraway paneer at Belmont

Desserts ($8) have often ended meals with surprises as well as sweetness. In place of carrot cake, Belmont has served a huge block of parsnip cake, moist and approachable. Some still-warm shortcake with peaches was impeccable and quickly devoured.

Parsnip cake at Belmont

Shortcake with peaches and strawberries at Belmont

Chocolate brownies served in a deconstructed fashion, with curry leaves for good measure, were a gamble. The powerful, lingering taste of the leaves made the dessert less appealing for me. Another equally scattered-looking dessert of chocolate brownies with chocolate ganache, crumbled sponge toffee and banana compote was a little overwhelmed by the last ingredient.

Chocolate brownie with curry leaves at Belmont

Chocolate brownie and ganache, banana compote and sponge toffee at Belmont

Still, even the dishes that had some flaws had good intentions and dared to be different. It’s easy to give Belmont’s free spirits in the kitchen some latitude and patience, when the successes clearly outnumbered the fizzles.

phum@ottawacitizen.com
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Manotick Gastropub

5561 Manotick Main St., 613-692-2675, manotickgastropub.com
Open: Wednesday and Thursday 5 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 11 p.m., Sunday 5 to 9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday
Prices: appetizers $7 to $16, main courses $19 to $33
Access: steps to front door

It was an ad on Facebook last month that prompted me to sample a decidedly retro, even classic meal at a Manotick restaurant with a new and trendy name.

“Announcing Sunday Night Supper!” said the ad from the Manotick Gastropub. Specifically, the ad referred to 10 ounces of prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, whipped potatoes, more veg and gravy. “Go back to the basics — bring your family, leave the phones at home, enjoy great conversation and enjoy an amazing Sunday Night Supper.”

It was the latest move from an eatery that’s transforming itself. On Friday, Aug. 7, the Main Street Cellar in Manotick served its last dinner. The next night, at the same address, the Manotick Gastropub was up and running, under the same management.

Owners Paul Paton and Kim Burns, who opened the Cellar in 2009 in a former dress shop in a 140-year-old house, felt that a re-branding and new concept were in order. In early September, they hired Ian Carswell, formerly the executive chef at the National Gallery of Canada, to run the kitchen.

Before I went for the prime rib, I had already been once for dinner, lured by the “gastropub” in the restaurant’s name, and the promise of better-than-average and even novel dishes that I expected to go with it. I’ve had a mix of well-made and slightly sloppier food, but also items that struck me and my companions as over-priced and defiantly old-fashioned.

Meanwhile, at the Ottawa area’s self-described gastropubs, and at its gastropubs that don’t call themselves gastropubs, the food is more contemporary and even surprising.

Back in Manotick, much more fashionable is the slate of new cocktails that touts infused spirits such as dark-chocolate vodka, blueberry-basil vodka and cherry bourbon. From our table in the eatery’s intimate dining room, we could hear those drinks being talked up in the adjoining bar.

Of three starters during my first dinner visit, lamb tartare ($16) served with fennel slaw, brioche and dots of tarragon sauce was the most interesting. Fried calamari ($15), with admittedly good red peppers and green beans and bacon-wrapped dates ($13) were more pedestrian, and we would have liked more of them for our money.

Lamb tartare with tarragon cream and fennel slaw and brioche at Manotick Gastropub

Calamari at Manotick Gastropub

Bacon-wrapped dates at Manotick Gastropub

Main courses that night were very straight-forward. Best were plates of duck confit ($27) and rainbow trout ($27) that were both succulent and generously proportioned. A pork tenderloin roulade ($24) was a competent, more mild pick.

Duck confit at Manotick Gastropub

Rainbow trout at Manotick Gastropub

My tourtière ($22) made of veal, beef and pork was quite good in terms of pastry and savoury filling, but the single-serving pie was also surprisingly small. “Is that a butter tart?” one of my friends asked. She exaggerated, but as well crafted as it was, the tourtière didn’t feel like great value.

Beef/pork/veal Tourtiere at Manotick Gastropub

Lamb shank ($26) was tender, but very much under-seasoned and under-sauced. My guess was that the lamb had been cautiously cooked in a sous-vide water bath rather than braised in the old-school way, with the old-school benefits.

Lamb shank at Manotick Gastropub

You read very little above about what accompanied those main-course proteins because, on the side, most of those plates were nearly identical. Four of five plates featured whipped potatoes, French beans and variations on demi-glace-based sauces. High marks for efficiency, but much less for imagination.

Desserts ($9) were as standard as standard gets. But that said, the piping hot apple crumble and chocolate mousse with raspberry sorbet were also very good renditions of the classics.

Apple crumble at Manotick Gastropub

Chocolate mousse with raspberry sorbet at Manotick Gastropub

When I visited a second time, again there were some ups, some downs and familiar food that aimed to comfort.

Of two soups, I thought better of a butternut squash soup special, tweaked with a hint of curry. The soup that’s always on the gastropub’s menu is a classic French onion soup, which was satisfactory but nothing special.

Butternut squash soup at Manotick Gastropub

French onion soup at Manotick Gastropub

Veal sweetbreads lacked the crisp exteriors that I think are a must, in part because of the demi-glace sauce on top. Putting that sauce below the dish’s puff pastry or beside the meat would have made for better sweetbread bites.

Veal sweetbreads at Manotick Gastropub

A sandwich of thinly shaved, too-dry brisket and bacon with cheddar and barbecue sauce was more more hefty than good.

Bacon and brisket sandwich at Manotick Gastropub

That night, the Sunday supper of prime rib ($28, including soup or salad) was the clear, if very basic, winner. The slab of edge-to-edge pink meat was simply salted — perish the thoughts of garlic, herb crusts or hickory smoke you might encounter with prime rib dinners elsewhere. With the meat came with solidly made veg, OK Yorkshire pudding and gravy.

