Play Food and Wine
1 York St., 613-667-9207, playfood.ca
Open: Monday, noon to 2 p.m., 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Tuesday to Thursday, noon to 2 p.m., 5:30 to 11 p.m.; Friday, noon to 2 p.m., 5:30 to 11:45 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 3:30 p.m., 5 to 11:45 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
Prices: small plates $8 to $17; two small plates for $22 at lunch
Access: steps to entrance
Rarely do I get to combine the words “fine dining” and “bargain” in the same breath. So thank you, Play Food and Wine, for giving me that opportunity.
There’s a deal to be had at the middle sister among Stephen Beckta’s three restaurants, which opened on a prime ByWard Market corner in 2009. That was seven years after Beckta’s high-end namesake first raised the bar for dining out in Ottawa, and three years before Beckta launched the more casual but still classy Gezellig in Westboro.
Play’s stock-in-trade is small plates. It didn’t pioneer that now-ubiquitous dining concept in Ottawa, but it executes its dishes at a higher level than many of its peers. Plus, at lunch, Play offers well-designed plates that normally cost up to $17 a piece at the princely rate of two for $22. That’s what I call a fine-dining bargain.
Play’s chef de cuisine, Tim Stock, oversees a constantly changing menu that nods to influences from the globe’s four corners. Here, the beef tartare took Egyptian and Ethiopian accents while meaty, if underseasoned, pieces pork belly ($15) went southeast Asian, with a sweet, tangy dollop of pomelo and a broth that alluded to red curry. The dish that starred a lovely piece of rainbow trout ($14) made chunks of prosciutto, bok choy and basil pesto play together nicely.
Having recently sampled 10 of 14 items from the menu’s savoury section, I’ve found that Play’s kitchen turns out attractive, tasty dishes that please with deft balancing of contrasts.
That’s especially true of Play’s signature item. The hanger steak with fries and aioli ($17) has been on the menu since day one, and with good reason, given the beef’s hearty, funky flavour, a side of salty mushrooms and the standard-setting fries and aioli (which can also be ordered separately, for $6). When the Citizen last reviewed Play, just shy of six years ago, the hanger steak was one of my predecessor’s favourites. It’s one of mine, too.
Also right up there for me was a slab of mackerel, cooked in a refined take on the escabeche style so that a marinade’s acidity tempered the fish’s unctuousness ($14). Grounding the fish on the plate was a bed of lentils, rice and leeks.
More fish done well: a pristine piece of Fogo Island cod ($16), with a slick sauce and morsels of chorizo sausage contributing the right amount of fatty appeal.
A third fish triumph: red snapper ceviche ($15), impeccably fresh and benefiting from the varied, well-proportioned tingles of lime, kumquat, cucumber, and peach purée.
One pasta option paired wide pappardelle with crumbled turkey sausage in a watercress sauce; it registered as salty and heavy for my dining companion.
Another friend’s approval for the gnocchi ($14) was stronger. A Play fan who works nearby, he said the bowl of big, pillowy pasta was one of the best things he’s eaten there. “The smoked tapenade was very deeply flavoured,” he said. “The memory of that sauce will stay with me.”
He was less pleased though with Play’s apple and shallot strudel ($14) with figs, blue cheese and balsamic blackberry, faulting it for a lack of flavour and some soggy pastry.
A more successful light, meatless choice was the plate of Indian-inspired mung bean coconut fritters ($13).
Desserts — a sticky toffee cake with gelato ($8), a ramekin of vanilla crème brûlée ($7) and a chocolate peanut butter bomb with peanut brittle ($8) — were sweet but not cloying and to-the-point. I would have liked more razzle-dazzle and less familiarity to end my meals, but these picks were well made and fairly priced.
Play’s airy space is split over two floors. The top one puts guests in proximity of chefs at work in an open kitchen. I’ve eaten twice downstairs, below the ripple of red silk, at a small pine table beside a large window.
Cool and bopping jazz from the 1950s and 1960s dominated the sound system’s music. Our servers were attentive and friendly, and one in particular had that extra air of knowing competence and care that we expect from a Beckta-run restaurant.
Play’s wine list is extensive, diverse and detailed, with some three- and five-ounce glasses available as well as bottles. The cheese and charcuterie offerings appealed, too — next time, when I’m more in the mood to nibble.
After both lunches, I felt a little giddy at having eaten that well and that cheaply. Even paying dinnertime prices for the same food (the same menu is in force), I think I would feel that my money was well-spent on Play’s experience.
In her review of 2009, my predecessor — while impressed, especially by the ambience — concluded: “If Play wants to be the Beckta of small-plate dining, it’s going to need to take it up a notch.”
My present-day take is that either Play’s food has improved or that the above analogy might be a false one. I’d say that Play can quite justifiably be content to be the Play of small-plate dining.
