feast + revel (in the Andaz Ottawa Byward Market)
325 Dalhousie St., 613-321-1234, ottawa.andaz.hyatt.com
Open: Monday to Friday 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. for breakfast, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch, 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner (till 11 p.m. on Friday); Saturday and Sunday 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for breakfast, 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner (till 11 p.m. on Saturday)
Dinner prices: starters $8 to 16, mains $22 to $37, sharing platters $75 to $140
Access: no steps to front door, washrooms
Some weeks ago, my wife and I missed attending our friends’ wedding in P.E.I. In lieu, we owed them a fine meal when they returned to Ottawa, we said.
When the time came, a little more than a week ago, we pinned our hopes on feast + revel, the restaurant in the Andaz Ottawa Byward Market, downtown’s newest boutique hotel and Hyatt Hotel Corp.’s first Andaz-branded posh hotel in Canada.
Given our need to celebrate, we hoped that Feast and Revel (if I can refer to the two-month-old restaurant more conventionally and clearly) would live up to its name. Gladly, it did, for us and the newlyweds, and on my previous dinner visit.
The Andaz Ottawa’s executive chef is Stephen La Salle, formerly at the Albion Rooms in the Novotel Ottawa. The 29-year-old Ottawa native and Algonquin College grad has raised his game, shifting from the distinctive gastropub-style fare at Albion Rooms to flag-waving fine dining with pronounced, high-end Canadian and local features and flourishes at Feast and Revel.
At the Andaz, La Salle’s dishes have also been among the prettiest I’ve seen this year, splashes of shapes and colour on the dark brown tables in Feast and Revel’s attractive, spacious contemporary dining room.
Here, the kitchen is open, the ceiling is high and decorated with an overhead lattice, and the windows onto Dalhousie and York streets, are practically floor-to-ceiling. In the middle of one dining area, a long, central table for 14 reminds that feasting and revelling are on the agenda.
In such circumstances, service that shines really matters; anything less would deflate the revelry. I’m glad to say that we’ve had two very attentive servers who were personable but not pandering and who made our evenings more enjoyable.
Don’t expect, though, to party on the cheap at the Andaz. As befits a boutique hotel, prices here are upscale but not outrageous. Examples include cocktails uniformly priced at $15, wines by the glass starting at $12, desserts uniformly priced at $12 and the menu’s ribeye steak, raised at Enright Cattle Co., in Tweed, north of Belleville, for $39.
There are also deluxe items meant to be shared convivially and en masse — a duck platter for three people for $75, an Enright Cattle Co. roast for six for $95, a dinner of roast chicken from Ferme Rêveuse for eight people for $140.
So, be prepared to splurge.
A good way to begin indulging is with bannock, freshly baked, puffy and lightly oiled, with smoked apple butter for spreading. Four buns come for $2, and if you begrudge paying for bread, a bite or two should convince you of the bannock’s value. Be warned though that later in the meal, you might wish that you’d saved your bread to sop up some of La Salle’s splendid sauces and emulsions.
Starters here have been sophisticated creations that ranged from mild to fresh and simple to all-dressed and big-flavoured.
On the more restrained side was a piping hot and smooth bowl of pumpkin soup tinged with Thai red curry ($8), as well as a comely, refined bowl of cured Arctic char in a delicate cucumber broth ($15). A salad of local cherry tomatoes with slices of grilled peach, charred corn, house-made ricotta and birch syrup ($12) popped with bright flavours.
Among the meatier appetizers was a lamb-and-potatoes creation that the menu called poutine, but was almost equally shepherd’s pie. Braised Ontario lamb shoulder sat on a slab of crisp-creamy potato, seared and roasted in stock, topped with whipped curd on a plate slathered with rosemary jus.
Most impressive were La Salle’s treatments of recherché proteins, including a toothsome, umami-rich octopus starter accented by capers and dulse, and veal sweetbreads ($16) in an assertive herbal sauce.
There were small criticisms about two main courses. The vegetarian newlywed’s choice of carrot-and-barley risotto ($22), while lovely to look at, was a bit too sweet, even with contrasting dabs of feta, and the grains could have been more al dente. A massive elk rib ($37) impressed with its sauces (birch jus, sorel) and garnishes (mushroom, salsify), but the rib, cooked sous-vide for 72 hours, while fork-tender in spots was too dry elsewhere.
We did better when we went bigger still. The duck platter ($75), served in a room-temp cast iron pan, contained slices of roasted duck breast, more breast slices smoked and cured like pastrami, duck confit, fried duck wings and a plenty of rich duck liver aioli, plus some contrasting accompaniments — bok choy, crunchy, punchy pickled veg, and lots of bread to plunge into the irresistable, funky aioli. I only wished for some crispness on the confit’s skin, which would have made the platter faultless.
On our next visit, the special was bouillabaise for two ($55), which combined the halibut and mussels from a main course with cured Arctic char from the starter column. It was a pragmatic creation, but also a pleasant one, generous enough with its seafood, potatoes and fennel in a thick tomato-saffron broth to generate leftovers and served with lots of bread and a pot of luxurious, garlicky rouille.
From the desserts (each $12), chocolate connoisseurs will prefer the tart showcasing Almonte-made, award-winning Hummingbird chocolate. The tart itself downplayed sweetness in favour of richness and subtle notes, but a big plume of ganache and confit orange satisfied sugary cravings.
Lighter was an apple-almond financier cake that was straightforward and lucid in its appeal. More outré was a cube of very moist olive oil sponge cake topped with a thin layer of beets, with a quenelle of pistachio gelato from fellow ByWard Market business Sash Gelato Café and a tangy sheep’s-yogurt-white-chocolate smear.
The knock against some hotel restaurants is that they can be perfunctory, bland, impersonal, over-priced traps for guests too busy or too timid to venture beyond the lobby. Happily, Feast and Revel is none of these things. It aims high and succeeds, pampering discerning diners whether they’ve travelled from near or far for the treats from La Salle’s kitchen.
phum@postmedia.com
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