Prime Rib at Manotick Gastropub

Based on a 2011 review, the Main Street Cellar served dishes that seem exotic and practically revolutionary compared to its successor’s fare — think ostrich tartare or duck flavoured with Chinese five-spice, paired with papaya salsa and gingered basmati rice.

Those sound like the kinds of dishes I might possibly find at a gastropub. But now, not in Manotick, where it’s back to basics instead.

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The Pomeroy House

749 Bank St., 613-237-1658, thepomeroy.ca
Open: Sunday 5:30 to 9 p.m., closed Monday, Tuesday to Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5:30 to 10 p.m.
Prices: Appetizers $13 to $19, mains $24 to $32
Access: Step to front door
Gluten-free options: full gluten-free menu available

The ducks touched down quickly, two by two, with nary a quack.

We’re talking about four gorgeous plates of duck confit that arrived at the table beside me at the Pomeroy House last weekend. Maybe the guests were regulars at the three-month-old Glebe restaurant, and had determined the menu’s must-have over other alluring options. Maybe intuition and a yen for crisp duck skin and succulent leg meat had guided them. Either way, they were unanimous.

Duck confit at the Pomeroy House

They were likely delighted with their duck. Or at least, I know I was that night. Pomeroy’s chef and co-owner Rich Wilson, formerly the sous chef at Beckta Dining and Wine, had taken the bistro staple and made it sparkle. The duck’s taste and texture were just as it should be, while creamed corn, kale, spiced walnuts and slices of apple made the dish beautiful and doubly delicious.

That duck of one’s dreams was no fluke. Over my two visits to Pomeroy House, many dishes were deeply satisfying and even the betters of similar dishes in Ottawa. Just a few could have used a tweak in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, the room’s classy but relaxed vibe and its servers’ exceptional attention have made for special nights out.

The Pomeroy House, which for the last half of 2014 was called Segue, and before that was the first of Ottawa’s Fratelli restaurants, is a sleek room with a subdued colour palette and music at the right volume.

The long, narrow room’s 17-seat bar is a focal point, with a backdrop of brick and timber and upside-down carafes strung up as light fixtures. In the back of the room, beyond the line of tables that share the comfy banquette, there’s a cosy table beneath the huge window that looks into the kitchen. You can imagine the VIPs eating there.

The Pomeroy House co-owners Lindsay Gordon and co-owner/chef Richard Wilson.

You might feel just as special in Pomeroy’s cheaper seats, given how staff treat you. Guided by general manager and sommelier Lindsay Gordon, chef Wilson’s partner in life, our servers have been as welcoming, well-informed, attentive, wine-savvy and friendly as any we’ve dealt with in recent memory.

Dinners at Pomeroy have begun with much appreciated freebies — slices of bread with containers of superior caramelized, savoury-sweet-herbed compound butter.

I’ve tried four appetizers and each was distinctive and spot-on.

Seared foie gras ($21) served on top of granola and an apple slice fried in the foie-fattened pan was a beaut.

Foie gras with apple and granola at the Pomeroy House

With its confident, eye-opening seasoning and house-made cottage cheese, a dish of roasted carrots ($14) reminded us of simpler, essential pleasures.

Chunky, fresh tuna crudo ($16) was perked but not overwhelmed by a bright pepper crumble and caper vinaigrette, plus morsels of olives, cauliflower and radish.

Tuno crudo at Pomeroy House

Miso parsnip soup ($9) was hugely portioned and luxuriously smooth, with bits of pickled shiitakes as an accent.

Miso parsnip soup at Pomeroy House

The restaurant’s one-page menu includes a category called “mids,” meaning cheaper, mid-sized dishes, rather than a middle course, and we’ve found some elevated renditions of simpler, protein-centred dishes here.

Baby back ribs ($16) were as good as a restaurant — as opposed to a barbecue pro with a smoker — can make them. These ribs were superbly balanced — boldly but not excessively seasoned, tender but not overcooked, with smokiness to appreciate after their meatiness and spice. Toothsome cheesy grits sealed the deal, although our party’s younger diner was happier still with crisp, notch-above fries and malt mayo ($7).

Baby back ribs and fries at Pomeroy House

A holdover from Segue’s more simple menu, “Hot” chicken ($15) here was spicy, crisp, fried chicken with cauliflower purée to cut its heat. Bison short rib pastrami ($19) could also have been called pastrami-style cured bison short rib, but by any name it was a carnivore’s stand-out, speedily picked at and devoured at our table.

Hot chicken at Pomeroy House

Bison Short Rib Pastrami at Pomeroy House

Lamb risotto ($18) was the rare instance of a dish that crossed the seasoning line, with much-too-salty lamb kielbasa sausage, along with blue cheese, making for a dish that hit one note far too hard.

Risotto with lamb kielbasa at Pomeroy House

Closer to faultless was this main course — a thick slab of crisp-skinned arctic char ($31), served with lentils, shiitake, sunchoke purée and pumpkin seeds.

Arctic char at Pomeroy House

Among the mains, the vegetarian choice has been a risotto-stuffed beet roulade with king mushrooms on the side ($26). As much as we admired the craft of the roulade, we wished for a little less of it and more of the swoon-inducing mushrooms.

Risotto-stuffed beet roulade at Pomeroy House

Desserts by pastry chef Adrienne Courey have been involved creations with classic roots. Take the baked Alaska, for example, made with a chocolate-peanut-butter twist, which I wish I’d tried. Banana cake St. Honoré ($10), united gumball-sized banana caramel profiteroles, dulce de leche cream, salted chocolate almond toffee and bourbon crème fraiche. An apple pull-apart cake ($12) was on point flavour-wise (extra marks for the lemon ice cream) but also on the dense side.

