Central Bierhaus
650 Kanata Ave. in Kanata Centrum, across from the Landmark Cinemas, 613-595-0707, centralbierhaus.ca
Open: Monday to Wednesday 4 p.m. to midnight, Thursday and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Prices: most mains $20 to $28
Access: no steps to front door or washrooms
The possible impact on our colons notwithstanding, we were pretty pleased with our hyper-meaty dinner last weekend at Central Bierhaus.
At that cavernous, almost two-year-old restaurant/beer hall in Kanata Centrum, why would we stop at pork schnitzel when we could also have pork belly and pork hocks? We drew the line at pork sausages, switching to made-in-Carp links of gamier choices, including bison, deer, wild boar and duck. We skipped the Bierhaus’s burger, a top-seller, because a slab of boneless short ribs appealed more. In all, we weren’t disappointed.
Yes, we were carnivores over-doing it. But our plates were surprisingly balanced, with bright and acidic components (I’m looking at you, heapings of sauerkraut, but also a range of mustards and even some pickled carrots) to offset the red-meat richness, along with varied and well-made accompaniments, including roasted fingerling potatoes, and light, cheesy spatzle.
The food was quite good — not amazing or haute-cuisine, but better than what we had expected from a high-volume eatery that can seat than 250 people, plus scores more on its patio when the weather permits. Chef Christopher Juneau’s kitchen serves respectable, slightly-more-expensive-than-I-would-have-liked dishes with some foodie appeal, not just lowest-common-denominator fare to go with the multitude of imported beers detailed in the impressively detailed 30-page “bier buch” directory.
Ottawa Senators defenceman Chris Neil is one of the Bierhaus’ owners, and the business, naturally, is in part, a sports bar, with not only several large TVs and one XXL screen showing games, but also beer steins for each local hockey star on display by the front door. But there are enough trappings — ample communal seating, hefty wooden tables and benches, barrels and the like — to establish the European beer-hall theme and banish memories of O’Connors, the Irish pub that the Bierhaus replaced.
It’s been too long since I’ve had hearty European fare in Germany and the Czech Republic, never mind Ottawa, and I give the Bierhaus credit for giving Schweinhaxen, a massive pork hock ($28), a place on its menu. The rustic, rib-sticking dish arrived with a knife plunged like King Arthur’s sword in its crunchy, bronzed crackling. Beneath the delicious skin were tracts of yielding meat, meant to be dunked in the surrounding moat of thickened sauce. Beside the pork-filled bowl was a platter with sauerkraut, red cabbage and fingerling potatoes — all good. Surely this food was meant to be shared by two people?
Schweinhaxen (pork hocks) at Central Bierhaus
A serving of pork schnitzel ($23, slightly less expensive than the chicken or veal schnitzels) was not quite as daunting size-wise, but registered as very tasty by all who sampled it. Crisp, porky, not too salty and not oily, it exemplified good, humble schnitzel, served with spatzle, more red cabbage and green beans.
The beef short ribs ($28) were as tender as desired, we guessed from some quality time in a sous-vide water bath. The meal would have been better still with some deep, braised-in flavour, but the plate still satisfied with the perks of pickled carrots and crispy shallots.
Even with its own sous-vide treatment, a chicken breast ($25) was a touch dry and ordinary. But the mushroom-barley risotto and maple-roasted parsnips enhanced the plate considerably.
Locally made, if not made-in-house sausages — seven pork-based and the game-meat options — are a specialty here. The game-based platter’s sausages ($35 for eight) were lean and a sampler of five mustards made them more interesting, but the more composed dishes that we tried struck us as better than these wurst.
Friendly and knowledgeable servers hustled all of these dishes to us strikingly quickly, not long after our first appetizer — three slices of pork belly ($14), bettered by apple butter and pickled jalapeno, but curiously atop slices of cheddar — landed. As starters went, we preferred the fine plate of potato perogies ($15).
At another visit, the soup of the day, split pea soup ($7), had good flavour, smokiness and consistency. Cakes of haddock and potato ($13) were another deep-fried hit, but could have used more fish in their makeup.
That visit yielded the only order that I regretted. A lobster roll ($20) was plenty meaty, but also too chewy and watery in flavour. But its house-made fries and salad were above average.
While restaurant desserts that call themselves S’mores are never as good as real S’mores, the Bierhaus’s S’Mores were not bad, with a pleasing dark chocolate terrine. A serving of strawberry rhubarb crumble was tart and double-sized. A slice of butter tart was respectable, not too sweet, and offset by ginger-tinged caramel. All desserts, $8 each, were made in-house.
In recent years, European restaurants such as the Lindenhof and Amber Garden have sadly shuttered in Ottawa. It might seem odd to see the stuff of those family-run restaurants scaled up to feed the thirsty guests of a suburban big-box eatery, but we should be glad that Central Bierhaus cooks them as well as it does.
