Tamis Café
103 Fourth Ave., 613-567-7550, facebook.com/tamisottawa
Open: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily
Prices: main courses $14 and under
Access: Steps to front door
Liza Sares is succinct when she conveys how hard 2015 was for her family. “We were devastated,” she says.
Her younger daughter, Jiselle, was battling stomach cancer, and the Sares had to pull together. Everyone stopped working or going to school. For her part, Liza left her tech-sector position and job as a private chef.
Fortunately, treatment for Jiselle, now 20, sent the cancer into remission. Now, she works at Tamis Café, the four-month-old eatery and bake shop that the Sares family opened in the Glebe, tucked away on Fourth Avenue east of Bank Street.
In Manila, before the Sares came to Canada in 2001, Liza and her husband, Lito, ran a café named Jessica, after their older daughter. “Tamis” simply means “sweet” in Tagalog, and it was the two Sares daughters who came up with its concept.
The café is a spare, woody, brick-walled place that seats 16 inside and a few more outside. Liza rustles up French toast or omelettes in the morning, and a range of homey Filipino dishes through lunch and into the early evening. Jessica, who has nearly completed Algonquin College’s culinary program, stocks a showcase with mostly Filipino baked goods.
Braised beef Mechado ($14) was fall-apart tender, bathed in a home-made tomato sauce perked with soy, served with rice, sweet carrots and buttered asparagus. Grilled slices of chicken breast, made lemony ($10 including salad) or marinated with house-made adobo seasonings ($13.50 including rice and veg), were admirably flavoured and toothsome.
A sizeable pork chop was nicely seasoned and sufficiently juicy. The plate’s mango salad, its garlic rice and its price ($14) made it a steal.
Vegetarians should be pleased with lumpia ($7), a soft, freshly made crêpe encasing cooked sweet potato, carrots, onions and more, served with peanut sauce.
Pancit ($12.50) was a hearty plate of very thin noodles, flavoured predominantly with soy sauce and joined on the plate with vegetables, shrimp and slices of sweet Asian sausage.
Lighter appetites should be content with one of the appetizing empanadas ($4.50 each) made with either beef, chicken or vegetarian fillings. Having just a stuffed pastry, especially at lunch, would leave more room for a potent, espresso-based coffee and a dessert from the showcase.
Brazo de Mercedes ($3 each) placed its custardy filling inside a soft, sweet meringue wrapping, and there was a variation that substituted a purple yam-based filling. Chlorophyll-green, florally frosted, single-serving sponge cakes ($3.50 each) were flavoured with pandan extract, derived from a tropical plant.
Chocolate fans should succumb to the raw, gluten-free, vegan, brownie-like slabs of deliciousness ($4) that combine chocolate with a walnut and prune base. They will also likely want to take home a box of bite-size chocolate crinkle cookies (50 cents each) for later enjoyment.
The café is not licensed, but the wi-fi is free and the Sares are very hospitable.
“The most important thing is that the girls are happy,” says Liza. “They are doing what they love.”
With its tasty, wallet-friendly and unique savouries and sweets, Tamis Café should make its guests happy too.