Baked Alaska at the Pomeroy House

Apple pullapart at Pomeroy House

Banana cake St. Honore at Pomeroy House

A smaller and less complicated, but no less satisfying, finish: the house’s strawberry frozen yogurt or chocolates.

Given the résumés of Wilson, Gordon (who worked at Fraser Cafe) and their business partner Ion Aimers (Fraser Cafe, The Rowan, Wilf & Ada’s and more) you might simply expect the Pomeroy House to be the smash that it is.

Of course, it’s not like the three of them just snapped their fingers and a gem of a restaurant materialized. It must have taken sustained, conscientious hard work. Whatever they’re doing, they should keep at it, because what they do vaults Pomeroy House onto my very short list of Ottawa’s top new restaurants.

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Peter Hum’s restaurant reviews are archived here

Clarkstown Kitchen & Bar

94 Beechwood Ave., 613-744-8484, clarkstownkb.com
Open: Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 5 to 10 p.m., closed Sunday
Prices: Sausage plates $14 to $16, main courses $22 to $26
Access: Steps to entrance

Long before there was Vanier, or for that matter, Eastview, there was the tiny village of Clarkstown. In 1909, it, along with the villages of Janeville and Clandeboye, were amalgamated to become the village of Eastview, which in 1969 became Vanier.

We have the almost two-month-old Clarkstown Kitchen & Bar to thank for the heritage lesson. But that New Edinburgh restaurant has its own back story worth telling too.

Long before there was the Clarkstown Kitchen & Bar, there was El Meson, which for more than two decades served Spanish and Portuguese food in a stately red brick house on Beechwood Avenue under owner Jose Alves. In 2012, Alves retired, and the property was taken over by Andre Cloutier, the young businessman who also has two other eateries on the street. Cloutier recently converted El Meson to Clarkstown.

The chef from El Meson, Tom Moore, remains at Clarkstown, but has been tasked, according to the restaurant’s website, to create dishes based on Cloutier’s “globetrotting travels.” Also, Clarkstown signature items are four made-in-house sausage dishes — Asian-themed pork and chicken links, a lamb sausage plate that’s somewhat Mediterranean, and a stubby, flavoured-with-orange beef offering that comes with spaetzle. We’re not in Iberia anymore, Toto.

That lamb sausage dish ($16), served with smoked wheat berry, golden raisin tabbouleh and beet tzatziki, was the most enjoyable item during my three visits to Clarkstown. The sausage was lean but flavourful, and its light, interesting components, while scattered a little haphazardly, rounded out the dish nicely.

I wish that all of Clarkstown’s food had been as pleasing. For every dish that hit the mark and lived up to an enticing menu description, another one or two stumbled. Simple dishes worked best, while others too often fell short of ambitions. Some items hit certain notes too hard (think overly smoked potatoes or otherwise tasty and tender octopus that was off-puttingly gritty). Others dishes lacked the promised punch (a jerked pork chop that had no jerk flavour or heat, a smoked beef tongue appetizer that wasn’t smoky).

Some of my best bites at Clarkstown were at my first lunch there. In addition to that lamb sausage, there was a thick slab of chicken schnitzel ($15), a little more densely breaded than expected, but otherwise fine.

Chicken schnitzel at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

House-made desserts ($8) that afternoon — chocolate mousse with candied walnuts and berry compote, a lemon semifreddo — were OK.

Chocolate mousse at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

Lemon semifreddo at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

But at later visits, there were dishes that, while appealing on paper, underwhelmed, and the presentation of the food seemed more sloppy.

At dinner, there was the boring beef tongue ($13) and the octopus ($15) that was nicely sauced and would have been very good had there not been that feeling of bits of grit on the meat. (We were told that this was an aspect of the harissa seasoning. To Clarkstown’s credit, we weren’t charged for the dish.)

Octopus a la plancha at Clarkstown Kitchen and bar

Beef tongue at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

Striploin steak ($26) was thick and properly cooked, but other items on the plate dragged the dish down. Yucca fries were very bland, slices of king oyster mushrooms were thin and too oily, and the assertive scattering of shallots on top of the meat obscured the marrow butter we had looked forward to savouring.

Steak at Clarkstown Kitchen

The pork chop ($25) was tender, but over-seared, and it needed, if not the promised jerk seasoning, simply some salt. Its potatoes were too smoky.

Clarkstown’s paella ($25) has been carried over from El Meson, says the restaurant’s website. It was chockfull of all right seafood, but the flabby skin on the whole chicken thigh was a turn-off, and the rice, while briny, needed more saffron.

Paella at Clarkstown Kitchen

Desserts included a berry crumble that was more like a tart with a crumble topping. The refrigerated slice had none of the pleasure of warm crumbles elsewhere and its pastry was mushy.

At my last visit, the fish special of seared ling cod for lunch ($17) lacked a skin-side sear and would have made me happier if it had flaked a little more. The topping of chopped apricots was too much for the mild fish, and risotto was underseasoned and overcooked. The beef sausage was quite citrusy, and at $16, it struck us as over-priced.

Ling Cod lunch special at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

Beef sausage at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

Best that visit was some butternut squash gnocchi with a grilled tomato sauce and a striking mound of arugula ($12).

Butternut squash gnocchi at Clarkstown Kitchen and Bar

Service has been friendly and even folksy, with male staff in golf shirts and jeans bringing a sports-bar look to the prim, Victorian setting of the former El Meson.

