Craft Beer Market
975 Bank St., 613-422-7238, craftbeermarket.ca/ottawa
Joey Lansdowne
825 Exhibition Way, Unit 103, 613-695-5639, joeyrestaurants.com
Local Public Eatery
825 Exhibition Way, Unit 107, 613-233-3772, locallansdowne.com
In advance of the Ottawa Redblacks’ regular season opener this Saturday, I’ve been going to Lansdowne Park recently in search of food as exciting as the football games.
In the last few weeks, I’ve made two visits to each of the park’s big three premium casual restaurants — Joey Lansdowne and Local Public Eatery, both well established, and the newcomer, Craft Beer Market, which opened a bit more than a month ago.
There are, of course, other dining options at Lansdowne. But I wanted to do rough, if not exhaustive, assessments of these three roughly comparable eateries which — unlike neighbouring rivals such as Milestones and Jack Astor’s — are unique in Ottawa, if not in Canada. Indeed, Joey, Local and Craft are all offshoots of chains that originated in Western Canada, and there are more than 20 Joeys in North America.
Of them, Local is the most casual, with a more compact menu that emphasizes burgers and finger food, and studied, rustic interior of wood and ductwork. Joey’s look makes more upmarket allusions, surrounding guests with a big brick wall, some retro signage and large, dark banquettes. Meanwhile, its menu offers a selection of steaks plus such worldly items as sushi, ramen and paella.
You could position Craft Beer Market somewhere between Joey and Local. It’s a mashup of sports bar and gastro pub, with a huge bar that has 100 beers on tap at the centre of its two-storey expanse. Craft is decorated with lots of beer kegs and plenty of TVs tuned to the game, and its menu offers, in addition to the usual fare, some dressed-up comfort food.
All three places have kitchens that quickly produced our orders. The restaurants like to point out how much cooking actually goes on in those kitchens, with references to “hand-pressed” burger patties and “daily spun” ice cream dotting menus. Service at the eateries was always attentive and friendly.
At all three places, the prices were too often higher than I’d like.
While Craft, Local and Joey are not quite interchangeable, some direct comparisons are possible. For example, I tried burgers at all three, and in each case received massive, meaty creations with nicely crusted, if less than juicy, patties and fresh toppings. The sesame-seed buns for the burgers at Joey and Local were identical, which might reflect the fact that the same restaurant group owns both eateries. The miso mustard on one of Local’s burgers ($12.25) made it my favourite.
Burger and fries at Local
Moroccan chicken soup and burger at Joey Lansdowne
Burger and fries at Craft Beer Market
“Baja” fish tacos at all three places were more perfunctory, generally very heavy on slaw or cilantro or both. Craft’s cod tacos ($13.50 for three) had the most flavour. The Local fish taco ($5 for one) was as heavily battered as the fish in its fish and chips.
Fish tacos at Craft Beer Market
Fish tacos at Joey Lansdowne
Fish taco at Local
It’s interesting that tuna poke — a dish of diced and dressed (typically soy and ginger) cubes of raw fish that’s ubiquitous in Hawaii — hasn’t made it to many Ottawa restaurants. Local and Craft have brought the Pacific treat here. However, Local’s version ($13.50), served with its very good house-made corn chips, is just so-so, muddled in flavour and marred by mushy avocado. Craft’s has more clarity, but there’s also more cucumber than tuna to it.
tuna poke at Local
Tuna poke with wonton at Craft Beer Market
Aside from those comparisons, I found strengths and weaknesses at each of the restaurants.
At Local, guacamole ($7) made table-side by a server was very good, lacking just a little lime juice, and a likeable starter with those very good chips. Yam fries with truffled aioli were spot-on. But the ginger sesame chicken salad ($15) was a bore, and a flat-iron steak sandwich ($19.50) was a touch underdone and too chewy.
Guacamole made at the table and chips at Local
Ginger sesame chicken salad at Local
Steak sandwich and fries at Local
At Joey, fried calamari ($14) was disappointing — lacking seasoning and needing a punchier sauce. Gyoza with seared undersides ($13) were a little better, but not as good as those pork dumplings can be. The steak with mushrooms ($30) was adequate but again, better steaks can be had for less elsewhere. Miso ramen means to cash in on the hearty Japanese soup’s big moment ($17), but almost every component, and especially broth to noodles, fell short of authentic goodness.
Calamari at Joey Lansdowne
Gyoza at Joey Lansdowne
Steak with mushrooms and spring-roll-wrapped potatoes at Joey Lansdowne
Miso Ramen at Joey Lansdowne
Two pleasant orders partially redeemed our dinner-time visit to Joey. The fully loaded and well-sauced rainbow roll made of tuna, salmon, avocado and bonafide, tasty crab ($15) did its sushi chef proud. Paella ($22.50) was a surprising success, with toothsome chicken and shrimp and meaningfully seasoned rice.
Rainbow sushi roll at Joey Lansdowne
Paella at Joey Lansdowne
At Craft, our general observation was that too many items, and in particular side orders of veg, were overly salted and seasoned — all the better to spur beer sales, perhaps.
But the main dishes we tried were appealing, including a chunk of brisket, sufficiently slow-braised to mimic short rib, a thick, if overly salty, pork chop, and a slow-roasted half-chicken that was appreciably moist and served with a fine jus (in a beer can, no less).
braised brisket at Craft Beer Market
Pork chop at Craft Beer Market
Beer can chicken at Craft Beer Market
Dessert devotees will find little to like at Local. Its only meal-ender is a pail of large, doughy churros ($6) with a cup of too-thin cocoa for dipping.
At Craft, we tried the “house-made” but too-simple ice cream sandwiches ($9) made with Farm Boy salted caramel ice cream between two chocolate cookies. The homey “dessert in a jar” ($9) was an all-in-one of chocolate cake, sponge toffee, bananas, chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream that, despite all its ingredients, still seemed to be missing something.
At Joey, the molten chocolate soufflé ($9.50) oozed dark, intense chocolate, and was as over-the-top as those other desserts were under.
Churros with cocoa at Local
Ice cream sandwiches at Craft Beer Market
Dessert in a jar at Craft Beer Market
Molten chocolate souffle at Joey Lansdowne
So, what would my best meal at Lansdowne be? I hope it’s not cheating to pick the guacamole and chips at Local followed by the rainbow roll at Joey and then Craft’s beer can chicken. Certainly none of my six meals was wholly exceptional, and most were at least a little uneven.
But then, if you’re at Lansdowne, you’re not simply there to eat, are you? Don’t you have a Redblacks game to get to?
phum@postmedia.com
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Peter Hum’s previous restaurant reviews