There are some good ideas, ambitions and effort at Clarkstown. But it will take some more tweaks to dishes and more precise execution to make meals as appealing at the table as they sound on the menu.

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Caveau Méditerranéen

1638 Bank St., 613-260-2626, caveaumed.com
Open: Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 to 9 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday 4 to 10 p.m., Sunday 4 to 9 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: main courses $17 to $29
Access: no steps
Gluten-free options: designated on menu

Despite its unremarkable exterior, the fourth restaurant in the last decade or so at 1638 Bank St., just south of Heron Road, is looking as good as it ever has inside.

The space is warm, with new plants, lots of stonework on the walls and a sunny atrium banishing the memory of this address’s previous businesses, which were more casual eateries that specialized in fish and chips. Many years before, this was a Lady Jane doughnut shop location.

These days, this freestanding restaurant with its own parking is Caveau Méditerranéen, opened more than a year ago. Based on my two visits last week, it’s a good and even ambitious neighbourhood restaurant in a neighbourhood that could use more of them.

The Caveau’s liberal interpretation of Mediterranean cuisine allows it to roam widely. Its founders and co-owners are Lebanese-Canadians, and at times Arabic music plays over the sound system. Along that line, there are excellent, fresh, made-in-house mezze including impeccable hummus, voluptuously textured baba ghanouj and assertively lemony quinoa-based tabouleh.

Caveau Méditerranéen’s range of mezze (small plates).

But in addition to well-made and amply portioned kabob platters, there are also a few pizzas, a few pastas and some more composed main courses. For those whose old ordering habits die hard, there are still fish and chips, and the halibut rendition that I sampled last weekend was nicely seasoned, not greasy and well worth ordering.

Fish and chips at Caveau Mediterraneen

In charge of the Caveau’s kitchen for the last few months has been chef Alan McEwen. Since the late 1990s, he’s made the rounds of Ottawa’s professional kitchens. Most recently he was at Lapointe Seafood Grill in Bells Corners, but his other employers have included Il Piccolino, Fratelli in its early days, Bytown Catering and Tulips and Maple Catering.

McEwen has a stake in the Caveau, too, and he’s taking the opportunity to stretch out a bit. The restaurant has had two theme nights this fall, serving $39 (taxes in) table d’hotes. One Saturday in October was dedicated to the French Riviera (think smoked octopus salad and bouillabaise, among other dishes). A mid-November Saturday’s theme was the Greek Island of Skopelos (think roast chicken stuffed with plums, honey and mint, or braised lamb shank with olives.)

But back to the more straightforward and solidly made items that are served night after night. In addition to the mezze, kabobs, (the lamb served with a cilantro sauce stood out in particular)…

Caveau Méditerranéen’s lamb kabobs

…and fish and chips, two appetizers impressed us. Grilled shrimps served with a sauce that blended tomatoes and baba ghanouj were a treat.

Caveau Méditerranéen’s shrimp appetizer with baba ghanouj / tomato sauce.

A single but hefty ball of deep-fried risotto with a mushroomy core was  just as good, although its tomato sauce was just a little heavy on the salt.

Arancini at Caveau Meditteraneen

Grilled calamari was more ordinary, with the less flavourful squid needing its tzatziki and especially its fennel and arugula salad.

Grilled calamari at Caveau Mediterraneen

Over the two meals, we found that with several other dishes, the proteins seemed a little underseasoned and that the bigger punches of flavour on the plate came with sauces, whether it was the full-on garlic hit of chicken kabob’s sauce or the roasted red pepper sauce that accompanied slices of seared rare tuna or seared scallops. I would have liked the scallops more too, had they come with a harder sear and more colour, and if they had been warmer.

Chicken kabobs at Caveau Meditteraneen

Seared Tuna at Caveau Mediterraneen

Scallops at Caveau Mediterraneen

But these weren’t huge grumbles, and it helped that we liked the brightness and range of flavours of the fennel and arugula salad, dotted with capers, that completed those and other plates.

Caveau serves a range of familiar desserts, made-in-house. The chocolate torte and a coconutty cheesecake were tops among those we tried. Tiramisu, while massive, was all about the cream.

Chocolate torte at Caveau Mediterraneen

Cheesecake at Caveau Mediterraneen

Tiramisu at Caveau Mediterraneen

You would do just as well to go for the baklava, brought in from Montreal.

Baklava at Caveau Mediterraneen.

Jazia Azzi, also a founder of the restaurant, served us twice with enthusiasm and pride. When my dining companion asked for some vegetables that he could dip into the mezze, she returned with a large plate, fully loaded with the stuff.

The restaurant’s first year, she confided, had had its challenges, with renovations that were more involved than anticipated. But she beamed about McEwen having come on board, and about plans to remove the Caveau’s unused buffet table and convert the space into an espresso and wine bar with high tables.

The changes required to make the Caveau what it is may not have been easy, but from what I’ve seen and eaten, they’ve been worth it.

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SEN Asian Cuisine
Unit 100-200 Marché Way
613-232-0111
facebook.com/senlansdowne
Open: Monday to Wednesday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight
Prices: $14 to $25 for main dishes
Access: No steps to front door, washrooms

At Lansdowne, the outlier, and arguably even the underdog, is SEN Asian Cuisine.

All around the smallest of eateries in the Bank Street urban park you’ll find some franchise operations that are familiar to Ottawans — Jack Astor’s, Milestones — and others that are somewhat less so — South St. Burger, Sunset Grill and more. They’re large-footprint and corporate, while SEN is just a few dozen seats and family-run.

SEN’s roots are in Chinatown. Its owners, the Nguyen family, who officially opened SEN in early October, previously ran Pho’licious on Booth Street. However, SEN downplays its heritage with a stark lounge ambiance that’s more in line with the contemporary and even generic feel at Lansdowne. The Buddha statue keeps a low profile at SEN’s entrance, while guests look up at pillowy light fixtures or perhaps the TV behind the small bar where cocktails are made with lemongrass or even Sriracha.

SEN’s straightforward menu promises many dishes that we’ve come to expect of Ottawa’s pan-Asian restaurants, whether they’re in Centretown or the suburbs. Its selection is basically Vietnamese with a bit of Thai and Chinese thrown in.

Fortunately, during my three lunch-time visits, there’s been nary a disappointment, prompting me to speak kindly of SEN, not just because it’s the little guy of Lansdowne’s restaurant district.

To start, we’ve liked the crunchy-spongy texture of rice-paper-wrapped spring rolls (two for $5.50), along with their generous fillings of crab, shrimp and pork. Chicken-filled dumplings (six for $7), lightly gingered inside and given a nice sear on the bottom, were a lighter way to begin, as was the small bowl of cleanly flavoured wonton soup ($4.)

Spring rolls at Sen Asian Cuisine

Chicken dumplings at Sen Asian Cuisine

Best of SEN’s appetizers was an excellent papaya salad ($14). Its complex dressing provided a good sour-spicy sting and on top of the julienned papaya were scraps of of sweet-savoury and almost jerky-like beef.

Papaya Salad at Sen Asian Cuisine

The second page of SEN’s menu offers many main dishes that swap a selected protein into variously sauced stir-fries or on top of bowls of vermicelli or plates of crispy noodles. However, we tended to sample the more intriguing items from a boxed quadrant of the page that is dedicated to “classic Vietnamese” dishes.

One highlight was the cha ca la vong ($22), which consisted of pieces of tilapia, yellowed from their turmeric-lemongrass marinade, sizzling on a hot plate with shreds of cabbage that quickly blackened. “It’s supposed to be crispy,” our server said of the tilapia. To our relief, the fish was still moist too. Served wrap-style, in lettuce with pickled vegetables, basil and more, the dish was like a small feast.

Cha ca la vong at Sen Asian Cuisine

Banh hoi ($18) was a deluxe vermicelli bowl, with premium proteins (two batons of grilled shrimp paste on sugar cane and some mini patties of pork) on a platter with more lettuce, veg and herbs, plus a stack of rice paper to bundle everything in. Our server kindly talked the rice-wrap newbie at our table through the DIY process.

The bo luc lac beef ($21) stir-fry was salty, sweet and tender, but more ordinary that other options. Ban xeo ($14), a savoury crepe with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts among its fillings, was a touch burnt.

Bo luc lac at Sen Asian Cuisine

Banx xeo at Sen Asian Cuisine

More generically Asian and not so Vietnamese, a peanut chicken ($15) stir-fry nonetheless had good depth of flavour, tender chicken, and a ring of spinach that had emerged from the deep-fryer crisp and un-greasy.

Peanut chicken stir-fry at SEN Asian Cuisine

The restaurant’s beef pho came in one size only, a large bowlful that was more than sufficient at lunch. The soup was well-stocked with lean and fattier morsels of beef, and its broth has some bone-based goodness along with a salty edge.

Beef pho at SEN Asian Cuisine

Our server told us that new desserts were still in the works at SEN. But for now, its one out-sourced option is a likeable, locally made pick. Three of us split some Moo Shu Ice Cream truffles, enjoying the variety of dark chocolate-wrapped ice cream truffles that left us split as to which of the three flavours — sesame, ginger-vanilla or passion fruit — was the best.

In the end at SEN, we notched up a few real treats that stood out from a pack of better-than-average dishes. There were no significant disappointments and service was delivered with a genuine human touch. Other restaurants at Lansdowne should perform so well and offer as much value for money.

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Datsun
380 Elgin St., Unit B, 613-422-2800, eatdatsun.com
Hours: Monday to Saturday 5:30 p.m. to “late,” closed Sunday
Prices: small plates $9 to $16
Access: restaurant is downstairs
Note: no reservations

From Kanata to Orléans, pan-Asian restaurants are plentiful — with six you get egg rolls, as we used to say. Why then is Datsun, which opened in late October, the Japanese-Chinese-Thai-Korean place with the big crowds and all the buzz?

Its location helps, and not just because it’s at the south end of bustling Elgin Street. More to the point is Datsun’s adjacency to its sister restaurant, El Camino, the thriving, medium-sized taco-centric eatery and bar that opened in the summer of 2013. Datsun is the pale-roomed, slightly more expensive yin to El Camino’s dark Mexican yang.

Most to the point is that the kitchens of both restaurants are run by chef-owner Matthew Carmichael, a veteran of some of Ottawa’s top kitchens, and chef de cuisine Jordan Holley. From my two visits to Datsun, the pair bring the same elevated panache that made El Camino’s tacos city-wide favourites to an array of Asia’s greatest edible hits.

Datsun chef de cuisine Jordan Holley

Now that Datsun is open and busy, you almost want to ask: what’s taken Ottawa so long to have this kind of food done this well?

The templates for not just Datsun’s concept, but also some of its calling-card dishes, have been out there for years in the culinary winds.

Would Datsun serve two kinds of Japanese ramen soup and steamed buns wrapped around slabs of succulent, hoisin-sauced pork, had the Momofuku empire of restaurants, which kicked off in New York in 2004, not gotten there first?

One wonders if Datsun’s chicken wings — plump, moist and tasting irresistibly of chili, fish sauce and honey as well as chicken — are indebted to the fish-sauce wings served at the trendsetting Thai restaurant Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon. Or if Datsun’s mini-burgers that feature luscious patties studded with chunks of shrimp are a nod to a similar item at Kazu, the best-loved of Montreal’s Japanese watering-holes.

After I’d eaten at Datsun, Holley wrote me that its food was “inspired hands down by Momofuku but also (by) Carmichael’s travels in South East Asia, cooking courses in Thailand and stages at a few Melbourne, Australia restaurants.

“It’s what and how we want to eat Asian food and (we) felt it didn’t exist in the city, packaged (in) the way we saw,” Holley wrote.

I’ll suggest that we not get too hung up about the provenance of Datsun’s food, and let globetrotting foodies fret about who makes the ultimate pork bun. As a consumer, I’m above all pleased by the quality of Datsun’s food and the attention to detail that Carmichael, Holley and their cooks clearly pay in their open kitchen. (The counter in front of it affords the best view of one’s soups, buns or curries being assembled.)

My favourite dishes from Datsun’s menu, which resembles a fill-in-your-order scrap of paper at your favourite dim sum joint, have impressed with big, layered flavours, or care and finesse, or both.

If you like food with a pronounced spicy edge, then I’ll direct you to the so-called Jor-Dan-Dan Noodles ($11), a bit of wordplay on Szechuan cookery’s Dan Dan Noodles. Datsun’s dish is not as fiery or pungent as its namesake, but it’s up there among my new cravings, with a decadently buttery, umami-rich ground pork sauce, a swirl of house-made chili paste and the fresh crunch of green onions.

“Jor-Dan-Dan” Noodles with chili bolognese at Datsun

The Szechuan-peppercorn tingle that I thought might have come with those noodles was to be found with Datsun’s chunks of fried eggplant, which were a little bit mouth-numbing (as advertised) but also garlicky, savoury and tasty.

Mouth-numbing eggplant at Datsun

Thanks to their multi-flavour assault, Datsun’s chicken wings ($9) were punchy and delicious, if uncompromisingly salty from their fish-sauce hit.

Spicy chicken wings at Datsun.

Datsun’s refined Thai-inspired curries prioritized meat or seafood over their respective sauces, in part because there’s been no rice offered to sop up the latter. Braised beef penang curry ($16) was quite good, the green seafood curry ($22) was even better thanks to the delicacy of the shrimp and scallops.

Braised beef penang curry at Datsun

Seafood curry at Datsun

Even more sophisticated was Datsun’s take on congee, the rice porridge that has sustained Cantonese peasants since ancient times. Datsun’s upscale version ($14) teemed with not just shrimp and scallops, but daikon and a poached egg too, while the rice gruel that is usually the guts of the dish was more like a lovely, lightly gingery sauce.

Seafood congee with dry XO sauce, egg yolk, peanuts at Datsun

To my surprise, the congee has not sold well, and would come off the menu, Holley told me. I get that the ramen and steamed buns are more popular, but still, the loss of the congee is a sad blow.

In a town that could use much more ramen, Datsun’s is certainly among the leading examples, with broth that has the right mouthfeel and springy noodles. Tonkotsu ramen ($15) was properly porky, and shio ramen ($14) had lucid flavour.

Tonkotsu Ramen with pork shoulder, pork belly and poached egg, at Datsun

Hyper-crispy chicken buns (two for $9) were what you want fried chicken to be, but with deluxe garnishes and in a steamed bun. Call me blasé, but I preferred the chicken buns to the more usual, no-frills pork belly buns (two for $9). A light sear and some add-on flavours would probably make me like the pork more.

Crispy chicken steamed bun at Datsun

Pork belly steamed buns at Datsun

Shrimp dumplings ($12 for two), with their sears showing, were well made. Better still were the more crafted, if small, shrimp burgers ($12 for two).

Shrimp dumplings at Datsun

Shrimp burgers with bonito flakes, lettuce, tasty sauce and toasty bun at Datsun

The only dish that I felt needed significant improvement was the papaya salad ($10), which despite its height and textural appeals, was let down by a dressing that lacked complexity. (I prefer the papaya salad at SEN Asian Cuisine, the subject of last week’s review.)

Papaya salad at Datsun

For dessert at Datsun, there was a single, but satisfying choice — a ball of deep-fried ice cream with sesame and coconut caramel ($6).

Deep-Fried Ice Cream with sesame and coconut caramel at Datsun

Service has been friendly and smart, with the wherewithal to caution about spiciness or distinguish between ramen and Ottawa’s more established Asian soup fave, pho.

It would be too much to ask an at-times beleaguered kitchen to dole out dishes so that a meal moved from the mild to the more spicy, but that might be optimal — or at least something for guests to figure into waves of ordering.

Flanked by the kitchen on the right and the bar on the left, Datsun’s room exudes minimalist cool. The tables at the front with the swivelling, industrial seating are coolest of all, but also the least comfortable.

So, is Ottawa’s best Asian food served blocks away from Chinatown and made by non-Asian chefs? The eyebrow-raising case could be made, although given Datsun’s limited menu, it is a ramen-versus-Peking-duck comparison.

At least it’s a toothsome debate to immerse yourself in, best of all over a plate of Jor-Dan-Dan Noodles.

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PS: Here’s Holley on two matters…

On non-Asians cooking Asian food for Asians:

“We have to admit, we always get nervous when people from strong cultural culinary backgrounds, visit Datsun. I think with our culinary training andexperience we can feel confident in delivering a flavour that is familiar. For example, we had a friend bring her parents (old-school Chinese), and they were very skeptical to see a young, white, tattooed chef preparing their dinner. They ordered the congee, curry buns, etc… and were extremely impressed. She even told me she never eats congee anywhere other than her mother’s kitchen, not in Hong Kong even, but says ours is an exception.”

On authenticity:

“We respect and appreciate authenticity. But it will always be our interpretation of food.”

Ottawa’s restaurant-goers can look back at 2015 as a year that brought them more than the usual bounty of appealing restaurants.

I found it hard to keep up, logging 100 or so meals at new eateries from the cheap and cheerful to the spicy and exotic to the sleek and upscale. The year started strongly with South American small plates at the Soca Kitchen & Pub and ended with pan-Asian flair at Datsun. In between, there were winning meals at, to name a few, North & Navy in Centretown, Flavours of the Caribbean and Kochin Kitchen in Lowertown, Pomeroy House in the Glebe, Carben Food + Drink in Hintonburg and Tante Carole in Chelsea. Of those, only Soca has been open for more than a year. Datsun has been open for just two months.

I have some absolute favourites of the new restaurants that I tried in 2015, but you’ll have to read to the bottom to learn which they are. First, a roll call of my favourite dishes.

Below, you’ll see a heavy emphasis on appetizers, small plates and the like, because those smaller-portioned dishes still seem to have pride of place on so many Ottawa menus. That’s what restaurants were pushing hard in 2015. Or it’s how we were eating, or simply what we felt comfortable paying for.

Before we dig in, a few caveats. Don’t mistakes my picks for the best food in town, or even the best dishes at those restaurants — they’re just the dishes that I most happily recall and that struck the bullseye as far as my palate and esthetic sense could judge.

Also, some restaurants may have tweaked or even removed that dish that won me over earlier this year. Finally, these picks aren’t necessarily wholesale recommendations for the restaurants, some of which I found were uneven.

It was also a sad year for Ottawa’s restaurant lovers when you consider some of the closings. Goodbye to the Zydeco Smokehouse, Hino’s, Burnt Butter, Raw Sugar Cafe, Hung Sum, The Daily Grind, Cafe 327, which became a second Mia’s Indian Cuisine location, and Mandarin Court, which became another Green Papaya location. And last but not least, Mellos Restaurant.

We can seek consolation in 2016, perhaps by revisiting the dishes below, or with some new thrills at Ottawa-area restaurants yet to open.

BEST APPETIZER

Foie gras, apple and granola at the Pomeroy House

Seared foie gras with apples and granola at Pomeroy House

If seared foie gras with fruit is a fine-dining standby, Pomeroy House’s version was a triumph of precise execution, with the caramelized, jiggly liver sitting pretty on an apple slice fried in the foie-fattened pan, with a scattering of granola for homespun crunch.

Honourable mention: Bison tartare at Share Freehouse

Bison tartare at Share Freehouse

Although a bevy of Asian accoutrements makes this dish a bit unruly, Share’s bison tartare remains one of Ottawa’s best raw meat dishes — assertively seasoned and bolstered by fried shallots and grated cured egg yolks.

BEST SOUP

Tomatillo gazpacho at Carben Food + Drink

Tomatillo Gazpacho, with cracker, compressed vodka watermelon, cured arctic char, shiso leaf, lumpfish roll, cucumber rolls and thai chili at Carben Food – Drink- pix by Peter Hum Ottawa Citizen Photo Email

Why stop with a vibrant, perfectly balanced and smooth summer-friendly soup when you can go for gold by topping it with a long almond cracker, itself topped with ribbons of cucumber, compressed watermelon, house-cured arctic char? Visually stunning and just as tasty.

Honourable mention: Chilpachole de jaiba at Taqueria Kukulkan

Crab soup at Taqueria Kukulka

The humble Montreal Road restaurant gets marks for ambition and authenticity for serving an intoxicating blend of crab meat, tomatoes and broth that’s native to Veracruz, Mexico.

BEST SMALL PLATE

Dirty Rice at the Soca Kitchen & Pub

Dirty Rice  at the Soca Kitchen & Pub

Called arroz sucio at the endearing South American/Spanish eatery on Holland Avenue, this was a pan full of complex, soulful, salty, comfort food, flecked with chunks of made-in-house pork sausage, chickpeas and even some Venezuelan cacao.

Honourable mention: Short rib pastrami at Pomeroy House

Bison Short Rib Pastrami at Pomeroy House

If this pastrami-style cured bison short rib had lasted longer than a minute or so at our table, I would be able to share more details about it.

BEST SNACK (TIE)

Tacos al pastor at Taqueria Kukulkan

Taco al Pastor at Taqueria Kukulkan on Montreal Road.

I ate a lot of tacos in the spring, and my favourite was the tacos al pastor at Montreal Road’s uncompromising Taqueria Kukulkan. Marinated pork spins shawarma-style on a rotating vertical skewer. Once shaved, the crisp and tender meat is topped with pineapple and served in a home-made corn tortilla. Superior house-made sauces seal the deal.

Chicken Wings at Datsun

Spicy chicken wings at Datsun

Datsun’s wow-worthy chicken wings bypassed Buffalo in favour of Thailand and Vietnam, hitting all the right spicy-sweet-salty-umami markers.

BEST VEGETARIAN DISH

Wood ear mushrooms at Carben Food + Drink

Wood Ear Mushrooms w-Eryngii- Miso Glaze- Tumeric Aioli- Sea Beans, Edamame, Shiso at Carben Food + Drink

Finely honed creativity on a plate, with vegetarians, fungus fans and adventurous eaters in mind. Asian ingredients (wood-ear fungus, Eryngii mushrooms, edamame, shiso leaf and a miso glaze) combined in a novel, fascinating way.

Honourable mention: Eggplant masala at Kochin Kitchen

Eggplant Masala at Kochin Kitchen

Roasted eggplant ($9) received the royal treatment at Ottawa’s second, masterfully spicy Keralan restaurant, merged with a thick, dark complex sauce that brought heat, acidity and an almost chocolatey richness to the table.

BEST PASTA 

Torteletti at North & Navy

Torteletti at North & Navy

Centretown’s Northern Italian treasure excels at all kinds of unique pasta dishes. Unbeatable were the small but luxurious torteletti nestled in a potato broth and stuffed with potato, pecorino, parmesan and ricotta, and drizzled with aged balsamic.

Honourable mention: “Jor-Dan-Dan” Noodles at Datsun

“Jor-Dan-Dan” Noodles with chili bolognese at Datsun

Here’s hoping that this dish, with its decadently buttery, umami-rich ground pork sauce and swirl of house-made chili paste, sets off a little Asian ragu craze in Ottawa in 2016.

BEST FISH

Arctic Char at Carben Food + Drink

Arctic char with black congee (rice with squid ink), 62-degree egg, scallions, orange ginger sheets at Carben Food + Drink

Perfectly cooked fish came plated with exceptional imagination, joined with “black congee,” (some loose, not-quite soupy rice, coloured and flavoured by squid ink), a slow-poached egg, smoked almonds and even a hardened crisp that tasted of orange and ginger.

Honourable mention: Whole fish at Spicy Legend

Tilapia fish hot pot at Spicy Legend

At the newest of Ottawa’s scarce Szechuan restaurants, the house specialty isn’t so much a dish as an event. Bring three or more with you to partake in a whole fish rubbed with cumin and cooked in a chili-oil bath, surrounded by assorted vegetables, exotic mushrooms, noodles, tofu products and whatever your stomach desires from a lengthy list of add-ons.

BEST BIRD (TIE)

Duck Confit at the Pomeroy House

Duck confit at the Pomeroy House

Pomeroy’s chef and co-owner Rich Wilson made duck confit his own, not only because Daffy’s leg was as optimally crisp and then meltingly tender as could be. The autumnal accompaniments of creamed corn, kale, spiced walnuts and apple put this swoon-worthy dish over the top.

Roast Chicken at the Rowan

Roasted half-chicken at the Rowan

This new gastropub in the Glebe served a stand-out spin on an old favourite. A moist half-bird with perfectly crisp and seasoned skin stood up to punchy, Indian-influenced accompaniments including tart coriander chutney, fenugreek potatoes, radish and cauliflower.

Honourable mention: Jerk chicken at Flavours of the Caribbean

Jerk chicken special at Flavours of the Caribbean

This must be Ottawa’s top hurts-so-good dish, especially if you ask chef Frederick White to make it at maximum, “atomic” spiciness.

BEST RED MEAT

Steak at El Gusto Mazzola

Argentine steak with chimichurri sauce from El Gusto Mazzola

Dry-aged for two weeks and then vacuum-packed and wet-aged, chef Victor Mazzola’s luscious, intensely flavoured best-sellers are a matter of Argentine pride.

Honourable mention: Short rib and tortillas at Belmont

Short rib and tortilla chips at Belmont

Unconventional thinking worked for the tiny Old Ottawa South restaurant, which submerged fine and tender meat in a bowl with salsa verde, a quasi-mole sauce, and some cheddar-ized hominy.

BEST DESSERT

Chocolate cake at Tante Carole

Chocolate cake at Tante Carole in Chelsea Quebec

The dessert staple, deeply chocolatey but not too sweet, was lavished with late summer’s raspberries, a quenelle of chocolate mousse, malted milk ice cream and Earl Grey drizzle.

Honourable mention: Pandan cake at Carben Food + Drink

Pandan dessert with lychee at Carben Food + Drink

Call this one — a summery, Southeast Asian-themed dish centred on light, vibrantly green pandan cake and lychee — the anti-chocolate cake. In a very good way.

BEST RESTAURANTS

Based on the above picks, and my feelings about other dishes I’ve tried, my favourite new restaurants of 2015 were the more out-of-the-box Carben Food + Drink and the more classic Pomeroy House. Among more casual restaurants, Datsun and Taqueria Kukulkan were tops.

THE RESTAURANTS 

Belmont
1169 Bank St., 613-979-3663, belmontottawa.com
Peter Hum’s review

Carben Food + Drink
1100 Wellington St. W., 613-792-4000, carbenrestaurant.com
Peter Hum’s review

Datsun
380 Elgin St., Unit B, 613-295-6033, eatdatsun.com
Peter Hum’s review

El Gusto Mazzola
939 Somerset St. W., 613-237-3663, elgustomazzola.ca
Peter Hum’s review

Flavours of the Caribbean
259 York St., 613-241-2888
Peter Hum’s review

Kochin Kitchen
271 Dalhousie St, 613-562-4461, kochinkitchen.ca
Peter Hum’s review

North & Navy
226 Nepean St., 613-232-6289, northandnavy.com
Peter Hum’s review

The Pomeroy House
749 Bank St., 613-680-8803, thepomeroy.ca
Peter Hum’s review

The Rowan
915 Bank St., 613-780-9292, therowan.ca
Peter Hum’s review

Share Freehouse
327 Somerset St. W., 613-680-4000, sharefreehouse.ca
Peter Hum’s review

The Soca Kitchen & Pub
93 Holland Ave., 613-695-9190, socapub.com
Peter Hum’s review

Spicy Legend/Shuwei
709 Somerset St. W, 613-695-6668, shuwei.ca
Peter Hum’s review

Tante Carole
168 Old Chelsea Rd., Chelsea, Quebec. 819-866-3149, facebook.com/RestoTanteCarole
Peter Hum’s review

Taqueria Kukulkan
1730 Montreal Rd. 613-680-5055, taqueriakukulkan.com
Peter Hum’s review

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